Country of Origin: Crescent Empire
Salon: Zafara (Average)
Founded: 1451 AV

Description: The Daphan style uses a scimitar to make bold, aggressive attacks. While it does make the slashing attacks that are the forté of the scimitar, it also makes creative use of chopping attacks with the straighter section of the blade near the hilt. Another signature move of the Daphan style is a weapon-breaking technique using a forceful turn of the wrist while the opponent’s blade is between the scimitar’s guard and blade.

The weakness of this style is its lack of moderation; nearly every attack, parry, and beat comes with the full weight of the swordsman’s body behind it. An alert opponent can see the swordsman’s muscles tensing as he prepares to spring into action, and react appropriately.

Basic Curriculum: Athlete, Fencing
Knacks: Beat (Fencing), Exploit Weakness (Daphan), Lunge (Fencing), Pommel Strike (Fencing), Sunder (Fencing)

New Swordsman Knack: Sunder. When making an attack, you can choose to strike at an enemy’s weapon, hoping to break it and leave your opponent defenseless. To make this attack, you roll Finesse + Sunder, taking two Raises to target the enemy’s weapon. If your hit is successful, roll damage as normal; this damage is not applied to the opponent, but compared against the following chart to see if the opponent’s weapon breaks:

Type of Weapon	TN to Sunder
Dagger, Knife, Main Gauche	20
Fencing Weapon	25
Heavy Weapon	30
Firearm, Polearm	35
Buckler, Shield	40

Game Masters should use their discretion in applying the Sunder Knack to other kinds of weapons. These Target Numbers can be adjusted by the following modifiers:

Weapon Quality	TN Adjustment
Inferior Weapon or Shield	-5
Quality Weapon or Shield	+5
Dracheneisen Weapon	+10
Djinn or Sidhe Weapon	+15

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: The first lesson an Apprentice of the Daphan School learns is to attack vigorously. He may attack one Phase before the Action Phase shown on each of his Action Dice. If an Action Die shows Phase 1, he may act on “Phase 0,” which means Active Defenses against his attacks can only be attempted through Interrupt Actions (unless an opponent has a similar ability), and his TN to hit an opponent is reduced to five until Phase 1 of the first Round of combat.

The Apprentice does not receive free membership in the Swordsman’s Guild. Instead, he receives an extra Rank in one of his Swordsman Knacks for free.

Journeyman: Daphan Journeymen have perfected breaking their opponents’ weapons by snapping them between the blade and crossguard of their scimitars. Whenever the Journeyman’s opponent makes a successful Active Defense using Parry (Fencing), he may immediately attempt to use his Sunder Knack against that weapon without spending an Action.

Master: Masters of Daphan make extremely forceful attacks. When they declare Raises for damage on an attack roll, they add Kept Dice (+1k1) to the damage roll, rather than Unkept Dice.