My Only Teacher is Nature - Fighter Techniques (OSR/GLOG Compatible)

I rarely ever play fighters. Hybrids, sure. Gishes, paladins, monks, even barbarians, but seldom a farmboy with a sword and board and a yen for adventure. I've always just felt like I was missing out on half the system to play a character without any access to the kind of lateral advancement that spellcasters have. Part of this also stems from a conversation on the GLOG book club, specifically Spwack's idea that fighters need more options to do borderline 'impossible' things, because by standard OSR design philosophy anyone can attempt to do anything possible. There's a lot of wisdom in the old standby of letting fighters try this kind of thing just with a penalty to their attack roll, but I want a way of codifying it into something that feels like an actual way of improving your character. Wizards get the fun of collecting and crafting spells, I want that for fighter-types too. To whit, I have come up with the following rules that I am going to implement in my home OSE and GLOG games; 

Fighters can attempt to perform special techniques; they can try to pull off anything even vaguely plausible, even borderline impossible anime-tier stuff, using any resources available to them. If it's something you'd need a Feat to do in some editions or 10-year-old you believed people could do if only their kung-fu was good enough, a fighter can try it and have a reasonable chance of success. Furthermore, they can refine these attempts into polished techniques they can perform reliably.

This kinda stuff.

Fighters are not just simple warriors after all, they can endure enough damage to kill a normal man several times over, the mightiest of them can take blows from giants that by all rights should reduce them to a pulp. They are proficient with all weapons, a trait that on it's own was sufficient to elevate two members of the Suicide Squad to superhero level. Fighters are instinctual users of the same power that a wizard uses to turn invisible or rend a horde of goblins apart with killing incandescences. 

Here's how you do it;

1. A Fighter can attempt 1 technqiue per day per level, demi-fighters like barbarians and rangers etc. can attempt 1 technique per day for every second level they have. A technique is always attempted as part of an attack roll, and must be declared before the attack.
2. When they first attempt a new technique, the GM should assign it a difficulty out of 1-6. Base difficulty is a 5:6 chance of success, for each additional action's worth of stuff* a technique contains lower this by 1, for each really outlandish action reduce it by 2 or more.
3. Truly extraordinary techniques may have a 0:6 chance of success. However, if they wish, the player may negotiate drawbacks to the technique to reduce the difficulty. Taking a fatigue level, losing a die or two's worth of hp, losing the use of a limb for a certain period, or expending a hard-to-procure resource like a potion are all good examples.
4. If they roll under the success chance on a d6, they do the thing! They should also write down the technique and give it a name, so they can retry the same technique again.
5. If it fails, they should still write it down anyway, except the next time they retry it the difficulty is lowered by 1 point. Every failed attempt in real combat (not sparring) lowers this difficulty. When a technique's success chance is reduced to 6:6 it is now perfected. A perfected technique can be pulled off automatically with a successful attack roll and an expendiature of a daily technique usage. It can even be used after the attack roll is declared successful or not.
6. A character can have a number of techniques in their memory equal to their level. They can still learn new techniques once this limit is filled, but must forget one of their currently memorised techniques to make space. True masters write their perfected techniques into Manuals to avoid losing them permanently (see below).

*To illustrate: a lot of games have rules for sundering, disarming, tripping, grappling, etc. which all take up an attack action, with a technique you can do multiple of those things at once. Like disarming a person with a flick of your blade, grabbing their weapon out of the air, and hitting them with it all in one smooth move (base success chance 2:6).

Special techniques can include any resources at the user's disposal, but if it's tied to a specific weapon's magical effect the user needs that weapon to use the technique, or one with a similar enchantment. An example might be taking a swig of moonshine and spitting it through a flametongue sword. You're going to need at least some flammable liquid and a source of fire to do that.

Why yes, this is all an excuse to post Ranking of Kings gifs, thank you for noticing.

Training & Technique Manuals
A fighter during downtime can spend cash to improve their success chance with a technique, up to a maximum of 5:6 - only testing in the unpredictable nature of real life-and-death combat can perfect a technique. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

Such improvements require access to a training facility with dummy targets, wooden training weapons, and master tutors where the technique can be refined in a semi-scientific fashion. A "fighter's guild", knightly order, mercenary company or the like will likely have such a setup. Training costs a week of effort and 100gp x the chance:6 advanced into. E.g. advancing a technique from a 3:6 to 4:6 costs 400gp.

A technique that has been perfected can also be written into a Manual, which can be read by others to learn the technique. Such Manuals are highly valuable and sought-after, and become a new item of treasure akin to scrolls for wizards. With a Manual a character can freely commit the perfected technique it contains to their memory with only an evening's study.

