OSR: Fighting Man
- seeroftheabyss
- Jun 25
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 21
Where do you come from?
1d6
1- The peasantry. You come from the equivalent of the peasantry in your nation. Your parents were dirt poor, your grandparents had as much and had destiny not intervened, you would be out tilling the fields just like they were.
2- The martial class. You were born a member of the warrior class and from a young age, were trained with the expectation that you would defend your nation and uphold the social order.
3- The aristocracy. You were born a member of the aristocracy, a privileged elite who was groomed from an early age to rule and reign.
4- The wilderness. You are a barbarian, a savage from uncharted or unsettled lands, at least by the notions of "civilized" folk.
5- foreign lands. You are a foreigner, you're not from Around Here. Your appearance, dress and fighting style are all considered bizarre, exotic to your admirers, inferior and quaint to adversaries.
6- Awful circumstances. Roll 1d4, that is where you came from, until a disaster rolled over you and destroyed everything. You were left one of the few who survived, scarred but still breathing.
Where did you learn to fight?
1d6
1- At a school or academy. You attended a school, formal or otherwise, that taught the ways of war. If your school was prestigious, simply revealing where you learned to fight might be enough to prevent a fight.
2- From a lone master. You learned from a Hidden Master, an expert in your preferred fighting style. Why he choose you is up to you, but it may be a mystery, even to you.
3- In the army. You joined the army, for zeal, for patriotism, for adventure or simply because you had no better idea of what to do. There they trained you in the basics of combat but when you survived a few battles and showed some talent, the drillmasters sought to cultivate your skills.
4- In the underworld. You were from the rough part of town or part of a criminal organization. You learned to fight by surviving street-fights, bloody brawls and by killing off those the bosses wanted dead.
5- In the fighting pits. You fought in the arena for the enjoyment of others. Perhaps you were a slave or you could have been a prize-fighter, fighting for gold and glory.
6- By experience, you are self-taught. You wanted to learn to fight for your own reasons, so you started studying. You harassed the old warriors at the bar to show you a few tricks, but your style is mostly a cobbled-together collection of tricks you learned from getting thrashed by better, stronger opponents over the years.
What motivated you to learn the art of death?
1d8
1- Vengeance. There is a man, or men, that you want to kill. You recite their names in the night, hoping they live long enough for you to stick a knife in them.
2- Glory. You want to live forever in the minds of men, so you do great deeds in the hopes that they will be remembered and become a tale that others will sing for generations.
3- God/Destiny. Your God told you he had a mission for you, so you learned to fight. Alternatively, you learned you were to become a great warrior so you began training immediately. 4- Patriotism. You desire to protect your people, your nation and your land, defending them from all threats.
5- Ambition. You have a massive goal you wish to accomplish- you want to be King or something equally huge. Unfortunately, the only way you could achieve that dream is likely to be through violence.
6- Freedom. You cannot be chained down- you long to be free. You want to travel the world, see everything, experience all you can. This seemed the best way to do it.
7- Penance. You did something truly awful, or were partially responsible for something bad happening or blame yourself for something that wasn't anyone's fault really. Still, you took the blame upon yourself and went out to fight, to punish yourself and try to do something good with your otherwise worthless life.
8- Love. You are in love with someone so ludicrously out of reach that a fish would have an easier time reaching the moon. The only way to make such a match even possible, for the two of you to be together is if you were a legendary hero, ridiculously rich or covered in glory.
Fighting Man
Starting HP: 1/3 Con
Fighting Spirit: +3 per Fighting Man Level (Max = COG score)
Atk Modifier: +1 per Fighting Man level, max +9.
Starting Equipment: Light Armor, two Quick weapons or choice or Balanced weapon and Shield, bedroll, flint and steel
1: Notches, Rivers of Blood
2: Careful Aim
3: Explosion
4: Wager
5: Storm of Steel
6: Called Attack
7: Cleave
8: Vengeance
9: Hand of God
Abilities:
1:
Notches: Whenever a Fighting Man gets 10, 20, 30 or 50 kills or wins as many victories against a foe, he gains a Notch in that weapon. For each Notch the Fighter has, he can learn a Secret Technique for that weapon. At 10 kills, he can learn the Novice Technique for a martial school of that weapon. If he continues to use that weapon, he will eventually be able to learn the Journeyman, Expert and Master Techniques for that weapon. In order to learn the next level of the Technique, he must achieve the required number of kills/victories and have learned the Technique of the level underneath it.
River of Blood: As an action, you can force enemies to check their morale. If you have recently killed an enemy, done something vicious or performed a feat of strength, enemies may receive penalties to their morale check, as determined by the scale of your feat. For example, killing a low-level enemy in one hit might give the enemies a +1 penalty to their morale checks (assuming roll-under), while killing the boss in single combat and seeming to win easily could give them up to a +4 penalty to their morale checks.
2:
Careful Aim: When making an attack, you can reduce the damage you would have dealt by -X in exchange for a bonus to Attack equal to +X.
3:
Explosion: Whenever you roll for damage for a successful attack, you may roll again. If the new roll is less than or equal to the original roll's base damage, you may add it to the damage done. If it is higher, you may use that as the damage your attack dealt, and ignore the first roll. You may do this once per day per weapon.
4:
Wager: You can take a -X penalty to Attack in order to do +X bonus damage on a successful hit.
5:
Storm of Steel: X/Day (min 1), where X is your CHA modifier, you can make 1d20 attacks on your turn as an action.
6:
Called Attack: As a free action on your turn, you can pick an enemy and announce that you are going to target him. That enemy gains advantage on his Defense roll. If you hit the targeted creature after declaring your attack, all enemies must check morale or flee. Even if enemies do not flee, they suffer a -2 penalty to all Attack rolls against you for the duration of the battle.
7:
Cleave: Whenever you reduce an enemy to 0 hp, you may make a new attack with that weapon.
8:
Vengeance: Whenever an enemy damages you in melee combat, you may immediately make an attack against them as a free action.
9:
Hand of God: If you remove 50% or more of an opponent's HP/HD, that creature must immediately save vs death. On a failure, they go into shock and have a heart attack. If left untended, they will die in 1d6 minutes.
