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Oriental Classes	-	-	-	Oriental Adventures

Table 17: Bushi

Experience Points	Experience Level	10-sided Dice for Accum. HP	THACO	Saves	Proficiencies
-	-	-	-	16.17.18.20.19	-
0 -- 1,500	1	1	20	14.15.16.17.17	4
1,501 -- 3,000	2	2	19	^	5
3,001 -- 6,000	3	3	18	13.14.15.16.16	-
6,001 -- 14,000	4	4	17	^	6
14,001 -- 30,000	5	5	16	11.12.13.13.14	-
30,001 -- 60,000	6	6	15	^	7
60,001 -- 120,000	7	7	14 (3/2 rounds)	10.11.12.12.13	-
120,001 -- 240,000	8	8	13 (3/2 rounds)	^	8
240,001 -- 480,000	9	9	12 (3/2 rounds)	8.9.10.9.11	-
480,001 -- 710,000	10	9 + 2	11 (3/2 rounds)	^	9
710,001 -- 1,000,000	11	9 + 4	10 (3/2 rounds)	7.8.9.8.10	-
1,000,001 -- 1,250,000	12	9 + 6	9 (3/2 rounds)	^	-

    250,000 experience points are required for each level beyond 12th.
    Bushi gain 2 hp per level beyond 10th.

Bushi are masterless warriors, men without ties to a lord, temple, or monastery. They are commonly
mercs, bandits, highwaymen, or wanderers, earning their money however they can. They can be found
serving samurai, protecting the court, or swelling the ranks of armies. A few may be kensai who have fallen by
the way. Most, however, are men of low birth who have chosen the way of the warrior to advance in the world.
A bushi's prime requisite is STR. A bushi character must have minimum scores of 9 in STR and
8 in DEX and CON. Bushi characters with Strength 14 or greater gain a 10% bonus on all
experience. Thus, if the DM awards the character 550 experience points, that character receives an additional 55
bonus experience points, for a total of 605 experience points. Bushi characters can be of any alignment or race.
A bushi uses 10-sided dice to determine his HP, gaining one die per level. He uses the combat and
saving throw tables of the fighter. He can wear any armor and use any weapon. Gaining proficiency in or using
weapons preferred by ninja causes the character to lose honor, but not as much as a samurai. Bushi with high
STR and CON scores gain the normal fighter bonuses. They begin the game with four proficiency
slots. They can choose to specialize in any single weapon. This decision is made as soon as the character is
created.

Bushi are quite often poor and find it difficult to buy and maintain their armor and equipment.
Therefore, all bushi begin with the basic proficiencies of weaponsmith, armorer, and bowyer. In addition, their
lack of armor gradually teaches them to be nimble on their feet. Thus, in addition to any defensive adjustment a
bushi may have from a high Dexterity score, his armor class improves by one step for every five experience
levels. This adjustment applies regardless of whether the character is wearing armor.
Although bushi are often poor, they are seldom out of work. There is always a need for a stout warrior or
at feast a strong hand. Just as the nobles have their samurai to protect them, the peasants and merchant folk
often look on the bushi for protection. The pay usually is not good, but it provides for a bushi's basic needs.

* Thus, a bushi in a friendly or neutral village or town can always find employment, food, and shelter. The food
may be thin rice gruel and the shelter a leaky stable, but something will always be available.
Poverty has also made bushi masters at the art of finding "loose" equipment. Bushi have a base 20%
chance to find any common piece of equipment (as per the equipment lists) in any village. This chance is
increased to 25% in a medium-sized village, 3096 in a large village, 40% in a small town, 60% in a large town,
and 90% in any city. The item will either be at half-price or free, depending on the nature of the item. Lawful
good bushi always must pay at least half the value of the item (although services such as splitting wood or
cleaning dishes can count as payment). Chaotic good bushi will always pay half the value if they have enough
money. The DM determines what is available and how much it costs.

