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.)

As with Punching, damage from Martial Arts is handled in a slightly different fashion. The damage from any bare-handed Martial Arts attack is broken into two parts: 25% of the damage from the attack is normal damage, while the remaining 75% is "temporary" damage. The Player's Handbook page 98, discusses this temporary damage, as does this chapter, in the section on "Recovery," below.

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 modifiers for wrestling from the "Armor Modifiers for Wrestling" from Table 57 on page 97 in the Player's Handbook.) If he hits, he does the damage listed from the maneuver plus any bonus from his Strength score.

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 on his attack roll, the result is a Body-Punch, doing 1 point of damage (plus the attacker's Strength bonus for damage).

Martial Arts Results Table


Attack
Martial Arts

%
Roll
Maneuver
Dmg
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

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