Original merits

This will be a thread for posting any original merit the people of this site has made.
I will begin by posting my new fighting style: Dim Mak.

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Dim Mak * -> *****
Prerequsites:
4 Dex, Medicine 3 or Academics med speciality anatomy, Brawl 4, 3 dots i en agressive striking Fighting style.

the style:
* Insight:
Action: Use 1 round to study target opponent to discern weakpoints.
Effect: Gives the next Brawl, Firearms or weaponry attack against target the 9 again benefit. This benefit stacks with other 9 again benefits, two 9 again benefits form a 8 again.
Roll Perception where composure can be replaced with either Brawl, Weaponry or Firearms. Every two succes indicates one weakpoint found. One success is not enough to spot a weakpoint using this move.
Drawback: Can only move up to speed that round. Defence negated.

** Insightful strike:
Action: Uses Insight and targets a weakspot for greater damage. The user remembers where her opponents weakpoints were and the Insight benefit carries over to more than one attack. Her targeted attack has the usual targeted attack penalty, but she gains a bonus die for every round spent observing up to a total of five.
Roll is a normal Brawl or Weaponry roll for targeted attack using the greates of dex or str.
Drawback: This move can only be used against one opponent at a time. When character focuses on a new foe, i.e more than just a glance, she looses the benefit towards the previous foe. ST rules when the shift of focus is sufficient to loose this benefit.

*** Improved Insight:
Same effect as Insight but can be used against multiple targets, although not in the same round. One round can be spent to observe one target, the next to observe another and the character remembers the weakpoints she spotted on both targets. This also improves the insightful strike, one round gives two dice bonus up to a maximum of five for three rounds spent. Also, the insightful strike gains the route benefit, but looses 9 again.
Same roll as Insight, but one success is enough to spot one weakpoint.
Drawback: Defence is negated. User can not move the rounds spent observing. Willpower can be used to use this move and move up to speed that round.

**** Numbing Strike:
Numbs the body part struck using insightful strike. Player must announce her intent to use a numbing strike before the attack is made. Using a targeted attack against a body part, the strike lands and the dmg roll exceeds targets stamina, the body part is numbed and can't be used for a number of rounds equal to user's Brawl + Dim Mak - target's resolve. If roll is not greater than stamina, the numbing strike fails, but still does damage. This move can only be used with Brawl.
Roll is the same as Insightful strike.
Drawback: Defence negated until player's next round.

***** Death Touch:
The epitome of this style, the user is capable of killing with a single succesful strike. With a succesful numbing strike towards a vital point on the body, heart, liver, brain etc. and dmg roll exceeds or meets target's stamina x 2, the dmg is aggrivated, not bashing. If dmg roll does not meet target's stamina x 2, the strike is a normal numbing strike.
Drawback: Defence is negate this turn. Using the death touch is a sin against morality and causes a morality derangement roll unless character is clearly in mortal danger from target, or her morality is 4 or less.
Note: Player does not annonce when she uses the death touch, but when she does NOT wish to use it. If she targets what the ST deems a vital body part and does not state that this is not a death touch attack, it is counted as that. ST calculates if the dmg is sufficient to make the death touch succesful.
Note STs: normally, dmg roll must meet stamina x 2, but situational modifiers exist and ST is encouraged to decide for themselves when it is harder or easier to land a succsful death touch, but as a general rule, the roll must meet stamina x 2.

Okay, so this is my new fighting style which I have made for a purified character I'm cooking up. She might feature in my upcoming school campaign, or she might not. I don't know yet. What I know is that this fighting style might seem overly specialised, and it is. It does one thing and one thing only, the four beginning dots all lead up to the death touch, but this is what Dim Mak is. I am thinking of saying that Dim Dam can be used in cojunction with medicine as a form of acupreassure or something. Please note that this fighting style is not a stand alone style, the character needs to learn a 'normal' fighting style first before even atempting this. When I state in the prerequsites that a striking fighting style is needed, I mean something like Kung fu, not boxing. Dim Mak is presicion work, not brute force. But each individual ST can decide what fighting style is allowed to be used as a base for Dim Mak.
So, what do you guys think?

There are some things I would alter/readjust.. I will get back to this when i have read a bit more in armory reloaded, need to get things in context before I make any statements I also have to read up on dim mak. even though im pretty sure how it functions.

