Monster of the Week: The Spooky Class Guide

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Ah, the Spooky Class, one that is very close to my heart when it comes to Monster of the Week, in large part because this was the first class I ever played when introduced to the system! The Spooky Class is a modern take off warlock. You not only have the ability to cast spells but enhance your magic. The only problem is that there might just be a reason for that…a reason that can come back to haunt you if your luck runs out!

The Spooky Class from the Monster of the Week TTRPG system is great for players who want to wield the supercharged magic in combat, play as a clairvoyant, or a lucky mind-reading investigator. Or even a combination of the three!

The Spooky Class is a great one that stands alone, or even is great with the “Take a move from another playbook” as various Moves from the Spell-Slinger, The Spooktacular, or even the Wronged can synergize really easily with what a good Spooky build already brings to the table.

Monster of the Week The Spooky Playbook
Yup…very warlock in feel and style, and I love it!

So what are the Spooky’s introduction to Monster of the Week in their own words?

I can do things, things that normal people can’t. But there’s a price – I haven’t paid it in full, yet, but the bill’s gonna come due soon. It’s best I don’t tell you any more. You get too close, you’ll get hurt.

The Spooky Class, Monster of the Week, p.93

This leads right in with a mechanic for the Spooky that involves their class. While their enhanced spell powers coming from a source comes certain weaknesses, temptations that exist thanks to the source of their power and sometimes that can mean you end up being tempted too much at a most inconvenient time for your group.

It is a great mechanic that makes sense from a flavor standpoint and opens up a variety of different potential ways to play the Spooky class in a Monster of the Week campaign.

Monster of the Week The Spooky Class
Monster of the Week The Spooky Class – the modern equivalent of a warlock and a lot of fun to play.

What Is the The Spooky Class In Monster of the Week RPG?

The Spooky Class is a magic heavy class that can be built a few different ways. They have a very interesting array of moves and a

It’s easy to build the Spooky as:

  • An offensive spellcaster with major buffs to their already powerful abilities
  • Prophetic style clairvoyants who can see the future, see the invisible, and even sometimes tune into a nearby monster, creature, or force
  • Support class with a little bit of support to other hunters, a little bit of being able to help investigate, and a little bit of firepower to hold your own in a fight

Also, it’s worth keeping in mind this is a very “multi-class” friendly class, in that whichever of these routes you go with Spooky moves, there are likely to be moves from other classes that enhance those attributes really well, so keep that in mind as you level up and spend your experience.

This really is one of those versatile classes that can a variety of different directions depending on how you want to build them and how you want to play your character in this system.

If you have an idea of the type of role you like to play in an adventuring, or in this case, investigative, party, then you will be able to start looking at the Ratings and Moves to build up the stats and abilities that you need to play that type of Spooky effectively.

What Type of The Spooky Will You Be?

Spooky is also interesting in that not only do they all start with +2 Weird (which 100% makes sense) but they have TWO +2/+2 stat blocks, which is very unusual compared to most classes that are a little bit more spread out with options. This comes at a cost of being worse at more things, but is a nod to the fact that there are some obvious builds for Spooky and they lean into those common directions.

The The Spooky Ratings for MOTW Are

  • +2 Weird & Sharp, 0 Tough, -1 Charm & Cool
  • +2 Weird & Charm, 0 Cool, -1 Sharp & Tough
  • +2 Weird, +1Tough & Cool, 0 Sharp, -1 Charm
  • +2 Weird, +1 Tough & Sharp, 0 Charm, -1 Cool
  • +2 Weird, +1 Sharp & Charm, 0 Cool, -1 Tough

These stat lines allow you to build your character in a variety of ways. If you wanted to be the fighting type, don’t be alarmed by the low Tough stats. REMEMBER: you are Spooky and deal with magic so your heightened Weird stats, which are involved in all your Moves and spellcasting, those are what determine your ability to attack.

The Dark Side of The Spooky Class

Here is the good stuff for those of us who love story, or love giving the DMs something to work with to mess with us, use us to mess with the table, or both! The Dark Side is very well described in the character sheet:

Your powers have an unsavory source, and sometimes you get tempted to do things you shouldn’t. These could be orders from whatever granted your power, or urges that bubble up from your own subconscious. Something like that. Whatever it is, it’s unsettling.

Description of “The Dark Side” for the Spooky Class

We’ll go into the mechanics of what exactly that means in the next section, but from the last provided you’ll need to pick three tags that are related to your dark side. Here’s the list, and while in theory you could homebrew some, this is a pretty varied list.

Dark Sides:

  • Addiction
  • Dark Bargain
  • Depression
  • Greed for Power
  • Guilt
  • Hallucinations
  • Lust
  • Mood Swings
  • Pain
  • Paranoia
  • Poor Impulse Control
  • Rage
  • Secrets
  • Self-Destruction
  • Soulless
  • Violence

How Do The Mechanics of The Dark Side Work for The Spooky Class?

There are a couple of major ways that The Dark Side works mechanically in the game itself. At any time, The Keeper (aka, the Game Master) can ask you to do mean, bad, or nasty things related to the tags when your powers need you to…or tempt you to.

If you do whatever The Keeper asks then you get to mark experience. Yay more ways to level up! But if you don’t do it, your power actually abandon you until the end of the mystery or until you cave into those demands.

