Slave Gladiator (D&D class)

Any warrior can fight in the arena. The slave gladiator does so with style and flair, and lives for the thrill of combat, the pleasure of his mistress and the roar of the crowds. Despite the name, freemen do train in this class, and it is not unknown for drow to fight in the arena. The elite gladiators are picked from the best drow and slave warriors. They must display speed and agility, as well as a certain flair and talent for unorthodox weapons. They use their skills in the arena, on the battlefield and on slave raids. Some gladiators serve as bodyguards or companions to nobles, and they are sometimes used as assassins.

Requirements

Training: Must be trained in a gladiator school. This is usually a Drow Gladiator Master, but other cultures can have similar fighting schools.

Base Attack: +5

Skills: Balance 4 ranks, Perform 4 ranks, Tumble 4 ranks.

Feats: Mobility, Combat Reflexes, Improved Unarmed Combat.

Features

Hit Die: d8.

Weapon and armour proficiencies: The gladiator is proficient with light armor and shields.

Class Skills: Balance (Dex), Escape Artist (Dex), Healing (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Listen (Wis), Perform (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex), Use Rope (Dex).

Skill Points at Each Level: 4 + Int modifier.

The Slave Gladiator

Lvl	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Special
1	+1	+0	+2	+0	Gladiator Training, Versatility
2	+2	+0	+3	+0	Gladiator Weapon Proficiency
3	+3	+1	+3	+1	Gladiator Defense

Gladiator training: The gladiator learns to make canny and unorthodox attacks and to defend against them. This training gives a +2 bonus to trip, disarm and sunder attempts, as well as rolls to resist such attacks.

Versatility: The gladiator can inflict lethal or subdual damage with all weapons without penalty. This ability lets her inflict lethal damage with a whip, even against thick skinned opponents.

Gladiator Weapons: Gladiators train with a variety of exotic and versatile (i.e. cool) weapons. This training gains proficiency with all exotic weapons.

Armor Defense: The gladiator learns to deflect blows using a parrying gauntlet, shoulder guards or other parts of her armor. These are equivalent to a buckler in game terms and must be enchanted separately. When the gladiator uses her shield arm to help wield a two-handed weapon, she can still apply her buckler’s shield bonus to Armor Class. In addition, she ignores the normal -1 attack penalty for making melee attacks with the buckler arm.

House Drazhar school

House Drazhar fight with blades, chains and whips. The blades symbolize the House of the Sword Spider, the chain their slavery to Lolth, and the whip the punishment of the Goddess. Of course, individual glatiar may develop their own fighting styles. Here is a sample:

• Trident and net
• Hydraknives (as two shortswords)
• Falchion and razorsnare (WH40K) probably translates to bastard sword and chain whip.
• Glaive: This long bladed weapon with reach. Hmm... Perhaps used by mounted spidertroops in spinning motion like the naginata instead of lance. Sword spiders are to slow for lance charges anyway...

New exotic weapons:

• Armor: Armor can be fitted with spikes or blades, and the armored surfaces can be used for strikes. This can be translated to an exotic weapon that does 1d6 slashing, piercing (19-20/x2) or bludeoning damage.
• Chain whip (exotic): This chain weapon is commonly used with the bastard sword. It is useful for attacking an opponent at range and tripping him. This is a one-handed spiked chain (light weapon, d6 damage, can be used at 5' and 10'). It can also be made without spikes in which case it does bludgeoning damage.

Design notes

This class used to be considerably more complicated and was based on the Monk class. It has been simplified to a three level class that deals with defense and exotic weapons. See the page history for details.

The armor defense ability is surprisingly similiar to the Two Hands ability (http://hastur.net/wiki/D%26D/Classes/DrowWarriorLord). This page was written before PHII, and perhaps the ability should be rewritten to take the Improved Buckler Defense feat into account.

A small and maneuverable parrying buckler, and perhaps a small shield fits the concept. The buckler can be incorporate into the armor design for a distinctive look. This could be a huge shoulder guard and armor on one arm; a buckler in game terms, but a cool look for the arena.

The Drazhar weapon selection is based on the Dark Eldar Wych gladiators in Warhammer 40,000. Indeed, the concept of mobile, elite warriors who fight with bizarre weapons are inspired by the Wych Cults. The bastard sword is the best equivalent of for the large, curved weapon the wyches use in one or two hands. The chain whip is used in lieu of the razorsnare (a thin wire spool with a hook, used to snare opponents and pull them towards you).

The chain whip can be used to represent the weapon of the same name used by the Sisters of Sigmar in Mordheim, or the dark eldar razorsnare in the first edition of Codex: Dark Eldar.

External links

• Hypertext d20 SRD Weapon table.