[GURPS] extra attack advantage, mixing unarmed and weapon skills

[Rickshaw]

You guys have been so super helpful already, I would never have made it through character creation without this forums. I have another question though, and this time it's about mixing unarmed and armed attacks. So a few points before my question -

- the core book never says that unarmed parties have an off hand penalty.

- the same goes for attacking- handedness is not an issue when unarmed.

- in the martial arts book, this is explicitly addressed and confirmed.

So my question is this: given that there are no penalties for fighting unarmed with an off hand (in fact one term invalidates the other!) could a character with the Extra Attack advantage attack with a weapon, then the unarmed skill in the same turn?

What about when parries enter the mix?

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[Yuki Akuma]

Yes, you can use Extra Attack to attack with a weapon in one hand and punch with the other. You could also just use a weapon that doesn't become unreadied after attacking and attack with it twice with Extra Attack. Or punch twice with your free hand.

As for parries, I believe you can parry once with your weapon hand and once with your free hand before you start accruing penalties, but I'm not 100% sure.

Y'know what my GURPS is super rusty I'll leave it to the guy below me.

[Ts_]

Hi again. :)

First of all, this is the go-to-post explaining how many attacks one can make and how to get them. (The poster, "Kromm", is a high-ranking GURPS author/editor.)
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=195693#post195693

That said:
You can definitely attack with 2 weapons or 1 weapon + 1 unarmed or 2 different unarmed if you have 2 attacks that turn for whatever reason. The conditions to make one more attack are that
1) whatever you attack with is ready (fists are always ready)
2) and you have an attack left. ;)
3) Only in the case of Extra Attack or the optional rule Dual Weapon Attack: The limb hasn't been used yet to attack this turn.

You need a new limb for each attack that you gain with Extra Attack, be it armed or unarmed. The "Multi-Strike" enhancement for Extra Attack from the Martial Arts book negates that, but it's not possible without it. In contrast, this one-attack-per-limb rule doesn't apply to All-out-Attack (Double) or Rapid Strike. There, the weapon just needs to remain ready to be able to use it twice.

Parry isn't affected by the number of attacks per se. It's totally normal for a one-handed sword to be used to attack and parry in the same turn. However, parrying requires a ready weapon (some weapons become unready) and certain weapons are unbalanced and cannot attack and parry in the same round, even though they don't become unready.

And there's the issue of how to get that 2nd attack. Extra Attack solves that nicely with no downsides, but if you use the All-Out Attack (Double), you forego your defense to gain that 2nd attack, of course.

So, your combination of unarmed offhand + mainhand weapon with the Extra Attack advantage is defintely allowed. You can make two attacks, and you can still Parry with the offhand fist or Parry with the weapon (if the weapon supports that).

Another notable combination is with shields: Shield can be used to attack (a Shield Bash), but that doesn't make them unready. So with an Extra Attack advantage, a sword and shield you could:
Attack with the Sword.
Attack with the Shield as a Shield Bash (no offhand penalty here because Shields belong on the offhand side).
Then have your choice of a Block with the Shield or a Parry with the Sword.
All in the same turn and with a standard Attack maneuver.

Regards
Ts

[RazorChain]

One thing to add if you are attacking with unarmed skill (karate, boxing, brawling, judo or wrestling) is that the defender gets an attack against your arm on a successful parry if he's armed. He gets an attack roll and if he hits (he gets -4 penalty for karate and judo) he inflicts damage or your arm.

Boxing gets -3 parry penalty for parrying anything that is not an thrusting attack.

If you fail your unarmed parry the attacker gets to choose to hit your hand/arm or the location he was aiming for.

Also there is an optional rule which I use that gives you -3 to parry armed attacks. If you have studied any kind of martial arts (Krav Maga and Karate in my case) then you realize you don't want to try to parry a greatsword with your hands.

Also you are limited to 1 parry per hand or at -4 to each parry after the first if you use the optional rules from Martial Arts. So yes you can parry once with each hand.

Not all GMs allow extra attacks so check with your GM before you buy it.

[Rickshaw]

Thanks again- you guys are the best :)