Warrior Skills indicate that a character has spent considerable time and effort practicing and perfecting their skill with a range of weapons. They may be members of the City Militia, tough mercenaries, foppish duelists - the possibilities are endless. All the Churches have militant orders associated with them who have Spiritual Awakening and other Spirit skills alongside Warrior, and the Guild of Warlocks is always looking for new recruits willing to delay their studies in magic in order to concentrate on the arts of fighting. Besides this, many more traditional mages or priests spend some time studying with their more martially-inclined allies in order to learn how to handle a sword, mace or staff in these dangerous times.
Warrior skills available are:
The following lists the warrior skills in detail.
This skill represents both theoretical instruction and practical experience in melee combat and allows access to combat skills. This skill may be taken multiple times.
Warrior is a required skill for: Armour, Berserker, Combat Awareness, Duelling, Fitness, Fortitude, Melee, Missile Competency, Thrown Competency, Two-Handed and Blind Fighting.
Melee is the skill which allows a Warrior to do damage with close combat weapons. It may be purchased multiple times.
The Melee skill cannot raise a character's damage call with weapons shorter than 24" above SINGLE. This limit is applied before spells, miracles, and non-Melee skills such as Backstab and Berserk. The longest weapon that may be wielded one-handed, regardless of skill, is 42". The longest weapon that may be wielded two-handed, regardless of skill, is 84". These limits are slightly flexible; 5% or so either way is a good guideline. These lengths are in inches because it is the industry standard. This is the only exception to the rule that all measurements in Treasure Trap are metric.
This skill may be taken multiple times.
The character has spent time accustoming themselves to fighting in armour, and can gain benefit from wearing heavier types on more locations. This skill allows a character to operate in a total armour of 4 plus 4 times the Armour skill level (characters with no skill at wearing armour may wear a total of 3 points of armour). Total armour is calculated by adding the armour level worn on each location, but does not include magical or spiritual floating armour. Hence, to wear a full suit of Plate armour is a total of 24 armour points, requiring 5 levels of Armour. This skill may be taken multiple times.
Killing someone with a weapon generally requires only enthusiasm and a little training. Merely incapacitating them is much harder - a character with this skill knows how to disable an opponent without doing them any lasting damage.
You are allowed to add the call SUBDUE to damage with weapons you use, the greatest degree of Subdual damage you can do being equal to your level in the Subdual skill, assuming it is less than or equal to your maximum damage call. E.g. if you can call SINGLE, and buy the first level of Subdual, then you may call either SINGLE or SUBDUE SINGLE. Buying any more levels of Subdual will have no effect. If, however, you can call DOUBLE, then one level of Subdual will allow you to call SUBDUE SINGLE instead of your normal call of DOUBLE (and of course SINGLE). A second level of Subdual will allow you to call SUBDUE DOUBLE.
This skill may be bought multiple times.
The character is able to engage in a 'bar room brawl' using natural and improvised weaponry. All damage is SUBDUE SINGLE. Natural weapon blows (fist, feet, etc) should not come closer than 6" of target; if it is unclear what you are miming, please call them ('knee to groin', etc) instead of miming in a more aggressive fashion. Please be very careful when using this skill, as over-enthusiastic use can lead to unpleasantness. Do not ever use props that are not larp safe to mimic hitting people. To reduce the number of fists flying during melee combat, you may not employ the Brawling skill on a character with a drawn weapon.
You have received specialised training with ranged weapons, and actually paid attention. You gain the following ability to shoot a bow or crossbow for SINGLE THROUGH.
If you wish to take the Missile Competency skill, you must first pass an OOC safety test, as LARP bows are the most potentially dangerous of all the LARP weapons we use.
You have learnt to improvise in your surroundings, and can use nearly anything as an effective offensive weapon. You can use larpsafe throwing weapons for SINGLE, if you hit.
The character is more aware of the cut and flow of combat than others, and can occasionally anticipate a blow and move to avoid its damage. If you have N points of DAC, you have the option of calling NEGATE to any of the first N blows you take from a melee weapon in combat. You cannot exercise this option if you are halted or frozen, or if the damage call from that weapon includes THROUGH or VENOM.
For every 4 ranks a character possesses in this skill they gain 1 point of global dexterity armour (DAC). This ability still works when wearing armour. This skill may be taken multiple times. You may not buy two levels of Combat Awareness and two levels of Agility to gain a point of DAC, but they will stack if you have four levels of both to give two points of DAC.
For every 4 levels of Health (see General Skills page), Fitness and Fortitude (in any combination) you gain 2 extra hit points on your chest and head, and 1 on each limb. This skill may be taken multiple times.
For every 4 levels of Health, Fitness and Fortitude (in any combination) you gain 2 extra hit points on your chest and head, and 1 on each limb. This skill may be taken multiple times.
The duelling skill grants a character the ability to ignore "TOUCH" calls during a duel, and inflict "TOUCH" as a damage call instead of any other damage call available. "TOUCH" damage is damage just great enough to draw blood, but not severe enough to cause any real harm.
Duelling I allows a character to call "TOUCH" as a damage call. Each additional level of duelling allows a character to ignore one call of touch. For example, Someone with Duelling V would be able to ignore four calls of "TOUCH" on them before the fifth one caused a slight injury and lost them the duel.
Calling damage more than 'TOUCH' technically wins the duel immediately, but such base treachery on the part of the duelist woud be beneath anyone trained in this noble art. In general, such a shocking breach of etiquette would lead to the cad being forcibly ejected from the premises by anyone present possessed of a shred of honour.
For the Duelling rules and traditions, please refer to the INFO.
Berserkers are not the most stable of individuals. A character who has bought the Berserker skill is usually unpredictable, and can fly into a berserk rage at the slightest provocation. Renowned for their fearsome combat prowess, berserkers inspire fear in their enemies.
A character who has bought the Berserker skill may, on occasion, lose control of themselves in combat, or when under threat. A berserk rage has an obvious start and end, the player may choose what triggers the rage, and what actions from themselves and people around them bring it to an end. Typically a berserker will flip out when under physical or emotional threat, but anything can set them off. If you buy this skill, you should discuss with the refs the kinds of things likely to send you into a berserk rage, so they have an idea of when it might happen. During the rage, a berserker usually fights madly with little regard to their own safety, but everything else is up to the player. The rage ends when the player chooses, and the berserker will usually be fatigued for a short period afterwards.
Mechanically, a character who has bought Beserker may add one degree of natural damage to their calls during one berserk rage per day. They may fly into a rage more often than this, but they only gain the advantage in one encounter.
The description above loosely covers the roleplay that comes with being a berserker. However the details of what happens are the prerogative of the player. A character without the Berserker skill can still act in the same manner. If you have bought the Beserker skill, and are unsure as to how to behave with it, speak to the refs.
This skill gives a character the ability to add damage when in a berserk rage one more time per day for each time they buy this skill.
Specialised training and conditioning allows a character to utilise the fearsome might of staves, greatswords and polearms. This skill allows them to do +1 degree of damage with two-handed melee weapons. For safety reasons, under no circumstances may a two-handed weapon be used in one hand either to attack or parry. Shifting your grip and flashy fighting are fine, but you must be holding the weapon in both hands if it contacts either another weapon or another player.
A weapon must be at least 42" long to benefit from the Two-Handed skill; see the Melee section for further discussion on weapon lengths.
You gain the following abilities at the given level: