TEXT: Professor Q's Guide to the Enlightened 
   
  And here's where I might put an introduction and my thoughts about some general character 
  building and how it applies to the Enlightened if I ever get around to it (I probably won't).  
   
  But I will quickly point out my rating system. It's pretty easy. I rate each power out of 5 stars. 
   
  (*): Too circumstantial to bother most of the time. Save your BP for something else. 
  (**): Pretty circumstantial but still redeemable in that circumstance. 
  (***): Pretty good overall power that generally performs well. 
  (****): A better than average power and highly recommended. 
  (*****): A great power with very few flaws and applicable to numerous situations. 
   
   
  Martial Arts Maneuvers 
   
  There are two books I pulled maneuvers from: Hexarcana and Lone Stars the Texas Rangers. 
  Get both books since I think Unarm is one of the best Maneuvers out there. The basic book you 
  need is going to be the Hexarcana of course. 
   
   
  Hexarcana Martial Arts Maneuvers 
   
  Disarm (*): You remove the enemy's weapon as a vamoosin'. This is only good against melee 
  attacks since obviously a ranged attack wouldn't be close enough for you to react. This would 
  be good in the circumstance it was built for, except for some bizarre reason you use Deftness 
  instead of Nimbleness for your Fightnin' check. Conceptually this could be good for a ranged 
  Enlightened using a bow who would like to keep his advantages in Melee, but even with the bow 
  you're already spreading out your aptitude points a whole lot and now you have even more 
  difficulty picking how to allocate your traits. Disarming the opponent can be a very good thing, 
  but honestly the more proactive "Unarm" from Lone Stars is much better. Nimbleness based 
  Martial Artists (you know, most of them) should definitely steer clear of this maneuver. 
   
  Eye Gouge (****): Really like the effect of this power, it's really a shame that can be really hard 
  to pull off. If you win with two raises the enemy suffers a -4 to all rolls for an hour. This is the 
  equivalent of 4 wound, except they're not actually wounded making it excellent in situations 
  where you want to end a fight without anyone getting hurt – but still exquisitely useful even 
  when you do want the enemy dead. Two raises though means that even if you have a d12 in 
  your Nimbleness stat you're going to need to roll an ace, and if they have any skill in Fightin’ at 
  all, your odds really just aren't that high. It's the only thing that keeps me from rating this with 5 
  stars. I wouldn't start with this one, but it's is definitely one you might want to pick up once you 
  raise your Fightin’ to 6 or higher. 
  
   
   
  Flying Kick (*****): Also known as "Me-Doken". The major utility of this maneuver is of course 
  the part where it ignores obstacles like tables or "even Lava". Good for if you need to get 
  somewhere fast, which as a melee fighter comes up as often as you might think. The -4 to-hit is 
  a pain, but you're especially going to want a high Nimbleness if you pick this power because in 
  addition to making it more likely that you will be successful it also increases the range for this 
  maneuver. 
   
  Get Up (*****): This maneuver is of course circumstantial to situations in which you are knocked 
  prone, but it basically trivializes that circumstance when it happens as you should be able to 
  beat a TN 5 Fightin’ check in your sleep. I think this is definitely worth picking up as it basically 
  makes prone completely obsolete against you. 
   
  Ground Fightin’ (**): Removes some of the penalties from being prone. As the maneuver 
  states, this is basically for between action cards when Get Up can't remove the prone condition. 
  However the biggest problem with being prone is losing your next action card getting up. While 
  the penalties aren't good for you, they aren't necessarily going to kill you either. Since prone is a 
  condition that is pretty circumstantial in the first place, I'd say this power is skippable for the 
  most part (unless you're in a really Martial Arts heavy campaign that is). 
   
  Headbutt (***): Throwin' People is a more versatile stun but doesn't enjoy the locked TN of 9 
  that this has. This also is slightly more difficult to pull off too: you need a Raise, an Opposed 
  Strength vs. Vigor, and you take 1d4 wind. Groin Shot has the same TN but only takes a raise 
  to pull off without the other issues. Headbutt has more coverage though since Groin Shot 
  doesn't work on Harrowed. Additionally you could argue that you could use a Headbutt while 
  someone has you in a lock since you don't need your arms. 
   
