Automatic Deceptive Attack

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by simply Nathan

I don't even know what a "slurbow" is or what book it'd be found in

Lowtech, page 74. " A COMPOSITE CROSSBOW (p. 72) with a rather unusual arrow guide (p. 78) built in that can be loaded with one small dart or, remarkably, several. Statistics are given for two medium-sized darts or five smaller ones."

There's also Panjagan, from Persia, which is a kind of clip or fastener to hold five or ten arrows together. Page 78.

In both cases the performance of the weapons is pretty heavily compromised in favor of ROF. The Panjagan give hit, damage, and range penalties. It's noted in the Panjagan entry that it's kind of a trick shooting thing, just like knocking two arrows for a Dual Weapon Attack (allowed in Martial Arts) or the fast draw/fast knock/fast firing sequence (allowed in Martial Arts) for plain old archery.

But like the arrow DWA or the fast draw/fast knock/fast firing sequence, if people can do it on an archery range in Youtube videos (aiming at Styrofoam targets), it will be appropriate to do in many tabletop games, particularly fantasy or wuxia kinda things (and be much more combat-effective then it should be).

Having played a Heroic Archer, arguably the fast firing thing "should" have a damage penalty as well. "Realistically" there's no way you're drawing fully. And really the DWA should just be treated like a 2-arrow Panjagan (possibly lower penalties since there's fewer arrows) whether they're tethered or not.

But I wouldn't implement those "Harsh Realism For Stunt Archers" changes unless my players really wanted a game focused on stunt archery on a range. In a game where they're using a bow in combat, I think they'd turn them down.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Bruno

It's more like a Wildcard technique. Hard technique, costs 5 points to buy off the -4 penalty, *3 = 15 points.

At that cost... it actually comes into the realm of worth it.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

At that cost... it actually comes into the realm of worth it.

This is a -4/-2 DA, not a -2/-1 DA, I should note. I reflexively wrote that one up as the mirror of Telegraphic Attack - but I think the OP's advantage is a -2/-1 DA.

So, probably even more attractive to you now.

Requiring a 100-point buy-in (Altered Time Rate) is much harsher than requiring Trained by a Master, so I normally wouldn't charge any further UBs.

However, a technique shouldn't be just 'Deceptive attack' - That's really a little broad. It should be 'Deceptive Attack under these circumstances'. So, arguably, you could tuck a 5 point UB in there, I wouldn't cry over it.

This being a backformation of an advantage, not a real technique, I'm also happy generalizing that to 10 points per -2/-1 Deceptive Attack if you wanted to make it leveled.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Bruno

This is a -4/-2 DA, not a -2/-1 DA, I should note. I reflexively wrote that one up as the mirror of Telegraphic Attack - but I think the OP's advantage is a -2/-1 DA.

Ah, in that case no. It might be 'too' good. Not by much, but slightly.

This being a backformation of an advantage, not a real technique, I'm also happy generalizing that to 10 points per -2/-1 Deceptive Attack if you wanted to make it leveled.

I even think 15/lvl is appropriate. It's not worth it for Johnny One (to Three) Weapon Skill(s), but for anyone with 4 or more regularly used weapon skills, it's gold.

[PK]

GURPS Martial Arts stipulates that "all Deceptive Attacks" is too broad to be a technique that can be improved. However, you can legally build (and improve!) a technique that imposes -4 to skill for every -1 to the target's defenses. So start with that, then triple it to make it a wildcard technique, and you get 12 points/level.

Because this should arguably be a Hard technique and not an Average one, there should also be an additional 12-point buy-in -- but if you instead require ETS or ATR, that should provide comparable balance. I'd suggest you can buy 1 level for ETS and 1 level per level of ATR. Obviously, this is an extremely cinematic ability.

[Donny Brook]

What would a Disadvantage be worth that gives you -2 on all your attacks? The equivalent positive value would give you the price for having 'deceptive' on your attacks.

[starslayer]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

What would a Disadvantage be worth that gives you -2 on all your attacks? The equivalent positive value would give you the price for having 'deceptive' on your attacks.

-2 DX! Only for attacks (-50%?) -15

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

What would a Disadvantage be worth that gives you -2 on all your attacks? The equivalent positive value would give you the price for having 'deceptive' on your attacks.

That would be an anti-Talent. They are discussed in Power-Ups: Talents. I think the cost there was -15 points/level, but that included "you can't learn the skill". The problem is that someone who does not rely on attacks - a telepath, for instance - get free points for this.

[Leynok]

I actually made up a similar Advantage a while ago, though I hadn't been able to test run it yet.
I priced it equal to Enhanced Defence (Parry) since it's essentially the same thing in opposite (+2 to skill only to parry, and +2 to skill only for deceptive), so [5] for one melee weapon and [10] for all.
This feel roughly accurate when looking at the price scale as well, [8] for a +2 to Skill along with modifiers preventing you to Parry and forcing you to use them for Deceptive Attacks? I'm not 100% sure what the figures would be, but putting it on the same level as Enhanced Defence (Parry) seems roughly right.

[aesir23]

Originally Posted by JazzJedi

Deceptive attacks can represent extremely fast attacks that are difficult to defend against. So, it seems logical that a character with Altered Time Rate and/or Enhanced Time Sense could have an automatic penalty to defend against from their sheer speed.

I'm not against this on principle, but I'd like to point out a couple of things about ATR and ETS:

1. People with ATR can take All-Out Attack (Determined) and use the +4 bonus to make a -2 Deceptive Attack, then use their second Maneuver to defend normally. So to some extent, they have this built in already.

Additionally, if they simply attack multiple times that cause penalties to additional parries.

2. People with ETS don't move any faster and wouldn't necessarily be any harder to defend against.

That said, I can see several other situations where bonus to deceptive attacks would be warranted, so there could still be a place for such an advantage.