Training a Squire
AN ANGRY LOOKING YOUTH CHARGES towards the fray, certain that the best way to avoid getting hurt is to deal more damage to your enemy, more quickly than they can manage themselves. The strikes are haphazard and undisciplined, but achieve their goal, sending their target to its knees.
A teenaged boy nervously dons his first set of padded armour and recites to himself the four basic guard stances he'd been taught the day before.
A tired young woman practices long into the night until she can perfectly match her mentor's time on an acrobatic obstacle course. She collapses into bed at dawn, content in her ability.
Taking a Protégé
When choosing the variant character background ‘Knight’, a player may choose to forego the benefits and features provided by the ‘Knight’ and ‘Noble’ backgrounds to instead have a Squire apprenticed to them. The Squire is to be controlled by the DM socially and the Player tactically. This Squire operates below PC levels and will grow to 1st level after training under their Knight for five full levels. At this point the Squire graduates and leaves the Knight’s service. The Squire’s beginning stats are as follows:
Knight's Squire
Medium humanoid
- Armor Class 10
- Hit Points 8 (1d8 + 0)
- Speed 30 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0) 10 (+0)
- Senses passive Perception 10
- Languages Common
- Challenge --
- Proficiencies --
Training Styles
Aggressive.
Attack: +0 to hit.
Initiative: +0Defensive.
AC Bonus: +0
Hit Dice: 1d8Studious.
Skill Proficiencies: --
Approach to Training
Any time the Knight levels up, their Squire levels alongside them. During level up, the Knight player will choose whether to guide their Squire to be more Aggressive, Defensive, or Studious. An Aggressive approach increases the Squire's attack bonus and initiative bonus by +1. A Defensive approach increases the Squire's Armour Class by +1 and provides them +1 Hit Die. A Studious approach provides the Squire proficiency in one Skill for which the Squire may now add the Knight’s Proficiency Bonus.
After this the player may increase one of the Squire’s Ability Scores by 1, increasing Bonuses, AC, HP, Attack Bonus, and Initiative Bonus as usual if necessary.
Equipment
The Knight character may gift any equipment they possess to their Squire for additional increases to a Squire’s stats, however it should be noted that a Squire does not yet have proficiency with any weapons and has proficiency only with Padded Armour while training under their Knight.
Leaving a Legacy
A Knight may only apprentice one Squire at a time. Upon the graduation of their Squire to Knighthood, however, the player Knight may take on a new willing page at any time.
To accommodate for the inherent risk of adventuring at higher levels, and to reflect the greater experience required to advance to each new level, a new Squire will start training with a larger hit point total and their abilities will advance more quickly when leveling. These changes are reflected in the table below.
Squires at Higher Levels
| Knight Level | Starting Hit Points | Ability Score Points / Level | Hit Die Increase / Def. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 - 10 | 15 | +2 | +2 |
| 11 - 15 | 20 | +3 | +3 |
| 16 - 20 | 25 | +4 | +4 |
Knighthood
When a Squire has completed five levels of training under a Knight, they become a DM controlled NPC ally with levels in character classes and the background ‘Knight’. A DM should carefully consider which character class to draw from when fleshing out the graduated Squire’s NPC statblock, taking into account their predominant Training Styles, Skill Proficiencies, and final Aability Scores as shaped by the player; keep in mind that any character class can be a Knight.
A graduated Squire NPC leaves the player party to pursue their own goals but remains loyal to the Knight with whom they trained unless under extreme circumstances. They carry on the player Knight's ideals, training Squires of their own under the way of their order and keeping the legacy alive.
Alternative Squires by
Dael Kingsmill
Art is The Accolade by Edmund Blair Leighton
