Flavors of Fighting-Men

[Morose]

Some think that you need many classes so that the characters are all different. Not so, if, for example, all the Fighting-Men in your campaign are the same, that is not a failure of the rules, that is a failure of the player and sometimes, but only sometimes, the Dungeon Master.

So to help the players that are Imagination Challenged, I present here some different flavor your fighting-man might have.

Caveat
The most versatile Fighting-Men do not specialize, but keep up their training in a variety of weapons. Those who specialize do so at the cost of vesatility.

[Morose]

The Bow Master flavor

Any Fighting-Man can be a Bow Master, taller characters can use short, medium and longbows. Short characters, hobbits, dwarves, gnomes, may only use short bows. Average height characters may use short or medium bows.

These characters have a bonus when using bows because they have focused their training and practice on bow use; therefore, when using other weapons such as swords, spears, hammers, axes, maces and other melee weapons they have a penalty when using these weapons. They must choose between regular bows and crossbows. They gain bonuses with the type they choose and no additional bonus with the other type. Hobbits and gnomes often choose slings instead.

At 1st level all Fighting-Men start on level footing. One who seeks to become a Bow Master, at each step along the way have the following adjustments. In the below writeups you may substitute crossbow or sling instead of bow.

These adjustments are cumulative:
At 2nd level they gain a +1 H with bows and incur a -1 H with all melee weapons
At 4th level they gain a +1 H with bows and incur a -1 H with all melee weapons
At 7th level they gain a +1 H with bows and incur a -1 H with all melee weapons
At 10th level they gain a +1 H with bows and incur a -1 H with all melee weapons
At 13th level they gain a +1 H with bows and incur a -1 H with all melee weapons
At 16th level & up they gain a +1 H with bows and incur a -1 H with all melee weapons

So at 16th level a Bow Master would be +6 to Hit with a bow (or crossbow or sling) and -6 to Hit with all melee weapons.

In addition, they cannot use Shields. Because of their lack of training it would cause them to incur more penalties.
They may only use Leather Armor or Leather Armor with a Chain Mail Shirt, but not full Chainmail.

[Morose]

The above would also be applied in similar fashion for a Sword Master, Axe Master, Spear Master, etc. (For melee weapon masters, the penalties would apply to all missile weapons) You can only be a Master in a specific category. There is an exception, someone who has at least a 13 or better in STR, INT and DEX, may at 7th level become a Master in a second related weapon. For example, a bowman could add crossbow or sling. A swordsman could add bladed polearms or an axman could add maces or hammers, but not missile weapons.
However, anything added at 7th level could incur only a max of up to +4 to hit at 16th level and above. They would incur the additional penalties because of the increased focus to the exclusion of the opposite type of weapon. So for example an axman with a secondary weapon of hammer, would at 16th level have a to hit penalty with a bow of -10 to Hit.

[The Semi-Retired Gamer]

Cool! Additional options WITHOUT bogging down the rules or game play. I like it!! In fact, I've thought of expanding the classes with variants such as this rather than fully fleshed out classes. I may just do that now...

[The Perilous Dreamer]

Mar 5, 2023 5:04:49 GMT -5 The Semi-Retired Gamer said:

Cool! Additional options WITHOUT bogging down the rules or game play. I like it!! In fact, I've thought of expanding the classes with variants such as this rather than fully fleshed out classes. I may just do that now...

I agree, this is the take I have seen, I really like that, give the player the option of being a good fighter or a specialist with penalties to offset the bennies.

I would add that a Bow Master for example would be rejected by a magic sword. It would want someone whose first instinct is the sword.