The Fight In the Dog

Digging Deep into the Background of your Fighter

There was an interesting topic of discussion that came up this week on one of the Pathfinder Facebook pages I’m on. Someone wanted to expand the possibilities of the backgrounds he uses for fighters. A lot of fighters end up either being a kid off a farm who picked up his father’s sword and just walked off into the world or a trained military man. There are, however, a lot of ways to go in between, so today we’re going to look a little at bringing your fighter to life.

The first thing about fighting is that there are two basic types: those who are trained and those who are self-taught. The world can be a tough place, so learning to defend yourself is common among all walks of life. The untrained, for the most part, are thrown into situations where they are forced to fight or die, or at least be grievously injured. Anyone who’s lived in a rough neighborhood knows what that’s like. The trained more often want to learn how to fight instead of have to.

When coming up with untrained characters you also have to think about why they had to fight. You’ll find that most people who’ve learned to stand up for themselves on their own are poor or low on the social ladder. If you grow up on the wrong side of town you have to learn to defend yourself from thugs. Slaves or criminals may be forced to fight for the enjoyment of their masters. Those who live on the frontier may have to learn to fend off wildlife, bandits, or marauders.

The thing to consider about these self-taught warriors is also that their fighting “style” is really no style. It is usually a mish-mash of techniques that they’ve learned work through trial and error. While a trained fighter might be more focused – in game terms, taking specific feat lines – a self-taught fighter will know a little bit of everything. They will also usually have a ‘whatever works’ mentality which can probably be seen in their personalities as well as their fighting styles.

Trained fighters come in many forms as well. You’ll find that outside of the officers much of the rank and file of any military are – like untrained fighters – poor. Although not as highly trained as our modern military, soldiers of the day still went through rigorous training. Becoming a soldier, much like it is today, was often a way the poor thought they could elevate their station. You’ll notice a vast difference in fighting style between a foot soldier and an officer who went to military school as a child before gaining his rank.

Outside of the military, you’ll find trained fighters are more often well-off. It costs a lot of money to hire a tutor or to send a child to school. Now there will often be a child so naturally gifted that a teacher takes her on at no cost – and this is a common story trope – but generally, this is not the case. When deciding to make a character who’s trained in a certain style of fighting, keep in mind how she was able to afford to be trained.

Those who can afford training will have two options. The first is going to a well-known combat school. A teacher there will have many students, usually other noble born whose parents want to get them out of the house. The second is a personal tutor. In the Golarion setting, the Aldori Swordlords come to mind; each master trying to train the best student he can so his specific style may live on after he’s gone.

Trained fighters tend to be more orderly: for this attack there is this defense. To properly mount a battlefield defense all members of the unit must work in unison. This can also play out in a character’s personality – just like the untrained fighter – with the character being much more precise and deliberate.

So when creating your fighter’s background consider how he would get where he is when the game starts. Is he trained or untrained? How did his family’s status affect what and how he learned? How does his personality play into how he fights?

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