#combat styles

Tbh you can just look at canon for that. Like, seriously, take a minute to look at what Katsuki can do in canon. His flexibility, dexterity, balance and overall maneuverability is insane.

I went and collected a few gifs of him and slowed ‘em down, because it’s really worth looking at some of his moves frame by frame.

Eh, I was originally gonna be flip and say “because ripping someone’s face off with a harpoon is way more badass” but then you got me thinking about guns in Fury Road. If I wander a bit far afield from what you were originally asking, hopefully it’s to interesting places.

For a movie that’s almost constant action, guns don’t play as big a role in the combat of Fury Road as you might think. In the world of the Citadel and its allies, Before-time pistols and rifles are kind of an elite weapon. Warlords and Imperators have them, but War Boys and Polecats mostly don’t. They have car-mounted machine guns and harpoon launchers, and all kinds of DIY weapons, some of which fire projectiles, but they mostly rely on throwing shit with their bare hands. (Given this, the fact that Furiosa has not just one or two but something like nine guns in her rig should tell you something about her status.)

Fury Road is also not one of those movies where the heroes have magically regenerating ammunition–in fact, being low on ammunition is a major plot point. So it’s possible that when Max is hunting around for more ammo after shooting at Slit, there just isn’t any left in that caliber. But more generally, if you don’t have infinite bullets you’re going to use your guns when they’ll be most effective.

When thinking about self-defense, remember that this is Fury Road, so no one fights alone. Furiosa is used to fighting with a team. So for the first part of the battle, when she’s driving, her self-defense is actually other people. She does plan ahead for that part of the battle, by stationing her kinswomen–who all happen to be really good shots–all over the rig, and on a moving bike that can weave around and pick people off. 

Even though Furiosa is also a good shot, she’s already using her strongest weapon in this situation, which is a giant fast murder truck that she’s really good at driving.

In general, Max and Furiosa use guns and other projectile weapons when their targets are at range. Furiosa uses an explosive crossbow bolt on the Polecat who kills Keeper, and Max (rather rudely) uses the ramrod from one of the other Vuvalini’s rifles to shoot Chainsaw Polecat before he can attack Furiosa.

But the final battle, more than any of the other action sequences, involves a lot of boarding of vehicles and a lot of hand-to-hand fighting. Except for Babyface McStabby, who has some kind of crossbow, most of the Polecats have melee weapons. None of them seem to have guns.

If a Polecat is swinging some weaponized garden equipment at you, it may be more effective to whack them with the heavy metal boltcutters that are already in your hand than to take the time to draw a gun, even if you have one. One of the things that makes the fights in Fury Road exciting is that anything can become a weapon, and in hand-to-hand combat an everyday object may prove more useful than a gun.

You may ask why Furiosa doesn’t take a gun with her to the Gigahorse. Maybe she thinks there are enough weapons on board that she’ll be able to figure something out. Maybe she doesn’t really have much of a plan at that point other than to stay alive long enough to fuck some shit up. She says “I’ll get him out of our way.” There are many potential ways to do that, although because of action movie conventions we know she is probably going to end up killing him. I think at that point it’s clear that she’s ready to die. So self-defense in that moment isn’t really about her long-term survival, but about living long enough to finish the mission. Similarly, Max launching himself at Rictus is more about him distracting Rictus from Furiosa than Max necessarily winning the fight.

Regarding “thinking ahead” more generally, one of the other things that’s great about the action sequences in Fury Road, and all the Mad Max movies, is how much unintended consequences and pure dumb luck come into play. To pick just one small example: Furiosa brakes to stop this Polecat from attacking Max:

But that means Babyface Polecat is able to hang on to the Rig and come back to stab her…

…which he probably wouldn’t have been able to do if Toast had been in her seat on that side of the Rig and/or Keeper hadn’t been dying.

Fury Road is full of examples like this, and this sense of chaos and unpredictability is part of George Miller’s style of action. Here’s a really good short video that goes into this idea some more:

From a character perspective, what this means is that characters can make an elaborate plan (how long did Furiosa spend planning every aspect of this escape?) and things will probably go sideways and they’ll have to think on their feet anyway. The race back to the Citadel wasn’t part of Furiosa’s original plan at all–24 hours earlier she was going to the Green Place, expecting never to see the Citadel again.

And so begins another special on feats, starting with a style line from Legacy of the Dragon.

Specifically we’re looking at a style that emulates the agile flight, deadly claws, and wicked stinger of a wyvern, utilizing a whip or scorpion whip, as well as various short blades, to do so.

