Two Finger Eagle's Claw - A Look at Fighting Arts - Part 2 (Patreon)

Fated Blow

This fighting art, which is relatively common in People of the Stars due to the 'tutor' ability that the robes have, has huge power. This FA can be triggered after hitting and before wounding, so you get to ensure that its effect will be as maximised as possible.   

The effect drops off a bit when you have access to devastating 1 already, such as in People of the Sun or when you have a weapon like an activated Zanbato. However it still should not be underestimated.

5/5 

Harvestman

I absolutely adore Harvest Man. Extra movement is something that's a little hard to come by in Kingdom Death, so you never really appreciate how potent it is until you have access to it.

Harvestman gives you a large bonus of +3 movement at the cost of reducing your movement by 1 each time you are knocked down. That's absolutely massive.

This Fighting art is given away by Choreia 20% of the time (however you do not want to risk a valuable male survivor on this endeavor) so it can be gained in a semi-reliable fashion.

One of the best things you can do with this FA is carry a Steel Shield, which is amongst one of the most powerful defensive items in the game, but normally it cripples the movement of your survivor to the point that they can't really operate efficiently.  

Also there are some incredible things you can do with this if you have the Altered Destiny SFA.

5/5

Headliner

This one is great for Tanks and damage dealers (DPS) alike, for tanks (especially ones who use Provoke on the Rawhide/Oxidised Ring whips) this is a ready source of survival to keep blocking/dodging/surging with.  For DPS survivors this is less effective, but it does give you a boost when/if you hit the trap (or if someone else triggers it in the case of traps that doom everyone) - +1 strength token or survival is very flexible and useful.

4/5

Heroic

This FA is clutch as heck, it is a built in founding stone at the cost of all your survival (minimum 3).  Now this isn't something you want to be triggering at the start of a fight, but near the end - as long as you have held onto the survival, this FA can close things out in a very safe fashion.  It can also be used to guarantee getting something vital on a critical hit when combined with HL Scouting, like the regeneration sword from the Dung Beetle Knight.

Heroic becomes less powerful the more wounds a monster has, because it takes longer to get to that final few hits and therefore you will have more strain on your survival reserves.

3/5

Last Man Standing

Fighting arts that trigger from the death/loss/removal of other survivors are generally not that good. Losing survivors during the hunt/showdown is often an awful way to go about things.

However LMS is one of the exceptions to this rule (along with Gloom Man/Clarity of Darkness) because it is that damn powerful.

Now the classic combo with this is Last Man Standing + Muramasa + Pictograms + Power survivor - so the entire hunt party runs away apart from the LMS and then she enjoys being immune to knock down and bleed while whaling on the monster. It's as close as you can get to having a settlement with one mighty hero that does all the fighting for everyone.

However, most of the time this FA has no effect, so it's hard to call it one of the best in the game.

3/5

Leader

Honestly I don't have much time for this FA, even though it's been buffed a bit in 1.5. This is because +1 speed token for a single round isn't very useful, honestly I wish that it had some other benefit, just about any other token would have been more powerful.

The once per hunt phase ability is pretty thematic, but marginal as you need the right story hunt event to come up, it has to be someone other than the leader triggering it and the event revealer needs to have lower understanding/courage than the Leader.

Overall this is pretty below average.

2/5

Lure Epilepsy

There are uses for this fighting art, when combined with Accept Darkness this FA can be used to make yourself not a threat for a turn while also gaining insanity.  

However, this costs an activation to use and the use above is honestly marginal. Ultimately this FA exists to dilute and weaken the FA pool a smidge, which is fine - that is good design for the FA pool overall (even if the card itself sucks).

1/5

Mammoth Hunting

+1 strength when attacking on the flanks is really marginal, there are diminishing returns on strength as it is. While you will not be upset to have this (unless you are an archer), you won't get much benefit from it, especially when you move onto the higher toughness monsters.

Also, one of the main ways you get this FA results in making the Gorm more dangerous, oops!  Pretty average.

2/5

Mighty Strike

As Mammoth Hunting above we have diminishing returns on strength kicking in on this one. However, on most survivors this one is essentially +2 strength 10% of the time per dice, which is statistically +0.2 strength per dice rolled.

This does have some benefits when combined with Scrap weapons (that give +X Strength on perfect hits) and Timeless Eye.  But as always diminishing returns kicks in when you start to stack strength too much (same with evasion and accuracy), so this could be looked as a way to make Scrap Daggers a viable weapon. But the question is, is that worth the effort?

2/5

Monster Claw Style

MCS is one of the super desirable fighting arts in the game and often a candidate for Sculpture.  Early MCS can give you a survivor who will cruise their way to completing Fist and Tooth for your settlement and mid to late game MCS can push through F&T with the intention of making use of specialisations from already completed masteries and get the stat bonuses for completing F&T instead.

5/5

Orator of Death

The second ability of this FA is pretty garbage, it's just fun theme.  However the +2 insanity for all non-deaf once per showdown is very solid, there are plenty of survivor builds that make use of insanity and this is a nice boost to hand out to survivors in order to increase survivability overall. 

You will certainly appreciate having an Orator when facing an early Gorm for example.

3/5

Otherworldly Luck

If I rated this anything other than a 5/5 people would think I'm crazy. Otherworldly Luck stops so many 'roll 1 and you die' events in settlement and hunt events. It's just amazing.

So many applications, it's hard not to want to Sculpt this one.

5/5

Phantom Friend

OK so there is one situation where Phantom Friend works quite well. In combination with Screaming Armor you can gain +1 evasion token without costing any genuine resources.  You gather up the acanthus from the tiles, spend that to get + 1 evasion token and hopefully the second tile gives you an acanthus you can keep.

It's not amazing, but it is something. 

2/5

Propulsion Drive

I have mentioned Momentum a few times already, Propulsion Drive is how you get access to momentum.  Essentially, in exchange for running about a bit, you eventually get to hit with a very high luck, high strength attack.  

The only downsides to this are the time it takes to reach 5+ momentum tokens (made easier with things like Dancer Armor) and when you miss with your attack.

Also, you can gain this from the Round Stone Training innovation, so it never needs to be sculpted.

5/5

Purpose

This wonderful fighting art gives you a 50% chance of not dying each time you get a lethal bleeding token. It has no end to the number of times it can save you from bleeding, which means that potentially it's better than Unconscious Fighter in certain circumstances.

Also when you get to a certain number of Bleeding Tokens when fighting the Sunstalker you can get access to one of the most powerful Secret Fighting Arts in the game.  This is one of only 2 ways you can get to that number.

5/5

Rhythm Chaser

This can be gained from Drums over and over, and it is essentially +1 evasion until you are knocked down, becoming a permanent +1 evasion token if you have a Gorn.  I say Gorn rather than any other instrument, because of the Harvester (10) basic hunt event.

This fighting art, in combination with the ease of getting it, the synergy with Forbidden Dance, Rawhide Armor, Monster Grease and Tall Grass means that early game evasion tanks are super easy to create. This neuters most of what the White Lion and Gorm can achieve.  

5/5

Next article on Fighting Arts will wrap things up and then I'll go through the Secret Fighting Arts.

Is there much interest in a similar look at disorders and abilities? Let me know in the comments.