Hi all. I am playing with creating characters and I was wondering if let’s say I create a Close Quarters Combatant, would I need Strength or Agility to make unarmed attacks, or could I use any justifiable power? Such as Awareness or Intuition to fight with precision or insight?
All you need to be able to do is justify the power you’re using. As it stands for that Archetype CQC when you choose abilities you’re forced to choose one using Close Combat but any others you can choose any power/quality you have access to through character creation.
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Thanks. Just getting my head around the narrative aspect of Sentinels.
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I had an idea for making a magical brawler like a Final Fantasy Mystic Knight or a Pathfinder Magus. Close Combat was the quality, but the power used was the elemental manipulation abilities. So punching with FIRE. Or more accurately, sheathing whatever happened to be in their hand in fire and hitting something with it.
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If you don’t have a justifiable power, you can default to the d4 Strength that everyone is presumed to have.
Yes of course, but I was more thinking about how justifiable a typically non-physical power could be in making a Close Combat attack. I could see a case for Intuition or Awareness, although I may need some convincing on Presence etc.
Remember, Attacks and Damage don’t have to be physical, they can be mental/emotional. You can surely Attack with Presence and Banter to insult and demoralize all but the most unfazeable foes.
I’ve certainly allowed Intuition as the Power die for a CC attack. As we described it, the character used their Intuition to know where to strike to cause maximal damage. As long as the player can explain in a reasonable way something should work, I think it is reasonable to use any Power/Quality for any action. The narrative creativity is the key point.
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Presence + Close Combat = “Awesome Dude grabs Nasty Dude by the wrist, and starts smacking Nasty Dude across the face with his own hand, while teasing ‘Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!’”
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Justifications need not be terribly strong…
Any perceptive power is “seeing an opening to exploit”
Any environmental can be “forcing them onto your fist”
Illusions can hide the attack pro forma either by not letting it be seen, or by making it seem there are multiples inbound… only one is real but they don’t know which.
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Thanks everyone. I think I have a great handle now of the flexibility of this system. Really looking forward to running a campaign in a couple of months!
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The Robert Downey JR Sherlock Holmes movies are the perfect example of Intellectual power + Close Combat quality
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