Full Drunken Master
Lillia Iniguez
Drunken Master (Chinese: 醉拳; lit. 'drunken fist') is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping, and starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-tien, and Hwang Jang-lee.[1] It was a success at the Hong Kong box office, earning two and a half times the amount of Yuen's and Chan's previous film, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which was also considered a hit.[2][3]
It is an early milestone of the kung fu comedy genre, and helped make Jackie Chan famous in Asia. The film popularised the Zui Quan ("drunken fist") infused with unique animal fighting style. In 2017, it was ranked number 3 on GamesRadar's list of 50 greatest kung fu movies of all time.[4] It spawned an official sequel, Drunken Master II (1994), and several spin-offs. It had a significant cultural impact, inspiring numerous later films, music, manga, anime and video games.
Yim is known for his "Devil's Kick", a swift and deadly kicking style which has never been defeated. Wong provokes and challenges him to a fight and is soundly defeated and humiliated. He makes his way back to Beggar So and decides to commit himself to the Drunken Master's training program. The training resumes and soon Wong learns Beggar So's secret style of martial arts, a form of Drunken Boxing called "The Eight Drunken Immortals", named after the eight xian that the fighting style references. Wong masters seven of the eight styles with the exception of Drunken Miss Ho's as he feels that her style of fighting is too feminine.
Meanwhile, Yim Tit-sam is contracted by a business rival to kill Wong's father. Wong's father fights with Yim and is defeated and injured by him. Wong and Beggar So arrive on time and Wong continues the fight with Yim. Beggar So promises not to interfere in the fight. Wong employs the new skills he has learned and outmatches Yim's kicking style. Yim then resorts to his secret technique, the Devil's Shadowless Hand, which is too fast for Wong to defeat. Wong confesses that he did not master the last style so Beggar So tells him to combine the seven styles and create his own version of the last style. Wong follows the instruction and discovers his own unique style of Drunken Miss Ho, which he uses to overcome the Shadowless Hand and finally defeats Yim.
Not all films that feature the Zui Quan "Drunken Fist" style (or variations on it) can be considered as imitators of the Drunken Master films. Films such as Drunken Monkey (2002) may feature a drunken style of kung fu, and in the case of The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), the same principal star, but they have a fundamentally different plot and sufficiently different title to separate them from Drunken Master.
I'm currently working on a character who is a monk and will be taking the drunken master subclass. The problem is, she does not drink. Instead of playing with the "faking drunk" aspect of it, I'm more thinking about how to re-skin the class. This is proving a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.
On of my pcs got mad at me tonight before I mentioned that if he doesnt start making it appare t that he is drinking ( so I can keep in mind con saves and what not) that he won't be able to take drunken master traits or abilities.
Drink Like a Demon (Ex): A drunken master's body handles alcohol differently from other people's. He can drink a large tankard of ale, a bottle of wine, or a corresponding amount of stronger alcohol as a move action. Every bottle or tankard of alcohol he consumes during combat reduces his Wisdom and Intelligence by 2 points each, but increases his Strength or Constitution (character's choice) by 2 points. A drunken master may benefit from a number of drinks equal to his class level. The duration of both the penalty and the bonus is a number of rounds equal to the character's drunken master level + 3.
I assume they say this since it makes the AC of a Drunken master tank due to losing so much WIS. Aren't there good ways to alleviate this though? Can't you simply run 1 level of Fist of the Forest to get AC bonuses from DEX/CON/WIS (Assuming at least 1 level in monk).
Qualifying for drunken master is miserable: you need two awful feats, plus one of the taxiest of feats in the game in Improved Unarmed Strike. This is a huge knock against the drunken master.
Not getting some class features from your normal class is typical for a prestige class, but a drunken master usually loses an extra attack during a flurry of blows because he never gets greater flurry as a level 11 monk. Also, a drunken master loses out on some extra speed, which is crucial for the monk who wants to take foes seeking safety in the back ranks. A drunken master also isn't immune to poison, his SR is terrible, misses out on quivering palm, and never becomes an outsider. Those are hard to lose when compared to the abilities of a drunken master.
I'm not saying that drunken master is a really good prestige class, but there are many classes that aren't extremely good if all you're trying to do is optimize. Drunken master is more a role-playing class than a combat class while still being not bad at combat. Most special abilities can be used without without drinking, if you need to. Only drink like a demon, for medical purposes, and breath of flame need booze.
Backstory - Ebbo was once a master martial artist at the Ocilerion monastery. After being exiled to the Material Plane from the Air Elemental Plane for a daring romance with the abbot's daughter he roamed Earth's forests where he began to imbibe on ales a little too much. Honing his drunken art. He began taking odd jobs from wandering passersby in order to fund his brewing and drinking.
Then one day he heard tale of a legendary beer recipe that contains almost unattainable, magical ingredients. Ever since then he's been on the hunt for these, with one in particular proving most difficult to obtain.
A drunken master often enjoys playing the fool to bring gladness to the despondent or to demonstrate humility to the arrogant, but when battle is joined, the drunken master can be a maddening, masterful foe.
Most monks lead lives of moderation and quiet contemplation. But the drunken master finds perfection through excess. Powered by strong wine, he uses his intoxication to reach a state where his ki is more potent, if somewhat fleeting. A drunken master has the following class features.
