Besides Knights and Barbarians, there are other fighting classes. The Warrior profession thus includes gladiators, weaponmasters, cavaliers, archers, armorers, mercenaries and others.

STATISTICS

A Warrior has the same ATTACK, DEFENCE, EVASION, and HEALTH POINTS as a Knight. However, the Warrior can only wear up to Chainmail (AF4) without penalty. Suffers –2 ATTACK & DEFENCE for wearing Plate.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Melee weapon specialization

At 1st rank, he chooses one weapon as his primary weapon and obtains a +1 Armor Bypass Roll (ABR) while using that weapon in melee combat.
At 4th rank, he gains +1 damage for his primary weapon.
At 7th rank, he gains +1 ABR for a second weapon.
At 10th rank, he gains +1 damage for the second weapon.

Throw weapon

At 2nd rank, he is able to throw a one-handed weapon, or a weapon from the spear family, as a missile attack on an opponent. ABR is reduced by one dice class (eg. From d8 to d6). The range is 10m for a spear-like weapon, and 5m otherwise. Hence, a thrown sword is (d6,4). A thrown spear is treated like a javelin (d8,4). A thrown halberd is (d8,5).

Defense Skill

At 4th rank, he is capable of wielding his primary weapon such that he concentrates solely on defense. (+6 DEFENCE, cannot attack in that CR). Lanadars the Swordsman was said to be able to wield his sword around him with such speed that not a single snow flake touched the ground in a perfect circular perimeter around him during a heavy snowfall.

Disarm Technique

At 6th rank, the Warrior can disarm his opponent by striking the opponent’s weapon with a mighty blow. When the opponent scores a 20 on a hit roll, the Warrior rolls under/equal to the average of his Strength and Reflexes score on a d20. Success indicates that the opponent drops his weapon. (Loss of 1-2 weapon durability points).

Multiple-Attacks

At 8th rank, the Warrior can attack thrice in 2 combat rounds. (Every other CR, the Warrior gets an extra attack on his opponent).
At 10th rank, he can attack twice in one CR.

SUB-CLASSES OF THE WARRIOR

The Gladiator

This mean fighting machine is trained in using two weapons simultaneously. The melee specialization rule still applies in the usual way, so he does not earn the ABR and damage bonuses for his first/second weapons till he reaches the appropriate ranks. Starting from rank 1, he can make two strikes when he attacks, holding a weapon in each hand. The first is at regular ATTACK score, the second is at ½ the ATTACK score.

He does not acquire the Defense Skill nor Multiple Attacks. He can only wear up to Ringmail (AF3) without penalty, since in the arenas, people do want to see blood spilt ! Chainmail gives a –1 penalty, and Plate a –3 penalty. His initial HP at rank 1 is 1d6+8 (1 point higher than a Knight or usual Warrior, due to his conditioning to severe blood-loss. Favorite weapon combinations include a trident and net, two hand axes, a double morning star and shield.

The Weaponmaster

He concentrates only on Melee Specialization, and does not acquire any other skills aforementioned.

At 1st rank, +1 ABR on first weapon
At 2nd rank, +1 damage on first weapon
At 3rd rank, +1 ABR on second weapon
At 4th rank, +1 damage on second weapon
At 5th rank, +1 ABR on third weapon
At 6th rank, +1 damage on third weapon
At 7th rank, +2 ABR on first weapon
At 8th rank, +2 damage on first weapon
At 9th rank, +2 ABR on second weapon
At 10th rank, +2 damage on second weapon
At 11th rank, +2 ABR on third weapon
At 12th rank, +2 damage on third weapon

The Cavalier

Born and bred to the saddle, the Cavalier’s initial equipment must include a horse. Very much similar to a Knight, but while most members of the nobility are knighted, and some from the gentry can be knighted, the cavalier usually comes from a lower social class. Serving in the house of a noble as a retainer, he does not undergo the apprenticeship stages of a knight through pagehood and squirehood.

At 1st rank, he can only wear Ringmail without penalty.
At 4th rank, he can wear Chainmail.
At 7th rank, he can wear Plate. (He is not allowed to wear full plate under any circumstances).

Besides the Horsemanship skills described in detail below, he can only acquire the Melee Weapon Specialization skill, Throw Weapon and Defense Skills from the Warrior’s standard list.

Horsemanship

New rules

Knights, Warlocks, and other Warriors can only ride medium warhorses at 3rd rank and heavy warhorses at 6th rank. Sorcerers, Elementalists and Mystics can only ride on light warhorses. Barbarians may have the same horsemanship as a Cavalier of the same rank, up to 5th rank (if they choose horsemanship as one of their secondary abilities).

Horseback combat reduces –2 ATTACK & DEFENCE for all professions with the exception of Cavaliers.

