Martial Artist?

[Guyon]

Hero Sysrm V4:

What is the best way to make a tough Marshal Artist that only have average strength?

 

Do you just buy the marshal attacks Punch, kick,etc and then buy levels for each attack? Or a general level for all marshal attacks? I am sort or lost on this one.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

Yes, you have it correct. Simply leave your Martial Artists STR normal and purchase all the maneuvers you want for him/her. To increase damage to represent an increase in martial ability, you can purchase both Combat Skill Levels and Extra Damage Class for your Martial Arts.

 

Extra Damage Classes for your Martial Arts costs 4pts per +1DC. Each +1DC adds +1D6N damage to normal damage attack maneuvers. Adds +5 STR to any maneuver with an Exert basis (i.e. a STR bonus) + 1/2D6 to NND Damage, however it takes +2DC (8pts) to add a full +1DC to killing Damage maneuvers. This bonus adds to every applicable manuever at the same time. Example:

 

Wang Chi has the Kung Fu martial art form. He has the following maneuvers:

 

Offensive Strike: STR +4D6 damage

Martial Strike: STR +2D6 damage

Martial Block: +2OCV/+2DCV block

Martial Dodge: +5DCV dodge

Martial Grab: +10STR to Grab

Killing Strike: 1/2D6K strike (2 DC)

 

If he were to add +2 DC's for a total of 8pts, his maneuvers would look like:

 

Offensive Strike: STR +6D6

Martial Strike: STR +4D6

Martial Block: +2 OCV/+2 DCV block

Martial Dodge: +5DCV Dodge

Martial Grab: +20STR Grab

Killing Strike: 1D6K strike (3 DC)

 

As you can see, it enhanced the damage ratings of all this attack maneuvers. However, it did not affect Martial Block and Martial Dodge at all. Note that the Killing Strike had its base damage increased from 2DC's to 3DC's. Thats important in that it increases the maximum damage. At 2 DC's, the maximum damage is double...4 DC's or 1D6+1K. No matter how much STR or how many skill levels the user possesed, they can never increase the damage rating beyond 1D6+1K. However, adding the Extra DC option to their martial art increases the base DC to 3, thus increasing the maximum to 6 DC's or 2D6K!

 

There are also Combat Skill Levels to consider. 3pt, 5pt, 8pt and 10pt CSL's can be used to augment Damage. (however 2pt CSL's can only augment OCV) it takes 2 CSL's to increase damage by +1DC (this works for both killing and normal and NND damage as well) So a character with 4 CSL's usable with his Martial Art can use them all in a single phase to increase the damage of his attack by +2 DC's.

 

Thus, to represent a character who is well advanced in his artform, I like to use a combination of Extra DC's and Combat Skill Levels. I tend to find that people favor increasing STR, and I think this method is overused. To each his own though. One of Hero's greatest Strengths (as well as one of its inherent weaknesses) is its ability to model a single effect in multiple ways.

[Susano]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

1) Give the character only average STR (10-15).

 

2) Buy the Martial Arts package that suits the concept (Judo, Akido, Karate, and so on) -- or pick maneuvers you want to have/use.

 

3) Buy a few Damage Classes defined as "He knows what he's doing."

 

4) Buy some 3-point levels with the Martial Art as a whole.

 

4a) Buy some 2-point OCV levels with a favored maneuver. If you bought only a few core moves in Step 2, consider some 5-point HTH levels as well. Note -- this will stack as you go, so be careful of campaign CV limits. Also be aware that ever two CSL can be used to add a Damage Class to your maneuvers.

 

5) If by "tough" you mean "hard to hurt," buy some Damage Reduction.

 

6) Enjoy.

[Guyon]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

Thank you very much, I will look into this.

 

One other MA Question for V4 is:

Could the "No Normal Defense MA attack work on someone that has a personal (form fit verses the dome) force field protection?

[Susano]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

Thank you very much, I will look into this.

 

One other MA Question for V4 is:

Could the "No Normal Defense MA attack work on someone that has a personal (form fit verses the dome) force field protection?

 

I don't have the old NH handy, so... What's the listed Defense?

[Ura-Maru]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

"Wearing Solid Armor or having Lack of Weakness"

 

Of course, force fields stop almost every other kind of NND, so why not this one, too?

 

---

"Why do you hate my groin so much?!"

[Susano]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

"Wearing Solid Armor or having Lack of Weakness"

 

Of course, force fields stop almost every other kind of NND, so why not this one, too?

 

I'd base it on SFX.

[Starlord]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

You can also build your 'average STR' MA with a multipower to represent his different 'superpowered' attacks. I've built a couple martial artists who actually didn't even have any martial arts skills.

[Guyon]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

I never thought about putting MA attacks in to a multi-power. That would make it VERY tough. Any down sides?

 

I've built a couple martial artists who actually didn't even have any martial arts skills.

Huh? What do you mean? Like you just called them martial artists and they had regular punches and kicks?

[Susano]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

I never thought about putting MA attacks in to a multi-power. That would make it VERY tough. Any down sides?

 

Can't pull of combo attacks.

[Black Rose]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

I never thought about putting MA attacks in to a multi-power. That would make it VERY tough. Any down sides?

As Susano said, you can't pull Multi-Power Attacks (which are technically legal, even though we didn't know that), and some pretty simple maneuvers come out fairly high cost. Overall, I think it works great for Super Martial Artists for one main reason; once you have your Martial Art Multipower created, any freaky supermoves (hitting everyone around your hex, hitting everyone in a line, Ultimate Block [Force Wall] and Ultimate Dodge [Desolid]; stuff like that) can be thrown in and not soak you too much on the cost, since you already invested points in a MP to hold them.

 

Huh? What do you mean? Like you just called them martial artists and they had regular punches and kicks?

Absolutely. Remember, Hero is not about names, but effects. A simple MP using HA with Armor Piercing, Autofire, Area of Effect, Affects Desolid, NND, HKAs with the same, maybe some STR (only to Grab, or Shove, or whatever), and some CSLs on the outside gives you a pretty potent Martial Artist without actually buying a single Martial Art Maneuver.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

One of the ways that I built martial artists to get around the bell curve was to add dice of hand attack limited by only being effective givewn an attack roll better than that required by the system.

 

So KungFuGuy had a martial strike of 3D6 (STR 15) + 4D6 for his martial arts +5D6 (precision limited, capped) Hand Attack.

 

If KungFuGuy needed 15 or less to hit SlowMovingBrickMan then

 

on a roll of 15 he would roll 7D6 (average 24.5 STUN, 7 BODY)

on a roll of 14 he would roll 8D6 (average 28 STUN, 8 BODY)

on a roll of 13 he would roll 9D6 (average 31.5 STUN, 9 BODY)

on a roll of 12 he would roll 10D6 (average 35 STUN, 10 BODY)

on a roll of 11 he would roll 11D6 (average 38.5 STUN, 11 BODY)

on a roll of 10 he would roll 12D6 (average 42 STUN, 12 BODY)

 

But he would never do more than 42 STUN, 14 BODY for a strike (the maximums of 7D6) and using a less damaging manouevre would result in a lower cap.

 

This allowed me to up the damage done by martial artists without making them overmuscled. I often used standard effect and just added the damage rather than rolling extra dice - it made the martial artist seem different from the brick.

 

 

Doc

[Vondy]

Re: Martial Artist?

 

All you need to simulate marshal attacks is Fast Draw and a Remington Army .44 Model 1858.