  Lock (****): Assuming your Kung Fu is indeed superior, you could hold on to a key opponent for 
  theoretically an indefinite period of time – allowing your posse to take care of other threats. I 
  wouldn't attempt this on anything that might have ranks in the Fightin’ aptitude, but things like 
  Black Sorcerers, Scrawny Hucksters, etc. are all free game for this. The simple actions you're 
  allowed to take should include movement so you can probably use this to drag your target to the 
  edge of a cliff too. 
   
  Spin Kick (***): As your Martial Arts aptitude gets higher this becomes more attractive. If you're 
  beating the TNs of your Fightin’ rolls with ease and you don't have any particular reason to 
  adjust the hit location you can throw in this maneuver and possibly make up the difference 
  between meeting that size category for an extra wound. Of course you probably can't combine 
  this with attacking with two-fisted, so it really depends on how you've built your character. 
   
  Sweep (****): Essentially spend your action cards to make them waste theirs. If you have a card 
  up your sleeve though this is a good way to get a +2 on your Fightin’ rolls if you need it for any 
  reason as you can take two consecutive turns in a row to take advantage of the prone condition. 
  
  I really like the +4 to hit this already gives, it really helps to make this a really effective power. 
  Enemy martial artists that take this give you a reason to take the Ground Fightin’ Maneuver. 
   
  Throwin' People (*****): This is basically an all-in-one maneuver. It knocks them prone, it has a 
  stun chance, and you can even move them anywhere you want within 2 yards of yourself (like 
  that Quicksand pit your Huckster friend just made). The beautiful thing about this power is that it 
  only takes an opposed Fightin’ check. No raises necessary, just beat their Fightin’. If you 
  suspect that one of your opponents decided that Fightin’ was something they didn't need to 
  bother with, then you're free to throw them around like the rag-doll they chose to be. The 
  wording on this also suggests you can use it as a vamoose, but it doesn't specifically call that 
  out. 
   
   
  Lone Stars Texas Rangers Fightin’ Maneuvers 
   
  The Lone Stars book states that Martial Artists can pick these up as part of leveling up their 
  Martial Arts skill and provided they learned it from somewhere. Most of them are kind of duds, 
  but a couple of gems make it really worth checking out this book for them if you're building a 
  Martial Artist. 
   
   
  Block Punch (**): Basically Dodge 2.0 for Fightin’ maneuvers. This vamoose wouldn't be worth 
  much except that if you're successful with a raise you can cause them to lose action cards. The 
  chances of that happening are first contingent on there being a raise and second contingent on 
  them actually having action cards of higher worth than yours, so I wouldn't bank on that. I also 
  think that this power is a little too circumstantial only being effective against melee attacks as it 
  is to rate any higher than a 3. 
   
  Body Throw (**): At first glance this looks like a vamoose version of Throwin' People (which 
  may or may not be a vamoose in itself), but actually it works very differently and should be 
  thought of as a dodge + counter attack rather than a utility or fully defensive power. In concept 
  this is a good power, but the matter of having to be a Fightin’ Roll plus a raise makes this power 
  have a high possibility of just being a waste of an action card, particularly because most 
  creatures who are coming at you and getting into Fightin’ range for you are likely to have skill in 
  Fightin’, making that raise that much harder. Additionally this Maneuver is written poorly - it says 
  that it deals wind damage equal to half the distance you threw the opponent, but it never states 
  what distance you throw the opponent. One redeeming factor that saves this from the abysmal 
  pit of one star though is the fact that your target only has to move within Fightin’ range – for 
  whatever reason – and not that they have to attack you. This means anyone walking past you or 
  moving past you are game for this vamoose. 
   
