Martial Arts Rebalance for Crane Kung Fu

[Hymore246]

Summary

SUMMARY: Balance "Martial arts rebalance for Crane Kung Fu"

Purpose of change

Partially implements #32422
Update for the martial art: Crane Kung Fu

Describe the solution

One of the five Shaolin animal styles. The Crane uses intricate hand techniques and jumping dodges.

Current Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Arm Block	Unarmed 3
Crane's Precision	Unarmed 0	Static Buff	Bash damage increased by 80% of Dexterity and decreased by 20% of Strength
Crane's Flight	Unarmed 2	OnMove Buff	+2 Dodges for 2 turns
Crane Wing	Unarmed 2	Unarmed Tech	Feint
Crane Flap	Unarmed 3	Unarmed Tech	Grab Break
Crane Strike	Unarmed 4	Unarmed Crit Tech	Stun duration: 3

Crane Kung Fu is the closed thing to a "melee Dex build" in CDDA. Outside of the damage boost it has a stun tech and a few defensive abilities. It's underwhelming and would only appeal to players that have very high Dexterity.

Problems and issues

• Bash damage increased by 80% of Dexterity.
  This is common problem with most the animal kung fu's. Having 10 in the given stat is worth +8 bash damage and when you consider that normal bash damage is 75% of Strength you will realize just how powerful this static buff is. Crane Kung Fu at least tries to balance the style by including a penalty based on Strength but this isn't enough to offset such a high damage bonus.

• Lack of techniques.
  Aside from Crane Strike, there isn't much to Crane Kung Fu. This leaves the style feeling incomplete.

Rebalance Goal
Due to it's focus on dexterity and agility, Crane Kung Fu is the perfect for being the "most defensive offensive martial art" by added a counter and a few more defensive tweaks.

New Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Arm Block	Unarmed 3
Crane's Precision	Unarmed 0	Static Buff	Dexterity determines bonus bash damage instead of Strength.
Crane Wing	Unarmed 0	Unarmed Tech	Feint
Crane's Flight	Unarmed 1	OnMove Buff	+1.0 Dodge skill for 2 turns.
Crane Strike	Unarmed 2	Unarmed Dodge Counter	Knockdown duration: 1
Crane Flap	Unarmed 3	Unarmed Tech	Grab Break
Crane Kick	Unarmed 4	Unarmed Crit Tech	+25% bash damage, Knockback duration: 1, Knockback Spread: 1, Stun duration: 2
Crane's Grace	Unarmed 5	OnDodge Buff	+1 Dodge attempt, +1.0 Dodge skill for 2 turns

Important Changes

• Dexterity determines bonus bash damage instead of Strength.
  A theme I want to have between all animal kung fu's is that the static buff will change what stat is used for a damage or accuracy calculation. Crane's Precision add 75% of Deterity and subtracting 75% of Strength to bash damage. This effectively changes which stat is used for damage calculations. The bonus damage calculation can be found in melee.cpp - on line 740 and is never random as far as I can tell:

float player::bonus_damage( bool random ) const
{
    /** @EFFECT_STR increases bashing damage */
    if( random ) {
        return rng_float( get_str() / 2.0f, get_str() );
    }

    return get_str() * 0.75f;
}

• Crane's Flight gives Dodge skill instead of bonus Dodges.
  Giving 2 extra dodges so quickly to a style was a little too strong. So, I changed the buff to Dodge skill to make it a bit more reasonable.

• Added Crane Kick.
  Crane Kick takes the place as Crane's crit technique while Crane Strike becomes a dodge counter. It can still stun but also does extra damage and knocks back. It's strong but it's also the only offensive technique used by Crane Kung Fu.

• Added Crane's Grace.
  An OnDodge buff that gives more an extra Dodge attempt and more Dodge skill seemed like a decent finale for Crane Kung Fu. The more you dodge the better at dodging you get!

Advantages

• High dexterity gives damage as well as defense.
• Gives multiple Dodge skill bonuses.
• Crane Kick is a good "keep away" attack.
• Reasonable against groups thanks to Crane Flap, Crane Strike, and Crane's Grace.

Disadvantages

• Has only one offensive attack and no other damage bonuses.
• Not very good unless you completely focus on Dexterirty.

Describe alternatives you've considered

If the style is too strong...

• Remove the bonus Dodge attempt from Crane's Grace.
• Remove bonus damage on Crane Kick.

If the style is too weak...

• Increase the Dodge attempts of Crane's Grace from 1 to 2.
• Increase the duration of Crane's Flight from 2 to 3 turns.
• Add a normal offensive technique.

Additional context

References:
Fujian White Crane wikipedia page
White Crane Kung Fu
Kung fu animal styles