| Ring_of_Gyges |
Dwarves in Games Workshop's Warhammer setting have a peculiar subculture. When sufficiently disgraced or dishonored, they leave their homes, dye their hair orange, strip off their armor, and proceed to wander the land seeking the most dangerous monsters they can find in the hopes that one will kill them. Think of it as suicide by troll.
I'd like to play one in PFS, it wouldn't be a subculture of course, just this individual's personal reaction to some unspeakable trauma. A big part of it is that I love this miniature and want to use it for PFS:
http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Dragon-Slayer
Mechanically the requirements are
1) Melee fighter.
2) Can fight with two axes.
3) Doesn't wear armor.
4) Good Will saves (slayers are basically immune to fear as a death fighting a mighty enemy is the whole point).
5) The background assumes a life before going crazy, so a dip of a level or two before going into the primary class is fine.
6) I'm playing in PFS, so any options have to be legal for that.
How to do it?
My first thought was a Monk on the theory that Monks can duel wield, don't wear armor, and get good will saves.
Some questions:
Are there any attractive monk weapons that are axes? The only thing I can find is the Knuckle Axe which isn't really any better than an unarmed strike but costs a feat. Maybe I would just carry the axes for the miniature's sake and actually strike with hands and feet. Maybe I'll sacrifice a feat on the altar of style. If there is a better axe option that would be great though. Anyone familiar with the re-skin rules? If I can find a threat range 20, x3 crit, slashing, monk weapon, can I reskin it as an axe?
Any suggestions for arch-types? I'm happy to hand-wave ki powers as surges of activity stemming from his crazy. If there is a decent arch-type that trades them for more down to earth abilities that would be preferable.
Any suggestions on feats? I've never played a monk before and am pretty vague on how to optimize one.
| StDrake |
Monks really dont work for the flavor id say. A mixture of paladin and ranger with proper archetypes might work, though the spellcasting breaks the mood.
Then there are barbarians which pretty much wrap it up - grab a few levels in ranger for the two weapon fighting feats without requirements then go barbaric. Invulnerable rager perhaps?
On a side note WH slayers were quite often using greataxes just as well as twin axes
| Saldiven |
StDrake is correct about the axe usage by WHFB Slayers. In fact, they have a rule that says they can switch between using two axes and a great axe. It might be interesting to equip the character to fight both ways, depending on what he's up against.
I think Barbarian is the most likely class from a flavor standpoint. Dwarves get a bonus to Wisdom, and Barbarians get a +2 to Will saves wile Raging, so during combat he should have a decent Will save despite Will being a "bad" save for the class. Invulnerable Rager wouldn't be a bad idea to simulate the lack of armor.
Also, Bloodrager might not be a terrible option. Maybe the discovery of his Bloodline is the cause of the "shame" that has led this Slayer to the path of "suicide by Troll."