When a horse is surprised (1 in 6) or terrified by a monster, it will rear back. Non-cavalier characters need to roll under their rank on d12 to avoid getting thrown. A cavalier is unlikely to get thrown from his saddle when his mount rears back (+3 rank). He is also unlikely to get injured even if he or his mount falls (70%).

Review (Book 6, pg 131-132 on Jousting):-

[If hit by a lance, a warrior has to roll under Strength+rank+Reflexes on 3d20 (warhorse) or 4d20 (horse) to stay in the saddle. Fall damage is 1d6-2, with 15% chance of aggravated injury.]

A Cavalier hit by a lance or polearm (ie. spear, halberd etc) on horseback is less likely to fall off. (roll on 2d20/3d20)

The Cavalier’s Horsemanship Progression

At 1st rank, a Cavalier can select the best horses/warhorses around, and can ride a medium warhorse.
At 2nd rank, he can vault into the saddle with armor and have the steed underway in 1 CR.
At 3rd rank, he can urge his mount to a greater speed than normal. +5m bonus to movement each CR, sustainable for one minute without rest for the mount.
At 4th rank, he can ride a heavy warhorse.
At 5th rank, he can train his warhorse to attack a specific target even without him riding it.
At 6th rank, he is able to ride a horse without a saddle, or use a two handed weapon on horseback.
At 7th rank, he is able to tame wild horses and ride them without a saddle.
At 8th rank, he is able to ride a gryphon, pegasus, unicorn, or hippogriff.

Special weapons/Dismount Opponent

The Cavalier is able to use a partisan to dismount riders. On a successful hit, there is a 40% chance of hooking on a mounted opponent. If the cavalier rolls under his rank on d12, he pulls the rider off his mount. He can also use a halberd for that purpose (30% chance).

Warhorses

The warhorse statistics given in Book 1 are for a medium-sized warhorse.

 The Archer

Marksmanship

This new score must be defined. Under existing DW rules, any PC only needs to roll equal/under his ATTACK score (with appropriate modifiers for distance, target size etc) to successfully hit with a missile weapon. This makes missile combat a little too easy compared with melee combat.

The starting scores for Marksmanship for the various professions are given below. If Reflexes>=16, there is a +1 bonus. To score a hit on an opponent, an archer rolls equal or less than his Marksmanship score on d20. Circumstances will modify the d20 roll.

For added realism, it is suggested that characters who attempt to shoot an arrow whilst in the thick of close quarters combat should do so at –2 Marksmanship and –4 DEFENCE in that CR, unless his opponent is engaged in battle with a third party at that time. A character who has already loaded his crossbow before hand or drawn his bowstring before his target closes in (ie. 1^st CR only) need not be penalised for Marksmanship, but is still penalised in his DEFENCE, since he has no melee weapon to defend himself with.

The archer is a subclass of the Warrior. Hence he also acquires the following skills: Melee Specialization (cannot select any missile weapon), Throw Weapon and Multiple Attacks (only for bow & arrow).

In addition, he is able to manufacture and use special arrows/bows which are unavailable to non-archers:-

Special Arrow/Bows

Signal arrows – Made from fire-resistant wood, covered with pitch and wound with damp straw around it. If lighted, the end smoulders and if shot into the sky, can be seen for a few miles in daylight. Soaking in different chemicals yield different colored smoke.

Cable arrows – Simply arrows with a rope attached. Due to the extra weight added at the end, the trajectory is different from a normal arrow, and special training is required to use it effectively. Prongs like a grappling hook are made on the arrow head to enable the arrow to catch over a wall. The range is only half of a normal arrow.

Humming bulbs – Arrows that produce a loud whistling sound when shot. They do no damage, but can be used for diversion, or signaling purposes.

Flagon arrows – These arrows carry a fragile container on the head which breaks on impact. Usually containing acid, or oil, or perhaps even a message. The range is also half that of a normal arrow.

Flaming arrows – Dipped in incendiary chemicals, these are set alight by means of a flint affixed on the bow. Takes 1 CR to set it aflame, and another to aim and shoot.

Armor piercers – These fearsome arrows are (2d4, 4) at short range, (d8,4) at medium range and are (d6,4) at long range.

Bowel rakers – These arrows are (d6,5). Once lodged into the flesh, they are difficult to remove. 50% chance of doing additional 1 point of damage while being removed.

Twin-firing bow – This allows the archer to shoot two arrows in one CR. His marksmanship is lowered by 4 points while attempting this however. Obviously, the target cannot be different for both arrows. Note that a 10th rank Archer would be able to combine this with his Multiple Attacks skill and shoot four arrows at two targets in 1 CR !

Steel shod bow – This allows the archer to defend himself better somewhat when he tries to take aim in the heat of close combat to shoot his opponent. He can use the reinforced portions of his bow to block blows to himself. Instead of the –4 DEFENCE penalty, he only takes a –2 DEFENCE penalty. This bow has four times the durability of a normal bow.