5e: can Martial Maneuvers apply to Missile Deflection?

[Sociotard]

I apologize. This question seems obvious and it must have been asked, but a search didn't reveal it.

 

If a character has Missile Deflection, can they use Martial Block to get that nice +2 OCV to make the attack?

[Ninja-Bear]

I believe that that is GM permission territory. 

[IndianaJoe3]

Yeah, the text is ambiguous. It's, "like a Block in HTH Combat." (6e explicitly requires a Block roll.) I'd allow it unless there was a SFX-based reason why it shouldn't work.

[dmjalund]

Buy Weapon Element (Missile Deflection) lol

[Duke Bushido]

NNote: I am absolutely not any sort of official of the game or the board, nor am I part of the anointed few that can provide official-ish answers in the rules questions forums. 

 

All I can offer you is personal opinion (and lots of it, so move over a bit and let me sit down. 

 

First:  martial arts is re-branded Skill Levels.  They don't do anything Skill Levels can't do.  At a point way back when, Aaron Alston thought 'I have a great idea for a campaign! " and skinned a few skill levels down in price to" lock in" their use for one specific thing (presumably as a trade-off for the price reduction) as "this one equals damage" and "this one equals OCV" and that sort of thing.  By the most technical of definitions. No.  Only Skill Levels costing X or more can be re-allocated. 

 

However, you can also buy _dedicated_ skill leveks: skill levels specifically for Action X.  If you have bought Skill levels for use with 'missile deflect.' then by all means, add those. 

 

Now here is my ruling _were I your GM_.  This ruling comes from decades of experience - - and I am not unique there; let's not assume I am trying to claim otherwise-- that has given me a reasonable sense of when something would be problematic as well as countless actual problems and resolutions. 

 

So, we're I your GM, I would point out this:

 

Missile Deflection requires a Block maneuver (as someone else pointed out).  If you have a Martial Block amongst your maneuvers, I would allow you to use that Martial Block maneuver, and any skill levels that you have which are rules-legally applicable to your Martial Block maneuver.

 

Now most players who spend on martial arts spend pretty deep on it.  I have never gotten into it myself, but as always: if you and your friends are having a good time, then you are doing it the right way regardless of who agrees with you, and don't worry about those folks that disagree.   

 

As I said, most MA players are pretty spend on their martial arts stuff, so there is a good chance that you have a Martial Block and several martial skill levels you can throw at it.  It might seem to some that this gives you an unfair edge, but so does a gun.  You paid all those points specifically to do super-cool martial stuff; I can see no harm in letting you get to do super cool martial stuff. 

 

To go a bit further: if you do not have a martial block maneuver and these skill levels were bought _specificslly_ to work with martial arts., then no; I would not let you use these levels with a non-martial maneuver. 

 

If you want to plumb it further, there is a thread for asking rules questions to the current author and other deep-rules-knowledge of the latest versions types, and you could probably get a more current-book legal answer than I could give you, if you feel that you would prefer that. 

 

 

[LoneWolf]

For me it is going to be a matter of special effect and the type of campaign.  For example, I would allow a Jedi in a Star Wars campaign to use a martial maneuver from a lightsaber based martial art with missile deflection.  I would not allow the boxer in a James Bond inspired Danger International campaign to use his Boxing Block to deflect bullets.  In most Champions games it will probably be ok, but will again depend on the special effect of both the maneuver and the missile deflection.  If the missile deflection is bought with a focus (weapon) the martial art will need to have that as a weapon element.  

[Duke Bushido]

3 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

.  I would not allow the boxer in a James Bond inspired Danger International campaign to use his Boxing Block to deflect bullets.

 

 

 

Indeed!  But I am willing to bet you would not allow him to buy Missile Deflection at the 'bullets' level to begin with. 

 

 

3 hours ago, LoneWolf said:

.  If the missile deflection is bought with a focus (weapon) the martial art will need to have that as a weapon element.  

 

 

Excellent point, and one I totally failed to address.  Good catch! 

 

 

[Christopher R Taylor]

Quote

They don't do anything Skill Levels can't do.

 

Well they do some stuff skill levels can't do but I know what you mean.  They are essentially dedicated skill levels broken into damage and CV.  Then there are other maneuvers like disarm, throw, disable, etc that do other things.

 

 

And this is where I again say we need a new power framework to represent martial arts and allow other, similar builds and skill tree-like concepts.