Dothraki Fighting Benefits

[KristoffStafk]

I'm going to be running a game where the players will eventually be fighting either against or along side Dothraki.

In pondering this I have come to the conclusion that a Dothraki warrior needs something to offset the general lack of armor.

I am pondering a three Benefit progression (like the ones for the fighting styles in the main book) called Dothraki Warrior.

So far what I've considered is perhaps the first one might grant a Dothraki armed with an Arakh and not wearing armor a Defense bonus equal to half their Agility, representing an emphasis in combat training on evasion and parry.

Thoughts? Suggestions for future levels? Is this level too powerful for a level 1 Benefit?

This will be the first game I have run, so I don't have a great grasp of the balance of the game yet.

[Zorbeltuss]

Honestly, Dothraki aren't particularly good one on one with Westerosi knights.

Qotho versus Jorah for example.

Their strength is primary that of large numbers and that every single one of them is an expert rider.

Warfare against them is facing down an army consisting entirely of veteran cavalry. Wave bye-bye to your forces as they get trampled to oblivion.

Things like acrobatic defense works for all unarmored/lightly armored characters though.

[coldwind]

Yeah, the Dothraki win by hitting hard and first.

Also, being a rather warlike culture, it's easy to stomach overloading their combat related attributes and ignoring their intrigue ones - Agility, Animal Handling, Awareness, Athletics, Endurance, Fighting, Marksmanship in some combination.

If you also want them a bit of a threat in intrigues though, look at the Threaten expanded specialty - applying Intimidate bonus dice to Athletics.

[Kajani]

I would say there speaks nothing against that Dothraki use the normal benefits for archers and long blade fighters (which make them in my eyes quiet deadly). Of course you COULD give them benefits like the water dancers etc., raising their Combat Defense perhaps in a number of speciality-dices for agility or their main weapon, but I think with arak, double curved bow and good abilities they are still dangerous fighters even without heavy armour. They have a different type of fighting, using agility and long range weapons, but that made them not to superior fighters one to one in close range.

[Azai]

If you do come up with Dothraki fighting benefits, I'd be very interested in seeing them.

[Raven2909]

Honestly, Dothraki aren't particularly good one on one with Westerosi knights.

Qotho versus Jorah for example.

Their strength is primary that of large numbers and that every single one of them is an expert rider.

Warfare against them is facing down an army consisting entirely of veteran cavalry. Wave bye-bye to your forces as they get trampled to oblivion.

Things like acrobatic defense works for all unarmored/lightly armored characters though.

Keep in mind that Jorah says himself he is quite a good fighter and also that in the novel he took a LOT more damage than in the series. The way it was described he very nearly lost.

Tho Qotho was also a very skilled example of a Dothraki and Jorah tells Daenerys when she asks if they could take Westeros his reasons as to why they might be able to is that there are not that many knights, and that they are on the offence whether advancing or retreating.... So maybe my argument is moot anyway

Either way I don't think a fighting style would be out of the question, especially seeing as there are TWO for fencing (Green Ronin may be Braavos lovers me thinks... )

[Zorbeltuss]

Well, we haven't seen enough Arakh fighting to know how much different it is from a longsword for a start.

[Pytorb]

Here's some I did, of more or less relevance. The only thing missing is a melee style but then they are predominantly light mounted archers rather than melee fighters, which isn't to say they don;t do a lot of melee

Dothraki Rider
Prerequisite: Animal Handling 3 (Ride 1B)
You were born to the saddle, bow in hand. Controlling your mount in combat becomes a free action if it is trained for war and you no longer suffer a -1B penalty on Marksmanship tests from a moving mount.

Improved Dothraki Rider
Prerequisite: Animal Handling 4 (Ride 2B), Dothraki Rider
You and your horse are one, as light as the breeze. When mounted you can roll a dodge for you and your mount as a a lesser action using Animal Handling instead of Agility.

Bow I (Martial Quality)
Prerequisite: Marksmanship 4 (Bows 2B)
Shields are no defence from your arrows. When firing outdoors at targets more than one range increment (100 yards) away your target gets only half the listed defensive bonus from shield as you shoot your arrows in a parabolic arc striking them from above.

Bow II (Martial Quality)
Prerequisite: Bow I
Your arrows punch through armour. Any bow you shoot with gains the Piercing 1 Quality or increases the current Piercing Quality of the weapon by one degree. This stacks with Deadly Shot.

Bow III (Martial Quality)
Prerequisite: Bow II, Marksmanship 5 (Bow 3B)
Any bow is a deadly weapon in your hands. You may add the number of bonus dice you assigned to the Bows speciality to the damage to any Marksmanship attack you make using a bow. This extra damage applies after you apply the benefits from your degrees of success.

And I've added an asymmetric recurved longbow that is longer above the handhold than below meaning it can be shot from horseback.

[Kajani]

While I am saying nothing against your benefits, I am sceptic in the topic of the asymmetric longbow you mentioned. This sound a little bit like the Japanese bow, which was used from horseback. The Dothraki I see more with strong but shorter composit-bows like Mongols, Huns etc. The double-curved bow in my eyes meet any demands perfectly…

[Pytorb]

The Japanese bow was precisely what I based it on. I wanted something different to, but as powerful as, a Longbow and felt that the Dothraki bow just needed to be a similar size to have the same draw weight and thus power. I could be completely wrong of course...

The stats I went for were 2B speciality, Agility+2 damage with the Qualities of Long Range, Powerful, Reaload (Lesser), Two Handed

[Legate]

While I am saying nothing against your benefits, I am sceptic in the topic of the asymmetric longbow you mentioned. This sound a little bit like the Japanese bow, which was used from horseback. The Dothraki I see more with strong but shorter composit-bows like Mongols, Huns etc. The double-curved bow in my eyes meet any demands perfectly…

Agreed, the composite bow used by the Mongols could go up to, IIRC, almost 80# of pull; that is the equivalant of any longbow that I have ever heard of and it can be fired from horseback as is.

[Pytorb]

I think, like so may things it depends on the source and unfortunately the fact that none of the Mongolian bows from the period have been found limits the sources available.

I did find this graph which suggests the Mongolian bow is better on shorter draw length and is certainly faster (in flight?) but possibly loses out overall, but then different posts elsewhere on the Internet use different draw weights. *sigh*

http://www.archeryinterchange.com/f13/mongolian-bow-vs-english-longbow-24359/

[Zorbeltuss]

Composite bows works for "mounted archers" IMO, better damage with bonus dices in STR.

[Legate]

"...the fact that none of the Mongolian bows from the period have been found limits the sources available."

Not entirly accurate. True that no actual period made bow has been found in tact, to my knowledge anyway. However, the methods are still used in bow production in many parts of the Mongolian region.