Martial Artist Blaster (Ranged Martial Arts)

[SteveZilla]

Hello,  I want to make sure I'm understanding the 6e RAW regarding a character with his own attack powers (Blast and RKA) and how those interact with the Ranged Martial Arts maneuvers from the Martial Arts book.  As built, he has a Multipower with (among other things), two attacks.  In addition to that, I bought him the "Offensive Shot" and "Quick Shot" maneuvers (among others).

As I understand it, I don't need to buy anything else to be able to use either maneuver with either attack power, yes?

And as a Ranged Martial Artist (having Breakfall as well as a KS for the MA style, and 17 pts in maneuvers), I can purchase additional Martial Damage Classes - and those also would be useable with either attack power like the maneuvers?

Thanks!

[unclevlad]

I believe, by RAW, you get 1 of em for free.  The Blast or the RKA.  To get others, just buy Weapon Elements within your Martial Arts.

 

If you read HSMA, they want you to, preferably, buy from basic to fancy.  So Basic Shot is pretty common, and it's actually an excellent default as it's +2 Range and +2 DCs.  In that sense, it's generally better than Quick Shot, IMO;  I'd personally rather have +2 Range than +1 OCV.  They're both 1/2 phase;  the name suggests Quick Shot's a better choice for multi-attacking but there's nothing in the rules, IIRC, that actually says that.

 

And yes, you can take Ranged DCs once you've got the maneuver min reached.  Again, HSMA *suggests* that you don't overload with these, as many additional DCs is less plausible with a ranged attack than it is with HTH.  They can make for a pretty darn cheap blaster so your GM should look at how far you're going with em.  Cuz, not only are they 0 END, but it can mean that you buy the base Blast at full END and don't really care, so you save the cost of any Reduced End on a bigger power.

[SteveZilla]

On 2/19/2020 at 3:46 PM, unclevlad said:

I believe, by RAW, you get 1 of em for free.  The Blast or the RKA.  To get others, just buy Weapon Elements within your Martial Arts.

 

Ah, yes - that does sound familiar.

 

On 2/19/2020 at 3:46 PM, unclevlad said:

And yes, you can take Ranged DCs once you've got the maneuver min reached.  Again, HSMA *suggests* that you don't overload with these, as many additional DCs is less plausible with a ranged attack than it is with HTH.  They can make for a pretty darn cheap blaster so your GM should look at how far you're going with em.  Cuz, not only are they 0 END, but it can mean that you buy the base Blast at full END and don't really care, so you save the cost of any Reduced End on a bigger power.

 

"Less plausible" is IMO an opinion and not in the rules themselves (but if I am wrong, please post book/page reference for me. :) )

'Overloading' is not the case with this character (10D6 Blast is the base power), I feel compelled to challenge the desire to limit DCs based upon what the "base power"/SFX is.  Aren't there 10-15 STR Martial Artists that can do 12D6 strikes out there (not just published characters, but PCs as well)?

[unclevlad]

I believe the comment about ranged DCs was in HSMA.  My take is that HTH DCs can be considered to be precision strikes, and/or extra crispness to the strike.  It's a lot harder to get that kind of precision at range, and the perfect form to impart max force doesn't make sense at range.  

 

Systemically, there's a small difference between a ranged DC and an HTH DC.  HTH can be spread out...STR, HA/HKA, martial maneuvers.  The martial HTH DC is only one approach.  With ranged, the core damage is is gonna be from the Blast/RKA.  You get a bit from some of the maneuvers...altho I like the range mods as much as anything, personally...but several of them don't have a damage boost.  If you take 3-4 ranged DCs, that's fewer dice you need to buy...ergo lower END cost, and lower active point cost so that Multipower can shrink.  Low enough END cost means you can throw in an Autofire...and IIRC, all the DCs carry over.  So, 35 point Multi...7d6 Blast, 5d6 3-shot AF Blast.  With 5 DCs from maneuver bonuses and 3 ranged DCs...that's 6 END for a 3-shot burst at 10 dice.

 

And even the non-AF Blast gets the benefit of being easier to use.  Want a straightforward 10D blast?  5 END.  Throw in 3 ranged DCs and you drop it down to 3.  Without raising the active points.  And again, with autofire, that reduced END is double cost.

 

This is perhaps most important when the Blast is in a multipower, because the multipower size is the powers' Active Point limitation.  When it's a standalone power, there's, as noted, Beam and Limited Range (great because the Range Mod outside the usual Limited Range can be painful) to knock the Real Cost down.  In a VPP, you pay in the Control Cost...but that's still just half-price, compared to the multipower size cost.

[dsatow]

Personally, I am not really a big fan of ranged martial arts in Champions.  Except for ranged disarm and ranged throw, I think most of the advantages could be simulated by levels or more dice on the power.  In heroic settings, I can see more reason to have it as everyone is using the same equipment/powers.  But not in a superpowered setting.

[IndianaJoe3]

IMHO, Ranged Martial Arts are for when the character can't simply buy a bigger attack but needs a little extra damage to be competitive.