Avatar's Bending, how would it work ?

[D10]

Me and a few friends are trying to tinker some sort of spell/super power tree to create element bending art as seen in the cartoon avatar.

So far my initial ideas.

To be able to start learning the bending skills, one needs Magery (Earthbending) or (Firebending) or (Waterbending) etc...

it works just like normal magery, but will cost less and give you acess to a more limited set of skills.

But the idea is to also create a way to lower spell costs in order to make benders be able to do stuff wizards would need a higher energy cost in order to do. The drawback is that you can never fully erase the need for gestures.

But you can incorporate those gestures in your martial arts skills

and thats where I have no idea how to proceed

[David Johnston2]

By and large bending abilities are limited enough that they are better represented as advantages, telekinesis or innate attack.

[crimin]

A really good start can be found here:

http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=30806

[dataweaver]

I'd strongly recommend Power-Ups 1: Imbuements and Martial Arts. Start with the martial styles that represent the respective elements, then add in Bending skills (i.e., Combination Imbuement Skills). In particular, Project Blow (Unarmed) is a core component of every Bending skill. Combine it with Burning Strike (Unarmed) to get Fire Bending; since Air and Water attacks do Crushing damage, Project Blow works fine on its own for them. For those Bending skills that utilize existing elements (e.g., Earth-Bending), apply the Environmental limitation to the Imbuement advantage.

[Pragmatic]

Bending Martial Arts

Fighting styles

The fighting choreography of the show draws from martial arts; the fighting styles and weaponry are based on Chinese martial arts, with each bending art corresponding to a certain real-world style. The creators referred to Ba Gua for airbending, Hung Gar for earthbending, Northern Shaolin for firebending, and Tai Chi for waterbending.[20] The only exception to this is Toph, who employs a Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis style.[33] The series employed Sifu Kisu of the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association as a martial arts consultant.[34]

Each fighting style was chosen to represent the element it projected:

* Tai Chi focuses on alignment, body structure, breath, and visualization. This technique is the foundation of "Waterbending" in the series.[20]
* Hung Gar was chosen for its firmly rooted stances and powerful strikes to represent the solid nature of earth. This martial art is the basis of "Earthbending" in the series.[20]
o Chu Gar Southern Praying Mantis has distinguishing movements and unique footwork that are employed by Toph Bei Fong to complement her blindness, giving her a unique style of Earthbending.[33]
* Northern Shaolin Kung Fu uses strong arm and leg movements. This technique is the foundation of "Firebending" in the series.[20]
* Ba Gua uses dynamic circular movements and quick directional changes.[20] This technique uses centripetal force to generate power, and uses nearly constant circular movement to create angles between the combatants. This martial art is the basis of "Airbending" in the series.[35][36]