Parring for supernatural monsters

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Thor1221
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Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by Thor1221 »

The rules say that you need a weapon in your hand to parry, i agree. It states that if you try and parry with out a weapon you or your armor will take damage, simple enough. If you try and parry a saber with your hand you will get cut, if your in power armor and you try and parry a vibro-blade your armor takes damage.

Can a supernatural beings that relies on natural weapons parry an attack from say a vibro-blade? (examples: Demigod, Vampire against wood, or a created supernatural monster with claws)

If so, what would be the difference between parrying with a supernatural beings hand compared to an MDC weapon, a power armor hand, or a cyborg hand?

I understand a vibro-blade can cut through any of the above mentioned items. This question hinges on weather a supernatural beings can parry with natural weapons, making a monster that relies on its natural attacks and not being able to parry seems silly, but if you allow a creature to parry with natural weapons then the question about supernatural beings, cyborg, and power armor is very relevant.
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Re: Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by Alrik Vas »

This is something that comes up a bit. I apologize that I can't remember exactly if this is real or not, but there seems to be a rule where if you successfully parry with a -4 unarmed, you can avoid damage.

However, since natural weapons are weapons, I'd say creatures can parry weapons anyway.
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Re: Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by Dog_O_War »

As far as the RAW is concerned, since there is no clause or caveat excluding these creatures, no.

Not it is not unreasonable.
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Re: Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by Axelmania »

Is there any rule saying you take damage if you try to entangle an attack from an MD weapon? Would entangle cover the idea of grabbing the arm behind the vibro-sword instead of touching the sword?

Since a lot of supernatural monsters don't even have auto-parry due to lack of hand to hand, perhaps they would opt to use entangle in these cases.
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Re: Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

You'd need a weapon to parry a weapon is probibly what they meant. Cause most weapons that are used are ether blades or spiky clubs.

Looking at it that way a MDC being could parry a MD attack with it's claws. The same when talking about SDC SN being with claws vs a SD attack.

If you watch MA fighter anime, from time to time you will see someone parrying a sword strike by capturing the sword by clapping their hands together forming a sword sandwich. Doing this is nigh impossible to do bare handed. The ledgends probilby were started by Ninja using Shuko to parry the sword.
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Re: Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by Alrik Vas »

That's just a zanshin exercise, Drew. They do it with their eyes closed (with a bokken, not a real sword) and it isn't something for use in a fight, it's to help train your instincts.

Though there's no real evidence to suggest it seriously helps anything other than your cool factor.
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Re: Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

Cause it 'looks cool' is probably why it gets put into anime. ;)
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Re: Parring for supernatural monsters

Unread post by J_cobbers »

There is plenty of real world MA techniques for parrying/blocking weapon attacks with bare hands, but they are not without risk. Most boil down to stopping or redirecting the movement of the opponent's hands or arms that are holding the weapon. This usually means closing the distance between them before the attack is able to be completed so that the strike can not be completed, or avoiding part of the attack (much like a dodge in PB rules) while grabbing/pushing the opponent's arms so that a strike is redirected away from the defender. Often these sorts of blocks involve counter attacks following up the blocking of the attack. In short you are trying to stop the limb(s) controlling the weapon rather than the weapon itself. That being said, if you bring fists to a knife fight in the real world, expect to get cut.

But we're talking PB Rules not real world. So if you add in natural weapons like claws, spikes, horns, or built in Cyborg/PA weapons or what have you, they ought to be able to parry other handheld MD weapons like vibro blades. Don't know about any applicable penalty, but due to the increased difficulty in using a natural weapon to defend rather than attack, it makes sense that there should be one some where.

As for parrying bare handed as a cyborg or PA pilot, there is a reason I discussed my real world examples above. If you block a weapon with your hand rather than the arm controlling that weapon, your hand is gonna get stabbed/bashed or otherwise hurt. The same logic extends to PB combat rules. Unless that robotic hand or limb is also some kind of hand to hand weapon itself, it will take full damage from a parried attack. Which is why when I used to play a character in PA, I always had them equipped with an appropriate vibro sword or similar weapon and WP Sword. You can also apply the similar logic of the arm sacrifice technique for defending against missiles; the arms block the damage to the main body, but take the full brunt of the attack as a result.
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