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Old 07-11-2015, 05:05 AM   #1
johndallman
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Default [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

Flying Leap is an IQ/H esoteric martial-arts skill, with no default and prerequisites of Trained by a Master or Weapon Master, plus both Jumping and Power Blow. On a successful roll, you can jump three times your normal jumping distance. On a failure, you can only jump your normal distance and make related rolls at -5; on a critical failure, you fall down. An attempted Flying Leap costs 1FP, successful or not. You can deliberately collide with someone in a jump, as part of an attack. The attack is at -2, but if it succeeds, you triple your ST for damage and knockback. Your effective Move for slam attacks and knockback is calculated from jumping distance as per Super Leap. The time required and related skill penalties are as per Power Blow.

Power Blow is a Will/H esoteric martial-arts skill, with no default and a prerequisite of Trained by A Master or Weapon Master. On a successful roll, you can double your effective ST for a single attack, or a single non-combat action. If you have skill 20+, you can triple your ST by rolling at -10. Any Power Blow attempt costs 1FP. You roll at -10 to use it instantly, at -5 after 1 turn of preparation, and on a sliding scale to no penalty after 32 turns.

Naturally, these skills are confined to cinematic martial artists. A fair number of such templates provide them, but not at levels that make them reliable, which takes quite a bit of investment. DF11 allows Swashbucklers to take either skill based on DX, usually saving a lot of points; Gun-Fu allows Flying Leap to Gunslingers without Power Blow. Martial Arts allows Flying Leap at +5 for only double distance, and at +5 for no ST bonuses to damage or Move. Those options can be used together, making it far more practical for use in combat. Martial Arts also provides for Flying Leap that affects your horse, rather than yourself, and for Power Blow skill to replace Will rolls for Extra Effort. Power-Ups 2, 3 and 7 have examples that include these skills. Powers has extra uses of Chi for boosting these skills, and Supers has plenty of applications for them. Chinese Elemental Powers has more powers that can help these skills.

The only martial artist I've played under GURPS is an alchemical construct with superb basic attributes and some magic-as-powers, but no TbaM or WM. I'd like to try this stuff sometime, and there's a character in my Infinite Cabal campaign who does some of it: he impressed a Julius Caesar by jumping the walls of Lutetia to win the siege.

What have you jumped into, or over-powered?
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Old 07-11-2015, 05:16 AM   #2
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

I haven't used Flying Leap yet, though I've made a few characters in my Marvel Reboot project that might have use of it.

Power Blow, though, I've used in a slightly over-the-top manner in a fantasy game, with a character who was equal arts (in DF terms) Knight, Barbarian, and Martial Artist. He had an unbreakable bastard sword sized up for use by SM+1 folks (he had Perks which allowed this at his own SM +0). The other players thought I was overdoing the Evaluate maneuver against a massive ogre (mostly because of how I was describing it; I had tossed a note to the GM saying what I was really doing) and then I unleashed a Power Blow+Targeted Attack (Two-Handed Sword Swing/Neck) combo, neatly decapitating the ogre.
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Old 07-11-2015, 09:18 AM   #3
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

I never took either, because they seem to require too much investment before they can be used in the heat of combat with a decent chance. Flying Leap makes this slightly easier thanks to the double +5 option.
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Old 07-11-2015, 12:49 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

John, you're forgetting Togo, who certainly used Power Blow. (He was mostly a detective, in Crimson Skies' 1930s alt-history). And the barbarian in my pre-DF dungeon bash game also had and used it. Never seen Flying Leap in play, though.
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Old 07-11-2015, 12:57 PM   #5
johndallman
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
John, you're forgetting Togo, who certainly used Power Blow. (He was mostly a detective, in Crimson Skies' 1930s alt-history).
So I am. He was the original character with a Style! wildcard skill, which Roger and I thought up to simplify use of 3e martial arts, and which Roger got into the Martial Arts playtest IIRC.
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Old 07-11-2015, 01:15 PM   #6
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

Quote:
Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
I never took either, because they seem to require too much investment before they can be used in the heat of combat with a decent chance. …
Same.

One thing I've considered is replacing the preparation penalty with a margin-based effect. Instead of a flat doubling of ST, your ST increase depends on your margin of success (up to double for an MoS of 10). You can still take prep time to gain a bonus to your roll. That way you can still get something in the middle of combat (still costs FP though), or you can take time to get the full effect.
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Old 07-11-2015, 11:41 PM   #7
simply Nathan
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

I don't use any Chi skills other than Throwing Art for anything ever.
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Old 07-12-2015, 07:16 AM   #8
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

They featured strongly in Cherry Blossom Rain, especially Power Blow, but we had at least one character deeply focused on Flying Leap (it does triple damage!).

Flying Leap can be made much more readily accessible if you gain the bonuses to skill for waiving the damage bonus and the triple distance in favor of double distance.

As for Power Blow, I used a skills-for-all-powers system, and Power Blow became the "core skill" for most External Chi powers. Skill with Power Blow represented your ability to violently express your chi, thus a character with Power Blow 12-15 still got quite some use out of it, despite rarely having a chance to hit someone in the face with it.
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Old 02-04-2016, 03:44 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

Jumping is DX/Easy. That makes sense to me.
Power Blow is Will/Hard. That makes sense to me.
Flying Leap is IQ/Hard. That does not make sense to me.

Why is Flying Leap IQ/Hard instead of Will/Hard?
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Old 02-04-2016, 04:50 PM   #10
simply Nathan
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Flying Leap and Power Blow

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Originally Posted by the_seeker View Post
Why is Flying Leap IQ/Hard instead of Will/Hard?
Or Per/Hard. Or DX/Hard. Or HT/Hard. IQ/Hard is, if anything, the least logical attribute to attach the skill to.
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