WARRIOR-FIGHTER KIT

Mercenary

Description:  The mercenary is a career soldier, a professional warrior for 
hire.  Mercenaries do not fight out of loyalty or duty, but rather for money, 
pure and simple.  The more money involved, the harder they fight.  They tend to 
avoid getting wrapped up in specific causes, and their professional dispassion 
and cultivated jaundiced eye on life requires that the Mercenary have at least a 
partially neutral alignment.  This is not to say that Mercenaries have no 
scruples, as many adhere to their own code of honor or set of ideals.  Many 
Mercenaries, however, place the highest priority on looking out for their own 
interests, and their scruples are negotiable if the price is right.

Requirements:  Mercenaries are jaded by their considerable experience with the 
rough side of life, and must have at least one neutral component of their 
alignment.  Mercenaries can be humans, dwarves, half-orcs, half-ogres, half-
elves, or tieflings.  A Mercenary's rugged life requires scores of at least 12 
in both Strength and Constitution.

Weapons & Armor:  Mercenaries can wear armor and use any shield, and they can 
become proficient in any weapon; however, Mercenaries are often called upon to 
wield a variety of weapons, so all Mercenaries must take at least one Group 
Proficiency at 1st level.

Special Benefits:  Mercenaries have the following unique kit abilities, in 
addition to their basic Fighter skills:

Attacks of Opportunity:  As a standard Fighter.

Heroic Fray:  As a standard Fighter.

Martial Manner:  Mercenaries tend to conduct themselves in a very crisp and 
professional manner when offering their services for sale.  In any situation in 
which the Mercenary or his or her party encounter a potential employer, a +2 
bonus is added to the reaction roll.  In addition, when leading troops in battle 
their grim efficiency inspires all allied NPCs within 15 yards, granting a +1 
bonus to morale.

Military Background:  As a consummate warrior, a Mercenary also gains a +1 bonus 
to any non-weapon proficiencies from the Warrior list.  All Mercenaries also 
begin play with a single weapon of their choice at no cost, a souvenir of their 
military service.  They also begin with free proficiency in club and spear at 
1st level, as these weapons are so commonly used.

Specialization:  As a standard Fighter.

Stronghold:  As a standard Fighter, save that only very rarely will a Mercenary 
receive a land grant or noble title from a higher ruler.  Rather, a Mercenary's 
reputation grows so great that he or she attracts a body of men-at-arms seeking 
to follow the Mercenary as their captain, forming a new mercenary company with 
the PC Mercenary at their head.  This body of troops will be attracted 
regardless of whether the Mercenary establishes a Stronghold (and in fact most 
mercenaries never do so), but he or she must still travel through areas where 
mercenaries and other unattached men-at-arms can be found.

Style Specialization:  As a standard Fighter.

Tactics:  Mercenaries are experts in the realm of military tactics, gaining a +1 
bonus to their Tactics proficiency score for every three levels of experience 
(rounding up).  In addition, a Mercenary gains a +1 bonus to attack rolls vs. an 
opponent against whom he or she has made a Tactics check.  Finally, if a 
Mercenary makes his or her Tactics check by a margin of 10 or more, he or she 
gains the usual Tactics bonuses immediately, rather than having to observe his 
or her opponents for the usual amount of time.

In addition to this use of Tactics, a Mercenary may choose to study a particular 
race or creature type in order to better understand its tendencies, expending 
one additional non-weapon proficiency slot per creature type studied.  If this 
is done, the Mercenary gains double the normal Tactics bonus on a successful 
proficiency check.

A Mercenary's Tactics work best when facing relatively small numbers of foes, 
equal to or less than the Mercenary's level (doubled if fighting a creature type 
he or she has devoted a proficiency slot to studying).  For every creature over 
this number, the Mercenary suffers a -1 penalty to his or her proficiency check.

Special Hindrances:  A Mercenary is easily recognizable by others by his or her 
military demeanor, erect posture, disciplined mannerisms, etc.  In addition, 
Mercenaries tend to have a rather unpleasant reputation as untrustworthy, 
greedy, shiftless vultures, incurring a reaction penalty of -2 when dealing with 
nonmilitary folk.  Even having a Mercenary in an adventuring party casts 
something of a bad light on those who associate with him or her, incurring a -1 
reaction penalty for any encounters wherein the Mercenary is present.  A 
Mercenary can also never have more than a single henchman at a time, though the 
total number of henchmen they may acquire is not affected.

Mercenaries also must spend a great deal of their time making contacts and 
traveling from place to place looking for work.  As a result, Mercenaries do not 
gain the Continuous Conditioning benefit of other Fighters.  They also know only 
too well the benefits of traveling light and keeping their possessions to a 
minimum.  Hence, a Mercenary will never keep more wealth or possessions than he 
or she can carry, except that a Mercenary who has attracted a body of men-at-
arms to follow him or her can of course carry along a strongbox and supplies for 
his or her troops as part of their pack train.

Bonus Proficiencies:  Tactics
Preferred Proficiencies:  Ancient History, Animal Handling, Charioteering, 
Cooking, Fire-building, Reading/Writing, Riding (Land-based), Seamanship, 
Survival, Swimming, plus all Warrior proficiencies