End Him Rightly

Writing a Manual doesn't require magical ink and uncanny parchment like a scroll, but it does require illustrations. An artist must be employed unless the author is also proficient. It takes a month to write, 500gp, and a successful skill check both for the artist and the author. A failed check results in a flawed manual, with either obtuse language or hard to follow illustrations, reducing the base success chance for the technique learned from it by 1 for each failed roll. The author can of course retry, providing they have enough money and time remaining, and the technique still in their memory.

Example Techniques

Dance of Wrath
Three strikes executed in the time it takes a common man to make one against the closest 3 possible targets within 30ft of each other, friend-or-foe. This technique is so strenuous it costs the user a level of Fatigue.
(Three attacks in one (-3), uncanny movement speed (-2), Doesn't discriminate targets (+1), Fatigue gain (+1), base success chance 2:6)

Fightan.

Don Schiavona's Percipient Defence (I provided this one, but this whole post is mineable.)
Expend a technique use for the day as a reaction to be able to parry even attacks that you are not consciously aware of for the round, allowing you to keep your full Defence and make an opposed attack roll against the first attack made against you this round, negating it if you exceed the attacker's roll. This technique, once perfected, can be used even when unconscious.

(Uncanny defence (-2), one special action (-2), base success chance 1:6)

Shirasampe
A deceptive technique that appears to the untrained (non-Fighters) to be a seemingly supernatural ability to paralyse foes with a blast of chi from the user's palm. In actuality, it employs no magic, merely knowledge of the prana-bindu meridian system and a pebble hurled with supreme speed and accuracy. The victim must Save vs. Breath Weapons or be paralyzed for d6 rounds, or until they take damage.
(Near-magical effect (-3), requires proficiency in medicine (+1), base success chance 3:6)

For hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee - Bloodhunter (GLOG class)

Art by Adrian Wilkins

It's a story as old as the mountains; one day, something foul and poisonous, many-headed and mad from birth, came upon your village with savage hunger. The screams, the stench, the swift, fanged horror in the darkness. It should have been enough to break you. And perhaps it did, in a way; broke you right, broke you sane. After all, if humanity was so great it wouldn't be torn limb-from-limb by nameless terrors in the night. Better to leave it behind, become something stronger; the stalker in the night, the tale that trollmaids tell their bairns to make them fear, that the manticore and the hydra smells on the wind and goes the other way. They won't catch you unprepared this time, you're not prey any more. They are.

Class: Bloodhunter

You are quite tasty in a fight, being proficient with your choice of three weapon groups out of swords, spears, axes, clubs, crossbows and firearms. You are also proficient with nets, bolas and poisons. You can only wear leather armour, but it can be weird leather (see Skinning below), and can wield shields.

Starting skill: 1. Normal Leatherworking 2. Animal Handling 3. Trapmaking

Starting Equipment: Boar spear, messer or hand axe, cudgel, 50ft of rope, crocodile leather armour (light), bucket, bonesaw, saddler's needle and strong thread, stack of pelts and ivory worth 3D6 gp, 1 item of choice or 2 rolls from the list of Hunting Gear.

A: Skinning, Teratology +1 HP

B: Pugnacious, Slayer Tactics +1 attack/round

C: Medusa Head +1 Saves

D: Become Monster, +1 HP

+

Δ Nightmare

Δ Teratovore

A: Skinning

You can convert monster body parts into useful equipment. A monster carcass that is in reasonable condition (not burned to a crisp,  shredded or flattened) yields usable parts equal to its HD/2, rounded up. If you have multiple carcasses of the same species available, combine their HD to determine the number of salvageable parts. With a few hours' work these parts can be converted into weapons and armour. If you have multiple carcasses from the same species to work from, you can total them up to determine the usable parts available to you. 1 monster part takes up 1/2 an inventory slot. You can maintain up to your Templates (including deltas) in slots of monster parts at a time (make a note of what creatures they come from), any in excess of this rot into uselessness at the end of a the session. All parts included into a single creation must come from the same species.

If a creature has a natural attack, you can create a weapon that has the same damage and effects, this requires 1 part per size rating of the natural weapon, plus 1 more for each special effect (poison, etc.) the attack form has. Special effects have a usage die of d6, and can be refreshed by expending a part from the same creature that originated it.

If the creature has natural armour, you can create leather armour that has the same protective value by expending 1 part per weight rating of the equivalent armour (light, medium, heavy). If the creature had any special resistances then these may also be incorporated into the armour for 1 extra part. Like weapon special effects, resistances have a usage die and can be refreshed in the same way.

Note on usage dice: Usage dice is a mechanic that originates with The Black Hack, for simplicity's sake in this class usage dice always start as a d6 that is rolled whenever the item it is attached to is used, drop to d4 on a roll of 1-2, on a second 1-2 roll the trophy or weapon/armour special ability cannot be used again unless refreshed.

