Character Optimization: Best and worst combat Techniques

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

I know that many answers to this thread will fall in the 'depends' category, but in general, what Techniques have you found to be the most useful (perhaps under a certain moderately common set of circumstances, perhaps not), which have you found never worth spending a point on etc.

3e was pretty heavy on those - notably Aggressive Parry, Hit Location, and possibly Riposte/Counterattack. I'm wondering what of that remains in 4e.

Thanks in advance!

[Nymdok]

Targetted Attack
Kick
Knee Strike
Off Hand Weapon training

In low tech games I love Axe/shield and as skill improves, Axe/Axe. Kick and Knee strike in my brawling line helps me out when things get close.

Nymdok

[Dustin]

Maxed-out Feint for opponents with high defenses.

My players love Close Combat (Broadsword) - very handy against creatures who use natural attacks and therefore want to stay in close.

[nanoboy]

Feint is definitely good, as one of the main reasons to increase skill at higher levels is to increase Feint. Picking out a Targeted Attack is good for non-fantasy games, and it's okay for fantasy games. (Creatures without that hit location are immune to your Targeted Attack, of course.) Having some sort of specialized attack can be very helpful, i.e., Disarm, Sweep, or Arm Lock.

The most important thing to remember is that you should not take four or more techniques for a given skill. When you do so, increasing your skill level is equivalent to increasing all four techniques, except that increasing your skill level also increases other unimproved techniques, as well as your parry. Three techniques isn't too much better, especially if they are Hard and cannot be improved much.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Nymdok

Targetted Attack
Kick
Knee Strike
Off Hand Weapon training

In low tech games I love Axe/shield and as skill improves, Axe/Axe. Kick and Knee strike in my brawling line helps me out when things get close.

Nymdok

Arm and Finger Lock. I had a new to GURPS player who wasn't looking happy with the system till he parried and arm locked the armored guy he couldn't effectively hurt. At that point he Pwned the guy and was an enthusiastic player from then on.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

I know that many answers to this thread will fall in the 'depends' category, but in general, what Techniques have you found to be the most useful (perhaps under a certain moderately common set of circumstances, perhaps not), which have you found never worth spending a point on etc.

Nyx the Barbarian is _terribly_ fond of Targeted Attack, Flail:Swing/Skull because there's no kill like overkill. You'll be facing few opponents without a Skull location. Most of those will be Homogenous and by definition no TA is useful against those.

Nyx has a TA:Groin in reserve for dealing with giants and other beings to tall to immediately brainsplatter. After the TA:Groin most of them bend over and she can reach their Skulls anyway.

TA:Swing/Neck seems most popular for cutting weapons but isn't really as devastating. TA:Thrust/Vitals can max your damage with a relatively weak weapon and TA:Face can get you around most common armor.

I personally rate Counterattack higher than most of the alternatives. It gives slightly better return than Feint and doesn't waste an Attack action.

Riposte doesn't look like a good deal to me compared to Counterattack and I would generally not choose it.

As a general principle you just don't take too many Techniques for one character. One TA and Counterattack would probably be about it. The relative merits of other Techniques after that become moot.

[aesir23]

Probably because I train in Hsing-I and have been taught a certain philosophy of fighting, but I love taking Counter-Attack, Exotic Hand Strike, and Targeted Attack (something squishy for exotic hand strike, such as neck, groin, or vitals.) It's a potent combination.

[PK]

From a pure optimization standpoint, it's rarely worth the points to improve a Hard technique with a -1 default. So that means that, while it's a good idea to use Hammer Fist, Exotic Hand Strike, Knee Strike, etc., I wouldn't sink the 2 points into any of them to buy off the -1. Aggressive Parry is more fuzzy -- if you use it a lot, it can be worth buying off.

Kicking is no longer a "must-have" (since the "everything defaults from it" crock was closed), but it's still a good investment for anyone who fights with weapons. With a sword and shield in your hands, you're not going to use that Brawling for much else, so you might as well drop 3 points for what works out to +2 to effective skill in most situations.

Counterattack is an excellent choice to maximize for just about any fighter. It's essentially worthless at default, but the more points you sink into it, the better it gets.

If you have the patience to feint (which should include anyone expecting to face decently-trained foes, but let's face it -- some players just can't get past "wasting a turn" instead of attacking non-stop), Feint remains as potent as it was in 3e. If you have a skill edge on your foe, you can slaughter him, and it's great for getting around opponents built with high Dodges.

Targeted Attack is the last obvious one. Unless you've already "maxed out" your techniques (by taking 2-3 that won't be used simultaneously) with those that you'd rather have, you should always consider a good TA. Skull, eye, and neck are all good options -- the higher the penalty, the better. As for my first paragraph, buying off a mere -2 for the vitals is nice, but being able to buy off -5 to hit the eye or -4 for the skull is better.

In a high-point game, but one that doesn't allow exotic advantages, every fighter should consider at least one Combination. It's a reasonably priced way to get extra attacks, and some can be devastating. Frankly, I think a "What's your favorite Combination?" thread might be interesting -- I think I'll start one! (EDIT: And I did.)

[Agramer]

Maxed out Feint(preferably perked for total of +6 to skill).

Maxed out one targeted attack(location depends on weapon you use)

Than ..
T1: Feint

T2: Deceptive Targeted Attack

That nets nice -8 ++(approximately ) to opponents Active defenses and essentially drops one foe per 2 seconds.

[Christopher R. Rice]

I think the best combo I've seen so far is:

Sexy Feints [1] (Allows use of Sex Appeal for the Feint Technique)
Technique Mastery (Feint [Sex Appeal) [1]
Feint (Sex Appeal) PS+7 [8]

Best 10 points one of my players ever spent...of course she also bought her Neck Snap...reallllly high.

Ghostdancer