High fantasy monk archetype recomendations

[RussellChamp]

So I'm a completely new player to GURPS with some experience in D&D. We're gonna start our high fantasy (swords & spells, probably) next week and I wanted some advice on a monk style character that I'd like to create. I've read the 30 page starter pdf and the basic character book but it was a whole lot to digest in several evenings.
Anyway, what I would like to see would be a traditional hand-to-hand, cloth wearing brawler. My own, personal touch on this would be to have animalistic characteristics (you know how certain shaolin stories involved animal "stances"?) including claws, talons, etc (whether this would visually be something like a hawk, tiger, armadillo or whatever is undecided and non required)

My real question is as follows:
* What is a solid design for a monk archetype in GURPS?
While I of course will not be using any given suggestions verbatim and I have some ideas of my own, I would like to see what more experienced players think.

Restrictions:
* 100pt character design
* Max -50 disadvantages (I'm all up for having fun RPing though)
* 4th Edition rules
* Anything not from the core rulebook should be references specifically (A friend has a bunch of GURPS pdfs he bought)
* If you do want to go over 100pts, mention which attributes/skills could be dropped if needed (or learned later)

**EDIT**
After numerous hours from myself and those on this forum (and several tweaks from my GM), here is my CURRENT build. Note: This will grow to over 150CP as I gain points in our campaign.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j7o3flt0ae...gurps_char.txt

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by RussellChamp

So I'm a completely new player to GURPS with some experience in D&D.

Welcome!

Originally Posted by RussellChamp

My real question is as follows:
* What is a solid design for a monk archetype in GURPS?
While I of course will not be using any given suggestions verbatim and I have some ideas of my own, I would like to see what more experienced players think.

Restrictions:
* 100pt character design
* Max -50 disadvantages (I'm all up for having fun RPing though)
* 4th Edition rules
* Anything not from the core rulebook should be references specifically (A friend has a bunch of GURPS pdfs he bought)
* If you do want to go over 100pts, mention which attributes/skills could be dropped if needed (or learned later)

GURPS Martial Arts has a 100 point Monk template on page 36 with -40 points in disads. It's a very good start, and has -10 points left over in disads to customize the template even more than it currently allows.

One thing to note is that 100 points is low for cinematic stuff, so you will probably get lit up if you go up against too many guys, and people with weapons are going to be really dangerous to you. Instead take advantage of the fact that you can be dangerous places people can't take weapons.

For your animalistic stuff, check out Claws on Characters pg. 42. Probably add on Switchable so that you only go all slashy stabby in combat.

[RussellChamp]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Welcome!

Thank you!

GURPS Martial Arts has a 100 point Monk template on page 36 with -40 points in disads.

Awesome! Didn't know that existed. I'll look that up.

One thing to note is that 100 points is low for cinematic stuff

I'll let my DM know. He's new as well and may bend toward 150pts if I ask.

For your animalistic stuff, check out Claws on Characters pg. 42. Probably add on Switchable so that you only go all slashy stabby in combat.

That's what I was looking for. :)

Also, there's one other thing I needed to know. Several skills (such as brawling, judo, karate, sumo) all give bonuses to unarmed attacks once they reach a certain level. Are these *cumulative* to a generic "punching" attack or do they only apply for each specific "brawling punch", "judo strike", "karate punch", "sumo smack" or whatever? (If it's cumulative you could potentially get like +6 PER DIE so I really don't think it's this [despite what I'd wish])

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by RussellChamp

Also, there's one other thing I needed to know. Several skills (such as brawling, judo, karate, sumo) all give bonuses to unarmed attacks once they reach a certain level. Are these *cumulative* to a generic "punching" attack or do they only apply for each specific "brawling punch", "judo strike", "karate punch", "sumo smack" or whatever? (If it's cumulative you could potentially get like +6 PER DIE so I really don't think it's this [despite what I'd wish])

When you attack or defend you are using a specific skill. Whatever skill you are using, you get the bonuses for that skill. So yes, it's just a "karate punch" or "brawling elbow strike."

