[MA] Technique Mastery for DWA?

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

As Peter says, it's helpful to represent some of the hyper-specialized martial artists from fiction.

It's really where it came from. I watched some ridiculous kung fu movie - dubbed from Cantonese to Mandarin, with bad subtitles, etc. It had a kicking master, a guy who had this one great punch, etc. and I called up Sean and this resulted from that discussion. We needed some way to manage those guys who do one thing really well.

Like a few of the other perks, it's fairly easily abuseable, but that's no reason to take the tool out of the hands of worldbuilding GMs. Use it where it seems appropriate and like it won't result in badness in your campaign. Like, you know, any rule in any book. :)

[DangerousThing]

Originally Posted by vierasmarius

By RAW, Technique Mastery is unambiguously allowed for Kicking (if allowing TM at all). So, where would you draw the line? How about Upper Cut, Knee Strike, or Exotic Hand Strike? Those certainly aren't "core" techniques, but after improving them they may replace basic attacks. And if barring those, what would you allow, if anything?

The sense I get from this whole discussion is that people think TM is a point crock and shouldn't be allowed at all. I haven't had that experience with it. As Peter says, it's helpful to represent some of the hyper-specialized martial artists from fiction.

I did say that I wouldn't allow it, not that RAW wouldn't allow it.

As with most things, I will negotiate with players. While I might not like Kicking for TM, I wouldn't mind more specialized kicks and hand strikes using TM.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto

It's really where it came from. I watched some ridiculous kung fu movie - dubbed from Cantonese to Mandarin, with bad subtitles, etc. It had a kicking master, a guy who had this one great punch, etc. and I called up Sean and this resulted from that discussion. We needed some way to manage those guys who do one thing really well.

And its' appreciated!

Originally Posted by Peter V. Dell'Orto

Like a few of the other perks, it's fairly easily abuseable, but that's no reason to take the tool out of the hands of worldbuilding GMs. Use it where it seems appropriate and like it won't result in badness in your campaign. Like, you know, any rule in any book. :)

Heh. I especially find this thread amusing for the simple reason that I have a player who loves dual-wielding, always takes DWA and always takes TM(DWA) regardless of whether her character is using melee or firearms. It comes with so many downsides, and the player gets so used to having that bonus, that managing to take it away thrashes the player's familiarity with how the character fights; it tends to nicely represent the confusion of disarming events rather than the smooth transition that a lot of players do as it forces a change of tactics.

Besides, it is +4 for [5]. Meh. It may be a bit cheap at the lower skill levels (sub 20s), where it is more typical to get +3 for [6], but where my group plays it isn't especially noticeable.