Had a question that rose in an old game. Is the drunken mastery archetype monk subject to the drinking rules (think they're in the GM Guide)? Is seems to me that the drunken master rules replace the drunk rules, taking one drink gives 1 drunk ki point instead of minuses and all that. From a search it doesn't look like this has come up before. Thought?
As for whether the drinking rules as laid out in the Gamemaster's Guide apply, you'll have to chat with your DM. One one hand there's nothing in RAW to suggest that you SHOULDN'T be subject to the drinking rules, while on the other hand the drinking rules are kind of awful (in particular they're very restrictive as to how much you can drink at a time, and there is no explicitly listed timeframe for how often a character can drink before penalties set in, so it's open to GM interpretation) so if you go strictly by RAW you'll likely have a difficult time keeping Drunken Ki available prior to combat.
Most Protection thwarting options are highly vulnerable to side schemes. Thankfully, Shadowcat's ability can completely bypass it, but it requires some finesse due to the timing of Solid / Phased flipping if you also want to avoid all damage. To assist with thwarting, your first options are your designated drinking buddy and Airwalk. Phased and Confused additionally helps with confusing the villain, but be sure to line this up with a minion attack you can defend against, otherwise you will lose your normal defensive triggers.Hard to Ignore removes main scheme threat after defending. If you defend while in Solid, you can flip to Phased instantly and trigger the effects, ignoring any in play. With Intangible Interference, you can additionally help clear that side scheme at the same time. But you want to defend in your drunken stupor, but thankfully there's a nice combo piece: Counter-Punch. Here's the sequence:
The best part of drunken martial arts is having your enemy do all the work for you, leaving you more time to drink. Just sit back, drink, and let your enemies punch themselves. Counter-Punch, Powerful Punch, and Preemptive Strike can only be used before (if it's an interrupt) or after (if it's a response) an enemy attack. Side Step is unique in that it can be played any time you would take damage, even outside of an attack. If you are the target of an undefended attack, it will declare you the defender, and if in Phased, will prevent all damage.
When somebody consumes alcohol, they become much more proficient at their discipline of choice, be it fighting, studying, writing... you name it. If it involves skill, that skill will be magnified tenfold when the character is drunk. Given what may seem the obvious drawbacks of drunkenness in general, this trope may bear some relation to a Disability Superpower. Some individuals, particularly artsy types, may attribute such miracle abilities to other substances.
Fan Works
- In this Fate/Grand Order doujin, a drunk Baobhan Sith, who normally is the Butt-Monkey in this fan series, get drunk on sake and is able to defend Ritsuka and Kadoc from the drunken trio of Nagetora, Jing Ke, and Ushiwakamaru.
Literature
- Dionysus in Everworld can only use his full godly powers when he's plastered.
- Sergeant Hellian from Malazan Book of the Fallen is one of the most capable squad leaders of the Malazan army, despite being falling-down drunk during every living moment. As it turns out, if given time to go proper cold turkey, she becomes frighteningly competent.
- A would-be Noodle Incident mentioned by Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith as "That business on Cato Neimoidia" is fleshed out in the Star Wars Legends book Labyrinth of Evil: Obi-Wan, despite staggering around after a dose of narcotic fungus spores, completely obliterates a roomful of battle droids. He was in the Force, to be sure, but deep in some other zone as well, giddy with astonishment, as the world unfolded in slow motion.
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: The Wizard gives the Cowardly Lion "liquid courage" to make him not a coward any longer.
- In the Gallagher stories by Henry Kuttner, collected in Robots Have No Tails, Gallagher is a genius inventor only when he's drunk. Most of the stories begin with him waking up with a hangover and no memory of the night before, to discover that he's just invented some new thing so amazing that before he can even begin to figure out how it works he has to figure out what it does.
- Stephen King could be considered an example, as many of his best works have been written when he was either drunk or coked up, and he's admitted to being a big fan of LSD in the sixties. He once stated that he really likes Cujo, so it's a shame that he has absolutely no recollection of writing it.
- A Kingdom Besieged has a weather mage who can only use his magic while drunk. He attributes it to having learned the magic from elves, while he's human. He hates alcohol.
- Haymitch is a hopeless alcoholic in The Hunger Games, but his knowledge of people and tactics is astounding.
- Codex Alera has an unnamed bosun serving under the pirate Captain Demos. While dealing with some monsters, Demos notes that the bosun is a far more dangerous and deadly fighter when he is drunk. Unfortunately, the man ran out of whiskey and hasn't resupplied.
- Inigo Montoya, in The Princess Bride, is a master swordsman who sinks into alcoholism due to his inability to find the six-fingered man who murdered his father. Despite his heavy intoxication, he is easily able to fight off several members of the Brute Squad when Count Rugen orders the Thieves' Quarter cleared out in preparation for the Royal Wedding of Buttercup and Prince Humperdinck.
- We finally see what an Earthbending version of this looks like in The Rise of Kyoshi, with Lao Ge. He takes on a few police squads without a scratch while falling out of the front of the gang's hideout into them. Though he is also a master assassin, so some of this is intentional.