Warriors

Warriors make their way in the world by the strength of their muscles and the swiftness of their swords. They are experts with weapons and often are masters of strategy. The principal attribute of a warrior is strength, as he needs to lift and use his weapons and carry the weight of his armor for long periods. Good scores in dexterity and constitution also are desirable.

Below we list the various career paths a warrior may take.

Amazon

Women who have separated their lives from the male-dominated human society, Amazonian tribes tend to live in the wilderness. They either kill men on sight, or use them to their own ends. Men are cattle to them. Amazons have some knowledge about the woods, and are very quick and agile. They recruit their members from warrior and rogue females. It is also rumored that shamans join their ranks.

Skills/Spells

Acrobatics              Camouflage              Direction Sense
General Perception      Herbs                   Horsebreaking
Jugular Slice           Loudless                Marathon
Read Tracks             Riding                  Set Traps
Skinning                Trip                    Tripwire
Warcry

Assassin

Assassins are hired killers, thorough professionals who are expert fighters. They are expert in the use of a wide variety of weapons, and are trained to a far higher level than most warriors, footpads and other petty killers. They are also skilled in the use of poisons and the construction of traps. These skills are for hire to the highest bidder, and it is not unknown for assassins to be employed by two warring factions to assassinate the leaders of both sides. In Ayreon the assassin is one of the most potent tools in the armories of warring families, governments and religious bodies.

Skills/Spells

Assassinate             Cast                    Critical Strike
Deadly Venom            Faerie Fire             Hide
Invisibility            Locate Person           Martial Arts
Mathan                  Set Traps               Spikehole
Stalk                   Strangle                Surveillance
Sword                   Tripwire                Use Poison

Barbarian

The barbarian is perhaps the most common fantasy-fiction archetype. Powerfully built, immensely strong, and clad in furs and skins, the barbarian often is seen as a muscle-bound bully. However, barbarians are more than that. They arrive from some distant, primitive land where people must still fight the environment at every turn just to survive. Playing a barbarian is all about working the mystique of a primitive culture into a more 'civilized' world.

Skills/Spells

Climbing                Decapitate              Drug Tolerance
Eaglesight              Jumping                 Loudless
Rage                    Read Tracks             Running
Skinning                Smash Door              Tornadokick
Weaponsmastery          Wreckage

Gladiator

The gladiators are the typical fighters participating in combat practised on a professional base. They fight to fight, not to kill. Combat is their livelihood and there is no weapon, no dirty trick in a fight they would not know of. Having learned all basic styles of combat and later on excelling in the fields of weapons and even gathering knowledge on how to hit an opponent, the gladiator is a true brave warrior. Nonetheless the gladiators have one drawback: They do not rely on defences or tactics. This does include that they refuse to use any form of shield. Actually some do, but their unpractised use of the tool of defence could be compared to a wizard's kind of grip. Ferocious and dangerous to the point of all-out attack it is their way to quickly cut the opponent into pieces with whatever weapon they find in their reach.

Skills/Spells

Blind Fighting          Brawling                Critical Strike
Deadlock                Dirt Kick               Exotic
Headbutt                Martial Arts            Presence
Riposte                 Ropemastery             Two Weapon Combo
Weaponsmastery          Whip

Mercenary

Legends basic hero, the roamer of battlefields, soldier for payment all these are synonyms for the sword for hire, the warrior of the land. The mercenary is the most common warrior type to be found among human-like races. His prowess and knowledge of battle are surpassed by very few people and his great experience collected in long and hazardous wars makes the higher levels of his class most deadly enemies... Eventually, however the wiser ones realise that there is no crock of gold for the hired fighter, and so they turn to adventuring for variety, or in search of greater, unearthly rewards.

Skills/Spells

Brawling                Climbing                Cook
Critical Strike         Decapitate              Dirt Kick
Doom                    Exotic                  Riposte
Second Aid              Shield Bash             Swarm
Warfare                 Weaponsmastery

Monk

Masters of the arts of combat and meditation. Monks are fighting castes of certain religious orders. They must have joined a religion to develop the full potential of their powers. But even without they are awesome, disciplined fighters who have developed unique and deadly techniques of battle. Their styles are different to the mundane warriors weaponsmastery, and their hardening meditations are barely comparable with clerical defensive magic, yet it is this uniqueness which makes them such a threat. A monk can choose from an array of fighting styles one of which he seeks to perfect in his lifetime. Monks have also access to blunt weaponry as the flail or staff, and to such dreaded tools which are referred to as exotic weaponry. A master of his technique is a marvel to behold and deadly an opponent.

