Barehanded Maneuvers

It's possible to use most of the maneuvers described under Melee Maneuvers when fighting barehanded, either Punching, Wrestling, or Martial Arts.

When a character wishes to perform a maneuver that's not one of the standard maneuvers for the barehanded fighting style in question, he makes that announcement at the appropriate time in the combat sequence (that is, if it's a Called Shot of some sort, he announces before initiative; otherwise, he makes the announcement when he's called on for the description of his action for the round).

When his turn comes up, he rolls to hit. If he's specialized in a barehanded fighting style, he still gets the attack bonus for his Specialization. If he hits, he doesn't do one of the maneuvers from his fighting style; he performs the specific maneuver he elected. However, If he's a Specialist, he gets the damage bonus from his fighting style.

Here are examples of how this works with the specific Melee Maneuvers:

Called Shots: Punching & Martial Arts

A Puncher or Martial Artist can perform Called Shots, but none will do any extra damage. They can be very effective in combat in very specific situations if the character is trying to perform one of the standard Called Shots: Striking a Specific Body Part (as mentioned earlier, to damage a beholder's special eye, for example. Smashing Something Being Held (though the attacker risks having the contents of whatever he's smashing spilled on him), and Bypassing Armor (again, this only works on monsters where the DM has designed a specific weakness into the monster).

A Puncher or Martial Artist can also perform a Called Shot to attack a specific Hit Location. See the text on "Hit Locations:' below. This is the sort of attack the character wants to use if he's trying to hit an enemy in the jaw to knock him out, pound him in the solar plexus to double him over, and so on: all normal rules for Hit Locations are used.

Called Shots: Wrestling

A Wrestler can take a Called Shot in order to choose the specific Wrestle maneuver result he wants. If he succeeds, he does not randomly roll the wrestle maneuver which takes place, he chooses it. This is of special usefulness when he's trying to achieve a hold result.

Example: A wrestler decides to take a Called Shot. Before initiative is rolled, he announces that he's taking a Called Shot to achieve the result of Arm Lock. He suffers the usual +1 to initiative when his turn comes up, he suffers a -4 to hit. lf he hits, the maneuver result is Arm Lock. regardless of the roll.

Also, when a fighter is wrestling another character, he might find it to his advantage to make a Called Shot to pull the enemy's helmet down over his enemy's eyes, blinding him for a combat round or two.

But, obviously, such successes depend heavily on the goodwill of the DM. If he thinks such maneuvers are more bother than color, don't try to perform them.

Disarm

It's possible for a barehanded fighter to disarm an armed opponent, but it's dangerous. When so trying, the barehanded fighter's AC suffers a penalty of 2 (for example, a 5 becomes a 7; he's having to expose himself to attack briefly), and his Disarm attempt is at an additional -4 to hit. But if it hits. It's just as successful as any other Disarm.

Grab

As described above, the Grab is designed for barehanded use, and so suffers no penalty when the attacker is barehanded.

Hold Attack

A barehanded fighter can hold his attack with no penalty.

Parry

A barehanded fighter trying to parry a barehanded attack does so at normal odds.

As with Disarm, it's possible, but dangerous, for a barehanded fighter to parry an attack from a melee weapon. The Parrying character must suffer an AC penalty of 2 (for the same reasons described under Disarm, immediately above), and his AC stays disadvantaged until his next attack comes up. Then, when performing the Parry (which usually consists of getting so close to the enemy that the Parrying character can get his own hand under the descending weapon-hand), the Parrying character suffers an additional -2 to hit.

Pin

A barehanded character can't use the Pin maneuver to pin someone else's bare hand. Use the Wrestling rules for such an attempt.

A barehanded character can try to use Pin to pin somcone's weapon: use the modifiers described immediately above for Parry.

Pull/Trip

A barehanded character can try to Pull/Trip another character with no additional penalty. Barehanded, the character can only Trip characters who are adjacent to him, and cannot Trip any Large creature or monster.

Sap

A barehanded Sapping attack (basically, a punch to the jaw) is a classic combat maneuver. It can be performed with Punching and Martial Arts, but not with Wrestling. As with the regular Sap, the barehanded fighter makes his Called Shot at an additional -4; If he hits, he does normal damage for his attack, and has the normal Knockout chance of 5% per point of damage done.

Between the Sap maneuver and the Called Shot for the Head Hit location, the character has two attacks that can hit an enemy's head. They are very different, however, and so they are not redundant.

The Sap provides a chance for knockout: the Called Shot to lhe Head doesn't.

The Called Shot to the Head has several unusual possible results (Blindness, Knockdown, etc.), the Sap doesn't.

And the Called Shot to the Head can only be used if the DM allows Hit Locations in his campaign. If he doesn't, the Sap is all you're left with.

Shield-Punch

Since a Shield-Punch requires the use of a shield, a barehanded character obviously cannot perform this maneuver.

Shield-Rush

Since a Shield· Rush also requires the use of a shield, a barehanded character cannot perform this maneuver.

Strike/Thrust

When a barehanded character tries the Strike/thrust maneuver, it's called a "Punch" and uses the normal Punching rules.