What's your character fighting style?

[Leanne]

Super simple question that I stole from a thread I wrote in years past!

 

Basically, how does your character generally moves during a fight?

 

Using Leanne as an example: If I had to resume Leanne's way of fighting, I would do so with two words, those being adaptation and opportunism. Although she is able to stick to a plan when necessary, most of the times she acts on the fly, improvising as the situation goes. Also her growth as an archer alongside her mischievous nature taught her to being highly opportunistic, not being over using cheap/dirty tricks and tactics if that means getting and edge or end the fight right there.

 

Even though her specialty is around attacking from a safe range(she's a ranged fighter, duh!), moons of fighting in the Grindstone taught her into a manner of close quarters combat even while holding a bow, possibly surprising those unaware of such fact. Further helping such is the presence of her ever trustworthy dagger, and her self-taught/mimicked pugilism moves. Not being of a particularly strong constitution, but being quite acrobatic, blows coming towards her tends to be evaded or redirected.  If fighting without weapons, kicks tends to be her preferred method of assault, given the leg strength she contains, plus her already mentioned acrobatic skills.

[FreelanceWizard]

L'yhta tends to run around, dive, and roll a lot. As someone who primarily uses magic but often ends up in the thick of fights, she uses her speed to her advantage, bouncing around like a flea hopped up on (insert stimulant here). This is especially true when she's wielding a sword. She's not especially good with a blade, so rather than parrying attacks, she tends to jump out of the way of them instead.

 

Her dodge-centric style can be (and has been) a significant liability for her. A well-timed feint or attacks coming from multiple directions can force her to fall back on her magical shields or armor and to take what she believes will be the lesser blow. If she guesses incorrectly about which hit to take, she can, for example, end up nearly losing an arm. Her style is also fairly physically taxing, so it's certainly possible to wear her out in an extended battle.

 

Offensively, she typically casts spells. That involves a lot of hand and staff motions. With her sword, she has a very straightforward cut-and-thrust style, with a preference for quick thrusts at apparent weak points given her penchant for speed, her relatively low physical strength, and her preference for light blades. She's akin to a very roughly trained sabre fencer.

[Edelirium]

Directing others to do her fighting for her.

 

She's a battle strategist, so she tends to hang back and organize others. When she fights personally, she does so with an occasionally more than appropriate amount of magical force. 

 

Annoyances tend to get a Sleep treatment.

 

For aggressors, she will hold nothing back.

 

Overwhelming might and power is her go-to. She's not the strongest around, physically, so she uses the metaphorically magical equivalent of a great sword.

[Aaron]

Assuming he's not quitting or just getting beat up because reasons (Which happens even without RNG because it's his character).

 

Aaron fights I guess haphazardly? Depends if he wants to hurt or get away first. If he wants to get away he'll fight defensively using his sword like a shield to parry and block more than attack until he finds an opening to stun the opponent and bail.

 

Now assuming he's trying to actually hurt, he'll be the aggressor more often than not I think, aiming for limbs mostly to cripple, or the occasional deep chest wound.

 

He's not much for dodging, and tried to tank (hueh) blows at him over dodging.

[Kellach Woods]

Kell first learned the axe as an actual tool for combat from the Marauder Guild - However, the only time he'd used an axe before was essentially to slaughter cattle. There's elements of that in his style, especially versus monsters who share some physical traits with farm animals. If he can, he'll throw himself in the mix to protect others and with the axe being a weapon that has some reach, it allows him to do so quite nicely.

 

Of course, that's not going into his unarmed combat style which differs based on which art he is concentrating on developing.

 

And, of course, that's not going into his, as of yet untapped, unusual skill.

[Zazanni]

Zazanni is well trained and would be a good archer if she stopped trying to show off. Her archery is peppered with all kinds of unnecessary flare that just gets in the way during a serious fight. "Course I can do it without the flippin'. Why would I though?"

