Way to inflict more dmg in Melee (Martial Arts and Technical Grappling)

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by TheOneRonin

A lot of our fights have been with relatively unskilled mooks (ST10, Brawl 12), but lots of them, so I have the need to dispatch them quickly.

Also, I have to stay mobile...if I get stuck for more than a turn or two with one opponent, I'll quickly get flanked.

Aha.

First rule when it comes to tactics: Focus on the goal, not the implementation. You've asked how to improve your damage when what you really need is a way to dispatch an opponent quickly. In fact, you can dispatch opponents quickly without doing lots of damage. You don't need to kill your foe to remove him from a fight, particularly the way you're describing fighting foes.

First, if someone falls, they need a minimum of 2 turns to get back up. If you stun someone, they automatically fall, and they need to recover before they can get back up. Forcing an opponent to spend 3-4 turns dealing with the consequences of one an attack is a huge return on your investment.

Any attack to the face, skull, eye or vitals that does any damage at all instantly forces a stun check. Any attack to the face that would normally cause a stun check does so at -5, and any attack to the skull that does the same applies a -10. Thus, a quick punch of quick to the face is going to floor most of those mooks and leave them out of the fight for 3-4 turns. If you want to make a follow-up attack, they defend at -6 (-2 from being on the ground and -4 from being stunned), which allows you to line up a much more powerful attack.

Similarly, any time you've successfully defended against an attack with your Judo, you can initiate a Judo throw the next turn, which will floor most people (possibly more than one, if you aim it right and get lucky). This probably won't stun someone, but it puts them out of the fight for a couple of turns, and it gives them a -2 to defend against any follow up attacks you make.

Crushing damage does x1.5 if you attack the neck. A swift stamp kick (which can be done with Karate) inflicts more damage than a standard kick AND is ideally suited for finish off someone who has been downed. If you're particularly nasty, you can go for a stamp kick to the skull, but you need to get past that DR of 2: attacks that generally do 1 to 2 damage are always better against the neck. Attacks that do 3 damage will do 4 to the skull or 4 to the neck. Attacks that do 4+ damage are better against the skull, but the skull may have additional DR from a helmet, and is -2 to hit, so think about it for a bit.

You're already noted throwing from locks. I think this takes a little too long: You need to parry, then lock and then throw, a minimum of 2 turns (or you can grapple, lock and then throw, which is 3 turns). It will also floor someone, probably stun them, and removes their arm, which should effectively remove most mooks from a fight: Any additional combat will be at -4 for their off-hand, and if they have a two-handed weapon, they can't really use it anymore. So they need to spend 3-4 turns getting back into the fight, where they won't fight effectively. Frankly, I just have mooks leave after this, because they're not paid well enough to throw themselves on the swords of the heroes once their arm has been spirally fractured by a casual throw from a hero.

I note that you don't mention several other Martial Arts techniques that improve damage. I've noted Stamp Kicks. There are also exotic hand strikes (+1 damage but you risk hurting yourself if you hit tough targets, so focus on fleshy points, like the neck), and if you have cinematic techniques available, you can pick up lethal hand strikes or lethal kicks, which will let you inflict piercing damage, which means you can go for the eyes and the vitals.

And, of course, there's pressure secrets, which doubles your unarmed damage. But remember, it's not really about damage nearly as it is about leveraging it in the right place. And you're not trying to kill people, you're trying to keep them from killing you and/or getting between you and your objective. The best thing about playing the strategy I suggest above is that if the GM is the sort to throw fanatic hordes that refuse to quit before they've been killed, then you force him to play whack-a-mole with you as you keep downing people you've already downed until he gets the point and realizes that sometimes, outclassed mooks will just stay down, close their eyes, and hope you'll think they're dead.