This is a melee warrior class that creates a western-flare version of a Samurai / Iajutsu Master for a campaign. They are professional swordsmen and killers, some with less ‘Honor’ than a Samurai but heavily specialized in one-on-one duels.
This is an alternate base class inspired by the original Duelist from the May 1983 Dragon and using the Complete Warrior classes ‘Samurai’ and ‘Swashbuckler’ as core templates. This replaces the “Duelist” Prestige Class from the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
I am seeking critique and comments. For those that don’t wish to read all the fluff, I have separated the Fluff and Mech into 2 different posts.
EDITED: Version 5.24
[size=+1]DUELIST[/size]
A supple flick of the young duelist Diego's wrist sent his unfortunate opponent's sword skittering across the cobbled streets of the Magistrates’ Square. Fear in his eyes, the man staggered back, clutching his injured hand. Diego's lips parted in a thin smile as he backed his opponent (what was his name … not that it mattered) into a corner. He raised his weapon at the cowering nobleman.
"You know the rules," Diego smirked. "A fight to the death means no quarter expected or given."
He put the point of his ornate, yet deadly sword over the man’s heart, and listened to man’s pleas and bribes and utterly un-honorable babbling for a few seconds. Then, in a lightning fast motion, he ran him through, removed his sword, and passed it to Bron, his appointed “second.” The man cleaned the blade, granting the customary compliments on Diego’s fine performance, and giving condolences to the dead man’s second. Diego held the sword aloft to salute his victory to the man’s second before sheathing it, basking in the grudging applause from the small crowd that followed them to the square from the local tavern where the duel had been offered by the pompous nobleman. Many walked away in disgust at Diego's blatant egotism, yet they could not deny that he was easily one of the best Duelists in Waterdeep. At the sound of a few tentative boos from the back of the audience, Diego called out and began taunting.
"It's easy for you pathetic slobs to heckle me from the safety of the crowd, but are any of you man enough to challenge me one on one?" He surveyed the now silent crowd. Nobody met his eye. He smirked. "I thought not," he snorted, and began to walk away.
Then a quiet but deep voice spoke out. "I think I can take you down a notch or several. Arrogant children need humility occasionally." it said. Diego whirled round. His eyes, blazing with ire, almost immediately settling on a large, graying and greatly expanding man in a subtle and common doublet and hose under a common cloak. The stranger met his harsh gaze calmly.
"Oh, do you now?" boasted Diego. "Then come into the circle and prove it, old man."
"As you wish," the man replied, entering the designated dueling circle. Inwardly, Diego was surprised that the man had accepted his challenge, but was still supremely confident in his fighting ability.
“Old men should stay at home – but maybe this is your way of deciding you’re too old and fat to continue life so you are committing suicide? So be it.” He then smiled smugly. His would-be opponent remained expressionless however. The Magistrate stepped between them addressing Diego.
"Sir, it is not allowed for you to challenge an opponent without a charge," he stated.
"He slandered me," Diego replied, not taking his eyes off the other man. The official frowned. "I didn't hear any slander." he began.
The stranger spoke up. “He is a whore’s son, born of an Orc loving street wench. Will that suffice?” The magistrate began to protest but with a side-long glance from the old man, the magistrate sighed and said, “So be it, the Charge is Slander and a Duel is offered and accepted.”
"What Terms?” the old man asked simply. “Enough guts to go to the death old man?" replied Diego. The man nodded almost imperceptibly, and shrugged off his cloak and doublet, revealing a tattered fencing vest underneath. Across his back hung a simple long sword, quite unlike Diego's elegant rapier. If drawn, the sword appeared as if the man’s beefy hands might engulf the entire pommel. Diego took up a fighting stance, laughing slightly.
“A Duel to the death requires a tenday and a set date and time.” began the Magistrate but at another glance from the old man the magistrate hastily continued with “A Duel to the death declared and agreed upon by both parties. So it is said, so it is written.” reluctantly said the Magistrate.
"Put on a little extra weight since last you fought old man? What name would you like them to put on your stone, my soon-to-be-dead friend?" he inquired.
"They call me the Old-Wolf, that is all you need know," was the reply. Diego nodded, and glanced at the magistrate. "You may begin," he said.