 

Patience is not her forte and she'd much rather fire as many arrows as possible to force her enemy into making a mistake rather than line up a precise shot. There's a lot of improvisation and jumping around, trying to weaken a large number of foes instead of focusing down one. Of course, all this works way better if she has an ally to take advantage of the chaos she's trying to create.

[Coatleque]

Brute force.

 

Combat is not a dance for Crofte. She tries to get in and out, neutralizing her target efficiently so she can move on. Though she occasionally will greatly overestimate herself.

[Caspar]

A round peg in a square hole, forcing herself to fit with pure willpower and every ounce of her strength, nothing held back. There is a constant tension between how Virara thinks and feels, and how her style is supposed to function, to say nothing of her race and its innate weakness of reach. When thinking of how she fights, I tried to imagine the legendary (heavily embellished) combination of Bajiquan and Piguaquan, which was described in a saying "When pigua is added to baji, gods and demons will all be terrified. When baji is added to pigua, heroes will sigh knowing they are no match against it." I derived a lot of the mindset from aggressive styles like Jigen-ryu kenjutsu and Okinawan karate. Since this is a fantasy setting, a mundane martial art made no sense, so I tried to spruce things up with a bit of mystery, and from Wuxia novels like the Condor Heroes trilogy I drew the supernatural element.

 

I meant to make a tab on my wiki describing the background and techniques of the style for interested parties and also for my own reference, but I haven't gotten around to it yet, so here's the abridged version.

 

When she was a feral child, Virara was an opportunist who beat down the weak and defenseless when she could to steal food or seize shelter for herself. She avoided large monsters and slaughtered small wild animals with her uncanny strength that developed several years into her life stranded on the island, or perhaps lay dormant within her from beyond the murkiness of early childhood and her brush with drowning on the high seas. On her island, she was more akin to a wild animal than a sentient creature and didn't have awareness of herself other than a sense of self-preservation, so she never held back and often maimed or crippled the people she struck. Eventually this made every refugee camp on the atoll wary of her, and she could no longer find food easily. She had to become more subtle, more tricky, but her innate hunger and straightforwardness got in the way of this necessity and she was eventually caught trying to pickpocket the woman who would become her Master.

 

Years later, after countless days of abuse and training, almost all of that feral instinct was focused into a compressed furnace of fighting instinct within her, meant to be controlled, a domestication. Even now though, the focus necessary to use such a complex style eludes her, and she uses the memorized techniques with exacting detail, but never actually follows the theoretical ethos of the martial arts. Her style is meant to either sneak attack or respond to an aggressor, not necessarily to initiate open combat, but Virara's viciousness leads her to often strike first. Virara misunderstands the concept of "ichigeki hissatsu," or "one strike, one kill," which doesn't actually necessarily mean kill in a single hit, though the style does do that often enough, but rather to make every strike count; to be capable of transitioning to a decisive blow with every move. Instead the attitude of "I have to finish this immediately or I failed" makes her hasty and sometimes careless. In what should be cold hands that kill without thought or sentiment there is a ferocious thirst that renders her fighting impure and heterodox. She understands how to replicate the techniques, but holds herself to them like scripture. This is in spite of being taught that "the novice holds themselves rigidly to learned techniques, the initiate modifies or abandons them when they don't serve their purpose, and the master manipulates the opponent into receiving them in their purest form."

 

It seems like, on a certain level, her Master expected that, and wanted to harness it, or otherwise felt it was inherent within Virara. It's like being allowed to roam free for years and then suddenly being cooped up in a tiny cage for an equal amount of time. As a naturally talented sort, Master was unaccustomed to training others and an indifferent mentor. There was a strong general theme of "master this technique I demonstrated once or die tomorrow when I test you," to basically everything. The conditioning itself was more akin to torture, and it is questionable whether some methods were simply done to amuse Master rather than actually benefit Virara, though they all ultimately made her strong. This attitude bled over into the way she regards other tasks in life. Virara throws all that she is into mastering something she takes seriously, at the expense of her ability to perform other or even related tasks. Sometimes that overeager desire to conquer ruins her ability to perform what she was tasked with, despite her best efforts.

