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Old 09-30-2017, 03:27 PM   #7
Kelly Pedersen
 
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
Default Re: Trying to make Black Widow

Ok, so, to figure out how much damage you do unarmed, start with a) your ST, which sets your basic "swing" and "thrust" damage (see the "Damage Table", p. B16), b) check the stats for unarmed attacks, which are listed along with other weapons in the Equipment chapter (p. B271 for the weapons tables, under Brawling and Boxing), or see if any of your techniques change the base damage, and c) apply any bonuses that apply for the skills or techniques you took.

So, for example, say you have ST 16, DX 15, Karate-16, and Exotic Hand Strike. Your base damage with a karate punch would be 1d+1 (base thrust damage) -1 (because a punch, by default, does thrust-1 damage), +2 (because having Karate skill at DX+1 or better adds +1/die), for a net of 1d+2 damage. Your Exotic Hand Strike, on the other hand (<-hah!), ends up at 1d+3, because according to the technique description, when you use it you roll thrust damage, not thrust-1, and the bonus for Karate still applies.

As to the question of how to build Black Widow in general, I would have to say you probably can't quite build her on only 250 points. She's a super-class martial artist, capable of keeping up with people like Captain America and Iron Man in a fight. 500 points or more is probably required. But if you want to get someone who's like Black Widow, just not quite as potent, here's what I'd suggest.

You'll definitely need high DX. She's very acrobatic in general, and her strikes and such seem to usually hit, and high DX will help with all of that. ST is the next priority, and it probably should be quite high as well. She's capable of a variety of stunts that absolutely require impressive strength to pull off - grappling larger-than-human aliens, knocking out humans in one or two punches, and so on. You might be able to save some points by buying mostly Striking ST instead of full levels of ST, however - pretty much all of her strength stunts that I can think of just need Striking ST, and she doesn't seem crazy tough; she mostly avoids damage rather than soaking it.

Next, for advantages, you'll want Trained by a Master. It unlocks a bunch of useful cinematic stuff Black Widow can pull off, and justifies buying up some cinematic techniques that other, non-amazing martial artists could try, but not train.

Lastly (though only in the sense of "after the rest of the stuff above", not as in "after the rest of the character is built", buy her Karate skill up quite high (probably in the 20s), and similarly a grappling skill - her movie version, at least, heavily favours grappling (consider her signature takedown of "wrap legs around target's neck, twist to make them fall/break neck", which is definitely a grappling maneuver). It's arguable whether her grappling skill is Judo or Wrestling. I lean slightly toward Wrestling, but that's because I just don't remember her doing too many throws, which are sort of Judo's signature thing, and I might just be forgetting a bunch of scenes where she does throw people.

Anyway, all those combined will make a pretty effective unarmed combatant. You'll need to add some other exotic or cinematic traits, things like Enhanced Dodge or Parry, Luck, and stuff like that to have her really keep up with superheroes, though - in GURPS, an unarmed combatant can do that sort of thing, but they do need to pay for it.
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