For the large parts warriors do battle as men at-arms, soldiers and knights in pitched combat. They may fly into blood-curdling rages against their mortal foes or ride upon horse back with lance at the ready and banner unfurled. But neither of these kinds of warriors interest us now. Instead this is about those who fight in dark streets and back allies with brutal cunning and pragmatic tactics. These men and women, despite what side of the law they may favor, are known for their cunning and guile both in and out of a fight. Combining trickery, stealth and judicious use of violence, these thugs and ruffians can be dangerous lot indeed. Whether in the employ of a corrupt guild or other organization, simply a brilliant albeit psychopathic criminal or a slightly tarnished but still righteous copper these most practical of combatants can be found almost any where.
Examples of ruffians in fiction include Commander Samuel Vimes and Carcer Dun of Discworld, Bangladesh DuPree of Girl Genius and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker from The Dark Knight. In addition Frank Castle, A.K.A. the Punisher and the feared vigilante Rorschach of Alan Moore’s Watchmen.
Primary Attributes: Strength 9, Dexterity 9, Intelligence 9.
Experience Bonus: 5% for Strength and Dexterity 13-15, 10% for Strength and Dexterity 16-18.
Hit Dice: 1d6 per level up to 10th level. As an options it can be raised to 1d8 per level, so long as you raise the cleric, mystic, fighter, elf, dwarf, halfling and thief (for a cost of an additional 50 experience points at first level) hit dice by one step as well.
Maximum Level: 36.
Armor: Rigid leather.
Weapons: Any; Weapon Mastery as fighter (RC/75).
Combat: Attacks as fighter of equal level.
Saving Throws: As fighter of equal level.
Special Abilities: Hide in the shadows as thief, move silently as thief, hear noise as thief, climb walls as thief, backstab as thief, master’s degree in dirty fighting and fighter combat options.
Special Abilities
Ruffians have numerous special abilities. They receive some of them at 1st experience level, when they begin play, and receive others as they gain experience levels.
At 1st experience level, ruffians know the following skills: Climb Walls, Move Silently, Hide in Shadows and Hear Noise. They also learn the skill of Backstabbing. The Ruffian Table above shows the development of many of the ruffian’s special abilities.
Each number on the table above is the percentage chance that the ruffian is successful in using that special ability. Tell the Dungeon Master whenever you want your thief to use a special ability; at the DM's discretion, either the player or the DM will roll percentile dice (d %). If the result is equal to or less than the percentage given, the ruffian’s attempt is successful.
Descriptions of the Special Abilities
Climb Walls (CW): With successful use of this special ability, the ruffian can climb steep surfaces, such as sheer cliffs, walls, and so forth. The chances for success are good, but if failed, the ruffian slips at the halfway point and falls. The DM rolls for success once for every 100' climbed.
If the roll is a failure, the ruffian takes 1-6 (ld6) points of damage per 10' fallen. Falling during a 10' climb will inflict 1 point of damage.
Move silently (MS): Successful use of this special ability allows the ruffian to move silently. When the ruffian tries to use this skill he either believes he has been successful or only thinks he might have failed but isn’t sure. A failed roll means that someone can hear his passage. The DM, at his discretion, may modify the ruffian’s roll at any time: When he tries moving silently across a field of dried leaves, his percentage chance will go down, while if he does so during a loud tournament, his chance will be greatly enhanced. Note that it doesn't do the ruffian any good to use this Skill against someone who is already aware of him and his location.
Hide In Shadows (HS): Successful use of this special ability means that the ruffian moves into and remains in shadows making him very hard to see. While the ruffian is in shadows, observers only get a chance to see him if they look directly at him, at which time he must roll again; success means that he remains unobserved. While in shadows, the ruffian may use his Move Silently ability but attacking someone reveals the ruffian. If the ruffian tries to hide in shadows but fails, he will not know that his position of concealment is a failure until someone sees him and announces the fact in spite of his own suspicions. Note that if the ruffian is under direct observation, he can't hide in shadows against the people watching him; they'll be able to follow his progress with no problem.
