Monk/Unarmed Combat Tree

[grand moth]

I know I know. The game is pretty squarely set in that witcher-esk low-mid fantasy aesthetic. It doesn't make much sense to be facing the armies of evil with nothing but your fists.

But at the same time, doesn't the idea of facing the armies of evil with nothing but your fists sound badass? Think about it. Damage dependent on the type and quality of your gauntlets (akin to kick scaling with your boots) with some gauntlets being built in with claws or spikes or the like, a moveset based around dodging and countering and pushing suckers around. Counters that redirect blows to the lowest HP target in the enemy's attack range. Tossing guys to more advantageous tiles, like into traps or hazards, or destructables for bonus damage. The setting would mostly justify it- either with elven martial artists or dwarven berserkers.

Plus that damn troll can't make you drop your fists.

[smoky topaz]

Devs said no 100 times already

[mental bobcat]

Unarmed damage already scales of your gloves Defence, and unarmed combat is already represented by some of the Athletics skills.

I definitely don't want to introduce unarmed combat as a viable playstyle, because it's simply not plausible within this setting. Even elven martial artists would fare quite badly against unholy monstrosities and plate armor soldiers

[grand moth]

Really? Searched through ideas and didnt see it pop up. My bad I suppose

[smoky topaz]

To be clear: an unarmed build is possible, but not good

[grand moth]

Which is why I brought up the idea of special sorts of combat-centric gloves, or even fist weapons which take up the glove space instead

Athletics works well enough as is I suppose

[smoky topaz]

All gloves already boost unarmed damage

[grand moth]

Yeah, I know, but im talking going beyond that boost

Cestuses and the like

But yeah, as I prefaced, hardly a fit for the game

I'd suggest it as a form of melee focused magic, given the body would probably be a better conduit for that than a proper weapon, but that would probably be too high fantasy

[dusty geyser]

let me use dw skills when unarmed, i have 2 hands after all

@smoky topaz

[grand moth]

I've been giving it some thought

Am I spacing or is there not a magical body enhancement skill? Like the circles, but solely to put your body into overdrive? Burns through fatigue far quicker than normal skills, and backfire risks rise the higher it is

[heady jacinth]

there is not, but that ain't a topic for this idea channel

[grand moth]

I don't see why it wouldn't be. The dilemma is "How can anyone sane throw fists against unholy monstrosities" and the only remotely justifiable answer is magic

The idea was prefaced with monk, and now that I think of it, there isnt much in the way of sacred damage as a main focus. What if it took on more of a melee angle as opposed to the majority ranged options offered by magic now?

[smoky topaz]

Well, true

[mental bobcat]

Dual wielding is about wielding weapons. When you have two hands, you don't wield anything

Not to mention that Deflecting with bare hands would be questionable at best

[smoky topaz]

I mean, if you have some armor IT might work, but barw handed....

And flurry by punching multiple times

[wary harness]

barehanded whirlwind is just straight up dancing I suppose

go on, show these proselytes your moves

🕺

[smoky topaz]

https://tenor.com/view/bugs-bunny-punching-boxing-funny-gif-12440776

[dusty geyser]

\

[smoky topaz]

DW with unarmed could work*

[wary harness]

not enough asterisks

[dusty geyser]

am wielding my fists

it could give you hand injury from blocking with deflect

but no hp damage

[smoky topaz]

Unless you have hand armor

[dusty geyser]

if you get hit in your hands you still get hit in your hands

you take full force of it, when you have a weapon you get less becouse there is a weapon to block it even a little bit

even the fact that they have to work for it to hit you in hands takes away from power

[stable vector]

Addressing many points here
First, realism isn't always the best thing to point at in a fantasy setting, specially in limitations. Yes, realism and all the injury system is cool, yet the point of realism it can get without getting boring is limited, and also it's just complicated, which is fun for me, but if it were just as complicated as gray's anatomy kinda shit, I wouldn't play this at all.

Second, deflecting weapons with your hands is actually good, just that is also extremely risky. It's better than using certain weapons if we speak about the effects it will have on your opponent, since if you are skillful enough to deflect it, surely you can grab it and have the palm of your hand plated to not have it cut from the blade and you can manipulate it really well, with the downsides of:
Possibility of DMG to your hand, resulting on loss of function on greater scale
Less range from body to deflect having to risk a lot more to do things

It's more effective, but if we talk cost vs profit, it's not worth the profit really, since being able to do this kind of thing would mean that you probably can do it better with other complex weapons

Dual wielding wouldn't work since, even if you have two hands, most of unarmed combat techniques use both hands and even the legs

Basically, trying to master hand to hand combat has its own gains, but it's the same as trying to master that whip sword thing that takes decades to master

It's just way harder to learn, and unless you were an elf or taught by one, I don't see how you could learn it

The main reason of the gain being, you can manually interact with your opponents weapon and body, and that gives many options for interactions, like grabs, throws, twists and a lot more that can't be done with a blade

Just that against a blade, 5 years of hth vs swordsmanship has swordsman ship come on top

On higher ceilings of dedication, I would say hth, but swordsmanship also takes a few skills of it at that point

If we consider elbows, legs and such

[stable vector]

Ngl, stone armor with this kinda shit would be funny if it was compatible

A golem mfer causing mayhem breaking everything with his fists