Non-Human Martial Arts

What kind of fighting styles come about in non-humanoid species? How do their different body shapes dictate how they act in combat?

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fightland.vice.com/blog/jack-slack-street-fighting-roos
fightland.vice.com/blog/the-mongoose-lessons-in-fighting-from-natures-greatest-outfighter
fightland.vice.com/blog/street-fighting-koalas-natures-lesser-known-grappling-masters
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Well, I'd imagine pretty much everything. For hand to hand combat; Four armed races would have very complex grappling and methods to block fists and I'd imagine with the strength of 4 hands it becomes much easier to snap necks or choke out someone, making that the focus of the combat. For quadrupedal races, it would be all about getting a height advantage over your opponent to get your claws/teeth on the back of their neck- since its the most vulnerable body part and so on.

I imagine Minotaurs would have one that takes advantage of their horns but minimizes the amount of time their head is in danger?

I suppose it depends specifically on the non-humanoids.

I imagine it would be similar to Kyoryu Grey from Kyuryuger, who was a martial artist whose entire style favored using his head, with headbutts, and spinning tackles with just his head, and swinging it around like a mace. I can also seeing them using their horns for complex maneuvers, like locking weapons or limbs in their horns for grappling and throwing moves or breaking attacks

>Minotaur martial masters passed along a rare and powerful technique, known as the Labyrinthine Crushing Blow, a simple set of strikes to the opponent's head, but when used by a master who can strike precisely and with the right power, it imposes a unique problem on the foe. Their brain and body is rattled in such a way that they feel as if they are trapped within a labyrinth, unable to keep their directions straight, or getting lost in simple locations and forgetting where they have come from.

Harpies would have a focus on kicks, utilizing their flight capabilities for some crazy wire fu kicks, and also the fact that they have massive talons, which means even simple kicks from a Harpy would cut and slice like blades (so I suppose the majority of Harpies would be swordswomen rather than martial artists) their wings would likely be used very rarely due to their value, at most probably as ways to disorient enemies, like hitting them with sheets or throwing a coat at them, but probably very few Harpies would practice any form of martial arts that utilizes their wings.

I'd rather not do the searching myself but there's a few old as shit books on training your horse to fight in their equivalent of martial arts against horses or people.
The major issues revolved around if your particular horse was smart enough to know to or no to do certain things based on if the enemy was armored or if the horse still had a rider but it covered basics like sweeping, where to bite instead of just lashing out, and how and when to properly kick all with diagrams.

The short version is there's a lot horse's and quadrupedal animals just plain can't do we take for granted just based on their limited range of limb motion but this also gives them an insanely rock solid base.
It went over things like horses tend to bite as a form of attack which, would work against most other wild horses, but this is a shit idea when you face a person with a weapon or another properly trained horse because now your entire neck, skull, eyeballs, etc. are within their range of attack and you're over extended. Instead you teach to them to kick with their hind legs. It's not as powerful as them, say, rearing up and coming down but it keeps all the important bits and the opening on their chest that leads to the heart far and away from whatever they're going at and if you hit a guy with it even in full plate he'll more than likely be dead.

For the four-arms it might be more beneficial to go for the clavicles, assuming their equivalent to ours, as they're insanely vulnerable, easily shattered, and your arm is basically dead weight when its not there to support it so i imagine 2 dead weights would be worse.
As for quadrupeds taking out the legs, preferably the frontal ones, might be better. At that point they're pretty much screwed when it comes to any sort of movement beyond a slow hobble and then you can do whatever you want instead of risking going near their teeth for their neck.

I think quadrupedal races would have a focus on weapons and armor, like fangs are great and all, but so is a fucking sword, but also the unique aspect of being a four legged creature, and wearing armor that IS weaponized, like horns, spikes, blades, those kind of things on the armor itself, and thanks to their unique body types, they can wear spike covered armor and shit and not really worry about it hurting themselves with their movements

I have not-nerubian in my setting, they of course make use of their superior mobility every time possible and are very fond of using spears, polearms and such. Fighting techniques also varies from subspecies.