  Flying Tackle (***): Charge an opponent and deal damage equal to half of the distance you ran 
  (in yards). Interesting idea. Knocks you prone afterward no matter what, though it can knock 
  your opponent prone too. If you have a d12 in Nimbleness, you can theoretically use this to add 
  
  12 damage to one of your attacks (by running), which could be 2 wounds on a normal human 
  opponent. It does leave you vulnerable and if you don't have Get Up you're going to be wasting 
  another action card, but if you want someone dead fast this is a decent way to put out a lot of 
  damage on a single action card. 
   
  Grab n' Toss (*): Depending on how high your Strength is and how lucky you are with aces, 
  you can toss people a much greater distance than the 6' that Throwin' People gives you. 
  However unlike Throwin' People this requires the much harder feat of making a Fightin’ roll with 
  a raise, and THEN it gives you an opposed Strength check. The killer is the fact that this takes 
  two action cards though. 
   
  Groin Shot (***): Like Headbutt in the sense that it takes a Fightin’ roll with a raise for a TN 9 
  stun check. It would seem like this is better than Headbutt because it still grants the +1d6 
  damage which Headbutt forgoes, however this maneuver does say "Brawlin'" to which your 
  Marshall might rule that it can only deal Brawlin' damage and not Wound. Still this is a little bit 
  easier to pull off than Headbutt and doesn't deal wind damage to you, but Headbutt is better for 
  coverage since this explicitly won't affect undead. This does make a great Harrowed Checker 
  though - perform this maneuver on a suspect and then watch how they react. 
   
  Kidney Punch (*): Lets you deal normal damage instead of Brawlin' damage. Completely 
  useless to a Martial Artist who is already doing normal damage. 
   
  No Sell (*): This should be good, but in the end I just don't think it's worth bothering with. 
  Basically you spend an action card to give yourself a higher chance of resisting Wind damage 
  and stun from Brawlin' damage. I think that's not really worth the action card. I really think this 
  power should give your hero a bonus to Overawe or something. 
   
  Roundhouse Punch (***): If you're in a situation where you'd rather be dealing Brawlin' 
  damage, if you're pretty confident in your ability to hit, this marginally helps add a little more bite 
  to your punches. This is very similar to Spin Kick, but a little more predictable. 
   
  Stunner (***): Two action cards, but a whopping TN 11 Stun check for your enemy if you pull it 
  off, which makes this worth considering. 
   
  Unarm (*****): This is the great Even-the-Odds Maneuver that actually gives you wonderful 
  odds for success. This takes only a successful Fightin’ roll (no raises necessary) and an 
  opposed Strength roll. The Strength roll even gets a bonus as if you aren't already trying to have 
  a decent Strength as a Fu-Fighter anyway. If your opponent has a gun, and is using it, he most 
  likely depends on it. This is a great way to gimp that attacker. Granted they can go grab their 
  weapon, but that makes them waste precious action cards they could be spending on shooting 
  you or your posse members. And nothing stops you from grabbing their weapon yourself and 
  shoving it in your backpack. 
   
   
  
  Chi Powers 
   
  All of these are in the Hexarcana. 
   
   
  Abundance of Pecking Birds (**): Looking at this power makes you think "Oh! I can make a 
  deftness based Martial Artist and use a bow." This power certainly helps for that, and against all 
  odds actually gives you slightly more versatility than an Indian War Shaman, but that versatility 
  comes at an extremely hefty price tag. Basically this power costs 3 strain to hit two targets and it 
  gives you a -1 to hit per target beyond the first. Now granted you can shoot multiple arrows into 
  one target, which is really neat, and if you're okay with blowing all of your strain in a single 
  action card you could take someone down in a single turn doing that. Compare this to the 
  Shaman as a bow fighter; They can boost their Strength with Strength of the Bear and enjoy 
  that benefit for six rounds and whatever action cards that covers. For being a single attack this 
  really just comes out lackluster for a number of reasons. 
   
  Blood of Gold (****): If you have strain left, you will survive. This is just a really flavorful power 
  to me - your Fu-Fighter has an amazing battle and barely comes out on top, but has to hide in a 
  rock somewhere while he licks his wounds. This is the power you need to make that licking 
  actually mean something. The strain cost is also very reasonable. 
   
