Slayer
- Has nothing to do with the anime Slayers. Or the TV Show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Or the licensed Buffy RPG.
Slayer is a title that gets bandied about a lot on /tg/, but the two most prominent /tg/ references are as follows. Its also a damn good thrash metal band.
Warhammer Fantasy
In Warhammer Fantasy, Dwarfs who feel too ashamed to live with themselves after some form of sin take up a ceremonial pledge to the Dwarf warrior god Grimnir, who was the first Slayer (who occupies a gigantic Hold of one, single-handedly fighting all of the forces of Chaos which reduces the amount of Daemons able to manifest in the world). The manner of the sin differs from Dwarf to Dwarf as they tend to be obsessive about just about everything of importance (and dismissive of all else) especially gold and any oaths made, be it one who accidentally kills the wife of his friend in the dark after mistaking her for an enemy to simply losing a substantial amount of currency in a bet.
They tattoo themselves, dye their hair red and spike it into a huge mohawk, grab the biggest weapons they can, and set off to redeem themselves through dying in battle all while dressed merely in something between striped boxer shorts and a man-thong. Of course, they can't just kill themselves; they have to fight as hard as they can and to the very best of their abilities, until they fall against a nasty legitimately too mighty for them to overcome. Sort of like a super-metal paladin, or a non-weeaboo dishonored samurai.
Slayers are a massive wildcard among the Dwarf race while also simultaneously being the most dependable of the Dwarfs. They wander all the world as the most prevalent murderhobos the forces of Order can find. They pop up unexpectedly to bolster the armies of man in their darkest hour after the sounds of battle reach the local tavern, they will fight among even the more martial races of Elgi, and they can generally be counted on to launch themselves at any monsters, furries going full North Korea, Undead, Chaos beings, or uppity knife-eared fuckers they encounter. As The Grudge Of Drong showed, Slayers will be the last Dwarfs to abandon any cause that even the most devout of other Dwarfs show and may even end up switching sides after their oaths as they see fit. Slayers, unfortunately for themselves, oftentimes have a rather impressive success rate against foes before they manage to tangle with something to kill themselves. As a result, there are subcategories of Slayers based on their usual kills such as Giantslayers, Daemonslayers, and Trollslayers.
The Slayers have their own kingdom, Karak Kadrin, which functions as an ordinary Hold that also has the largest enclave of Slayers, specifically Trollslayers, who gather to function as an army in one of the most monster-infested parts of the world in order to keep it safe for all races of merchants in exchange for tolls. Its here that all Slayer Oaths are now taken, and the walls of the temple record the names of all modern (by Dwarf reckoning) Slayers. Despite having committed no sins, the royal family of Karak Kadrin must take a modified version of the Slayer Oath where they enable other Slayers to find rest, lodgings, and supplies so that their final battle will be all the more glorious (although in any actual war where the Slayer King happens to be a participant they have a right to seek out the most dangerous thing on the field and fight it alone and bare-chested). Any Slayer who prefers this as their form of absolution may take a similar Oath, becoming one of the Slayers of Karak Kadrin's army.
Baragor Ironfist was the founder and first Slayer of Karak Kadrin and took the name Ungrim meaning "oath-bound/unfulfilled oath" after some misfortune he caused, which is even in-universe only possibly the death of his daughter at the hands of a dragon while on her way to her wedding. He founded the largest temple to Grimnir in his Hold, and lead his armies to any battle that can possibly be justified, just as all his descendants have done. Ungrim Ironfist is the current king (because that's what all Karak Kadrin kings are called).
The most famous Slayer is the top billing titular star of Gotrek & Felix. In The End Times, he replaced the original Grimnir.
In Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Slayer is a career path that dwarves can enter, but it is a one-way trip; other than the more powerful levels of Slayer, they cannot ever change out of that career. It's a brutal combat machine, but utterly useless at anything else.
On The Tabletop
Slayers have unfortunately been a terrible option for Dwarf players for most of their history, much to the chagrin of players who want one of the options with the most personality that any Warhammer has to offer. In particular, the Gotrek & Felix series is seen by many as the essential guide to the Warhammer universe and having the Chuck Norris of Warhammer be a representation of a terrible option on the tabletop is a cruel irony. Unfortunately the slow movement speed and mediocre melee potential of Dwarfs has resulted in them being notoriously non-fun to play against as all battles wind up a Napoleonic war against a bunker of assholes with guns behind cover with artillery support that can somehow cannonball snipe a mosquito that steps too far out of a unit of twenty men.
To put it bluntly, the way to gauge the Dwarf meta of any given edition (or alternative) is the current strength of Slayers. The weaker the Slayer, the more any player wanting to be competitive loads up on Thunderers, Quarrelers, and Cannons.
