Melee Schticks (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

All-Out Attack

Basic Action

Make a Melee attack with a +3 bonus. Until your next shot comes up or the end of the round, you cannot take a Trigger Action. If the weapon used has the Great Blow ability, also increase damage by +2.

Bleeding Wound

Inherent

A target that takes a hit form one of your piercing or cutting melee attacks starts to bleed. Unless the target takes a basic action to stop the bleeding, it will take one additional hit at the end of the round. A friend can help stop the damage, but this requires a First Aid stunt with a difficulty equal to your Body.

This is a Burn effect. A creature can only have one burn effect active at a time, even if damaged by several different types of attacks that each cause burn.

Cleave

Trigger Action (Combo)

When inflict a Hit wit with a Melee attack you can immediately use this to attack another adjacent opponent with the same attack you just used. This does not work with any trigger action, area attack, or attack that otherwise affects more than one target.

Clinch

Basic action

When you do a Grab stunt, you gain several advantages.

• You gain a +3 defensive bonus against all Dodge and [[Impress (Action)|Impress] stunts, not just from the person you grabbed.
• You can still employ a small or tiny weapon, both when grabbing someone or being grabbed. You can likewise attack others not involved in your grapple.
• When an opponent has a grab on you, can free yourself with any successful attack against them you can greb them with a successful unarmed attack against them.
• You can grab a number of creatures at once equal to your number of arms (or similar limbs). Each must be grabbed separately, but you can maintain several grabs at once.

Combat Banter

Trigger Action (Combo)

After you perform a successful Browbeat, Distraction, Scare, or Trick attempt, you can use this to perform a Normal Melee Attack against the same target.

Combat Binding

Basic Action

You are skilled in using ropes or cuffs to restrain an opponent in melee. Make a Melee check against the target's Dodge. On a success the target is partially bound and suffers one of the penalties noted below. On an Outcome matching the target's Reflexes he is more severely bound and suffers three of the conditions, or you can apply one restriction of your choice. Restraints are applied in this order: bound arms, immobilized, bound legs, blindfolding, hogtie. Physical restraint in Action does not completely prevent a hero from action, they impose handicaps to be overcome.

1. Gagging prevents mundane speech. Stymies all Charm and Impress checks.
2. Handcuffing is when your hands are tied in front of you, but not so tightly as to make them completely unusable; you can still use one hand effectively, such as using weapons or tools of Small size or smaller.
3. Hobbling indicates restrained legs, but not fixed to each other. It means you cannot move as part of a normal Basic Action, and can only move your normal move when you do a Full Move action or otherwise do an action that grants extra movement..
4. Immobilized, stuck to something, alternatively on a short leash which prevents movement beyond one or two meters. If you are stuck to a creature whose Body is greater than yours, you are forced along as it moves, otherwise you are both immobilized unless you two cooperate.
5. Bound Legs you fall prone and cannot stand unsupported, which prevents and hinders many actions as determined by the situation and stunt description. Your Move is reduced to 1. Swimming and flying creatures are entangled, with similar effects.
6. Bound Arms prevent most physical manipulation and the use of weapons and implements. You can still use tackles and head butts for (Body +0) damage or a Tiny Ranged Weapon, but limited to Close range.
7. Blinded restricts your awareness, giving you only a rough estimate of objects and creatures in a diameter equal to your Mind; you are insensitive to things beyond this range. Everyone has enough concealment to Sneak on you, and against creatures beyond your perception range, you have to use Reflexes rather than Recon for defense against Recon stunts.
8. (or more) Hogtie A hogtied character cannot act physically and can only move one meter as a standard action; no movement is otherwise allowed. This also prevents all Defense actions.

These restraints can be escaped with a Contortions stunt pitting Reflexes against your Melee or destroyed by another person; ropes have a Body of around 12 while metal cuffs have 15 or more. Weapons larger and more unwieldy than a dagger take an attack penalty equal to their damage add when attacking bonds.

