ShaggySpellsword
First Post
I love the system, but there are elements to the system that make me unhappy...this is why I tinker. I want to know your opinions on the changes I am considering making consideirng Martial Arts and other related feats.
Problem: Martial Arts PCs do little meaningful damage but can easily be tweaked into abusively unhittable characters. A PC who wishes to focus on Martial Arts can basically very slowly witttle someone down in HP and not be hit. This is not fun for the player because his lightsaber and blaster wielding friends show up and kill his bad-guy because he takes too long.
Possible design solutions: We could make the damage ramp bigger by adding extra dice, but do we want Unarmed Strikes to be outdamaging or even-damaging blasters and lightsabers? I don't. I also don't want martial arts abusable as a Reflex Defense buff. That leaves martial arts as being good for something OTHER than defense and/or damage. Traditionally, unarmed disciplines have been focused towards fast and convienient non-lethal attacks that quickly incapacitate opponents. This is where I want to go.
Martial Arts 1: As is.
Martial Arts 2: Damage die type increases as usual. No bonus to Reflex Defense. Instead, add: "You may make an unarmed Stun attack against an opponent. Whe making a Stun attack, treat your attack just as if it were a blaster set on stun for the purposes of adjudicating damage and the number or steps an opponent moves down the condition track. When making a stun attack, you deal an extra die of damage."
Martial Arts 3: Damage die type increases as usual. No bonus to Reflex Defense. Instead, add: "You may treat your unarmed attacks as 2-handed weapons or light weapons. You may choose which type of wepaon your unarmed attack is at the beginning of your turn. When your unarmed atack counts as a 2-handed weapon, you deal double your strength bonus to damage as normal for 2-handed weapons."
Reasoning: This makes unarmed combat good at Reflex defense without the abusable stacking. This makes martial artists able to take enemy combatants out of fights quickly, but without doing sick amounts of damage. This makes their combat "niche" rapid non-lethal removal of enemies from combat. I say that is a good thing. What do you think?
Related problem: Even with this change, Dodge is far inferior to Martial Arts 1 and Improved Defenses. I want to make it sexy.
Dodge: As a swift action, you can actively dodge out of the way of incoming attacks, gaining a +2 bonus to your Reflex Defense until the start of your next turn. You don't gain the bonus to Reflex Defense if you are flat-footed or otherwise unaware of the incoming attack.
Reasoning Now dodge is something you choose to do, and you get a BIG benefit from it. It does take up a valuable resource (your swift action for the round). I based this on Lightsaber Defense. It could be considered a little better, considering the fact that you don't need a lightsaber out to do it, but you can only take it once, and it still requires a high enough Dexterity score to take. What do you think?
Problem: Martial Arts PCs do little meaningful damage but can easily be tweaked into abusively unhittable characters. A PC who wishes to focus on Martial Arts can basically very slowly witttle someone down in HP and not be hit. This is not fun for the player because his lightsaber and blaster wielding friends show up and kill his bad-guy because he takes too long.
Possible design solutions: We could make the damage ramp bigger by adding extra dice, but do we want Unarmed Strikes to be outdamaging or even-damaging blasters and lightsabers? I don't. I also don't want martial arts abusable as a Reflex Defense buff. That leaves martial arts as being good for something OTHER than defense and/or damage. Traditionally, unarmed disciplines have been focused towards fast and convienient non-lethal attacks that quickly incapacitate opponents. This is where I want to go.
Martial Arts 1: As is.
Martial Arts 2: Damage die type increases as usual. No bonus to Reflex Defense. Instead, add: "You may make an unarmed Stun attack against an opponent. Whe making a Stun attack, treat your attack just as if it were a blaster set on stun for the purposes of adjudicating damage and the number or steps an opponent moves down the condition track. When making a stun attack, you deal an extra die of damage."
Martial Arts 3: Damage die type increases as usual. No bonus to Reflex Defense. Instead, add: "You may treat your unarmed attacks as 2-handed weapons or light weapons. You may choose which type of wepaon your unarmed attack is at the beginning of your turn. When your unarmed atack counts as a 2-handed weapon, you deal double your strength bonus to damage as normal for 2-handed weapons."
Reasoning: This makes unarmed combat good at Reflex defense without the abusable stacking. This makes martial artists able to take enemy combatants out of fights quickly, but without doing sick amounts of damage. This makes their combat "niche" rapid non-lethal removal of enemies from combat. I say that is a good thing. What do you think?
Related problem: Even with this change, Dodge is far inferior to Martial Arts 1 and Improved Defenses. I want to make it sexy.
Dodge: As a swift action, you can actively dodge out of the way of incoming attacks, gaining a +2 bonus to your Reflex Defense until the start of your next turn. You don't gain the bonus to Reflex Defense if you are flat-footed or otherwise unaware of the incoming attack.
Reasoning Now dodge is something you choose to do, and you get a BIG benefit from it. It does take up a valuable resource (your swift action for the round). I based this on Lightsaber Defense. It could be considered a little better, considering the fact that you don't need a lightsaber out to do it, but you can only take it once, and it still requires a high enough Dexterity score to take. What do you think?
