Fighting Skills

Of all skills, those of a fighter are easiest to master. A budding warrior needs only to study weapon proficiencies and weapon specialties. A fighter might also desire physical training to gain an extra constitution bonus or exceptional strength. A character cannot attain exceptional strength until he or she has a strength score of 18. When the character successfully learns the methods of increasing one’s muscles, a result of “great insight” on the Learning talbe automatically confers a score of 00 to strength. Otherwise, the player rolls percentile dice to obtain a score in the usual manner.

Zero-level characters may attempt any of the abilities of a ranger or paladin. This includes the fighting techniques that cause extra damage to giant-type humanoids and arts of dodging (dexterity bonus), endurance (hit-point bonus), and avoiding damage (saving-throw bonuses). However, only a few solitary rangers and holy fighters know these skills. Zero-level characters must brave the wilderness to find them, and then they must demonstrate their worthiness to learn. Few woodsmen like to reveal their secrets, and all paladins scorn, impure characters, so mentors skilled in these abilities must be carefully sought. Characters will also find that the study of the wilderness limits their learning of other arts, since they must stay with their mentors far from civilization.

Whenever a zero-level character uses paladin abilities, add one point to both law and good. The DM should record each instance in which a zero-level character attempts the abilities of a paladin. The gods themselves bestow a paladin’s benefits, so if a character accepts this help and later abandons the lawful good alignment, he or she loses all of the paladin’s powers. The next time that character enters battle, a curse affects him or her. (This is the reverse of the first-level clerical spell, bless.) Certain gods have special punishments for such traitors.

A paladin would be willing to train any zero-level character acceptable to his (or her) deity, and most gods care nothing about mortal social divisions. Of course, few mentors demand such strict obedience as a paladin. Most paladin mentors will only accept pupils who want to become paladins themselves, and they would be outraged to catch their students exploring less honorable arts.