Introduction

These unarmed combat rules were designed to provide more options, more realism and above all, more fun when using unarmed combat. In the AD&D 2nd Edition there were two primary options (that I know of), those for punching and wrestling provided in the PHB and those additional rules for the martial artist provided in the CFH. martial arts. The PHB system was rather arbitrary and not a lot of fun, not very realistic (ever try to get out of a wrestling hold? - its more luck than anything else) but relatively easy to use. The CFH did add some realism, but the rules were scattered, cumbersome and still not a lot a fun. Something had to be done. I went back towards the martial arts rules from the 1st Edition Oriental Adventures, which had always inspired me as far as martial arts go, and I used some of the ideas there to form the basis for a new comprehensive system of unarmed combat rules - and here it is.

Definitions

I speak of martial arts and martial artists throughout this document. For simplicity’s sake I consider all moves and skills described in this document as martial arts and anyone who practices these unarmed combat techniques a martial artist. I have concentrated myself primarily on the combat related aspects of martial arts, so special skills often associated with oriental martial artists such as meditation, blind fighting or special use of weapons are not included here.

Martial Arts Proficiency

The basis for learning unarmed combat techniques or martial arts is the weapon proficiency system. There are separate wrestling, punching or martial arts specialisations, but each character has their own range of special skills. When a character spends a weapon proficiency slot on martial arts he receives 5 discretionairy points. These points can be used to pick certain skills. Each martial arts skill has a certain point cost associated with it. Some skills are free, such as Punching and Breaking Free, indicating that even non-skilled characters can use these moves. In addition to these 5 discretionary points per weapon proficiency slot, a martial artist also receives 1 such point per experience level he possesses. Although characters can spend as many weapon proficiency slots as they like on martial arts skills, the DM can rule that an appropriate teacher has to be found in order to learn certain skills.

Characters may also specialize in skills after they have learned the basics (see martial arts proficiency above). To specialize in a certain skill, that martial artist has to pay 1 additional discretionairy point. Such a specialisation gives the martial artist +1 on to hit and damage rolls when using that particular skill, -1 on initiative with that skill (if applicable) and a -1 to opponent's saves versus that skill (if applicable) and -1 to an opponents roll to escape or break wrestling locks. A martial artist can spent a maximum of three additional points for a level 3 specialisation, giving +3 to hit, damage etc.

The Skills

The basic unit of the unarmed combat system is the martial arts skill. Where Oriental Adventures differentiated between a generic style and a number of special maneuvres, this system consist of the special maneuvres only; the martial arts skills. Further down I have provided a partial list of basic martial arts skills. Each skill has a number of separate headings: skill points, prerequisites, difficulty, ability, initiative modifier and base damage. I will describe the meaning of each heading below.
Skill points - this heading indicates the number of discretionairy skill points (see martial arts proficiency above) that have to be spent to master the given skill. Some skills are more difficult to master than others and this is reflected in a larger amount of skill points. If a character spends enough skill points to meet this fullfillment he has mastered the basic skill and can employ it whenever he chooses to. A character can continue spending more points on a particular skill (see specialisation). For each skill point paid in addition to the base cost, a character gains another level in this particular skill. For each level beyond the initial level, the martial artists gets a +1 bonus on his ability roll, a +1 bonus on damage (total damage, not base damage - see below), -1 to his initiative and his opponents receive a -1 penalty on their saves, if applicable.
Prerequisites - some skills build on more basic skills, and it is required for a character to master the mentioned prerequisite skills before he can learn these more intricate skills. Other prerequisites can be certain ability scores, as some maneuvres may require above average strength or dexterity.
Body Parts - These are the minimum body parts (A = arm, L = leg) that the character needs to execute the skill. If this heading says A,A and one of the character's arms is incapacitated (held, paralyzed etc.) he cannot use the maneuver. If this heading says L,L then a character cannot use the maneuver while prone.
Difficulty - this heading gives an indication of the relative difficulty of the skill. Easy skills are rolled against the appropriate ability (see below) without modifiers. Average skills have a -3 modifier to the roll. Hard skills have a -6 modifier to the roll, formidable skill a -9 modifier and impossible skills a -12 modifier. This will be further detailed in explaining combination skills. Note that while very difficult skills may seem impossible to execute succesfully, keep in mind that unarmed combat specialists often fight unarmored targets, giving an AC range of 6 to 10. Such high AC’s mean that skilled or high level martial artists can perform execute these skills with a reasonable chance of success.
Ability - this is the ability to roll against. In most cases an attack or to hit roll is needed to succesfully execute the skill, in which case the ability heading says: THAC0. In other cases strenght and/or dexterity have to be checked against.
Initiative modifier - this is the initiative modifier used when declaring a martial arts skill. If one reviews all skills one notices that most of these are fairly high. This has been done to compensate for the fact that martial arts often have to wait for their armed opponents to commit themselves before executing their attack, so as to avoid their opponent weapon - with armed combat, parries are supposed to be part of the melee round, this is obviously not the case when facing an armed opponent without carrying a weapon. When both combatants are unarmed, the high initiative modifiers do not matter a lot, since only their relation to each other is significant.
Base damage - this is the amount of damage the skill inflicts if executed succesfully, without adding adjustments from skill level, strength or other sources. With wrestling moves this is the damage that cumulates if a lock is held. So a base damage of 2 means that 2 damage is inflicted in the first round, 4 in the second round, 6 in the third round and so on. After calculating the base damage, any bonuses from strength, skill level (see skill points above) and other sources are added. For example: Zaruk executes a head punch and inflicts 1 base damage, to this he adds +1 from his 16 strength, +1 from his extra skill level in head punching and +1 from the prayer spell he had cast beforehand, for a total of 4 damage. Once again, only 1 point of these 4 is permanent, the rest is temporary (see damage).

View the List of Basic Skills

Creating Your Own Skills

I have designed this system so as to give players room to design their own martial arts maneuvers. One possibility for this is to use combination skills (this will be explained below). Another option is designing your own skill in a manner similar to researching spells. If for example, a player likes his character to make attacks with his elbows or knees, or he likes to master a special tail lock to be used against the local lizard men, he can create his own description and give this to his DM for approval. The DM can rule a that a special training period is required for the character to perfect this new skill, usually from 1-4 weeks, similar to spell research.

Damage

75% of the damage incurred from unarmed combat is temporary. This is an important rule to remember. For each 4 points of damage caused by unarmed combat only 1 point is permanent. The other 3 points will wear off at a rate of 1 hp per 5 rounds (as per CFH). This also explains while a Circle Kick seems to inflict the same amount of damage as a blow with a warhammer (1d4+1), this is not entirely true; three-quarters of the Circle Kick’s damage is only temporary. One thing remains the same, however; if you get below 1 hit point, regardless wether this comes from temporary or permanent damage, you go unconscious. Most players feel not much of a different when their character is goes down from normal or from temporary damage - the character is usually out of action and helpless for the rest of the combat. Game balance dictates that unarmed combat damage should be kept relatively low - or else nobody would use weapons. Only the real masters of unarmed combat could expect to do better than an armed character. Note that in long combats the characters may begin to recover temporary damage while still fighting.
Damage caused by wrestling holds cumulates. Each attack opportunity a martial artist receives that has already established a lock, he can decide to 'hold' that lock. For each attack that the lock is held, the damage is increased by the base damage number. So a hold that does 1 base damage when it is first applied, does 2 damage the next attack opportunity, 3 damage with the one following that etc. Additonal damage from strength and specialisation never increases from round to round. When a lock is held, roll initiative as normal to see if the damage comes before or after the held opponent's action.
Most martial arts moves do only damage to humanoid creatures up to one size category larger than the martial artist (so M characters can attack T,S,M and L opponents). The DM might rule that other types of creatures are also subject, but some maneuvres may do less damages than they normally do. Undead, although humanoid, do not feel pain and their physical makeup is different from living beings. Therefore undead are not subject to temporary damage and unconsciousness or delibating effects of martial arts skills. They suffer only quarter damage from unarmed combat.

Making Multiple Attacks

Similar to a weapon specialist, a martial artists can execute multiple attacks per melee round, especially as his experience level rises. This rule supersedes the two attacks per round rule of the CFH. The number of attacks or skills that can be employed within a single melee round are given below:

Note that succesfully making multiple wrestling attacks in a single round is senseless, once you have got a hold or lock, you stop making more attacks. This means that you can still make multiple attempts per round to achieve a lock, but once you have one, your remaining attacks are forfeited. This does not count if the martial artist decides not to let go of the hold. Each attack sequence, the martial artist has the option of holding or releasing his opponent. Each time the martial artists decides to hold the lock, damage is inflicted. Compensating for the fact that you cannot make multiple attacks with wrestling is the fact that you can continue holding locks for multiple rounds without rolling to hit and that the damage these holds inflict cumulates from round to round.

Holding Wrestling Locks

One note about wrestling locks and holds. It is assumed that the martial artist uses his whole body to hold a certain lock. So it is not possible to take someone into an arm lock and then kick him. A martial artist can try to move from one lock to another with a +1 bonus to his skill roll. Any damage greater than the level of the martial artist causes him to break his hold. So a 6th level character must receive 7 or more points of damage to cause him to break his hold. See the damage heading for a description of how damage cumulates. Anyone can break a lock by applying the Break Lock skill, which is a 'free' skill. More experienced martial artists can use the Escape Lock skill. For each attack or action beyond the attack in which the hold is established, apply an additional -1 to the opponents skill score (strength or THAC0) when determining if a hold is broken.

Forfeiting Attacks

Some situations may arise where a character's attack becomes useless. For example; a character has declared a Punch but loses initiative and is taken into an Double Arm Lock before he can execute it or a character is subject to a Great Throw while he wanted to Kick his opponent. In such cases the attack (or action) is lost. A similar situation arises when two opponents both declare a maneuvre that includes the Blocking skill. Both lose their action as both continue to wait for the other to make the first move - which never happens.

Arms & Legs

Somtimes an arm or leg may get locked into place or incapacitated during martial arts combat. Kicking skills generally use the legs, vital area and punching skills use the hands and arms. All other skills tend to use the whole body. All skills have a description which body parts they use, if some or all of these body parts are disabled in some manner than the skill cannot be executed. When a leg is disabled in some manner (incapacitated, held, etc.) that person's movements rate is halved, and he is unable to run, leap and perform similar feats. Additionally he receives a -2 penalty to hit if fighting with weapons.

Fighting Prone

Standard modifiers apply when a martial artist decides to fight while prone: he is -4 on AC and +1 on intitiative. Standing up costs 1 attack (or action) unless the the martial artist has the Instant Stand skill. The initiative modifier for standing up is the same as for attacking with natural weapons according to creature size (table 56 PHB): 0 for Tiny; +3 for Small and Medium; +6 for Large; +9 for Huge and +12 for Gargantuan Creatures. If a character declares that he is standing up as action then no penalties for fighting prone apply. Standing up is always succesful.

Wearing Armor

The standard rules for wearing armor while using martial arts skills apply - wearing heavier armor brings additional penalties to the skill check. They are reproduced here for easy reference: