Now the ability, ‘Touch of Death’, is very cool.
You’re basically reaching into the Chi or life-force of a badly wounded target and dealing either immense damage, or killing them outright.
But how does your character do it? Do you barrage several pressure points with knuckle-punches to cause intense haemorrhaging from their injuries, do you land a single, precise blow and cause an internal rupture as a tendril of your chi invades their body and lacerates them from the inside? Is it a poisoned needle secreted within your gauntlet, or hidden in a hair ornament? Is it the final activation of scores of Chi ‘bombs’ you embedded in them with every strike during the battle?
Or is it a straight up Mortal Kombat finisher? Or are you more a Faust from Guilty Gear kind of character?
Now, the silly thing with our Forums? I can’t link Mortal Kombat fatalities. I can, however, link the aptly named …
… clears throat loudly
Stimulating Fists of Annihilation
Aka the ‘Thousand Years of Death’ maneuver.
I don’t know why I made this thread, truth be told, I just like the idea of the ‘Clowning’ Monk, like Chen, who uses tomfoolery and shenanigans to bewilder and enrage opponents into making clumsy and foolish attacks, the better to expend their strength and defeat them without needing to kill them.
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When I can roll a goblin monk, he’s going to surprise his foe by slapping an
invoice on their chest. When they finally look down they die of shock.
I’ll call it:
THE BILL COMES DUE!
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Juspion isn’t a monk IC but if he was it’d be like this
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Overall I’ve long imagined it to be similar to either Kenshiro’s pressure point attacks, minus the swelling followed by gory explosions, or perhaps Akuma’s Raging Demon technique; the one where he slides at you, the screen goes black and then he’s standing over your corpse with a big glowing character on his back. Perhaps more so the former than the latter; the ability itself does seem to harken to the fantasized interpretation of the concept of weaponizing pressure points, which if memory serves is the core mechanic of Hokuto Shinken.
And now for a tangential but still related anecdote. I once created an ability some of my martial characters had learned; the Merciful Mists Stroke/Cut. Conceptually it’s in universe mechanics were meant to be like a slower version of how I imagined Touch of Death might work, using one’s own chi to turn the chi of your opponent against them, activating it to fatal effect. The technique itself is a chi infused cut which covers with soothing mists that masks the pain while it uses your own chi to destroy your body from within.
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You know, with rockets in their belts and minimissiles in their gloves, Goblins could pull off some sick Touch of Death moves.
Trigger your belt and fly upwards in a spiral to do a Shouryoken.
Punch into the target and then launch the missile, creating a ‘you are already dead.’ moment.
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This is how I view monks when they do it. lol
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You don’t need to barrage several pressure points in hand to hand to kill, all you need is one, a good hit on the temple can easily kill someone, that is why you always want to protect your temples.
It doesn’t even need to be all that hard of a hit. I believe in martial arts circles there is even a pressure point on the back of the neck that can kill. Again, this makes sense because a good hit on the brain stem will at the very least completely destroy a person’s nervous system.
That’s how I typically interpret the move anyway.
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My Monk is a Tidesage, he freezes water around his hand and jabs it into the enemy when he uses touch of death.
A more well thought out response, my undead was a monk and used chi magic but only capable through the undead racial Touch of the Grave. They could only steal chi from their surroundings or individuals.
I liked the idea of them being a healer that way, they could drain the life (or chi/spirit) from one living thing to another, which fits well for an undead.
I never gave much thought to Touch of Death to be honest, yet I figured for them, should they do Touch of Death it would be their usual method of draining the chi/spirit from someone or something until it straight up died.
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“I once killed a man. With THIS thumb.”
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That’s commonly referred to as ‘The Hungry Ghost’, ie a parasitic or vampiric spirit, entity or spiritualist who lacks a vital force of their own and must borrow or steal life energy from the victims.
In fantasy, its often used to describe a martial art that steals chi with a touch, often to weaken a target or disrupt the flow of chi in their bodies to disrupt their own chi-based attacks.
Furthermore, martial artists who couldn’t reach the heavenly levels and this achieved immortality would often be depicted using similar techniques to not only extend their lifespan but increase their chi, giving rise to so-called ‘demon arts’.
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I’m now imaging you holding up a severed thumb and it is making me giggle.
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I wasn’t crying when Ego had his flashback.
