Whirling Dervish
As closely tied with their fervent faith as anything, the wild and deadly style of the Dervishes has stricken fear into the hearts of Infidels across the land. Using long, curved scimitars in one or both hands, the dervish spins and arcs the blades in whirling patterns, swooping unpredictably around and over defenses. A primarily offensive style (for they believe that those who die in holy battle will be reborn unto Paradise), it focuses on fast and furious attacks from all angles; defenses take the form of wild, dance-like movements.
Skills: Broadsword, Dancing, Theology.
Techniques: Feint (Dancing).
Cinematic Techniques: Double Whirlwind, Dual-Weapon Fighting, Timed Defense (Dodge), Whirling Strike, Whirlwind Attack.
Perks: Ecstatic Dance, Flourish (Broadsword), Moral Strength, Off-Hand Weapon Training (Broadsword), Skill Adaptation (Dancing Feints), Sure-Footed (Uneven), Technique Mastery (Dancing Feints), Unique Technique (Double Whirlwind; Whirling Strike), Whirling Dance.
Double Whirlwind (H) Whirlwind Attack-4; cannot exceed Whirlwind Attack.
Prerequisites: Weapon Master (Broadsword); Off-Hand Weapon Training (Broadsword); Dual-Weapon Attack (Broadsword); Whirlwind Attack (Broadsword).
You can make a Whirlwind attack with a sword in each hand, making two attacks at each eligible target. All attacks are made with a penalty to skill for both the Double Whirlwind (including the base penalty for Whirlwind Attack),
and Dual-Weapon Fighting ... for instance, a character with Double Whirlwind at Whirlwind-2, Dual-Weapon Fighting at Broadsword-2, and Whirlwind Attack at Broadsword-2 makes all attacks with a -6 penalty.
Spinning Strike (see p. MA79)
Prerequisites: Weapon Master (Broadsword).
Similar to a normal Spinning Attack (p. MA79), but instead of using Spinning Attack (Broadsword) for the initial Quick Contest, use Feint (Dancing). The subsequent attack uses Broadsword-2; the penalty can be bought off normally as a Hard technique.
Perk - Ecstatic Dance: By performing a spinning, whirling dance, you can enter the trance-like states achievable with the Autohypnosis skill. You must first dance (requiring an open space, free of obstacles or enemies) for at least a minute, and make a normal Dancing roll. If this succeeds, you can then make a Will-based Dancing roll to achieve any one of the effects listed for Autohypnosis (p. B179); this roll is at the same penalty as it would be for normal Autohypnosis (i.e. -2 for Increased Will, -4 to Negate Pain/Fatigue).
Perk - Moral Strength: You can make a Will-based Theology+2 roll to resist magic spells, psi power, and anything else that Mental Strength (p. B209) would normally help against. (Credit: Gef)
Perk - Whirling Dance: You can attempt an Acrobatic Dodge (p. B375) using your Dancing skill in place of Acrobatics; you can attempt Evading (p. 368) using Dancing in place of DX;
and you can make kicking attacks using Dancing-2.
Holy Warrior Lens: Whirling Dervish (50 points)
Attributes: +1 DX (20).
Secondary Characteristics: plus 0.75 Basic Speed (15).
Advantages: Combat Reflexes (15); High Pain Threshold (10); Style Familiarity (Whirling Dervish) (1); Weapon Master (Broadsword) (20). • Spend only 20 points (instead of 25) on optional holy warrior advantages; add Basic Speed plus 1.00 (20), Enhanced Dodge 1 (15), Luck (Defensive, -20%) (12); and the Style Perks and Power-Ups of the Whirling Dervish style to the choices.
Disadvantages: Fanaticism (The One True Faith) (-15); Social Stigma (Minority) (-10).
Skills: Instead of the listed melee skill packages, melee skills are Broadsword (A) DX+4 (16)-18 and Dancing (A) DX+2 (8)-16. • Drop Physiology and Psychology; improve Theology to (H) IQ (4)-12.
Power-ups: For the purpose of power-ups, Whirling Dervishes are holy warriors with the swashbuckler lens. They can always buy Enhanced Dodge up to 3 (15/level), Luck or Ridiculous Luck (Defensive, -20%) (12 or 24), and the Style Perks and Power-Ups of the Whirling Dervish style.
Dervishes are always “generic” holy warriors (i.e. using the standard Holy Might abilities from DF1, as opposed to other, deity-specific lenses and realms), and cannot buy the New Realm power-up – they serve Ao, whom they hold to be the “One True God,” and consider all other divinities to be infidels, pretenders, and usurpers. They can buy the cleric lens (DF3, p. 26) to upgrade Holiness to Power Investiture (Holy) and learn (generic) clerical spells, but can’t take any lens or power-up that gives them another form of divine talent or Power Investiture (Druidic, Shamanic, Unholy, etc). Likewise, they can’t buy any lens or power-up that gives them any form of chi or magical abilities, including Chi Talent, Eldritch Talent, Magery, Trained by a Master, or any casting/power talent (Bardic, Elemental, etc). The knight lens (DF3, p. 27) costs them 15 points less than the listed price, since they already have Combat Reflexes; other appropriate lenses include the barbarian (there’s no zeal like the converted!) and the scout (to add some stealth and ranged damage to their already considerable combat abilities).
Fanaticism (The One True Faith)
All Dervishes are fanatically loyal to the One True Faith, and will willingly give up their lives, limbs, property, and/or prosperity in its defense. Those who depart Calimshan in search of adventure tend to leave the holy war behind them; in most places throughout Faerun, where the Faithful are a tiny minority among many diverse religions, they’re content to protect those few who share their faith from persecution, and to spread the word through good deeds (e.g. slaying unambiguous evils, helping the helpless, etc) rather than through coercion or proselytizing.
Notes: Not a historically accurate dervish, but an authentic Fantasy Gaming dervish... this style is intended only for use with the above lens; it has a few new techniques, and at least one (Double Whirlwind) which might be overpowered.
Also, funny story, this style is actually called something else, but the overzealous profanity filter blanks out a certain string of letters in the middle of the name, thusly: Cali****e. This breaks the link to the campaign page for the style, so I linked to the basic Martial Arts page instead.