OSR: Fighting Man Secret Techniques: Fist Art Extravaganza

by FelipeSmith

Heracles Handbook 

The Heracles Handbook is only a school in the technical sense. It has no hierarchy, no central organization, nor even a dedicated community of people. It tends to only be practiced by violent loners or social misfits. Most don't know of its existence, but the effects of it are seen by all who encounter one of its adherents. It all starts with a book. The book details a series of mental exercises, a dietary plan and a training regiment. The exercises are difficult, the dietary plan is strict and expensive to follow and the training regiment is absolutely brutal. Most, upon seeing one of these things, set the book down and disregard it. If you follow the instructions within and do them properly, you will begin undergoing changes.

You will find yourself putting on incredible amounts of muscles, your senses improving and your ability to endure pain increasing. You will be transformed into a paragon of strength, an astounding physical specimen. This insane strength is how the readers of the Handbook fight- unless they were warriors before, which most aren't, they fight savagely but somewhat ineptly. They are strong and fast and tough, so in most cases, they win. When you can break a man's hand by crushing your fist and throw him through a wall, skill doesn't usually matter.

Novice: "There are two types of Strength- that of the mind and that of the body." Your STR is boosted to 15, unless it is already higher.  Your unarmed Strikes do 1d6+STR damage.

Journeyman: "If you see an opportunity, seize it and do not let it go." Your STR goes up by 1 point.  If you grapple someone, you can do 1d6 damage to him per round, as long as you use your action to keep grappling with them.

Expert: "The giants pay no attention to the smallfolk." Your STR goes up by 1 point. You can grapple up to 2 creatures at once, as long as neither has a higher STR score/is stronger than you.

Master: "In all ages, the strong have ruled. For you, the decision is simple. What side are you on?" Your STR goes up by 1 point. If you have grappled someone, you can throw him if he cannot defeat you in a contest of STR.  When someone is thrown by you, he flies a number of feet equal to your STR modifier*10, unless he hits something.  If he hits something, he takes 1d6 damage per 10' thrown.  If the creature hits someone, he takes half damage and the other creature takes the other half.

Serpent's Style

The Serpent's Style has a million different names and a dozen regional variations, but it has always remained at its heart, the Serpent's Style. The true origins of this school have been lost to history, but most adherents believe that the original style was created by the half-mythic Prince of Killers, the first ruler of the Assassin Nation. The Prince supposedly got the idea from a combination of watching Priests ritually purifying themselves to speak to the Gods and how snakes hunted.

These studies eventually led to the Prince inventing a martial style based around using stealth, sensing an opponent's chi and detecting their weaknesses, then striking with overwhelming force. And even if that story isn't true, the Serpent's Style is undoubtably real and highly effective, so much so that it spread to many lands, with hired killers all across the world practicing this Fist Art.

Novice: "Even in the darkness, the serpent is not fooled." Your unarmed strikes do 1d6 damage.  You also gain the ability to sense the chi of others.  You gain a bonus equal to the levels of technique you have in the Serpent's Style to detecting people who are observing you, following you or nearby.  You also have an X-in-6 chance of detecting unseen opponents and being able to avoid a surprise round. For example, if you are a Journeyman in the Serpent's Style and are about to enter a seemingly empty room, but unbeknownst to you, there are two Kobolds with acid flasks hiding under the couch, you have a 2-in-6 chance of detecting the Kobolds' presences before you enter.

Journeyman: "The serpent is not hardy, so it makes its strikes count." If you hit someone who is surprised by you with an unarmed strike, you do an additional +1d6 damage.

Expert: "There is a reason why men do not tread confidently in the dark." As an action, you can hide your chi.  This gives you a +X bonus to stealth rolls, where X is equal to the levels of technique you have in the Serpent's Style.

Master: "If you can only make one attack, make it count." You learn how to inject a creature with your Chi on a hit. When you successfully attack a creature, you can sacrifice X FS and force that creature to save. That creature gets a -X penalty to his save, where X is the amount of FS sacrificed. On a failed save, the creature takes Xd6 radiant damage as your chi burns through their spirit like fire. On a successful save, the creature takes X damage and gains disadvantage on all attacks for 1/2*X rounds.  

Way of the Mountain

The Sisters of Sri Hu Peak are among the hardiest people in all the world. This all-female order of holy women dedicated themselves to taking spoiled daughters, bastard girls and infertile women and turning them into respectable, pious ladies who could serve the Gods with proper devotion. However, they began having problems almost immediately. Since they were a new order and not respected, they were attacked and robbed several times. To try and combat this, they ordered all the sisters to get rid of anything valuable and give it to the poor, so that no one would attack them. This did stop the robbers, but it did not prevent the suitors and the kidnappers from attempting to rescue or kidnap sisters from the order's compound.

