Need some help with hand-to-hand combat/Martial Arts

[mlangsdorf]

Originally Posted by EskrimadorNC

Dodging and Parrying
I get that Dodge "skill" is innate and not trained while your Parry "skill" is based off of your melee combat skill level. But the rules state that a Parry does involve some sort of contact.

I've trained with guys who have a lot of boxing experience, and you can certainly tell that their training shows up in their skill at avoiding getting hit with bobs, weaves, and slips. I've talked to my players about house ruling that skilled unarmed fighters can make a non-contact parry to represent these sorts of defensive movements, but am I opening the door to more problems that I haven't foreseen?

There's already a rule for that: Boxing Parries get a +3 bonus for Retreats (+2 for Sidesteps, +1 for Slips), versus +1, +0, -1 (respectively) for Brawling or Wrestling parries. So if you're a boxer and you can move around on your defense, you defend better and that can be treated as a non-contact defense.

Also, for more on "what is a parry", see the box by the same name on MA 122.