Producing Nothing By Accident Save Themselves (GL𝚫G Class: Fighter)

Hello again.

This "delta" class was designed to fit in with systems like B/X where there is still some slow form of advancement, and the cost of certain moves reflect that. If circumstances should make a requirement cheaper, that's absolutely fine. It was also designed with a "normal" campaign in mind, where a party of multiple PCs are going on adventures and delving into dungeon spaces together, so progressing along the path of the Conjurer is intended to dovetail into normal activities and into the downtime and management of gradually leveling D&D characters, as well as provide a few mysteries to unravel. The class is meant to try to "solve" some issues that can come up with delta advancement while inventing a satisfactory martial delta class. It does so by leaning into the numinous quality of fictional martial arts. Treat Adverse Conjuring moves as being magical in nature, and all that that implies.

This is a way of living and a way of killing. It is most often practiced by the destitute, the damaged, and the desperate, but being rich is no excuse. Adverse Conjuring is the art of perceiving something's purpose and reversing it. The purpose of a human being is to create life and nurture it.

The fighting moves of Adverse Conjuring cannot be done with a sword, unless it is a very strange sword. They can be done with the body. They can be done with a weapon descended from a tool— a flail, a knife, a warhammer, a staff.

Basic moves can be learned by any journeyman who is initiated into Adverse Conjuring. Specialist moves can be learned by any Conjurer who is taught by a mentor. Chaperon moves can be learned by any Conjurer who teaches others. Immortal moves are shrouded in mystery.

𝚫 - Initiation

Suffer a great loss, then in your despair crush something worth 100 gold coins. Spread its dust over a page and begin to write, letting your unconscious nature take hold of the quill. This becomes the first page of your fighting manual. If the great loss is reversed, start again.

Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may call yourself a journeyman and learn basic moves.

Basic

𝚫 - Black Bear Style

Crawl into the body of a creature that was slain by weapons, sleep the night, and crawl out. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and your fingers count as crowbars

𝚫 - Yuda's Eager Animus

Spend 500 gold coins to have a stone folly built in some defensible place, and fill it with warriors made of sticks or stacks of grain. Meditate in the folly overnight. If the folly is ever torn down, start again.

+1 to hit and untrained militias get +1 morale. They sometimes grin and don't know why.

𝚫 - Last Lunge

Slay an opponent while one of you is fleeing. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and you can do a forced march for an extra day before needing rest

𝚫 - Adverse Tool Art

Slay ten dangerous creatures with ten implements that have never taken a life before.

Weapons you wield deal at least 1d8 damage as long as you aren't speaking. If they do less because they're in poor condition, you can at least sunder them for one good strike.

𝚫 - Adverse Body Art

Slay a creature with a weapon, then slay another such creature with a tooth, claw, or other natural defense, then slay another such creature unarmed. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

Your unarmed strike deals 1d6 damage. You can use any part of the body to strike.

𝚫 - Shuddering Elk Style

Spend a week and 200 gold throwing coins into the air and attempting to slice two in half with the same stroke. The first time you succeed, each coin turns into a gib of flesh.

At the start of a combat, you may scream in a special way so that blood leaks down your throat. During that combat, if your first melee strike each round would slay a foe, make a free attack against another foe. 

𝚫 - Eribo's Potent Resort

Let an enemy attack you three times before striking back, then slay them. Bury their weapon. If the weapon is recovered, start again.

You may take a penalty to an attack roll to get a corresponding bonus to your damage roll. If the penalty is more than 5, rolling a natural 20 is not an automatic success.

𝚫 - Vool's Iron Enlightenment

Learn the recipe for the salve against iron, hidden away in libraries and the minds of balking sages. Concoct the salve with ingredients worth 1,000 gold coins. Cover your body and leap into a vat of liquid-hot iron.

If the salve was properly made and applied, you survive unharmed. Emerge with a tranquil form— eyes that cannot betray age nor lies, hair full and strong, perfect stillness, and +2 Wisdom.

𝚫 - Kestrel Stride

Spend three days whispering spells into bird-skin boots worth 200 gold coins.