 

That being said, her training is all that she is, and an amateur, or even a dutiful student, cannot begin to comprehend the severity of the ordeals Master put her through, and so Virara's will to endure and emerge alive is gargantuan. Most martial artists had a life outside of the dojo that granted them succor, even if that was fleeting, or if their day to day existence was similarly brutish. Virara's sense of personhood was innately tied to the art of killing itself, and there was nothing outside of the longhouse, the grove, or the later houseboat, when she was being taught. Although not a very tricky person herself, Virara has been taught to use misdirection and optical illusion unconsciously through muscle memory within the techniques to make her strikes harder to avoid or guard. She is able to shut out pain and suffer injury to land a hit if she needs to, though her small body can't resist forever no matter how strong she might be.

 

It'd be yet another stupidly long post for me to describe the more nuanced details of the style proper and why they clash with Virara's personality, but it's helpful to think of it as being akin to a cannon, or shotgun, while the Fist of Rhalgr is something like a machine gun. Being a relatively unknown style, those in the know believe there is a common ancestor from centuries ago, but it seems to be insubstantial rumors. Meant for assassination, it prioritizes offense above all else, and even its guards are intended to be capable of inflicting fatal wounds. Yet surprisingly it stresses defense when the initiative cannot be seized decisively. It supposedly doesn't incorporate any Aetheric training, which renders it an impractical style for a world in which people must face the scourge of monsters and magic. It may also be that there were what Virara calls "internal techniques," but her Master was so monstrously talented she had no need to learn them, and thus couldn't confer the knowledge to her "student." (More an amusing toy.) The staggering number of techniques the style contains, derived from two main styles fused together and a number of secondary styles, make memorization impossible for most, and encourages rigidity of thinking. It's easy to fall into a habit of assigning specialized techniques learned to specific situations, which is ludicrous given the sheer amount of variables involved in combat.

 

So on paper, it is an impractical style with no Aetheric ability, inferior to weapons-based martial arts and only mechanically equitable to other famous bare-handed schools. It could be useful, if fully trained, but what point would there be in that when the same amount of effort could teach five students how to wield a lance properly? Only its ability to kill in a single blow through circulatory shock is impressive. Yet the rumors about the woman who trained Virara, known largely only within espionage circles in Doma and the Empire, speak of assassinations done in plain view without anyone even seeing the practitioner, skin able to resist blade and fist alike with the hardness of ceremite, hands that rend bodies like wisps of smoke, and even the ability to murder with a glance. Embellishments, most certainly. Right?

[Kilieit]

Aghurlal's style with a polearm is predominantly focussed on mitigation. Which is quite different than the FFXIV Lancer Guild-advocated style of "full fearless offense", but it suits him well as a character.

 

He likes disarming people. He likes redirecting attacks away from himself and taking advantage of the openings left as a result, possibly with his knife if it's close enough quarters. He likes snipping people's vital spots with the sharp end and watching them tire themselves out on the injury. He likes coating the tip of his lance in poison or other drugs that could turn the tide of battle in his favour. He loves distracting people by being annoying so his friend can get behind them and give them a proper stabbing (especially folks the rogues' guild gave him the word to attack, since they're usually pretty bad people).

 

He doesn't have a dragoon soulstone (and won't for the forseeable future; he hasn't got the contacts or prestige to earn one with), but he has a moderate competence in acrobatics - that tail isn't there for show, after all. So think "passably similar to dragoon moves, but within the range of normal human ability", I guess.

 

He's fairly proficient in other weapons. If he was disarmed, and the only other weapon available to him was a sword or somesuch, he wouldn't be helpless. But he wouldn't be as good as someone who favours the weapon in question, and the polearm remains by far his favourite to work with for extended amounts of time. His best secondary weapon is shortblades, on account of they accompany a polearm well - in a position where one is too short/long reach to be used effectively, the other fills the gap nicely.

 

Last but not least, he has the potential to be good with arcanima if he found a teacher and put the hours in, but he hasn't has the opportunity to learn any yet - the fact he's not literate in Eorzean not really helping matters.

