Martial Arts Rebalance for Medieval Swordsmanship

[Hymore246]

Summary

SUMMARY: Balance "Martial arts rebalance for Medival Swordsmanship"

Purpose of change

Partially implements #32422
Update for the martial art: Medival Swordsmanship

Describe the solution

The art of the longsword and sword & shield, preceding the later development of fencing. Designed for combat both unarmored and in armor, it includes grappling as well as defensive and offensive sword techniques.

Current Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Perfect Defense	Unarmed 0	OnAttack Buff	+2 Dodges for 3 turns
Displacement	Melee 2	OnDodge Buff	Lasts 2 turns
grab	Melee 3	Melee Tech	Down duration: 1
grab break	Melee 3	Melee Tech	Grab Break
displace and counter	Melee 4	Melee Tech	Requires "Displacement", 75% move cost, +10% cut damage
sweeping strike	Melee 5	Melee Crit Tech	Down duration: 2
vicious strike	Melee 6	Melee Crit Tech	+50% Bash, Cut, and Stab damage, stun duration: 1
Deathblow	Melee 6	Melee Crit Tech	200% move cost, +200% Bash damage, 0% Cut and Stab damage, stun duration: 2

Weapons: 2-by-Sword, Arming Sword*, Crude Sword, Estoc*, Flammenschwert*, Jian*, Longsword*, Nord, Zweihander*
*Includes all varations

Medieval Swordsmanship isn't much to look at. It's moveset is a mixed bag, probably because most of the power comes from the weapons it uses

Problems and issues

• Perfect Defense is too strong.
  OnAttack buffs are the easiest buffs to activate and keep active. Giving +2 Dodge attempts to a style that isn't focused on defense is usually a bad idea.

• displace and counter isn't balanced very well.
  This attack isn't bad by itself but the problem comes from it's frequency. You can dodge a lot in combat and as a result you might be getting the attack endlessly and the damage can rack up much faster than was intented. Alternatively, if you score a critical hit, the attack doesn't happen at all and the "displace" buff is wasted.

• grab shouldn't have cut or stab damage.
  The "grab" technique is described as a pommel strike and hitting with the hilt of your weapon and not the blade shouldn't do any cut or stabbing damage.

Rebalance Goal
Medival Swordsmanship is tricky to balance due to the sheer power of the weapons the style uses. Directly adding power to the weapons without any restraint will just make the style overpowered but removing that from the equation also removes most of the things a style can provide a martial art.

The rebalance will reduce, but not completely, remove the damage boosts from the style. All techniques that have a damage boost will require either some sort of setup or will give up other damage for the boost. The rest of style will focus on providing stun and downed effects with a few defensive options. This may not seem like much but remember, this is the style that lets you use flaming two-handed sword to kill things.

New Buffs, Techniques, and Special Abilities

Name	Level Available	Type	Effect
Swordsman's Stance	Melee 0	OnHit Buff	+1 Dodge attempts, blocked damage reduced by 50% of Strength.
Deflection	Melee 1	OnDodge Buff	Enables "Sweeping Strike" and "Deathblow". Lasts 1 turn
Sweeping Strike	Melee 1	Melee Crit Tech	Requires "Deflection" buff, Down duration: 2
Grab Break	Melee 3	Melee Tech	Grab Break
Deathblow	Melee 4	Melee Crit Tech	Requires "Deflection" buff, 150% move cost, +200% Bash damage, 0% Cut and Stab damage, stun duration: 2
Pommel Strike	Melee 4	Melee Dodge Counter	0% Cut and Stab damage, Down duration: 1
Manslayer	Melee 5	OnCrit Buff	Enables "Vicious Strike". Lasts 1 turn
Vicious Strike	Melee 5	Melee Crit Tech	Requires "Manslayer" buff, +50% damage, stun duration: 1

Weapons: 2-by-Sword, Arming Sword*, Broadsword*, Crude Sword, Estoc*, Flammenschwert*, Longsword*, Nord, Zweihander*
*Includes all varations

Important Changes

• Pommel Strike is now a Dodge Counter.
  Pommel Strike shouldn't have been doing full damage and it's hard to image the player going out of their way to use it instead of just swinging their weapon normally. However, as a dodge counter, it provides a bit of control with very little damage dealt.