Skills/Spells

Acrobatics              Cast                    Cleansing
Critical Strike         Diagnostics             Fighting Style
Healing                 Inner Strength          Iron Body
Martial Arts            Mathan                  Meditation
Music                   Sing                    Strangle
Throw

Noble

To be one of the ruling classes seems to the ordinary citizen of Ayreon to grant the right to live a life removed from the cares and struggles of ordinary men. Nobles control the land, and many have had sense to involve themselves in matters of commerce, in competition with bankers and financiers. However the younger noble families frequently have to fend for themselves when their elder brothers take over the family fortune and estates, since one of the major preoccupations of the noble class seems to be to cause harm to other members, even to those from one's own family. Many disinherited nobles turn to military life or adventuring for excitement, certainly, but many more do so because they wouldn't know what else to do. Certainly none of them would lower themselves to practice a trade, and a few tolerate the boredom of study for an academic profession. They see war as a great and glorious game, and they view getting drunk, insulting commoners and wrecking restaurants in much the same light. Nobles tend to have a short attention span, an irritating accent and an unfailing ability to rub lesser mortals up the wrong way, but they nearly always manage to sail through life almost unscathed owing to a combination of luck and the deference which their free-spending manner tends to generate in tradesmen.

Skills/Spells

Aristocracy             Bribery                 Cast
Charge                  Cleansing               Combat Tactics
Court Magician          Diagnostics             Heraldry
Honour Guard            Mathan                  Riding
Riposte                 Second Aid              Shield Bash
Shield Block            Swarm                   Weaponsmastery

Outlaw

Outlaws are a bunch having invoked the wrath of society upon them. It is not necessarily the city they are found in, where their dubious 'career' started. Having fled their kin for one or the other reason, outlaws become experts at surviving on their own. They gain abilities to escape the clutches of the law and receive abilities making them better brawlers, a mixture of thief, warrior and a tiny part of a ranger. Combining these three professions' lesser abilities enables the outlaw to survive. As he is despised by his people, shopkeepers of the same race will not serve the outlaw, likewise justice seldom is in favour of this kind of person and all common folk view the outlaw not only with disrespect but with a certain reservation. You do not trust a person that cannot be trusted.

Skills/Spells

Brawling                Camouflage              Crack Shot
Drug Tolerance          Peek                    Ropemastery
Second Aid              Set Traps               Shield Block
Slingtrap               Spikehole               Strangle
Tarnish                 Waylay                  Weaponsmastery
Whip

Samurai

Samurais are highly trained warriors with a great sense for the benefit of meditational preparation and devotion to a task. Their kenjitsu abilities are only available to them when in a special state of mind. Their honour also allows them often enough to seek only one way out of a situation, seppuko, a traditional and very ceremonial form of suicide. Since many of the samurai skill rely heavily on the dexterity and quickness of its user, a low total weight of carried items is of great importance!

Skills/Spells

Bladewhirl              Butterfly               Combat Spirit
Fifth Attack            Inner Peace             Iron Skin
Kenjitsu                Kiai                    Kirijitsu
Martial Arts            Meditation              Riding
Seppuko                 Tiger

Trollslayer

The Dwarven Trollslayer is an illustration of the strange personal psychology that dooms young Dwarves to short and violent lives. Dwarves who have been disgraced, crossed in love or otherwise shamed (which may well be entirely in their own imagination) will abandon conventional Dwarven society and go to seek death, hunting down the most ferocious beasts. Most of them die fairly quickly, but those few who survive become members of the strange cult of Trollslayers. Trollslayers exist only to die, and by doing so redeem whatever disgrace they suffered in the past (and into which it is neither polite nor wise to enquire). They court death by deliberately seeking uneven battles - going alone into Goblin Strongholds is one example. Trolls are considered the ideal opponents, because the Dwarf's death is almost a certainly. Trollslayers can be recognised easily by their hair, which is typically spiked and dyed orange, and the many tattoos which cover their bodies. They also favour exotic jewellery, such as earrings and nose rings. They spend a great deal of their time boasting of their exploits and showing off their many scars, and often indulge of overeating, fasting, and excessive consumption of stimulants.
"Retreat? RETREAT? You have a lot to learn, boy. If you get through this alive I'll kill you myself"
- Gilgamesh, preparing for battle with Aclam the Watcher

Note: This career open to mountain dwarves and chaos dwarves only.

Skills/Spells

Archenemy               Critical Strike         Decapitate
Dirt Kick               Drug Tolerance          Exotic
Frenzy                  Read Tracks             Shield Bash
Strength                Tattoo                  Tracking
Weaponsmastery          Whip