Combat Masters??

[MrFixit75]

Hello hello!

Found it interesting that in the OM there is no distinction between close combat and ranged combat for the purpose of determining a specialty die. Sooooo, in essence we have Clint Barton and Bullseye being considered Combat Masters. I find this especially intriguing as Daredevil and Black Widow are considered Combat Experts.

Has anyone created house rules or made game-day provisions regarding these specialty dice to better reflect the characters in actual play?

B.

[EldritchFire]

Hello hello!

Found it interesting that in the OM there is no distinction between close combat and ranged combat for the purpose of determining a specialty die. Sooooo, in essence we have Clint Barton and Bullseye being considered Combat Masters. I find this especially intriguing as Daredevil and Black Widow are considered Combat Experts.

Has anyone created house rules or made game-day provisions regarding these specialty dice to better reflect the characters in actual play?

B.

I have a player in my game who's a combat master when flying. He was a fighter pilot before getting his superpowers. So when he's on the ground he uses 3d6 instead of the 1d10. It's more likely to cause an opportunity (42% as opposed to 10%) and the most it can add to his total is 6, as opposed to 10. Sure, with some PPs it can go higher, but it'll cost 1 or 2 PPs to get to where a d10 could go.

-EF

[Skinja]

Clint and Bullseye are both masters of several forms of martial arts and weapon experts. Bullseyes powers let him use any object as a leathal weapon and Hawkeye has trained under Cap, Trick Shot, and Swordsman. Daredevil, while accomplished is really just a boxer(learned from his dad) an acrobat, and can use a club. where his lack of combat traing is made up for by his hightend senses. Black Widow was trained to be an expert fighter but was trained to be black ops (i.e. covert) the combat training as back up should things go wrong.

[tjburns42]

Thing is, that's essentially accurate. Bullseye ultimately was able to impale Elektra on her own sai in hand to hand, and hold his own against Daredevil in that area, and Hawkeye had an ENTIRE SEPERATE CAREER dressing up in a ninja suit and using martial arts and melee weapons as Ronin, as is even statted up in his entry.

[JediMorningfire]

I'd agree with EldritchFire that just stepping down the d10 to 2d8 or even 3d6 is the best way to handle a "combat specialist" that's really only a "master" at one particular method of fighting. Breaking it up into separate combat specialties goes counter to MHRPG's "quick & simple" approach to character stats.

Also, characters like Hawkeye and Bullseye would have distinctions that play to their superhuman accuracy with ranged attacks, so if you really felt Combat Master isn't appropriate for such folks, you could step them down to Combat Expert and they'd still be quite accurate with said ranged attacks given the distinction. Only thing is they possibly won't be able to get as high of an effect die, barring power sets.

[Doc Hydrogen]

Clint and Bullseye are both masters of several forms of martial arts and weapon experts. Bullseyes powers let him use any object as a leathal weapon and Hawkeye has trained under Cap, Trick Shot, and Swordsman. Daredevil, while accomplished is really just a boxer(learned from his dad) an acrobat, and can use a club. where his lack of combat traing is made up for by his hightend senses. Black Widow was trained to be an expert fighter but was trained to be black ops (i.e. covert) the combat training as back up should things go wrong.

Uh, no. Daredevil is one of the most highly trained martial artists in the Marvel Universe. He trained under Stick, who was then the leader of Hand. Daredevil is repeatedly described as a master martial artist in anything approaching official Marvel sources. His not being a Master d10 in MHR is confusing.

Cam has said that the official Marvel numbers released for characters over on Marvel.com and the Official Guides were used as a guide, Matt is listed as on par with other Combat Masters. Hell, Iron Fist is a 7 in fighting, Wolverine a 4, Iron Fost is a 7, and Black Panther and Daredevil are both 6s. To say it's confusing is an understatement.

Marvel.com profile.

[Cam]

As a rule of thumb, we generally give anyone who's assigned a 4 or 5 in Fighting Skills in the OHOTMU an Expert level of Combat Specialty, and 6 and 7 are Combat Master. This isn't a hard and fast rule, however; we gave Black Widow in Basic Game an Expert, even though her recent OHOTMU level is listed as 6. Black Panther's listed as 5, and we gave him Combat Master.

Frequently, if the character demonstrates some other related ability at a highly proficient level, like DD's Acrobatic Specialty or Natasha's Covert Specialty, we make that Master instead. You could easily argue that both DD and BW should be Combat Masters, and I'd be fine with that.

Cheers,
Cam

[basspunk66]

A player in my group almost never used DD's combat specialty, preferring to describe his acrobatic fighting style, and acrobat mastery.

[MidnightBlue]

A player in my group almost never used DD's combat specialty, preferring to describe his acrobatic fighting style, and acrobat mastery.

Which I think is very fitting for the character...Spider-Man too.

I'm sure there are some that would tell the player that Acrobatics should only be used for defense/reactions and that Combat should be used for offense/actions, but that just doesn't seem as fun to me.

[MrFixit75]

I don't know, I can see utilizing acrobatics specialty for offensive maneuvers in combat, although I definitely think that would require appropriate narrative on the part of the player, and enough space to perform such maneuvers of course.

B.