I asked on the beta board if a martial arts character was possible and the answer was not by the RAW but what about a Jason Bourne inspired character?

Which is just another MA character, heheh.

I guess the question is what exactly are you trying to do?

There are rules for stealth, combat, etc. Not sure how much there is for unarmed melee, its been a while.

The problem you're probably going to see is that the rules are more narrative, not so much intended for fast pace close combat. One "round" could easily mean 4 minutes in length (but you still only make one attack action). That doesn't really play up sounding like some hyper skilled agent type.

Also, I can promise a starting PC would be nowhere near the ability you're looking for. Skills are capped at chargen if I recall, so you're not going to be hitting the mastery points of stealth or close combat.

It is and it's not. The martial artist I asked about previously was more of a Ryu like character. The Jason Bourne like character would be an infiltrator or spy like hero. He would know martial arts but it wouldn't be force enhanced. More practical fighting and less special effects fighting. Would brawl work as a martial arts skill and then use the narrative to describe the fighting style?

Jason_Sunday said:

Assassin seems more sniper-oriented than sneaky oriented though. I would personally start in Marauder to max out your brawling ability (everything there works for Brawl except Knockdown IIRC) then move into thief for it's sneaky talents. Bypass Security comes to mind as useful immediately. I can see Assassin as a 2nd or 3rd tree for it's precision talents.

Over on the d20 Radio Forums, a poster (Elias Windrider) started a thread with his idea for a Bourne-type character, so it might be worth a look.

http://www.d20radio.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=150&t=11636

Character was built using 15 Obligation (Elias had admitted to missing the rule about not taking more Obligation than your starting value), so some adjustment might be needed depending on how many players are in the group.

Thanks! I'll check that out.