Unarmed Combat[]
The following material is reproduced in part from The Complete Fighter's Handbook , so that players of Fighting-Monks will have access to the rules for martial arts combat.
Attacking Without Killing[]
Before proceeding, you should familiarize yourself with the "Attacking Without Killing" rules from the Player's Handbook, pages 97–98.
Knowing Punching, Wrestling, Martial Arts[]
As you saw in the Player's Handbook, everybody knows how to punch and wrestle. Any character, from the doughtiest warrior to the spindliest scholar, knows hot to twist someone's arm or punch him in the jaw. (Naturally, such factors as strength, dexterity and experience level have a remarkable effect on how often one hits and how much damage one does.)
Martial Arts are another matter. By "Martial Arts," we mean generic unarmed combat. This isn't karate, kung fu or tae kwan do: It's movie-style martial arts with no basis in real-world fighting styles.
A character may only know Martial Arts if the DM declares that this style is available for characters to learn. In many campaigns, it won't be. In most oriental campaigns, it will be. In campaigns where the occidental and oriental worlds have a lot of contact with one another, it could easily be.
To know Martial Arts at its basic level, the character must spend one Weapon Proficiency slot on Martial Arts. That's all it takes. Once he's spent that proficiency slot, he can use Martial Arts in the same way that other people use Punching and Wrestling, as we'll describe immediately below.
Martial Arts Results[]
At its basic level, Martial Arts skill is used just like Punching and Wrestling. Martial Arts combat occurs when a character attacks with his bare hands, feet, and even head. No weapons are used. (A character can hold a weapon in one hand and nothing in the other, attacking with his weapon one round and with his Martial Arts skill in the next.)
When attacking with Martial Arts skill, the character makes a normal attack roll against the normal Armor Class of the target. (If the attacking character has armor on, he does suffer the "Armor Modifiers For Wrestling" from Table 57 on page 97 of the Player's Handbook.) Any other normal modifiers are applied to the attack roll (from the attacker's Strength bonus, for example).
If the attack roll is successful, the attacker consults the table below for the result of the attack. If, for instance, the character rolls a 13 to hit, the result is a Body-Punch, doing 1 point of damage (plus the character's damage bonus from Strength, if any).
Martial Arts Results Table[]
| Attack Roll |
Martial Arts Maneuver |
Damage | %KO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20+ | Head Punch | 3 | 15 |
| 19 | High Kick | 2 | 10 |
| 18 | Vitals-Kick | 2 | 8 |
| 17 | Vitals-Punch | 2 | 5 |
| 16 | Head Bash | 2 | 5 |
| 15 | Side Kick | 1 | 3 |
| 14 | Elbow Shot | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | Body-Punch | 1 | 2 |
| 12 | Low Kick | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | Graze | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Body-Punch | 1 | 2 |
| 9 | Low Kick | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Body-Punch | 1 | 2 |
| 7 | Knee-Shot | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Side Kick | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Head Bash | 2 | 10 |
| 4 | Vitals-Punch | 2 | 10 |
| 3 | Vitals-Kick | 2 | 15 |
| 2 | High Kick | 2 | 20 |
| 1* | Head Punch | 3 | 30 |
- * Or less
Descriptions of the Maneuvers[]
Body-Punch: This is a straightforward punch into the target's stomach or chest.
Elbow Shot: With this maneuver, the attacker plants his elbow into the target's chest, side, or stomach.
Graze: This could have started out as any sort of maneuver, but it merely grazed the target; it wasn't landed firmly.
Low Kick: The attacker kicks the target in the leg or thigh.
Head Bash: The attacker slams his forehead into the target's face, which is a stout maneuver.
Head Punch: This is a good, strong blow with the fist to the enemy's head, particularly his jaw.
High Kick: The attacker kicks the target in the upper body somewhere: Stomach, chest, back, or shoulder.
Knee-Shot: The attacker brings his knee up into the target's stomach or thigh.
Side Kick: With this maneuver, the attacker has time to prepare and launch a very powerful sideways kick (which may be at the end of a cinematic leap).
Vitals-Kick: The attacker kicks his target at some vulnerable point: Groin, kidney, neck, solar plexus, etc.
Vitals-Punch: The attacker puts his fist into one of the vulnerable points mentioned immediately above.
Specializing in Punching[]
Any priest can specialize in Punching (or Wrestling, or Martial Arts). Of all the types of priests, though, only the Fighting-Monk can specialize in more than one unarmed combat style. The DM may decide for his own campaign that Priests other than the Fighting-Monk may not specialized in any unarmed combat, or that certain types of priests (for example, of the god of peace) may not.
In order to do specialize in Punching, the Priest must devote a Weapon Proficiency slot to Punching. When he does, he gets the following benefits:
- He gains a +1 bonus to all his attack rolls with Punching;
- He gains a +1 bonus to all damage with Punching; and
- He gains a +1 chart bonus with all Punching attacks.
The chart bonus is a reflection of the character's superior accuracy with Punching. When the Fighter-Monk rolls and successfully hits, as you know, the roll itself determines which maneuver was made.