A: Teratology

You have a Templates:6 chance to know a useful fact about any given monster you encounter. If you fail this roll you may retry after you have had time to examine the body of one. If the creature has any special vulnerabilities or resistances, you know that first, followed by special attacks, then behaviour patterns.

B: Pugnacious

NPC's can sense, and will fear, the aura of dread violence that hangs over you, one who wears the skins of nightmares. NPC townsfolk and the like can surround you or bar your way, but you always win initiative against them, and they roll morale tests against you with disadvantage.

B: Slayer Tactics

When you succeed in an attack against a non-human foe you can immediately employ a followup maneuver against the target, once per round. E.g. applying a torch flame to cauterize a hydra's neck-stump, attaching a limpet mine to a gorgon's back, tripping up a charging minotaur, etc.

In addition, you can fight a target you can see in a mirror as well as you could looking straight-on. When you do so you are immune to any cognitohazards and gaze attacks the target can employ.

C: Medusa Head 

There is powerful magic in skin and bone, equal to any. You can now use skinning to create mixtures and trophies that replicate monster abilities, or build them into weapons and armour by spending extra parts as normal. This costs 1-3 parts, depending on the strength of the ability (DM decides) and has a d6 usage die. If the ability is passive, it lasts the usage die's roll in minutes.

You can even replicate spellcasting abilities of magical monsters by converting them into a trophy. Such a trophy holds up to the creature's former MD, costing its MD value in parts, and has all their known spells. You suffer any mishaps and Dooms resulting from its use. In this case the usage die is rolled once a day at midnight to regain an expended MD. Liches, immortals and wizards on their 3rd Doom are monsters.

D: Become Monster

You can graft monster organs onto your body, up to the equivalent of your Templates (including deltas) worth of parts. The usage dice of grafted organs refresh whenever you get an uninterrupted rest. The grafting process requires a place to work uninterrupted for 8 hours, surgeon's tools, a big bottle of strong alcohol, and deals you 1d6 damage per monster part used in the graft.

Δ Nightmare 

Stitch together the parts of 3+ different monsters, at least 2 of which must be capable of quadrupedal locomotion, convince or force the spirit of a dead horse to inhabit it.

You have a monstrous steed, a stitched-together chimera animated by the power that comes from the joining of unlike things. It counts in all respects as a warhorse, except two of the following are true;

• It always comes when called, no matter the distance between you, even across planes.
• It only falls when it wants to - if you ride it off a cliff, you can keep going at the same elevation, but if you descend lower it needs a slope to climb higher again.
• It has a power possessed by one of its component monsters, with a d6 usage die that resets at midnight.

Δ Teratovore

Live on monster flesh as your primary source of calories for a month.

Your unnatural diet has taken a toll on your physiology, for better or worse. You can no longer eat normal food, it's like forcing down mouthfuls of ashes and vinegar if you try, so unappealing is it in comparison to the sublime sweetness of monster flesh. On the upside, you can consume Parts to heal yourself by d6 hp, and increase one physical stat that the monster had higher than yours by 1, up to a maximum total bonus across all stats equal to your Templates. These bonuses last 8 hours. One monster part is enough to sustain all your dietary needs for a full day, but you'll want more.

Example Trophies;

Trollskin Duster: A green-grey leather coat with an oddly rough, knobbly texture, studded with bony dermoliths. The leather is still, in some way, dimly alive despite the tanning and curing it has endured. When the wearer is injured their blood enlivens the coat, which sweats a froth of trollish regenerative hormones and complex proteins, sealing the wound and any damage to the coat. Regular infusions of trollfat-based polish are necessary to keep it in condition if regularly damaged. (3 parts - light armour plus limited regeneration)

Destrachan Horn: Something of a misnomer, as destachans don't have horns. Rather, it is an instrument made from the creature's mummified vocal organs and bone sounding chamber, resembling a pungi snakecharmer's flute. A skilled destrachan hunter who has studied the way they control their breathing to produce constructive interference waves within their resonating chamber can play the horn to produce the destrachan's famed sonic blast. Some of the delicate inner components of the sounding chamber tend to break or have their cartilage dry out and must be replaced from time to time. (2 parts - good attack with a rare damage type)

Rust Monster Essence: A canny teratologist can use some very simple alchemy and an ample supply of rust monster glands to separate out the active element in rust monster saliva that produces incredibly fast oxidization. The creature's mandible itself provides the ideal applicator, and can be fashioned into a squirt-bottle with ease, though some prefer to just keep the stuff stored in ceramic phials for throwing. (1 part - a useful but circumstantial effect)

