Animals Parrying

[Dalren]

According to B376, "If you are fighting without weapons, or with at least one hand free, you may choose to parry bare-handed. Beings that lack hands (like most animals) can’t parry unarmed – they can only dodge."

I'm a little confused by this. I'm not sure that "hands" should be necessary for parrying. Based on my experience with karate (many years ago), parrying an incoming attack depended more on arm movements than anything actually done with the hand. Granted hands are necessary for any form of grappling follow up attack (think the Judo skill), but parrying itself does not. For example, to parry a punch, one can simply move the arm up the center of the body and then outward (towards the side of the body that arm is on) pushing the offending limb away with the back of the wrist. It's only when you follow up with your own attack that the prehensility of the hand becomes relevant. As a result, I'm not sure requiring a free "hand" should be necessary. I understand why most animals do not get a parry defense, at least in the case of anything Horizontal, but how about Semi-upright animals? Does it make sense that a chimpanzee ( a semi-upright animal with hands) can parry, but a bear ( a semi-upright animal with no fine manipulators) cannot? Anyone see any reason why a bear on it's hind legs could not parry using it's front legs?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Dalren

I'm a little confused by this. I'm not sure that "hands" should be necessary for parrying.

It should probably say arms rather than hands; most quadrupeds can't rationally parry. It doesn't matter a lot, though, as most animals have dodge that exceeds their unarmed parry vs weapons.

[Gollum]

I fully do agree with the original poster about parries... One can parry bare-handed even with a short weapon in the hand (like a knife or a gun for instance), because most karate parries are made with the arm and not the hand.

Parrying with the hand is dangerous, because the blow can easily break your fingers.


Having said that, I also do understand GURPS rules. Most animals never parriy. They prefer dodging.

So, we can suppose that creatures which don't have hands are not sapient enough to use parry techniques...

[Dalren]

I probably should have mentioned earlier that I'm exploring the idea in reference to a shapeshifting character with a respectable brawling skill. As a result, his brawling parry would be better than his dodge and he is intelligent enough to attempt to parry. Therefore, I'm primarily concerned with the physical possibility rather than the likelihood of a wild animal actually trying it.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Dalren

I probably should have mentioned earlier that I'm exploring the idea in reference to a shapeshifting character with a respectable brawling skill. As a result, his brawling parry would be better than his dodge and he is intelligent enough to attempt to parry. Therefore, I'm primarily concerned with the physical possibility rather than the likelihood of a wild animal actually trying it.

Dodge is "don't be there". Block is "put cover in the way". Parry is "put not-cover in the way", and is usually read as "put attack surface in the way".

It is physically possible for a number of animals to Parry. Its' merely suicidal for them to do so within their typical contexts. An intelligent shapeshifter has a different context where its' not necessarily stupid to do so.

[LemmingLord]

So if I have no hands shouldn't I be able to parry with my handless arms?

[Not]

Does anybody know how a Stegosaurus or an Ankylosaurus would actually use its tail weapon?

I recall Bambi fighting a rival for a doe's affection toward the end of the movie. Some of those maneuvers looked like parries to me. Giraffes battle by swatting necks; do we call the neck a striker?

Animal parries would make sense with certain monsters, such as the Manticore (tail).

[Figleaf23]

Chimps, felines and bears can be observed parrying in readily available wildlife video.

[Ulzgoroth]

You don't need arms to parry, of course. Martial Arts covers parrying with legs!

Leg parries have some considerable limitations, though. Many quadrupeds should probably suffer those issues in full. Some with particularly good forelimb mobility might not (cats, perhaps).

[Tinman]

A dear's antlers as well as the tails that were mentioned are strikers.
Strikers are allowed to parry. Most animals however don't have strikers.