But on a successful hit, the Punching Specialist can modify that result. If he has a chart bonus of +1, he can choose the maneuver one higher or one lower on the chart.
- Example: The fighter-monk Toshi punches an orc. He rolls a 18 to hit, and this turns out to be a successful hit. On the "Punching and Wrestling Results" chart, we see that this is a Rabbit Punch. But Toshi is a Punching Specialist with a chart bonus of +1. He can choose instead for the result to be a Wild Swing (which does less damage and has an inferior chance of accomplishing a knockout) or a Kidney Punch (which does the same damage but has a superior chance of accomplishing a knockout). He changes the maneuver from a Rabbit Punch to a Kidney Punch.
Only if a character Specializes in Punching and thus has a chart bonus can he affect his punch results in this manner.
Specializing in Wrestling[]
The same rules given for Specializing in Punching also apply to Wrestling. If a Priest spends one Weapon Proficiency slot on Wrestling, he is a Wrestling Specialist:
- He gains a +1 bonus to all his attack rolls with Wrestling;
- He gains a +1 bonus to all damage with Wrestling (that is, all his maneuvers will do 2 points of damage plus his Strength bonus, and continued holds cause cumulatively 1 more point of damage for each round they are held); and
- He gains a +1 chart bonus with all Wrestling attacks.
So if, for instance, he rolls a 9 to hit, and that hits, his result would normally be a Leg lock. If he chooses, he can change it to an Elbow smash or a Headlock.
Specializing in Martial Arts[]
The same rules given for Specializing in Punching and Wrestling also apply to Martial Arts, with one exception. No character knows Martial Arts automatically. Therefore, the character must first spend one Weapon Proficiency slot to know Martial Arts in the first place, and then must spend one more to become a Martial Arts Specialist.
As usual, when the character becomes a Martial Arts Specialist:
- He gains a +1 bonus to all his attack rolls with Martial Arts;
- He gains a +1 bonus to all damage with Martial Arts; and
- He gains a +1 chart bonus with all Martial Arts attacks.
So if he rolls a 15 to hit, and the attack hits, he has performed a Side Kick. If he uses his +1 chart bonus, he can change that into an Elbow Shot or a Head Bash. He'll probably choose to change it to a Head Bash, for the improved damage and improved chance of KO.
More Than One Style[]
Only a Fighting-Monk can specialize in more than one unarmed combat style. A Fighting-Monk can only specialize in one of the three unarmed combat styles when he is first created. After first level, however, he may specialize in the other two.
As described in the writeup of the Fighting-Monk kit, the character can save some of his Weapon Proficiencies.
For example, at first level, he could specialize in Martial Arts, then spend another slot at second level to specialize in Wrestling, then another at third level to specialize in Punching.
However, if he first specializes in Punching or Wrestling, he cannot specialize in Martial Arts at the next experience level. He can only spend one slot per experience level, meaning that he'll first gain proficiency with Martial Arts at one level, then specialize at the next level.
Usually, the character, if he wants to specialize in more than one style, will take either Martial Arts or Punching, not both, and then take Wrestling. Martial Arts and Punching overlap one another somewhat, but Wrestling is useful when the character is being held.
Continuing Specialization[]
This is an option only for Fighting-Monks (and Warrior characters); other Priests may not do this.
If a Fighting-Monk continues to devote Weapon Proficiency slots to an unarmed combat style after he is already specializing in it, he gets the following benefits.
For each additional slot devoted to his art, as before:
- He gains a +1 bonus to all his attack rolls with his combat style;
- He gains a +1 bonus to all damage with his combat style; and
He gains a +1 chart bonus with all attacks in that combat style. With chart bonuses of +2 or more, the character can choose any maneuver within the range of maneuvers covered by his chart bonus (see the example below).
A Fighting-Monk, once he has specialized in a fighting style, can only devote one Weapon Proficiency slot to that style per experience level. Therefore, a first-level Fighting-Monk could specialize in Martial Arts by devoting two slots to it. He could not devote another slot to it until second level, and then could not devote another slot until third level, and so on.
Let's use that character as an example.
Example: Toshi the Fighting-Monk specializes in Martial Arts at first level, adds one proficiency slot to it at second level, and another at third level.
- At third level, he has a +3 bonus to attack rolls with Martial Arts, a +3 to damage rolls with Martial Arts, and a +3 chart bonus.
- Let's say he rolls a 17 to hit someone, and that the attack does hit. This would normally be a Vitals-Punch. But he has a +3 chart bonus. He can choose for the maneuver to be a Head Punch, a High Kick, a Vitals-Kick, the Vitals-Punch that was rolled, a Head Bash, a Side Kick, or an Elbow Shot. Assuming that he takes the punishing Head Punch, he'll do 3 points for the maneuver, +3 points from the damage bonus he gets for specializing, and any bonus his Strength grants him.
- * * *
That, in brief, is the way Martial Arts works for the fighting-monk. You are encouraged to read the Combat chapter of The Complete Fighter's Handbook for more rules and guidelines on the use of unarmed combat in the game.