You can take a -3 penalty to your stunt in order to choose how to bind your opponent. If you are aiming for a specific condition and instead achieve another, you can choose to forgo that effect to get and Advantage that can add a +3 bonus on a later attempt.

Daredevil Stunt

Basic Action

Use your melee weapon (or unarmed attack) to make a Bait or Feint stunt with a +3 bonus. If this fails, you are unbalanced and cannot perform any trigger action until your next shot comes up.

Typical stunts include trips, feints, called shots, disarm, and particularly outrageous and dashing maneuvers such as carving your initials or adjusting your opponent's coiffure in combat. It enables you to do all the fun but somewhat silly things done in pulpy Three Musketeers and pirate movies.

Disarming Counter

Trigger Action

When an opponent misses you with an armed Melee attack, you can make a Disarm stunt against that opponent. Against an unarmed opponent, you can instead make a Normal Melee Attack.

Duel

Limit Break

You confront an opposing character in a way where others cannot easily intervene. This is usually because of the physical setting, somehow you and your opponent end up isolated from others and lasts until the end of the next round. Against opponents with a code of honor this can be a purely social barrier. If there is no such barrier you can use, the schtick will not work, but pretty strange coincidences are allowed.

Others can try to break the isolation with stunts against your Melee, but need to achieve an Outcome equal to your Reflexes to do so, collecting an Advantage for each success that does not have enough of an outcome. Those not involved in the duel cannot distract you with these stunts and are restricted to Gain Advantage attempts.

Expert Disarm

Basic Action

You are an expert at entangling other weapons, especially long, powerful, unbalanced weapons. Add the damage add of your opponent's melee weapon (minimum +3) to the roll to Disarm. A ranged weapon gives a bonus based on size. Small or smaller +0, Medium +3, Large +5.

Flank Attack

Basic Action

Attack an opponent that has none of its allies adjacent to it. You gain a +1 bonus on your attack for each of your allies adjacent to the opponent.

Great Cleave

Trigger Action (Combo)

You must have Cleave to use this schtick.

When inflict a Hit with with Cleave or Great Cleave you can immediately use this to attack another adjacent opponent with the same attack you just used to Cleave. You cannot attack any opponent twice in the same shot. This does not work with any area attack or that otherwise affects more than one target, nor with weapons that do Piercing damage. Great Cleave is an exception to the rule that a trigger action cannot trigger of another trigger action.

Guarded Strike

Basic Action

Make a Normal Melee Attack attack. Until your next action you count as actively dodging, and get a +3 bonus to Dodge. It stops at the end of the round or when you take any action, including a trigger action. Trigger actions you take the same shot you use Acrobatic Strike do not end the Dodge bonus. This is particularly useful against Riposte and attacks that do not allow an active defense.

Iron Fist

Inherent

You have hardened yourself so that you can do Body +4 Blunt damage with unarmed attacks. This attack does not cause any direct injury on a Damage Setback, instead favoring stun, knockback, and other non-lethal effects.

Junk Fu

Basic Action

You are very good with improvised weapons, such as beer bottles or chairs. Use this maneuver to pick up and wield some object lying about. For the rest of the round, you get a +3 bonus to Melee when using this object as a weapon. By the end of the round, if you drop the object, or if you roll snakeyes on your action die, the improvised weapon is destroyed. Objects with script immunity are not destroyed, merely dropped, but this schtick is still canceled for the sequence.

Improvised weapons generally do Body +2 damage, but particularly inventive items can function like some regular Melee weapon, generally with a -2 damage penalty unless that type of weapon has the Improvised quality. You can use such improvised weapons with any Melee power or schtick that does not specifically have to be made unarmed.

Power Attack

Basic Action

Make a Melee attack that does +2 additional damage.

Rage

Stance

Gain a +2 bonus on Melee and suffer a -2 penalty on Dodge.