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by RussellChamp

My real question is as follows:
* What is a solid design for a monk archetype in GURPS?
While I of course will not be using any given suggestions verbatim and I have some ideas of my own, I would like to see what more experienced players think.

You're using the term DM, which suggests that you come from a D&D-style background.

One important thing you need to understand about GURPS, especially with an unarmed character concept, is that armour reduces damage taken, instead of making the wearer harder to hit. Unarmed attacks tend to be fairly weak and so often cannot punch through armour at all, causing zero damage. Even if you can do a little damage some of the time, e.g. 1d6 kick damage vs DR 4 armour, your enemy is not going to be afraid of you.

There are several things you can do about that, as an unarmed fighter:
1. Ignore the issue and focus on speed (including extra attacks). This means that your combat role is to quickly take out all the lightly armoured foes, while the other party members deal with the heavily armoured foes.
2. Focus less on dealing damage, and more on doing other things, such as Judo throws, and disarming. This makes the armour of the foes irrelevant.
3. Buy the necessary traits that enables you to punch through armour after all (and to avoid injuring your hands and feet when you attack metal armoured foes). There are multiple options here, but other are much more qualified to tell you about them.
4. Forget unarmed and take a simple, innocent weapon such as a quarterstaff. It's not much better against armour than fists and feet, but every little helps, and as we all know, palace guards will not deprive a frail old man of his staff. (Not the first time, anyway.) If your character isn't a frail old man, the Disguise skill might do the trick, along with Acting skill.


Also, as others have said, 100 CPs is a very low amount. Character survivability is going to be a problem, unless there is massive and constant Game Master intervention.

Even if you do talk the GM into letting all of you build 150 CP characters instead, you still need to spend a lot of your CPs on defensive options. Enhanced Dodge, DR vs melee attacks only ("Roll with Blows"), maybe some slow Regeneration, and of course raised HT, and levels of Hard to Kill and Extra HP. (If your GM accepts it, consider Limiting some or all of your levels of Enhanced Dodge to melee-only as well - every CP saved is precious, at your low power level.)

Offensive options include Extra Attack (with a Limitation if at all possible - save as many CPs as you can), Striking ST (do more damage), and Extra FP (so that you have more "chi" to burn on Extra Effort, although EE can be defensive as well).

Combat Reflexes is mandatory. It's the first thing you buy. It is extremely worthwhile, relative to its price. Half a level of Enhanced Move, or even a whole level, fits the D&D3 Monk character class, but you really have other priorities. Such as survival. Also, levels of Extra Move are more flexible (and if you buy Extra Move now, and then buy Enhanced Move later, there's a very sweet synergy).

You should not try to Limited your Advantages with Costs FP. That's rarely worthwhile. You'll be wanting your Fatigue Points for other things. Look instead at Limitations that don't gimp the ability so it can be used only a few times per day or once per fight.

For skills, pick one or both of Karate and Judo, and put a lot of points into that. You want to buy it up to the level where you get the maximum stated bonus DX+2, if I recall). Or if you go with option 4 above, buy only the Staff skill (if you do choose the staff, Weapon Master for one-weapon-only isn't horribly expensive). Once your character is survivable, see how much DX you can afford.

You might want to not raise your combat skills higher than the maximum bonus level (which is DX+1; I just looked it up), during character creation, but rather spend then rest of your CPs on the expensive stuff. Karate at DX+1 costs 8 CPs, and with DX 14 that gives you Karate-15. (If you have DX 14 and HT 13, buy a quarter level of Speed for 5 CPS, to increase your Speed from 6.75 to 7. You don't want to be screwed by rounding.)

Then during the campaign, you can use earned CPs to increase your combat skill(s) further (the cost maxes out at 4 CPs per +1 to skill). The other way around, saving up earned experience points to increase DX, may require a lot of self-discipline from the player.

