Weapon Familiarity & Weapon Element

[Trebuchet]

I'm a bit confused about just how these interact.

Here is my situation: In a Champions game, my bare-handed martial artist has decided to broaden her training to include several traditional martial arts weapons. She's looking currently at sword, staves, and fighting sticks, and adding three-sectional staffs somewhere down the line.

Now does she need to buy only Weapon Elements for her selected weapons; or does she also need Weapon Familiarity? She has no intention of buying or carrying any of these weapons; she just wants to be able to use them if it ever becomes necessary. (Say, borrowing a teammate's weapons if one of the team's other martial artists falls, or after disarming an opponent using one when she needs to fight an opponent with Damage Shield.)

So which does she need to purchase to use them at full efficiency with her full OCV and DCV? Just Weapon Element, or both?

[Monolith]

What a Weapon Element does is allow the character to use his Martial Arts modifiers and damage with the weapon. So you get the damage and CV bonus from a Martial Strike. It does not mean you are proficient with a particular weapon though. It just means that you know how to use it with your Martial Arts.

Your Karate class, for example, might have you practicing your basic Karate maneuvers with a Bo, but that does not mean that you know all the ins-and-outs of how a Bo works, or what the true potential of the weapon might be. You just understand that you can do a "Chop" with it and get an extended reach. To understand that you need to buy the Weapon Familiarity.

So if your player took the WE for Staffs but not the WF she would be able to use it with her Karate, and would get her CV and Damage modifiers, but she would also fight with it at a base -3 OCV until she learned to properly use it. So to me she needs both to be a true master with the weapons. Otherwise she is somewhat proficient, but no real expert, IMO.

[Susano]

Originally posted by Trebuchet
So which does she need to purchase to use them at full efficiency with her full OCV and DCV? Just Weapon Element, or both?

In my opinion? Both. The WF means she knows how to use the weapon. The element means she knows how to use the weapon with her specific martial art.

Now, if she bought the weapon with points, then she doesn't need to buy the WF, just the element.

[Trebuchet]

Originally posted by Susano
In my opinion? Both. The WF means she knows how to use the weapon. The element means she knows how to use the weapon with her specific martial art.

Now, if she bought the weapon with points, then she doesn't need to buy the WF, just the element.

Well, since you wrote 5th Edition Ninja Hero, I think I'll accept that as gospel unless Steve Long jumps in and contradicts you.

Since she only has 3 XP to spend, it looks like she'll have to start with a more modest weapons training program. Say sticks and staffs, with WE for both and WF for the staff. (Sticks/clubs is a free WF). That's OK, her Code vs Killing makes swords more of an academic interest anyway, although it seems reasonable that training to fight with one might help when fighting against one.