newb help? innate melee attack

[starslayer]

St based first appeared in gurps powers, which is pretty much a required book if you are going to do a lot of things with powers and abilities (much like how basic set has magic, but if you want to run a campaign with magic as a central feature your will all but require gurps magic and thaumatology).

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by onetrikpony

seems like that should have been in the basic set.

What would you cut to have it put in? :)

I often need things from other books. They often weren't even invented until years later but I'm glad someone came up with them. Hindsight is, as they say, 20:20 - and that's why we have supplements: for things that they didn't think of when the Basic Set was written.

[mehrkat]

The other thing to remember is that GURPS is about effects.

Just buy the striker. Take a look at the character's strength and buy the number of D of damage that is appropriate for that strength you are imagining.

At the lower point levels I suspect its cheaper to do that.

So you have a character of strength 15 you want to build a claw attack.

I would assume that would include at least Cutting 7/level slashing damage is 2d+1 (2.3 dice) total 16.1 base cost reach 1 and 2 (-25%) = 12.075 which I think its ok to round to 12 points
If you want to make it extra cool you could add 1D+1 of impaling 8/level 1.3 dice with melee (-25%) for a total of for 7.8 points (as an alternative attack it would only be 2 points

So for 14 points you get the damage. If you want the claws to be scary just add extra dice and say they are extra pointy (sharp etc)

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by A Ladder

Striking ST for one attack is -60%.

IME I only allow ST Based Innate Attacks be based off of Thrust. They way outpace just buying strength for damage purposes for less points if based on Swing.

I hope you aren't charging full price for that, as there's already a cheaper version of ST-Based that is based off Thrust.

[onetrikpony]

Originally Posted by Bruno

What would you cut to have it put in? :)

All of the exclamation points!

What I meant was that I'm having trouble imagining an innate melee attack where the damage isn't based on strength. I'm not sure what the original intent was but, on first read, I was thinking that you had to buy up levels of innate melee attack to match your strength score. :\ "What evs' just buy a sword."

ST-Based works better than Claws, Teeth, or Striker because it gives me a framework to add damage and penetration modifiers to the basic strength of a of a monster to make wierd weapons.

I'm trying to make other settings work in GURPS. Currently working on Starship Troopers and Cthulhutech. So I need Bugs and Monsters.

Thanks for the help :)

[onetrikpony]

Originally Posted by A Ladder

Striking ST for one attack is -60%.

IME I only allow ST Based Innate Attacks be based off of Thrust. They way outpace just buying strength for damage purposes for less points if based on Swing.

Sorry for the double post but it occurred to me that I don't understand the above.

AFICS it seems that, in terms of character points, ST-Based innate melee attacks are pretty balanced with owning a melee weapon. Obviously there are pro's and cons for each but they both do Thrust Or Swing damage right?

I get that; Striker, Sharp Teeth, Punches, Kicks and Claws only do thrust damage. I also notice that there is an ethic of following the physics of leverage such that basic thrust damage is roughly equal to 1/4 of your own hit points and basic swing is roughly 1/2 of your own hit points. From my reading so far, that works well for mundane settings up to about tech level 7. If you have a setting with magic or ultratech or any chance that playable characters are going to have Strikers, sharp teeth, or claws all bets are off. I don't see how swing damage for innate attacks would destroy the balance of that type of game.

But Please, Correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks.

Never mind. I figured it out.
Striking ST is [5] per point of ST which applies to swords
ST-Based is [5-8] per die of damage. (!)
Swords sux

[Nereidalbel]

Originally Posted by onetrikpony

Never mind. I figured it out.
Striking ST is [5] per point of ST which applies to swords
ST-Based is [5-8] per die of damage. (!)
Swords sux

What are you adding to a Crushing Attack to get -100% in limitations?

[onetrikpony]

Originally Posted by Nereidalbel

What are you adding to a Crushing Attack to get -100% in limitations?

Huh? you can only have 80% limitations. Right?

IDK. I meant that ST-based costs +100% per die of strength based damage. a crushing attack cost 5 points per die. I wasn't adding any limitations. Which I know is inaccurate because that 5 points is reduced by the Melee attack limitation (-30%)

Here's my analysis:
Conad buys ST 20 [200] and gets to hit people with a sword for 3d+3; [200cp]
Alien buys ST 20 [200] +0 die of cutting appendage [7] Melee attack C -20% and ST-Based +100% and he gets to poke people for 4d+2 [213cp]

Swing damage is increased by 1 die for every 4 points of Striking Strength cost; [20]
Every die of ST-based damage costs the value of (levels) of the damage type + 70% the value of (levels) of the damage type.

So to increase the damage you do by one die you can buy 4 points of Striking Strength [20] or 1 die of ST-Based Innate Melee Attack [crushing 9, cutting 12, impaling 14]
an average savings of 40%

[onetrikpony]

Sorry for the double post again.

An additional question;
how much should it cost or is there an enhancement that would give an innate melee attack the parry bonuses of a fencing weapon?

[Anaraxes]

Weapons don't have Parry bonuses. Skills do. If the weapon is suitable for use with Fencing (Staff, etc) methods and techniques, then you can use it with that skill and get those bonuses, with perhaps a Skill Adaptation Perk if the weapon can be learned with multiple skills, and a Form Mastery Perk to allow smooth switching between them. (See Martial Arts.)

If the attack is a piece of equipment, then just define the equipment, rather than try to make it an Innate Attack.