Obliviously, they make use of their numerous limbs to overwhelm humanoid opponents: attack with you main weapon with one arm, spit poison in you opponent face, pull a secondary weapon hidden under you with one middle leg directly into you other hand while moving one of you front leg on his feet leaving a small bit a sticky web to stuck it to the grounds. Things like that.
I could see their martial art experts being basically spider-man Jacky chan.

> Attacks from the ceiling/walls
> Their voltigeurs are expert at jump-charges and "bungee jumps" attacks
> unreachable archers, producing their own poison
Heavy use of web, naturally:
> all sort of trap, weighted nets (they carry weights, produce the net)
> silk lattice used as alarm system
> poison imbued thread can be almost invisible and deadly
> When no ranged weapons available, improvising a slingshot is easy (other use for the weights is munitions). God help everyone if they get their hands on grenades.
> Some are able to produce silk ropes strong enough to block attacks if nothing else available
> All sort of spiderman shit
But also:
> Improved grapples, with more limbs that may have suckers or be strengthened with sticky silk. May also have irritating furs.
> "spider senses", they can feel vibrations to a certain extend
> Camouflage

They are however crippled by their lack of collective discipline, as teamwork is not natural to them. At the individual level, their flanks are vulnerable and they are rarely heavily armoured due to weight issues.
All in all they are horrifying to fight when they are skirmishing in familiar uneven grounds, but open battle is not for them.

>chain is in the lower arms
>melee weapons both of the same length are in the upper arms
Thats a great way to tangle up every weapon you have.

Honestly I just took the first picture I found in my folder, my spiderfolks don't even have that body structure (they have 2 hands, 6 feet).

Make them wear sharpened metal sheathes for their feet. Leg swords for fun grapples, sweeps, and kicks all while staying armored.

>Have spiderfolk
>Get rid of the possibility of multi armed combatants
How lame. i hope they at least have martial arts that emphasizes the fact that they have 6 legs (ie crazy kick fu)

Humans need martial arts to kill/defend themselves because they're weak and clumsy as fuck.

other species wouldn't necessarily have any sort of martial arts

Cue Indiana Jones boulder scene music.

If you look at actual spiders, they have pedipalps that act as manipulators in addition to their 8 real "limbs." And the four front legs act as multi-purpose limbs, them use them for moving around normally but in a fight they're used to pin down opponents.

I've done some stuff with this in my own world. Dwarves have Kisat Dur (Empty Fist), which takes advantage of dwarves' strength, endurance, and low center of gravity. It involves a lot of armored boots in the shin, tripping, and throwing. Elves have a martial art that I have yet to name, which takes advantage of their long arms and legs to keep the opponent at a distance. I'm not sure about humans or goblins yet.

Anyone who fights would have a use for techniques to fight better.

Sure, crazy kick fu it is.
I really find the 2 hands, 6 feet more aesthetic, but I guess I could also have 4x4 subspecies. It's not like I have to be bound to phylogeny.

That makes zero sense.
Have you ever watched two dogs or cats get in a fight? They have particular "fighting styles."

Also "other species are stronger so they don't have to learn to fight" only makes any sense if they're exclusively fighting humans. They'd develop martial arts to fight among themselves, because even if you're a member of the strongest species that doesn't mean you are the strongest member of the strongest species.

This comics' name is Sillage, you might want to check it out.
Fighting any species is part of the main characters job (space cops/special agents)

Thats like saying a dog wouldn't be improved with knives simply because they have teeth. When speaking of the ways of violence and the arts of turning men to ghosts, you can never "not need" better ways to do it. If a normal human can kill with a clenched fist, why wouldn't other races learn to clench their fist as well.

Considering most species would also have to fight their kind, they have no reason not to up their game instead on relying on natural strengths their opponent may also have.

reminds me of the thing in Discworld where some dwarves believed 'the most important axe is the one on the inside' and shatters another dwarf's axe with Kung fu

Elves- Whispering Fist: Utilizes jabbing attacks with both legs and hands, as well as lots of breathing techniques and soft movements that seem to lack any power, but will send people reeling
Goblins- Vandal Fist: A messy fighting style that utilizes the goblins small frame and speedy maneuverability to strike from all sorts of angles, climbing taller foes and hitting joints and soft spots, all with the intent on hurting the enemy as much as possible and destroying their ability to fight back, also involves biting and scratching
Humans- Beggar Fist: Developed by bums to fight off thugs trying to torment them, wild animals trying to eat them, and other beggars trying to take their money, food and drink. A fighting style focused on utilizing the opponents weight, height, or strength against them, and disorientating attacks which don't seem to have any control or focus, but that is just a farce. It is a style of the underdog, a fitting style for humans.