[Kaiya]

Kaiya fights very defensively. As a Scholar, she forms barrier and whittles down her opponent's defenses with various spells that can cause harm even when she has to relocate. She looks for openings and only moves when necessary.

 

Alasarnil fights dirty. Corrosive acids for metals, a baton for a blunt weapon, daggers for wielding and daggers for throwing, poisons, toxins; powdered, dried, pepper mixtures for the eyes. She tries to make sure she is always in a state of movement, and if she cannot end a fight quickly, she aims to cripple and bleed. To her, winning as a cheat is better than dying honorably.

[Misharu]

I would think Misha'to does/will fight with a lot of misdirection. He'll move rather gracefully, but with probably a lot of feints and other such movements to throw opponents off balance and keep them guessing. He's a very calm, collected, and intelligent individual which leads me to believe he will use a certain amount of mind games in combat. While strong, I think he main objective would be to outwit his opponent. And of course, being a miqo'te, he has a certain amount of natural grace.

[Jana]

Jana's melee fighting style is based more around reflexes than anything else. For that reason she can be pretty comfortable with almost whatever weapon she can get her hands on, though something that's heavy like an axe or greatsword is more of a hindrance than fighting barehanded. For the same reason, she's more comfortable in leather armor than plate. Inertia also plays a big part in it; she knows how to use the motion she's in the middle of to make her next few motions do maximum damage.

[LiadansWhisper]

Liadan stands in the back and hopes she doesn't get hit (Leanne knows alllllll about this).

 

And heals things. When she can.

[V'aleera]

Not unlike a bowling ball.

[LiadansWhisper]

Not unlike a bowling ball.

 

An angry, racist bowling ball that's bad at physical combat, yes!

[Caspar]

Not unlike a bowling ball.

 

An angry, racist bowling ball that's bad at physical combat, yes!

And here I was thinking the round and small, crashing into everything approach described Virara well. Inside, perhaps Liadan is not unlike a Lalafell.

[CrimsonMars]

When it comes to non-aetherial combat, Chiyo more or less adapts to the situation, whether she's using her fist or an axe, however, her more go-to fighting style is capoeira.

 

Xanadu however when she's not bursting anything to death with her magicks actually uses her staff like a bow staff or lance when she aligns it to certain elements.

[C'kayah Polaali]

With Setoh, it frequently starts with a giggle. He loves fighting more than just about anything else. He's got some skill as a conjurer, so he typically opens with a low level conjurer's spell (repose is a favorite), and then runs in. If the spell takes down his foe, he'll administer a quick coup de grace. Otherwise, it's knives and fists time.

 

C'kayah doesn't care much for fighting at all. His motto is "If I'm in a fair fight, I've done something terribly wrong." His style of fighting mostly revolves around getting other people to fight for him. When he does fight, it's typically ranged (he's good with a bow).

 

Armistead will fight if he has to, but he's very careful about picking the time and place for the fight. He far prefers to attack from the shadows, and his ideal is to strike a foe without his foe ever seeing him. If he's in a face-to-face fight, he has no problem with pulling a Sir Robin.

[Branson Thorne]

Khona'to style would mainly be defensive when using his spear. A lot of parries, disarms, the like. That sort of thing, providing the chance ever happened to do so.

 

With the bow, well, he mainly uses that to hunt game. He'd only use it in an aggressive nature if he knew a fight was completely unavoidable.

 

But as a Keeper, he can primarily be considered more passive then the average adventurer. Instead of combat he'd be more inclined to use his words and wit to remove himself from a volatile situation.

[Ilan]

Ilan's style of fighting is fire, fire and more fire. Nuke 'em hard, nuke the area around 'em hard and hope that they aren't still standing by the time it's done to kick his ass since his knowledge of physical combat can best be summed up by "knows which end of the dagger to hold." It's very all of nothing for him, which is why he rarely engages in magical duels of any sort because he (willingly) doesn't have a tone it down switch. Just very intense fire and ouch. Though Black Mages tend to wield a staff or somesuch, Ilan doesn't really carry one? He has a dagger on his person just in case, but yeah. So I guess this style of fighting can best be described as Roy Mustanging the crap out of stuff without worrying about precision or any of that nonsense.

