Death dealer

Death dealers are deadly rogues who have made killing into their living. Experts at their job, death dealers are rightly feared and experienced adherents to the path are extremely difficult to defeat in combat. Though death dealers aren't necessarily evil, they skirt the path of sadism, making it difficult for any to truly be good.

Culture
The motivations driving a death dealer can be innumerably variable, though most would admit that all death dealers, regardless of their origins, are "born" killers and are at heart, a little bit sadistic. Still, most death dealers realize that what they do is dirty and few take the path lightly, driven to it by reasons as varying as religion, ambition, or vengeance. Many, but not all are professionals, fighting either as gladiators or professional monster slayers. Even those who aren't typically view their work as though they were, if only to lengthen their longevity further, starting fights only if provoked and once enraged, giving no quarter unless defeated or interested in furthering their reputation through suvivors' tales of horror.

Death dealers, by the nature of their profession, have few ideas of honor in combat or "fair" play. Any fighting is dirty, they profess, maintaining that smart warriors know to use any advantage they possibly can to get an edge over their opponent. Poison, pain, or just a straight-up face to face confrontation are all viable tactics in a death dealer's philosophy and it is this attitude, along with their unique abilities, that unite death dealers as a group. Likewise, once a fight has begun there is little chance of expecting either mercy or surrender from a death dealer.

Abilities
Because their philosophy often revolves around the use of "dirty" tactics, death dealers pick up more than a few tricks as a part of their fighting regimen. These allow death dealers, universally, to put their foes at a disadvantage since their techniques are typically unpredictable and difficult to defend against. Likewise, death dealers learn to enhance their own edge even as they deprive their enemies of theirs, dealing deadlier blows after a particularly invigorating action. So good and so comfortable do experienced death dealers become in these methods that, as the battle rages on and they begin to deal the last blows to a dying foe they become enthralled and rejuvenated, ignoring their own pain at the expense of their enemy.

Death dealer exploits are just as disreputable as their wielders, building upon the philosophy of fatalism and suffering that death dealers embrace. Sizing strike is an exploit learned early on by death dealers that rattles their foe's nerves while also temporarily invigorating the death dealer, making them more yet more deadly. Gruesome kill, another technique, relies upon the dreadful reputation and indisputable skill of a death dealer to instill fear within the hearts of a death dealer's enemies, putting them at a disadvantage.