Suggestion: Brawn and Melee

Game Talk The Drawing Board
#1

I’ll start this suggestion with a question:

At what point, numerically, is a player stronger than a Brute? Stronger than a Hulk?

Between mutations, augmentations, (Spells if including magiclysm), and various tom-foolery a budding transhuman can reach some truly stupendous numbers.

I would suggest that, at certain thresholds melee and unarmed attacks be given a chance to proc ‘bash’ or ‘smash’ effects on what was struck. With certain mutations that add or subtract mass such as Huge or Tiny or the like counting for or against one’s actual strength. (A bear would have an easier time of it than even a mighty mouse.)

Thoughts?

1 Like
#2

10 is ‘average’, 20 is ‘peak human’, 30 is ‘mutant/bionic’, 40 is ‘superhuman’, and from that point onwards you’re reachin crazy territory.

size is also a factor, for example, the zombie hulk is classified as ‘huge’, 875000 ml, thats a big boi… where your 6 foot something regular humanoid survivor could also have the same ‘stats’ strength-wise but be the same size you are.

i dont think the enemies actually have stats in the same way that characters do?
smash for a hulk is like an activated effect, it does 20 damage (relative), more or less based on situation. the kevlar hulks have slam, which does 35

#3

Valid points. Precisely why Large / Huge and Little / Tiny should come into play. I don’t think they should be ‘required’ per se, but should definitely account for how easy / hard it is to get to the point of battering around zeds or knocking down walls.

#4

I don’t know how strong a hulk is but given that their weight is similar to a silverbackgorrila they might be about if not stronger than one. For the brute we have a better idea of since it’s volume and weight do not excete that of a humans. We also have a few locations where zombies spawn as brutes at the start of the game before any zombies start evolving. This means that there likely are some human strong enough to be classified as brutes immidiatly after revival. So my guess is that a brute has the strength of a bodybuilder/powerlifter or of a exceedingly strong person, something in the range of 12-14 strength player wise with a high weight given that they are discribed as being a leather back beast.

#5

10 is actually a bit above average for a starting survivor, given that you get 7 as a base and then have a few points to distribute among your stats. I made the mistake of thinking 9 was fairly good, while it’s actually too low for a lot of things…

#6

As a use case, let’s say our example survivor starts off fairly beefy at 12 strength. A certain CBM can give them bursts of strength (+20) while another provides a lower but constant benefit. (+2)

Later on in their transhumanist career they dabble with mutagens:

Let’s for argument sake say they went with ursine and ended up with Huge and Insanely Strong. That’s another +11 Strength.

That adds up to 25 Strength (45 if pushing yourself via CBM)

(This isn’t the most a survivor can get, but it’s a good example for being able to break 40)

#7

There is still another factor to consider: weight. Even if you have the strength to throw a horse around doesn’t mean you can generate the nessecery momentum. Simply becease the momentum generated would lift you of your feet and send you flying before the horse would even if you are the one generating the momentum. This does goes both ways however. A overweight and overmuscled ursine mutant wearing heavy armor coming in at over 250kg+ combined should not be send flying by a brute. Instead the brute should break something in it’s hand or arm trying to send you flying.

#8

Currently, in game, to the best of my knowledge a zombie brute could punch a full grown horse clear through one side of a parked car to the other. Given the chance. I’m just asking that players be given the same option if sufficiently swole.

#9

Technically the player can use certain weapon moves to knock back zombies and certain martial arts allow you to trow a zombie. I believe some stack or are infleunced by your strength so yes you might be able to yeet a hulk through the wall.

Also, the ability of monster and the player to throw other beings is only based on the entity itself not on what is being thrown. You could throw a zombie dinosaurus just as far as a rat.

#10

That’s all well and good, but again, I want to stress this should have nothing to do with a players mastery of martial arts or brawling. Rather implementing a behavior that already exists (physical powerhouses flinging foe away with their mighty blows) on the player’s side as well.

To me that’s a fun / interesting mechanic to grant players that reach superhuman levels of strength. Should it really be denied to survivors just because they’re not an enemy?

#11

…hmm… perhaps having it so that after a specific strength threshold, the ‘brawler’ martial art becomes something different, allowing you to perform damaging attacks similar to enemies?