TSR-East Classes: Ronin

I mentioned the other day that I went with Ronin as the name of the modified Fighter class because Samurai applies to retainers of a lord. Ronin are free agents. That's why a lot of the film/fiction involves ronin protagonists. The Seven Samurai were all ronin. Yojimbo - ronin. Musashi Miyamoto - ronin. Heck, even the long-running TV show Abarenbo-Shogun had the shogun running around pretending to be a ronin so he could get into adventures. Ronin have a freedom that samurai lack.

Now, in Chanbara I went with Samurai as a subclass name because in Chanbara, being a retainer (the allegiance system) is part of how you earn XP. In TSR-East, like in standard D&D, I expect treasure and monsters defeated to be the main sources of XP. So the ronin is the superior archetype. If a player wants to play a samurai in service to a lord, they can actually choose either the Ronin or the Hwarang and it will probably work out OK. But the default assumption is that the PC doesn't have a lord and master ordering them around. It's something the player can choose to have if they want.

The Ronin is based on the Fighter. In regular TSR, I give Fighters the AD&D ability to attack multiple low level opponents. They also get a fighting style (kinda like 5E but not so powerful). I'm thinking of revising the fighting styles again to make them even less powerful, though, and the Ronin is my first attempt at that. Pick a weapon group. Get a +1 bonus to damage. That's simple. Not overpowering, but worth considering.

Here's the class:

Ronin (Wave Man) AKA Liúlàngzhě, Pyolyuja

Prime Requisite: Str or Dex [13 +5%, 16 +10%]

Hit Die: d8 to 9^th level, +3/level after

Arms: all weapons, all armor

Special Abilities: fighting style, cleave, multiple attacks

Ronin Advancement
Level	XP	BAB	Abilities
1	0	+1	Fighting Style
2	2000	+1	Cleave
3	4000	+1
4	8000	+3	Fighting Style
5	16,000	+3
6	32,000	+3
7	64,000	+5
8	120,000	+5	2 Attacks
9	240,000	+5	Improved Fighting Style
10	360,000	+7
11	480,000	+7
12	600,000	+7	3 Attacks
13	720,000	+9
14	840,000	+9
15	960,000	+9

Fighting Style: A ronin specializes in certain weapons, gaining a +1 bonus to damage with those weapons. At 4^th level they may choose a second fighting style. At 9^th level, the ronin’s damage bonus with one of their fighting styles improves to +2.

Axes: hand axe, battle axe, pole arm, etc.

Bludgeons: club, mace, war hammer, staff, etc.

Bows: short bow, long bow, crossbow, etc.

Chains: nunchaku, meteor hammer, kusari-gama, etc.

Spears: spear, javelin, trident, naginata, lance, etc.

Swords: katana, jian, dao, wakizashi, dagger, etc.

Cleave: A ronin of 2^nd level or higher facing opponents with 1HD or less may make one attack per level each round.

Multiple Attacks: A ronin facing opponents with 1+1 HD or higher may attack twice per round at 8^th level, and three times per round at 12^th level. 

	Ronin
Save Level:	1-3	4-6	7-9	10-12	13-15
Death Ray/Poison	12	10	8	6	4
Magic Wand	16	11	9	7	5
Paralysis/Turn to Stone	14	12	10	8	6
Dragon Breath	15	13	11	9	7
Rod/Staff/Spell	16	14	12	10	8