RM martial arts are very neat and balanced with the other combat attacks...which is the problem. RM martial arts attacks are over powered, by which I mean, it is much harder to kill with your bare hands than the martial arts rules/crit table represents.
Against armed foes, the name of unarmed combatants, be they martial artist or what ever, is mince meat. If the oppisite were true, unarmed combat, and not armed combat, would be the way of the warrior.
lynn
If you fell that Martial Arts is too powerful against armored opponents, just say that chain reduce the critical by one level (E crits become D crits) and Plate Armor reduce it by two levels.
The problem by doing it the way Zorfwaddle sugests is that it makes Martial Arts pretty much useless and thus you might as well get rid of the WarriorMonk and High Warrior Monk.
It might be over powered compared to real life, but then again so is the Warrior Mage and I dont hear people complain about that.
A 10th level Warrior Monk will have an OB of (20 ranks=70, +10 from stats, +20 from level Bonus) +100.
The DB will be +10 from stats, +70 from Skill ranks and + 10 from levelbonus= 90 DB
AT will be 1 or 2.
The cost of this will be (for Rank 4 attacks) 16 for striking, 16 for Sweeps and 10 for Adrenal Defense=42 PER LEVEL.
And the Warrior Monk still needs to pay for Body Development, which is 2/7, so add 9 DP per level for the first 6-7 levels, for a total of 51 DP per level
That is more development points than characters get according to the core rules.
A 10th level Mentalist Warrior Mage will have the same OB=100 only if he or she haven't managed to pick up a magical or High Quality weapon, which is somewhat unlikely at level 10, so let's say the Warrior Mage have a +10 weapon. Thats 110 OB.
Assuming that he wears AT 18, his DB will be 0 from stats, 30 from shield and most likely +10 from his enchanted/high quality armor=40.
Now for the fun part: Spells.
A Warrior Mage usually does not go into combat without having cast Combat enhancement, which at level 10 is +15 OB and DB.
That gives a total OB of 125 and a total DB of 55.
And the Warrior Mage can still cast Bladeturn (+100 DB for 1 attack), Blur (+10 DB), Stun Relief and various other spells to help before, during and after combat.
I haven't even taken into consideration that a 10th level Warrior Mage can cast Shockbolt on the Warrior Monk before they even enter into melee and the Warrior Monk, having no shield, would only have a 10 DB against this attack.
For all this, the Warrior Mage have payed 9 DB for his weapon, 8 DP for Maneuvering in Plate and 16 DB for spells (just an level average) for a grand total of 33 DP fer level.
Add 11 points for Body Development for the first levels and you get a total of 44.
That is slightly more than most characters get according to the core rules, but it is within reach and the warrior Mage can elect to use chain armor instead, which is cheaper to get.
Yes, Martial Arts is good in combat, but the cost alone do that it's less than perfect for characters and we haven't even considered that MA sucks against Large and Super Large Creatures.
So my opinion is that Martial Arts might not be balanced with real life, but it's balanced within the game system. Of cause if you play in worlds where there is no magic, it's overpowered, but if you play in a world where there is magic and large/Super large creatures it works out fine.