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Martial arts needs a buff.
Its pretty much useless at high level play

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As Player that has a character that uses martial arts. I really do think it needs at least a little bit of a buff. It just can't compete with weapons even with a cyber weapon. Comparing my last character who happened to be good with swords and my current character , it's not even a contest in my last character was weaker state wise.

And it's incredibly disheartening , considering how much i've pushed the skills and my stats.

By Rillem at Sep 13, 2026, 1:09 PM | 2
Martial arts and brawling are not intended to be on-par with a weapons skill.
By zxq at Sep 13, 2026, 1:34 PM | 2
The buff is you can defend or attack in places or at times someone who is weapon reliant cannot.
By Mindhunter at Sep 13, 2026, 1:53 PM | 0
Correct me if I'm wrong, but they also give bonuses to/against a certain type of combat tactic that straight weapon skills don't touch on whatsoever, yeah? Might be the real tradeoff right there.
By AdamBlue9000 at Sep 13, 2026, 2:10 PM | 0
So all this means that a character that's got most of their XP in other, non-combat skills is just kind of fucked because they made the mistake of putting their combat UE into martial arts instead of pulling their crystal ball out of their ass to divine that they should have simply specced into a weapon skill instead
By Baguette at Sep 13, 2026, 3:26 PM | 1
"So all this means that a character that's got most of their XP in other, non-combat skills is just kind of fucked because they made the mistake of putting their combat UE into martial arts instead of pulling their crystal ball out of their ass to divine that they should have simply specced into a weapon skill instead"

Well, if you are a noncombatant who has invested in combat skills chances are you will be at a huge disadvantage against someone who has invested their UE into combat skills, weapon or otherwise. I also don't see Martial arts as a "primary weapons" skill if that makes sense. I would personally class it as a "secondary weapons" skill. Your jab-cross-hook-low kick combo is never going to hit as hard as a 10mm. The higher end MA weapon might be a different argument, but thinking martial arts should be on par with weapons is not a good approach. If that were the case nobody would bother buying weapons and everyone would just be really into karate.

By Mindhunter at Sep 13, 2026, 3:40 PM | 4
i do find the lack of documentation for some skills frustrating, but if you look up combat skills in the helpfiles it does explicitly mention that:

"Brawling/Martial Arts are not intended to be on par with someone with a gun or a sword, but you'll never be unarmed. The trade-offs you make are up to you."

so i don't think it's something you need to use a ton of guesswork to learn. if you helpfile ma/brawling you learn pretty quick that it's not on par with weapon skills bc you never have to worry about a weapon at a baseline

By cata at Sep 13, 2026, 6:58 PM | 2
"trade-off" makes it sound like martial artists dont just get immediately flattened if their opponent has so much as a low-mid tier weapon in their respective skill. if you're getting rolled by anyone with so much as a spyderco you don't have a combat skill you have a party trick
By Baguette at Sep 14, 2026, 10:56 AM | 0
You can take your weapon - your hands - into areas where all other weapons are banned. That gives you an advantage against others in these spaces. I'd say that's quite a useful trade-off.
By svetlana at Sep 14, 2026, 11:21 AM | 3
"" if you're getting rolled by anyone with so much as a spyderco you don't have a combat skill you have a party trick."

But you have no idea what the person with the spyderco's build is. They could have a lot invested into that short blade build.

Subsequently, there are trade-offs for every weapon skill too. You may scoff that some are less desirable than others, but those trade-offs exist throughout the game. Martial Arts is not special in that regard.

By Mindhunter at Sep 14, 2026, 12:40 PM | 0
Martial Arts does not need a buff. It's balanced correctly for what it is, which is a fallback so you aren't helpless without a weapon (or a primary skill that sees you able to fight in circumstances that others would be helpless). Brawling and MA are the only fighting skills that do not require a weapon. It also has a high parry chance, which can be augmented with cyberware. This is their benefit. The counter is that they don't do as much damage. Making them balanced with other weapon fighting skills in terms of damage, etc. would unbalance all other weapon skills that require a weapon, thus unbalancing the entire system and making MA the OP skill at the cost of all other weapons.

These are intended tradeoffs involved in picking MA/Brawling versus specializing in a different weapon skill.

(Edited by Slither at 12:43 pm on 9/14/2026)

By Slither at Sep 14, 2026, 12:42 PM | 1
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