Run along vertical surfaces for up to 15 feet, then jump in any direction.

𝚫 - Whispered Warning Compact

Help a ghost or other spirit find their eternal rest, or bottle an imp and reduce its fat to fluid and drink it.

When in an established marching order, you can move from the middle to the front or the back in an instant as soon as initiative is rolled.

𝚫 - White-Tail Deer Step

Spare a foe, then later suffer an attack from them. Steal and wear their belt, or make one from their remains.

When lost, reduce the chance of getting ambushed by 1-in-6. You can ditch the belt by the way, the spell doesn't need you to wear it constantly.

𝚫 - Eribo's Levity

Spend a month meditating on the movement of fish or of birds. Encode the results into your fighting manual.

You can swim with a weapon in your hand and light armor on without penalty.

𝚫 - Second Initiation

Find a mentor. Suffer under their tutelage for at least a full season. Fulfill the task they give you upon your leaving

Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may call yourself a "brown sash" and learn specialist moves.

Specialist

𝚫 - Aligning Adverse Purpose

Find a blacksmith who will teach you for a full week. At the end of that time, create a weapon.

+1 to hit and you can serve as a blacksmith. You can use Adverse Conjuring moves with swords you create.

𝚫 - Yuda's Energetic Apprehension

Intuit a grand ritual that requires materials worth 4,000 gold coins, one week, and a place where many have died.

Meet Death. It is like the first meeting of long-time long-distance friends. +1 to hit and mercenaries get +1 morale. You sometimes grin and don't notice.

𝚫 - Cougar Forms

Wrestle a predator larger than you into submission. Encode your findings in your fighting manual.

+1 to hit, and +5 movement in pursuits. You can run on all fours even with your hands full.

𝚫 - Conjure Breath

Swallow a magical creature whole.

+1 to hit and your spit flickers in unwholesome air, warning you of subtle gasses and poisons.

𝚫 - Possum's Hindsight

Construct a Gate of Hate over the course of a month with magical materials worth 4,000 gold coins. Enter it, then return alive.

+1 to hit and when you trigger a trap, you may make a free attack against it

𝚫 - Detect Unseen

Spend a week in the untamed underworld, listening carefully.

+1 to hit and when you can't see you can attack adjacent foes without penalty

𝚫 - Obverse Body Art

Undergo an obscure surgical procedure that only the old-time shamans know. It will entail a week of recovery, and costs 2,000 gold coins— a traditional price that was more than a king's ransom when it was set.

You are given a small bag, made from some internal organ and containing strange organic shapes, arcane sands, and buds which make you numb in certain parts of your body when you touch them. By consulting the bag, you (the PC) can learn any detail of yourself that could be found on your character sheet, taking any numbers as intuitive and difficult to articulate but precise in understanding.

𝚫 - Communion of the Rotting Elk

Slay two creatures in one instant with Shuddering Elk Style. Collect 200 gibs of flesh from 200 different creatures and leave them as a gift in the forest. 

Your patron will speak with you. If you survive, your flesh is enchanted. Each time you slay a creature with Shuddering Elk style, you can make a new attack again and again as long as you keep slaying. Those who can detect magic see you as possessing necromantic energy.

𝚫 - Vool's Name

Build a tower as high as you can, worth at least 10,000 gold coins. Let lightning run through it to strike you. The scream you make has a familiar cadence to it.

Grow up to seven grasping tendrils. Bleed navy blue blood. You become immune to lightning thrown by less powerful beings than yourself. (Everyday lightning angels have 6 HD)

𝚫 - Reverse Body Art

Conduct a grand ritual that spans three months and dozens of accomplices, costing at least 20,000 gold coins, spanning a miles-long occult shape. You need not attend to the ritual every day, but must maintain oversight between any adventures, and you must be in the center of the occult shape when your day of glory arrives.

Acquire a monstrous form— much taller, oddly textured, joints rearranged, hair melting into something else, and +2 Strength. You can use weapons designed for larger creatures and count as an angel, dragon, or demon when convenient.

𝚫 - Condor Step

Fall 100 feet and survive.

