[DF] 125 pt start?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Toadkiller_Dog

Intentionally and realistically, yes. My solution was to turn a genre switch on - a rule that folks with TBAM, and many (but not all) monsters, get to count their unarmed attacks as armed for purposes of being injured on a parry.

We used the same house rule in mlangsdorfs DF game as a low grade patch. It's basically a free set of striker limbs without the damage bonuses, which would be pretty cheap even if you made PCs pay for it. I don't know if I'd call it more than 5 points to count all your unarmed attacks as weapons for that purpose if I were inclined to charge for it (no other benefits at that price though).

The "problem" for a DF martial artist or monk type character who's supposed to be an unarmed fighter, is that he's still stuck with the other problems:

• No trading money for swing damage or even simple damage bonuses
• No trading money for other damage types
• No access to quality and magical weapon upgrades
• Must make physical contact with the enemy (risking spikes, acid oozes, and what have you)
• Only risky uses of reach 1 attacks, no access to reach 2+ attacks at all (outside of I suppose some risky combinations with a kick, which is getting into "shooting yourself in the face" territory)

And absolutely, those are deliberate and realistic. No arguments there: if they weren't realistic, armies would be full of open-handed fighters, not armed fighters - so much cheaper. I'm just not sure -15 points for the vow to only fight unarmed is nearly good enough, as it seems to take more than 15 points to sort of even that up.

There's the rather munchkiny Crushing Attack (+1 damage; ST Based, +100%; Chi, -10%; Melee Attack: Reach C, 1, -20%) [4] which upgrades you to swing+1 damage. As a GM I'd handwave that it's Swing +0 for punches at reach C, Swing+1 for kicks at reach C,1 (usual Kicking rules) in exchange for getting full Karate bonuses and using all your Karate maneuvers with it.

I'm dubious over whether you need to stack striker limbs with that Crushing attack, or whether it would benefit from the damage bonus at all. Ditto Claws. But that's a good upgrade on damage for 4 points that will scale up better than an unarmed fighter usually can hope for (Power Blow can be used with a Sword as much as it can be used with a fist, so Power Blow isn't the equalizer at all here).

That still leaves you with restricted damage types, range, the contact requirement, and being locked out of points-free improvements from loot for the rest of the campaign. DF being such a loot-centered genere, that last one seems particularly egregious.