your head, your hands, brimming with violence (GlitterGLOG class: ARMSMASTER)

armsmaster

“To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well.”

 

Your crew rely on weapons. You know weapons. You wield them like you're conversing with them, drinking in the language of violence that each one speaks until you know every nuance. Until your eyes swim with projections of mace-swings and spear-strikes and you look right through that busted-ass sword and see exactly how you're gonna fix that piece of shit better than new.

Starting Equipment:

-any three standard weapons of your choice (you lack proficiency with one of them, it’s brand-spanking new) (varies)

-your choice of medium or heavy armor (2 slots for medium, 3 slots for heavy)

-a kit of smithing tools (1 slot)

-a half-empty bottle of Rust-X (1 slot)

-2 rations worth of canned stew (2 slots)

Smithing Tools: You need this to apply upgrades from your notches ability.

Rust-X: Can be used to remove all notch upgrades from a weapon. One bottle is good for 10 uses. You can get more at any good hardware store.

Level 1: quick learner, notches

Level 2: wepoans unleashed

Level 3: *shing*
Level 4: iaijutsu

Quick Learner: You become proficient with a weapon type after you make your first attack with it, whether or not you hit. Choose one additional weapon proficiency at character creation. Jitterblasters, rattleblasters, and blasting rods are still exempt from this ability. 

Notches: Each time you defeat an enemy, you add a notch to your weapon. When you reach a total of 10, 20, 30, or 50 notches with a weapon type (such as ten KOs with hammers), you may unlock a new upgrade for that weapon, and apply it to any weapon of that type in your crew. Each upgrade may only be applied once, but if the weapon it is applied to is lost, you may upgrade another weapon of the same type with the same upgrade. You may apply multiple upgrades to the same weapon. You may select from the following upgrades:

+1 Damage

+1 Crit range

+Status effect on crit negotiated with GM.

+Special passive utility ability negotiated with GM.

You may only select each type of upgrade once per weapon type, until you have 50 notches. Your 50th notch can be a repeat.

For instance, an armsmaster with 20 notches on flails who put all his upgrades on one flail could have a crit range of 2 and the ability to stun an opponent for one round on a crit with that flail. You can work with your GM to determine how specific each weapon type has to be.

Multiple armsmasters in one crew track their notches separately, so if another armsmaster hands you a used, it'll have no notches for you -- though you can still benefit from their upgrades.

Wepoans Unleashed: At any time you may draw any type of weapon from an unspecified location. This weapon is added to your character sheet and is normal for its type in all ways. You may do this once for every armsmaster level you have beyond first. If you do not use the ability before leveling up, it does not stack.

*shing*: You may immediately switch weapons once per round, even when it is not your turn, but not in the middle of an action (e.g. after a to-hit roll but before a damage roll). You are encouraged to mime drawing the weapon in real life when doing this, even if nobody can see you.

Iaijutsu: You may attack immediately after switching weapons with *shing*. This still requires you to have an available attack action.

When you retire any armsmaster of any level, you may first apply all of your unused upgrades immediately, plus one free upgrade if level 4+.

 

design notes

the original GLOG fighter and consequently many of its derivatives already carry a strong flavor of being a multidisciplinary weaponmaster. it's my favorite part of its class identity, so when we were trying to nail down the focus of our core fighter, i decided to make that its entire gimmick. the armsmaster isn't just a murder machine, though -- our tweaks to notches are intended to encourage an armsmaster to also be a team player by giving them the ability to distribute their upgrades across the crew's weapons. you learn to use a sword good enough and you can tune up one of your buddy's swords. did we do a good job? let us know.