Riposte

Trigger Action

You can riposte against opponents failing to attack you in Melee, striking would-be attackers that you manage to keep at bay. Whenever an opponent misses you with a Basic Action attack in Melee, you can use this to make a Normal Melee Attack on them. This is similar to the weapon ability Intercept, but works with any kind of melee attack.

Roll With Blow

Stance

You can use your Reflexes in place of your Body or Toughness to soak damage from Melee attacks, including thrown weapons. Each time you are hit, the attacker has the option to force you to move a meter in any direction of his choice. If you won't or can't do so, this power fails.

Seven-Sword Strike

Basic Action

Make a Normal Melee Attack against all adjacent enemies. You cannot move as a part of this basic action, nor can you do Trigger Actions until your next shot comes up.

Shield Feint

Trigger Action (Combo)

When you are wielding a melee weapon with shield in the name and another melee weapon that is of a smaller Size than the shield, you can use this combo to improve your attack. Opponents cannot use a Trigger Action (Defense) check against such an attack.

Shield Master

Inherent

When you are wielding a melee weapon with shield in the name and another melee weapon, both weapons gain the Intercept weapon ability and your shield gains the Entangle, Returning , Offhand Strike, and Throw abilities.

Shield Sacrifice

Trigger Action (Damage)

Add 10 to your Toughness against one specific attack, after the attack roll and defenses. This stacks with Toughness modifiers from armor, but not from other Trigger Actions. A shield you are using breaks and is destroyed. Alternatively, if the shield is of superior make, you drop it or it gets entangled in the weapon, and you need to spend a Basic Action making it reay for use again. To use this, you must be using a Melee Weapon with "shield" in the name. If the shield has the Parry ability, you can only use this against melee attacks, if it has Block you can use this against any attack.

Shielded Stance

Stance

You must be wielding a shield to use this schtick. You gain a +2 bonus on Dodge. If your shield has the Parry ability, this bonus only applies against Melee attacks, if your shield has the Block ability it applies to Melee and Shoot attacks. Shield stance only applies to attacks from your front, as decided when you activate the stance or make an attack.

Skirmish Attack

Basic action

Make a Normal Melee Attack, then move your Move. This is in addition to any other movement you are allowed for the round.

Slayer

Inherent

Select a kind of Creature, if you select Folk you have to select a specific race of folk. You inflict +2 extra damage against this kind of creatures.

You can take this schtick several times, applying it to a different kind of creature each time.

Soft Strike

Basic Action

You make an attack when you use an enemy's strength against him. Make a Melee attack against the higher of your target's Dodge or Body, inflicting Concussion Stun damage equal to your Reflexes. Concussion damage is soaked using Reflexes.

Strongman

Inherent

When you make a Strength Push stunt, the Melee roll is Confident.

Takedown Counter

Trigger Action (Combo)

You use the power of an enemy's attack against him. Make a melee attack against a target that just missed you in melee, inflicting Concussion Stun damage equal to your Reflexes. Concussion damage is soaked using Reflexes. If you manage to do any damage, your target loses a shot. If the target moved before attacking you, you can throw him three meters in the direction he was moving before the attack, but then the damage is not stun.

Trample

Trigger Action (Combo)

One per Basic Action you take, you can trample a creature that is prone or that has a Body 5 or more lower than yours. Make a Melee attack against their dodge that inflicts Body damage.

Throw Weapon

Inherent

You can throw a weapon as a ranged attack using the Melee skill with Close range, as if the weapon had the Throw ability.

Two-Fisted Action

Trigger Action (Combo)

When you have two hands free for combat you are capable of making a flurry of attacks in rapid succession. Whenever you miss with a Melee attack and have two or more melee weapons or free hands, you can use this schtick immediately afterwords to throw another Normal Melee Attack at the same target, using another weapon that than the one that just hit. This is a schtick version of the weapon ability Second Strike.