Advanced Martial Arts for Dark Sun

The following is the Ben Walters revision of martial arts for Dark Sun. Some players may be sitting there going "I wish there was some way to advance my characters ability to kick serious ass without a weapon." Well now there is and all your character needs is to specialize in unarmed combat.

I got most of the things here from The Complete Ninja's Handbook, but I took it and twisted it to fit Dark Sun. The first change is that you’re no longer required to be training under a master, because this art of combat is still very young in its development on Athas. It's almost impossible to find someone who knows even the basics of martial arts. But since the styles have to be started by someone, I think it's only right for the character to find a master when the PC is looking for a move that's overly powerful. I will, in all my greatness, help you (the DM), by indicating the moves and forms that can be picked up without even training, with just a little bit of training, a lot of intense training, or intense training under a master.

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After a PC has spent a second slot (Specialization) in unarmed combat and has shown intense interest in advanced forms of unarmed combat (DM's discretion) they can enter the world of fast bare-handed fighting action. The next step is to pick a style. You can pick one of the three styles listed at the end of the this document or you can make your own (DM's discretion). If you are one of the rare ones and are being taught a style by a master, you have to take his style (unless you already have a style and are just learning a move). But if you are jumping into the world of martial arts without a master and don't want to or can't make a style of your own, you can still take one of my three pre-made styles and rename them if you wish. It is also very possible to learn more then one style, but every style after the first requires another proficiency slot and someone to teach you the style.

Styles

This part is where you, the player, can find the three new styles for your character to learn. They are Unmoving Sand, Blood Kank, and Alran but they are not the only ones that have to exist. The player or DM can make as many forms as they want, but be very careful not to flood your campaign with styles. Three to four with a max of five is about right. Remember that it takes hundreds of years for a style to come about, and this type of combat is still very young. Now like I said before, you don't have to call one of the already known styles by its actual name. If you were not taught the style you can call it what ever you want, or take credit for making it. Keep in mind when making a name that most are based on some type of animal and the way it defends it's self (Snake and Tiger Kung Fu, etc.) and what a better place to find odd and crazy creatures than Athas.

Before I get into the styles themselves let me talk about what everything you're about to see means. First every style when being used has it's own dmg rating and an AC modifier, these benefits can only be used when the PC is not heavily armored (nothing heavier then leather) and unarmed. The other stuff is the special maneuvers that a practitioner of the style can learn. They are listed in the order that the PC has to learn them and the character can only learn those moves that are listed for that style.

ex. Brak the half-giant wants to increase is ability at striking things (WOW!). His style has a strike progression rate of 1,3,4,6. He wants to learn five but he can't so he decides to learn six instead. He already knows one and three, so all he has to do is to spend the proficiency slot to learn four and then another to learn six.

The first style is Unmoving Sand. Because of the fact that it's defensive, it's hardly known on Athas. But if one learns how to use it effectively, they can do some truly unique things. This style normally reacts instead of acting first. Like the desert sand which can attack its opponents with various elements, the practitioner uses all parts of his body to counter the punches and kicks of the opponent.

The next style is Blood Kank. This style, as you might infer from the name, is the most straight forward and deadly style. It uses the hands and feet to completely destroy its opponents and like an enraged Kank has been known to use it's teeth to rip at an opponents face.

The last style is a good mix of the two called Alran (elven for "way of the fist"). This style takes the offensive attacks and the defensive blocks that are overly used in both styles and tones them down and makes them into one.

Name Dmg AC mod. Special Maneuvers

Unmoving Sand 1pt -3 Block:1,2,3,4 Movement:1,2,3,5

  Force Control:2,4

Kick:1,2,3,4

  Vital Area:1,2,3,4,5

Strike:2,4,5

Mental Focus:1,3,4,5

Form:3,4,5

Name Dmg AC mod. Special Maneuvers

Blood Kank 1d4 -1 Block:1

Movement:1,2,3,4,6

Holds:1,2,3

Force Control:1,3

Kick:1,2,3,4

Vital Area:1,2,3,4

Strike:2,4,5,6,7

Mental Focus:2,3,4

Form:1,2,5

Name Dmg AC mod. Special Maneuvers

Alran 1d3 -2 Block:1,2,3

Movement:1,2,3,4,5,6

Holds:1,3,4

Force Control:1,2,4

Kick:1,2,3

Vital Area:1,2,3

Strike:1,2,3,4,5

Mental Focus:1,3,4

Form1,2,3,4,5

Maneuvers

In this section I'm going to talk about the maneuvers, which is the only reason why you take a martial art. Sure, at first you thought it was to expand your character and enjoy new areas of role-playing, but now you'll see the raw power that it can give your character. And that will be all that you want: power, power, and more POWER! You make me sick! Anyway! Moves can be gained by spending one proficiency slot per move and can only be bought in a special order (talked about before). All moves are classified as a certain technique, which are listed below:

Blocks-Since the beginning of combat, fighters have always tried to block in-coming attacks. The ones that perfected this lived the ones that didn't are dead, and so learning to defend yourself is very important. All of these moves will in some way prevent an attack form hitting its mark.

Movement-What fun would martial art combat be if the fighters just stood there and threw punches at each other? It wouldn't be fun at all! People want to have fight scenes where things are flying everywhere and there are bodies all over the place and the fighters are jumping over and on stuff. So movement includes all the moves that help the fighter do just that.

Holds-One of the coolest things to see in a fight is a helpless victim flying through the air and smashing into something or seeing those weird ,extreme type of choke moves, and this technique is just that. This technique also involves grabbing hold of peoples' weapons and how to defend yourself for these holds.

Force Control-This is not something from Star Wars; that's a whole other game. This technique is the use of an opponents own weights or force of their movements and sometimes your own weight against them.

Kick-This is very straight forward it includes any of the many nasty things the PC can do with their legs

Vital Area-This technique is not as advanced as the others because the knowledge of pressure points and nerve endings is not as widely known on Athas as it is in Oriental settings. However someone who studies hard in this area can learn some of the basics.

Also these moves only work on humanoid opponents. It costs one extra slot per creature you want to effect, this also includes thri-kreens.

Strikes-Like Kick, this technique is rather straightforward. It involves all the nasty stuff the PC can do with their arms, no matter how many they have…

  Mental Focus-If they do it in ordinary campaign setting your dam sure they are going to do it on Athsis and just like harnessing your pisonic powers harnessing your mental focus can give you some good stuff as well.

  Forms-Last but not least is something that I made up on my own. This is basically a different stance or way of counter actions and attacking. An example of this could be Kung Fu, if someone knows Kung Fu they can know millions of different forms (Dragon or Crane style) each one is separate and original. When someone uses a form they gain certain bonuses (and certain penalties sometimes). The person using a form can only do certain moves and on top of that they only get these benefits for three rounds after which the opponent learns how to react to these forms. But if a PC switches to a different form they can switch back next round and use it for another two rounds.

ex. Thacuak, a thri-kreen, is using Cistern Fiend form for three rounds and then loses its effects so he switches to Golem form. At the end of that round he sees just how much he was kicking butt with the other style so he switches back to Cistern Fiend form and uses it for two more rounds. After this, that form will never work on that opponent again(but he's probably already died).