How 'strategic' is N&SS? Are there broken combos?

[drewkitty ~..~]

I came across N&SS from Rifts, and got drawn in by its better explained combat system (I always wondered what a cartwheel and backflip was for in Rifts...)

I already love the active defense in Palladium games and the variety it lends to hand to hand. It seems to add more strategy and thought behind how your character fights, more than just "my numbers are bigger I win".

I was wondering how strategic N&SS gets? Can a melee round be won or lost on the choice of "I should've body flipped him" or "I should've backflipped to get more range then..." ?

And through pure number crunching, are there any particular combinations that are broken?

Congrats, you've disovered a whole new setting. One that while isn't as filled out as rifts, it's deserving of attention.

the short answer to the question is "yes"

[Mantisking]

As for styles, anything with chi powers is going to be better then anything without. From a pure munchkin standpoint there are no styles in the book other then chi styles, everything else is just wasted paper and ink. Even the lame chi powers are impossibly broken. Again, its all about the one hit deaths, so take body chi and pump strength before combat starts, or on your first move, you can go from a mere super trained mortal to more strength then gods, then power punch death blow leap attack spinning death kick of doom. Saw one guy who could, assuming a natural 20, full chi, and a successful hit, get a supposed six figure damage off a physical strike.

Wow. Even in our game, where we allow style bonuses to stack, that would be difficult. And this is coming from someone who's a combat fiend. I get the feeling CommanderT1 hasn't really read the rules through all that well.

[Colt47]

Worried about things turning into melee combat when guns are involved, just have the guns do damage strait to hit points like they should if they hit unarmored targets. I've found that little house rule has made people appreciate the value of firearms a bit more.

[Overlord Rikonius]

Worried about things turning into melee combat when guns are involved, just have the guns do damage strait to hit points like they should if they hit unarmored targets. I've found that little house rule has made people appreciate the value of firearms a bit more.

Don't forget to apply blood loss damage until they get the wounds patched up. I forget what the amount was (been a long time since I played) but IIRC each bullet wound increased the blood loss damage per minute.
BLood loss rules should be in the weapons compendium and/or the HU GM's guide if they aren't in the main books.

[Mantisking]

What negative Chi is good for though is preventing healing, and that is what makes it dangerous. Chi heals naturally, but a negative Chi infection is a very serious matter. And on the matter of Dragon Chi and pumping it into P.S. to gain incredible strength...yeah of course it can be done (but only through Body Chi, so it costs two Chi Mastery abilities to get that tandem, so if you have Tai Chi there goes all of your starting Martial Art Powers), but with the poor strike bonuses for the style, that doesn't guarantee that you're actually gonna hit anyone. Again, Chi is powerful, but I don't want other readers there to think Chi is really all that he says it is.

I was just re-reading this thread and it made me think of an old comment I made about the Dragon/Body Chi combo. I found the old post I made about it.

This trick is a little harder than you think. First of all you need a minimum of five (5) Attacks per Melee to pull it off, and you need both Chi Mastery powers.

Here's a list of styles that could do it and at which level it becomes accessible:
Ba Gua @ 14
Hsing I @ 11
Hwarang Do @ 11
Isshin Ryu @ 9
Kyokushinkai @ 9
Shantung Black Tiger @ 15
Monkey style @ 9
Xing Chiao @ 11
Zanji Shinjinken Ryu @ 7.

Nine styles out of 51 can pull it off. Not too many.

Now let's look at how it's done. Let's assume you win initiative.
Attack #1: Concentrate/Activate Dragon Chi.
Attack #2: Use Dragon Chi.
Attack #3: Concentrate/Activate Body Chi.
Attack #4: Use Body Chi.
Attack #5: Attack.

Your opponent(s) has four attacks to your one. So, all in all the situation is not looking too good for your character.

Final Verdict: Chi Powers aren't as powerful as some people think they are.

and

One more thing about the Body Chi/Dragon Chi "combo". You can set Dragon Chi to continuously feed one Power, so in the melee rounds following the first you wouldn't have to activate it. The second and following melee rounds would go like this:

Attack #1: Use Body Chi.
Attack #2: Attack.
Attack #3: Attack.
Attack #4: Attack.
Attack #5: Attack.

Better, but combined with the first melee round you've still lost five attacks.