Double jump

𝚫 - Adverse Body Alignment

Slay a 4+ HD creature with a weapon, then slay another such creature with a tooth, claw, or other natural defense, then slay another such creature unarmed. Encode your findings into your fighting manual.

Your body deals 1d8 damage when used to attack.

𝚫 - Catch Death

Seek the woman who offered the wineskin to Vool and learn its secret.

When struck by a killing blow, you have a [damage]% chance of ignoring all harm and negative effects by grabbing your escaping spirit and swallowing it. Bleed neon green blood.

𝚫 - Third Initiation

Find students. Make them suffer under your tutelage for at least a season. Give them tasks as they leave. One must succeed and another must fail.

Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may call yourself a master and learn chaperon moves.

Chaperon

𝚫 - Manatee Maneuver

Oversee the construction of well-engineered defenses worth at least 5,000 gold coins, study the work, and encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and when convenient you count as riding a camel for purposes of speed, overland travel, mass, etc.

𝚫 - Mustang-Footed Launch

Lead an army with expenses equaling at least 2,000 gold coins per month into a battle to the death, then collect objects belonging to the fallen and bury them near your home.

+1 to hit, and a single kick can jam a door open or shut as with an iron spike

𝚫 - Adverse Profanity Art

Forge an evil, intelligent magical weapon worth at least 6,000 gold coins. If it is destroyed, start again.

+1 to hit and your palms and heels count as holy symbols

𝚫 - Yuda's Folly

Construct an academy worth at least 30,000 gold coins, dedicated to the teaching of Adverse Conjuring. After a season, encode your findings into your fighting manual.

+1 to hit and students get +1 morale. 1d6 level 0 students will arrive each month as long as you have capacity for more.

𝚫 - Name Fear

Bring 12,000 gold coins in tribute to the Queen within the Gates of Hate— a traditional price that was less than a scribe's yearly wage when it was set.

+1 to hit and monsters you fight have a maximum morale of 9. You know the name of fear.

𝚫 - Wield Death

Find the person behind the person behind the person who made you suffer your first great loss and put them into your power.

When a longtime friend, party member, or true innocent dies despite your attempts to aid them, your weapons and eyes glow and you do double damage.

𝚫 - Eribo's Gift

Save Eribo

You can see HD.

𝚫 - Dancing Elk Style

Flense the flesh from your head and somehow survive for 1 hour

You are immune to the negative effects of flensing your head. Each time you slay a foe in melee, you can give a rattling shriek to fly up to 30 feet to strike at another foe.

𝚫 - Divine Nature

Remake the throne of Idi. This takes 4,000 gold coins in materials and 10,000 gold coins in research. If it is resundered, start again.

Sense when your name is spoken. Bleed neon pink blood.

𝚫 - Synthesis Body Art

Slay Vool and embed the gem. For reasons that will become clear, this will cost at least 40,000 gold coins.

Acquire an androgynous, immaculate form. +2 Cha.

𝚫 - Wolf Spider Sprint

Wrap a Conjurer's body in fine wrappings worth 4,000 gold coins. Bury them in a box worth 4,000 gold coins. If they were alive at the time, defeat their shade.

As long as you run at full speed, you can run up walls and along ceilings. Sharp turns would be an issue for you. If you defeated their shade, get +1 Dexterity.

𝚫 - Besting Yuda

Trick a student of at least half your level into striking you with a killing intent. Best them. Encode your findings in your fighting manual.

You take minimum damage from falling.

𝚫 - Refute the Socratic Method

Destroy your fighting manual. Drink deadly poison but somehow survive. If you start a new fighting manual, start again. Your body deals 2d6 damage, exploding. Your eyes grow more vibrant. You may not refer to yourself. You may learn immortal moves.

GLoG Class: Crackshot (Buckets of Blood)

 Nerds in their basements talk of "fighting men," soldiers in the battle between Good and Evíl. Their games are always set in some magical past, with Kings Arthur and Rings of the Lord, since they stopped making right and wrong when the world went crazy. "Fighting Men?" There's plenty to fight against but nothing to fight for.

