Favorite Martial Arts pairings

[Nightmask]

So what two martial arts do you tend to like to go with for a character, or otherwise feel just perfectly complement one another and make a great mix together?

I tend to favor Tae Kwon Do and Zanji Shinjinken Ryu. They have equal attacks starting out, the character is as capable unarmed as armed, and the starting MA available to them are able to be used by both techniques without restriction unlike most others. So in selecting Iron Hand and Chi-Gung for the Tae Kwon Do MA and Iai-Jutsu with Zanshin on the Zanji side (or any other mix) provides good benefits to the character whether fighting with bare hands or his swords.

A second favorite is Tai-Chi and Ch'in Na as you've the Tai-Chi when trying to be more passive and less directly harmful towards someone and good ability to be helpful with Chi-Healing but able to inflict some serious crippling moves onto a target if forced to resort to Ch'in Na and thinking more aggressively.

[JuliusCreed]

I've found in personal experience that Kyokushinkai Karate and Zanji Shinjinken Ryu make for quite a powerful combo. Zanshin and Iai Jutsu combined with Tamashiwara and Iron Hand make for a deadly opponent whether armed or unarmed. A particular phrase coined by my GM about the character I made with this combination was "He's dangerous with a sword, but if he puts it away, you're in real trouble." Combine all of that with the Chi Mastery he picked up later and he turned into one bad mutha shut yo mouth.

Aikido and Chao Ta made for a pretty good combination once as well. A guy who could throw you around the room, kick your butt up around your ears and look good doing it. Pairing those with Reflex Training Technique and the Tai Chi and Kick Boxing skills from Rifter 7 makes for a pretty nasty guy to get on the bad side of.

Finally, there was the pairing of just about any MA form with Triad Assassin Training. If the other form gave you MA Techniques, so much the better. Zanshin + Triad Assassin = scary martial artist with a gun. Add in the Kick Boxing skill from Rifter 7 again to beef up the Triad training and suddenly the gunman has a few extra tricks up his sleeve to unleash upside your head.

[Nightmask]

Triad Assassin plus Moo Gi Gong is one of the best match-ups if you're concerned with weapon skills, since you can use any ancient weapon and any found object as a weapon so even if you run out of ammo or someone disarms you they're going to be quite unhappy to find out you aren't so helpless without those guns (and many people will tend to think that a guy who seems to rely on guns is helpless without them). Zanji is more limited since you only have a few set weapons that work with it.

[Grandil]

Actually, anything combined with Lee Kwan Choo & Pao Chih-you can combine the bonuses to Any MA to LKC, & Pao Chih is basically Armor, has 3 attacks max, +3 to initiative.

[cms6317]

So far, my favorite combo has been Snake Style Kung Fu and Tien Hseuh.
Low on attacks, but mega powerful for Chi and Atemi.
If you can somehow swing a 3rd Martial Art (like they offered in the 1st edition of N&SS), add Tai Chi Chuan for more chi, more powers, and auto-dodge.

[Vincent Takeda]

The aikido and tai chi combination has been a long time favorite of mine, but recently I've tried to get over my aikido addiction. I've kept the tai chi but I'm using Lee Kwan Chu instead of the aikido. Instead of bodyflip to do some damage and take away an attack, lee kwan chu does less damage but stuns for a longer duration. Trying to achieve a more pacifist martial artist.