Lisa's Dojo
Lisa's Dojo contains Lisa Chan's collected martial arts wisdom.
Offense
1. An effective skill roll greater than 16 is generally unnecessary and wasteful.
A skill of 16 nets the highest possible critical hit chance of 9.26%. Since you cannot score a critical hit on a 7 or higher, having an effective skill of 17 or 18 does not improve this. A skill of 16 also reduces critical failure chance to 0.46%, down from 1.85% for an effective skill of 7-15 since, for an effective skill of 16+, a 17 becomes a normal failure and only an 18 results in a critical failure.
2. Always make a deceptive attack if your skill is 20 or higher and you cannot think of any other special attack to use.
As a consequence of Rule 1, rolling an ordinary attack against an effective skill of 20 is never better than attempting a deceptive attack at an effective skill of 16. This assumes a static -4 penalty to hit for a penalty of -2 imposed on your opponent's defense.
3. Choose only one or two techniques to specialize in, or at most three in special circumstances, assuming they aren't all hard techniques. Otherwise, it is better to improve your overall skill.
It is pointless to spend points in many different techniques. Raising four average techniques one level each has the same result and costs the same number of points as raising the base skill. Think about what technique(s) you would like to specialize in and build around that.
4. A kick does more damage than a punch, but is riskier to use.
A punch starts at thrust-1; a kick starts at thrust. Bonuses for skilled fighters add to that. Kicking defaults to skill-2, so is generally harder to land. But, even assuming the same effective skill with Kicking and punching, a kick carries the additional risk of the possibility of falling when you miss or the opponent dodges. Even with an effective skill of 16, the chance to fall down on a miss is 1.85%.
5. Knee Strikes, Uppercuts, and Exotic Hand Strikes do the same damage as kicks.
These three techniques all strike as hard as kicks, but also lack the reach of a kick. If reach is not a concern, however, any of these can deal the same damage as a kick without the risk of falling down on a missed attack. Exotic Hand Strikes carry additional risks against armored opponents. All three of these skills also have a higher default than Kicking.
6. Targeted attacks are almost mandatory against armored foes and in high TL scenarios.
Unarmed strikes can be highly ineffective against heavily armored opponents. In such cases, it is mandatory to strike at any area that is unarmored, or try to target chinks in armor or weapons to disarm opponents. Targeted attacks are also effective at bringing down an effective skill to 16 in the case of a highly skilled fighter. Strikes to the joints (-5 for arm or leg joint; -7 for hand or foot joint) are good for ending fights fast by crippling an opponent in one shot.
7. Do not target the skull unless you are prepared to kill your opponent.
A skull shot always has the potential to kill. A critical hit to the skull can potentially kill even an armored opponent.
8. Try not to get parried by weapons.
Being parried by a weapon can be debilitating, because the opponent has the potential to inflict full swing damage to your hand or arm. Deceptive attacks and Counterattacks can make it difficult for an opponent to successfully parry. Against a less-skilled opponent, make liberal use of Feints.
9. Counterattack is among the most valuable techniques to train.
Counterattack is, without training, an inferior option to Deceptive Attacks. At default level, a Counterattack trades a -5 to hit for a -2 to the opponent's defenses. It can be used in conjunction with a Deceptive Attack but, it should never be used in place of one unless you have trained the technique up to at least default+2. It is worth training Counterattack all the way up and using it with every strike. If an opponent has a defense of 12, he will normally successfully parry 74.07% of the time. A Deceptive Attack drops this to 50%. A Deceptive Attack in conjunction with a Counterattack drops this to 25.93%. Even with this degree of difficulty for your opponent, it is still a risky proposition to attack him if he is armed.
10. Defensive Feints can cause your opponent to critically miss with high frequency.
The best way to defeat an armed opponent can be to allow him to defeat himself. If you make use of Defensive Feints, you can theoretically reduce his effective skill to the point that he critically misses on a roll of 13+, a 16.2% proposition. This is especially effective against a less skilled opponent who is using a weapon you do not want to be parried by. A series of Defensive Feints until he critically misses could leave him disarmed or otherwise hampered, providing you with an opening to launch an attack.
Defense
1. Never forget to retreat.
This is self-explanatory. If you use a mobility-based style, such as Karate, Judo, or Boxing, your retreat bonus to parry is one of your greatest defensive assets. Unless you have some reason that you cannot give ground, always retreat unless you already defend at an effective skill of 16+.
2. Make use of Sideslips and Slips if you use a mobility-based martial art.
If you do not need the full retreat bonus or would be better tactically served by moving to the side instead of away, use a sideslip. If you want to close the gap between you and your opponent because he has a reach 1+ weapon, slip in. The penalties you accrue from these may be prohibitive for people using Brawling or Wrestling, but they should always be considered in the case of people using Karate, Judo, or Boxing.
3. If your skill is good enough, always use aggressive parries.
If you can get an effective defense over 16 in a given situation without retreating, there is no reason not to use an aggressive parry. Even with a lower parry skill, it is sometimes a good idea to gamble and make an aggressive parry.
4. Against multiple attackers, it is better to spread bonuses around.
If you are up against multiple opponents and can use extra effort, retreats, and/or All-Out Defense for a +3, +2, and +2 in the same turn, expend your best bonus against the first hit that lands, but don't stack them all up, unless you have reason to believe one or more of your opponents is unlikely to hit, or in the case that one opponent's attack is far more damaging than the other two. For instance, if your base defense is 11, it is better to defend at 14, 13, and 13 than at 16, 13, and 11 against relatively equal foes, each who has a decent chance to hit. Against opponents who are 50% or less likely to hit, it is better to stack two bonuses against the first hit. In the case that the first attack misses and the second hits, expend the retreat and All-Out Defense bonuses against it, leaving open the possibility of not expending a fatigue point for extra effort in case the final attack misses.