Country of Origin: Cathay
Dojo: Bei Hai Guan (Large)
Founded: 1397 AV

Description: Shandian Dao is a fast and forceful style using the single-edged dao. The dao is the standard weapon of the Imperial infantry of Han Hua and this is the fighting style of the army’s elite soldiers. Swordsmen of this School use speed and strength to force their opponents’ weapons out of attack position as they strike with deadly precision.

The main weakness of this School is its military origin, which leads to predictable moves.

Basic Curriculum: Athlete, Heavy Weapaon
Knacks: Beat (Heavy Weapon), Corps-á-Corps, Exploit Weakness (Shandian Dao), Lunge (Heavy Weapon), Sidestep

Revised Swordsman Knack: Beat. When attacking an enemy, you can declare a Beat. You roll Brawn + Beat, and must roll a number of Raises equal to your enemy’s Brawn in order for your Beat to be successful. If you are successful, he cannot avoid the attack using any Active Defense. The Raises taken on this roll add Unkept Dice to your damage roll as usual.

Apprentice: Apprentices of the Shandian Dao school learn to put incredible power behind their two-handed strikes. They may add their Rank in Brawn to any rolls using the Attack (Heavy Weapon) Knack (e.g., an Apprentice with a Brawn of three receives a +3 bonus to his attack rolls, as well as contested rolls to resist a Disarm attempt).

The Apprentice receives the Combat Reflexes Advantage at no cost in lieu of membership in the Swordsman’s Guild.

Journeyman: The Journeyman’s devotion to rapid action grows to new heights. When he rolls for initiative, he rolls one extra Action die, then uses his Combat Reflexes ability to re-roll one of his Action dice before he selects which one to discard.

For example, if he has a Panache of 4, he would roll five Action dice, re-roll one of his choice, and then decide which four of the five dice he wishes to keep as his Action dice for that Round of combat.

Master: The Masters of Shandian Dao move and strike so quickly, even they have occasional trouble keeping up with themselves. Their opponents, naturally, suffer a much worse fate. Masters may roll as many extra Kept Action Dice as they wish, and may do so in conjunction with their Journeyman ability. However, for each extra Action Die they roll, all their attacks for that Round (including the use of their Swordsman Knacks) roll one less Kept die (-1k1).