[MA] Grab and Smash / Kiss the Wall: Face + Wall Combo?

weevis · 08-14-2019, 09:11 AM

I'm stuck: Can someone please talk me through how a Martial Arts combination would work involving grabbing someone by the head and slamming their face into a wall? Here is my stream-of-consciousness attempt to do this, which I think is wrong:

The Grab and Smash > Kiss the Wall rules (Martial Arts p. 118) seem like the way to handle this. It says I have to perform a two-handed grapple first.

OK I need a grappling skill: How about Wrestling. Grappling defaults to torso but *can* target other body parts. I actually want to target my foe's face for damage but it seems descriptively weird to say "I grab them by the face" for a slam. I could target the hair, which might be skull (?) for -7. Not sure. I see that grappling a particular body costs only half the hit location penalties (so: -4).

That means I have a targeted attack as a hard technique for my first attack in the combo: Wrestling/Grapple/Skull (-4).

Next I need to smash the face into the wall. The rules say I "can target any hit location but the feet" -- that's weird. I guess I shouldn't have grappled by the skull in the first move? Then it says I have to pay "full penalties" for hit location. Face is -5 but that seems like I am paying twice! I've already targeted the skull in the previous move! It seems like if I've already grappled their head I should be targeting the wall, which is a pretty big target. Should I not have grappled the head?

So then with these reservations if I go ahead anyway I have another targeted attack / hard technique as the second attack in the two-attack combo: Wrestling/Smash/Face (a.k.a. Kiss the Wall) (-5).

Then I put these two into a two-attack combination.

I feel like I have done this wrong as I am double-counting the location targeting. The rules *seem* to let me do a torso grapple as the first move and then smash the face, since the Kiss the Wall section says "any hit location" after a grapple. That would save me a -4 penalty on the first technique, which is good. Now I don't feel like I'm double-counting, but I am having a hard time imagining this move. Am I bear-hugging my enemy around the middle, pivoting them horizontally, then driving their face into the wall like a jousting knight aims a lance? Or maybe I should just not worry about my mental image?

Obviously, I'm confused. Hoping someone can help!

08-14-2019, 09:11 AM	#1
weevis Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: 3.165, -3.048, -0.0818	[MA] Grab and Smash / Kiss the Wall: Face + Wall Combo? I'm stuck: Can someone please talk me through how a Martial Arts combination would work involving grabbing someone by the head and slamming their face into a wall? Here is my stream-of-consciousness attempt to do this, which I think is wrong: The Grab and Smash > Kiss the Wall rules (Martial Arts p. 118) seem like the way to handle this. It says I have to perform a two-handed grapple first. OK I need a grappling skill: How about Wrestling. Grappling defaults to torso but can target other body parts. I actually want to target my foe's face for damage but it seems descriptively weird to say "I grab them by the face" for a slam. I could target the hair, which might be skull (?) for -7. Not sure. I see that grappling a particular body costs only half the hit location penalties (so: -4). That means I have a targeted attack as a hard technique for my first attack in the combo: Wrestling/Grapple/Skull (-4). Next I need to smash the face into the wall. The rules say I "can target any hit location but the feet" -- that's weird. I guess I shouldn't have grappled by the skull in the first move? Then it says I have to pay "full penalties" for hit location. Face is -5 but that seems like I am paying twice! I've already targeted the skull in the previous move! It seems like if I've already grappled their head I should be targeting the wall, which is a pretty big target. Should I not have grappled the head? So then with these reservations if I go ahead anyway I have another targeted attack / hard technique as the second attack in the two-attack combo: Wrestling/Smash/Face (a.k.a. Kiss the Wall) (-5). Then I put these two into a two-attack combination. I feel like I have done this wrong as I am double-counting the location targeting. The rules seem to let me do a torso grapple as the first move and then smash the face, since the Kiss the Wall section says "any hit location" after a grapple. That would save me a -4 penalty on the first technique, which is good. Now I don't feel like I'm double-counting, but I am having a hard time imagining this move. Am I bear-hugging my enemy around the middle, pivoting them horizontally, then driving their face into the wall like a jousting knight aims a lance? Or maybe I should just not worry about my mental image? Obviously, I'm confused. Hoping someone can help!