The demands your powers make of you should be in line with at least one of the three tags that you picked, and become bigger, nastier, and more extreme as you mark off luck boxes. The more luck boxes you have burned, the more demanding these “requests” will become.

While burning your luck should be done sparingly, it’s worth noting that depending on the type of campaign you are running, this might be something that happens every so often or quite a bit. Your should talk to your Keeper to get a sense of how the temptations or what level of expectations there might be in the beginning, and once you know the starting point you can guess how the demands would continue to escalate and get worse as luck is burned.

What Do The Spooky Moves Bring To The Table?

The Spooky moves are varied and accommodate a variety of builds, bringing a solid versatility to the table that allows you to build the way you want or even make a “Jack of All Trades” style of Spooky who can assist the investigative party in many ways.

Let’s take a brief look at the moves in the Spooky class.

  • Telepathy – You can not only read people’s thoughts but also put your words into their mind. This allows you to do important things like investigate a mystery, read a bad situation, or manipulate someone, all without speaking. You roll those moves as normal, the difference being that people won’t expect the weirdness of having mental communications. Telepathy can also be used for non-actions to potentially communicate with teammates – making this an incredibly useful move.
  • Hex – A powerful Move that gives some extra oomph to your spells, for a Spooky who takes Hex, when you cast a spell (with use magic) in addition to normal effects, you also get to add any one of the following effects of your choice.
    • The target contracts a disease
    • The target immediately suffers harm (+2 harm magic that ignores armor)
    • The target breaks something precious or important
  • The Sight – You can see the invisible, especially spirits and magical influences. Because of this you can communicate with the spirits you see and at times even make deals with them. These spirits often see and know things meaning you can spot more clues or get more information when you investigate a mystery. I took this move with my Spooky and this was CONSISTENTLY one of the most useful moves in the game and was often used every single session.
  • Premonitions – At the very beginning of each mystery, roll a +Weird roll. On a 10+ you get a detailed vision of something bad that is yet to happen and get a +1 moving forward to prevent it from coming true and you also get to mark experience if you manage to stop it. On a 7-9+ you get clouded images of something bad that hasn’t happened yet, and mark experience if you stop it. On a complete miss, you get a vision of something bad happening to you and the Keeper holds 3, to be spent one-for-one as penalties on rolls you make throughout the mystery.
  • Hunches – When something bad is happening or just about to happen somewhere where you aren’t, you can roll +Sharp. On a 10+ you knew where you needed to go, just in the nick of time to get there. On a 7-9 you get there in time to intervene, but too late to prevent it entirely. On a miss, you get there just in time to, quote, “Get into trouble yourself.”
  • Tune In – An intriguing move, the Spooky who has the “Tune In” move can attune your mind to a monster or minion. Roll +Weird. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9 hold 1. On a miss, the monster instantly becomes aware of you. Spend one hold to ask the Keeper one of the following questions and then gain +1 ongoing while acting on any of the following answers:
    • Where is the creature right now?
    • What is it planning to do right now?
    • Who is it going to attack next?
    • Who does it regard as the biggest threat?
    • How can I attract its attention?
  • The Big Whammy – You can use your powers to kick some ass: roll +Weird instead of +Tough. The attack has 2-harm close, obvious, & ignore armor. On a miss, you will get a magical backlash.
  • Jinx – You can encourage lucky coincidences to occur, the way you want. When you jinx a target, roll +Weird. On a 10+ hold 2 and on a 7-9 hold 1. On a miss, the Keeper holds 2 over you to be used in the same way. Spend your hold to:
    • Interfere with a hunter, giving them -1 forward.
    • Help a hunter, giving them +1 forward, by interfering with their enemy.
    • Interfere with a monster, minion, or bystander is trying to do.
    • Inflict 1-harm on the target due to an accident.
    • The target finds something you left for them.
    • The target loses something that you will soon find.

As you can see, the combination of moves available to the Spooky makes them a very interesting class that can take many different forms within a Monster of the Week campaign.

Monster of the Week TTRPG Books

Who Should Play The The Spooky Class in Monster of the Week?

As long as you’re not looking for the conventional tough guy or normie build, the Spooky Class likely offers something you can work with. They are great choices for investigative players, for players who like to do a little bit of everything, for those who like to do some neat stuff in battle, or if you’re like me, they’re great for trouble makers 🙂

I LOVE the Spooky Class in Monster of the Week. You give the DM interesting storylines to work with, there are multiple ways to build an effective Spooky character, and because of the unique weird aspects of this class your connections with other characters at the table can lead to some incredible (and hilarious) backstories. It’s just a great class all around.

Shane, aka Corrupt Overlord, aka Me

Remember that you can find the free Monster of the Week PDF character sheets online, so you can check it out more in-depth to see if the Spooky class is the right pick for you!

MOTW The The Spooky Class: Final Thoughts

Unless it’s a complete bomb of a class in a system, usually the first class you play in a system holds a bit of a special place in your heart even if it doesn’t hold up over time. The same is true with how I feel about the Spooky class but to my delight this class actually does completely hold up and delivers on its promise of creating a Spooky and interesting, if perhaps slightly unnerving, character who can be a ton of fun to play, be very effective for the group, and help you enjoy the best the game has to offer.

Spooky is a great class, and as this guide shows it’s one that opens up many different routes for a great gaming experience…and if you’re a D&D fan, a lot less handcuffing than the Warlock class in 5E, while retaining the patron-esque aspect that makes them so interesting!

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