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.

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