(necromancer art from 13 True Ways by Aaron McConnell & Lee Moyer)
People have been asking me for the basic changes needed to use character classes from 13 True Ways while playing 13th Age Second Edition.
Necessary Changes
The simplest answer is that there are no major changes necessary! You’ll note my emphasis on the word necessary. One of our goals for 2E was to keep it compatible with 1E. The 13 True Ways classes, as well as the Book of Demons’ demonologist, were a big part of the compatibility plan.
First, read through the change-log PDF we posted at https://pelgranepress.com/files/13th_Age/13A_2e/13A_Changes_from_1e.pdf. You won’t find anything there that makes the 13TW classes difficult or confusing to play in 2E. In fact, many campaigns that sent playtest feedback mixed 13TW classes with 2E classes without obvious problems.
Basic Math Adjustments
To make the demonologist and the 13TW classes compatible with 2e, make these basic adjustments.
When leveling up, use the 2E rules that have you improve 3 ability scores at 4th level, 4 ability scores at 7th level, and 5 ability scores at 10th level.
Add the extra +5 bonus per epic level to recoveries and weapon damage, the new bonus that we added in 2E to balance epic tier math.
For hit points, recoveries, and weapon damage, quadruple your ability score modifiers at epic tier, instead of the tripling that we used in 1E.
I’m less certain that you should quadruple the ability scores that 1E spellcasters add to their spell damage at epic tier. It’s a grey area because in 2E, all spells have switched to dice or average damage with no ability score modifiers added. Given the other notes below about the amount of damage dealt by 1E spellcasters, it would be fine to keep using triple the ability modifier for epic spell damage. On the other hand, given that epic tier has two even levels and only one odd level, it also wouldn’t hurt to quadruple the modifier.
Going Beyond Necessary
If you want to go beyond the necessary changes and make the 13TW classes and the demonologist look more like 2E classes, it gets more complicated. Based on playtest feedback and what we see on various 13th Age forums, the classes that make people feel like “something should be done” are the spellcasting classes. The commander and the monk should be fine for now, for some oddly-balanced version of ‘fine.’
The main reason that players of 13TW spellcasters feel some pain is because the 2E spellcasters now cast their spells at their current level. Meanwhile the druid, demonologist, occultist, necromancer, and the chaos mage still cast their spells at their highest odd level. A truly dedicated upgrade to 2E would probably provide even-level effects for all the spells cast by these classes. The simplest upgrade would be to let even-level damage spells deal damage that’s exactly midway between the odd levels above and below.
However, there are several reasons the 13TW classes as-written (and especially the demonologist) may not need even-level spellcasting upgrades to keep up with 2E characters. Here’s a short list of the advantages enjoyed by the 13TW classes and the demonologist.
First, they were designed after we had a few years more experience with the system. Some of the classes in the 1E core book were weak because we didn’t entirely know what we were doing yet. By the time we did 13TW and Book of Demons, we had a better understanding of 13th Age design.
Second, although 2E core book spellcasters can now cast at even levels, nearly all 2E spell damage dropped by at least 10% when we decided that attacking PD and MD instead of AC was an advantage that should be accounted for. We also adjusted spell damage to better account for miss damage. The damage dealt by 13TW and BoD casters doesn’t suffer from either of these reductions.
Third, we slightly reduced the number of spells cast by the spellcasters in 2E, at least compared to our earlier playtests. The 13TW and BoD casters haven’t had that reduction.
Fourth, the necromancer, demonologist, and even the druid benefit from relatively powerful summoning spells. 13th Age 2E spellcasters don’t yet have access to summoning spells because we plan to balance summoning properly in a future book that’s full of character class work. The odds are that the current summoners have nothing to complain about when compared to 2E casters.
The Future
I know that I’m going to spend a good deal of time updating the druid and necromancer for a future book. In the meantime, it’s possible that we’ll figure out other simple, easy updates that give non-core book 1E classes a 2E feel.
I’m happy to get playtest feedback about mixed-edition adventuring parties at 13thAgePlayest@gmail.com. And if I come up with other fixes before the Further Adventurers testing begins, I’ll speak up.
–Rob Heinsoo, July 2025