The JƤger ā a Barbarian subclass for Hunters, Trackers, and Woodland Warriors
The jƤger is a flexible Barbarian subclass, with several features that let you customize how you approach the battlefield. Itās built as a single-target hunter, tracking quarry like enemy officers and eliminating them with extreme prejudice.
Historically, the JƤgerkorps were the elite troops of German principalities like Hesse-Cassel that provided combat auxiliaries to the British Army. Drawn from highly militaristic societies, most jƤgers were foresters with extensive hunting experience in woodland terrain that closely resembled the wooded terrain of the North American interiorāand a far cry in combat expertise from their fellow German conscripts, who were mainly assigned garrison duties.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
Though they were drawn from a variety of German states, the Americans called these troops Hessians. They are mentioned directly as one of the grievances in the Declaration of Independence, using the term āforeign mercenaries.ā This description is dramatized for rhetorical effect. The practice of recruiting foreign auxiliaries was common in European warfare of the time, particularly for a traditionally small land force like the British Army.
Though many Hessians were effective soldiers, equating them to ādesolation and tyrannyā is a form of period propaganda used to drum up support for the Patriot cause. Many Hessian troops were landless tenants, and the Revolutionary leadership promoted several schemes which offered plots of land or other inducements for Hessians to defect (including JƤgers). After the warās end, more than a third of Hessian prisoners of war elected to stay in America rather than return to Europe.
Source:Ā National Archives
Nations & Cannons is a D&D campaign setting for historical adventures! Straight from the pages of history, our ruleset offers new backgrounds, feats, and character options for living and fighting in the Age of Revolutions and beyond. For the next 3 months, our revised firearm rules supplement called Flintlocks & Fulminatesāincluding much of the new content in this postāisĀ available for free! This projectās educational goals means that the Nations & CannonsĀ quickstart rulesĀ will also always be free to download.
If you want more long 18th Century and American Revolution content, join ourĀ DiscordĀ server. Weāre launching our second Kickstarter campaign this summer calledĀ The American Crisis: Dark and Bloody Ground, a Revolutionary War sourcebook and adventure campaign covering the war in the South and West, from the French intervention to the climactic showdown at Yorktown (1778-1781). You canĀ follow the project on our prelaunch page!
