Self-Defense 201
You Should See the Other Guy
As noted in the Course Description, this seminar will be of more use to characters who already have the Martial Artist skillset. Neophyte students may attend, but won't get anywhere near as much benefit from it.
Just in case:
This is my First-Ever course in hand-to-hand combat!
Show the Editor's Notes...
First, pay the "Character in play" rate for the Martial Art skill to exist at
0 Aps
as outlined in the Character Advancement tutorial:Base Cost (starting times five!)125 HP
Still have banked Hero Points to spend? Great! We'll see about that.
Ordinarily the Factor Cost for Martial Artist is 6. This class, however, is teaching only 2 of the Subskills. Put another way, it is not teaching 3 of the subskills! So the Factor Cost for this will be dropped by those missing subskills, making the improvement process significantly less expensive.
per AP at FC 330 HP
This is really not the best time to be linking the Martial Artist (EV: Battery, OV: Blocking) skill to an Attribute. The best time to do that was during Character Creation. The second-best time to do that will be when the character has an in-game break of at least six months between adventures.
Thus we see that to get from "never studied Martial Artist at all" to
@[Martial Artist - Doasorma Style](profession:906152a8-caa9-4d55-a2d4-ec8006d32e91) (EV: Battery, OV: Blocking): 04
will cost a total of
245 HP
.Many folks might prefer to pick up fewer APs from this seminar. No need to jump directly to "competent professional" in ten days! The benchmark for "Amateur with some basic training" is 2 APs and would make the total cost
185 HP
. The benchmark for someone twice as good as that, an "Indifferent professional" with 3 APs, would instead have a total cost of 215 HP
.Of course, the immediate drawback here is that in any given initiative phase, the character can only use their Martial Artist training for either maximizing the impact of a blow that they landed some other way (probably by using plain Dexterity) or for trying to prevent a blow from landing at all. For the time being, this adventurer needs to rely on other abilities for their AV, their RV, or any useful Techniques such as "grab the Villain Gadget out of their hand!"
The long-term drawback will appear when the character tries to train themselves up to a more well-rounded fighting ability. That is definitely a conversation for another time!
I am in this class to advance a well-rounded existing skill.
In the White Book, Martial Artist is skill with no Subskills. A character has trained in an evenly distributed system of hand-to-hand combat. Blood of Heroes introduced Subskills so that a character could fine-tune their education: a "soft style" might have excellent skill in their OV/RV and Holds; a Coluan might be great at AV and OV due to their precise calculations but rely on Gadgets for dealing with actual effects and results.
Most Player Characters in Wyldfire either have all of Martial Artist, or none of it. Most Player Characters also repeatedly use their Martial Artist skill for a particular component of a melee fight. They have other abilities that they rely on -- and why not? They worked hard to be good at that particular talent!
This seminar is for PCs who want to improve specifically their abilities to have a melee attack be particularly effective once it lands on the adversary, and also to parry an incoming melee attack regardless of how debilitating it might be if it lands.
Show the Editor's Notes...
Start with your existing Martial Artist skill. Duplicate it so that the same content is on two lines of the Skills Box on the character sheet:
- Martial Artist ##
- Martial Artist ##
Now distribute the five Subskills between these two entries. You may wish to also note the revised Factor Cost for each.
- Martial Artist (AV: Assault, RV: Defense, Techniques) ## FC: 4
- Martial Artist - Doasorma Style (EV: Battery, OV: Blocking) ## FC: 3
Only now is it time to spend banked Hero Points.
Since the character already has the skillset, Base Cost has already been paid. Look only at the cost per AP of raising the AP rating for that FC: 3 line. (Since we have a general restriction during this Character Advancement opportunity that no Power nor Skill can raise above 6 APs, we do not even need to look at the row for the 9-15 AP Range.)
per AP at FC 330 HP
The Skills box on your character sheet now contains something more along the lines of:
- Martial Artist (AV: Assault, RV: Defense, Techniques) ## FC: 4
- Martial Artist - Doasorma Style (EV: Battery, OV: Blocking) ?? FC: 3
Going forward, this character could find an instructor to work on the subskills currently lagging behind. Those improvements would be at the "FC: 4" rate. Once all Subskills are at a single rating, drop the reference to Doasorma if you like. Go back to a single line entry, (all subskills) instead of listing out the subskills separately, and FC: 6 as the White Book originally listed it.
Or
Going forward, this character could continue to diversify. Do they really need to refine their technique in withstanding a melee attack once it lands? Do they want to study as many nifty little Techniques as they can find? Do they only care to study "Nerve Strikes" -- that would be Martial Artist (EV), making the blow astoundingly effective once it lands -- while other abilities on the character sheet suit the character better for the rest of their melee combat options?
Easy enough!
The same process used above can be used for future splits of a single Subskill training to a different level than the remainder of the Skillset. Follow the guide in Character Advancement for determining the Factor Cost, don't fuss about the Base Cost, and have fun.
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