I have a marauder in my game that is by far the best combatant in the party, and will be the main source of damage. Problem is, he wants to go brawl instead of melee and one of his obligations is Oath: Do not kill. He murdered too many people while escaping enslavement and has promised never to kill again unless absolutely necessary (he's also developed a nasty drinking habit).

Right now, he's using shock gloves, which are 'good not great' as far as I'm concerned, but I don't have any options in any of the sourcebooks for upgrading his brawl weaponry without also making it deadly weaponry. I was hoping the community could give me ideas for good brawl weapons I could have him loot at some point that could serve as upgrades.

My best idea so far: Blast Knuckles that the Outlaw Tech of the party can modify to be stun only. I'm not sure if doing so should lower the damage from +4 to +3 or add some other drawback, but simply making it stun only and apply only strain damage may be fine.

Check out the Enforcer tree in Dangerous Covenants. There is a talent that lets you use Melee weapons inflict Strain which is the best way to make a Marauder non-lethal. In terms of making Brawl better, Enforcer also helps with that too.

The stun-only blast knuckles with 3 damage seems fine to me. Although shock gloves aren't bad; there's the initial strain damage from the strike, plus 3 strain that bypasses soak for the cost of 2 Advantage. For four Advantage that's 6 strain, 6 Advantage is 9 strain, and so on. Since you player isn't looking to kill anyone he has no reason to save his Advantage for criticals, so he should have some to burn. God knows my group's Marauder does.

I put them in a decent amount of combat our first session and he only managed to set off the shock quality once. Maybe it was just bad luck, but considering he put a ton of XP into raising brawn to 5, I want to give him ways to really take full advantage of his strength and not have him feel like it's a waste. He just had to make it really friggin' difficult with brawl + no kill haha.

Shock Gloves w/Superior attachment?

(He could also dip into Doctor for the Pressure Points talent.)

Enforcer is a good option since (as mentioned) it grants Stunning Blow in addition to being a Hired Gun spec. Your player could also take a look at Infiltrator from AoR if you have it, it has both Stunning Blow and Improved Stunning Blow.

As for the Blast Knuckles I would totally allow it, it is described as a light blaster pistol strapped to a glove so changing it to stun does not sounds impossible for a decent mechanic. I would also allow it to stay +4 since normal Stun Blasters keep their damage.

If he's got Brawn 5 and a decent Brawl skill (which I assume he does), then he should be "dual-wielding" with every hit. Yeah, that makes a typical Melee check Hard (3D), but starting out with 5 Ability dice then upgrading to whatever his Brawl is (at least 2) should make that check not very difficult. 2 Proficiency + 3 Ability by itself is a pretty potent pool.

I wasn't aware you could dual-wield brawl. I was under the assumption that brawl always used both of your hands. No one fights with their left hand tied behind their back, yeah?

I wasn't aware you could dual-wield brawl. I was under the assumption that brawl always used both of your hands. No one fights with their left hand tied behind their back, yeah?

Brawl can be dual-wielded. It's combat, nothing says it can't be, and there is absolutely no justification to restrict it.

I wasn't aware you could dual-wield brawl. I was under the assumption that brawl always used both of your hands. No one fights with their left hand tied behind their back, yeah?

Sam Stewart confirmed this.

See this thread.

I wasn't aware you could dual-wield brawl. I was under the assumption that brawl always used both of your hands. No one fights with their left hand tied behind their back, yeah?

It's really a GM call. Personally, I'd allow it. You can also flavor it that "dual-wield" is using his whole body, so he's kicking and head butting as well as punching.

One of the benefits of using Brawl is that you can always choose whether to deal damage to the target's Strain Threshold or Wound Threshold. So I don't think nerfing any Brawl weapon is called for to "allow it" to deal stun damage. You can already do that with Brawl, which is as it should be.

One of the benefits of using Brawl is that you can always choose whether to deal damage to the target's Strain Threshold or Wound Threshold. So I don't think nerfing any Brawl weapon is called for to "allow it" to deal stun damage. You can already do that with Brawl, which is as it should be.

This is quite true, what I was referring to was that the more 'potent' brawl weapons found in dangerous covenants explicitly deal wounds, since they either have blasters or knives attached to them. I'd like to eventually give him something that gives him some +damage so he is punching at 8-9 damage as if wielding a heavy weapon.

One of the benefits of using Brawl is that you can always choose whether to deal damage to the target's Strain Threshold or Wound Threshold. So I don't think nerfing any Brawl weapon is called for to "allow it" to deal stun damage. You can already do that with Brawl, which is as it should be.

This is quite true, what I was referring to was that the more 'potent' brawl weapons found in dangerous covenants explicitly deal wounds, since they either have blasters or knives attached to them. I'd like to eventually give him something that gives him some +damage so he is punching at 8-9 damage as if wielding a heavy weapon.

Ah, gotcha. Yeah, modding it to deal Stun damage doesn't seem like a bad idea.