Diego grinned suddenly, stepping forward while sweeping his rapier in a swift arc from its sheath. He intended to give his opponent a shallow but painful cut across the chest, however, the old man was no longer there. He had impossibly quickly, and smoothly, drawn his sword and stepped to his right, and begun swinging his blade at Diego's neck with alarming ease. It was all the young Duelist could do to avoid the blow and attempt to deflect it with his rapier. As it was, he suffered a painful wound to the shoulder. He jumped back, his confidence suddenly gone. The old man simply grinned a wolfish grin and stepped forward, and the duel began in earnest. Diego was staggered at how quickly the man moved and swung his cumbersome weight and weapon, after all the man was old and fat, and Diego was lean and young. The old man always seemed to second guess any strike, and was ready to counter. In desperation, Diego attempted a lunge forward. It proved a mistake. The old man stepped aside, at the same time raising his sword for a killing overhead strike. Diego began to swing his sword back to hold off the blow, while stepping back. The point of the old man's weapon fell past his face, and briefly he thought he had warded off the fatal wound. He was wrong. With incredible speed, the old man changed the direction of his strike, thrusting the sword forward as it reached Diego’s chest. Off balance and off guard, the young duelist was unable to prevent himself being run through. He slumped to the ground, staring at the old man in utter shock. His opponent quickly wiped his sword on Diego's silk shirt, shocking those watching by what they had just witnessed.
The old man gently whispered into Diego’s ear “One thing you didn’t learn sonny boy… Old Duelists get to BE old because they are very good at what they do. You would be wise to remember that.”
As he walked away, he called to the Magistrate “Call a Cleric and heal this fool with one of your healing potions before he bleeds to death – put the charge on my tab.”
“As you command, Mirt.” was the Magistrates only reply as he went off to do as Mirt, also known as Mirt the Moneylender and Mirt the Old Wolf had bade him do.
The Duel is considered by many to be a reasonable, appropriate and acceptable way for people of import to settle their differences. Duels, to some other people however, are seen as somewhat impractical and silly. After all, if someone has offended you to the point where, despite the law, you wish to kill them, it isn't exactly sensible to deliberately put yourself in a position where your opponent may have a fair chance of killing you instead. The key difference is honor. Duels are based around a belief that it is how you behaved in the face of challenge, slander and possible death that demonstrated your strength and courage.
Duels are fought over anything and everything, from revenge for violent crimes against friends, family members or lovers, to philosophical or religious disagreements, to just plain insults or even perceived insults.
Although often technically illegal and harshly punished if discovered, there are some locations where this form of disagreement can be settled legally in front of a designated agent of the government such as a Magistrate, and when legal, are restricted to specific “arenas”. Waterdeep is a good example of this. A Duel is offered, and the nearest Magistrate is found where the conditions of the Duel are set, and the Duel proceeds. Even in Lawful Waterdeep, if the challenger and recipient agree to and insist upon a Duel to the death, the appropriate papers will be drawn up but a 1 week stay is generally enforced on the Duel to make sure the participants are not just hot heads and not realizing the implications of their tempers (this can be handled differently depending on the clout carried by those participating). Duels also happen in the heat of the moment, Duels where someone draws a weapon and forces a fight, legal or illegal. In a city such as Waterdeep these are severely frowned upon and will earn at least a night in prison, though killing someone in self-defense is still a crime, it is only a minor punishment in comparison to outright murder.
Duels, of course, don't always have to be to the death. A minor insult or small matter of disagreement may not require the lifeblood of the Duelers’ opponent to be satisfied. Duels can be fought to the first touch of the blade to your opponent, injuring or not, or to a number of touches or wounds, or to the first crippled limb, or to the yield of one opponent to the other, or to the satisfaction of the aggrieved party, or to one combatant’s physical inability to continue the fight, or to unconsciousness. Generally duels are to “first blood” (in game terms this means that all duels are Subdual Damage, and when 0HP is reached, the first real “blood” is drawn).
The setting for Duels is also important. Since in most places they are illegal, they thus have to be conducted out of cities or at night or on the fly. Duels require Seconds (people who represent each duelist and check the weapons and opponents for magical charms, hidden weapons and poison on the blades). A Priest (or a Mortician) is also often standard attendee at a duel. If the Local Law Enforcement catches the combatants in the act, everyone will be arrested, perhaps excommunicated, and sometimes executed, depending on the law of the land. In some instances the Seconds of each duelist often got into duels of their own, turning them into a grand melee!
