[Martial Arts] Are styles that require two sword skills a bad deal?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Anders

Where would you place Knife?

Personally, I often feel Knife should use unarmed skills; knife-fighting seems to have a lot more in common with unarmed combat than armed.

For my old Combat Skills Overhaul (actually, the Mk. 2 version of it), I roughly consolidated to 10 skills to cover all of melee combat. These were Grappling, Brawling, Shield, Knife, Sword, Axe, Spear, Polearm, Whip, and Flail. Some of these required specialization - Shield could be Buckler, Cloak, Guige, or Shield (representing a strapped-on shield), Sword and Axe required 1H vs 2H, and Flail required 1H vs 2H vs Kusari. Every specialization defaulted to the others at -2 (except Cloak, which defaulted with all the other Shield specializations at -3). There were then a plethora of options to modify the skills to get them to roughly match what currently exists (and a bunch of other stuff, because my Overhauls are nothing if not excessive).

Looking at it now, I'd be strongly tempted to just do away with Grappling as a separate skill; after all, all weapon skills include grappling with the weapons as part of the deal, and I don't see why unarmed skills should be different. Merging Whip in with Flail probably wouldn't be too awful, alongside merging Knife in with Unarmed. Having Fencing skills would probably just be a Feature for a given character and influence all of their skills, or a Perk per skill if the character can choose Fencing or Standard ([5] to be able to do it for all skills). So, roughly:

• Axe (DX/A): This covers the use of unbalanced weapons of Reach 1+ held at one end. It must be specialized in One-Handed or Two-Handed use. Defaults to Flail -3 or Sword -4.
• Brawling (DX/E): This covers unarmed combat (punching, kicking, biting, etc), as well as the use of Reach C weapons such as knives (for those that are Reach C,1, use Brawling at Reach C, Sword at Reach 1). Optionally, require specialization of Unarmed vs Armed (for Reach C weapons). Defaults to Shield -4.
• Flail (DX/H): This covers the use of unbalanced weapons of Reach 1+ held at one end and with the striking head at the end of a chain, rope, or similar. It must be specialized in One-Handed or Two-Handed Use, or as Kusari or Whip. Defaults to Axe -4.
• Polearm (DX/A): This covers the use of long unbalanced weapons held near the middle. It covers 2-handed use only - a character with sufficient ST to wield a polearm with one hand should instead use Axe. Staff Grip (see Spear, below) is an option for Polearms, but causes a -2 to Swing damage when using the polearm's main head and only grants a +1 to Parry. Defaults to Axe -4 or Spear -4.
• Shield (DX/E): This covers the use of shields in combat. It must be specialized in Buckler, Cloak, Guige, or Strapped. Defaults to Brawling -4.
• Spear (DX/A): This covers the use of long balanced weapons held near the middle. It must be specialized in One-Handed or Two-Handed use. When wielded two-handed, a Ready maneuver can change to a Staff Grip, resulting in a -1 to Thrust damage and the ability to strike with the butt, as well as granting a +2 to Parry. Defaults to Polearm -4 or Sword -4.
• Sword (DX/A): This covers the use of balanced weapons of Reach 1+ held at one end. It must be specialized in One-Handed or Two-Handed use. Defaults to Axe -4 or Spear -4.

Specializations default to each other at -2; additional Specializations cost [+1] each. Optionally, treat grappling as a Specialization of each skill (using Brawling for unarmed grappling, or grappling with a knife); otherwise, it just uses the weapon skill. When defaulting from another skill, you must still choose a specialization; match specializations when possible (so a character with Sword (One-Handed) 16 has Sword (Two-Handed) 14, Axe (One-Handed) 12, Axe (Two-Handed) 10, Spear (One-Handed) 12, and Spear (Two-Handed) 10). Buying a skill up from a default costs half as much as usual. Note Weapon Adaptation is no longer a valid Perk with this system; it's essentially built into the specializations.