Alright, read it finally. There is one point I have to disagree with.. Doing aggravated. Flame and acid does lethal on mortals, flame does Aggravated towards vamps, because they are supernatural. Claws of the wild does Aggravated because it is a supernatural attack. The woulds which inflicts aggravated does not look like ordinary wounds, the wounds are black, the veins in the around the wound turns black also, resulting in a wound that clarely reeks of the supernatural. That's Aggravated. Mortals are able to use Dim mak, and mortals do not have the capacity to do aggravated on their own.

Also, I did not quite understand

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***** Death Touch:
The epitome of this style, the user is capable of killing with a single succesful strike. With a succesful numbing strike towards a vital point on the body, heart, liver, brain etc. and dmg roll exceeds or meets target's stamina x 2, the dmg is aggrivated, not bashing. If dmg roll does not meet target's stamina x 2, the strike is a normal numbing strike.
Drawback: Defence is negate this turn. Using the death touch is a sin against morality and causes a morality derangement roll unless character is clearly in mortal danger from target, or her morality is 4 or less.
Note: Player does not annonce when she uses the death touch, but when she does NOT wish to use it. If she targets what the ST deems a vital body part and does not state that this is not a death touch attack, it is counted as that. ST calculates if the dmg is sufficient to make the death touch succesful.
Note STs: normally, dmg roll must meet stamina x 2, but situational modifiers exist and ST is encouraged to decide for themselves when it is harder or easier to land a succsful death touch, but as a general rule, the roll must meet stamina x 2.

What's up with all that ST crap? haha, that sounded a bit harsh xD

okay, a bit of background on the whole Dim Mak and the myth around it.
Dim Mak is a type of acupreassure that shuts down the body. It causes organs to fail, explodes blood vessels, stops the victim's chi. Now, I had Dim Mak do aggrivated because of two things:
1. a master of Dim Mak is supposed to be able to kill with a glancing blow, i.e even when he doesn't hit directly, it's lethal.
2. 5 dots in a fighting style equals mastery. If a master of Dim Mak is able to score lethal blows when he doesn't hit correctly, what does he do when he hits correctly? Aggrivated is the only thing I could come up with.
Also, the person using the style, who I made it for, is of supernatural origin. I can't tell you what origin since Nemo is able to read this and its a major spoiler, but he/she is indeed part of the WoD and can do aggrivated.

As for the ST 'crap', there are circomstances in action when someone targets a vital body part. the target may be wearing armour, or may not have said vital body part, like vamps or prometheans. That is why involve the ST so much. Again, this style was designed to be used by one of MY NPCs, so when I do it like this, I am both player and ST in one, and it doesn't matter much, I don't have to announce my intention to not use a death touch for instance.
Example, a death touch to the head is usually more than enough to kill someone, but if the subject is wearing a helmet, then the death touch doesn't work and is simple a Brawl. See what I'm talking about now?

I still don't agree with the Aggravated part. Even if he/she/it is a supernatural entity. It does not change the fact that Dim Mak stems from mortals. This is the reason why you can't use boxing or Kung fu with claws of the wild for example.

Also, the death touch... To me it would seem easier to just accumulate 5 successes in one toss to get a exceptional success, then the opponent dies (If you have called the shot), if not, it does damage as any other hit.

And well, I don't think there is much more to say, you are the one who will be using it, not the players. If a player where to use it, I would never ever allow it. Plane and simple, but that's me.

...I actually didn't think about that. Exceptional succes equals death...its simple and in the spirit of the whole Dim Mak thing. Perhaps I should change it to that. I'll think on it.
And no, I would not allow it for my players either.

Good, hehe. Unless the player is indeed playing a 60 year old monk warrior that is

And well, if you think about it, if you cut out the aggravated thing, the only thing you have to do to kill a vamp is to get two exceptional successes. That's two turns and a vamp is down, that's pretty damn good if you ask me.

**edit

No wait.. I did not think of the vampire physiology. Their intestines does not work.. So, I'd actually go as far as saying this power has no effect on vampires and the like. (other than normal damage) Man, that was a bitch.

i know. that's why I put in the whole ST's discression thing.

Edit: would it be better to have exceptional success = death, or exeeds target's size(or stamina)? With just exceptional success, it seems a bit easy, for some reason.

Huh... That was mind bothering. Well, the book say that if you make something yourself, and there is problems, the easiest solution probably is the best. And, well, st discretion is easy for the one making the fighting style, but it is not easy when it is put to test.

