Classes in Oerth

## Berserkers

(Barbarian is a cultural term, and a character archetype, not a set of abilities and skills, thus I'd prefer to use the term Berserker, which is what the Barbarian class really is)

The primary source of berserkers in Greyhawk is the barbarian clans in the lands around the Corusk Mountains. Here, the clans live in a perilous, cold land where agriculture is incredibly difficult, forcing them to conduct raids on settlements in neighbouring regions. The outlying regions have, broadly, grown accustomed to this, and there has come to be an unspoken arrangement between the Barbarian clans and their neighbours. Certainly their neighbours don't *want* their crops and herds raided, but the clans have come to play by certain rules, such as not killing people and not taking literally everything they can carry, and the neighbouring areas know that, in exchange for "allowing" the raids to continue, so long as the rules are observed, they can count on the clans coming to their aid when it's truly necessary. The chieftains of the clans ensure that anyone who doesn't abide by these unspoken rules is suitably punished, and the neighbouring areas likewise play by the rules. They do not try to kill the raiders, though attempting to "vigorously dissuade" the raiders is allowed, and they only hide enough for them to be a little better off than barely surviving the next winter.

And broadly, the arrangement works. Enough that there is a considerable amount of intermarriage between the clans and their neighbours, with really only what amounts to a theatrical show of objection by the farmers when their daughters are carried off in a raid to become the wives of barbarians that everyone knows have been courting them for the last year or so. And when a barbarian comes down from the mountains, wanting to settle down in the home village of their mother or father when the winters have grown too cold for them, there is own a small show of guarded mistrust, because the villagers know that they likely truly are the grandchild of someone in the village.

While the Barbarian Clans of the Corusk Mountains are the primary source of berserkers, they are not the only source. Berserkers are people who channel their anger and rage into strength and fighting prowess. Berserkers may hail from the Olman tribes of Hepmonaland, the Elven villages of Vesve Forest, or even the towns and cities of more industrialized lands.

## Martial Artists (Monks)

(The term monk carries two whole tons of baggage neither of which is appropriate to a class, unless you're sticking them in one specific area, and saying those are the only martial artists in the world)

Martial Arts in the Flanaess refer to highly designed schools of martial technique, often requiring long years of rigorous practice to earn the right to transition from "student" to "practitioner," and a lifetime to transition from "practitioner" to "master." Those who live long enough to truly grok their art and let it become a part of them become "grand masters."

Martial arts are primarily known for the heavy use of fists, feet, elbows and head as weapons. This is not to say there are not other weapons employed by martial artists, but the common image of a martial artist is a man or woman in light clothing, no armour, breaking limbs, skulls and breastplates with the unclad fist.

There are two primary schools of martial arts on the flanaess, The Ouroboran Circle, which practice the Way of Destruction, and the Mantle, which practice the art of becoming dragons.

## Witches and Warlocks

Personally, I love the concept of the fantasy warlock. But the 3.5 class is... lacking. I really like the Den Tome version of the warlock, but it is... probably a bit off, power-wise. Pathfinder does not, really, have a warlock class, but it has a few similar things. I think the Pathfinder Witch is the closest to the concept of the warlock. It even, after a fashion, has invocations, it just calls them hexes. Even when they're beneficial. Which I don't think is... *technically* incorrect, but it *feels* incorrect. But it doesn't matter. Hexes, invocations, same basic thing. I mean, hell, it's all just a game of looking up "spell" in a thesaurus and finding an evocative synonym so that you can have a class ability with distinct terminology for the same basic concept.

This is all a lot of words to say that I will be treating warlocks as the same class as witches.

*Minor* additions to the Pathfinder Witch