...Oh, and one more thing. If you can put a "Chi" Power Limitation on some (or most!) of your Advantages, that's very nice as well (it helps reduce the cost of everything by a few CPs). The version that appears in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 1 probably suits an adventuring campaign best, and will most likely also be easier to GM, compared to the alternate version that appears in GURPS Powers.

[vicky_molokh]

I fail to understand how '100 points' and 'high fantasy' mix, unless we're talking about poor Frodo hiding from orcs. A D&Desque monk will require at least Strikers* to start dealing with armed opponents seriously - that's several tens of points if you want to modify more than one hand. Merely getting to the special D&Desque skills like armor-piercing strikes or triple-length jumps will eat up about 50. And so on.

Is the game supposed to be cinematic high fantasy, or gritty and brutally realistic set in a fantasy world?


* == with slight modification, this Advantage could mean that your hands and legs are as tough as real weapons; Martial Arts has details, if needed.

[RussellChamp]

[QUOTE=Peter Knutsen;1121341]You're using the term DM, which suggests that you come from a D&D-style background.
[/QUIOTE]
This:

Originally Posted by RussellChamp

So I'm a completely new player to GURPS with some experience in D&D

One important thing you need to understand about GURPS, especially with an unarmed character concept, is that armour reduces damage taken, instead of making the wearer harder to hit.

I'm actually fairly excited about this since it has been one of my big annoyances with D&D. Somehow, wearing leather armor never made sense to make a character more evasive...

Unarmed attacks tend to be fairly weak and so often cannot punch through armour at all, causing zero damage.

I think I remember reading about some OP skills in the starter book like Pressure Places (or some name like that) that could do a lot of damage. I'm also planning on taking some level of Claws, too. Would changing damage from Bludgenoning to Slashing or Piercing make any big changes here?

There are several things you can do about that, as an unarmed fighter:
:snip:

Sounds like solid suggestions, all around. I'll have to take some time to digest it all.

...Oh, and one more thing. If you can put a "Chi" Power Limitation on some (or most!) of your Advantages,

It was well past 11:30pm when I was reading about Limitations so I guess I'll have to give them a second look around. :P Saving points would be nice!

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I fail to understand how '100 points' and 'high fantasy' mix, unless we're talking about poor Frodo hiding from orcs.

1. We'll be having 6 PCs in the campaign (somehow everyone I invited actually did want to play)
2. Except for the GM and 1 player, we're all completely new players and the GM wanted to ease us into the system a bit more
3. I'm pretty sure the GM is planning on being generous with situations, PC "luck", and possibly even awarded character points (maybe I can convince him to give us upwards of 10 points per session to get us quickly to that 150pt range)
4. ???
5. Profit


I know this is getting off the main topic a bit, but what would be the approximate level of a D&D monk (or maybe any character) to a 100pt/150pt/200pt total (starting+points you get back from disadvantages) GURPS character? This would be in terms of ability to take down enemies and any applicable out of combat abilities. Would 100pts be somewhat analogous to level 1 or is that way off?

[Kuroshima]

If you're comming from D&D and want to recreate the dungeon delving troupe, I recomend investing into the Dungeon Fantasy PDFs. They are centered around 250 point templates but forum posters built 100, 150 and 200 point versions of them

[RussellChamp]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

If you're comming from D&D and want to recreate the dungeon delving troupe, I recomend investing into the Dungeon Fantasy PDFs. They are centered around 250 point templates but forum posters built 100, 150 and 200 point versions of them

No, no! I'm in GURPS and I want to play GURPS! I just have some past knowledge in D&D so if people phrase things similarly to D&D terminology I'll have a much easier time understanding them. That is all.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by RussellChamp

No, no! I'm in GURPS and I want to play GURPS! I just have some past knowledge in D&D so if people phrase things similarly to D&D terminology I'll have a much easier time understanding them. That is all.

Dungeon Fantasy is GURPS.