• Sweeping Strike and Deathblow now requires the Deflection buff.
  Sweeping Strike and Deathblow are control techniques that require you to block before triggering them. You also need to crit as well so it isn't too out of line to allow them to stay.

• Vicious Strike now requires Manslayer buff.
  Vicious Strike is one of the main draws to Medieval Swordsmanship and while it the largest damage increase, I didn't want to remove it since it is be a nice goal to aim for while using the style and everyone likes to see big damage. So instead, you must now crit twice in a row to trigger Vicious Strike. This rewards players that have high Melee skills.

• Manslayer and Deflection do nothing but enable new techniques.
  As I mentioned above, I am very hesitant to add extra power to the style. If the style needs a buff, these will be the first things I change.

• Additional style weapons.
  *Broadsword - This weapon existed in the Middle Ages and is the right size to be included in the style.

• Removed style weapons.
  Jian - You could argue that it shouldn't be included due to it not being a part of Europe but I'm removing it for a simpler reason: it's a short sword and is too small to be used with the style.

Advantages

• Provides the player with a decent way control enemies while fighting.
• With the right weapon in hand, Vicious Strike can do 100+ damage.
• Works well against small groups.

Disadvantages

• Weapons make the style. If you can't find a good weapon, the style isn't going to help you very much.
• All the techniques need some sort of set up to trigger.
• Pommel Strike and Deathblow do a lot less damage than a normal attack would.

Describe alternatives you've considered

If the style is too strong...

• Reduce the damage of Vicious Strike from 50% to 25%.

If the style is too weak...

• Add blocked damage reduction to Deflection.
• Add an Accuracy bonus to Manslayer.
• Add an OnHit Buff that grants +1 Dodge attempts.

Additional context

References:
Historical European martial arts wikipedia page
Unterhau
Mordhau
Zornhau Ort
Knightly Sword

[Relyksboa]

"+200% bash damage 0% cut and stab"
my arming sword is a mace for a turn. Neat.

[ghost]

A question, does the dodge triggers also work with blocks with say shields? I was wondering as the info mentions that it uses both one or two handed along with sword and board. The dodge techs mentions dodges but not blocks and I was unsure about if it would work with say a sword and board char. As the powerful techniques cannot be used if your blocking everything with your shield

[ghost]

"npcname holds his weapon funny and slams it down on %s" ~Deathblow description

Can this be changed to something more accurate? "Holds his weapon funny" doesn't necessarily mean "flip around and smash with crossguard."

[Hymore246]

"npcname holds his weapon funny and slams it down on %s" ~Deathblow description

Can this be changed to something more accurate? "Holds his weapon funny" doesn't necessarily mean "flip around and smash with crossguard."

Yeah, that sounds better. I'm going to leave the crossguard part out in the off chance that weapon without a crossguard is added later on.

[Nacarbac]

Is the mortschlag generally just called a deathblow in actual modern use? Curious why it was translated in the first place, as it seems to be best known by the German term (and it's very much not a "deathblow" as we use the term). Plus, we don't translate zweihander or flammenschwert.

[Hymore246]

I have no idea honestly. Deathblow (Mordhau) was added to the style when it was mainlined a month or so ago. The other techniques follow the same format, so I just left it alone.

[tenmillimaster]

Is there a reason why we're not just calling this HEMA? It seems a far more appropriate name.

[Hymore246]

Is there a reason why we're not just calling this HEMA? It seems a far more appropriate name.

HEMA covers a lot more than just sword fighting from what I've read. Swordsmanship makes more sense in my opinion.

[kevingranade]

HEMA also isn't a style, it's an area of study.