I'd say that it won't work as good on vamps. But then the problem comes to mind that we are talking about hand to hand combat here. And well... that would most likely mean bashing damage... hmmm.

I had to get some others thoughts on this matter as well, and boy he came up with some great ideas:

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Some quick feedback on first glance...

Knowing the nature of Dim Mak, I would say it should only apply to brawl, not weaponry or firearms (maybe certain weapons, but definately not firearms)
I also think that gearing it towards observing an opponent for weaknesses isn't really the right idea. It sounds like he took this idea from D&D, but those powers are really meant to find weaknesses in a persons defenses, or maybe finding anatomical weak spots in non-humans. Dim Mak would be based on knowledge of human anatomy, and thats the same for any opponent. (also, it shouldn't work on non-humans).

Something that comes to mind is that this could be expanded a bit to account for the opposite effect. Dim Mak is a harmful application of arts that are meant for healing, so you could develop a counterpart merit called Chi Gong which has healing applications. Or, you could have one merit, which can be applied in harmful or healing ways. For example your level 4 maybe could be used to counter the effects of a numbing strike someone previously suffered.
Also, you could have levels in this provide bonuses to medical checks maybe.

And then comes Zeev: As for Zeev. Zeev is Zeev. Reasonable and cruel when necessary.

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Boehlke:
4 Dex, Medicine 3 or Academics with specialty anatomy, Brawl 4, 3 dots . One dot in aggressive striking Fighting style.

I really don't like this list. At the very start it comes off as what I term a glass-jawed super power. That is, something that's got a ton of power behind it, but then gets so many drawbacks thrown over it that it's a pain to play.

Attribute and Skill requirements above 3 are rarely appropriate for Fighting Styles. Medicine above 1 is likewise inappropriate. A bit of anatomy might help your study of how to hurt people, but you don't need to be a doctor to break bones or gouge eyes. Academics makes no sense. The specialty is unneeded, but it doesn't hurt the general point.

Also, I assume you mean 3 dots in other Fighting Styles, and one dot in Aggressive Striking. I don't like this sort of thing without a good reason.

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Boehlke:
* Insight:

This is pretty much useless. 1 round to get 9- or 8-again? You'll never bother with it. The amount of damage you can generate attacking two turns in a row will vastly outweigh the X-again bonus. There's no clear benefit of spotting multiple 'weak spots.' Getting nothing for 1 success is bad design and then you lose Defense on top of it.

Yeah... not good.

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Boehlke:
** Insightful strike:

This would be just as weak as the first dot, except for the little sneak in of getting to use Dexterity with your attack. Even so, it's still useless. Five rounds to get a maximum of +4 dice? Why would you in close combat? It makes a bit of sense for ranged combat, but you can already aim to do the same thing. The drawback makes this completely unusable if you fight more than one person at a time.

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Boehlke:
*** Improved Insight:

I don't really get it. But rote action attacks that you can spend WP on? Bad idea. Getting a rote action attack move that costs a WP to do for Brawl restricted solely to bashing damage is a 5 dot move on its own.

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Boehlke:
**** Numbing Strike:

This is ok. It's still weak though. Losing Defense doesn't make any sense.

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Boehlke:
***** Death Touch:

This is all around not good. Agg damage is way too much for a Fighting Style Brawling attack. Stamina x 2 is a bad control in general, because if you get that many successes in the first place, the target is already in major trouble.

In general, the style is just all over the place. Its clunky and isn't something that's going to work well in play most of the time. WOD: Armory Reloaded has plenty of combat 'oomp' for this sort of thing, so I'm not seeing what this adds to the existing suite of options.

Right. Well, that's what you could call constructive criticism

Now, I never told them that this was never meant to be used by players, I did not do that because I felt that it is kind of unfair that the ST gets to use a merit that the players can not. And I know these guys feel the same thing.

There is potential within this merit. What if the lesser levels had some health benefits for mortals, that could be darn cool. And with a bit more tweaking the whole thing could be a wicked mortal fighting/medicine style.

...right, I feel properly chastiated now. Damn, that was harsh.
Argh, wasn't it like this the last time I made a merit too? Jeezus.
god damnit, i'll just scrap the whole thing. the npc using it strictly a fighter anyway.

Yeah, it was cruel. But, did you know that healing thing about Dim Mak? That was pretty interesting, don't you think? Could def be cool to look into it. And, I don't really think you need to scrap it, unless there is something in the armory that looks like this merit. I mean, if the two first dots is tweaked into some healing thing, and the last three is attack. And well, It would only work with lethal effect on Mortals, Werewolf in human form? Mages? effectively killing one of them in one blow on the higher levels, if you get a exceptional success. These major templates are more mortal than Vamps and those Created guys after all.

