HWalsh wrote:Shark_Force wrote:
it wins you initiative. it allows 2 actions to back away for those that know the technique. being able to spend 2 actions on getting away is not always a great thing, but it can be.
even the fact that you can use it to back flip escape, make an attack (if you have something ranged), and then after your enemy moves in you can keep moving away with back flip escape is significant, if for example you have more attacks per melee. it takes an action for them to close, no matter how much faster they are than you, so they spend an action getting close, and then you back flip escape until they're out of actions and you have them at your mercy.
it is, therefore, a maneuver that lets you gain an advantage, or escape from a fight that you don't really want to be in after they've gotten into the fight. how is that "no reason for the maneuver to exist"?
As opposed to: I back away, if I have more movement, you approach, don't reach me, I shoot, you approach, I move away, you approach, don't reach me, I shoot.
Which makes your opponent burn 2 actions just reaching you.
Which, unlike backflip, can't fail on a poor roll
there is no roll on backflip escape that I can see. nothing indicates any sort of opposed test. you just automatically succeed, and whether your opponent is faster than you or not, it takes them an action to get in close again. in a world where you may be an unaugmented human fighting juicers, crazies, dog boys, people in power armour, wild animals (native and alien) and d-bees or monsters with a naturally high speed attribute, having an escape that works against enemies that you can't outrun sounds pretty useful to me.
an action that can buy you an immediate next action and prevent your enemy from attacking you this round also sounds quite useful for any sort of spellcaster that may want to use a level 6-10 spell. 2 uninterrupted actions could mean your enemy (or enemies) is (or are) spending the next couple rounds being thrown all over the place by a powerful wind and having his gear scattered to who knows where. not having those 2 uninterrupted actions could mean that you just spent a bunch of PPE, then got tossed on the ground and both of the actions required to cast your spell, another action from being thrown, possibly losing initiative, and the PPE to cast the spell... which is a pretty big difference). or, for that matter, even if there's a 1 action spell you want to use which cannot normally be interrupted, you may not want to be adjacent to your target. blinding flash is *amazing* at those ranges, but it gets a lot less amazing when you're also hitting yourself with it. you can also use it to avoid simultaneous attacks, as another example. backflip away, and since it's not an attack they don't get their simultaneous attack they were hoping to disrupt your spell with.
if it wasn't so far down the martial arts HtH table, I might even care enough to pick up better than basic HtH on a magic user just for that utility.