Unarmed Parry (Weapon) and “beyond“

Hide · 02-08-2018, 12:08 PM

Hey there!

There's this perk from Power Ups 2 p.8 called "Unarmed Parry". And I quote: "You’ve adapted armed parrying motions to the empty hand. This lets you use a Melee Weapon parry – unmodified by a weapon’s Parry stat – as your unarmed parry"

So, what happens if I have "Unarmed Parry Knife" and "Judo"?

Let's say I got the following parry scores:

Knives = 17 (base parry of 14 + 3 from enhanced parry knife)
Judo (empty hands) = 9

And this is what I picture:

Having unarmed parry, I "transfer" my parry score with knives to my empty hands.
My empty handed parry becomes 17 (instead of 9).
Since I know Judo:

I cancel the usual -3 for parrying a weapon barehanded.
I have retreating bonuses.
I can parry multiple attacks with less penalties.

Otherwise I could take from Martial Arts p.51 "Skill Adaptation (Judo Parry defaults to Knife Parry)", which might resolve as described before.

How about it?

- Hide

Bruno · 02-08-2018, 12:16 PM

You are EITHER making a Judo parry OR making a knife parry. You can't combine the effects of both.

Similarly, you are EITHER making a Karate punch OR a Brawling punch, you can't stack the damage bonuses.

AlexanderHowl · 02-08-2018, 04:25 PM

The Unarmed Parry suffers from the same problems as a Brawling Parry when you attempt to parry a weapon (including -3 to Parry non-thrusting attacks and an increased risk of harm when you fail). Of course, a Parry of 17 is better than a Parry of 9, so it is probably worth it (though it means that you have a Judo-10 and Knife-20, so you are probably using Knife all of the time anyway).

A slightly more realistic scenario would be if you have a character with DX 14, Combat Reflexes, Broadsword (A) DX+10 [40]-24 and Brawling (E) DX+2 [4]-16 (giving you a Broadsword Parry of 16 and a Brawling Parry of 12). With Unarmed Parry (Broadsword), you would have a much better unarmed Parry with your Broadsword Skill than with your Brawling Skill. Your character could Parry two attacks per turn (one attack with your broadsword using your Broadsword Parry and one attack with other hand using your Unarmed Parry). Of course, with such a skilled character, it would really make more sense to take Off-Hand Weapon Training (Broadsword) and just wield two broadswords with DWA (Broadsword)-20.

02-08-2018, 12:08 PM	#1
Hide Join Date: Nov 2016	Unarmed Parry (Weapon) and “beyond“ Hey there! There's this perk from Power Ups 2 p.8 called "Unarmed Parry". And I quote: "You’ve adapted armed parrying motions to the empty hand. This lets you use a Melee Weapon parry – unmodified by a weapon’s Parry stat – as your unarmed parry" So, what happens if I have "Unarmed Parry Knife" and "Judo"? Let's say I got the following parry scores: Knives = 17 (base parry of 14 + 3 from enhanced parry knife) Judo (empty hands) = 9 And this is what I picture: Having unarmed parry, I "transfer" my parry score with knives to my empty hands. My empty handed parry becomes 17 (instead of 9). Since I know Judo: I cancel the usual -3 for parrying a weapon barehanded. I have retreating bonuses. I can parry multiple attacks with less penalties. Otherwise I could take from Martial Arts p.51 "Skill Adaptation (Judo Parry defaults to Knife Parry)", which might resolve as described before. How about it? - Hide

02-08-2018, 12:16 PM	#2
Bruno Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada	Re: Unarmed Parry (Weapon) and “beyond“ You are EITHER making a Judo parry OR making a knife parry. You can't combine the effects of both. Similarly, you are EITHER making a Karate punch OR a Brawling punch, you can't stack the damage bonuses. __________________ All about Size Modifier; Unified Hit Location Table A Wiki for my F2F Group A neglected GURPS blog

02-08-2018, 04:25 PM	#3
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Unarmed Parry (Weapon) and “beyond“ The Unarmed Parry suffers from the same problems as a Brawling Parry when you attempt to parry a weapon (including -3 to Parry non-thrusting attacks and an increased risk of harm when you fail). Of course, a Parry of 17 is better than a Parry of 9, so it is probably worth it (though it means that you have a Judo-10 and Knife-20, so you are probably using Knife all of the time anyway). A slightly more realistic scenario would be if you have a character with DX 14, Combat Reflexes, Broadsword (A) DX+10 [40]-24 and Brawling (E) DX+2 [4]-16 (giving you a Broadsword Parry of 16 and a Brawling Parry of 12). With Unarmed Parry (Broadsword), you would have a much better unarmed Parry with your Broadsword Skill than with your Brawling Skill. Your character could Parry two attacks per turn (one attack with your broadsword using your Broadsword Parry and one attack with other hand using your Unarmed Parry). Of course, with such a skilled character, it would really make more sense to take Off-Hand Weapon Training (Broadsword) and just wield two broadswords with DWA (Broadsword)-20.