How overpowered are Martial Artists?

[doneatrawhagis]

I ask this question because we have in our party a lvl 9 Martial artist that did over 80 dmg to my lvl 5 Intruder/lvl 4 Cleaner, killing him instantly. Is there a misinterpretation in the rules or are fighting classes just supposed to be that badass?

Also, our GM once said that jumping off a building with Wuxia could minimalize damage so much that the only sure way to kill someone with it was to have them orbitally dropped without armor.

[TheTSKoala]

80 damage in a single attack?  I would have to know the build.. but there's something definitely wrong there.  Even a Triumph of epic proportions would struggle with that.  

Secondly.  Wuxia doesn't actually effect your fall distance.  You're reduced to 1 lbs. ONLY for determining if you break a surface.  And you jump results are greater.  

For better clarification, if you fall off a building, Wuxia actually is a determent without a house rule.  The first object you hit is probably going to make its save DC, and stop you flat.

[Desertpuma]

The most damage a 9th Martial Artist should be able to do is 1D6+ the Stat mod for a single hit unless he has loaded up on Sneak Attack dice. Even then I'd be hard pressed to believe more than 4 Sneak Attack dice are available. He would have a Threat range of 19-20 but that would bypass Vitality and go directly to Wounds (which may have happened as I don't know the situation it occured under).

The only other possibility I can think is he used an Action Die to add to the damage and the AD kept exploding (which is possible but law of averages says unlikely).

From the World on Fire where the Martial Artist is located:

Wuxia I: At Level 8, your horizontal and vertical Acrobatics/Jump
check results are no longer limited by your height. Further, the
distance you travel when making a Jump check increases by 50%
(rounded up).
Wuxia II: At Level 16, the distance you travel when making a
Jump check increases by an additional 50% (for a total increase
of 100%). Further, you are considered to weigh only 1 lb. when
determining if a surface or object can support your weight.

So are the fighting classes that badass? ... They are badass but not by the level you are thinking. They can do lots of damage over a long period of time and stay in the fight, on the average, for a long period of time. But the beauty of the Crafty system is that all it takes is one activated crit with a high enough damage quotient and any character, Special/PC or NPC, is done for the fight and possibly permanently.

So consider if you had gotten an attack off first that was a Threat, you activated it to make it a crit, and your damage bypassed all the Martial Artist's Vitality and hit his Wounds. He goes to 0 Wounds and falls unconscious or he goes to -10 Wounds and dies. Just stuff to consider.

[meadicus]

As a quick note, 9one of my players prepped a martial artists as his backup character in our reasonably high level game. This was level 12 so he could apply two tricks to attacks, also remember that in Spycraft 2.0 Master's Art still means you're doing 2d6/17-20 on unarmed.

So he would combine Hurricane Kick (kicking supremacy) with Turning Punch (boxing supremacy) for 5 attacks of triple damage. Each one benefiting from martial arts (strength), the kick bonus, plus other stuff which made each hit 6d6+39. (his standard hit was 2d6+13)

So as a full round action, in 5 hits which have some minor penalties, he could do 30d6+195.

Just saying.

EDIT: I should probably also add, I don't think they're overpowered. Having run Spycraft 2.0 from levels 1 to 20 I've found that once levels get into the teens combat becomes easy for any dedicated combatant, Martial artists do it by high damage, Soldiers do it with free crits and insta-kill options. By the higher levels fights are over very quickly and not really a challenge, which I believe is intentional. The challenge is solving the mystery and completing the mission.

[Morgenstern]

Yeah, 80 damage at 9th level sounds like the stars aligning favorably, but certaily achievable.
Important safety tip: do not melee with a melee-master .

[Leeking208]

I once had a level 7 Soldier Triggerman Personal Lieutenant for the groups talker regularly deal around 70 dmg a turn with semi-auto pistols using burst fire. Generally using AP rounds. Any dedicated combatant can and should be wrecking all kinds of stuff on a regular basis.

[Desertpuma]

Yeah, 80 damage at 9th level sounds like the stars aligning favorably, but certaily achievable.
Important safety tip: do not melee with a melee-master .

Scotty, are you saying that an unarmed 9th Martial Artist, so no Master's Art, can drop 80 damage in a single round with some lucky Action Dice rolling? ... I'm a little mystified at how with only 1D6+4 (given an 18 for stat) this would be possible without some serious luck.

[Morgenstern]

Scotty, are you saying that an unarmed 9th Martial Artist, so no Master's Art, can drop 80 damage in a single round with some lucky Action Dice rolling? ... I'm a little mystified at how with only 1D6+4 (given an 18 for stat) this would be possible without some serious luck.

At 9th level a strength of 24 from Rage Mastery is easy, and strength of 22 is almost to be expected. the +7 to hit is also going to make the rest of the damage a lot easier to land. 4 attacks per round from warriors grace, one with double damage with a guilotine kick (Kicking mastery)...

(1d6+7) x 5 before action dice.

Add Charge Supremacy to close distance and re-roll up to 3 of those damage rolls to push them towards peak performance...

You've got a budget of 10 feats by then. you can stack some evil bonuses with that .

*Edit* Just realized this was 2.0 scenario. I'll have to recheck my tools but frankly I think it's easier with that set of feats than it is in Fantasycraft.