Bulette Plate: The metalic chitin of the land-shark can be fashioned into excellent plate armour, once its digestive juices have been used to soften the shells for reshaping to a humanoid form. Expert armourers can even incorporate the complex subdermal intercostal muscles that produce the harmonic resonance that allows the bulette to "swim" through the earth. Wearers are advised to use this sparingly, as the muscles quickly lose their stored chemical energy and once exhausted the user risks being left entombed underground. (5 parts - heavy armour, plus a decent special effect)

Beholder Wand: Pristine Beholder eyestalks can be fashioned into wands if submerged into mixture of blood and the creature's magically-charged vitreous humour. The optic nerve can be triggered by applying a mild acid (human saliva will suffice - just lick your fingertips and pinch!), to produce the eye's beam on command. Unlike a living Beholder's eyestalk, the magical charge does eventually wear out.unless immersed in more liquid vitreum. (2-3 parts, depending on the eyestalk)

Hook Horror Sword: The gigantic bony blades of a Hook Horror make ideal weapons once they are mounted on a hilt and the excess connective material pared away. Counts as a tiger hook sword, grants the ability to rend if you hit with two of them in the same or sequential rounds, causing a third automatic hit. (3 parts - medium weapon + special effect)

Myconid Necrospore Dust: Some older myconids have the ability to infect corpses with a fast-growing extension of their own mycelial biome that reactivates parts of the deceased's nervous and musculoskeletal systems, and replaces others. A bit of quick-and-dirty bioalchemy can recondition the spores so that the fungi that grow from them respond to the hunter's pheromones with the same defensive behavior as they would from their originator. (2 parts, good but circumstantial effect)

Nothic Monocle: Mummify a nothic's eye (it shrinks down to the size of a tangerine) and poke a hole in the back where the optic nerve used to be, scour the lens with some rough astrological sigils and bathe the thing in the creature's blood. Look through it at someone to learn something important about them, manifesting in visual hallucinations of their past. Only works once per person, and eventually the magical charge dissipates unless the eye is anointed in fresh nothic blood. (1 part, useful investigative power).

Hunting Gear d20

1. Collapsible gastraphetes (5 minutes to assemble, 2 rounds to reload, hits as a light siege weapon) and 5 bolts. (4 slots). Takes a full grown man leaning his whole weight on it to cock the mechanism.

2. Large-bore Arquebus and 20 measures of powder and shot. (2 slots).

3. A sensibly sized crossbow and 20 quarrels. (1-2 slots).

4. A convincing fake sheep (hollow). (1 slot when packed up).

5. Silvered steel dagger, with hollow handle to be fitted on a pole as a spear (1/2 a slot).

6. Utility harness, makes an extra 2 of your slots quick access (0 slots when worn).

7. Thighbone flute (1/2 a slot).

8. Tower shield with a personal blazon (3 slots).

9. Flask of whiskey cut with troll blood, restores 1hp per swig, contains 10 swigs (1 slot).

10. Two bear traps, deals 1d8 damage and immobilises on a failed save. Strength roll with disadvantage to break free (1 slot each). 

11. Harpoon with rope-loop, heavy weapon, on hit target must save or the harpoon embeds and can only be removed by doing its damage again (2 slots).

12. Spool of strong brass wire, about 50 meters of the stuff. (1/2 a slot)

13. Almanac of Teratological research, gives +1 to first Teratology roll for a given monster species (1/2 a slot).

14. Jar of peppermint oil, extremely strong smell. (1/3 a slot)

15. Camouflage cloak (+2 Sneak in a specific terrain). (1 slot, 0 when worn).

16. A folding treestand, lets you camp up a tree. (2 slots).

17. A gallon jug of refined alcohol (1 slot).

18. A large dog with baggy skin, trained to kill lions. (0 slots unless you carry it, then... I dunno, 4?)

19. A box of 2d6 dynamite sticks. Old, 1d4 weeks away from starting to sweat nitroglycerin.

20. Something stranger;

1. A Gullet Harness, leather strapping covered in spikes. Creatures that swallow you whole take d6 damage per turn and have to save every round or spit you out. Gives you disadvantage on most checks related to agility.
2. NO WAY BACK, a +1 Bastard Sword of acid-pitted steely iron. Terse, violently bigoted, sentimental.
3. A lich's skull, long drained of its magical power but the spirit still stuck around for some reason. Has a 3:6 chance to know any given thing related to magic. Answers to Zarzak.
4. A music box. Once, ever, you can play it to a formerly human creature to paralyze them with the painful recollection of their lost humanity for 1d6 rounds.
5. 3D6 gold pieces worth of assorted silver holy symbols. Makes great bomb shrapnel when hunting unholy monsters, doubling the damage against such prey.
6. A Bane Dagger, a kind of trophy made from the rib of a dead Bloodhunter who became a monster from their own obsession. Pick one specific monster - a monster of that species wounded by this dagger must Save or die, after which the dagger turns to ash.