Starting equipment:

• Practical Motorcycle: Off-roads quite well. You can get it through any space larger than a small coffin, even if you have to wrangle it yourself, at at least walking speed. Always theoretically repairable. Maximum speed 100 MPH, going 0 to 70 in six second.
• Sniper Rifle: or rather, a rifle with a scope. Deals 1d8 damage, 3d8 if you take an extra round to aim. If you take a whole minute to measure the wind and prepare and so on, you ignore range penalties out to a mile, and a struck target saves vs. death.
• Two Hundred Bullets: of a very common kind. For duck hunting, say. If you're isekai'd, you need to make these count.
• Leather Jacket, Jeans, Helmet: For road rash. Used to look cool. Counts as unarmored, but whenever you crash you take minimum damage. A crash deals 1d6 damage for every 10 MPH.
• Tool Kit: Quiet plastic case. Allows bypass of all domestic and most commercial doors, among other uses.
• Tin of Coffee and Little Pour-Over Set: Works about half the time. Counts as rations. You've got coffee grounds between your teeth. If you're isekai'd, you need to make these count too.
• 12x9 Envelope: Bubble-padded interior. Contains half-written manifesto.

Class: Crackshot
Starting Skill (d3): 1. self-defense law, 2. Living off the grid, 3. Identifying phonies

1. Goon: This is one of those "starting equipment-forward" classes
2. Dragoon: Overwhelm, Guzzler
3. Operative: Practiced Repair, False Heraldry
4. Road Warrior: 360 No-Scope

Overwhelm: when you crash into someone with your bike, deal maximum damage. When you jump out of nowhere with a knife and yell "surprise", deal maximum damage. When you roll out from under a car with a rifle, deal maximum damage. 

Guzzler: You can use lamp oil, grease, corn syrup, a particular personal excretum, or similar fluids to fuel your motorcycle.

Practiced Repair: Your gear is always in optimal condition. You can disassemble a rifle so it fits into an overstuffed 12x9 envelope, then reassemble it in only a minute. When you repair or modify a mechanism you find, it takes half the time. This charms edgelords.

False Heraldry: You could always steal some plates and wear a helmet to conceal your identity, but now you can do it off-screen with a fifteen minutes of downtime in an urban area. You can seem like nobody in particular, like a particular biker, or like a particular kind of biker.

360 No-Scope: you always hit targets more than five feet away, and always count as having taken time to aim (and therefore deal 3d8 damage and cause saves vs. death)

Nor Shall Evil Conquer Virtue (GLoG Class: Monk)

We have seen that I can take any tired class archetype and make it wired, be it barbarian, paladin, bard, or druid. To finish the set, we consider the Monk.

This is a class of contraries, a character who loves peace but trains for war, whose privileged position endangers the order they wish to uphold. Mechanically, they resemble the warrior of my current VtS playtests.

The white monks are soldiers and crusaders, the vanguards of armies who are trained to take orders. The black monks are embalmers and confessors, the ministers to masses who are trained to be governable. The grey monks are neither. It is their place to try to serve what is right and to fall in the attempt. Their orders teach that fighting is in vain, but necessary. The first act of tyrants and revolutionaries is to outlaw the orbseekers. The last step of their program is always to dissolve the grey monks.

To be a grey monk is to be immune to the law for as long as you can flee it.

Grey Monk

Starting Ken: Exotic weaponry, war, or ancient atrocities
Starting Equipment: humble knee-length tunic, thick socks, carrying sash, inro, wicker bascinet, arnis, and a piece of baggage.

• A: Mercy, Acts of Agility
• B: +1 attack per round, immune to sleeping poorly
• C: Walk the Wending Path, Secret Signs
• D: Insight

Mercy: You do not lose morale for witnessing or committing acts of violence. Every time you use more force than absolutely necessary, deal double damage and gain 1 Disdain, then roll a d6. 

If the result is equal to or less than your Disdain, cross out the above rules, You still do double damage with wanton violence, but your scruples slip away and your mission becomes fundamentally broken. You turn away from your training and towards a life of consumption and destruction.  You now lose morale from witnessing violence; this takes the form of abject joy and sensual distraction for you.

Acts of Agility: you have a 2-in-6 chance to perform feats, such as running along walls or slipping through impossibly small holes. Each additional monk level increases this chance by 1-in-6. 

Roll the d6 before you attempt the feat-- failure means you know you cannot succeed in this moment and you do not attempt it. You There's actually a neat saying about doing vs.trying, ask me about it sometime.

Walk the Wending Path: If it is possible to sidestep ranged attacks or snatch missiles out of the sky, you do so with ease. 

Secret Signs: When confronted with a prophecy, omen, or obvious portent, your DM is obliged to give you an extra something-something, a little hint to interpret the meaning of said prophecy, omen, or portent.You are allowed to complain when nothing portentous has happened in a while.

Insight: Spend a week meditating on the nature of mortal war, immortal theodicy, and the shape of things to come. At the end of this week, ask any one question of terrible import, like "how can I entreat the angels to deliver us?" or "how can I control the winds?" or "how can I create a weapon that will destroy Kung Fu?" The answer enters your mind like sunlight focused through a lens.

Half of every monk order's tales start with a hateful monk's insight. The other half start with a well-meaning monk's insight. Both are full of destruction and woe.

d20 Pieces of Baggage

1. disgraced mentor (hard-hearted and cruel)
2. disgraced mentor (naive)

3. mentor slain by the master of the nearest dungeon

4. parents slaughtered by the one you now love the most

5. abandoned a life of wanton disdain

6. set aside by gods for trials

7. set aside by gods for punishment

8. true love the captive of the master of a far-off dungeon

9. true love the master of a far-off dungeon

10. kaballistic curse will kill you slowly

11. you must care for an illicit bastard

12. stoppered imp-bottle. The creature within is amazingly knowledgeable and will not lie to you, but will only answer questions it thinks will serve its (evil) interests. Obviously, don't let it out of the bottle. Invent a shameful story for how this object came into your possession

13. used the forbidden Dolorous Chain Strike against an opponent in a duel. Start with +1 Disdain

14. stole a polearm from a prodigal noble. Decide on the type of polearm, as well as the shining gem worked into the shaft.

15. The unhappy acquaintance (though not guardianship) of a godparent

16. curséd shoes, the Red Path Winklepickers. When blood-soaked, they can walk on air at the cost of +1 Disdain

17. curséd collar makes you a violent animal during the night before the sabbath

18. curséd steed, the Brimstone Horse. Destined to eat its rider's remains

19. curséd flyssa saber, RED MAWS MANY. Can harm anything, and wants to

20. Roll 1d4+1 times and combine.

Will you let these old fools exile you for doing what you had to do? Art by John Park

GLOG Fighter Discipline: the Swordwife

Another quick entry into the list of fighter disciplines. This one is fairly straightforward, but leans into the bronze age setting I run. in many settings, the sword is the default weapon, but on the savannah of Holy Selmat or the heath of Mesomergos, it is notable in itself. This discipline also has its own built-in collecting minigame, as players try to gather interesting materials to alloy weapons with at level three. I imagine at that point a character might be carrying several weapons-- a main weapon, a backup, some effective against specific foes, and phosphorus daggers to act as magical torches.

art by Christian Sloan Hall

-SWORDWIFE-

Dedicated to the study of combat, you take violent work as a means of developing your skill. You seldom have the clarity to realize that your relationship with your sword is more important than your relationship with any other person.

Starting equipment: a khopesh or grip-tongue sword, a mattock, a hemione with a lead (treat as a donkey that can carry 2 less equipment slots)

Starting ken: artifice

A: Desperate dodge, Find the opening

B: Bronze tongue

C: Alloy

D: 'Til death do we part

Desperate dodge: Once per combat, you may drop 1d4 items to negate the damage of an incoming attack. These items are randomly selected from among what you are carrying, other than your held weapon and any armor. If you do not have enough items to drop, you fail to dodge.

Find the opening: When attacking foes who attacked you on their turn, deal +1d6 damage and choose whether to strike against their block or dodge score.

Bronze tongue: you can speak with metal weapons of all types, and have a natural affinity with all blades. 

Alloy: You can freely mix multiple different substances in any weapon you forge or reforge, gaining new abilities with each. For each substance beyond what is typical, your weapon gains a point of brittleness. Upon rolling a 20 to make an attack roll with the weapon, it is shattered. For each further point of brittleness, this range increases by one. If you can collect all of the weapon’s pieces, it can be reforged.

Example alloy substances and effects:

1. Aluminum: weapon can be folded, taking up half the usual inventory slots.
2. Antimony: you have this weapon with you in all dreams and visions.
3. Arsenic: target rolls with a +1 on all injury rolls per arsenic strike.
4. Bismuth: weapon as reflective as a mirror
5. Bone: +2 to maneuvers used to sunder.
6. Gold: +1d6 damage against ordena.
7. Gigre particulate: +1 to hit while under the effects of drugs
8. Iron: as iron, but requires 1/3 the usual amount of metal.*
9. Lead: takes up an extra inventory slot. Target saves or takes 1 fatigue.
10. Mercury: a day later, target tests their constitution or suffers from madness.
11. Mithril: as mithril, but requires 1/3 the usual amount of metal.*
12. Phosphorus: weapon now glows in the dark, as a torch.
13. Silver: +1d6 damage against werewolves and preskeletons.
14. Zinc: no longer naturally tarnishes

'Til death do we part: As long as you are holding a sword of your own power, you may ignore fatal wounds.

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*Mithril can cut through anything softer than iron, which is somehow remarkably strong. Iron can do likewise, and severs the soul of all it kills.

OSR: How to Design GLOG Fighters

The GLOG is Arnold K’s homebrew system. Notable work has been done with it by Skerples, and many others.

A tradition in the GLOGosphere is the creation of unique wizard schools, often following a common template: “A coherent theme, a couple of original on-theme spells, perks and drawbacks, some cantrips, some Mishaps and Dooms,” as the Espharel blog puts it.

There are probably more wizard GLOG classes than all others put together. This article is my attempt to offer a template for creating fighters using the central advantage that wizard schools in the GLOG have capitalized on so far. From the beginning, GLOG wizards have had a very simple chasis, with most of their character and charm conferred by the specifics of the tradition. This seems an easy fit for something as generic as “fighting.” History offers many different kinds of fighting, after all…

Roman Kupriianov. Easy to design in various ways?

Obviously, fighters need abilities for combat. The generic fighter class usually gets such abilities as getting extra attacks, bonuses to attack, “notches” which let you specialize with a given weapon, and the like. All of the makes sense. Many fighter classes also have some non-combat aspect, even if it is just leveraging the social capital of being someone who fights for a living.

From this, a reasonable basis for what a fighter school— let’s call it a “discipline”— could be:

Fighter Discipline Template

Starting equipment: might be average, might define the discipline.

Starting skill: should be something weirder than the usual farmer/soldier/sailor

A: defensive ability, offensive ability

B: noncombat specialization and/or niche combat ability.

C: ability that widens options in combat

D: a “capstone”— this proves you are a master.

Fighting in the GLOG is dangerous. (There’s a reason a popular hack is called DIE TRYING.) Accordingly, I think some survivability should be granted from the onset. I put the noncombat specialization early because it makes the fighter relevant in more situations sooner. Whether they get two abilities or one at level two should of course depend on how powerful they are.

Examples:

Blue Blade of Gal-Suzaz

You walk that thin line between heroism and folly, and never ask why. When you were just a shiftless bravo a man spared your life, and you will make that act of kindness a foundation for a life of adventure for the Right. Devout but easy-going, you perform deeds which jaded soldiers call impossible.

Starting equipment: studded leather armor, back-scabbard, blue greatsword (all blades you own turn blue)

Starting skill: rumor, parasite lore

A: arrow snatch, mark

B: Useful fool

C: sword throwing

D: quixoticism 

Arrow snatch: whenever an arrow, bullet, or other missile would hit a you, you may test dexterity to catch it from the air. You might need to drop something you’re holding.

Mark: Wounds you inflict bleed blue. Your attacks deal +1d6 damage against foes bleeding blue blood.

