Common Foes

Whether confronting bandits, mercenaries, or soldiers affiliated with a hostile army, you’re likely to face these common units in combat. While their allegiances may differ, their basic combat doctrine and stats remain the same. But don’t become complacent. Level ranges differ greatly depending on the locale your party is exploring—for example, an archer you face in the Hinterlands will be at a lower level than one you face in the Hissing Wastes. Higher-level enemies perform the same but are much tougher to kill and inflict more damage with each successful strike. Proceed with caution.

Archer

Locale: Various

Level Range: 4-30

Health Modifier: 0.75

Armor: Low

Resistances: None

Vulnerabilities: None

Immunities: None

“Few soldiers have the skill or strength to make good use of a longbow. Respect those who do. Against such an enemy, cover is the only defense. Move quickly across his field of vision, forcing him to compensate for movement. Do not charge directly unless your allies can distract him. A fully drawn longbow can drive an arrow through a chevalier’s plate at a hundred yards. A fight between an archer and a chevalier is a test of cunning versus patience. We are too often patient—heavily armored as we are—and faced with lightly armored foes who would harass us. While archers frustrate me as they do most chevaliers, it is good that we fight them, so we remember how to be cunning, how to break an opponent’s patience.”

— An excerpt from A Meditation Upon the Use of Blades, by Swordmaster Massache de Jean-Mien, required reading at the Academie des Chevaliers

Bruiser

Locale: Various

Level Range: 8-30

Health Modifier: 1.75

Armor: Very High

Resistances: None

Vulnerabilities:

Electricity

Immunities:

Physical Effects
Fear*
Paralyze*
Freeze*
Sleep*
Taunt*
Snare*

* Only when enraged

“You must watch the weapon, but only to gauge its length. Otherwise, as in all fights, the opponent’s hips and shoulders will tell his intent. The great weapons are dangerous only when moving or poised overhead to strike down. You must give ground, but only against the true threat. If he advances but is not truly prepared to strike, you must rush in, cut him, and withdraw to your guard before his blow is ready. It may take 10 cuts to kill him. Even after the ninth, he may cleave your head from your body if you do not respect the distance he can cover.”

— An excerpt from A Meditation Upon the Use of Blades, by Swordmaster Massache de Jean-Mien, required reading at the Academie des Chevaliers

Foot Soldier

Locale: Various

Level Range: 4-30

Health Modifier: 1

Armor: Average

Resistances: None

Vulnerabilities: None

Immunities: None

“When engaging with such an opponent, respect his speed. His hands and feet will move a great deal; ignore them. Watch his hips and shoulders instead. First deny what advantage he has in his allies or environment, unless you have trained equally in such matters. Once you control his weapon, overwhelm him. He has no shield, and you need not fear a second blade.”

— An excerpt from A Meditation Upon the Use of Blades, by Swordmaster Massache de Jean-Mien, required reading at the Academie des Chevaliers

Guardsman

Locale: Various

Level Range: 4-30

Health Modifier: 1.25

Armor: High

Resistances: None

Vulnerabilities:

Electricity

Immunities: None

“Your goal is not the shield, but the man behind it. Circling or locking shields may gain you an advantageous position. Failing that, rain blows upon his defenses until he tires and his guard grows sloppy. If you are neither skilled enough to slip past him nor fit enough to wear him down, you will most likely die.”

— An excerpt from A Meditation Upon the Use of Blades, by Swordmaster Massache de Jean-Mien, required reading at the Academie des Chevaliers

Mage

Locale: Various

Level Range: 8-30

Health Modifier: 1

Armor: Low

Resistances: None

Vulnerabilities:

Fire*
Cold**
Electricity***

Immunities:

Sleep
Fear*
Paralyze***
Freeze**
Burning*
Shocked***
Chill**

Elemental Attack:

Cold, Fire, or Electricity

* Fire mage is resistant to fire and immune to burning and fear.

** Ice mage is resistant to cold and immune to chill and freeze.

*** Lightning mage is resistant to electricity and immune to shock and paralyze.

“If you fight with a mage, you must close with him, regardless of the danger, or risk being overwhelmed. A mage’s strike rarely hits with the force of a trained chevalier’s blade, but it often carries unnatural energies: fire that boils a man inside his armor, lightning that steals the strength from his limbs, and so forth. To hold back is to give him time to alter the battlefield to his advantage in some fashion, whether he summons a wall of ice, a demonic ally, or magical flames that strengthen the blades of his guards. We know that the warrior who controls the battlefield is most often the victor. You must keep him reacting to you and continue your attack.”

— An excerpt from A Meditation Upon the Use of Blades, by Swordmaster Massache de Jean-Mien, required reading at the Academie des Chevaliers

Prowler

Locale: Various

Level Range: 4-30

Health Modifier: 1

Armor: Average

Resistances: None

Vulnerabilities: None

Immunities:

Fear
Sleep
Snare

“A skirmisher will strike by surprise, relying upon allies to draw your attention. In a great battle with many troops on each side, you must assume that the enemy has such skirmishers within its ranks. Once you know such an enemy opposes you, be vigilant and remember that you wear more armor than he does. He will hide; do not enter the shadows, where he is strongest, to pursue him. He will harass you at range; do not take the bait he offers. A chevalier deserves a better death than a poisoned dagger in his unprotected armpit, and such is the death of those who grow impatient while chasing enemies they deem beneath their honor. Be calm, be methodical, and wait for your opponent to yield to fear of your blade and shield. When he does, he will convince himself that he can attack you directly, that his blades are fast enough to slip past your shield. Then he will move, and then you may kill him.”

— An excerpt from A Meditation Upon the Use of Blades, by Swordmaster Massache de Jean-Mien, required reading at the Academie des Chevaliers

Spellbinder

Locale: Various

Level Range: 4-30

Health Modifier: 1

Armor: Very Low

Resistances:

Fire*
Cold**
Electricity***

Vulnerabilities: None

Immunities:

Sleep
Fear*
Paralyze***
Freeze**
Burning*
Shock***
Chill**

Elemental Attack:

Cold, Fire, or Electricity

* Fire spellbinder is resistant to fire and immune to burning and fear.

** Ice spellbinder is resistant to cold and immune to chill and freeze.

*** Lightning spellbinder is resistant to electricity and immune to shock and paralyze.

“These ‘spellbinders,’ as they call themselves, bind many simple spirits, usually to books or other easily compartmentalized objects set with runes, and they have stripped the interaction with spirits of its importance, reducing it to a mere mechanical exercise. That such magic is useful to the spellbinder, I do not argue. Although the power contained in these objects is difficult to focus, the diffused magic can easily distribute energy across a broad area, augmenting the mage’s allies. The spellbinders insist that no individual spirit is capable of breaking their bindings, and that the spirits cannot cooperate well enough to escape together. Furthermore, they maintain that because the bindings are all tied to the spellbinder personally, there is no risk of these enchanted books falling into the wrong hands. Still, the books are in their hands, and I am concerned.”

— An excerpt from Life Among the Dead, by Enchanter Rodomonte Van Heigl, senior member of the Mortalitasi