# Martial Arts Styles Among our ordinary, mundane world, martial arts schools are named for the animals that they emulate. While some historic, iconic mythical creatures such as Dragon have inspired real-world martial art styles, wouldn't a world filled with fantastical creatures have similarly fantastically inspired martial arts styles? Below is a list of styles for martial characters, primarily monks, although it can be extended to fighter or even barbarian, and possibly bladesingers ### Manticore Style Like the fearsome beast, you fly high in the air, peppering your foes with projectiles. This style priorities high jumping and sometimes actual flight, as well as darts, daggers, shuriken and other throwing weapons. You also evoke the ferocious nature of the manticore by shouting loudly to intimidate your opponents, and charging in while bellowing to petrify them with fear. ### Phoenix Style Like the mythical bird of lore, you do your best on the backswing. After being knocked down, like a phoenix you rise from defeat and strike back with fiery fury. This style focuses on parrying strikes and quick, sharp retaliation, or rolling with punches to take advantage of momentum. Practitioners of this style may also implement fire magic into their combat, or simply invoke the spirit of fire with a passionate, fierce power. ### Hydra Style You strike from all sides, as if you had multiple heads with which to strike. This style invokes the spirit of the monstrous Hydra with rapid-fire strikes, typically moving circularly around a single opponent to overwhelm and bombard them with attacks. They may also make use of weapons with multiple points of contact, such as quarterstaffs or multi-headed flails. ### Giant Style Raw, Brute strength. That's what this style is about. Your strikes land with a weight and force far exceeding your apparent strength. You try your hardest to land your strikes with power and precise pressure, shattering bones with a single punch or launching a creature backwards with a kick. Practitioners of this style prefer heavy, two-handed weapons, or ones that prioritize blunt force, such as mauls, clubs, greatclubs, and warhammers, and utilize spells and techniques that can increase the sheer power of your strikes. \columnbreak ### Peryton Style Like Manticore style, this style utilizes powerful jumps and flying blows, with a specific focus on grappling. Those who fight like the fearsome bird of prey leap like the wind, landing atop their foes in a powerful stranglehold, wrestling them to the ground before jabbing at them with powerful, pointed-finger strikes. ### Tlincalli Style While you watch my claws, my tail strikes unseen. This style focuses on misdirection, deception, and striking from 2 places at once, often unexpectedly. You force your opponents to dodge one way to avoid one limb, while a second hits them exactly where they just stepped. Considered by some to be ‘dirty’, practitioners of this school believe in doing whatever is necessary to win. Sometimes accompanied by any number of dirty tricks including throwing dirt or sand, faking injury or death, or feigning surrender, only to strike without warning. Those who utilize this style often use weapons that can be hidden easily, in conjunction with obvious, impossible to conceal weapons, to add to the misdirection and confusion. ### Basilisk Style Death by your hand is slow and painful. Like the petrifying serpent, you stalk your prey, and kill silently. By the time they see you, they’re already dead. You utilize poisoned weapons and/or spells that deal poison damage, and prefer weapons that are sharp enough or subtle enough to deal damage without the opponent noticing. You prefer subtley to direct confrontation, although your poison kills just as quickly when applied mid-combat. ### Displacer Style Like the fey-beast, your enemies’ eyes will deceive them. When fighting a user of this style, the one you see won't be the one that kills you. It will be the 2 more, from behind, that you never knew were there. Practitioners of this style usually work together in packs of 2 or more, although some solitary users make use of illusion magic in order to distract their foe. Often disguising themselves to look like one another, one never knows if you are fighting 1 foe or 20; they are all identical, and you'll never see more than 1 at a time. ### Kraken Style While not always seen on boats, this style is most commonly used by seafaring warriors. They pull their foes down onto the ground or into water through unbreakable grapple holds, then either drown them or throw them into other creatures. They train to hold their breath longer and swim faster than their enemies, leaving them to the depths. On land, they simply grapple and then throw their foes, or else favor suplexing them into the hard ground. \pagebreak ### Griffon Style This style combines a variety of styles like the Griffon combines the kings of Sky and Earth. One of the most common styles, it involves powerful, fierce blows, often made with a hand in the shape of a claw, supplemented by agile, slippery leaps and flips backwards or into the air, evading an enemy’s grasp. Usually practiced without a weapon, it is sometimes performed with a scimitar or other quick-striking sword, and uses the pommel or guard to deliver blunt strikes as well. ### Ettin Style Combining the raw power of Giant Style with the dual-threat of Tlincalli style, Ettin Style is not a style for those weak of mind. It requires one to survey the battlefield in an instant, and see all around themselves as if they had 2 heads. Practitioners of this style can often look at one enemy while fending off another, and a true master can fight blinded, so honed are their senses and mind. It uses fists and other bludgeoning weapons, such as clubs and staves, and weapons that can parry and defend while attacking, such as rapiers and longswords.