Why do people go off to a fight a duel they may very well die in, when the worst they would suffer for it by refusing is social ostracism? That is in fact, the answer. If a person will not defend their honor, then what is their word worth? They obviously don't value their own principles, for they will not defend them! In a society where a person's word is taken as a commitment as binding as any court-order, demonstrating that your word is valueless is effectively social death. On the other hand, if roused to the point of utter disgrace in public, if a Duel is not challenged, the ostracism can be even worse, as the person is marked as a coward. Even those who fight duels and lose are more honorable and worthy than the lowly dog who cowers from confrontation! Also, if you disagree with someone over a truly important topic, it is your responsibility to your own word, and your opponent's to theirs, to bring it to a duel, because only when facing death against live steel is your commitment truly tested. If you are in the right, and they in the wrong, divine justice will guide your blade!
Of course, this is how many people in the period dispose of enemies. By hiring an experienced swordsman to find an excuse to challenge or be challenged (depending on the laws of the land) by an unwanted opponent, thus Dueling becoming a means for socially legitimized character assassination or outright legalized public assassination. This is the art of the professional Duelist, the elite Sword-for-Hire. Most professional Duelists rarely have to fight to the death, and if they do, they pick and choose carefully which fights they will take on. Obviously, the fee is far larger to fight to the death than it is to fight to first blood.
Adventures: Many Duelists travel from place to place seeking fortune, fame, and new opponents to test their skills against. Most live on the open road fighting for a share of prize purses, or even championing a cause, while others fight as pure mercenaries or even fight duels to humiliate or even slay foes in a “legal” death matches. Some Duelists who relish in the idea of working with companions instead of a solo artist, are drawn to the life of the adventurer as a ever ongoing source of entertainment to keep them honed in their skills, not to mention for the wealth and notoriety.
Characteristics: The duelist is a rare class of warrior who specializes and delights in personal combat. They are artists and masters of the fighting trade, and travel about, fighting for glory, money, or for lack of a better calling in life. Duelists have little use for law as an ethical principle or as political basis. This does not mean that they have no honor - just the contrary. The Duelist is a concept as much as a profession, and they will always act and fight with honor.
The Code of the Duelist is: “Professional pride is a more important consideration than ‘fair play’." A duelist, like a Knight, does not take undo advantage of an opponent, but a where Knight does this to be fair out of a lawful base of ethics, the Duelist does it to keep his reputation from being soiled.
Alignment: A Duelist’s training requires a high level of discipline and unwavering dedication. However, as stated earlier, they have no love of the law nor do they have a specific need to follow a strict ethical compass, but they do tend to be honorable. Thus duelists may be of any Non-Chaotic alignment.
Religion: Like most fighting art classes Duelists are not very devout though this is on a case by case basis. Many Duelists worship or at least pay homage to deities of Battle, Protection, Honor, Vengeance, Justice, and even Murder.
Background: Duelists above all else are still fighters. They interact with world in roughly the same way in which Fighters do although many follow the path of hired killer making them move in the darker circles of the Rogue and Assassin. Duelists come to their profession in many different ways. Some seeking their training specifically – enrolling in fighting sows or seeking out sword masters to learn the trade. Others have their training find them, such as learning to fight from a mentor specifically out of the drive for revenge against someone: “Hello my name is Enigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” However, no Duelists are ever “untrained”. Some Duelists see themselves as part of a brotherhood but many do not and are freelance fighters, bringing their skills to whomever needs them, and will just as quickly fight another Duelist as anon-Duelist, though a bit more care.
Races: Duelists are found more among humans than others, though many other races have members who go in search of the training to become Duelist, especially if they can find a way to excel in the human dominated cultures where Duelists thrive.
Other Classes: Duelists are feared, admired, shunned, and bragged about as companions all at the same time. They are both hero and villain. The Duelist plays many parts, from hired sword, to professional athlete, to combat instructor, to assassin or bounty hunter, to hero of the oppressed, as well as many other roles.
