Techniques for Parrying Bucklers?

[Calvin]

I've got an SM+1 sort of steampunk ninja, some of you might have noticed my other posts, this is the same guy.

He uses a pair of Neko-De (Neko-Des?) which are essentially Bladed Hands except a pair counts as half a set of climbing claws, the other half going on the feet.

What I'm looking at now is adding a Parrying Buckler to get an extra +1 DB. I'm probably not going to be blocking with it but I'm rather fond of Riposte and this is basically another level of Riposte I can take. LTC2:19 has rules for wielding a DB1 shield with a weapon in the same hand and have them both ready for a -2 penalty to both skills. Granted I'm probably not going to be doing a whole lot of dual weapon attacks and I'm not going to bother with blocking since the whole point is to make my parry better, but is it possible to get a technique to buy off this penalty?

What about the -1 in Close Combat you get from wielding a DB1 shield? The existing Shield-Wall Training technique allows you to buy off the -2 for a large shield outside of close combat, but makes no mention of the penalty inside of close combat. To some extent close combat is less of an issue for my character since he's SM+1 and can punchify dudes at reach 1, but if other people want to punchify me back then they're going to want to step into CC with me.

[Anaraxes]

The Close Combat Technique (MA69) allows you to buy off half the penalty for a melee weapon in close combat (or all of the Bulk penalty for a ranged weapon). It doesn't say anything about shields, though you might classify them as "melee weapons" at least for shield bashing.

I'm not sure I'd allow a Technique to buy off the penalty for a weapon+shield in the same hand. In this case, they almost seem mutually exclusive. You can't cat-scratch someone with the buckler in the way, and the claws would seem like a risk to yourself if you actually closed your fist around the buckler grip. Up to you and your GM, of course, if you want to invent a Technique for that penalty.

(Neko-Des?)

Japanese nouns don't have plural forms. You'd know the number from context or by an explicit count. If it were accepted as an English word, you'd use English rules to pluralize it (like "octopus"), so "nekodes" would be appropriate. Perhaps "two sets of nekode", just to split the difference.

[Calvin]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

The Close Combat Technique (MA69) allows you to buy off half the penalty for a melee weapon in close combat (or all of the Bulk penalty for a ranged weapon). It doesn't say anything about shields, though you might classify them as "melee weapons" at least for shield bashing.

I'm not sure I'd allow a Technique to buy off the penalty for a weapon+shield in the same hand. In this case, they almost seem mutually exclusive. You can't cat-scratch someone with the buckler in the way, and the claws would seem like a risk to yourself if you actually closed your fist around the buckler grip. Up to you and your GM, of course, if you want to invent a Technique for that penalty.

Japanese nouns don't have plural forms. You'd know the number from context or by an explicit count. If it were accepted as an English word, you'd use English rules to pluralize it (like "octopus"), so "nekodes" would be appropriate. Perhaps "two sets of nekode", just to split the difference.

The Parrying buckler at least is actually strapped to the arm. It's part of the reason you can have both it and a ready weapon in the same hand.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Calvin

The Parrying buckler at least is actually strapped to the arm. It's part of the reason you can have both it and a ready weapon in the same hand.

In GURPS, the definition of a buckler is a shield held in the hand rather than strapped to the arm. LTC2 does allow the use of a buckler (or strapped shield) with DB +1 and another weapon at the same time, but I think it might be appropriate to make an exception for something like nekode, which probably require you to use an actual shield. On the bright side, a Small Shield of Heavy construction is 2 lb lighter than a Parrying Buckler, and has comparable DR and HP (it actually gives 1 less Cover DR and has 1 less HP, but those are pretty minor issues, honestly).

[Calvin]

Originally Posted by Varyon

In GURPS, the definition of a buckler is a shield held in the hand rather than strapped to the arm. LTC2 does allow the use of a buckler (or strapped shield) with DB +1 and another weapon at the same time, but I think it might be appropriate to make an exception for something like nekode, which probably require you to use an actual shield. On the bright side, a Small Shield of Heavy construction is 2 lb lighter than a Parrying Buckler, and has comparable DR and HP (it actually gives 1 less Cover DR and has 1 less HP, but those are pretty minor issues, honestly).

Either way, specific weapon and shield choice aside it doesn't seem too unreasonable to buy off the close combat penalty since there's a precedent for that. Buy off half the penalty rounded up, which for a DB1 shield allows you to get it to 0. The -2 to weapon and shield seems more questionable though. You can buy off Move and Attack with the CQB technique for guns up to Bulk 4, and it's based on the same principle where you get -2 (or worse) for doing two things at once. Melee seems harder by default though, the only RAW way to get rid of the penalty appears to be Heroic Charge from MA.

[hal]

Why not build a customized shield with claws?