I really don't want you to scrap the idea. I really think this merit would work real nice if applied this way. Besides, you often fight more mortals than supernaturals, at least, you often fight more beings who need their innards, right?

I knew about the healing aspect. After all, acupreassure is a form of healing and Dim Mak is combat aplied acupreassure.
Hmm...How about this then.
Numbing strike and death touch are the same as before, only you need to exceed target's stamina to kill him, but numbing strike is dot three. dot four could be a variant of a iaido move. With a succesful dodge, the user can instant counter attack. Hmm, yeah that sounds good. When succesfully dodged a weaponry or brawl attach, the user can counter attack with a brawl attack that counts as a numbing strike. She looses her defense next turn or something.
dot 1 & 2 I don't know. 2 could be something that counters the numbing strike, while dot 1 could be something like a improved medicine roll.
What you think?

Sounds good. But I still think that if you get a exceptional success on the five dot attack, you kill, that simple...

yeah, okay. let's make it that simple.
Okay, the new merit then:
Dim Mak. pre: Brawl 3, Medicine 3, Dex or Str 3, 3 dots in a striking fighting style.
1: Healing touch: When using the medicine skill on someone, user can add her dots in this merit to the medicine roll as bonus dice. This means that she uses acupreassure for the entire treatment, or to aid in the treatment. She can't at this level counteract the numbing touch.
2: Touch of life: At this level, the user is able to counteract the numbing touch. Her healing touch is more effective, she has learned how to use her martial art to give aid when healing someone. When using a healing touch, she decreases the healing time of the subject by half. If the subject has the quick healing merit, the benefits stack. She can also counteract the numbing touch move using a succesful dex+medicine versus numbing touch's dmg roll.
3: Numbing touch: With a succesful targeted strike to a subjects body and the dmg roll is 5 or more, i.e exceptional success, the body part is numbed and unusable in a number of rounds equal to users brawl+Dim Mak.
4: Counter touch: When performing a succesful dodge against a brawl or weaponry attack, user may roll resolve+composure to make an instant counter-attack. The target of this counter-attack does not gain the benefit of his defense against this attack. If the dmg roll of this counter attack is an exceptional success, it also counts as a numbing strike.
Drawback: user looses defense until her next turn.
5: Death touch: Like numbing touch, but if the dmg roll is an exceptional success, the target dies. This move is unusable against vampires or other beings without vital organs.
Drawback: The user has to roll a morality degeneration roll unless the situation was clearly lifethreatening.

So, how was that?

That's actually pretty good Me likes. What is nice is that it is simple, yet functional. And the last dot, is really hard to accomplish, but as a last resort, it might be beneficial. I'd say, you don't want to use the dot 5 attack without using willpower to add die, which again means that you have thought of the moral implications already, which is symbolized with the usage of the willpower. getting an exceptional is hard, when you think of defense and what not

I liked that version of things rather much. and you are right, you wouldn't want to use the 5 dot version without using willpower or at least going all out, because of defence and targeting penalties. But when you land it, its awesomely powerful.

Exactly. That's the cool thing. It functions like a traitorous Ace up your sleeve. If you get into a position where you are likely to die, you might as well try it, if you are lucky, it might buy you another day to live. If it did not work out, well.. Then it does not matter, cause you'd probably have died if you had not tried either

mhm. something like that anyway.

Here we go, Death touch! Either you are dead, or you take bashing

The member 'Boehlke' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Dice' : 10, 10, 8, 9, 5, 9, 8, 10, 9, 1, 2

Rolling 10 again

The member 'Boehlke' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Dice' : 7, 10, 9

Rolling 10 again, again

The member 'Boehlke' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Dice' : 2

Then we know, it IS possible to do a instant death attack with Dim Mack.

Oh the Humanity!

The member 'Nemonomicon' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Dice' : 9, 4, 1, 6, 4, 5, 8

My death touch roll nr2:

The member 'Beast King' has done the following action : Dices roll

'Dice' : 3, 3, 8, 8, 7, 8, 2, 1

I was thinkig of something. For the instadeath attack. 5 successes to kill. If not 5 is obtained, could 3 or more than 3 successes lead to some kind of paralysis for a turn?