While female Slayers are stated to exist (rarer than other Dwarf females, meaning less than one in ten) Games Workshop (to nobody's surprise) never produced models for them. Luckily, not only have other miniature gaming companies produced alternatives for males but also for females. Thanks to the general rarity of finding Slayer models in fact, Dorfy players intend on avenging all the Grudges without sissy Elgi tactics are better off looking to alternatives in the first place.
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FUCK YER DAEMONS!
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FUCK YER -4 STRENGTH!
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FUCK YER UNCONVERTED MODELS!
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FUCK YER PASSING!
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FUCK YER MINIATURES!
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FUCK YER BRAS!
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FUCK YER COMMON SENSE!
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AND FUCK YOU!
Age of Sigmar
In Age of Sigmar, Slayers changed to be "Fyreslayers" which lost all of the background and personality of the original Slayers. Conversely, the old Slayers are now renamed as Unforged. In place of having taken an oath, they were greatly affected by Chaos' incursions.
Fyreslayers were born when Grimnir AKA Gotrek got so bored in a "no Chaos allowed" utopia that Sigmar had to find something for him to fight. He was sent to fight the mother of all volcanoes, and their battle caused both to explode and rain down across all eight Realms. Out of that explosion were born the Fyreslayers, Dwarfs "Duardin", which are Dwarfs under a copyrightable name, that are partially made of fire (but also mutagenically take on characteristics from their environment when they spread out of the Realm of Fire despite always looking exactly the same in artwork). These Fyreslayers obsessively search for "Ur-Gold", the physical fragments of Grimnir, which drives them insane with lust to even un-Dwarfy behavior such as allying with Chaos in exchange for some. Their priesthood, who are Chaos Dwarfs that switched to worship of Grimnir and somehow blended into their society, force Ur-Gold into the bodies of Fyreslayers in the form of tattoos that sate their gold lust and grant them powers. But it is the duty of the priesthood to see to the sanity of their kin without giving too much or too little.
Fyreslayers retain none of the cultural values of Slayers, but do retain the shirtlessness and giant weapon wielding. They push the look even further with exposed buttcheeks behind their aprons and hats somewhat reminiscent of Romans.
Fyreslayers caused quite a bit of mockery when it was revealed that many of their models are "mirrored", which means they were designed digitally and copy/pasted rather than sculpted lovingly in different poses.
The king of every hold is the literal father of a long line of sons, who themselves are the fathers of almost the entire Hold (so the lower born, the less likely you are to get laid). New Holds are created when the sons decide to leave and become kings themselves, and in this way the Fyreslayers can be summarily categorized as "Dorf Bees".
On The Tabletop
(Placeholder)
Pathfinder
In Pathfinder, the Advanced Class Guide splatbook introduced a bunch of new classes, which basically ripped off the idea behind 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons's Hybrid Classes: each class was basically a fusion of two existing classes. The Slayer is a Rogue/Ranger hybrid, essentially what happens when you take the the combat abilities of the rogue and ranger, but ignore the rest of their abilities.
They are good at tracking and stealth. They have a weaker version of favored enemy but they can apply it to anyone, using up shorter actions and studying more targets at once as they level up. They get sneak attack dice every third level instead of every odd level, and have D10 HP, great BAB and good Fortitude and Reflex saves. At level 10 though slayer becomes the king of stealth takedowns when he gets access to the "Assasination" talent, allowing him to insta kill an unsuspecting enemy with a single sneak attack(if the enemy fails a pretty high fort save that is). This talent is not limited by "per-day uses" and can be used on any studied target that hasn't spotted you or recognises you as a foe. The save also scales with your level and Int modifier, so unless your enemies have death attack immunity they won't make it out alive most of the time. If the target survives by making the save, spots you on time or you don't attack within the time alloted after you studied the target you will not by able to use the talent on the same target for the next 24 hours. So plan carefully.
Other talents include some sweet ranger combat styles, evasion, and a couple of rogue tricks.
Great if you really, really want to play a Bounty Hunter type character, as that's basically what they were designed for; people who thought the Rogue was too squishy and the Ranger had too much wanna-be spellcaster baggage. Slayer can serve as an alternative to fighter if being a retarded brute with a bad skill list and 2 skill points is not your thing.
| The Classes of Pathfinder 1st Edition | |
|---|---|
| Core Classes: | Barbarian - Bard - Cleric - Druid - Fighter - Monk Paladin - Ranger - Rogue - Sorcerer - Wizard |
| Advanced Player's Guide: |
Alchemist - Antipaladin - Cavalier Inquisitor - Oracle - Summoner - Witch |
| Advanced Class Guide: |
Arcanist - Bloodrager - Brawler - Hunter - Investigator Shaman - Skald - Slayer - Swashbuckler - Warpriest |
| Occult Adventures: |
Kineticist - Medium - Mesmerist Occultist - Psychic - Spiritualist |
| Ultimate X: | Gunslinger - Magus - Ninja - Samurai - Shifter - Vigilante |