Pressure Points
Defaults: None. (May default to Esoteric Medicine-4 in a cinematic campaign.)
Prerequisites: Trained By A Master or Weapon Master.
This is the art of striking pressure points in order to disable an opponent. To use this ability, you must make a successful attack with Karate (or other appropriate combat skill; see below). This attack is at -2 in addition to any hit location modifier (see Hit Location). If at least one point of damage penetrates the target's DR, roll a Quick Contest of Pressure Points vs. the victim's HT.
If you win, you temporarily disable your target. A limb is paralyzed and effectively crippled for 5d seconds. A hit to a torso pressure point interferes with the victim's breathing, resulting in suffocation (see Suffocation); he may roll against HT every second to recover. A hit to the face stuns the victim; he gets an IQ roll every second to recover. A blow to the skull blinds the victim for 2d seconds; see Blindness.
You can also use Pressure Points with Judo. Roll the Quick Contest described above after successfully applying a lock. This is in addition to any other effects of the lock.
The GM may permit warriors to learn specialties of this skill for use with crushing weapons. Examples include Pressure Points (Bow) for use with blunt arrows, Pressure Points (Shortsword) for use with a baton, and Pressure Points (Staff) for use with a staff.
Modifiers: Physiology modifiers.
Martial Arts
The GM might want to let martial artists who know this skill attack pressure points that produce some of the effects under Realistic Injury, even in a cinematic game that doesn't otherwise use those rules. All of these attacks work as usual for Pressure Points: the attacker must strike the target hit location at an extra -2, inflict at least a point of injury, and win a Quick Contest of Pressure Points against the victim's HT.
- Arm or Leg: You can stop short of fully crippling a limb, inflicting any of the three levels of lesser effects under Partial Injuries – the most severe of which counts as torture for the purpose of Interrogation. Duration is still 5d seconds. You can also target joints, as explained under New Hit Locations. This gives the victim -2 on his HT roll to resist but otherwise produces the usual effects of a limb hit.
- Neck, Skull, or Vitals: You can temporarily induce any of the unpleasant effects on the table give for the targeted hit location under Lasting and Permanent Injuries. (Exception: You can't inflict Wounded.) Duration is 2d seconds, making attribute and Basic Speed penalties the most useful effects.
- Other Hit Locations: You may target a few of the other body parts discussed in New Hit Locations. Striking the ear causes Deafness; the jaw, Mute; and the nose, No Sense of Smell/Taste. Disadvantage effects last 2d seconds. A successful attack on the spine causes immediate knockdown and stunning, regardless of injury. The victim gets the usual HT roll each turn to recover.