Class: The Bushi

Design Notes: So Ruins & Ronin as well as Sword+1 as a blog, are pretty cool. But like with a lot of "Japanese inspired" but Western type games, I feel like the cool, tenuous walk of life for a samurai is often missed out on. They either get treated like paladins or like fighting-men without too many unique mechanics. I personally, as a fan of Legend of the Five Rings (even when it is a trainwreck), like the Seven Times Down, Eight Times Up approach. Your bushi will go through a lot of different changes in their life, swapping through four different abilities depending on their place in the world. These changes can work from a narrative standpoint, or through natural progression of ones life as a swordsman; shifting from living by the sword in various ways. Even still, these are gross oversimplifications for sake of relative ease of use.

Happily Ruins & Ronin designates everything but its title and art as OGL, so here's my take on the bujin in the form of the bushi.

The Bushi

Requirements: STR 8

Prime Requisite: Strength

Hit Dice: 1d8

Maximum Level: None.

You are bushi, a warrior who follows the code of Bushido and its virtues. You adhere to the calling of war, duels, and violence. Depending on the circumstance of your realm you may be a retained samurai warrior, a yojimbo entrusted with the protection of his master, a kensai meant to duel and seek perfection in the sword, or a masterless ronin who lives on the edge of society by way of mere mercenary work.

Whatever walk of life you might live, expect it to change with the seasons. A retained samurai lose their masters and become ronin, ronin seek out enlightenment in the blade and become kensai, kensai are often hired for their skill to become yojimbo, and yojimbo often impress in their service enough to become a retained samurai. Whatever role you may be, you will be expected to fight from the front in defense of your allies.

The Bushi is the fighting-man class, best suited to enduring and inflicting damages. It is a life valiantly lived and easily lost, valued for the actions it undertakes and the enemies who fall in that brief, blood existence.

Bushi Class Abilities

Weapon & Armor Restrictions: The Bushi is trained in warfare and adapts to it with ease. As a Bushi you are trained in all weapons and armors.

Saving Throws: The Bushi lives a short life, but they live it knowing that they will someday die. Bushi gain a +1 Bonus to Saving Throws against Death and Fear.

XP Bonus for Strength: This class bonus is due to a high strength attribute. This percentage bonus can be added to any payment demanded by the bushi to their employer.

Seven Times Down, Eight Times Up: Upon creating a Bushi, you must roll on the following table to determine where your Bushi is in life. This grants your Bushi an ability, which is in turn lost in favor of a different ability when their life circumstances change.

Bushi Role
d4	Role	Ability
1	Retained Samurai	Honored Sword: ​The Bushi gains a +1 to the Loyalty of any hirelings and does +1 Damage to any enemy of the realm as designated by his master.
2	Ronin	Brutal Sword: On the first round of combat, the Bushi may add their Level to their roll To Hit.
3	Kensai	Lifetaking Sword: The Bushi gains an immediate additional melee attack any time he delivers a killing blow in combat.
4	Yojimbo	Lifegiving Sword:On the first round of combat, the Bushi may add their Level to the AC of any adjacent combatant.

Establish Stronghold (9th Level): At ninth level, a Bushi’s role will determine what sort of stronghold they may construct. A retained samurai or a yojimbo may construct a castle and be considered a daimyo within the realm, attracting a loyal host of 2d10+5 bushi who well swear their fealty in order to become retained samurai or yojimbo in his estate.

A ronin who reaches this level, should they not wish to become a retained samurai, may establish a rogue state by taking over the estate of another faction or constructing a hideout. As they are not held in high regard by Shogunate or Emperor, the ronin will attract a hideous host of 2d20+10 bandits, wako, or ronin who will serve their master loyally provided they are given plunder and hedonistic pleasures.

A kensai who reaches this level and decides not to become a retained samurai, may instead construct a dojo where they may train others. Within a matter of weeks, the kensai will have attracted 4d10+5 bushi students who will loyally seek to learn the truth of steel at the feet of the masters. 

Bushi Advancements
Level	XP	HD	Bonus to Hit	Saving Throws
1	0	1+1	+1	15
2	2,200	2		14
3	4,400	3	+2	13
4	8,800	4		12
5	17,000	5	+3	11
6	35,000	6		10
7	70,000	7	+4	9
8	140,000	8		8
9	270,000	9	+5	7
10	400,000	10		6

Class: The Ivory Legionnaire

The Ivory Legionnaire

The rattling of muscle tightening around bone calls to the Ivory Legion like the bleating of a lamb calls to lions. They move with strange silence in their steps, like living ghosts that emerge from the bush to steal away those they deem unblooded. They were men, once, with families perhaps. With villages and gods and ancestors, all of whom would be sickened by who they have become. They have donned bone dust and ivory masks of waylaid beasts, and they have sold away their souls to the rhythm of the hunt.

