Martial Arts Styles
Kelly Pedersen
simulating them (take X feats and Y skills, declare you're training in
Southern Leaping Tiger Style, and get Z minor bonus), is mostly okay. I
prefer that to creating a whole bunch of new feats specifically to
represent individual martial arts. However, I'm slightly dissatisfied
with the specific entry requirements. I dislike the fact that a player
who simply says that his character is training in a style gets the
benefits, while another player, with the same feat and skill selection,
but whose character is not training in a style, gets nothing. I think
any special training that grants an in-game benefit should have some
in-game cost as well. Therefore, I'm instituting a new skill category in
my game: Martial Arts. Like Knowledge or Profession, this is a broad
category of individual skills. Martial arts styles will now, in addition
to the current prereqs of feats and skills, also have some number of
ranks in Martial Arts (the desired style) as prereqs.
I'm thinking that all Martial Arts styles will be class skills for
fighters and monks, with specific martial arts being class skills for
some other classes.
As an example of what I'm thinking of, here's six martial arts styles
based on real-life martial arts. Note, I'm not a martial arts expert by
any means. These are based on my rather limited reading about the styles
in question, not practical experience. I've only ever taken a little bit
of wing chun, and I've not done any of the others.
Also: Karate includes, as a prereq, the feat Greater Unarmed Strike.
This is a homebrew feat of my own, which I include here for reference:
Greater Unarmed Strike [General, Fighter]
Your unarmed strikes are more powerful than normal.
Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit: Your base unarmed strike damage increases to 1d4 if you are
Medium, or 1d3 if you are Small.
Special: You can gain Greater Unarmed Strike multiple times. After the
first time you take it, it has a base attack bonus prerequisite, which
increases by +4 each time you take the feat. Thus, the second time you
take this feat, it has a BAB prerequisite of +4, the third time a BAB
prerequisite of +8, and so on. Its effects stack. Each a Medium creature
takes this feat, its unarmed damage increases by one step on the
following progression: 1d4 -> 1d6 -> 1d8 -> 1d10 -> 2d6 -> 2d8.
Each time a Small creature takes this feat, its unarmed damage increases
by one step on the following progression: 1d3 -> 1d4 -> 1d6 -> 1d8 ->
1d10 -> 2d6.
And here are the styles I've come up with. Note that these are
essentially "black-belt" level; the practicioner has mastered all the
basics of the style, but is not, by far, the greatest master of the
style the world has ever seen. I'll probably come up with advanced
levels of these styles eventually, but for now, these will do as examples.
Aikijutsu
Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Martial Arts
(Aikijutsu) 4 ranks
Benefit: You receive a +1 dodge bonus against charge attacks, and if you
attempt to trip someone who has charged you in the last round (while
they still suffer the AC penalty for charging), you get a +2 bonus on
the trip attempt. This bonus stacks with that provided by Improved Trip.
Capoeira
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, Martial Arts
(Capoeira) 4 ranks, Perform (Dance) 4 ranks
Benefit: If you make a successful Perform (dance) check (DC 15) as a
move action, you receive a +2 dodge bonus to AC until your next turn.
Escrima
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Int 13, Combat Expertise, Improved Disarm, Two
Weapon Fighting, Martial Arts (Escrima) 4 ranks
Benefit: When fighting with two weapons, with a light weapon in your
off-hand, you receive a +2 bonus to any disarm checks you make. This
bonus stacks with that provided by Improved Disarm.
Jujitsu
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple, Martial Arts
(Jujutsu) 4 ranks
Benefit: When you attempt to trip an opponent as part of a grapple, you
receive a +2 bonus to the grapple check to trip them. This bonus stacks
with that provided by Improved Trip.
Karate
Prerequisites: Str 13, Improved Unarmed Strike, Greater Unarmed Strike,
Martial Arts (Karate) 4 ranks
Benefit: On any round that you full attack using an unarmed attack, your
first successful unarmed attack does an extra 1 point of damage. This
bonus stacks with that provided by Weapon Specialization (unarmed), and
similar feats.