This style naturally would arise anywhere where wyverns live, with locals seeing the powerful and agile hunters for all their graceful, deadly beauty. It’s only natural that monastaries and martial arts schools alike would develop such a style.

Essentially, this style revolves around an agile, mobile stance, sharp, swift strikes with their blade, as well as coiled, powerful strikes with the whip in an elegant dance.

 The basic iteration of this style allows a monk or brawler to utilize the aforementioned weapons as part of their swift flurry of strikes, though they only strike once with their whip during such a flurry.

Using a specific lashing strike, those that master the wyvern sting to briefly bind a limb or pierce the flesh, distracting their target long enough for allies to move freely around the foe without opening themselves to attack.

The third and final technique of this feat line is that of the wyvern wing, in which the martial artist learns to step lightly and leap about, allowing them to move swiftly between attacks, dancing from stance to stance as they lash out at foes.

Magical Weaponry and Combat

It’s one thing to master a combat style with a favored weapon. However, the pathfinder system is a game not just of swords, but of sorcery. Magic abounds in countless different flavors and ways of doing things. This rolls over into combat as well, the number of magically enhanced forms of weapons and armor varies by setting, but each one tends to be valuable to someone at sometime. Not only this, but many magical methods turn the mystic power of the wielder towards enhancing existing weapons, magical or not, using the weapon as a conduit for their deadly arcane might.

Visually describing exactly how the magic of your weapon manifests itself is usually left up to the GM, but when you commission or build a magic weapon yourself, or manifest your power through it, that’s a different story. The color of the flames of a burning weapon, the way a bane weapon lashes out bloodthirstily against its hated foes, and so on. Runes may blaze with power, blades may thrum and sing, pommel jewels may sparkle and glow, all are part of describing the behavior of a magic weapon. Magic weapons often end up being just another bit of buffing for your numbers in the game, but they’re meant to be something special. Magic weapons are supposed to have names, and feel epic, even if they’re a mere +1 blade. A good way to bring back the interestingness of magic weapons and items in general is to give them a reveal moment. You know what I’m talking about. When the undead warrior draws their blade and the magical pressure causes the dust on the floor to sift outward from them, when the magical merchant pulls the covering off a waraxe, and the entire shop grows eerily still. Don’t be afraid to let players have these moments too! When they use a magic weapon they’ve made or finally mastered for the first time, encourage them to taunt their foes with its power, striking fear into their hearts and spreading their own legend by describing where a weapon came from and what powers it has, preferably in the most poetic way possible. Suddenly your first ever attack or kill with a new magic weapon has become an epic moment in its own right. Similarly, getting rid of an older magic item can also be made more epic than merely selling it. Having the NPC merchant agree to find it a new owner, or better yet, gifting it to an aspiring young hero can be an awesome moment, and probably net you some interesting rewards from the GM later.

This is all to say nothing of the ways that magic affects the fighting style of the warrior. A supernaturally fast blade may require getting used to, a hammer that explodes with electricity whenever dealing a particularly solid blow might force the wielder to avert their eyes just before each hit, or a bow capable of firing from extreme long distance may require that the user enhance their vision somehow as well.

Ranged Weapons.

It’s very easy to launch a projectile poorly, which is why individual ranged weapons don’t have a lot of variation in how they are used. There are only so many ways to throw or shoot a weapon and still have it hit its target with enough force to injure. That being said, there are still a few ways to add flair and personality to projectiles. Thrown weapons, for example. Everything from alchemical weapons and tools, throwing knives, and more can be added a little bit of flair here and there. The angle of throw, concealing the source of projectiles beneath loose, breezy clothing, and so on. Picking a thrown weapon that generates no noise can be perfect for the stealthy killer, while a weapon that whistles through the air, or is designed to generate a noise, can be unnerving. Bows and crossbows have their own variations, from the standing vertical and crouching horizontal arrangements of bows, to the agile maneuvers used to keep archers and crossbowmen out of melee range when foes manage to take the fight to them.

Firearms, however, can have a lot of variation. A sidearm can be a deadly companion for a melee weapon, or work on its own in the role of marksman, suppression, and so on. Don’t be afraid to go John Woo with your gunslingers. Meanwhile, longer-ranged guns are typically about precision and long-range dominance. It becomes a quick and brutal game of estimation, seeing how many bullets you have vs how many you can afford to spend on things other than directly killing others.