Homebrew Class - Martial Artist

character-class
#1

It’s kind of addicting creating classes for ICRPG.

Martial%20Artist
Martial Artist.jpg652x610 116 KB

#2

What are the CHI points? How does that work?

#3

Add to boost an attack roll by the number of points needed to hit your opponent or add to damage rolls. Or, (up to the DM) add more die to the number of effort die used.

#4

You loose them once you use them? Rest to recover them?

#5

Sorry, you recover them WIS bonus per hour is the recovery rate

#6

This kind of thing needs to be in there, man!!! hehehe

#7

Thank you for your kind response

#8

Acrobat seems HELLA strong. Even for a game that does not care that much about balance. ICRPG ME went that extra step to dethrone DEX as a superSTAT and you give it 2 bonuses at once.

And all of these “all attacks are easy” seem low diversity to me. The character only attacks? No defense? No counterattacks? A lot of things could go in there in place of those.

#9

Eyyyy! Furlan’s got the DIY bug! That’s awesome! Maybe you could add something where you knock them prone or make it so the next ally to attack gets advantage or something! Or a Reiki strike to the hand or foot that makes them miss a round from sheer pain! Everyone loves a monk! Even horses!

#10

Idon’t feel like brass knuckles fit the theme. You’ve got very kung fu stuff going on, and then ol’ gangster equipment. Give 'em chop swords, sai, or a three-section-staff.

I also agree that the starting abilities are a little blah. How about catching arrows, being able to jump and stand on any object, even if it shouldn’t be able to support your weight. Make Kung Fu being able to attack all CLOSE foes with BASIC; I think there are a lot of creative ideas from the source material that are getting left on the shelf. It’s a good start, but I say KEEP GOING! Make every choice soo cool that it’s hard to choose.

#11

I love seeing custom types, it’s the fruit of a lot of what is great about ICRPG. Kane made a great video introducing the “format” for custom types: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hZ2zDaW-qM

That video may provide some good additional building blocks as you work on this!

Another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of these abilities may already mostly exist and just need a little modification. For instance, the exotic weapon ability is close to the existing ability for the bard’s heirloom. So you could just snag that and call it something like “disciplined training” and boom, you’ve got a practiced skill with that weapon, it always does ULT. There’s a lot that can just be tweaked or reskinned among the existing stuff. Often I comb through what’s there to give me a headstart in making something “new”

A lot of the intuition for this stuff will build along with familiarity with the system and seeing things in play, which I think is being expressed in previous comments. The best of luck in your DIY ventures, a martial artist sounds super fun to play!

#12

Martial Artist >> a la Tony Jaa, Ong-Bak

Starting Ability (Choose 1)
JUDOKA: As long as you have one hand free, after a CLOSE enemy attacks you, you may roll STR to grapple for 1D4 ROUNDS. Grappled enemies may use an ACTION on their turn to roll contested STR to break free
THE ART OF 8 LIMBS: Your unarmed attacks deal WEAPON EFFORT
SAMURAI: Attacks you make with blades and bows* score critical hits on a natural 18, 19, or 20

Starting Loot (Choose 1)
JIU JITSU BELT: +1 STR. On a successful DEF roll, you may maneuver the offending object in a direction of your choice, causing MAGIC EFFORT on impact
MUAY HEMP HAND ROPES: Considered unarmed. Reroll 1 on EFFORT
SENSEI’S KATANA: Use STR or DEX. After you make a successful attack, make an additional attack against another target

Milestone Abilities (Choose 1 when awarded by GM)
EVER STRONGER: Add 1 to any STAT or pick from the WARRIOR’s Milestones
GROUND FIGHTER: Roll a STR attack against a grappled enemy to choke them unconscious. On a natural 1, your opponent is no longer grappled
THE CLINCHER: Once per ROUND, when a CLOSE enemy attacks you, you may attack with an unarmed strike
CONDITIONING: +1 CON, EFFORT dice explode
PARKOUR: Move up to FAR and take an ACTION
INCREASE TEMPO: After a successful CLOSE attack, you may force an opponent to move into a NEAR position
BLEEDING WOUND: On a successful attack roll with modified 15+ with a blade or bow, deal the damage again to the target at the beginning of its turn

Mastery
JUDOKA: Whenever a CLOSE enemy attacks, you may roll DEF to take half damage. Regain the JIU JITSU BELT if you don’t have it.
THE ART OF 8 LIMBS: Your unarmed attacks deal ULTIMATE EFFORT
SAMURAI: Deal double EFFORT with blades. Reforge your KATANA

*any bow that is not a crossbow

I wrote this homebrew class and then saw there was already a thread for it so I thought I might post it here.

I wanted to design a martial artist class that was 1) Strength based and 2) more accurate to the martial artist fantasy as a martial artist, not the Monk as it has evolved through D&D. The Monk class designed for D&D is its own fantasy trope loosely based off of Shaolin monks but with lots of Magic and a challenging DEX and/or WIS requirement. Personally, I think D&D has a huge problem with power scaling and over-reliance on magic and magic subclasses for all of its main classes (hence why I’m here).

When I think of playing a martial artist, I don’t immediately think of a Monk or Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender (although that sounds amazing). I think of Tony Jaa, Bruce Lee, Iko Uwais from The Raid, Van Damme, Donnie Yen, Scott Adkins… You get it. I want to beat my enemies to a pulp with my bare hands, and I want to do it with the strength of the above.

This is my third homebrew class and I had a pretty clear vision of a Muay Thai kickboxer as the heart of the class. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu analogue came next and then I spent some time trying to find a third suitable “subclass.” At first, I tried playing around with a ninja but I think that was already handled really well in the ME’s Shadow / Assassin. Eventually, I landed on Samurai and tried to come up with a marriage of the three. I also tried to build this class as a kind of heavy or tank that could still be differentiated from the Warrior. I hope you like it.

#13

It’s not to bad but a few Milestones and abilities I’m feeling a disconnect from the theme. When I think conditioned I think CON saves are easy as an example but I like the concept

#14

I always get hung up on martial artist types that get weapon damage with unarmed attacks, because even in martial arts media the acquisition of a weapon by the martial arts hero still reflects a narrative escalation in power. Justthink of Bruce Lee - he kicks ass unarmed, but when the nunchaku come out, things have gotten serious! It’s hard to reflect that in an RPG if the martial artists best option is being unarmed, so I like to keep it BASIC.

#15

could give a boost to number of basic attacks made with the attack action

#16

I would just say, “hit all CLOSE foes when attacking.”