Wing Chun Kung-fu
Prerequisites: Improved Unarmed Strike, Blind-fight, Martial Arts (Wing
Chun Kung-fu) 4 ranks
Benefit: If you direct all your attacks against one target during a
round, you receive a +1 dodge bonus to AC against that target until the
beginning of your next turn. You cannot make attacks, including attacks
of opportunity, against anyone else, however, or the bonus to AC is lost.
William Burke
Kelly Pedersen <kelly_p...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> in-game cost as well. Therefore, I'm instituting a new skill category in
> my game: Martial Arts. Like Knowledge or Profession, this is a broad
> category of individual skills. Martial arts styles will now, in addition
> to the current prereqs of feats and skills, also have some number of
> ranks in Martial Arts (the desired style) as prereqs.
This slightly breaks the skill paradigm, which uses skills to represent
non-combat or supplementary combat skills rather than primary combat
skills, represented by feats and BAB. It's not a big deal, but
fighters, for example, might have a hard time with martial arts, because
their skill allotment is so low (since they are not intended to have
non-combat or supplementary combat skills). Something to think about.
Also, neat idea!
--p
Samurai
with martial arts, because their skill allotment is so low (since they are
not intended to have non-combat or supplementary combat skills). Something
You could make some kind of skill pool for these skills, something like
Craft Points in Unearthed Arcana, right? For instance You could give 2
points + Int Mod for Martial Arts skill per level for every class. That will
be only used for Martial Arts skill. And from 1st level onward You could use
limitations in improving that skill just like any other (1st lvl - 4, 2nd
lvl - 5....7th lvl - 10 ranks). It could be a class skill for Fighters,
Rangers, Thieves and Bards because IMHO these classes are ofter found in
combat and they could use this skill for improving their fighting technique
and giving them even more fancy sworfighting coreography for customizing
each player's character.
YT.
--
''Thusfar thou have been adrift in the sheltered harbour of my patience...
and now, a storm is coming...''
Christopher Adams
>
> I've been considering martial arts styles in D&D. The currentяяethod of
> simulating them (take X feats and Y skills, declare you're training in
> Southern Leaping Tiger Style, and get Z minor bonus), is mostly okay. I
> prefer that to creating a whole bunch of new feats specifically to
> represent individual martial arts. However, I'm slightly dissatisfied
> with the specific entry requirements. I dislike the fact that a player
> who simply says that his character is training in a style gets the
> benefits, while another player, with the same feat and skill selection,
> but whose character is not training in a style, gets nothing. I think
> any special training that grants an in-game benefit should have some
> in-game cost as well. Therefore, I'm instituting a new skill category in
> my game: Martial Arts. Like Knowledge or Profession, this is a broad
> category of individual skills. Martial arts styles will now, in addition
> to the current prereqs of feats and skills, also have some number of
> ranks in Martial Arts (the desired style) as prereqs.
This works okay, since you're not using Martial Arts checks to actually perform
combat maneuvers, which would as William Burke suggests break the D&D skill
paradigm.
Why not, however, simply make them a Knowledge skill which would appear on the
class list of the appropriate classes? If the only use for the skill checks
would be some kind of kung fu movie-style "Show me your style" competence
comparison, the fact that they'd be Intelligence-based skills would hardly
matter, since most classes which use martial arts don't prioritise Intelligence
anyway.
I'm also at a loss as to how Martial Arts as a skill of its own could reasonably
run off anything other than Intelligence if it represents knowledge of the style
as opposed to the physical ability to perform it.
I really do like your work, though.
--
Christopher Adams
What part of "Ph'nglui mglw'nath Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" don't you
understand?
You're not a bad person. You're a terrific person. You're my favorite person.
But every once in a while you just can be a real cunt.