To be an Ivory Legionnaire is to be one of a faceless thousand who have heard the thrumming of bone and the boiling of blood in the hearts of their former fellow man. It is to be an outcast in pursuit of beast and demon with whom you are fated to battle and to die. It is to be the hated spear of mankind pushing through the darkened wilderness so that others might live better, forsaking all in the reckless pursuit of dominance over the natural world.

Arms & Armor: An Ivory Legionnaire may wear any type of armor, provided that the bulk of its construction is made from the pelts of animals or the bones of beasts. They may fight with any type of weapon, though they may only use a single type of weapon damage (bludgeoning, slashing, piercing) per hunt. If a Legionnaire switches between weapons that have different damage types, they fight with a -2 penalty to hit until they spend a day in meditation to the rhythm of the hunt.

Silent Steps: By applying bone dust to their feet and hands, an Ivory Legionnaire becomes silent to the ears of mundane beasts and animals. Predatory but non-sapient monsters can detect an Ivory Legionnaire at a rate of 3-in-6, a failure allowing the Ivory Legionnaire to pass by unnoticed.

Rhythm of the Hunt: Upon first being attacked by a monster or finding spoors of the creature, the Ivory Legionnaire becomes tireless in its pursuits. The Ivory Legionnaire is able to track their quarry at a rate of 50%, regardless of weather conditions. During such times an Ivory Legionnaire is able to sleep standing up, with their eyes open, and be ready for combat at a moment's notice without penalty. Attacks made against this quarry receive the Ivory Legionnaire’s level as a bonus To Hit if the attack is a Surprise Attack.

Heartless is the Hunter: Due to snuffing out their human empathy in response to the hunter's call, an Ivory Legionnaire suffers a -2 penalty to any Reaction rolls made with peaceful humanoids and is unable to find hirelings willing to serve them. Any negative responses that are not out-rightly violent are displays of disgust and statements of belief that the Ivory Legionnaire is cursed.

Brutality: Once an Ivory Legionnaire has chosen the weapon for their hunt they do not waiver in its use. If the Ivory Legionnaire has a chosen quarry, they may increase the damage dice by one degree while combating that foe on this hunt. For example; a Legionnaire has chosen to use a spear (piercing) that deals d8 damage. While hunting his chosen quarry, a Tiger Demon, the spear instead deals d10 damage.

Bone Mask: The Ivory Legion makes use of bone masks, totemic representations of beasts that they believe grants them strength. If an Ivory Legionnaire has such a mask donned, they are immune to the effects of Fear. If the mask is, however, destroyed, the Legionnaire succumbs to a savage rage and must make a Save vs Spell to prevent themselves from killing whatever destroyed their mask. The mask must be constructed from the bones of the Legionnaire's most recent and impressive kill, and crafting a new mask from a kill takes a number of days equal to the Ivory Legionnaire's level.

Stronghold: At 9th Level, an Ivory Legionnaire begins feeling compelled to construct a great bonfire of bones. The bonfire must be constructed from the bones of lesser beasts, man-eaters, criminals, and great monsters; and it must be placed in an area of dangerous repute. After its creation and a month's time, 2d10x2 Marked recruits will find their way to the fire, anoint themselves in bone dust, and begin wandering the wilderness in pursuit of beasts. The Ivory Legionnaire will be able to call upon them to destroy those who might seek to topple the fire or to make war against a beast which all could share in the glory of killing; but other than these two instances no loyalty or fealty should be assumed.

The Ivory Legionnaire (Saving Throws)
Level	Breath Attacks	Poison or Death	Petrify or Paralyze	Wands	Spells or Spell-like Devices
1-3	15	12	14	13	16
4-6	13	10	12	11	14
7-9	9	8	10	9	12
10	7	6	8	7	10

The Ivory Legionnaire
Level	Experience	Title	Hit Dice (d8)
1	0	the Marked	1
2	3,100	the Blooded	2
3	6,200	the Masked	3
4	9,300	the Bone-Breaker	4
5	18,600	the Heart-Ripper	5
6	37,200	the Fangs in the Night	6
7	74,400	the Slayer of Beasts	7
8	148,800	the Ivory Legionnaire	8
9	297,600	the Hunter in Ivory	9
10+	595,200+	the Keeper of the Hunter's Flame	2+ HP Only*

*Ignore Constitution Modifier Bonuses.

 

Design Note: This is some rough stuff, but conceptually I like it. I'm running a Yoon-Suin game and I'm just busting out a bunch of classes, this is the first one that I'm able to upload proper. I like the idea of the African folk hero who fights for the community and against the Bush, but I am also a big fan of obsession/tragic narratives. A Fighter can be that folk hero, an Ivory Legionnaire is one of countless failed folk heroes who have given away all they cared about in pursuit of the Hunt and the destruction of that which lives in the Bush.

From a pure design stand-point they are a fighter who tracks and is good at taking down a specific baddie during an adventure. They are good when prepared and can use any armor/weapon provided it is made mostly of animal parts.