The order retreated to Sri Hu Peak, but this was only a temporary solution, as some criminals and rough men still came up the mountain- and these ones were far more determined than the ones who attempted to attack the order when it was in the lowlands. Finally, after one of the order's founding sisters was attacked by a band of unscrupulous adventurers, the order set itself to creating a martial style to suit their order and training their sisters in it. Eventually, after consulting dozens of experts and experimenting for many months, the rudiments of a style began to form. The Way of the Mountain is a primarily defensive style, training its adherents how to redirect the force of an enemy's blows and to use an opponent's strength against them.

Novice: "The Mountains seem static, but that is only because you are not heavy enough to disturb them." Your unarmed strikes do 1d8 damage. You can parry 1 attack per round, reducing its damage by 1d8.

Journeyman: "Cling to your opponent like a babe at his mother's breast and he will have difficulty." If you parry an attack and reduce the damage to zero, you can automatically grapple the person who made it.

Expert: "Stones are not dead, but sleeping. Listen closely and you can hear them humming the music of the Earth." You can parry 1d10 damage.  If you reduce the damage if an attack to zero, you can force that enemy to save.  On a failed save, you can disable one of the opponent's limbs, dislocating it. To put it back into its place requires an action and occasionally, help from another creature.

Master: "An avalanche is never expected." When attacked, once per round, you may ignore and opponent's attack roll and roll your parry die.  If your parry die exceeds his damage roll, your opponent takes the damage you rolled on your parry die as you preemptively attack them.

by DanjiIsthmus

Monkey's Fist

While traditionalists insist that this style was invented by a traveling naturalist who studied the hunting tactics of monkey-rats, most of the reformed branch of this school believe the Monkey's Fist was a series of techniques developed by brawlers and street level enforcers in the soggy, steaming cities of the North, where smuggling and syndicates are a way of life.

The Monkey's Fist reflects these humble origins, along with a criminal enforcer's contempt for honor or fair play. Monkey's Fist is a style based around weakening an opponent's counter attack and is best used when you have back-up, as after you weaken an opponent's position, your allies can immediately rush them. That being said, don't underestimate a lone Monkey's Fist user.

Novice: "Dancing and fighting have many similarities. The first? Mind your footing." Your unarmed strikes do 1d6+STR.  You also learn how to make an attack called a leg sweep, which does no damage on a hit but instead knocks an opponent prone.

Journeyman: "Mortals are like jam tarts- hard on the outside but soft and wet on the inside." As an action, you can throw a punch at someone that does half damage and forces the target to save.  On a failed save, the target is rattled and gets -1d6 to their next attack.

Expert: "In a fight, as in life, never be afraid to let someone else take the lead." You may take an action to take a defensive stance. If an opponent attacks you while you have taken this stance, you may grapple the opponent if he successfully hits you, or if he misses, trip him up and knock him prone. In the case where he hits you, you still take damage as per normal.

Master: "A fighter is only as strong as his biggest weakness." As an action, you can throw a punch that if it hits, forces someone to save.  On a failure, this punch paralyzes the creature. The creature is paralyzed for 1 minute or until he passes a save. He may save each round.

Thunderhead

The Thunderhead Fist Art is a killing school. It teaches its adherents how to focus their chi and then release it in explosive bursts, letting them move with frightening speed, darting across the battlefield to crush their enemies beneath rapier-swift, blindingly precise blows. It is a scary and spectacular sight, watching so many thinking, breathing creatures be reduced to broken shells in between breaths. This is the ugly truth of the school, but the adherents of Thunderhead are taught not to think about it that way. Their masters make sure to inform all the students that there is no difference between wielding a sword and training the body, except that you can be deprived of a sword, but only death can deprive you of your body.

They also emphasize that the Thunderhead school can be used to protect people as well and that all the students are free agents, who do not sacrifice their moral agency when they agreed to come here. Sometimes, the students can even believe it. The Thunderhead school flourishes in regions wracked by conflict, war or disorder. It tends to stagnate or even wither in peaceful lands.

Novice: "There is no such thing as distance." Your unarmed strikes do 1d6+ATK damage. You also gain a resource called a Lighting Point: you start with 1. You may spend this lightning point at the beginning of any combat to act before any other creature, unless a creature there has preternatural speed. You recover Lightning Points by killing a creature of at least 1 HD with your bare hands.

Journeyman: "Your flesh will try to limit you, do not permit this intrusion." You gain 1 additional Lightning Point. If you spend 1 Lightning Point, you can reroll the damage you rolled on any successful attack.

Expert: "The fish's scales protect him from others of his kind, but do nothing against the eagle's talons." You gain 1 additional Lightning Point. If you spend 1 Lightning Point, you may subtract your damage roll from an opponent's attack or defense roll, to enable you to hit them better or avoid being hit.