 

Kiyo Ikeda, my Raen, is chiefly a Summoner who uses her pets and such, but she's also trained as a rogue in case she can't rely on her magic. This all stems from a situation she was in where she was useless in battle one time because her magic failed her, so she learned how to fight and learned how to fight dirty. She ICly doesn't have any ninja training. It's straight poisoned daggers and cheap shots. Girl will kick sand in your face or sneak you if she has to. She's agile and quick but not terribly strong physically, so she uses her surroundings to her advantage.

 

Annnd Odessa Cassius, my lady midlander, is Ze Sniper. Uses guns and explosives if need be but generally relies on precision with her fire arms and tries to keep as much distance between herself and an enemy as possible with shoot and run tactics. She's also quick on her feet with a decent amount of strength.

[Leih]

Leih's style is mostly an agile lancer form. Since she's small and light on her feet, she tries to avoid as much as she can and depending on her enemies depends where she attacks. Against fighters she notice that they need a more stable footing, she goes for the legs. Shield and sword? Arms. Magic? She tries to keep close so their spellcasting is limited by the fear of harming themselves and so she can do some heavy melee hits. And when she fights beasts she tries to see what is their advantage and disadvantages against her. This is mostly from having to learn to survive and one key factor on that was gaining the skill to measure her opponents, be it in a battle or when trying to steal.

[WanderingWordsmith]

Averill's a storm. His training and expertise were earned in the wilds of Abalathia's Spine and beyond, and he lives for those savage battles. He wields his axe as comfortably with one hand as he does with two, and lashes about the battlefield possessed by a strength that's his to wield, but never his to control.

[Verad]

Originally it was doing everything in Verad's power not to fight, especially by threatening to unseal his skills as Eorzea's Greatest Archer Pending Certain Conditions and other chuuni nonsense or by redirecting the conflict to some other means of resolution.

 

This is still his go-to even after finding out he is pretty good with knives. He still has yet to actually kill anyone or do more than significantly wound. Thus far his style in that regard has been to lurk around the edges of a larger fight and wait for a critical moment before moving in to strike. 

 

When he has fought one-on-one, it's been at the Grindstone, where he brings whatever weird crap strikes him as being a good sales pitch and marketing ploy to the fore. When it comes to a serious single combat that he can't talk his way out of, what his style will be is anybody's guess.

[111]

Evangeline fights in a strange blend of tactics and aggression. Her typical weapons are some sort of mechanical sword creation and her pouch of grenades. Examples of her stupid sword ideas are:

 

Flaming Sword

Really hot metal sword

Electrified Sword

Chainsword

Vibrosword

Obsidian Sword

 

All of which are horrible things to use longterm, but if things go well she distracts someone with a spread of grenades, and uses the novelty of her blade to get the upperhand. 

 

 

R'elend fights in a traditional style with a towershield and blade. He circles and looks for openings, using the shield offensively and defensively. I base his style off of Roman Legionaires. 

 

 

Damascus is more of a tactician than an actual fighter. If she had to she could summon a rock and throw it at someone, but if anyone went 1v1 with her she'd get torn apart almost immediately.

[Raik Samil]

Raik's always been a brute force character, he'll easily break a wall or two during a fight if hes having too much fun and doesnt pay attension to his surroundings, he'll also usually just fight with his fists cause he doesnt really want to fatally harm someone during a spar cause of the massive weapon he uses, aetherically due to never mastering any certain style of magic he always goes for the overwhelming attacks or rediculously weird attacks that he hopes throws an opponent off guard.

 

As for Saizo, he's completely incapable of using aether attacks, and being of a more slender build he tends to try for a more agile approach to fighting while using his various custom arms, (literally arms), to switch for whichever situation hes in.

 

Both Raik and Saizo have a horrible habit of not going all out as well, due to pride and just enjoying the fights,