By: Philllip Riley

Dedicated Student

Introduction: This is the character with the most sheltered existence. With the exceptions of trips between dojo's, the character has seen almost nothing of the real world. Dedicated students start out with a bare minum of skills simply because they haven't had time to learn anything else.

Requirements: Strength: 15, Dexterity 16, Constitution 11, Intelligence 13

Secondary Skills: A dedicated student must have the Scribe secondary skill.

Weapon Proficiciencies: Bonus: The character starts out proficient in two martial arts forms. He must choose one as the primary, the other is secondary.

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Bonus: Blind Fighting and Read/Write Native Language. Recommended: Healing and Herbalsim.

Equipment: Any.

Special Benifits: The Dedicated Student gains 2 extra Chi poins per level starting at first level. The Dedicated student also gets +2 to hit and damage with is primary form and recieves a +1 to hit and damage with his secondary form.

Special Hindrances: The character looses two begining nonweapon proficiency slots. When the Dedicated Student leaves the dojo for the first time, he gets only a bag large enough to carry an extra set of clothes, one week's rations and a small starting fund

Wealth Options: 1d6 x 10 as starting funds.

Races: Any.

Sumotori

Introduction: Two huge men stamped their feet one last time to bring the Shinto ceremony to a close. Suddenly, by some unspoken agreement, both sprang to their full heights. For such large and, the speed in which this maneuver was executed was astounding. A rushed one another, each from one side of the dojo, meeting in the center of the ring. The collision pitted an overwhelming force against an immovable object. A win cave only the achieve by out maneuvering for outwitting the opponent.

The smaller of the two sumotori reached around his opponent's waist until he gained a grip on the mawashi, the only clothing that the opponent wore. Arching his back, the smaller wrestler struggled to lift his opponent off the floor. His effort proved successful; the larger man fell to the mat heavily. It had been a long match-nearly 15 seconds in length. As the two huge men left the dohyo, they patted one another on the back and went to drink water in peaceful camaraderie.

Discription: The sumotori is rarely an adventuring character (since the character's abilities are so limited), though he is very powerful in a narrow area of expertise. The only thing a sumotori can do very well is wrestle.

Sumotori must train both physically and spiritually. Physically, the sumotori works gard to build his body. For this reason, most successful sumotori come from the high mountains or train in the mountains, for life there promotes physical health. Sumotori build their hip muscles by wading through deep snow, and they pound their arms agains wooden poles (teppo) to harden their skin. spiritually, the Shinto religion governs sumo wrestling. As a result, much emphasis is placed on ritual and moral standards. Generally speaking, sumotori do not have elaborate philosophical beliefs, but rather that the gods (kami) inhabit all things in nature.

Requirements: Only lawful male humans can become sumotori, and few of them dare commit an act of evil within the dohyo during the shobu, as this will risk the loss of the match. The sumotori must have minimum scores of 16 in Strength and constitution, and 11 in Wisdom and Dexterity.

Role: Some sumotori become wandering entertainers. These wrestlers travel from town to town, challenging the local champions to wrestle in open-air matches. It is a hard life for a wandering wrestler, trying to earn enough money to feed his great appetite.

An out-of-work sumotori will occassionally hire himself out as muscle for a yakuza clan or minor official. The wrestler may work as a bouncer, bodyguard, loan collector, or enforcer of his employer's criminal aims. Only rarely will a sumotori become an adventurer.

Secondary Skills: Any.

Weapon Proficiencies: Required: Sumai. Allowed: Any of the following weapons: Mace, Club, Hammer, Maul, and Tetsubo.

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Required: Cooking and Religion.

Equipment: Sumotori can not wear armor or use shields.

Special Benefits: Sumotori can push his strength up to 18/00 for a number of times per day equal to his level. The duration is 1 round for every 4 levels (e.g. 1 round at 1st, 2 rounds at 5th, etc.)

