That's a Martial Art. And keep in mind the scaling, here. Melee (Daiklave) 3 is the low end of the level of skill legendary heroes known for their skill in one weapon has, much like Melee 3 is in the upper end of non-legendary mortals, provided you keep the generic form and specialty even. A better way to balance it would probably be to cap Specialties to one-half the skill, rounded up.
Everything is a Martial Art.
Lichtenauer's sword teachings then?
You will not find a single fighting system that isn't a martial arts! Ever! In the entire history of mankind fighting systems have been codified for the ease of teaching them to soldiers.
Calling them martial arts is a term that originated in the 20th century as a term for Asian fighting styles when America went all AND HERE'S A LIST OF STUFF YOU CAN'T DO EVER AFTER SINCE WE BEAT YOU at the end of World War II, and started taking a look at Japanese culture and went NOPE THIS IS WAAAAAY TOO MARTIAL, THEY NEED TO BE MARTIAL 'ARTS' INSTEAD OF 'TECHNIQUES'.
Like,
what the fuck do you think the purpose of baguazhang is? The purpose of learning to use deer-horn knives is so you can
gut people and murder them.
It's just hidden behind a veneer of sports and fun.
I'm sorry, you seem to like the idea of a character who's basically impossible to beat by disarming because they are just as good with their Dailave as they are with the half-dozen different types of holdout weapon they have on them. And the specialties interacting with disarming only matter when you have backup weapons in the first place. How often have you bothered to do that?
Will you argue against me? Or is that man of straw simply too fun to argue with?
I want a character that isn't balanced by "but the storyteller can take you toys away at any moment he likes, so don't have too much fun!".
Are you at the top end of the martial art, able to handle five people who are well above novice in the same art? If not, you aren't at the point of needing Specialties to describe your skill. Even then, that would be describable by a Style or Marial Art based bonus.
Fuck no, no people are able to do that.
Like, I'm pretty sure that five people with my level of skill in baguazhang could murder Donghaichuan himself (that's the style's inventor btw).
Because guess what? Those people who can beat five people alone, with a single hand?
They don't exist.
Why is it so hard to understand that roleplaying someone who is awesome at literally every weapon ever should be hard to pull in the mechanics? Melee 5 should not be the peak because it makes someone who has it be at the peak of skill with every weapon in existence.
And all the arguments about characters with specialties being crippled by not having their chosen weapon available miss the point that a character should be crippled by not having their chosen weapon available in the first place.
Again, using a magic material pocket knife with the same effectiveness as your legendary sword you've fought a thousand battles with is both ridiculous and makes it far too easy to make disarming useless, even though disarming is one of the most effective things one can do to a fighter in real life.
Hell, given the setting and more than a few lore blurbs, a character normally wouldn't have specialties in the first place. And the ones who do would have two or three different Melee specialties to actually be able to use backup weapons.
Yeah but I don't want to play a fighter in real life.
I want to play Invincible Crown, the man who uses spears as well as meteor hammers with contemptible ease because he understand the sum total of all melee weapons and is empowered with a glorious shard of divinity embedded into his soul.
Meanwhile, a real fighter will struggle to fight
three people.