* Bushi are also known to cut or lift strings of cash off the unwary. They have a base 20% chance of
success and gain an additional 2% per level. On a dice roll of 95 or higher their attempt has been noticed. Any
other failure means the attempt is unsuccessful or impossible to accomplish. LG characters can only
attempt this when in dire poverty, and even then only against an acknowledged enemy. CG characters
can only use this ability against acknowledged enemies.

* The hard life of a bushi gives him little time for self-contemplation and intense mental training, both of
which greatly aid in the use of ki. However, bushi do have an elementary ki power. By entering a fight with a
fierce kiai (shout), the bushi temporarily raises his effective level by two. He temporarily gains the hit points,
fighting ability, and saving throws of a character two levels higher. All wounds are taken from the temporarily
gained hit points first without harming the character. When these are gone, all additional damage causes normal
wounds. Hence, a 6th-level bushi could temporarily fight as an 8th-level bushi, gaining 2d10 hit points and the
fighting and saving throw columns of an 8th-level bushi. The ki effect lasts for one turn and can be used only
once per day.

* When the bushi reaches 9th level, he can establish himself as a warlord. To do so he must capture or
clear an estate and mark its boundaries. Once this is done, 30-60 bushi (all of 1st level) will apply to him for
positions. If the character establishes a reputation as a good leader who pays skilled men well, more bushi may
apply. All bushi followers remain only so long as they are paid and the character's cause is not doomed. Upon
reaching 12th level, 1d6 1st-level samurai will apply for positions. This is an extremely important event, since it
legitimizes the bushi's position and gives him a position comparable, though not equal, to a samurai's. At this
point the bushi can establish his own family household as if he were a samurai of the lowest rank.

Bushi can come from all levels of society, so they receive no modifier on Table 38: Character Birth. A
bushi character is not, however, required to belong to a family. The choice is optional. Those who do belong to
a family have all the bonuses and penalties for gaining and keeping honor. Bushi do have a measure of
self-respect and normally attempt to follow bushido (the warrior code, explained under samurai).
However, honor restrictions are significantly less on bushi than on other classes.
 

Q: When does a bushi character gain
his first armor class bonus?

A: A bushi gains his first such bonus at 5th
level, his second at 10th level, etc.
(121.20)
 

BUSHI

1. SUBCLASS = fighter
2. SOCIAL CLASS MINIMUM = roll on Birth Rank table required
3. ABILITY SCORE MINIMUMS
    STRENGTH = 9: 14
    INTELLIGENCE = 3 <>
    WISDOM = 6
    DEXTERITY = 8
    CONSTITUTION = 8
    CHARISMA = 6
    COMELINESS = 3
    PERCEPTION =
4. POSSIBLE RACES & MAX. LEVEL ATTAINABLE = korobokuru (U), hengeyokai (U), human (U), spirit folk (U)
5. MULTI-CLASS POSSIBILITIES =
6. HIT DIE TYPE = d10
7. MAXIMUM NUMBER OF HIT DICE = 9
8. SPELL ABILITY = no
9. ARMOR PERMITTED = any
10. SHIELD PERMITTED = any
11. WEAPONS PERMITTED = any
12. OIL PERMITTED = yes
13. POISON PERMITTED = DM's option
14. ALIGNMENT = any
15. STARTING MONEY = 1-4 tael (ch'ao) + 4-40 yuan + 2-200 fen (10-40 sp + 20-200 cp + 2-200 cp)
16. WEAPON PROFICIENCIES = see 25.
17. NON-PROFICIENCY PENALTY = -2
18. NON-WEAPON PROFICIENCIES = armorer, bowyer, weaponsmith (free@L1) + see 25.
19. STARTING AGE =
20. COMBAT = fighter (6-10: 3/2) (11+: 2/1)
21. SAVING THROWS = fighter
22. MAGIC ITEMS =
23. FAMILY = required
24. HONOR = 10 + lowest ability score (if no family)
25. SKILLS = armorer, bowyer, weaponsmith (free@L1) + 4@L1, 5@L2, 6@L4, 7@L6, 8@L8, 9@L10