[MA] Finger Lock - what's the point?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by WingedKagouti

A Finger Lock can be extremely painful if applied correctly and it only takes one hand to apply/maintain, leaving your other arm free. You need much more control and/or strength to apply the same amount of pain with an Arm Lock, and even more if you attempt to do it one handed.

You generally don't use a Finger Lock to damage, you use it to control.

That's at least my experience from back when I was practicing Jujutsu several years ago.

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Quite. An eight-year-old with good knowledge of finger locks could, with proper technique, take a grown man to the ground. In fact, I've both seen it done and taught it.

Yup. This. As someone who has seen this actually used in real life "combat" conditions (my old boss did it to rowdy drunks as a way to quell any friends he might have and not cause lasting harm to the subject) it is impressive as hell. My best friend studied akido for a long time and I've seen him pull this off as well. Again, as a deterrent. It still hurts like the dickens, but I've seen it mostly used to get that +4 bonus to Intimidate. Just my two cents.