Or they could have 2 hands and 6 feet, but some have developed ways to use their feet as hands (humans can do it, don't see why spiderfolk can)

...

> Octodextrous Spider-Monk
I'm ok with that.

For quadrupeds just picture how animals fight - they try and get high above one another and come down onto necks, heads, and spines. Watch some horses fighting.

In fact cats are an excellent real-world example. They very much have their own "martial art" even if it is weird for us to think of it that way, and they learn it as kittens.
If you see two cats fight, they almost always attempt to grapple the opponent's head area to get in a position where they can bite at the neck and throat, a cat that gets there wins. So between two equal fighters, both tend to grab each other with their front claws and wrestle for position. The back legs are pulled away and used to claw at the opponent's belly, while protecting their own.

And if a younger, weaker cat tries to pick a fight with an older, bigger cat, the older cat often does not need to go to ground at all, they just use their superior reach to tag the younger one on the head without being grappled themselves, a way of saying "I can fuck you up if I want to."

To reiterate , personally I would go with two hands, eight feet. Even though colloquial understanding is "spiders have eight limbs", they really have 10 appendages, eight of which are legs.

I like those ideas. I especially like the idea of goblins climbing around on people like crazed monkeys and trying to chew their limbs off.

Humans aren't quite like that, though. They're the orcs of the setting, bigger and more warlike than anyone else. However, the animals come bigger as well, so it could work.

Ah, in that case...
Humans- Gods Fist: A style that emphasizes powerful, direct strikes. Palm strikes, heavy punches, thunderous kicks, it is not a fancy style like the Elves, or an energetic style like the Goblins, but it is a terrible thing to face, as a human using Gods Fist will stand firm to any blow, and hit like a clap of thunder, sudden, loud and powerful. (Think Dwarven, but rather than throws, they are just taking heavy stances and hitting like fucking trains)

>that's like saying dogs wouldn't be improved with knives simply because they have teeth
What if the teeth WERE the knives?
I have sadly. The most effective attacks seem to be the ones where the other side loses a leg. A 4 legged body plan doesn't work when only 3 legs are usable.

Yeah, that's damn good. I can imagine a human going face to face with a goblin or dwarf, using gravity to power staggering blows.

Not to mention, you'll sometimes see cats taking up stances. Reering on their back legs, front paws ready to lash out.

Insects also have martial arts. Mostly wrestling, but beetles are masters at it as well as throwing, and mantis go without saying, having inspired entire styles all their own

This shit. From experience an old as shit but fuckhuge tomcat with no claws will fuck up the day of a younger quicker normal sized cat just because he can box their ears in while sitting.

Mn, just remember, if you ever wanna mix things up with how the races fight, humans alone have more martial arts styles than you can count, so don't be afraid to just do whatever

>Werewolf martial arts

You're right, you can see the same type of standardized fighting behavior in all kinds of animals. With insects, though, I think it's mostly instinctual behavior combined with their body structure. I like cats and dogs better as an example, because many of us are familiar with their behavior and we've seen them learn these techniques as they grow up.

I get ya.

>Weregiraffe martial arts

Why are you posting pokemon?

In comparison, dogs have way less range of motion than cats do so even though their legs are strong they can't effectively grapple. Instead they tend to use their legs to push their opponent away and keep them from biting while they both maneuver to get to a position they can bite from by jumping, rearing, going low, whatever they can.

Horses work similarly but with even less range of motion.

DAMN NATURE! YOU SCARY!

I could hear loud pro wrestling commentary in my head as I watched this. Thanks, user, it made me chuckle.

youtube.com/watch?v=_MT9RoTbFoY

Monsters with tails would most definitely use them in martial arts. They could be used for blows, tripping, or for restraining.

That killed 'im! Bah God, that flounder had a family!

