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Old 02-17-2019, 08:00 AM   #1
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Absurdly difficult but realistic techniques [Martial Arts]

I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to share the absurdly difficult but realistic techniques that they have developed for their characters. I will get started with a couple of techniques from my own Elephant Warrior Style:

The Elephant's Foot [H]
Default: prerequisite skill-14
Prerequisite: Brawling or Karate; cannot exceed the prerequisite skill.

The Elephant's Foot is a powerful downward kick that minimizes the effectiveness of an opponent's parry while improving the attacker's dodge. The attack deals +2 damage or +1 damage per die, whichever is better, and inflicts a -2 to opponent's parry. The Elephant's Foot is designed to maximize the stability and balance of its practitioners, giving them a +2 to their Dodge.

The Elephant's Tusk [A]
Default: prerequisite skill-12
Prerequisite: Brawling or Karate; cannot exceed the prerequisite skill.

The Elephant's Tusk is a powerful sweeping punch that minimizes the effectiveness of the opponent's dodge while improving the attacker's parry. The attack deals +2 damage or +1 damage per die, whichever is better, and inflicts a -2 to opponent's dodge. The sweeping motions help with the attacker's own defense though, and grants a +2 to Parry. Unfortunately, the attacker suffers damage if they hit a surface with any hard DR, though the attack does ignore the cap of '9' for Wild Swings to the side hexes.

Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 02-17-2019 at 09:17 AM.
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Old 02-17-2019, 08:03 AM   #2
whswhs
 
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Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Absurdly difficult but realistic techniques [Martial Arts]

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
I was just wondering if anyone would be willing to share the absurdly difficult but realistic techniques that they have developed for their characters. I will get started with a couple of techniques from my own Elephant Warrior Style.
How did you determine that these are realistic?
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Old 02-17-2019, 09:16 AM   #3
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: Absurdly difficult but realistic techniques [Martial Arts]

They follow the guidelines concerning realistic techniques in Martial Arts.
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Old 02-17-2019, 09:35 AM   #4
RyanW
 
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Default Re: Absurdly difficult but realistic techniques [Martial Arts]

So an attack that gives you as much bonus to defense as All-Out Defense? Even if the book technically allows it, I'm not seeing it.
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Old 02-17-2019, 11:19 PM   #5
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Default Re: Absurdly difficult but realistic techniques [Martial Arts]

Yeah, most of the techniques that give a bonus on one factor tend to give a penalty on something else for the sake of balance. These techniques have no drawback and seem overpowered.
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Old 02-18-2019, 01:31 AM   #6
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Default Re: Absurdly difficult but realistic techniques [Martial Arts]

Note that all techniques, by default, can be attempted without spending points on them. Which means that as written, anyone could perform these and receive the same bonus on Parry or Dodge as if they had taken All-Out Defense. Which really seems designed to remove All-Out Defense as a combat option for anyone with even 1 point in Brawling or Karate.

Needless to say, it's not 'realistic' for anyone, no matter his training, to Dodge equally well at the same time as he performs a powerful downward kick as he would while maneuvering exclusively to maximize his ability to Dodge. Nor should making any attack at one target make you better at Parrying attacks from anyone else around you than focusing on those threats and defending against them with all of your attention.

To be realistic, techniques have to do more than just follow the rules from the chapter on realistic techniques. They also have to pass a sanity check and not be obviously illogical, in what they mechanically do doesn't match the description. Dividing your attention away from other threats to make a challenging attack on one of many foes is never a better way to defend against those you are ignoring.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-18-2019 at 01:36 AM.
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Old 02-18-2019, 05:45 AM   #7
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Default Re: Absurdly difficult but realistic techniques [Martial Arts]

I don't think they are very realistic as you are basically doing diametrically opposed things as the same time. But at -12 & -14 I don't really care, that's a massive penalty, so I'd call it the settings secret ultimate techniques (and thus not allow people to try them without some kind of background or buy in).
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