Master: "The Mamba can bite an enemy up to seven times, even though once can be fatal." You gain 1 additional Lightning Point. If you spend 1 Lightning Point, you may make an additional attack this turn.

Drunken Boxing

This discipline is another with unclear origins. It is usually taught by lone, wandering masters who have no fixed addresses. And most of these masters credit their master with teaching them, but few know who taught their masters and none know who their master's master was. True origins aside, Drunken Boxing is a perfectly respectable school, though its adherents do their best to conceal this fact.

Drunken Boxing is the concealed dagger of the Fist Arts, its adherents counting on being underestimated as common fools or drunkards. This can mean that if you are aware of Drunken Boxing, you can deprive them of that crucial edge. However, don't underestimate them, Drunken Boxing is still capable of working if both fighter and opponent are stone cold sober.

Novice: "Never pretend to be stronger than you are." Your unarmed strikes do 1d6+STR damage. You can also, as an action, assume a rolling, stumbling gait that gives you a +X bonus to AC, where X is your level of knowledge in Drunken Boxing.

Journeyman: "You can only defend against an approach you see coming." As an action, you can dodge past or under someone, moving past them without provoking an opportunity attack.

Expert: "Steel is harder than clay, yet when fired, steel melts and clay becomes stronger." Once per round, you can blunt damage by rolling with a punch or a blow, reducing it by 1d6+CON damage. You can only do this against a blow that does sharp, bludgeoning or some other type of damage that could be reduced by allowing it to wash over you. Referee's discretion applies.

Master: "The fool assumes nothing can hurt him, the wise that all can." If you are successfully attacked, you may throw yourself 10' backwards in the direction your attacker's blow would have sent you. If this would make the rest of the attacker's attacks impossible to hit you, ignore them as if they did no damage.

by Darko-simple-ART

Kua-Toa Karate

The Kua Toa are a race of mad priests and sane cultists from the depths of the Blue World. They are also one of the few species of intelligent, aquatic creatures who can also live on land. As such, in ages past they ruled over many island nations and river deltas. This was long ago and many of the cultural artifacts left behind have been so assimilated into those previously conquered cultures that the true origin of these customs has been forgotten. The one exception is that is their martial arts.

Kua Toa Karate is a pale shadow of the Kua Toa's true Fist Art. Yet even despite that, it is still a fearsome Art. Kua Toa Karate is an art that has been heavily modified for use above water and as such, it has necessarily changed. It is now an Art focused on defense and counter attacks. This is a task that it does very well, though its lack of strong offensive techniques and foreign origin is often a source of embarrassment for its adherents.

Novice: "Fight on your own terms and you will never be outmaneuvered." Your unarmed strikes do 1d8 damage. You also take no penalty for using your unarmed strikes underwater.

Journeyman: "If Heaven sought to give you eyes, you might as well use them." On your turn as a free action, you may select an opponent. If that opponent attacks you before your next turn, you may add 1/2 your Fighting Man level to your Defense roll against his attacks. If you are underwater, add the total number of your Fighting Man Levels.

Expert: "The predator watches twice as hard as his prey." When you use the Journeyman ability to watch an opponent, if he misses when he makes an attack against you, you may immediately make an attack against that creature.

Master: "Choose the ground upon which you fight and your victory will never be in question." You can throw a punch that releases a wave of chi that blows away all fluids with 1d8*10'. Underwater this creates a pocket of air that lasts for 1d6 rounds. Used above water this creates a vacuum that lasts for the same amount of time. This wave of chi also blows away Oozes, as well as Water and Air Elementals. You may only use this ability once per day.

Way of the Hermit

The Way of the Hermit is an ancient Art, originally created to combat the enemies of life. It is an Art that works by teachings its adherents how to store the power of the Sun in their bodies and then, in a single, dazzling rush to unleash it. This power is known to its practitioners as the Ripple, or Hamon. Against the living, Hamon will melt flesh like tallow and induce terrible pain, but against the Undead, the true power of Hamon is revealed.

Hamon utterly destroys the Undead, burning their bodies to dust with a mere touch. For this reason, some of the most capable Witch-Hunters in the world are not Wizards, but Hamon Masters- who are capable of reducing even the most powerful of corpse-warriors to dust with a single punch.

Novice: "My heart resonates, heat enough to burn, my blood's beat is razor sharp!" Your unarmed strikes do 1d6+Atk damage. You start with 1 Hamon Dice. You may spend 1 Hamon Die to do +1d6 radiant damage to any creature you hit. Against Undead or creatures vulnerable to radiant, this does an additional +1d6 damage, so the bonus damage is +2d6. You recover Hamon Dice by being in sunlight for up to 1 hour.

Journeyman: "The last thing I need right now is listening to trash like you, let alone being touched by you. But if you want to embrace me, feel free to try… as long as you don’t mind a painful demise." You get 1 additional Hamon Dice. You can send Hamon Ripples through an object or creature without harming that creature or object.

Expert: "True I knocked the air from his lungs, but he'll thank me for it later." You get 1 additional Hamon Die. You can heal a creature up to 2d6 FS or 1d6 HP by spending an equivalent number of Hamon Dice.

Master: "Impossible? We did a lot of impossible things on this journey. I’m tired of hearing that things are impossible or useless. Those words mean nothing to us." You get 1 additional Hamon Die. You may jellify up to 1 square foot of water for 1 minute or until you release it. This temporarily changes the water to a consistency similar to rubber. You may use this to walk on water, stop water from flowing, or anything else your Referee agrees to. If you jellify the water in someone's blood stream this causes them to save or die because of the heart attack this can cause.

by E-Mann

Dragon Style

Dragons are usually clumsy fighters, they are so powerful that they crush all opposition through brute power. Whether it is with breath weapons or crushing jaws, nothing can stand against them. But Dragons are also highly intelligent. As such, they have developed strategies for fighting large numbers of small creatures. These movements and strategies were studied by some of the best fighters in the world which eventually led to the development of a new Fist Art, the Dragon Style.

Dragon Style is a flowing stance, mimicking the rolling gait of the Dragon's four legged walk. It is a style that focuses on launching overwhelming attacks and crushing an opponent as quickly as possible. It lacks somewhat in defense techniques, but it is otherwise a very powerful style.

Novice: "Dragons do not attack unless victory is assured." Your unarmed strikes do 1d6+Atk damage. At the start of each combat, until you attack someone, you receive a bonus to your Defense rolls equal to your level. This bonus goes away once you make an attack.

Journeyman: "Just as the power of a punch comes from the legs and chest, so should your spirit empower your flesh." You can, by spending 1 FS, wrap your unarmed strikes in fire. This does +1d6 fire damage on a hit. The flames last for 1 minute or until you choose to extinguish them.

Expert: "When fighting the weak, be strong. When fighting the slow, be fast. When fighting the distant, be close." As an action, you can launch yourself through the air and attempt to smash into someone. This requires you to spend 1 FS per 10' launched. Then make an attack roll. On a hit, your attack does normal damage plus X, where X is the amount of FS you spent.

Master: "No matter where you run, the Dragon's vengeance is inescapable." When an attack would damage you, you may make a save. On a successful save, you sacrifice 1d4 FS and the attack misses as you disappear in a cloud of smoke and ash. You then immediately reappear within 5' of the creature who attacked you. On a failed save, you take damage as normal.

Maneater

Many of the races of this world possess claws, sharp fangs or horns. Thus, it is makes sense that their fighting styles would incorporate these advantages into their fighting styles. This is the nature of the Maneater School, an ancient school with as many variants as it has adherents. Every race has its own version, each one subtly tuned to be used with horns, claws or anything else a race might possess.

For example, the Oxman version focuses on goring, with a special move where the adherent throws an opponent into the air and moves beneath him so the opponent falls onto their horns and impales himself. As this move, as well as the name, implies, Maneater is a killing school, but rather than focusing on pure lethality, as some vicious schools do, Maneater focuses on maximizing the efficiency of each attack, so that the battle can be won with the minimum amount of strikes.

Novice: "Killing is the way of the world- to resist is to be devoured." If you possess natural weapons, they do 1d6+ATK damage. If you do not, your unarmed strikes do 1d6 damage on a hit. If you grapple a creature and succeed, you can do 1d6 damage to them with your natural weapons on your turn as a free action. Even if you fail to grapple them, you can still do 1d6 damage to them.

Journeyman: "Violence is the natural state of man, even death does not remove it." If you make a melee attack against a creature and miss or are successfully defended against, you can make a grapple check against that creature as a free action.

Expert: "To prevent yourself from being harmed by the violent, attack first." If you do not possess natural weapons, you may now grow claws, fangs or horns. If you do, you may grow an additional type of natural weapons. If an opponent is put into a vulnerable position where he cannot adequately defend himself such as being grappled, thrown (either in the air or having just landed), knocked prone, you made a surprise attack against him, you may make an additional unarmed strike against that creature.

Master: "When an enemy spares you, pity him for his foolishness." You unarmed strikes now do 1d8+STR damage. If you successfully hit a creature with an unarmed strike, instead of dealing damage, you can instead force them to save. On a failed save, you can break or disable one of their limbs. On a successful save, you instead only dislocate or stun one of their limbs.

by Wesley Burt