173. WARRIOR Combat and weapons expertise tend to play a large role in the DragonQuest campaigns, and as such combat skills tend to be ignored in favour of more aesthetic abilities. The Warrior Skill is designed for the specialized fighter character. The Warrior character is trained to be a successful fighter in *all* situations (hence the various weapons the warrior is required to be skilled with), and to know the subtleties of combat that a non-fighter will be relatively unaware of. [173.1] A character who chooses the warrior skill is required to have a minimum Physical Strength and Manual Dexterity. In order to choose the warrior skill, a character must have a Physical Strength and a Manual Dexterity equal to at least the average for a character of that race. Thus, for example, a Human character must have characteristic values of at least 15. [173.2] A character who chooses the warrior skill cannot be a Mage or a Healer. Certain occupational types are off-limits to the character if he chooses to take the warrior skill. The character cannot be a Mage or a Healer, and it is possible the GM may rule that a warrior character is not permitted to choose any of the following: Alchemist, Astrologer, Courtesan, Dreamweaver, Herbalist, Magician, Mechanician, Merchant, and Troubadour. The reasoning behind this is very simple: these skills require a certain delicacy or intellectual skill behind them that a rough soldier is unlikely to possess. However, the decision is ultimately up to the GamesMaster. [173.3] A character who chooses the warrior skill must have rank in certain weapons once he reaches Rank 2. In order to progress past Rank 2, a character with warrior skill must have rank in the following combat skills: unarmed combat; a sword or hafted weapon, other than a quarterstaff, that does at least +2 damage; a shield (other than a main gauche); a close combat weapon; and a missile weapon. The warrior must keep all of these weapons at a Rank equal to or greater than half his Rank with the warrior skill. This applies only when the warrior advances past Rank 2 with the warrior skill. In order to specialize in a weapon, the character must be at least Rank 0 in all of these compulsory weapons. [173.4] A character with the warrior skill may specialize in weaponry once he achieves specific Ranks. The warrior may choose a weapon in which to specialize, and this weapon does not have to be one of the compulsory weapons listed above. In order to specialize in the use of a weapon, the character must be at least Rank 0 in the use of all the compulsory weapons listed in 173.3 above. The character receives certain bonuses when using his specialized weapons. The character may choose one weapon at Rank 0, a second weapon at Rank 5, and a third weapon at Rank 10. After Rank 10, the character may not specialize in any more weapons. He may change a specialized weapon at a cost of 750 Experience Points for each Rank that he has with the new weapon to be specialized in (and then loses all bonuses for specialization with the old weapon). The warrior may, if he chooses, specialize in mounted combat in place of a weapon. In this case, the character adds (Rankx2)% to any Horsemanship roll whilst in combat, and for those actions which require a certain Rank of Horsemanship to be performed (see DragonQuest Section 87.2), the warrior adds the equivalent of (Rank/5; round up) to his Horsemanship Rank for this purpose. [173.5] A character with this skill does not suffer the effects of the "no Manual Dexterity" rule when using a weapon unskilled. A character with this skill always adds his Manual Dexterity to the Strike Chance of using any weapon listed on the weapons chart (ie., the character can effectively use all of the weapons at Rank 0). However, if he wishes to learn to use a weapon, he must still first learn the weapon skill at Rank 0. This rule does not apply to any new weapons introduced by the GamesMaster (thus, it does not apply to new, unknown, exotic weapons, only to those that are on the basic weapons chart). [173.6] As a result of his specialized training, the warrior character receives a bonus to his attack skills as noted below. The character with warrior skill adds (Rank)% to all of his Strike Chances, and adds (Rankx2)% to his Strike Chances with a specialized weapon. The character with warrior skill adds (Rank/4) to the damage done during an attack, and adds (Rank/3) damage to attacks with any specialized weapons. [173.7] A character with the warrior skill receives a bonus to his chance of inflicting Grievous Injuries to his opponents. The character with the warrior skill adds a bonus of (Rank)% to his chance of successfully doing an Endurance hit in combat, (Rankx2)% with a specialized weapon. The character adds (Rankx0.5)% to his chance of doing a Grievous Injury, (Rank)% to doing so with a specialized weapon. For any Grievous Injury that the character inflicts, the warrior's Rank is added to the dice roll when rolling on the Grievous Injury Table. Note that these bonuses are not cumulative with any bonuses received for these abilities as part of Assassin skill. The character must choose whether to apply the bonuses for damage and Grievous Injuries from one or the other skill, not both. [173.8] A character with the warrior skill receives a bonus to his defense skills as noted below. A character with the warrior skill receives a bonus to his defense of (Rank x2)%, and adds (Rankx3)% to his ability to evade. [173.9] The skill of a warrior allows a character to take more punishment from attacks and the like, due to the nature of the manner in which this skill is learned. The character with this skill adds his Rank with the warrior skill to his Endurance when calculating the amount of damage needed to Stun him. In addition, the character adds (Rankx1.5)% to his Base Chance of recovering from stun effects. The character with warrior skills always adds (Rank)% to his chance of succeeding in the Willpower roll of Section 68.1 (when encountering creatures with a Physical Beauty of less than 6). If the character fails the Willpower roll, the GM subtracts the warrior's Rank from the dice roll that he makes on the Fright Table. [173.10] A character with the warrior skill who takes Military Scientist skill receives a bonus to increasing Rank with that skill. When a character with the warrior skill takes the Military Scientist skill, he spends only three-quarters the Experience Points to progress Ranks as long as his warrior skill is greater than his Military Scientist skill. The reverse is not true. [173.11] A warrior must spend a total of [150 + (Rankx200)] Silver Pennies per year for maintenance of his weapons and for the purpose of continually upgrading his weapon skills and expertise as a warrior. A character with the warrior skill who does not spend this amount of Silver Pennies per year is treated as though he was two Ranks lower in his skill proficiency. ---------- Copyright (c) 1985, 1988 John M. Kahane and Alex Barber. EXPERIENCE COSTS FOR ADDITIONAL PRIMARY SKILLS IN THE DRAGONQUEST RPG SYSTEM SKILL 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Warrior 800 350 1200 2750 5000 7200 9900 12400 16500 20100 26000