6.1.4 2-2* Freno mecánico
6.1.5 Entradas digitales
Few schools are given as much honor and respect as the Jadan Spearmen. The school’s origins can be traced to guard posts in the mountainous country of Jadan, although they now have academies in most major cities.
The Spearmen were at one time the only protection against orc and goblin attacks
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along the mountainous highways of Jadan.
They are specialists in reach weapons and are trained to use spears, javelins, tridents, and chains. They received the title of Spearmen, however, because of the ornate magical spears called the Orc Slayers that they once carried.
The spearmen wielded these weapons with a deadly efficiency, but the art of making these weapons was lost during the great orcish wars of Jadan and most of the spears were destroyed.
The few remaining spears now reside in private collections or are forgotten deep among the goblin caves. An academy is often willing to give a good reward for the retrieval of one of these historic weapons.
School Motto: The Only Good Orcs are Dead
Academy
The Elkbrothers Jadan Academy in the city of Binder occupies an entire city block. They are respectable sorts and give a weekly parade in honor of the local goddess of life. Costs for study are 15 gp per week and they offer a small room and board for an additional 3 gp per week. The headmaster is Samus Warrick, a friendly old man who purchased the academy from the Elkbrothers almost two decades
ago.
Traveling Master: Jeribel Elkbrother
Male human Ftr13; Size M (5 ft., 2 in. tall); HD 13d10+26; hp 117; Init +6; Spd 30 ft.; AC 23;Attack +19/+14/+9 melee (1d8+8 longspear), or +15/+10/+5 ranged (1d8+7 longspear); SV Fort +10, Ref +6, Will +2; AL N; Str 16, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 7, Cha 10.
Skills and Feats: Climb +14, Craft +17, Jump +13, Listen +4, Ride +17, Tumble +6; Blind-Fight, Cleave, Dodge, Endurance, Expertise, Improved Critical (longspear), Improved Initiative, Leadership, Power Attack, Quick Draw, Sunder, Weapon Focus (longspear), Weapon Specialization (longspear).
Possessions: +2 longspear of frost, +3 chain-mail, cloak of protection +2, potion of protec-tion from elements (fire), 280 gp.
Jadan Spearmen Lessons: Spear Expertise, High Brow, The Iron Curtain, Low Blow, Flying Spear, Backstep, Vaulted Kick.
Jeribel Elkbrother decided some years ago to become a man of travel after selling the acade-my that he and his brothers Simia and Reginald spent a lifetime building together. Jeribel wants to see adventure and battle before he meets with his ancestors, and so he is always looking for new forms of excitement. Although he wants little to do with them, his brothers still live in the town of Binder, enjoying their wealthy retirements. Jeribel charges 2 gp per day for lessons and is a decent, if distracted, teacher.
Lessons
Lesson 1 – Spear Expertise
The Spearmen begin their training with the longspear and practice to improve their control and handling of the long and challenging weapon. The swinging thrusts, kicks, and maneuvers are quite impressive to behold, and they take incredible strength and concentration to perform. The spear expertise technique grants a character the Weapon Focus (longs-pear) feat.
Lesson 2 – High Brow
The first attack the spearmen learn to perform is the high brow. In this attack, a spearman strikes with a reach weapon at a distance using the front end of the weapon and then follows it with a close attack using the reverse end. A
CHAPTER THREE: Schools of Combat
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CHAPTER THREE: Schools of Combat
character must declare he is using a high brow attack before the attack roll is made. When using this technique, the character makes one attack at a distance with his full base attack bonus, then the character moves within 5 ft. of the opponent and initiates a second attack at a –5 penalty to the attack roll. This movement does not incur an attack of opportunity. This ability requires a full attack action to perform.
Lesson 3 – The Iron Curtain
By holding out his weapon horizontally in front of him and rushing forward, a Spearman can use his longspear to clothesline enemies. When using the iron curtain technique, a character performs an overrun and can strike all individ-uals in a 10-ft. wide line. Opponents that do not elect to jump out of the way are subject to a trip attack.
Lesson 4 – Low Blow
This technique teaches a spearman to use his spear as an effective tripping tool. A character that knows this maneuver can make a trip attack on any opponent within 10 feet. This attack does not provoke an attack of opportuni-ty, and if the attack fails his opponent may not attempt to trip him back.
Lesson 5 – Flying Spear
Often a spearman finds himself the target of ranged attacks, spells, or natural attacks from unreachable foes. In this case, the experienced spearman has an option, albeit one that leaves him deprived of his favored weapon. This advanced Jadan technique allows the spearman to throw his longspear at his enemies. The weapon has a range increment of 15 ft. and deals its normal damage on a successful strike.
The Jadan masters teach their students to only use this technique as a last resort.
Lesson 6 – Backstep
It is very difficult to follow through with a hit up close and a Spearman needs room to move after performing a high brow or being pressed in melee. As such, Jadan masters train their stu-dents in the art of making a quick backstep.
When using this technique, a character can move up to 10 feet back without incurring an attack of opportunity for leaving his opponent’s threatened area. He suffers attacks of opportu-nity for moving through other opponents’
threatened areas as normal.
Lesson 7 – Vaulted Kick
In this lesson, a student learns that a weapon can be used both for balance as
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well as for attacking. The vaulted kick allows a character to make an unarmed kick attack while using his large weapon as a counter-weight. This technique grants the character a +4 circumstance bonus to a single unarmed attack, which does not provoke an attack of opportunity even if the character does not have Improved Unarmed Strike, and requires a full attack action to perform. The target of the vaulted kick must also make a Strength check (DC 10) or be pushed back 5 ft. by the spear-man’s assault in addition to normal damage.
Lesson 8 – Up-Close Combat
A common misconception that usually gets an enemy killed is that the Spearmen are helpless against foes that come close due to the large size of their weapons. However, the Spearmen are highly trained in this type of combat and merely suffer a –4 penalty to attack rolls with reach weapons against foes within 5 ft. Spears used in this manner use the same weapon sta-tistics as a club.
Lesson 9 – Wall of Blades
When the orcish hordes were attacking, the Spearmen knew that they were hopelessly
out-numbered and could easily be overrun. As such, they developed the wall of blades tech-nique in order to scare the orcs and make their own forces seem more powerful. As a spell-like ability a character with wall of blades can cast mirror image as if he was a 3rd-level sorcerer.
This ability can be used once per day.
Lesson 10 – Superior Spearfighting
Some opponents are just too tough to keep away, and continue to press a spearman despite his best efforts and the lessons that he has learned. A master Jadan Spearman that has learned this technique can turn his spear on its side, using it as a quarterstaff to form a double weapon. The spear is in all ways like a quarter-staff being wielded as a double weapon, except that its damage is 1d8/1d6. In addition, the Jadan master wields this weapon as if he had the Ambidexterity, Improved Two Weapon Fighting, and Two Weapon Fighting feats, effectively reducing his penalty when fighting in this manner.
CHAPTER THREE: Schools of Combat