Natural Weaponry question

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    • Natural Weaponry question

      Maybe this has been covered before, as I do not have Devah-like search skills.

      On page 218, which lists the three types of combat, Natural Weaponry is listed as one of the types. Sort of. My question is let's say you have a completely non-martial character, who has a natural weapon (claws, for example). Would that character's attack roll be based on Brawling (which is half Agility)? Or would you get the full Agility rating?

      I guess I'm confused as to whether Natural Weaponry is more a combat skill or a weapon. I can see it either way -- a character might instinctively know how to use claws, even if their Brawling skills were not that great, but it would also make sense to have any use of Natural Weaponry be based on one of the melee skills.

      Diane
    • RE: Natural Weaponry question

      Scott knows this better than I do but my understanding is that a character who has Natural Weaponry can use those Action Dice (based on his Ranking in Natural Weaponry) to attack if he does not have any other melee skills. They cannot, however, use the special maneuvers unless they have formal combat training.

      But again, I may not have that right. Scott is the rules guru. I am the world guru. :)

      -Aaron
    • RE: Natural Weaponry question

      Yep,...Aaron is correct.

      If you had no other martial skills of ANY kind, and you just allowed your character to have the basic Brawling and Throw skills at their Basic Starting Skills value, then you would STILL possess any Natural Weaponry that may have come with your Animal Template purchase at its FULL starting value equal to your character's Agility... Natural Weaponry is your character's skill at using any natural weapons he or she has... It is, in and of itself, a combat skill...

      And, as Aaron said, the special maneuvers on the Maneuver Location Table can only be limitedly used (at an additional -2 difficulty modifier) by characters without the Martial Arts skill.

      But there's more!

      Not only may you use the rank of your Natural Weaponry ability to attack (dice equal to that Animal Ability's ranking), but if you actually DO have any of the other combat skills of that general type (hand-to-hand), then you could use the dice for that Skill instead (if it seems appropriate to the GM). For instance, you could use your Martial Arts Skill (if you had it), and just say that the effect you're going for is that your claws are out while you are performing certain martial strikes...or whatever... You would, in that case, simply be incorporating your natural weaponry into your martial style...

      Likewise,...you could just say you're brawling with your claws out...

      In addition, you could also use one Skill to Complement another... In that same circumstance, you could let the GM know that when you try to slash your opponent with your claws (if you roll at least one success to do so), you'd ALSO like to spend an additional Combat Action (assuming it's your turn, and you're not merely Reacting with a single Action) to make an additional Martial Arts roll, and add 1 additional success for every two you'd roll to whatever successes you already rolled for the Natural Weaponry (as per the rules for Complementary Skills on page 40). As you can imagine, this could make for a powerful strike, whether you Complement your claws with your martial arts, or your martial arts with your claws!

      Yay! Rules flexibility!

      Scottie ^^