Warrior

You are a mailed knight on a king’s errand, a greedy brigand loyal to no man, a wild bear-skinned wanderer with an empty stomach, or a stout man-at-arms armored by a merchant’s gold.

Of all the classes, warriors have the best attack bonus, the highest hit points, and the most potential for extra attack actions.

Hit points: A warrior gains 1d12 hit points at each level.

Weapon training: A warrior is trained in the use of these weapons: battleaxe, club, crossbow, dagger, dart, handaxe, javelin, longbow, longsword, mace, polearm, shortbow, short sword, sling, spear, staff, two-handed sword, and warhammer. Warriors wear whatever armor they can afford.

Alignment: Warriors can follow one of several paths based on their alignment, which in turn affects their title. Royal warriors, employed by nobility, are lawful. Lawless warriors, fighting merely for profit or carnage, are chaotic. Wild warriors, natives of the barren steppes or deadly forests, are neutral or chaotic. Hired warriors, loyal to a cause, a man, or simply the fattest purse, can be lawful, neutral, or chaotic.

Attack modifier: Unlike other classes, warriors do not receive a fixed attack modifier at each level. Instead, they receive a randomized modifier known as a deed die. At 1st level, this is a d3. The warrior rolls this d3 on each attack roll and applies it to both his attack roll and his damage roll. On one attack, the die may give him a +1 to his attack roll and damage roll. On the next attack, the die may give him +3! The deed die advances with the warrior’s level, climbing to d7 by 5th level, and then higher up to d10+4 at 10th level. The warrior always makes a new roll with this die in each combat round. When the warrior has multiple attacks at higher levels, the same deed die applies to all attacks in the same combat round. Mighty Deed of Arms: Warriors earn their gold with pure physical prowess. They swing across chapels on chandelier chains, bash through iron-banded oaken doors, and leap over chasms in pursuit of their foes. When locked in mortal melee, their mighty deeds of arms turn the course of battle: a brazen bull rush to push back the enemy lines, a swinging flail to entangle the beastman’s sword arm, or a well-placed dagger through the enemy knight’s visor.

Prior to any attack roll, a warrior can declare a Mighty Deed of Arms, or for short, a Deed. This Deed is a dramatic combat maneuver within the scope of the current combat. For example, a warrior may try to disarm an enemy with his next attack, or trip the opponent, or smash him backward to open access to a nearby corridor. The Deed does not increase damage but could have some other combat effect: pushing back an enemy, tripping or entangling him, temporarily blinding him, and so on.

The warrior’s deed die determines the Deed’s success. This is the same die used for the warrior’s attack and damage modifier each round. If the deed die is a 3 or higher, and the attack lands (e.g., the total attack roll exceeds the target’s AC), the Deed succeeds. If the deed die is a 2 or less, or the overall attack fails, the Deed fails as well.

Refer to the Combat section for additional information on Mighty Deeds of Arms.

Critical hits: In combat, a warrior is most likely to score a critical hit and tends to get the most destructive effects when he does so. A warrior rolls the highest crit dice and rolls on tables with more devastating effects. In addition, a warrior scores critical hits more often. At 1st through 3rd level, a warrior scores a crit on any natural roll of 19-20. The threat range increases to natural rolls of 17-20 at 9th level. See the Combat section for more information on crits.

Initiative: A warrior adds his class level to his initiative rolls.

Luck: At first level, a warrior’s Luck modifier applies to attack rolls with one specific kind of weapon. This kind of weapon must be chosen at first level and the modifier is fixed at its starting value – neither the weapon nor the modifier changes over the course of the warrior’s career. The weapon type must be specific: longsword or short sword, not “swords.”

Action dice: A warrior always uses his action dice for attacks. At 5th level, a warrior gains a second attack each round with his second action die.

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Mighty Deeds in Action

The mechanic for Mighty Deeds of Arms was designed to encourage exciting stunts by ambitious warriors in the tradition of literary heroes. The goal was to create a rules system that encouraged situation-specific freedom without creating a lot of cumbersome rules. The author’s original expectation was that this system would be used for disarms, parries, and other traditional combat maneuvers, but in actual playtesting the Mighty Deeds of Arms have been exciting and unpredictable. It’s clear now that the system encourages creative actions, and the author believes it works best with creative warriors who devise interesting attacks. Here is a selection of actual Mighty Deeds of Arms performed by real players in real games, all of them declared on the spot in the midst of a grand adventure. Refer to the Combat section for more information on executing Mighty Deeds in play.

• When fighting opponents on a staircase, the character used a sword to stab an opponent and then lever him over the edge of the staircase. Later, the same character tried attacking the foe’s legs to knock him over the edge.

• When facing a carven image with eyes that shot laser beams, the character used use a mace to smash out the carved eyes (and thus disable the laser beams). In another game, a different player tried a similar attack to stab out the eyes of a basilisk and disarm its hypnotic gaze.

• When fighting a flying skull that was out of melee reach, a character leaped from the back of an ally into a flying lunge that brought him within reach of a melee swing at the skull.

• When hurling flasks of burning oil at a giant toad, the warrior aimed for the toad’s open mouth to throw the oil down its gullet.

• When fighting enemies arrayed in a single-file line, a character hurled a javelin and tried to spear both of the front two enemies. The warrior impaled the first enemy, then speared the second, in effect pinning the second enemy to his ally’s corpse.

• When fighting a chaos beast with a scorpion tail, a character attempted to chop off the tail.

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Signature Deeds

It is recommended that each warrior define his own “signature” Deed. You can think of this as a signature move for the character. If a player forgets to declare what his Deed will be, the assumption is that he attempted his signature move. The signature move can correspond to a defined Deed. For example, the Black Knight always attempts a disarm. Or it can be something highly specialized: a disarm if the result is 3, a blinding attack if the roll is 4, a trip if the roll is 5, etc. You can use the back of your character sheet to write a deed table for recording your warrior’s signature Deed.

Career

Career Progression

Level	Attack	Crit. Die/ Table	Threat Range	Action Dice	Ref	Fort	Will
1	+d3	1d12/III	19-20	1d20	+1	+1	+0
2	+d4	1d14/III	19-20	1d20	+1	+1	+0
3	+d5	1d16/IV	19-20	1d20	+1	+2	+1
4	+d6	1d20/IV	19-20	1d20	+2	+2	+1
5	+d7	1d24/V	18-20	1d20+1d14	+2	+3	+1
6	+d8	1d30/V	18-20	1d20+1d16	+3	+4	+2
7	+d10+1	1d30/V	18-20	1d20+1d20	+3	+4	+2
8	+d10+2	2d20/V	18-20	1d20+1d20	+3	+5	+2
9	+d10+3	2d20/V	17-20	1d20+1d20	+3	+5	+3
10	+d10+4	2d20/V	17-20	1d20+1d20+1d14	+4	+6	+3

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Warrior Titles

Level	Lawful	Chaotic	Neutral
1	Squire	Bandit	Wildling
2	Champion	Brigand	Barbarian
3	Knight	Marauder	Berserker
4	Cavalier	Ravager	Headman/Headwoman
5	Paladin	Reaver	Chieftain