Would you allow a Block/Strike or a Block/Leg Sweep?

[Demonsong]

Would you allow a Block/Strike or a Block/Leg Sweep?


Would you allow a Block/Strike or a Block/Leg Sweep? As a GM would you / do you allow these built martial maneuvers from the Ultimate martial artiest in your game? I have created several martial arts forms for my World and I am introducing both of these maneuvers soon. I just wanted some input from other GM’s out there. They are potentially very powerful maneuvers. Buy since a character can not abort to them I do not think that they are over powered. What do you think?

As always,
Thanks

[Dust Raven]

If you can't Abort to them, I don't see any reason why not. You'll have to be holding an action to use the Block Element though, otherwise you can only use the Strike (or however you bought it).

I've found maneuvers like these are perfect for martial arts heavy campaign (such as Ninja Hero). They are almost essential to campaigns simulating old kung fu films or any Steven Segal movie.

[Bartman]

Originally posted by Dust Raven
If you can't Abort to them, I don't see any reason why not. You'll have to be holding an action to use the Block Element though, otherwise you can only use the Strike (or however you bought it).
With the ones in the UMA you can't abort. And they seem quite reasonable to me.

In Strike Force they had a MA (Pak Tu?) which had an abortable block/strike combo. The manouver was valued at about 7pts. And it was one of the most broken things I have ever seen. From the moment the book hit our group, everyone found an excuse to buy the 20pts worth of martial arts required to get it. And then our GM promptly banned it. It was that unbalanced.

The 90s edition of Ninja Hero also had abortable block/attack combos, but they recomended that only the craziest wuxia campaigns allow them. I played in one short campaign which allowed it. And it was still as broken as ever. In short as long as abort is not included I think it's fine. But if you include abort block and an attack element I wouldn't allow it.

[lemming]

As long as you can't abort to it, that's fine in my game.

[dugfromthearth]

I would allow two versions of block/strike

an aggressive block is a block and strike in one - you roll against the attackers OCV for both. You couldn't do more then one block though. And you automatically hit the limb (which means you do half damage).

I allow abort to attacks. But then I have my own martial arts system modifiers (which I am writing up formally and will post sometime soon I hope). I limit maneuvers to 2pts and charge 2pts to be able to abort. So an attack you can abort to is a very weak attack.

In general being able to block and attack at the same time is vastly overpowerd. I am in a swashbuckler campaign that allows separate maneuvers for each arm, and the guys with two swords that block and strike are untouchable while they hack you apart.

[Demonsong]

You couldn't do more then one block though.

It this a house rule of yours? Because I have never read anything that stats this. If it is a real rule could you post a book and page please. Thanks a lot.

[TheEmerged]

Originally posted by Bartman
With the ones in the UMA you can't abort. And they seem quite reasonable to me.

In Strike Force they had a MA (Pak Tu?) which had an abortable block/strike combo. The manouver was valued at about 7pts. And it was one of the most broken things I have ever seen. From the moment the book hit our group, everyone found an excuse to buy the 20pts worth of martial arts required to get it. And then our GM promptly banned it. It was that unbalanced.

The 90s edition of Ninja Hero also had abortable block/attack combos, but they recomended that only the craziest wuxia campaigns allow them. I played in one short campaign which allowed it. And it was still as broken as ever. In short as long as abort is not included I think it's fine. But if you include abort block and an attack element I wouldn't allow it.

I only have experience with the system from Ninja Hero, and I'll second the notion that it's broken as heck.

HOWEVER, I'll add the cavaet that IF you can't abort to the manuever AND can't block/strike more than one person AND like the way it feels, it's your campaign and your tastes.

[dugfromthearth]

house rule

like I said, i hope to post my house rules for martial arts soon.

very similar to the existing rules, I just deconstructed more.

You build maneuvers from the ground up.

A normal attack is:

1/2 phase action (-2), action ends the phase (-2), attack does dmg (+4)

A normal block is :
1/2 phase action (-2), action ends the phase (-2), stops attack with OCV (+2), vs multiple attacks (+2)

or the full phase abortable block is:
1 phase action(-4), action ends the phase (-2), stops attack with OCV (+2), vs multiple attacks (+2), abort (+2)

with this system you could have a block that only works against a single attack, getting +2 OCV (+2) instead of vs. multiple attacks (+2)

if you want to "block" but dodge instead you can get stops attack with DCV (+4), or you could get a regular dodge which just gives you a DCV bonus.

lots of flexibility. More for martial arts or heroic campaigns where everyone should have martial arts (or weapon maneuvers).

[prestidigitator]

I haven't seen this from UMA, but I would have to say that I would allow a Maneuver which does both a Block and an attack. I would just base it on a Sweep in which one maneuver is a Block and the other is the attack in question. Since you are presumably paying points for the maneuver, let it count as a Half Move attack (as if the character had Rapid Attack), and impose a penalty to DCV rather than halving it. Sounds balanced to me.