A flurry of questions about martial artists

[tbone]

Martial artists! The most mysterious of the delvers. I have questions, from me and from a player pondering this profession. Can anyone guide us on our path to enlightenment?

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1) Cost of rations
Disciplines of Faith (Chi Rituals) requires that MAs pay double for rations. Is that meant literally: double the cost to $4 for normal rations, to $30 for Elven rations ($27 with Elven Gear?), and so on? An oddity: Doubling the cost implies zero extra cost when there's no discrete cost for rations to begin with, i.e., when paying the weekly cost to live in town or when living off the land.

Is that the game's intent? Or should this be generalized to "+$6/day"?

(FWIW, I think a flat cost for MAs' special requirements makes more sense, given that the expense includes things unrelated to food, like incense and ointments. A flat cost could even be made something really simple like "+$50/week".)


2) Keep moving
Does Light Walk work only while the MA is on the move? Getting literal with the "Walk" part of "Light Walk", and noting the words "when you walk" contained in the description, I assume that that's exactly how it works: your Stealth bonus or your ability to glide over thin ice requires movement; if you hold still, you breathe as noisily as anyone else, you break through the thin ice, etc. Does that sound right?


3) "Caltrops? No problem, I run across them."
Has anyone used Light Walk as the skill to move over hazardous surfaces with no (or lessened) harm? If so, what penalties would you suggest for traipsing safely over caltrops, hot coals (fire walking!), lava, or slime?


4) Mental Strength vs Mind Shield
I'm trying to understand the merits of Mental Strength (prevents against attacks targeting Will only) versus Mind Shield (prevents against attacks targeting Will, IQ, or Per; prevents against location attempts). Mental Strength's first +1 boost over plain Will is a little cheaper, but beyond that, Mind Shield seems more powerful, and even works when the MA is asleep.

The answer might lie in the line "If Magic Resistance or Mind Shield would help, Mental Strength gets the same bonus" - which I take to mean "if resistance would benefit from Mind Shield, you can roll vs Mental Strength + Mind Shield". But isn't it still all-around better to sink points into Mind Shield alone? I think I'm missing something.

(Side note: The cleric, druid, wizard, and MA all have access to Mind Shield. Seems to me it'd be a fair addition to the holy warrior template, too; spiritual warfare is part of their gig.)


5) Resisting Terror
Do Mental Strength and Mind Shield work against monsters' Terror ability?


6) Self-treatment
Can an injured MA benefit from both Body Control's self-treatment and other healing, including self-use of Esoteric Medicine? GURPS suggests no, on MA p54: "If you also receive external medical care, you must choose between it and this skill’s benefits; the two don’t “stack.”"

Comparing the merits of Body Control vs Esoteric Medicine (Chi) for healing purposes, my understanding is as follows:

Body Control: Good: Don't need a healing kit; skill has uses other than self-treatment. Bad: Only works on self.
Esoteric Medicine (Chi): Good: Works on self or others. Bad: Need a healing kit for some applications.

Does that sound right?

(Side note: For the MA who spends points on both skills, it seems fair to me to allow one skill to aid the other as a complementary skill for self-treatment.)


7) TbaM + WM
Trained by a Master and Weapon Master are a legal combo, right? The combination would offer improved weapon damage and improved weapon skill defaults from Weapon Master, access to chi skills thanks to Trained by a Master, and a halving of the Rapid Strike penalty thanks to either advantage – or should that be a quartering of the penalties thanks to the two advantages?


I take it from the pre-gen character Glint that the combination is perfectly kosher, and that the penalty reductions aren't doubled. The latter seems unfortunate to me, as it implies some wasted overlap between the two expensive advantages. But that aside, is my understanding correct?


8) One punch or two?
Breaking Blow or Power Blow must be readied for "each attack". Does that mean a prepared Breaking Blow or Power Blow affects only the first blow when two blows are made using AoA (Double) or Rapid Strike?


9) Wait for it...
Are there any rules for time and other conditions for "holding" a prepared Breaking Blow or Power Blow? I assume some amount of "holding" is perfectly legal: say, 32 turns of prep for Breaking Blow, followed by 32 turns of prep for Power blow, followed by the super-punch that draws on both prepped abilities to turn that evil statue into dust. Or some length of time to prep Power Blow, followed by Wait for the monster to come running up, followed by a Power Blow-assisted Push that sends the monster flying.

But "powering up" with these skills, then running around exploring and camping and resting and all that, until a fight begins much later later and the player shouts "I had Power Blow readied!", seems way out of line. Are there any guidelines on this that I'm overlooking?


10) Cost of Seven Secret Kicks
DF 11 lays out the basic part as "Striker (Crushing; Chi, -10%; Shin, -20%) [4]." As for the source of the "Shin" limitation, I believe it's the "Limb" limitation [-20%] for a Striker from MA p.47, just renamed. This limitation defines an existing limb as the Striker in question, and, despite being a limitation, also boosts the Reach of said Striker from the default C to 1.

All that's fine. But shouldn't this Striker be bought twice (for two legs)? And shouldn't the Strikers also get a cost reduction from No Parry [-40%] (unless the legs are explicitly defined as good for parrying)?

Not that it's important; just trying to exercise my rather weak "Build powers in GURPS" kung-fu.

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The remaining items are not questions about rules, but rather requests for ideas/opinions about how you folks game martial artists.


11) Kiai as a power
Kiai has always seemed to me better gamed as a power than a skill; after all, the effects are pretty similar to Rapier Wit or Song of Humiliation. Maybe there are good reasons for making it a skill instead. But out of curiosity: Has anyone built Kiai as a power and given it a spin at the gaming table?


12) Pressure Points vs monsters
This skill takes a -5 penalty vs monsters. Hm, I'm thinking this would be a good place to give Physiology skill a specific mechanical use: a success could remove that -5 penalty (or lessen the penalty by 1 per point of success, to be less generous). Anyone already gaming this?

That would assume that the monster has any pressure points at all, a GM call. Anyone have good guidelines for what sorts of monsters would or wouldn't have such pressure points?

(Side note: BS says Pressure Points "May default to Esoteric Medicine-4 in a cinematic campaign." That seems a fair addition to DFRPG as well.)


13) Breakdown of tricky advantages
Not that it's a big problem, but the workings of esoteric combat power-up advantages (Trained by a Master, Weapon Master, Unarmed Master, Heroic Archer, etc.), each with its own (but sometimes overlapping) effects, always leave me re-checking exactly which advantage does what.

Out of curiosity, has anyone broken these advantages down into individually-priced components? (I suspect there's a thread for that.)


14) Bringing back skills
MAs in DFRPG have plenty of cool skills, though they miss out on a few that their GURPS counterparts enjoy (maybe just for reasons of saving space). Zen Archery and Pressure Secrets seem a nice fit for MAs (and scouts, for the former skill). Has anyone introduced these to a DFRPG game? Or is there something in those skills that's not quite right for the game?