Friday, December 24, 2021

OSR: Four Secret Techniques for the Fighting Man

Here are a couple of extra Secret Techniques for the Fighting Men.  For more advice on making Fighters based and murderpilled check out the original here or this post for some additional Fist Arts.

by unknown artist

Weapon Arts:

Warhorse

This school applies to rifles and other long guns. 

There are soldiers and there are warriors.  The difference may seem semantic, but only by those who have not met one of the latter.  The soldier fights for many reasons: patriotism, money, conscription and fear of legal repercussions, etc.  He may good at what he does, but he is not the best of his breed.  The warrior is different.  The warrior is the man who feels an almost instinctive urge to fight, to do his duty.  For him, war is his calling.  He is worth a hundred common soldiers because unlike them, he will never, ever surrender.  Unlike the soldier who merely wants to get paid and survive, the warrior will fight to his last breath because honor demands it.  This is the fighting style created by those men.  It is not clean nor elegant, it is not disciplined nor organized.  What it is is highly effective.  These men are craftsmen and their craft is death.  This school exists as the sum total of the lessons they have gleaned from countless battles, passed down to those who were worthy to stand beside them.       

Novice: "Only in death does duty end."  You can use a rifle as a Melee weapon that does 1d6 blunt damage, even if doesn't have a reinforced stock or bayonet attachment.  If you have a STR of 16(+2) or greater, you can also do sharp damage by trying to impale an enemy with the barrel of the gun.  However, every time you use a firearm not reinforced for melee combat as a melee weapon, there is a 1-in-6 chance that you damage the weapon, possibly beyond repair.    

Journeyman: "In a fight there is only winning and losing.  Rules against hurting are for games."  If there is an enemy that comes within melee range while you hold a firearm, you can make a kick attack against them.  This attack does 1d4 damage on a hit and the enemy must save or be knocked prone. 

Expert: "Death is lighter than a feather.  Duty, heavier than a mountain." You can make a melee attack against any enemy within range or use your kick attack as a bonus action on your turn if you so choose.

Master: "What cannot be changed must be endured.  Death cannot be defeated, so he must be embraced."  If you fire upon an enemy and there is another enemy adjacent to them, you may fire upon that enemy as well.  You may do this for any number of enemies, but the one beyond the first gets a +1 bonus to their Save vs Firearm and the one beyond that gets a +2 bonus and so on.  

artist unknown
Fist Arts:

Dragon Style

Dragons are usually clumsy fighters, they are so powerful that they crush all opposition through brute power.  Whether it is with breath weapons or crushing jaws, nothing can stand against them.  But Dragons are also highly intelligent.  As such, they have developed strategies for fighting large numbers of small creatures.  These movements and strategies were studied by some of the best fighters in the world which eventually led to the development of a new Fist Art, the Dragon Style.  Dragon Style is a flowing stance, mimicking the rolling gait of the Dragon's four legged walk.  It is a style that focuses on launching overwhelming attacks and crushing an opponent as quickly as possible.  It lacks somewhat in defense techniques, but it is otherwise a very powerful style.  

Novice: "Dragons do not attack unless victory is assured."  Your unarmed strikes do 1d6+Atk damage.  At the start of each combat, until you attack someone, you receive a bonus to your Armor equal to your level.  This bonus goes away once you make an attack.

Journeyman: "Just as the power of a punch comes from the legs and chest, so should your spirit empower your flesh."  You can, by spending 1 FS, wrap your unarmed strikes in fire.  This does +1d6 fire damage on a hit.  The flames last for 1 minute or until you choose to extinguish them.

Expert: "When fighting the weak, be strong.  When fighting the slow, be fast.  When fighting the distant, be close."  As an action, you can launch yourself through the air and attempt to smash into someone.  This requires you to spend 1 FS per 10' launched.  Then make an attack roll.  On a hit, your attack does normal damage plus X, where X is the amount of FS you spent.