Hear Noise (HN): This special ability gives the ruffian the ability to hear faint noises-such as breathing on the other side of the door, or the clatter of distant footsteps approaching fast. The DM can rule that any loud situation, such as a battle, prevents the ruffian from using this skill.
Proper Use of Ruffian Abilities
Watch for opportunities to use special abilities, and simply tell your Dungeon Master when you want your ruffian to use one.
A slippery wall or very faint noise may cause a penalty to be applied to the normal chances of successful skill use. The DM could assign the task a penalty of - 5%, - 10% , - 20%, or higher depending on the difficulty of the task. If, after applying such penalties, the chance of success remains 100% or greater, the DM should adjust it to 99%, allowing a 1% minimum chance of failure in all cases.
However, the DM should not modify Move Silently or Hide in Shadows skill chances unless the ruffian is undertaking actions that are outside the ability's usual functions (trying to move silently while running at full speed or across a floor covered with peanut shells, hiding when very near to torchlight, etc.).
Backstabbing: If a ruffian can sneak up on a victim, completely unnoticed, the ruffian may backstab-if he is using a one-handed melee weapon, he may strike at particularly vulnerable points of his target's body. (Though the ability is called "backstabbing," the weapon doesn't have to be a stabbing weapon. A ruffian can use this ability with a club, for example.) When backstabbing, the ruffian gains a bonus of +4 on the attack roll; if the target is hit, the damage done is twice normal (roll the damage for the weapon, multiply the result by two, and then add any pertinent modifiers). If the intended victim sees, hears, or is warned of the ruffian’s approach, the ruffian’s attack is not a backstab; it is an ordinary attack, doing the damage appropriate for the weapon used.
When no battle is in progress, a backstab attempt may require a Move Silently ability check. The DM will make all the necessary decisions on that matter. As an option the damage multiplier for backstab can rise by one for every four levels after one. This means that a 13th level ruffian could deal base weapon damage times five if his or her backstab attempt hits.
Master‘s Degree in Dirty Fighting: Foot stomps, groin kicks, improvised explosives, improvised flamethrowers, punches to the nose and trips. That’s how you win fights, and ruffians are master of those techniques.
Chokehold: As a skilled and experienced street fighter you can now start a choke or sleeper hold* without penalty. In addition you decide if your victim must make a 4th save or die from suffication.
Stunning Strike: You've learned from experience that fighting fair just isn't fair for you. That and you've learned how to hit a guy where it hurts. So once a day per level, you can make a single brutal strike against an opponent, inflicting normal damage and forcing a save vs. Paraylsis. If your would be victim fails the saving throw he's rendered stunned for one round per point of your Strength bonus or one round, which ever is greater. While stunned your enemy drops all held items, takes a +2 penalty to AC, loses all positive Dexterity related bonuses to AC and cannot fight or take other actions until no longer stunned. On the downside a ruffian can only make one stunning strike per three rounds.
Improved Trip: You're smart, cunning and know how to trip up a guy in fight better than most. You can add your Intelligence bonus to all tripping attempt. This requires an Intelligence score of at least 13 to be useful.
Blind-Fighting: A guy like you has been fighting in dark back alleys so long that a silly little thing lack of sight doesn't hold you back. Experienced ruffians suffer no melee penalties due to darkness, blindness or invisibilty on the enemy's part.
A Hand Full for an Eye:
Fighter Combat Options: Ruffians gain fight combat options just as normal fighters would. This includes multiple attacks, smash, parry and disarm.
Before Any of you comment on the ruffian's scaling backstab I have to tell you that I'm basing it off of the 1st. and 2nd. AD&D thief, not the Labyrinth Lord/Basic D&D/RC thief's skill. Please note that this class's experience progression would be the exact same as a normal fighter.
*Thanks to JDJarvis.
