Harden Commoner (sage ability)

Harden Commoner is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Instruction which enables the instructor character to make the harsh principles of combat more familiar to the everyday commoner, most likely a person who has hardly met with a serious threat to their life.

To impart a small amount of training requires only 3 hours a week per commoner (who cannot bear more), for a period of six weeks. At the end of each week, the commoner must make a wisdom check. Each success counts towards a small improvement in the commoner's skill in armed combat. Each fail, in turn, will produce a 50/50 chance that the commoner will simply quit learning. For those who last, no more than six weeks of this training can be given. The number of successes then adjust the commoner’s experience, morale, penalty to hit with weapons and use of armour.

As a reminder, a commoner starts with a single die for hit points, zero x.p., a morale of 9-12 (8+1d4), -6 to hit with proper weapons and no ability to use armour. Each success, in order, produces the following adjustment:

1. add 10 x.p. and minus 1 morale.
2. add 5 x.p. and adjust to a -5 penalty to hit with proper weapons; adjust students with 1 h.p. to 2 h.p.
3. add 5 x.p. and learn the use of a small wooden shield.
4. add 10 x.p. and adjust to a -4 penalty to hit with proper weapons.
5. add 10 x.p. and reduce morale to a maximum of 8; adjust students with 2 h.p. to 3 h.p.
6. learn how to wear, move in and fight in padded armour.

For example, Lionel succeeds in week 1, fails in week 2 but stays with it, succeeds again in weeks 3 and 4, then fails in week 5 and quits. Altogether, Lionel succeeds three times. This gives him 20 x.p., an 8-11 morale, a -5 penalty to hit using a club (1-6 damage) and the ability to defend himself with a shield. And he has a minimum of 2 h.p.

With time and effort, a whole village can be strengthened in this way, with a higher percentage of the villagers reaching comrade status should the village need to be defended.