- Bill
Kelly Pedersen
> In article <10akj3e...@corp.supernews.com>,
> Kelly Pedersen <kelly_p...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>>in-game cost as well. Therefore, I'm instituting a new skill category in
>>my game: Martial Arts. Like Knowledge or Profession, this is a broad
>>category of individual skills. Martial arts styles will now, in addition
>>to the current prereqs of feats and skills, also have some number of
>>ranks in Martial Arts (the desired style) as prereqs.
>
>
> This slightly breaks the skill paradigm, which uses skills to represent
> non-combat or supplementary combat skills rather than primary combat
> skills, represented by feats and BAB.
As a counter, I present Tumble. Although I do see what you mean.
> It's not a big deal, but
> fighters, for example, might have a hard time with martial arts, because
> their skill allotment is so low (since they are not intended to have
> non-combat or supplementary combat skills). Something to think about.
Hmm. Would it be better if I cut the general "entry-level" cost in
Martial Arts ranks down to 2, instead of 4?
> Also, neat idea!
Thankyew. :-)
Kelly Pedersen
> Kelly Pedersen wrote:
>
>>I've been considering martial arts styles in D&D. The currentĸĸethod of
>>simulating them (take X feats and Y skills, declare you're training in
>>Southern Leaping Tiger Style, and get Z minor bonus), is mostly okay. I
>>prefer that to creating a whole bunch of new feats specifically to
>>represent individual martial arts. However, I'm slightly dissatisfied
>>with the specific entry requirements. I dislike the fact that a player
>>who simply says that his character is training in a style gets the
>>benefits, while another player, with the same feat and skill selection,
>>but whose character is not training in a style, gets nothing. I think
>>any special training that grants an in-game benefit should have some
>>in-game cost as well. Therefore, I'm instituting a new skill category in
>>my game: Martial Arts. Like Knowledge or Profession, this is a broad
>>category of individual skills. Martial arts styles will now, in addition
>>to the current prereqs of feats and skills, also have some number of
>>ranks in MaMĸial Arts (the desired style) as prereqs.
>
[snip]
> Why not, however, simply make them a Knowledge skill which would appear on the
> class list of the appropriate classes? If the only use for the skill checks
> would be some kind of kung fu movie-style "Show me your style" competence
> comparison, the fact that they'd be Intelligence-based skills would hardly
> matter, since most classes which use martial arts don't prioritise Intelligence
> anyway.
I'm in two minds about this. On the con side, there are 2 points:
Firstly, I'm leery of subdividing Knowledge _again_. It seems excessive
to have Knowledge (martial arts (karate)) on a character sheet.
Secondly, to follow the general 3.5 paradigm of Knowledge skills, I
would have to give either Knowledge (martial arts), or Knowledge
(martial arts (futher specialization)) a synergy bonus with some other
skill.
On the pro side, I was thinking about making a subsiduary feature of
Martial Arts, which would basically involve identifiying other martial
artists when seeing them in action. That aspect would fit well with
Knowledge.
> I'm also at a loss as to how Martial Arts as a skill of its own could reasonably
> run off anything other than Intelligence if it represents knowledge of the style
> as opposed to the physical ability to perform it.
Hmm. In my conception, it actually does represent the physical ability
to perform it. Fighter X may have feats 1, 2, and 3, but Fighter Y has
the Martial Arts skills that allow him to put all three feats together
in a new synergy. Pretty physical overall, if you ask me.
> I really do like your work, though.
<grin> Thanks.
Jeremiah
Brian
> Why not, however, simply make them a Knowledge skill which would appear on
the
> class list of the appropriate classes? If the only use for the skill
checks
> would be some kind of kung fu movie-style "Show me your style" competence
> comparison, the fact that they'd be Intelligence-based skills would hardly
> matter, since most classes which use martial arts don't prioritise
Intelligence
> anyway.
That could be interesting. Maybe knowledge martial arts should give a
synergy bonus to intimidate as well.