Help me a out, guys. One of my players is a high-level Kobold Monk with rubbish strength, and possibly one of the powerful characters in the party. How on Earth does a monster the size of a large housecat even manage to put up a good hand-to-hand fight?

C-can it be...!? It is! THE STAG BEETLE STACKER!!!!

Yeah, dogs can become completely helpless if you know what you are doing.

For instance, almost all dogs obviously can't reach beneath their snouts, so if you tip them over and run your hand against their chest until your reach their neck, they won't be able to bite anymore. Once you do that they can only try and push your arm away with their hindlegs.

t. dog judo blackbelt

Dodging and lashing techniques, pressure point manipulation, general not!judo "use your enemy strength against him"... there are ways.

youtube.com/watch?v=rvC8qftEA7A

Monitor lizard wrestling is suprisingly similar to greko roman wrestling.

I like this thread. It's like a nature documentary combined with insane ramblings about animals doing kung fu.

Get funky with monk weapons.
youtube.com/watch?v=8IPl2tFNihc

this is what I imagine an elf monk vs an orc monk to look like
youtube.com/watch?v=_cPgafBEqn4

Man, now I'm interested in a martial arts setting about animals. The noble young Shiba Inu learning the ways of turning doggos into ghosts from a wise old one-eyed tomcat, so he can return to his village and challenge the huge Rottweiler that killed his brother.
The Maine Coon drifter hired by the cat townsfolk to defeat the hawk that keeps attacking them on the roads.

Dogs would not be improved with knives, as they have no manipulators with which to use knives.

Psh, nothing personal human.

>make face plate
>weld knife to about that juts out a few inches and follows up to above and between the ears
>make lobstered chest plate
>line sides and top with lateral blades
>make lower leg guards
>line all cardinal points with similar blades
>lobstered neck piece has studded spikes like a collar but on every section
>enjoy battle doggo of many edges

...

...

Strength is not always what you imagine. Perhaps he has attained some other form of strength, which can allow him to rend boulders with his bare hands, and shatter steel with the slightest touch?

>Implying

I find the differances in body language between people and animals to be super interesting. That video of the Aussie puching a kangaroo is actually a great example. After the punch the kangaroo opens its arms wide to get ready to grapple and disembowel the guy. the guy backs away but when the kangaroo follows him he puts his hand on his knife ready to draw it. Two very differant movements that both mean the exact same thing "Im ready to fuck you up"

I think you're just describing the Warriors series, but with dogs as the focus instead of cats

Well it shows a clear difference in person strengths. The kangaroo is prepared to fight and hurt with it's physical strength and natural capabilities, where as the human is prepared to pull out it's weapon, a blade of cold steel, with which to even the odds.

Yojimbo, but with an actual, flea ridden mutt of a dog pitting two clans of strays against each other.

Theres a manga and anime about dogs fighting called Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin that might be what you're looking for. Once again when you have a super weird idea for something you can trust the japs to have already given it a go.

>we'll never have shrike border guards
>you'll never see vladian trees instead of fences around facilities and borders
>we'll never have peregrine dogfight
>you'll never see flying V's of harpy eagles
>you'll never see mobile infantry movements of Amy's
>all scaled up 3 to 4 times

His father was retainer to a minor lord, killed in the last war with the wolves while he was just a pup. After seven dog years of training in the canine arts of combat, he dons his father's armor and sets out to restore his family's honor.

It's different to me. Ones a learned habit that could border on second nature the other is just instinct.
Personally I'd view it as the differences in human fighting human vs kangaroo fighting kangaroo.
As you mentioned kangaroos have a certain stance naturally but humans do as well.
You'd think when we put our hands up and duck our head down it's a defense for the head but it's not. It's a defense for the ribs where the heart and lungs are. The head, and hands, are actually designed to take blows but not the ribs.
Entirely different styles by necessity and according to vulnerabilities unique to each species that we just naturally assume.

...

more like GECKO roman wrestling

Unless your lizard/dragon men are furry shit i'd recon that their "martial arts" would just be them going on all 4 and lashing out like a rabid animal

I like the tail atlatl

Bro, there are guys that punch hard enough to just light things on fire. You don't need stupid things like "strength". If you're punching your enemy right, they'll be too weak to move anyhow, or suffering uncontrollable explosive diarrhea, or having their blood freeze solid in their veins. Of course, a good GM will be able to produce an opponent that can take advantage of this character's lack of strength as a part of their character growth. Don't forget to have fun!

