Muay Thai

From Edge of Darkness Wiki

Banned Physical

Armory Reloaded p. 110
Preq's	Strength ●●● Stamina ●● Brawl Skill ●●
Level(s)	● (2XP) ●● (6XP) ●●● (12XP)
Venue	All
Possessed By
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In the West, Muay Thai has only recently grown from a little-known combat sport into a near-mandatory study for serious strikers. In Asia, the style has been famous for longer. Kung fu and karate styles have both tested fighters by sending them against Thai boxers, or nak muay. In some cases, even amateur Muay Thai stylists beat them within an inch of their lives. The art earned a reputation for training powerful, tough fighters. Martial artists from other styles now routinely add Muay Thai techniques to their arsenal. The most famous modern examples are MMA stylists, who use Thai cut kicks, clinching knees and elbows in standup combat. A cut kick resembles the karate “roundhouse” kick, but whips through the target like a baseball bat, without snapping the knee, and strikes with a shinbone conditioned to hit without flinching. The kick’s thrown with so much relaxed power that if it misses, the fighter might spin in a complete circle before falling back into a fighting stance.

Muay Thai’s changed, too. Thai boxers add Western boxing’s combinations and evasion techniques to their arsenal. Not every technique is suitable for Muay Thai competition, however. A deep duck that works in boxing would earn a Thai fighter a knee to the face. Even as the art evolves, it must confront the realities of Muay Thai competition, where fighters can grab their opponent and use hands, feet, knees and elbows to strike. For this reason, Muay Thai is sometimes called the “eight limbed art,” or the style with “eight points of contact.” Even head butts used to be allowed, but they’re now illegal in mainstream venues.

Cut Kick (•)

Your character knows how to deliver powerful round kicks to her opponent’s legs. When you choose this option your character inflicts one less point of damage than usual, counted after rolling to see if the attack succeeds. (For example, an attack that scores one success would still be a successful cut kick, but inflicts no Health damage). However, each kick reduces the opponent’s Speed by one, down to a minimum of one. If you roll as many successes as the opponent’s Size, he falls prone because he’s been swept by a kick or can’t use his legs out of sheer pain. Opponents can get back up whenever they have the chance, but their Speed only recovers at the end of the combat scene.

Iron Skin (••)

Has Armor of 1 against Bashing attacks

Combination Blows (•••)

Can make two brawl attacks against the same target with a -1 to the second attack. Cannot use defense before or after attack

Thai Clinch (••••)

Your character grabs an enemy around the head and pulls him into a vicious elbow or knee strike. If you are establishing a grappling hold as the first part of using the Combination Blows maneuver to inflict damage as the second move, add your Dexterity to your dice pool to attack.

Drawback: The usual –1 penalty for Combination Blows applies to the first grappling attempt, not to the following attack. This benefit does not apply if your character has already established a hold, or during future attempts to damage an opponent from the same hold, but she can always abandon her current hold and try a new grapple to use the Thai Clinch.

Brutal Blow or Lethal Strike (•••••)

Spend WP, Brawl attacks deal Lethal

Note

This Merit can also be found in the book Ancient Bloodlines p. 119