FASA Games, Inc.

Im playing a Brother Battle whos quite capable at fighting (totalling a goal of 19), and hes also an acomplished physician, with 8 ranks on it. Obviously, when i saw Vital strike i decided it was the coolest thing around, what with him using his medical knowledge to strike vital points. The alternative was to spend points in Power Fist. But, obviously, the other attack, wich requires the martial artist to have actual knowledge of medicine, would be way better. Well, after crunching some numbers, i found out i was mistaken. Assuming i had a perfect perception of 8 (wich i dont, i have 6), considering criticals, and misses, the average damage of Vital strike would be of 7.3, while Power fists average damage would be 7.35 without even using wyrd. With lower goals it gets even worse. So, how can it be that this lvl 10 manouver is outclassed by Tornado Kick, Leaping Kick, Slide kick AND Power fist, all lower level, when it even requires another skill to be maxed to even begin to be in the same league? This strikes me as very poor design.

Any house rules to fix this?

Hi Svankensen,

I'm a bit confused as I am unsure of which rules you are refering to (as far as I know, there are no Vital Strike and Power Fist in FSR [although there is a Mantis Strike which seems to be the same as a Vital Strike from FS2]). Assuming however, that you're talking about FS2 rules, there seem to be a problem in those martial arts actions. Not only is the relatively low base damage for Vital Strike a penalty when compared to other actions, it also has a -2 goal penalty which decreasing its omph even more. To house rule this I would probably increase the base damage of Vital Strike to 5d.