Okay, what were we talking about again?

These are some good articles to read for inspiration.

fightland.vice.com/blog/jack-slack-street-fighting-roos

fightland.vice.com/blog/the-mongoose-lessons-in-fighting-from-natures-greatest-outfighter

fightland.vice.com/blog/street-fighting-koalas-natures-lesser-known-grappling-masters

There's a reason why animal kung fu is a thing. Humans saw animals doing some crazy shit and thought "damn I wonder if it works if I do it". Even modern fighters like Conor McGregor have studied animals to see how to get efficiency honed through years of evolution and practice.

>humans alone have more martial arts styles than you can count
This. It's a lot easier to extrapolate the techniques and strategies used by animals to fight if you know how to fight in general.

Digitigrade legs mean that leg-based grappling will be somewhat modified.
Tailed and Quadrupedal forms would be very difficult to apply leverage-based maneuvers like throws to.
A tail might also make striking weaker, since you can't torque your hips as fast with a counter-weight.
Claws of course would improve grabs and certain hand strikes, but make others harder since you can't clench your fist properly.
Flying and Swimming makes it very hard to put power behind strikes or pull opponents off-balance.

That being said, all martial arts follow universal concepts dictated by the physics of the body. Most styles when they get in the ring, end up doing basically the same things with different names. The main difference between styles is emphasis and teaching methods.
They all boil down to Striking (application of trauma) and Grappling (application of leverage) and there's only so many ways to do that effectively.

Funnily enough his Str is much less of a handicap than his height and weight. His tiny size prevents him from reaching most striking targets on a Human or applying enough leverage for armbars or sweeps.
I imagine he would end up using something like Aikido/Taiji/Baqua (Setting Sun Style from Bot9S). Depending on opponents to make the first strike so he could dodge, cause them to over-extend and topple them with a simple push/pull on the arm. If he has initiative, he'd have to focus on their pushing their knees or stabbing pressure-points with his thumb-claw.

agreed, is there more of this set?
It is relevant to my interests.


here ya go. (you)'ve earned it.

i was the dm for the campaign that picture's from

Unfortunately, that's the only relevant piece from that particular artist.

Is "sapient dinosaur" or "martial arts for species with different musculature" the thing that makes it relevant to your interests?

Artist's name is right there in the OP, user.

Go! ALZHEIMER'S PUNCH!

I was the kobold.

Fucking gimme source please, user. I need it

Any more pics like that?

Yup, the artist has quite a few sketches exploring the concept.

povorot.deviantart.com/gallery/9348116/The-Dinosauroids

>Dinosaurs
>BUT
>they shank the fuck out of each other
Is there more of this

Or if you meant in general, "what if there was no asteroid and dinosaurs evolved to sapience?" is not that obscure an idea, but it is a little hard to find art on the concept that actually approaches it logically and isn't just "scaly/feathery humanoid."

I'll post a few good examples.

I love this idea of a large bird race leaving the stone age. I gotta spare campaign on hand that has a village full of weird bird people and I think I'm going to replace them with birds like this.

Oh boy, now I have that creative spark feeling again. I gotta go write up some ideas before I forget.

...

Other than the above it's mostly "dinosaur that evolved a more ape-like skull and walks upright" which is stupid to me, because from a biology perspective they already have a pretty effective body structure, and from a story perspective why have smart dinosaurs if you're not going to let them be dinosaurs?

sapient dinosaur, although the raptor-style fighting was extra neato.

My GM just sprung "awakened utahraptors" on us. I'm not sure exactly how awakened they are, but if we can get them to stop trying to kill us, they might make some nice allies.
These pics are nice to see what exactly they may or may not be capable of.

>hunter__steed
How does a raptor ride another raptor?
Can he actually straddle its back or does he just stand on top?

Yeah ok cool knife chicken but where are the dinosaurs

Why does this spider has 10 limbs?

>great grey wolf sif
>edgy
don't you talk shit about best doggo in dark souls

Sif was awful just like his master