The Bladesong Fighting Style

Dedicated elf warriors take their craft seriously enough to have created a uniquely elven fighting style. Unlike the martial arts of other races, the elven fighting style, also known as the bladesong, emphasizes beauty and economy of movement over sheer destructive power. However, the elven bladesong is deceptively dangerous, for all its seeming gentleness and apparent grace.

There are two types of bladesingers: those who learn it as an additional skill (described below), and those who have made it their lives. Those in this second category are known as Bladesingers, and they are described in the Elven Kits.

Bladesong is so named for several reasons. The first and most obvious is because of the whistling of the blade as it slices through the air when this style of fighting is used. The second is for the haunting, wordless tune many of its practitioners sing as they fight.

Those who practice the bladesong appear as if they are dancing when they fight. Their movements seem misleadingly slow and elegant, deflecting opponents' blades while lazily drifting back to score hits themselves. The technique requires, above all, misdirection and subtlety. The bladesingers do not believe in smashing blows or strong and crushing offense, but rather in guiding their opponents to anticipate a different attack entirely, thus overbalancing the foe and making him seem clumsy.

Bladesinging can be done with any Small- or Medium-sized melee weapon, although the majority of practitioners practice their art with the sword. Due to the awkwardness of polearms and two-handed weapons, there are no known students of bladesinging proficient in these weapons.

To take advantage of the bladesinging technical benefits, the character (who must be a member of the warrior, priest, rogue, or warrior/mage classes) must devote at least two weapon proficiency slots to the style. Otherwise, the character can gain no benefits from the technique. This cost does not include the initial slot devoted to learning rudimentary use of the weapon, so the total cost is three weapon slots.

Obviously, rogues and priests cannot pick up this technique until they reach the 4th level or higher, since they start out with only two weapon proficiency slots and don't acquire a third until having progressed in levels. As noted above, mages cannot learn this style at all. Even if rogues and priests devote all their initial slots to a weapon and the first half of the bladesong proficiency, they must take a significant amount of time away from adventuring to learn the second half. Unless their companions are remarkably understanding and willing to wait some years, this could cause party friction. Thus, the style is usually practiced only by warriors and warrior/mages.

Please note: Elves never teach this style to non-elves, including half-elves and drow (the latter of whom have their own teachers and their own style anyway). Elves make no exceptions to this rule, even for those who have proven themselves eternal friends to the elves or even those who have married into the elven life. Elves have several reasons for not doing so.

The first is that this style could be a terrible weapon against the elves should any non-elf students choose to use it that way. Though they may trust someone with their lives, the teaching of the bladesong is most definitely a racial secret—a secret that will not be revealed even under pain of death. The only conceivable way for a non-elf to gain this knowledge is by using powerful magicks to force it from a practitioner. In such a case, elves would swear the blood oath and doggedly hunt the thief until he or she is destroyed. They would not hesitate to use every trick at their command.

The second is that there are so few teachers of bladesinging that they have no desire to devote the time required to any other than elves. Although this is biased against non-elves, bladesinging masters are adamant about not teaching any other than elves. While a few other creatures might have the grace necessary for the intricacies of the bladesong, they certainly do not have the judgment and discernment most elves possess.

Finally, and most compellingly, few other beings have the time necessary to properly learn bladesinging. In the years it takes to master even the rudiments of the bladesong, a human could raise a family, build a successful business, and retire a wealthy man. There are numerous other ways to become a fierce fighter, all of which demand less time than learning the bladesong. Even most elves are not willing to take the time necessary to learn this technique. Only the most fiercely devoted will spend the decades required for this fighting style.

Advantages

Although the cost is rather steep to learn bladesinging, its practitioners swear by it. Its wide versatility often astounds those who are not familiar with its intricacies. The things even an amateur bladesinger can do with one blade echo tricks that accomplished warriors can do with two, or with a weapon and shield.

Those elves willing to devote two slots to learning the rudiments of bladesinging gain the use of the following benefits:

1. They may gain a +1 bonus to their AC or, if they wish to spend an extra slot, may boost this bonus to +2 to their AC. That is the highest bonus those who choose blade-singing as an additional skill can attain. or
2. They may gain a +1 to hit or, if they wish to spend an extra slot, may boost this to a +2 to attack. As with the AC bonus, +2 is the best they can hope for. or
3. They may attack and parry in that same round, without wasting any additional attacks. Note that these three benefits are not cumulative; that is, practitioners cannot use all three at once. However, they do have the option of varying between these three options during the course of a combat.

EXAMPLE: Amaranth Silversword, a 6th-level fighter fully proficient in the bladesinging weapon style with three slots, encounters a band of 20 orcs while he is walking well ahead of his party. He immediately shifts into a defensive posture, giving himself a +2 bonus to his AC so that he may gauge the orc band's capability.

When they fail to hurt him appreciably in the first exchange of attacks, Amaranth places his back to a tree so that fewer of them can approach. He shifts to a slightly offensive stance, going with one attack and one parry. He dispatches an orc, and the rest still have failed to harm him severely.

Now that he has fully learned their measure, he goes totally on the offensive and whirls through their midst with deadly capability. When the rest of his party finally catches up with him, hurried by the sound of clashing blades, they find Amaranth standing atop several dead orc bodies, calling elaborate and inventive insults after those who have fled.

Disadvantages

The most obvious disadvantage to acquiring the bladesinging weapon style is that a character cannot carry a shield and practice the style at the same time. This technique requires far too much concentration on movement and flow, and the shield gets in the way of the grace and balance necessary to successfully use the style.

A more esoteric disadvantage is that this style is most often used by loners—solitary individuals who have no desire to be part of a group. Rarely, this technique may be practiced by someone whose companions will part company with the PC for a decade. Since bladesinging is a very demanding style, the training is intense, difficult, and, above all, long. Therefore, a PC would be well advised to study this style in his or her early years before joining up with a group of adventurers—or else develop some long-lived and understanding friends.

[Complete Book of Elves]