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[knutor]

What about a stance to catch arrows?

[dwarf_sadist]

What about a stance to catch arrows?

You will have to spend 30 days training with a giant panda in a monastery for that one. Same for the touch of death, except it's an old asian man with a beard.

[Robosaur]

You will have to spend 30 days training with a giant panda in a monastery for that one.

pretty sure that's cannonballs.

also I have parries listed. No reason why parrying can't apply to arrows and/or bolts.

[Putnam]

Especially when catching is much, much less practical than parrying.

[Zoolimar]

You will have to spend 30 days training

How about 30 years ? Thats much more close to real training used to catch/parry/cut arrows. Not combat effective - dodge easier, takes less energy and less risky.

[dwarf_sadist]

You will have to spend 30 days training

How about 30 years ? Thats much more close to real training used to catch/parry/cut arrows. Not combat effective - dodge easier, takes less energy and less risky.

It takes 30 days to learn the stance. I make no guarantees to the effectiveness of the stance.

[Zoolimar]

General observations on the martial arts and attacks:

Martial arts at their core is not about fancy moves or studying for 30 years to block arrows. It's all part of them but not the definitive. The main things are perfecting oneself and making your opponents to lay down as fast and effective as it is possible and with minimum work needed.

The second part is the one that is mostly relevant to Dwarf Fortress. The "sad" thing is that this part rarely includes some fancy moves or stances. You meet your opponent place 3-4 strikes to vital spots and thats it. Attacks used will mostly be short, fast and direct with some occasional feint. You simply won't have time for some fancy moves then one strike to the skull, throat, joint or family jewels can lay an end to your ability to fight and maybe even lay and end to your life.

Attacks used will be exerting as much force as can be possible in one strike while minimizing energy requirements. Most attacks will include whole body movement - footwork, turning torso to add range and impulse and the actual hand or leg strike as a pinnacle of the move.

Fancy moves while involving all the same parts have one problem - they are slow or have some other big drawback like rigid stance which harms your ability to maneuver. It may have great power but if you can't adapt to the situation or opponent can make 2 attacks while you make 1 (and it's hard to defend in the middle of your own attack) you lose. This is not so obvious in the sport cause most attacks which can easily end a real fight are prohibited. 

[dwarf_sadist]

General observations on the martial arts and attacks:

Martial arts at their core is not about fancy moves or studying for 30 years to block arrows. It's all part of them but not the definitive. The main things are perfecting oneself and making your opponents to lay down as fast and effective as it is possible and with minimum work needed.

The second part is the one that is mostly relevant to Dwarf Fortress. The "sad" thing is that this part rarely includes some fancy moves or stances. You meet your opponent place 3-4 strikes to vital spots and thats it. Attacks used will mostly be short, fast and direct with some occasional feint. You simply won't have time for some fancy moves then one strike to the skull, throat, joint or family jewels can lay an end to your ability to fight and maybe even lay and end to your life.

Attacks used will be exerting as much force as can be possible in one strike while minimizing energy requirements. Most attacks will include whole body movement - footwork, turning torso to add range and impulse and the actual hand or leg strike as a pinnacle of the move.

Fancy moves while involving all the same parts have one problem - they are slow or have some other big drawback like rigid stance which harms your ability to maneuver. It may have great power but if you can't adapt to the situation or opponent can make 2 attacks while you make 1 (and it's hard to defend in the middle of your own attack) you lose. This is not so obvious in the sport cause most attacks which can easily end a real fight are prohibited.

Not quite sure what fancy moves your talking about but most moves in Martial Arts, even the awkward and hard to learn techniques, have their purpose and circumstance to use them in. For instance, an axe kick is highly awkward to use, requires the user to be flexible and leaves the user open to a counter attack or grab. However, an axe kick is powerful thanks to gravity, and hard to see coming (most people defend against kicks to the groin, shins or belly), meaning it can be used against opponents who are tired, surprised or unprepared.

The problem with dwarf fortress is it does not simulate a real fight effectively, such as the fact that your attack is going to have to go through the other persons arms (when prepared) to hit anything vital, or that a person's vital organs are going to be the most heavily armoured.

[Zoolimar]

Not quite sure what fancy moves your talking about but most moves in Martial Arts, even the awkward and hard to learn techniques, have their purpose and circumstance to use them in. For instance, an axe kick is highly awkward to use, requires the user to be flexible and leaves the user open to a counter attack or grab. However, an axe kick is powerful thanks to gravity, and hard to see coming (most people defend against kicks to the groin, shins or belly), meaning it can be used against opponents who are tired, surprised or unprepared.

I think thats a borderline example. 99 times out of 100 if opponent surprised or unprepared you can use other faster and easier to implement moves. There is other such moves which need rare circumstances to be used without too much risk. And you need skill to determine then to use one of them.

Axe kick in particular opens groin even for attacks with hands, makes you easy to be moved off balance and takes almost double the time of the simple straight or side kick.

[Neonivek]

Fancy moves while involving all the same parts have one problem - they are slow or have some other big drawback like rigid stance which harms your ability to maneuver

Sometimes they are just the result of the most effective attack.

Throws made to floor people larger then you for example.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Sometimes, yes. Usually, they just look cool.

[Neonivek]

Sometimes, yes. Usually, they just look cool.

That is why you have to seperate the martial arts made for appearance and ones made for being martial arts.

[GreatWyrmGold]

Sometimes, yes. Usually, they just look cool.

That is why you have to seperate the martial arts made for appearance and ones made for being martial arts.

Separate the martial from the arts?

[Neonivek]

While uncommon today a few martial arts include what I call "Exibition moves" which are moves that are made because they look cool and fancy but not because they have any particular use.

There are martial arts with very flowery moves but that are a concequence and not a weakness within the martial art itself.

Boxing's Dancing for example.

[Zoolimar]

While uncommon today a few martial arts include what I call "Exibition moves" which are moves that are made because they look cool and fancy but not because they have any particular use.

A good way to see if the move is made only for training is to watch fights between practitioners of the martial art and look for that particular move.

Even in a sport fight you can get a good measure of how appropriate this move will be in a real one.

P.S. This moves are not uncommon today. Simply they are rarely practiced out of kata. They are made for training and to get the level of the practitioners skill.