Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

We're not talking SM as in "it's 4 feet long therefore". On most creatures, it's just the SM of the creature. A human has SM zero mouth and limbs. However, there are traits that modify this.

Long Arms gives +1/level SM to your arms. Stretching (limbs only) can vary limb length. etc. etc. Short arms reduces effective SM, etc.

Martial Arts makes "Big Mouth" a 0 pt feature - if I make a human-sized creature with a crocodile head, with Big Mouth +5, you can attack its Jaw and Face hit locations at +5, BUT this crocodile-headed monstrosity would be able to bite, grapple, etc with its enormous jaws as if it were SM +5.

Remember that the gold standard is humans, and apes have very small jaws in comparison to overall body size, and humans are the worst of the lot.

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

Have you seen a terrier catch a squirrel or a rat? Or even playing with a stuffed toy?

Step 1: Seize victim by the back of the head and neck with your jaws.
Step 2: lift partly or completely off the ground.
Step 3: Vigorously jerk your head back and forth, causing the victims body to "flail" around.
The resulting injury is sort of "reverse whiplash". Instead of having a fixed body, and a (relatively small) loose head bobbing back and forth, you have a small fixed head and a big body, and the leverage point is the creatures neck. That's a LOT of force concentrated in a very important area.
Crunch.

Same head movement when applied to a much larger victim results in "worrying" or "thrashing". On a shark, the saw edges on the sides of their teeth are sliced back and forth through the victims flesh, and they essentially cut a neat hunk out of the victim.

On most mammals, relatively conical teeth help the predator keep a good grip on a hunk of flesh, and all the thrashing around and worrying rips a messy chunk out of the victim, or breaks a limb, or possibly twists the limb right off.

This is a technique that is generally popular among predators with short thick necks and powerful shoulder muscles, along with strong jaws and either deeply rooted teeth, or quickly regrown teeth. It puts a LOT of stress on tooth roots, and the muscles are required to a) exert the force and b) protect the predator from getting his own whiplash.

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

Okay, a terrier digging into a smaller squirrel is one thing, but a cat-person attacking a normal person with "cat fu" (as opposed to Wolf Fu) is another...

Should a cat-person really be able to do Swing damage to someone with his mouth, if they are an equal or larger SM?

I can see it if the jaws are really tough, really large, and built for that kind of thing -- but I can't see it on a cat person without a very large mouth, and I find it unlikely to be done with most conventional "anthro kitties". Maybe a hyena or wolf person, or a large dog, but a cat? They use their claws more than they do head muscles.

That was my point; I wasn't imagining a terrier with a squirrel, but a "cat girl" and a human.

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

there i more see latching onto the shoulder with the then then going claws of fury ;)

Assuming they don't thing their superior dex (and combat reflexes) can keep them un hit as they dace around you swiping with cat-fu claw swipes

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

The Targeted Attacks are written up incorrectly. You must specify the kind of strike, not just the skill - and the order is reversed. So it's not:

Targeted Attack (Face / Karate)

it's

Targeted Attack (Karate Punch/Face).

If you want them to use it for both punches and kicks, you need to list it (and learn it) separately.

Also, Ground Guard isn't so useful a perk if you don't have a ground grappling skill; it's not a perk I can see many practitioners picking up. They'd spend 1 point for a +1 to grapple when both they and their opponent are on the ground, but 1 point in Wrestling would be better spent - you get vastly more for it.

I'd suggest Rapid Retraction (Punch) might be very cat-like, if you are going for the housecat type rather than the big pouncer type. But with Sumo Wrestling and Wrench Limb and Neck Snap, it sounds more like a pouncer type.

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

That's not a neck snap. That's a grapple using teeth. Key difference.

Also, shoulders don't really equal neck.

Get in close, grab with teeth, realize that your opponent just stabbed you with a close-range dagger. ;) Much better.

Sounds like a Siberian Tiger... that, I could maybe see.

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

Never said it was I was merely describing the typo of moves i see A Feliniod with Cat-fu would do

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

And you're very right on that type of maneuver. ;)

Something would clear this right up for me, though: Are the techniques "optional"? Like, say, would I be choosing one technique OR another technique?

If they aren't optional, I'd make the "neck snap (Bite)" technique more of a "lense" type thing, with an optional specialization in types of Cat Fu. Say, there's Housecat Fu and then Siberian Tiger Fu and the like.

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

You never ever have to buy or use the techniques. Consider them a "recommended stunt list", a "suggested maneuver list", or the like, with the added bonus of being able to improve one if it turns into your signature move.

Re: [MA Style] Cat-Fu
 

So it's not quite the styles from 3e, where you would buy a minimum amount in the techniques and skills when you bought the style, unless they were filed under "optional"?

Sounds cool to me. I like the change.