Power Grappling and 'grappling rolls'

[DouglasCole]

I'm going to forget the entire rest of the discussion for a moment and discuss an example, using Arm Lock, noting where Power Grappling may or may not apply.

A and B are fighting. A attacks B, and B rolls, and makes, a Judo or Wrestling based Parry. Power Grappling (hereafter PG) does NOT apply, since it's an active defense.

B now has the opportunity to do something nasty to A. He may attempt to use Arm Lock against A, by rolling against DX-based Arm Lock, which can be based on Judo or Wrestling. Again, PG does NOT apply, since the description on p. B403 explicitly says "...roll vs Judo or Wrestling to hit." [Emphasis mine].

Next turn, assuming the Lock succeeds, A may attempt to Break Free. This is a Quick Contest of ST, with fairly mongo bonuses for B if he's got A pinned or is grappling A with both hands, AND +4 because it's an Arm Lock. Yow.

However, let's say A has Power Grappling...a ha! In this case, instead of just ST, he may make a ST-based skill roll instead...basically 'floating the bonus' from his skill to his ST. In effect, his Judo or Wrestling skill helps him fight the lock; the more he knows, the better he can leverage his ST to break out. And yet, he's got to overcome up to a +14 bonus (Pinned plus Arm Lock), so you're going to have to be MUCH stronger AND much more skilled before this is remotely an issue.

Where it makes things more interesting is when B might want to do a ONE HANDED Arm Lock (Martial Arts p. 116). You still can't leverage PG to initiate the lock, because that's a to hit roll, so we're safe there. however, when the next turn comes around, and you're making your contest of ST at ST/2. You lose effectively ALL the bonuses unless you've got the guy Pinned. In reality, this means that normal people can never put on a one-handed Arm Lock; or rather, it's fairly easy to escape, since once you've got the lock (and you'd better be good enough to absorb the extra one hand penalties, and that's DX all the way) even a fairly strong person (ST12) will be even-up against a weakling of ST6, and at a significant disadvantage against ST10-12.

Now, if you have Power Grappling, the rules as written seem to suggest that you can float your skill bonus over to ST, making someone who spends to DX+4 get SOME benefit for those thousands of hours of training to his Arm Lock skill with one hand. If you wanted to, however, you could say the bonus adds to ST FIRST, and is then halved for one hand...a very defensible GM call. So in order to BREAK EVEN at a one-hand lock, you need ST12, DX+8 in Wrestling. With DX10, that's 32 points in Wrestling, 20pts in ST. To break EVEN with a ST10 guy.

For the opposite case, on the offensive, with two hands and Arm Lock, the bonuses are so extreme that PG will mainly be used to add to the ST roll to break free. In THIS case, it goes over 1:1, but you need enough ST and skill to overcome a routine +9 bonus here, PLUS overcoming any superior ST of the other guy. In this case, PG only makes it less than futile to even attempt.

I'm going to ask for help in coming up with examples of when you make each type of roll. The second concept in the PG description, allowing a ST-based skill roll to sub for Breaking Free, is not just a non-problem, I think it's great, and a good time where skill SHOULD be useful in helping out ST.