Martial Arts for Wizards

[mhd]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

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).

Which brings up a good point: How are wizards treated legally? Which in turn is probably quite dependent on the relative power of students. If this isn't really, really low (either by the general level of magic, or some kind of blocking), you might not want to increase the belligerence of them. Law students might sue you, but they're not able to level your tavern with a few mystical words (or boil your blood after they snatched a lock of your hair). Academies might have some rather strict rules for that. (Even if using magic is generally forbidden outside of academy grounds, forbidding mundane duels or brawls is a good idea, as not to tempt fate)

Or they just try to avoid this by being rather secluded (Earthsea's island academy, mountaintop monasteries). In which case it's not very likely that nobleman/bourgeoise dueling styles will be popular enough.

Whether you're emulating real-world student combative training also depends on whether your wizardly academies resemble real-world universities. A lot of fantasy students enter when their talents are discovered. A school where you attend from age 10 to 20 will have different possibilities and requirements.

[SonofJohn]

I think some thing like this is a setting question, martialarts could be either an extensial part of the training like say in Avatar: the last Airbender or simple some kind of minor part of the proffesional training like a few stickfighting lessons in your run of the mill fantasy mage academy.

If the staff is sign of there profession its would naturall to use it in self defense outherwise they would use the same weapons other civilians use. Handguns, daggers or Rapiers depending on the actual TL.

[davidtmoore]

It's all about the Style Perks. Staff Attunement is a godsend, and works really well as a Style Perk for any magical staff or stick form. Blocking Spell Mastery is useful, too. It's pretty straightforward to create new perks, to improve Will rolls for concentration, or to allow Rapid Strike spellcasting, or whatever.

Then, it's a matter of function. In general terms, improving your defense while you prepare spells is good, but I would suggest focusing on getting casting times down to 1 second more than on defending while you concentrate.

Death Fist is a good example of a touch-based magical martial art. Foot Archery or Kyujutsu work with Missile spells with almost no alteration.

For proper toe-to-toe fighting with Regular spells, I'd suggest some kind of reasonably defensive style, like Sword-and-Buckler Play or Fencing, and allow DWA or DWD with spells, either as a perk or just as a cinematic feat. If you attack the same subject with a melee weapon and a Regular spell at once, using DWA, they'd take a penalty to both their defense roll and their resistance roll.

[the_seeker]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

But sometimes the stars align in a certain way and that minotaur barbarian is headed your way.

Some sessions, the dice get Bruno, and some sessions, Bruno gets the dice. :)

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Mental Stun, Stun, Tanglefoot, Glue, Force Dome, and of course, Teleport.

A mage who gets stuck in melee has screwed up badly... which isn't to say it never happens. Just that it's easy to screw up when doing difficult and dangerous activities.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by rosignol

Mental Stun, Stun, Tanglefoot, Glue, Force Dome, and of course, Teleport.

A mage who gets stuck in melee has screwed up badly... which isn't to say it never happens. Just that it's easy to screw up when doing difficult and dangerous activities.

Not necessarily. You can have a battle mage designed to handle melee combat. You just need to make sure the mage has appropriate melee skills in addition to magic. Good skill with Staff and perhaps Short Sword also. A decent array of spells that help with defending him and putting his opponents at a disadvantage. A mage with decent armor, a sword, good sword skill and Invisibility can be very dangerous in melee combat.

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by griffin

Not necessarily. You can have a battle mage designed to handle melee combat.

I find that in practice, the 'Warrior who knows a few spells' concept works better than 'Wizard who can solo a minotaur'. Most combat spells take a turn to cast, last for one attack, and don't double your effectiveness... which means that overall you're better off not casting. Yes, yes, I'm sure there are some exceptions, but for the most part, splitting your character's focus means the character is less effective in both fields, and that's pretty much unavoidable in a points-build game system.

[Agramer]

Originally Posted by rosignol

I find that in practice, the 'Warrior who knows a few spells' concept works better than 'Wizard who can solo a minotaur'. Most combat spells take a turn to cast, last for one attack, and don't double your effectiveness... which means that overall you're better off not casting. Yes, yes, I'm sure there are some exceptions, but for the most part, splitting your character's focus means the character is less effective in both fields, and that's pretty much unavoidable in a points-build game system.

Youre forgetting that for a war type buff spells are a way to go.
You can get away with low skill,you cast them before engagement and they last 1 min.which is more than enough for a tough encounter.

Even fighting from single Darkness hex can give you great advantage,or night vision during night,boosting DX,haste...etc

[rosignol]

Originally Posted by Agramer

Youre forgetting that for a war type buff spells are a way to go.

That is actually my preferred approach- for a wizard who stands behind the melee types and enhances *them* with Great Haste, Blur, and other favorites (and occasionally hits the opposition with Spasm (weapon hand) and Fumble).

He just doesn't bother to cast them on himself, because he's got much more effective things to do than whack badguys with his staff.

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

So, wizards are usually not expected to fight in close combat. If they do, they've done something wrong. But sometimes the stars align in a certain way and that minotaur barbarian is headed your way.

GURPS Wizards is for GURPS 3e, but it has a few pages with Martial Artist examples. The wizards tend to have defensive spells which make them harder to see or to hit - such as Blur, Invisibility, Iron Arm, Shield and Missile Shield. They have stuff to enhance their physical capabilities such as Haste, Strength, Might, and Resist Pain. Then they have stuff that helps them offensively in close combat - Spasm, Paraliyze Limb, Deathtouch, Stun, Witherlimb, etc.

The thing is you'll need to trade off between cinematic capabilities and magical ones. Magery is expensive and so is Trained by a Master. For maximum flexibility choose both. This will limit your initial selection of martial arts skills and spells. The character will be weak initially but over time can get some really cool stuff. Works best if you are building with more like 200-250 points instead of standard 150. Cinematic martial artists are expensive. More so when you add magic to the mix.

BTW, if you like templates, Wizards is a pretty cool book (no comments about the cover PLEASE!).