Power Grappling and 'grappling rolls'

[Bruno]

I like Big Slow Guys as a character archetype, so I think you're stuck with me babbling away in this thread. Sorry. I promise not to bring minotaurs into the discussion though.


Cliche, ST 10, DX 14, HT 12, Judo 18, Power Grappling perk.
Mr Big, ST 18, DX 10, HT 12, Wrestling 15, Power Grappling perk.

Mr Big has bad active defenses against Cliche grappling him - the Perk doesn't help him any, whereas Cliche's high skill and high DX mean that he's good at evading Mr Big's attempts to grab him (by parry and dodge) and he can burn skill on Deceptive Attack to further destroy Mr Big's defenses.

When Cliche tries to judo throw Mr Big after parrying one of his crude attempts to grab, Mr Big is in trouble, because Cliche's attack is a to-hit roll vs active defense, and neither gets the benefit of the perk. Cliche is using Mr Bigs attack against him in support of the cliche. Working As Intended.

But if Cliche tries to judo throw Mr Big from a grapple, Mr. Big becomes nigh immovable - it's a contest of Judo vs ST, DX or grappling skill, and Mr. Big gets to make a ST-based grappling skill roll due to his perk. Suddenly instead of being 18 vs 18, it's now 18 vs 22. If Cliche tries a damaging throw, it's even harder to pull off, and Mr. Big can probably ignore him as he yanks on Mr. Bigs arm. Cliche could substitute ST-based Judo, but that would be kind of stupid.

A more balanced build for Mr Big that gave him ST 17 and put those 8 extra points into Wrestling and put the two points into a bit of Brawling, or some more interesting perks, or a technique where his Power Grappling would be put to good use, like Wrench Arm, would obviously be more effective.

Obviously Cliche can use something like Wrench Arm after grappling Mr Big and get to use ST-based Judo instead of ST as the basis for his roll, but Mr Big has the advantage coming and going. Not only does Mr Big get to use a ST-based Wrestling roll (effective 22 vs 18) in his attempt to Break Free before Cliche goes for the twist, but on the Quick Contest Mr Big has a high ST to resist the twist. And Cliche's swing-crushing damage is pretty sad compared to Mr Bigs big pile of HP. Mr Big, on the other hand, has ST 18 (or 17), for a far more dangerous Swing damage, AND is preventing Cliche from escaping with ST-based-wrestling, AND is using ST-Based-Wrestling in the contest vs Cliche to twist his arm off.