WFRP The Perfect Warrior?

I was looking at the various Warrior careers in WFRP and working out the best career route for maximizing our melee combat skills.  This is intended for Humans and Elves since Dwarves get their own personal advanced career in Giant Slayer and Hobbits should not be battle-masters given there terrible combat characteristics.

  • WS, Str and Attacks give us the best damage output.
  • Toughness, Wounds and Initiative improve our defense.

Getting +2 / +30% is available in many careers but the final bonus to get +3 /+40% has a single advanced career available for most characteristics.  The notable exception is Toughness.  I prefer going with Duelist over Outlaw Chief for the additional mental characteristics as well as career exits.

Starting careers are random but the advanced Careers we want form a nice circle letting us move around from any starting point.  I have rated the basic careers based on becoming the perfect warrior; some of them are a little better if you have other progression in mind.  If you do end up with a 1-2 Star career this wastes an advance picking another basic option before starting your advanced journey.  Humans have 55% and Elves 65% of getting a 3 Star or better start.  I have listed the career exit for each to start our journey.

Basic Career Rating Career Exit
Noble 4 Star Free Lance
Squire 5 Star
Outlaw 5 Star Highwayman
Pit Fighter 5 Star Judicial Champion
Protagonist 4 Star
Watchman 2 Star
Marine 3 Star Mercenary Sgt
Mercenary 3 Star
Soldier 3 Star
Seaman 2 Star Basic Warrior
(pick a 5 star option)
Bodyguard 2 Star
Labourer 1 Star
Militiaman 1 Star
Servant 1 Star

The key skills we want are : Disarm; Dodge Blow; Strike to Stun; Strike to Injure; Strike Mighty Blow; Special Weapon - Net; Two-handed, Parrying; Street Fighting.

Net includes duelling cloaks and, historically accurately, we can use it as a shield or to entangle an opponent.  Parrying weapons includes sword-breakers which together with Disarm gives options to remove opponents weapons.  With maximum weapon skill an Elven Warrior has a ~65% chance to disarm (you have to hit twice using a single attack) with humans being a little behind on ~56%.  Strike to Stun is a weak skill but it is another tool at our disposal for the occasional use.





Career
Free Lance WS +30; S +3; T+1; W+4; I +20; A +2
This is our Strength boost.  Either our first or last career in the chain.  If we start here it also gives 7/9 of our combat skills.  Other the Str there is nothing better than what is offered by being a Champion meaning we do not need to get all advances before moving on.

Merc Sgt
 None!
Most likely our starting point 1/4 men and 1/3 Elves have this as career exit.  We pick up Street Fighting and then move on to be a Champion.  It is not worth spending the 20 advanced to become an actual Captain.  If we have a low strength we can go in the opposite direction to Free Lance but will have to eventually waste an advancement to come back here before moving on.

Judicial Champion
 WS +40; S +1; T+1; W+6; I +20; A +2
Max weapon skill and most of the combat skills we want are here.  An important pick here is Special Weapon - Net as it does not come up again for a while.  We also want Two Handed Weapon skill allowing us to use a Bastard Sword single handed.

Duelist
 T+3; Int +30; CL +30
This is our Toughness boost and an option on some mental stats.  This career gives access to six of our nine combat skills if we did not get them elsewhere.

Assassin
 W+6; I +30; A +3
Max Attacks and stealth skills (to be more than a one dimensional battle bunny).  Amusingly trappings include net but you do not get the skill to use it.

Witch Hunter
 W+6; I +30; WP +40
This is just a stepping stone to the other combat careers but does give the option for Willpower.  The other chance to get Net skill if we did not take it earlier.

Templar
 W+8; I +30;
A couple of extra wounds and the chance to learn to read.  If we finish here there is the option to join the clergy.

Free Lance
 S +3 ; Ld +30; Cl +30
This is our Strength boost.  Either first or last career in the chain.  Extra mental characteristics can be taken if we did not pick them up before.

Highwayman
 I +40; Fel +30
If we want the final boost to Initiative we need to be a Highwayman.  Outlaws can start here; Duelists can spent three advances to make a round trip, picking up the extra characteristic on the way, or we can just do a double hop from Merc Sgt when we have finished our main career circuit.


Image Credits 

Images from historic fencing manual on Quora

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular articles

Blood Bowl Inducement Review

Image
Blood Bowl Inducement Review As most of the inducement options from Death Zone are allowed in LBBL games I thought it was worthwhile providing a summary of what is available.  I have also added a quick colour code to say if I think the options are Good , Bad or Situationally useful.  Remember as per the League handbook you must bring along an official copy of the relevant rulebook for any Inducement you are using.  This guide is intended to be used to help you decided if you want to buy a copy of Death Zone not as a replacement for it.  Remember folks we get an extra 5% off at Geek Retreat on League night! Death Zone offers (In)Famous Coaching Staff, new Wizards, Named Referees and a small number of other cheap options for using up petty cash.   0-2 (In)famous Coaching Staff Galandril Silverwater 40,000 gp Elven Kingdoms Extra Cheerleaders and a minimal chance of extra Team Re-rolls if that kick off event happens.  I will pass thank you.
Read more

Death Zone 2020 - A Review

Image
    Once again we have a beautifully produced full colour book that is slightly marred by the lack of proof reading.  Almost everything in the book is a reprint of the 2016 content updated to use the new team special rules.  There are little things such as Ranulf the Ref still having to "roll higher than the AV of the player" even though the main rule book changes AV 7 to be AV 8+ being everyone else is having to roll equal to AV.  Then we have the new Mercenary rules where the Elf starts with AG 2+ but can increase this by 2 to AG 0+ when AG 1+ is the max allowed!!? New Inducements This section takes all the inducements printed in the old Death Zone and Spike journals and updates them to use the new team special rules.  Instead of being taken by an Orc or Dwarf team they are now Badlands Brawl or Worlds Edge.  This expands which teams can take them.  Some of the inducements have had minor alterations and there are a couple I have not seen before. (In)Famous Coaching Staff Ka
Read more

Arcane Trickster

Image
The Arcane Trickster is my favourite sub-class in Fifth Edition D&D.  It is not the most powerful but is a lot of fun.   Trickster does not need to multi-class but a single level of Wizard gives a big boost with access to all first level spells, ritual casting and we can trade out our known spells for more Second Level options.  Best spot for multi-class is level six but if we have a game where we expect to spend a long time in Tier 1 we can also dip at level 2. Rogues get lots of choice for using a Bonus action and Reaction as we go up levels. Actions: Attack; (3) cast a spell Bonus: Off-hand Attack; (2) Dash; Disengage; Hide; Mage Hand; (13) Versatile Trickster Reaction: (4) Shield ; (5) Uncanny Dodge; (6) Feather Fall ; (17) Spell Thief A trickster wants good Dex and Int as well as Dark Vision, after all it is hard to sneak around carrying a torch.  If we are using point buy that gives us three choices in the PHB - High Elf, Half-Elf and Forest Gnome. Feats/ASI: We are g
Read more