Sumotori begin with an initial percentile score following their strength and constitution scores. Upon gaining a new level, a sumotori rolls 2d10 and adds that roll to his percentile score. When the percentile score reaches or exceeds 100, the sumotori's ability score improves by one.

Since sumotori are such excellent wrestlers, they gain special advantages in wrestling combat. A sumotori may break a grappling hold by making a successful to hit roll instead of trying to make a successful bend bars/lift gates strength roll.

Begining at the first level, the sumotori is less affected by blunt weaponry. At this level, a successful save vs. pertification results in only one-half damage being sustained. At ninth level, this ability increases in benefit. A successful save means that no damage is taken, and only one-half damege is sustained without the save.

Special Hindrances: Certain abilities and Chi powers of the sumotori require that he maintains a minimum weight of 250 lbs. If his weight should ever fall below this minimum, he loses some of the abilities described herein.

Their normal diet consists of stew made of cabbage, carrots, onions, and bean curd flavored with soy sauce and sugar. Fish is added for further enrichment. This wrestler's stew is called chanko-nabe. Sumotori eat twice a day and supplement each meal with vast quantities of rice. A sumotori can not advance in level until his weight is brought up to at least 250 lbs. The DM is the sole judge of the character's current weight or health.

The sumotori's main source of experience points comes through wrestling. A sumotori gains full experience points award for a victory in a wrestling match or wrestling combat. Any prizes or treasure gained through a wrestling victory also carry the full experience point awards. If experience points are gained in any other way (except for roleplaying), the point award is halved. For instance, if a sumotori defeats an ogre by using exclusively, his westling art, he gains the full experience point award; but if he clubs the ogre to death with a tetsube, the point award is halved.

Wealth Options: As for normal Street Fighter.

Races: Normally, only humans can become sumotori, but this may be changed at the DM's discression.

Notes: The sumotori's one uniue martial arts ability is the use of his great body mss as an important part of the wrestling art. The sumotori begins his career with a weight of 250 +1d6 poinds at first level and adds to his weight with each new level attained (1d10 per level)(this is the explaination for the increase in Strenght and Constitution). At seventh or eighth level, the sumotori becomes monstrously large-larger than even real-world sumo wrestlers. This enormous size makes the character a fair match for any ogre or common oni in a battle of mass and muscle.

To a sumotori, wrestling is everything. He must remain totally dedicated to his pursuit if he is to become a grand champion (yokozuna). For this reason they are normally NPCs. If a player frevently wishes to play a sumo wrestler, however, the DM should consider the request. In this case, the DM should impose training requirements upon the character similar to the training requirements imposed on a kensai.

Suggestion: The sumotori will, fairly learn every maneuver within the only martial arts form he is allowed to learn, sumai. (If using the Martial Arts rules from Oriental Adventures or Complete Ninja's Handbook.) Thereafter, the character will still gain weapon proficiency slots. With the DM's permission, the character can persue a further education in martial arts. With proper training, he could learn any martial arts disiplines which involve Intelligence/Learning or Strength/Power. Also, the DM might allow for aquisition of special talents (Player's Option: Combat & Tactics Pg. 78) or nonweapon proficiencies with these slots normally used for weapon proficiencies.

Worldly Disciple

Introduction: Worldly disciples are the kind who snuck out when they were supposed to be meditating. Not being willing to devote themselves completly to the martial arts' monk style existence.

Requirements: Strength 12, Dexterity 15, Constitution 11.

Secondary Skills: A worldly disciple must have the Scribe secondary skill.

Weapon Proficiencies: Bonus: The character starts out proficient in one martial arts form. This is his primary form.

Nonweapon Proficiencies: Bonus: Blind fighting, Read/Write Native Language.

Equipment: Any.

Special Benefits: The Worldly Disciple gains 1 extra Chi poin per level starting at first. Additionally, the Worldly Disciple gets +1 to hit and damage with his primary form.

Special Hindrances: The Worldly Disciple looses one begining nonweapon proficiency.

Wealth Options: 3d6 x 10

Races: Any.