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OK, so your DM has said you are playing a Birthright campaign (congratulations), you want to play a fighter. Now what do you do?
Birthright is a bit different to many other campaigns - it's got a good amount of world history and culture and may have a fair bit of intrigue - not something that most fighters need to deal with. This page is designed to help you build a fighter who fits into the setting well and can handle various matters, and also has space for comments and the like on playing what can be a very exciting class in D&D - the fighter

[top]Role-playing the fighter

The first thing to do is find out which nation in Birthright the setting is based in, and decide on your character's nationality. All nations embrace fighters, some more so than others, but a fighter can be a fun character in any of them.

[top]Anuire

In Anuire the warrior is king, literally. Haelyn, patron of the Anuireans is god of war, nobility, and justice. Every noble has training in war, their pastimes - hunting, hawking, jousting and the like are war made play. A fighter can win great renown through skill in war, or in tourney. Many rulers eagerly recruit skilled warriors and generals, either to lead their armies, or prevent their rivals from recruiting them to do likewise.

[top]Brechtür

While the Brecht are a nation of sailors according to most scholars, this overlooks their famed pikemen and ignores the prevalence of pirates fed by the great trade routes. Merchants need law and stability to maximize profits, and they look to fighters to achieve these goals. Cities tend to shun standing armies as drains on the purse, but mercenaries are common in Brechtur and rarely lack employment for long.

[top]Khinasi

The Khinasi are fractious, and their lands are bedeviled by many awnsheghlien. Thus although the Khinasi prize wisdom and learning, fighters nonetheless have high standing. Khinasi fighters tend to shun heavy armor due to the hot sun in their homeland, and prize speed over brute power.

[top]Rjurik Highlands

The Rjurik live in a harsh land and even though war is rare amongst them, thanks to the influence of Erik's druids, most realms often face raiders of one sort or another. As such a strong warrior is prized by the Rjurik, and they are commonly found as rulers.

[top]Vosgaard

The Vos value strength, and see no greater proof of strength than victory in battle. While barbarians are common, in the more populated areas fighters dominate. Most Vos rulers are fighters, and there is no surer way than escaping life as a slave or peasant than through force of arms.

[top]Dwarves

The karamhul respect war and fighting as a craft and like all karamhul crafts, they practice it to perfection in all ways. No race has the smithying skills of the karamhul, except possibly the sidhelien, and so karamhul warriors tend to be the best equipped of any race. Like the sidhelien the karamhul breed slowly, however unlike the sidhelien they are constantly attacked, primarily by orogs and goblins of the depths, as such the karamhul march grimly to war every year and never relent in their defenses.

[top]Elves

The sidhelien are notably warlike, the Gheallie Sidhe being perhaps the most legendary fighting force of all Cerilia. The Sidhelien are however few in number, and prefer to avoid stand-up combat with its inevitable casualties. Fighters, whilst rarer than amongst other races, can gain great skill and respect amongst the sidhelien.

[top]Goblin

Goblins respect strength and to a degree skill and so fighters are common amongst goblins and often command all positions of power.

[top]Halfling

The halflings do not seek out war, and are rarely targeted by raiders, but even they need doughty sheriffs to guard their lands and drive off monsters.

[top]Roll-playing the fighter

So, where do you put your stats, and what feats do you need? What multi-class combo's and prestige classes should you consider? A fighter can be a front-line tank, with high Con and Str, a roving mercenary with high Dex and likely a level or three in rogue, or a great general in the making with high Cha and Int. Whatever the archtype you have in mind it is rarely good to try and be great at everything...

[top]Handy Skills

In a Birthright campaign the need for skills is great - they determine the regency points that a regent collects almost as much as does bloodline and dictate the success of diplomacy between domains to a to a great degree.
As such a fighter player who intends to be a regent, or take on a role outside combat, should seriously consider putting one of their better statistic scores in Intelligence to ensure a reasonable supply of skill points.
Good skills and ways to use them:
  • Warcraft - The key skill of any fighter regent.

[top]Handy Fighter Feats

TBA by someone with better knowledge of D&D 3.5e than me.

[top]Handy Fighter class combo's

  • '''Fighter/priest - Often personified as a Paladin. Theocracies are rare, but found in parts. A Fighter / priest benefits from social gains from both being a leader of the community and of the military part thereof. The confusion of spiritual and temporal power is however likely to cause social issues if the PC seeks to rule both law and temples, as it is unlikely that the rights and powers of the nobility, and the clergy, can be balanced evenly even within a single domain.

  • Fighter/noble - This is the arch-typical ruler in Anuire, Rjurik and Vosgaard. Skilled in war, but also in diplomacy, the Fighter/noble excels in both areas. Just remember that you are a leader, not a brawler, and you will be fine.

  • Fighter/rogue or expert - The classic combination for peasants and other 'men of the people', the rogue's vast array of skills plugs the gaping flaw in the fighter's arsenal - the moment they step out of battle and need to talk to someone.

  • Fighter / wizard - The combination for those who wish to be good at neither fighting nor spells, any fighter / wizard has an interesting backstory, or else took a level of one of the classes to munchkin the rulership rules. Only in the Khinasi lands does this combination make much sense, as there the social gains from a single level of wizard are considerable, in other lands the combination tends to scream 'total domination of my land' and beg attacks from every non-landed ruler.

[top]Comments and sundry tips

Sundry other comments about fighters in Birthright.
  • As a fighter you are the peerless fighter, not quite the natural leader that the noble is, you are matchless as a general, and your skills are thus valued in every culture across the land. Use this. Wage war, use force as a threat to attain your will - any other regent must rely on a lieutenant to wage their wars, risking their crown whether they win or lose, as a fighter every victory brings you more acclaim and cements your rule, while only another fighter can hope for victory should they face you.

  • As a fighter, you are the natural leader. While a priest or wizard may advise, a rogue may talk glibly or strike stealthily, the people look to military men for rule. In civilized areas the noble had the edge, but in other places a strong arm and keen aim are better marks of a leader than a wagging tongue and soft hands.

  • The fighter is skilled at one thing only - war. Pursue your skill. A fighter can endure in a battle and outlast any spellcaster, and once within arm's reach, few spellcaster's can face a warrior and hope for a fair fight. No non-spellcaster can match a fighter's skill in battle and is thus constrained in their effectiveness. Few other classes can hope to lead vast armies at all, much less do so effectively, as such whether one on one or a thousand against a thousand, the fighter is in their element. Just as a priest regent will strive to bring fervor to their land and call upon their god for aid, or a noble regent will expand their influence through diplomacy and guile, so a fighter regent should use war as their preferred means to achieve victory.



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