Clan of Origin: Crab
Dojo: Sunda Mizu Dojo

Description: The Hida Fighting Style is one of the oldest and most respected styles in the Empire, and one with a very basic premise: endure the enemy’s attacks until you have the opportunity to crush him with brute force. The style was shaped by the Clan’s early years combating oni and other Shadowland enemies, when only the strongest and most resilient among Hida’s followers survived.

The Hida Fighting Style encompasses two broad themes: damage mitigation and use of the tetsubo, a heavy club with steel (or, in rare cases, jade) studs embedded along its length. Hida fighters are able to withstand incredible amounts of punishment while they wait to shatter their enemies.

A Hida fighter’s weakness is his stubborn nature. While the mountain cannot be moved by an outside force, it also finds it difficult to move itself. A quick opponent can infuriate a Hida with nimble dodges and feints, causing lapses in judgement. 

Basic Curriculum: Heavy Weapon, Hunter
Knacks: Beat (Heavy weapon), Exploit Weakness (Hida), Fortitude, Lunge (Heavy Weapon), Wall of Steel (Heavy Weapon)

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.

Revised Swordsman Knack: Wall of Steel. Your weapon is an ever-present blocking device, and you use it like a tortoise uses its shell. If you have not attacked yet this Round, then each Rank of this Knack increases your TN to be hit by two. You cannot use your Parry Knack with the relevant weapon for Active Defenses in any Phase where you benefit from this Knack.

Apprentice: The Hida fighter is the epitome of “heavy infantry,” able to endure harsh blows and deliver crushing attacks in return. He may ignore TN penalties for wearing heavy armor for all Knacks except Shadowing and Stealth. Furthermore, when wielding a tetsubo, he gains a bonus of one Unkept Die (+1k0) to the weapon’s Damage Rating, making it a 4k2 weapon.

Students of the Hida style train at Sunda Mizu Dojo, where they focus on battling the minions of the Shadowlands. Hida Apprentices may add their Mastery Level in this Fighting Style directly to any Damage Rolls made against Shadowlands creatures, and twice their Mastery Level to attempts to identify or track such creatures.

Journeyman: Hida Journeymen have learned that The Mountain does not move. They are famous for extraordinary tenacity, weathering wounds that would kill normal men. The Journeyman may add his Rank in Resolve to his Wound Threshold for all attacks, even those from firearms.

Master: The lesson taught to Hida Masters is that The Mountain does not fall. When the Master is injured, he may spend a Drama Die at the end of any Round to ignore all Dramatic Wounds he has sustained for the following Round. Thus, when using this ability, the Master’s Drama Dice still explode, and if he sustains Dramatic Wounds equal or greater than twice his Resolve, he is not Knocked Out (though if he sustains this many Dramatic Wounds, he will fall unconscious when he stops spending Drama Dice, or at the end of the Scene, whichever comes first). Likewise, if the Master sustains three times his Resolve in Dramatic Wounds. he can remain on his feet as long as he has Drama Dice to spend, but when the Scene ends (or when he runs out of Drama Dice), he will collapse, quite dead.