Grappling with claws and teeth

[jacobmuller]

Would the following be a usable house-rule?

Grasping @ Claws
Claws (Blunt) benefits from Karate, MA57, but other Claws do not. Teeth can be used for a form of grappling (MA115) and the Bite Mastery allows teeth to use Karate. NB also for worn Claws, drop the note [4] from the Sw damage row.
Claws (Sharp or Talons-cutting) may be used to grapple in a similar manner to teeth. The attacker must choose whether he is slashing or grasping with his claws before the attack is made. Slashing is unchanged. Grasping inflicts ½ damage but counts as a grapple for the purposes of Breaking Free, Techniques, etc. Attempts to break free are at a penalty equal to the Shock inflicted by the claw attack; successfully breaking free inflicts full Claw damage. On each subsequent turn in which you choose to maintain your claw grasp, that claw attack automatically hits for ½ Claw damage; if your attack has already penetrated armour, the follow-up attacks may ignore armour. For further options, see B370-1.
Options: Harsh Realism – Strong and Weak Hands, MA124, may apply.
Hind-leg-rake: treat as a Knee Strike, B404, but Cutting damage.
Graspers [1/lvl]
Your hands, mouth or other grasping appendages, are formed such that they grant a bonus to resist Break Free attempts @ +1 per level.

[vicky_molokh]

Actually, Kromm has approved DWA (unarmed skills) as an option available as any other DWA.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

Would the following be a usable house-rule?

Not on its own, since 'swung claws' doesn't exist in RAW.

Also, DWA isn't cinematic to use, it's cinematic to improve.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Not on its own, since 'swung claws' doesn't exist in RAW.

Also, DWA isn't cinematic to use, it's cinematic to improve.

Except for guns. Just my €0.002.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

By Swung Claws I meant Claws (Sharp or Talons) used used for a Swing-damage attack. My English is somewhat dated* and so I used

in 4e there are no unarmed attacks that do swing damage.

Sharpe claws will turn your brawling thrust damage into cutting instead of crushing.

Talons lets you chose between cutting and impaling.

Long Talons, are liked Talons, but give you +1/die to your damage... and this is what 4e does where 3e would give an unarmed attack swing damage.

However Innate Attack (Melee, ST based) can be swing damage, but unless you make it a follow to claws, it has nothing to do with claws.

[jacobmuller]

Ah, I'm getting mixed up with the worn claws - Doh!

[lwcamp]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

The attacker must choose whether he is slashing or grasping with his claws before the attack is made. Slashing is unchanged. Grasping inflicts ½ damage but counts as a grapple for the purposes of Breaking Free,

I would think the primary method of inflicting damage (jabbing your claws deep into someone's body) would also be the most effective method of grappling (skewering something is a good way to hold it).

Luke

[Phoenix_Dragon]

I'd asked a very similar question before, and the best suggestion was to model it as a new technique, roughly based off the eye-gouge technique.

The technique would default to -1 (Off Wrestling, or possibly Brawling), and if the initial strike is just a grapple instead of damaging, the standard halved hit-location penalties, as with normal grapples. On later turns (Or the initial one, if striking for damage), you could pull and tear (Effectively like "worrying" for biting), doing Thrust-3 damage, plus the effects of claws, with no to-hit required or defense allowed (Like worrying). And I suppose if you did a normal grapple, you could change to a dug-in-claws grapple as for shifting grapples, with the same -1. And I'd certainly give very harsh penalties for trying it one-handed.