Useful fool: whenever you fail to ingratiate yourself to an authority, a plausible person of lower rank will try to favor you. This will usually lead to a request to participate in some ill-conceived plot.

Sword throwing: you may launch any bladed weapon up to 30 ft. without penalty.

Quixoticism: If someone you’ve wounded survives combat with you, they test charisma or are afflicted with a desire to live heroically and take needless risks. If they level up, they must level up in the Blue Blade of Gal-Suzaz discipline.

-

Urumi’s Wielder

You are a martial artist who has proven disciplined and skilled enough to be trusted with the urumi, a bladed metal whip. Training to master it has won you many cuts, but now you have advanced to the point where you can only improve through the crucible of adventure. Your relationship with your weapon is reverant, and many Wielders think of themselves as the noble opposite of the Demon Blade’s chariot.

Starting equipment: urumi (sword whip d8, 10’ range), silk armor, prayer book, 

Starting skill: massage

A: posture, coiling blade

B: vital points

C: sword tricks

D: cloud of steel

Posture: twice per day, reduce a combat maneuver check against you by 1d6.

Coiling blade: Once per round, if any enemy approaches you, get a free attack against them.

Vital points: massage someone for an hour during a rest to let them heal an extra d6. If they are an NPC, you may make a charisma test and ask a question. If you succeed, they answer without noticing that you asked.

Sword tricks: you are implausibly precise with an urumi, whip, or similar weapon, and can strike any object within 10 feet without a test, wrap your urumi around a beam like a rope, etc.

Cloud of steel: deal d8 damage to everyone within 10 feet, friend or foe. Armored people can save to negate this. Any formations or mobs affected test morale or flee.

-

Khazar Remnant

You are a warrior from a land quickly fading into the dim memory of history, eager to give up your ignominious people for a new land and a higher purpose. Even as you journey for a new homeland and a new tradition, your indivisible Khazar ethos grows to define you. It is taboo among the remnants of the Khazar to teach their language or the arts of its martial discipline.

Starting equipment: spear, lamellar armor, d4 javelins, salt lick

Starting Skill: acculturation

A: formation, ambidextrous

B: confounding dreams

C: holy mist

D: mass attack

Formation: You get +1 defense for each adjacent ally.

Ambidextrous: You can fight effectively with two weapons, and you can wield weapons with your feet. As long as you are holding two weapons, you can attack with each. (Hopping on one foot slows you dramatically and gives a penalty to dexterity.)

Confounding dreams: once per night while sleeping, do one of the following: gain a skill of the DM’s choosing for a day, learn about a significant NPC you are likely to meet, or get +1d6-3 to your next initiative test the following day.

Holy mist: while under the effect of gigre or other drugs, you may spend a wisp to make a free combat maneuver. (For hacks that don’t use this, 2/day make a free combat maneuver while under the effects of drugs.)

Mass attack: adjacent allies may use your strength for melee attacks and use your dexterity for ranged attacks. (For hacks which don’t use this, adjacent allies get a bonus to attack equal to how many more fighter levels you have than them.)

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Repentant Hexchild

The child of a witch’s ritual, an infant swapped with a changeling, or the orphan of a raid against a monstrous race; you were raised to reject wickedness and magic. Authorities have explained how you are already damned, and how only a life of service can cleanse the sin of your origins.

Starting equipment: mace, buckled hat, writ of permission or morose familiar

Starting skill: rabble rousing

A: Suffer not, Keep back

B: Smell magic

C: Mob

D: Counter

Suffer not: once per day, test a relevant attribute to resist an ongoing ill such as curses, paralysis, or a disabled limb.

Keep back: When attacking while holding a torch or other light, any adjacent foes must save or catch fire (1d4 ongoing damage.)

Smell magic: You can detect the presence of magic within smelling distance. Different kinds of magic have different scents, and you start out with only rumors of what kinds smell like what.

Mob: If you are fighting alongside hirelings or gullible nobodies, you may act for them on your turn instead of acting yourself.

Counter: whenever an adjacent foe uses magic, you may take 1d6 damage to automatically spoil one of their magic dice. This die does not contribute to the spell or return to their pool.