This is my DCC stand-in for Dark-Sun's Mul player race, re-envisioned as a resilient, unarmored fighter. I'm still tweaking it, so feedback is appreciated! There will be more to come after this, I have concept outlines for Half-giants and Thri-Kreen as well as Elemental Priests that I'm working on.

Neil Marshal's "The Descent" Not quite what I pictured in my mind, but close!

The Shiv are a race created in the distant past through sorcery, alchemy, and selective crossbreeding to be skilled soldiers and obedient slaves. Shiv conform to the usual body sizes found in humans, but their leanly muscled bodies are nearly hairless. Shiv can pass for human under light scrutiny, although closer inspection will reveal ears that come to a slight point and four sets of pronounced “canine” teeth.





In the current era city-born Shiv are usually slaves and are almost exclusively raised and traded as gladiators for arena bloodsports. Free tribes outside the cities do exist, but are also usually led by former gladiators who either escaped or (rarely) were able to purchase their freedom. As a result, both city and free Shiv place high value on physical prowess in general and combat prowess in specific.





Hit Die: A Shiv gains 1d10 hit points per level.





Alignment: Shiv were selectively bred to recognize authority and follow orders so they typically hold lawful or neutral alignments. A chaotic Shiv will do well in the arenas, but are not long tolerated in the free tribes.





Skills: Adolescent Shiv are sometimes apprenticed to tradesmen before they are old enough to be trained as a warrior (if free) or sold to an arena slavemaster (if they were born in the cities). Shiv can have any occupation available to a human, although they can only roll a d16 for skills from occupations not involving combat, hunting, or weapons.





Weapon Training: Shiv have natural combat ability and are considered trained in all weapons. Shiv depend on mobility and the agility to react quickly in combat and can only wear padded or leather armor without incurring penalties: losing Precise Attacks and Counterattack





Mighty Deeds: Shiv can use a deed die to perform mighty deeds as a warrior.





Ignore Pain: A Shiv reduced to zero hit points can burn a point of stamina to continue fighting for 1 round. Further damage is subtracted from stamina score. The shiv will still bleed out and die if not healed above 0 HP before stamina is completely exhausted.





Bred to serve: Shiv suffer a -4 penalty on all saves versus mind affecting magic.





Enhanced Healing: A Shiv regains hit points at double the normal rate when healing naturally. 2 hp per night of rest. 4hp per full day of rest. Stamina loss from being revived after Bleeding Out is temporary and recovers at a rate of 1 point per day. Recovering the Body of a dead Shiv still requires a succesful luck check for them to be found alive, but ability score loss is also temporary (recovering at one point per day) as long as the Shiv is stitched back together by an appropriate healing occupation.





Precise attacks: Shiv are naturally quick, and accurately striking a vulnerable area is often equally effective as brute strength. W hile using one-handed weapons, a shiv can choose to add their agility bonus (instead of strength) to both melee attack rolls and melee damage.





Counter attack: When an attack falters or an attacker is off-balance, a Shiv is prepared to take advantage . . . even when it puts them in harms way! In each round of combat a Shiv can perform a counterattack once for every point of reflex save bonus. When an opponent fails a melee attack roll:





If the attack roll missed by 1-5 The Shiv may make a reflex save vs. their opponent’s attack roll. If it succeeds the shiv can attack with a d16 attack roll. If it fails, the Shiv can still attack, but also takes half damage as if their opponent’s attack had been successful. If the attack roll missed by 5-10 As above, but the Shiv can now take their free counterattack with a d20 attack die If the attack roll missed by 10+ As above but the Shiv’s free counterattack increases their critical range by 1 Fumble! As above, but if the Shiv’s counterattack is succesful, it is an automatic critical hit.

Level Deed Die Crit Die/Table Action Die Ref Fort Will 1 +d3 d10/II d20 +1 +1 +0 2 +d4 d12/II d20 +1 +1 +0 3 +d4 d14/II d20 +2 +2 +1 4 +d5 d16/II d20 +2 +2 +1 5 +d6 d20/II d20 +3 +3 +2 6 +d6 d24/II d20+d10 +3 +3 +2 7 +d8 d30/II d20+d12 +4 +4 +3 8 +d10 d30/II d20+d16 +4 +4 +3 9 +d10+1 2d20/II d20+d20 +4 +5 +4 10 +d10+2 2d20/II d20+d20+d10 +4 +5 +4

Level Title by Alignment



Lawful Neutral Chaotic 1 Drudge Scrapper Savage 2 Brawler Blade Berzerker 3 Vanquisher Mercenary Pit Fighter 4 Chief Man-at-arms Gladiator 5 Warlord Weaponmaster Champion