Master: "No matter where you run, the Dragon's vengeance is inescapable."  When an attack would damage you, you may make a save.  On a successful save, you lose 1d6 FS and the attack misses as you disappear in a cloud of smoke and ash.  You then immediately reappear within 5' of the creature who attacked you.  On a failed save, you take damage as normal.

by Wesley Burt

Maneater

Many of the races of this world possess claws, sharp fangs or horns.  Thus, it is makes sense that their fighting styles would incorporate these advantages into their fighting styles.  This is the nature of the Maneater School, an ancient school with as many variants as it has adherents.  Every race has its own version, each one subtly tuned to be used with horns, claws or anything else a race might possess.  For example, the Oxman version focuses on goring, with a special move where the adherent throws an opponent into the air and moves beneath him so the opponent falls onto their horns and impales himself.  As this move, as well as the name, implies, Maneater is a killing school, but rather than focusing on pure lethality, as some vicious schools do, Maneater focuses on maximizing the efficiency of each attack, so that the battle can be won with the minimum amount of strikes.     

Novice: "I'm beginning to understand it now, the reason why I was born a wolf."  If you possess natural weapons, they do 1d6+STR on a hit.  If you do not, your unarmed strikes do 1d6 damage on a hit.  You also learn a charge attack where you can rush head-long at an opponent and attempt to increase the force of your attack.  This charge attack does +4 damage, but the target may attempt a DEX saving throw to avoid it entirely, instead of contesting the attack with a defense roll.   

Journeyman
: "The right move is always going to be the hardest, but it's always worth it."  Your unarmed strikes now do magical damage.  If you make a melee attack against a creature and miss or are successfully defended against, you can make a grapple check against that creature as a free action. 

Expert: "Tame the beast inside.  That's the only way to be a man in this world."  If you do not possess natural weapons, you may now grow claws, fangs or horns.  If you do, you may grow an additional type of natural weapons.  If an opponent is put into a vulnerable position where he cannot adequately defend himself such as being grappled, thrown (either in the air or having just landed), knocked prone, you made a surprise attack against him, you may make an additional unarmed strike against that creature. 

Master: "But I don't care.  Because the winners in this world are those who live without hiding their true nature."  You unarmed strikes now do 1d8+STR damage.  If you successfully hit a creature with an unarmed strike, instead of dealing damage, you can instead force them to save.  On a failed save, you can break or disable one of their limbs.  On a successful save, you instead only dislocate or stun one of their limbs.

by Jeremy Saliba

Revised Shield Rules:

Shields take up 1 inventory slot

They add +1 AR to a creature's total. 

Shields don't count as armor if an ability says something like "As long as you aren't wearing armor", so a creature can have Natural Armor and a shield without falling prey to the "Armor doesn't stack" rule.  The same applies to helmets, by the way.

Once per round, as a reaction to taking damage, a creature with a shield can reduce the damage taken by 1d8, assuming that the damage is of a type that a shield could protect someone from.  For example, a shield could protect you from being stabbed with a knife, but not a fireball. 

Below is a revised version of the Unbreaking Art secret techniques, intended for a low-magic setting. 

The Unbreaking Art


This school applies to shields.  

Novice"Life is the teacher, pain her rod of correction."  Once per round, you can reduce the damage of a successful attack against you by 1d8 as a reaction.  You can sunder any shield, even ones that ordinarily could not be broken.  These shields may not technically be broken, but they will become at least temporarily unusable, the why being left up to the Referee.  Referee's discretion also applies to this, as some shields may still be unbreakable and cannot be sundered.

Journeyman"The hand of mercy can only be grasped when it's absence is felt."  Once per round, you can reduce the damage of a successful attack against you by 1d10 as a reaction.  Your shield can reduce the damage almost any attack would do, even from damage types that a shield ordinarily couldn't protect you from.  Referee's discretion still applies to whether a shield could blunt any form of damage- poison gas will not be stopped by a shield and if you are carrying a metal shield, you will likely not be able to use it to protect you from electrical damage. 

Expert"The hand of mercy can only be grasped when it's absence is felt."  Once per round, you can reduce the damage of a successful attack against you by 1d12 as a reaction.  If an effect would damage or otherwise harm a creature and you stand between them and the source of damage, that creature receives advantage on any subsequent save against the effect.  Additionally, if it would be damaged, the creature may reduce the incoming damage by 1d12 as it bore a shield.

Master
"While the trueborn can worry about being disowned, those who are adopted never need to fear being discarded."  When saving against damage or a harmful effect where having a shield would be beneficial, you automatically have advantage on any save.  If for some reason you would have disadvantage, you instead do not, but do not gain advantage.  

artist unknown

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