Nightblade: Fist Weapon Mastery

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Rias
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Nightblade: Fist Weapon Mastery

Post by Rias »

Nightblades now have access to the new Fist Weapon Mastery ability! Click here or type HELP FIST WEAPON MASTERY in-game to get the nitty-gritty details.

I'm pretty excited about this one! While I didn't want Nightblades to be dual-wielding rapiers or even daggers, I think fist weapons fills the dual-wield bit just right for them - particularly because they can channel nether while doing so for a little extra damage, what with their hands being right there in contact with their target for an opportune nether-flare. We've added the knuckle-duster and spike-knuckle weapons to the Nightblade shop in Stormholdt, both of which can be used with this ability for a tad more oomph than unarmed punch attacks. And the spike-knuckle does pierce damage instead of bludgeon for those sweet armor-chinks. They'll likely be made more widely available eventually, but we wanted Nightblades to have first dibs. (Sorry, no katars. They're a tad big for the technique we have in mind for this specifically, but maybe a mini version in the future?)

This should serve as a segue into a bit more in the fist-weapon/unarmed specialization territory for Nightblades, and we're also hoping to eventually give an ability(ies?) to encourage Nightblades to capitalize on moving in close to foes and relentlessly pressuring them in order to finish the fight as quickly as possible rather than the retreat-and-rehide approach. That big hefty poleaxe is going to be a liability rather than a boon when a Nightblade is all up in their target's face with small weapons and not giving the enemy any swinging room.

Baby steps, though! For now, enjoy Fist Weapon Mastery, and as always: please report bugs and give feedback so we can tweak this into its ideal place as a fun and viable Nightblade ability.
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Delphine
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Re: Nightblade: Fist Weapon Mastery

Post by Delphine »

Just reading this made me happy! I'm looking forward to trying it out in-game, for sure. (When I get my next ability point sob.)
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Squeak
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Re: Nightblade: Fist Weapon Mastery

Post by Squeak »

I'm glad I saw this - had a thought earlier on Discord and figured I'd put it somewhere for future perusal. This seemed a good spot for it.

I enjoy playing with fist-load weapons, especially when grouped with another warrior. Alone though, there's just so many problems that arise when using them - lack of parrying (perfectly understandable), low damage factor (.5/.4 respectively), low armor chink chance for the spiked versions, no ambush bonuses, and with the range disparity, it's really difficult to find even a niche use for them (though side-by-side works phenomenally).

Regardless of their downsides, I still enjoy using them as I feel they are more thematic for Chimaera than utilizing bigger, more versatile weapons. With that in mind, and this quote from above:
Rias wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 9:56 pm This should serve as a segue into a bit more in the fist-weapon/unarmed specialization territory for Nightblades, and we're also hoping to eventually give an ability(ies?) to encourage Nightblades to capitalize on moving in close to foes and relentlessly pressuring them in order to finish the fight as quickly as possible rather than the retreat-and-rehide approach. That big hefty poleaxe is going to be a liability rather than a boon when a Nightblade is all up in their target's face with small weapons and not giving the enemy any swinging room.
I'd like to suggest a new ability, either expending an ability point for it or coming wrapped up into FWM itself. We'll call it, tentatively, "Keep them on the Ropes".
  • Information for Keep them on the Ropes:
    Nightblades often find themselves at a severe disadvantage as they tend to specialize with smaller weapons. Due to this, they have specialized training to get under, and stay under, an opponent's guard lowering defenses and largely mitigating the effectiveness of larger weapons.
I'd imagine that it'd act like a psuedo-grapple where the opponent has a limited maneuverability until broken and has a lowered parry, block chance as well as attack with anything other than Short (+2) reached weapons. Since a lot of mobs actually utilize short reached weapons, I think this would still leave it largely situational. Anyhow! Just something I'd like to see.

Also would like to broach the subject of "parrying" fist-weapons - tonfa or something similar - that give a normal or slightly heightened parry chance when used in tandem.

Lastly: Gratuitous bump to this: viewtopic.php?t=1789
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