Martial Arts for Wizards

[David Johnston2]

One notes that sport and art martial arts would work quite well for a wizard who just wants to deliver a touch.

[Fwibos]

Adding buckler to any of the stickfighting martial arts would be excellent. Le Canne de Combat suggests you might use Rapier with it.

Too bad you can't get a technique mastery that would allow you to touch at +4 to skill. I suppose you could build a specific technique, but that might be too munchkin-y.

[SimonAce]

Shortsword or smallsword and buckler seem to be good combos to me. Secondary skills include knife, brawling and wrestling.

This way you can enchant the buckler and get as good or better defenses than the staff guy.

Using a baton with wither of the above skills and the staff spell is also a solid choice.

Given an option I tend to like smallsword as casters tend to be lightly armored and the extra +2 on a retreat is very nice is said wizard is pressed into hand to hand somehow.

[D10]

Last campaign my group played (it was in 3e) we handwaved that you could put concentrate as a maneuver in your combinations.

So wizards were able to cast a lvl 21 spell, feint, and then unleash it at the enemy throath with their staff.

There was even an elf that buffed his arrows and before he shot them, fire arrows, eletric, you know ...

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

So, wizards are usually not expected to fight in close combat.

There are quite a few fictional examples I can think of where this isn't true. Anastasia Luccio, Gandalf, Kvothe...

[Fwibos]

Buckler wouldn't be good unless you can ignore hand gestures. Better off with a small shield. So I'd still go with Le Canne de combat. i worked soothing up with feints and targeted attacks to the hands, arms, and legs, and body control spells.

With pain and spasm, one doesn't need disarm, and with death touch, one doesn't need heavy damage.

It's tactics revolve around gaining time to cast spells while defending oneself. Knockign an opponent back, tripping them - anything to slow the opponent down. It uses Ruses to take advantage of a wizards typically higher IQ.

I don't think it's useful for a 100 point character unless they hyper specialize, but it was still a fun exercise.

[mhd]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

There are quite a few fictional examples I can think of where this isn't true. Anastasia Luccio, Gandalf, Kvothe...

Actually, I bet the majority of fictional "wizards" can handle themselves in combat, starting with Elric and Kane. The academy trained wizard is more an exception in novels -- apart from those based on gaming worlds, of course. There's no need for niche protection or CP limits. And if you're not a member of a bigger party, you have to do all the protagonist work of the story by yourself…

But what would the stereotypical academic wizard do for martial arts training? I would imagine something rather regimented, where there might be some real-world self-defence benefits, but not as the sole (or primary) purpose. And including the wizard's symbol, the better. So I'd expect something like Tai Chi, but with staves, i.e. some "Staff Art" in there. Helps you to focus your mana, is a decent cardiac workout and maybe helps you out in a brawl when you're too hungover to cast.

Assuming you're going for the robe-and-staff type of wizard, of course. If you're in a slightly more modern world, I'd expect pretty much the same "martial arts" as have been common for real-world affluent students, i.e. some kind of "fencing" in the broadest sense. Maybe even with silly fraternity rituals. But again, that's a pretty generic academic subset, not specific to wizardly academies, and probably not on their regular schedule.

In some campaign backgrounds, I can easily imagine ranged combat. First, it helps you aim your magical bolts, too, it's good workout, and if you're at war and you're out of spells, you're probably in a good position for some bow shots anyway. Probably a good idea for state-sponsored, medieval-type academies.

One neat thing out of a popular German RPG: As magic flows through a wizard, their unarmed attacks are considered magical. Now, if magical weapons are rare enough, but opponents who're hard to harm without them are somewhat common, this might open some interesting possibilities. Even people who won't get far in the academy (Magery 0?) could use some basic training to battle those creatures, and the martial arts taught would probably be based on the particular type of creature.
Imagine "spirits" in the broad sense, where you'd need lots of mobility, but your strikes would be rather devastating. This style would be much more "Wire Fu" like than if you're battling tough zombies, where strong punches and a good defense are paramount.

[jeff_wilson]

I worked it the other way; Judo or Aikido, with some airbending (Air Jet) to help the thrown person along. My most experienced player would start a fight with Death Vision as a distraction to get in the first hit, and of course nothing says Dim Mak like Might and few dice of Deathtouch delivered with a black laquered boken if you're partial to Kendo.

[Fwibos]

Wealth and a deathtouch-enchanted bokken would work, too, but then if you lose it, you are out of luck.

Also, a twinkilicious technique for Wizards would be to take a normal attack that does less damage and gives +4 to skill (per creating new techniques) , so you can take a -4 to do a deceptive attack at base skill.

In a modern campaign, Judo skill is the way to go, Parry, grapple and release your spell.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by mhd

But what would the stereotypical academic wizard do for martial arts training? I would imagine something rather regimented, where there might be some real-world self-defence benefits, but not as the sole (or primary) purpose. And including the wizard's symbol, the better. So I'd expect something like Tai Chi, but with staves, i.e. some "Staff Art" in there. Helps you to focus your mana, is a decent cardiac workout and maybe helps you out in a brawl when you're too hungover to cast.

Its been very common for students to practice a martial art in their spare time as long as there have been universities (in the middle ages, students were clergy and therefore exempt from pesky city laws against wearing a sword and buckler). The dominant fencing style in 16th century Italy grew out of the law school at Bologna! I think your paragraph 3 reflects most fantasy settings than one with wizardly academies with standard but artistic martial arts training.