NarutoMUD

When I was discussing NarutoMUD with Ichiro, an interesting topic was raised: skills were being chosen due to their PSM effects. I have to admit I full under this category. As Ichiro said, "They [the PSMs] are not designed for that purpose", the purpose of just inflating my stat points. After some thinking I have to say I do agree with him.

I believe that my ability to choose skills for their PSMs is in part due to an inherent flaw on the taijutsu system. Skills that I actually have a use for are Buddhist Palm for PvP, and Dragon Punch for PvM (mobs). As such, I have an incredible flexibility in choosing my other skills and thus I have the option of choosing skills for their PSMs.

PSMs are there to represent something. Without divulging any info, any seasoned player would realize what the PSMs represent for that particular skill. I chose to have a skill that gave me +4 stat even though I have absolutely no need for the skills inherent ability. Likewise most of my other skills follow the same reasoning.

Yes, PSMs are there to add bonuses to your chars. Yes, you are given the freedom to mix and match many skill combos so that you can improve yourself. But the extent of a taijutsu's user ability to mix and match PSMs does seem a little overboard.

I can't readily speak for the PSMs of a mist ninja, but what I can say is that a Mist ninjutsu player would have certain skills due to the very fact they are a mist ninjutsu user (redundant sentence). What I mean to say, a mist ninjutsu character would understandably have Souken Mizu, Suiryuudan, and if they're strong enough Mastery, Daibakufu, and Mizu Hatsudenki. Those are all very IC skills. Especially Souken Mizu and Mizu Hatsudenki due to the water requirement of water jutsus. It's very synergistic and perhaps that's the key to a more balanced Taijutsu system.

The most basic skill a normal taijutsu user should be able to do is punch correct? I claim to be a taijutsu user but I can't even punch. Granted I could easily unlearn something and relearn punch. But the point is, it's not particularly IC that I normally wouldn't be able to do such a simple move a taijutsu user could do.

What I suggest is a way to use low level skills even at high levels: a "combo" system. Some of you might have seen it in other places, but the idea is a sequence of user inputted skills would consequently deal extra damage (much more so if they were used separately by themselves).

E.g. a specifically coded combo of kick, double kick, and triple kick would result in a display of sextuple kick (completely made up) doing bonus damage; thus if i were to kick, double kick and triple kick, i would set off sextuple kick; if i were to kick, double kick, punch, triple kick (nothing would happen); nor would anything happen if i went triple, double, single. Thus a character could become a kick "master". Similarly, one could go the route of punching (if there were a design for it).

Or like how Rock Lee does his super fast kick to launch the opponent into the air for his Shadow Dance technique, taijutsu users could have a launcher move to cause a round of battle stun (the stun move itself should do minimal damage, but it's most significant ability is to be able to launch a much stronger combo). Sasuke's Lion Rendan falls under the same idea of a taijutsu combo.

The idea is very very basic and underdeveloped. I mean off the top of my head there are tons of balancing issues, like the moment you get triple kick, could you sextuple kick for the super damage, wouldn't that be overpowering for a lowbie, etc. With support of the community, it's not hard to continue to create a much better and more balanced system. *That is* if the community agrees that there is *even* a problem to begin with.

Combo is sort of in already, it just requires someone else to group with. I think having a self made combo would be along the same lines as a custom style. The self-combo would need to be an non-removable skill, but if you changed your other skills (from Kick, double, and triple, to say Punch, no-shadow kick, and dragon fist) you should be able to switch it up freely (3 skills max in the combo). Damage-wise, I have no idea how to balance this, one shouldn't be able to do full damage from each move, since they can't follow all the way through with the full attack, and have to move on to the next part of the combo. Also, the stamina drain for each move in the combo shouldn't be the normal either. And since I think this idea would be awesome, each of the moves should target certain parts of the body. The first attack should target the chest or legs, to stun the opponent, second attack targets the chest or arms, and the final attack targets the chest or jaw. Now since there would be checks on each move in the rendan (self-combo) so if the first fails, the rest don't happen, second fails, the last would fail, but if you complete all three the final attack would deal extra damage, as a good combo should. Now on the topic of skills in the combo, I personally only have 2 taijutsu attacks, No-shadow Kick and Buddhist Palm, so I'm biased towards the idea that you could have a the same skill appear twice in the combo, but not all 3 times. e.g. no-shadow, buddhist, and buddhist; but not buddhist, buddhist, and buddhist, that would be crazy... so if I had to put a limit on the rendan, it would be made up of at least 2 different skills. I'm not sure if this should apply to ninjutsu as well, like no-shadow, suiriyuudan, daibakufu. That would be awesome, but perhaps overpowered. Anyhow, due to the hyped-up power of the rendan, there would be significant battle lag after you complete it, assuming your opponent didn't die from it in the first place... That's my 2 cents

I think the basis of my idea needs a little clarification. The purpose of this "combo" (note the quotes) system, is a representation of a ninja's dedication to their art, specifically focusing on taijutsu. Not to say you can't be a jack of all trades, but a shinobi who dedicates his skill points towards more taijutsu based skills should be rewarded accordingly.

For someone like Rock Lee, who is 100% taijutsu, that's equivalent to spending all 10 skills in taijutsu.
For someone like Naruto, he's seeking more jutsus, so his taijutsu is lacking.

In the case of a mist ninja, he's sort of like Naruto. Let's say he dedicates 5 skill points to ninjutsus, 2 to haburi and ishiryoku, he has 3 skills left. He could choose 3 low level taijutsu moves for a low level combo. Or if he is skilled enough, he could choose a decently single strong taijutsu move, while using his 2 other skills for his personal needs (skill for RPing, what have you).
In the case of a taijutsu artist, he too should similarly dedicate 5 skill points to his art; these 5 points in skill should create a combo worthy of his skill. Perhaps then, these combos need to be based on the user's taijutsu level: low level taijutsu would either limit you to either a bad/cheap combo; high level would give you greater flexibility as well as better combos to work with.

There are multiple ways we can go about with this, using a variety of low level skills could give you a +damage modifier, where punch, kick, double kick, etc. (skills of that caliber), can only be used once, in preparation for a finisher (like buddhist or god fist). So to those that spend more skill points, you are given the ability to "charge up" more.
As well, we could have all combos unlocked by the use of an extra skill point, or have specific combos unlocked by extra skill points, or require them to be learned from a quest, or a mix of these ideas.

But ultimately I digress, the issue was the fact a "taijutsu" user could incredibly loosely spend his skill points to his desires (in this case, spending them specifically for PSM gains). The result is that he's not really a taijutsu user at all.

Heh, speaking from experience, there are many reasons to keep kicks and punches on even a high level taijutsu character without even considering PSM. Once at higher levels the damage done by even the weakest taijutsu moves are increased dramatically from when you first start to stop using them, plus they use much less stamina than the higher level moves, which allows you to keep fighting with "special" taijutsu even when you have used most of your stamina with the more powerful stuff and have to wait for the next tick to get enough stamina to use another.

There's no reason to completely rework the system when it already works the way it is. As we say down here in Texas, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."