Martial Maneuvers inspired by The Princess Bride

[Olgar Shiverstone]

This is as a result of one of the fighter threads on the 5E board.

Assume we create a bunch of martial (i.e., mundane -- accessible to any character with appropriate training) fighting maneuvers that characters gain access to as part of feat selection, or as a class feature that allows some to be selected each level. Maneuvers are use as part of an attack or movement, are at-will, do not get expended, may have prerequisites, may gain additional benefits when used in conjunction with a particular weapon, fighting style, or terrain, and may be combined or used in opposition. The goal is to have a flexible system able to be applied over D&D (or similar) combat and replicate the famous swordfight from The Princess Bride:

Inigo Montoya: You are using Bonetti's Defense against me, ah?
Man in Black: I thought it fitting considering the rocky terrain.
Inigo Montoya: Naturally, you must suspect me to attack with Capa Ferro?
Man in Black: Naturally... but I find that Thibault cancels out Capa Ferro. Don't you?
Inigo Montoya: Unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa... which I have.

For example:

Bonetti's Defense: Subtract 1 damage per level from your attack (up to -5) to add 1 AC per level (up to +5). If fighting in rocky terrain, give an additional +2 to AC. AC improvement lasts until your next attack. May be used in conjunction with Thibault.

Capa Ferro: Subtract 1 AC to add +2 damage to an attack. Cancels the AC bonus of an opponent using Bonetti's Defense.

Riposte: Gain +2 to hit against an opponent who damaged you last round.

Parry: Immediately block the attack of an opponent, but give up your next turn.

Thibault: Subtract +1 to hit on an attack; gain +1 AC. If used with Bonetti's Defense, does not increase AC to above +5 but allows the AC bonus to be used against an opponent using Capa Ferro.

Agrippa Style: Renders your attack immune to Riposte.

Inigo's Step: Prerequisite - Riposte. Allows use of Riposte against an attacker using Agrippa Style.

Inconceivable! Shouting this as you attack causes your opponent to take a -1 surprise penalty to AC. Rises to -2 when used with a dagger.

What types of maneuvers would you create for this system?

 

[Nifft]

(At first I thought this was a thread about marital maneuvers inspired by The Princess Bride...)

To have a martial arts system, which this is tending towards, you need some sort of rock-paper-scissors which require resource commitments. Like, you have some sort of "Rock" stance which gives you an AC bonus in difficult terrain, so he uses a "Paper" attack to try to penetrate your defense, forcing you to use an immediate "Scissors" action to counter his attack.

Actually, this makes me want to write up a set of three Martial Maneuvers trees, each of which works exceedingly well against one of the others, and fares poorly against the third.

"As you wish", -- N

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Or, we use Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, with different names.

How many unique choices do we need? 7? 9? 15?

 

[Hypersmurf]

It's not exactly what you're describing... but have a look at the Combat Styles system from Spellbound Kingdoms.

-Hyp.

 

[radja]

If you're going to use Capo Ferro, Thibault and the likes, I'd get the original fighting manuals written by them. Inigo's fighting masters are not fictional, but real historical figures.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'd like to see something similar for martial arts too. I know such products exist and I've actually read some, yet they always leave me cold.

Mind you, I've not seen any such products since 4e came out.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

THIS THREAD IS SO FULL OF AWESOME!

Yes, I'm shouting there...


(and sorry, can't xp ya Olgar...yet).

I love the idea of the different styles and the rock, paper, scissors (lizard, spock).

 

[Baron Opal]

Or, we use Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock, with different names.

How many unique choices do we need? 7? 9? 15?

I would say about 15 choices total.

3-4 for each style, 5 styles.

Perhaps 5 choices for 3 styles, but having more styles that choices is better, I think.

 

[Fifth Element]

Tangentially related: since day one of 4E, my group has referred to the spend-a-healing-surge-on-a-natural-20-death-save as the "Inigo Montoya rule".

We use something like it in Pathfinder currently.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

I would say about 15 choices total.

3-4 for each style, 5 styles.

Perhaps 5 choices for 3 styles, but having more styles that choices is better, I think.

That's good, since if we use the rock-paper-scissors-lizard-spock model, each maneuver choice within a style can defeat two maneuvers in that style, and be defeated by two maneuvers in that style.

If we then have five styles, it allows us to create a 5 x 5 matrix of 5 fighting styles (Numbered) and 5 maneuvers (letters) that interact. So:

Style 1: A B C D E
Style 2: F G H I J
Style 3: L M N O P
Style 4: Q R S T U
Style 5: V W X Y Z

Within a style line, a maneuver defeats two maneuvers to its right, while being defeated by two maneuvers to its left. So C defeats D and E, but is defeated by A and B. L defeats M and N, but is defeated by O and P.

Within a column, between styles, the same model applies. A maneuver defeats the two maneuvers from other styles below it, and is defeated by the two maneuvers from other styles above it. So C defeats H and N but is defeated by S and X; M defeats R and W but is defeated by B and G. Other combinations have no interaction (e.g. A versus M ... though one could choose to repeat the process on the diagonal, too, for even more complexity!)

This system can be expanded so long as the style/maneuver matrix is odd in number and square.

Now the hard part ... coming up with names and individual mechanics for the styles and maneuvers!