This is an alternate base class inspired by the original Duelist from the May 1983 Dragon and using the Complete Warrior classes ‘Samurai’ and ‘Swashbuckler’ as core templates. This replaces the “Duelist” Prestige Class from the Dungeon Master’s Guide.
I am seeking critique and comments. For those that don’t wish to read all the fluff, I have separated the Fluff and Mech into 2 different posts.
EDITED: Version 5.24
[size=+1]DUELIST[/size]
A supple flick of the young duelist Diego's wrist sent his unfortunate opponent's sword skittering across the cobbled streets of the Magistrates’ Square. Fear in his eyes, the man staggered back, clutching his injured hand. Diego's lips parted in a thin smile as he backed his opponent (what was his name … not that it mattered) into a corner. He raised his weapon at the cowering nobleman.
"You know the rules," Diego smirked. "A fight to the death means no quarter expected or given."
He put the point of his ornate, yet deadly sword over the man’s heart, and listened to man’s pleas and bribes and utterly un-honorable babbling for a few seconds. Then, in a lightning fast motion, he ran him through, removed his sword, and passed it to Bron, his appointed “second.” The man cleaned the blade, granting the customary compliments on Diego’s fine performance, and giving condolences to the dead man’s second. Diego held the sword aloft to salute his victory to the man’s second before sheathing it, basking in the grudging applause from the small crowd that followed them to the square from the local tavern where the duel had been offered by the pompous nobleman. Many walked away in disgust at Diego's blatant egotism, yet they could not deny that he was easily one of the best Duelists in Waterdeep. At the sound of a few tentative boos from the back of the audience, Diego called out and began taunting.
"It's easy for you pathetic slobs to heckle me from the safety of the crowd, but are any of you man enough to challenge me one on one?" He surveyed the now silent crowd. Nobody met his eye. He smirked. "I thought not," he snorted, and began to walk away.
Then a quiet but deep voice spoke out. "I think I can take you down a notch or several. Arrogant children need humility occasionally." it said. Diego whirled round. His eyes, blazing with ire, almost immediately settling on a large, graying and greatly expanding man in a subtle and common doublet and hose under a common cloak. The stranger met his harsh gaze calmly.
"Oh, do you now?" boasted Diego. "Then come into the circle and prove it, old man."
"As you wish," the man replied, entering the designated dueling circle. Inwardly, Diego was surprised that the man had accepted his challenge, but was still supremely confident in his fighting ability.
“Old men should stay at home – but maybe this is your way of deciding you’re too old and fat to continue life so you are committing suicide? So be it.” He then smiled smugly. His would-be opponent remained expressionless however. The Magistrate stepped between them addressing Diego.
"Sir, it is not allowed for you to challenge an opponent without a charge," he stated.
"He slandered me," Diego replied, not taking his eyes off the other man. The official frowned. "I didn't hear any slander." he began.
The stranger spoke up. “He is a whore’s son, born of an Orc loving street wench. Will that suffice?” The magistrate began to protest but with a side-long glance from the old man, the magistrate sighed and said, “So be it, the Charge is Slander and a Duel is offered and accepted.”
"What Terms?” the old man asked simply. “Enough guts to go to the death old man?" replied Diego. The man nodded almost imperceptibly, and shrugged off his cloak and doublet, revealing a tattered fencing vest underneath. Across his back hung a simple long sword, quite unlike Diego's elegant rapier. If drawn, the sword appeared as if the man’s beefy hands might engulf the entire pommel. Diego took up a fighting stance, laughing slightly.
“A Duel to the death requires a tenday and a set date and time.” began the Magistrate but at another glance from the old man the magistrate hastily continued with “A Duel to the death declared and agreed upon by both parties. So it is said, so it is written.” reluctantly said the Magistrate.
"Put on a little extra weight since last you fought old man? What name would you like them to put on your stone, my soon-to-be-dead friend?" he inquired.
"They call me the Old-Wolf, that is all you need know," was the reply. Diego nodded, and glanced at the magistrate. "You may begin," he said.
Diego grinned suddenly, stepping forward while sweeping his rapier in a swift arc from its sheath. He intended to give his opponent a shallow but painful cut across the chest, however, the old man was no longer there. He had impossibly quickly, and smoothly, drawn his sword and stepped to his right, and begun swinging his blade at Diego's neck with alarming ease. It was all the young Duelist could do to avoid the blow and attempt to deflect it with his rapier. As it was, he suffered a painful wound to the shoulder. He jumped back, his confidence suddenly gone. The old man simply grinned a wolfish grin and stepped forward, and the duel began in earnest. Diego was staggered at how quickly the man moved and swung his cumbersome weight and weapon, after all the man was old and fat, and Diego was lean and young. The old man always seemed to second guess any strike, and was ready to counter. In desperation, Diego attempted a lunge forward. It proved a mistake. The old man stepped aside, at the same time raising his sword for a killing overhead strike. Diego began to swing his sword back to hold off the blow, while stepping back. The point of the old man's weapon fell past his face, and briefly he thought he had warded off the fatal wound. He was wrong. With incredible speed, the old man changed the direction of his strike, thrusting the sword forward as it reached Diego’s chest. Off balance and off guard, the young duelist was unable to prevent himself being run through. He slumped to the ground, staring at the old man in utter shock. His opponent quickly wiped his sword on Diego's silk shirt, shocking those watching by what they had just witnessed.
The old man gently whispered into Diego’s ear “One thing you didn’t learn sonny boy… Old Duelists get to BE old because they are very good at what they do. You would be wise to remember that.”
As he walked away, he called to the Magistrate “Call a Cleric and heal this fool with one of your healing potions before he bleeds to death – put the charge on my tab.”
“As you command, Mirt.” was the Magistrates only reply as he went off to do as Mirt, also known as Mirt the Moneylender and Mirt the Old Wolf had bade him do.
The Duel is considered by many to be a reasonable, appropriate and acceptable way for people of import to settle their differences. Duels, to some other people however, are seen as somewhat impractical and silly. After all, if someone has offended you to the point where, despite the law, you wish to kill them, it isn't exactly sensible to deliberately put yourself in a position where your opponent may have a fair chance of killing you instead. The key difference is honor. Duels are based around a belief that it is how you behaved in the face of challenge, slander and possible death that demonstrated your strength and courage.
Duels are fought over anything and everything, from revenge for violent crimes against friends, family members or lovers, to philosophical or religious disagreements, to just plain insults or even perceived insults.
Although often technically illegal and harshly punished if discovered, there are some locations where this form of disagreement can be settled legally in front of a designated agent of the government such as a Magistrate, and when legal, are restricted to specific “arenas”. Waterdeep is a good example of this. A Duel is offered, and the nearest Magistrate is found where the conditions of the Duel are set, and the Duel proceeds. Even in Lawful Waterdeep, if the challenger and recipient agree to and insist upon a Duel to the death, the appropriate papers will be drawn up but a 1 week stay is generally enforced on the Duel to make sure the participants are not just hot heads and not realizing the implications of their tempers (this can be handled differently depending on the clout carried by those participating). Duels also happen in the heat of the moment, Duels where someone draws a weapon and forces a fight, legal or illegal. In a city such as Waterdeep these are severely frowned upon and will earn at least a night in prison, though killing someone in self-defense is still a crime, it is only a minor punishment in comparison to outright murder.
Duels, of course, don't always have to be to the death. A minor insult or small matter of disagreement may not require the lifeblood of the Duelers’ opponent to be satisfied. Duels can be fought to the first touch of the blade to your opponent, injuring or not, or to a number of touches or wounds, or to the first crippled limb, or to the yield of one opponent to the other, or to the satisfaction of the aggrieved party, or to one combatant’s physical inability to continue the fight, or to unconsciousness. Generally duels are to “first blood” (in game terms this means that all duels are Subdual Damage, and when 0HP is reached, the first real “blood” is drawn).
The setting for Duels is also important. Since in most places they are illegal, they thus have to be conducted out of cities or at night or on the fly. Duels require Seconds (people who represent each duelist and check the weapons and opponents for magical charms, hidden weapons and poison on the blades). A Priest (or a Mortician) is also often standard attendee at a duel. If the Local Law Enforcement catches the combatants in the act, everyone will be arrested, perhaps excommunicated, and sometimes executed, depending on the law of the land. In some instances the Seconds of each duelist often got into duels of their own, turning them into a grand melee!
Why do people go off to a fight a duel they may very well die in, when the worst they would suffer for it by refusing is social ostracism? That is in fact, the answer. If a person will not defend their honor, then what is their word worth? They obviously don't value their own principles, for they will not defend them! In a society where a person's word is taken as a commitment as binding as any court-order, demonstrating that your word is valueless is effectively social death. On the other hand, if roused to the point of utter disgrace in public, if a Duel is not challenged, the ostracism can be even worse, as the person is marked as a coward. Even those who fight duels and lose are more honorable and worthy than the lowly dog who cowers from confrontation! Also, if you disagree with someone over a truly important topic, it is your responsibility to your own word, and your opponent's to theirs, to bring it to a duel, because only when facing death against live steel is your commitment truly tested. If you are in the right, and they in the wrong, divine justice will guide your blade!
Of course, this is how many people in the period dispose of enemies. By hiring an experienced swordsman to find an excuse to challenge or be challenged (depending on the laws of the land) by an unwanted opponent, thus Dueling becoming a means for socially legitimized character assassination or outright legalized public assassination. This is the art of the professional Duelist, the elite Sword-for-Hire. Most professional Duelists rarely have to fight to the death, and if they do, they pick and choose carefully which fights they will take on. Obviously, the fee is far larger to fight to the death than it is to fight to first blood.
Adventures: Many Duelists travel from place to place seeking fortune, fame, and new opponents to test their skills against. Most live on the open road fighting for a share of prize purses, or even championing a cause, while others fight as pure mercenaries or even fight duels to humiliate or even slay foes in a “legal” death matches. Some Duelists who relish in the idea of working with companions instead of a solo artist, are drawn to the life of the adventurer as a ever ongoing source of entertainment to keep them honed in their skills, not to mention for the wealth and notoriety.
Characteristics: The duelist is a rare class of warrior who specializes and delights in personal combat. They are artists and masters of the fighting trade, and travel about, fighting for glory, money, or for lack of a better calling in life. Duelists have little use for law as an ethical principle or as political basis. This does not mean that they have no honor - just the contrary. The Duelist is a concept as much as a profession, and they will always act and fight with honor.
The Code of the Duelist is: “Professional pride is a more important consideration than ‘fair play’." A duelist, like a Knight, does not take undo advantage of an opponent, but a where Knight does this to be fair out of a lawful base of ethics, the Duelist does it to keep his reputation from being soiled.
Alignment: A Duelist’s training requires a high level of discipline and unwavering dedication. However, as stated earlier, they have no love of the law nor do they have a specific need to follow a strict ethical compass, but they do tend to be honorable. Thus duelists may be of any Non-Chaotic alignment.
Religion: Like most fighting art classes Duelists are not very devout though this is on a case by case basis. Many Duelists worship or at least pay homage to deities of Battle, Protection, Honor, Vengeance, Justice, and even Murder.
Background: Duelists above all else are still fighters. They interact with world in roughly the same way in which Fighters do although many follow the path of hired killer making them move in the darker circles of the Rogue and Assassin. Duelists come to their profession in many different ways. Some seeking their training specifically – enrolling in fighting sows or seeking out sword masters to learn the trade. Others have their training find them, such as learning to fight from a mentor specifically out of the drive for revenge against someone: “Hello my name is Enigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.” However, no Duelists are ever “untrained”. Some Duelists see themselves as part of a brotherhood but many do not and are freelance fighters, bringing their skills to whomever needs them, and will just as quickly fight another Duelist as anon-Duelist, though a bit more care.
Races: Duelists are found more among humans than others, though many other races have members who go in search of the training to become Duelist, especially if they can find a way to excel in the human dominated cultures where Duelists thrive.
Other Classes: Duelists are feared, admired, shunned, and bragged about as companions all at the same time. They are both hero and villain. The Duelist plays many parts, from hired sword, to professional athlete, to combat instructor, to assassin or bounty hunter, to hero of the oppressed, as well as many other roles.
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At first glance, it looks well balanced, and I think it'd fit well in appropriate games. I likely won't use the class - though only because I'm running an AU game, and the unfettered fit in fine - but I think I will appropriate the dueling rules. I like those!