  Cobra Strike (*): A really cool sounding charge-up attack that adds +2 damage for every strain 
  and action card you spend on this. It has an initial startup cost of 1 strain and 1 action card, 
  which makes this a whole lot more inefficient than just hitting your target every round though. 
  But, this could be good in a circumstance where you need to deal a whole lot of damage to a 
  single target that is holding completely still for some reason. Can you think of such a target? I 
  sure can't - except unless you wanted to break down a wall or something, but then you have to 
  worry about Armor, which means you'll be spending even more strain on Dragon Claw, and 
  even still you're possibly still better off just hitting it multiple times. If this was just action cards 
  with a flat strain cost, this would be more interesting and possibly have broader application --- 
  possibly. 
   
  Closing the Gate (***): Quick and dirty way to get some wind back in the middle of combat. 
  Works as advertised, but if you're an unlucky sucker you might only get two or three wind out of 
  the strain you spend on this. 
   
  Crane Guides the Arrow (**): If you wanted to attempt the Deftness based Enlightened, this is 
  applicable to both Throwin' and Bow, so it doesn't just have synergy with Abundance of Pecking 
  Birds, but it also helps throwing back a bullet with Seize the Pearl of Death - if you're willing to 
  spend the strain. Honestly can't see myself using this very often, but does help you slightly in 
  getting a headshot with your return bullet Throwin' which might be worth the 5 BP just to savor 
  the awesome situation. 
   
  
  Crumbling Dam (*): Like all powers that target a specific Arcane Background, this is extremely 
  circumstantial, and even in the circumstance I'm not sure it's worth 2 strain to you to make them 
  lose 1d4 strain (which is the likely result since targets you'll want to use this on may also have 
  high Spirits). I think trying to stun the target is a little more effective, and with some of the Martial 
  Arts maneuvers available that costs 0 strain. It is worthy to note that this should work on Blood 
  Mages too. 
   
  Devastating Ape Strike (****): A nice cheap one-strain attack that simply adds damage. It adds 
  good damage too - at least 5 - because you add your flat Chi Roll to your damage so long as it’s 
  successful. Depending on what your Chi Aptitude is and the die type, this power's name 
  "Devastating" becomes very appropriate. 
   
  Dragon's Claw (****): Definitely worth keeping around. This has a startup cost of 2 strain and 
  an action card - so you basically do nothing for that card - but after the first round it's only 1 
  strain per round to maintain so if you have a decent enough Quickness you can really lay down 
  the hurt for the target you want to use this on in subsequent rounds. Armor is (possibly) 
  common enough that you're going to want this in your toolbelt, and even if you use it only once 
  it'll be worth it for that occasion. Doors and walls are even more common though, so if you want 
  to crash through a building like the Juggernaut, look no further. 
   
  Fangs of the Serpent (**): Potentially this is far better than Crumbling Dam. The strain cost is 
  enormous, but you get strain back by using it. A beautiful thing about this is that instead of an 
  opposed Spirit roll, it's your Chi vs. their Vigor, which is something you're much more likely to 
  dominate. Again, it says that it works only on targets that use Strain, so Blood Mages count. If 
  you're in a game that uses a lot of Martial Artists or Blood Mages, then add a couple of stars to 
  the usefulness of this power. As long as you roll at least a 2 on the strain damage roll you're 
  breaking even with Crumbling Dam, so 75% of the time this either the same or better. 
   
  Flying Claw (*****): I can't emphasize what a remarkable weapon the Flying Claw is. By itself it 
  gives you a 10' reach, and by putting a single strain into it per round the range increases to five 
  times your Chi aptitude (25' at startup if you maxed out your Chi). This does a fairly decent job 
  subverting your general range weakness as a Nimbleness based fighter – oh, did I mention that 
  this uses Fightin’ without any mention of requiring Deftness. That alone would make this power 
  worth keeping around, but that's not all folks, it also adds some very easily applied positioning 
  benefits as well should you choose to use it. 
   
  Flying Crescent (**): The way I read this is that it's a MUCH more expensive Flying Claw 
  costing 2 strain to startup and an action card and besides the same range increase it has no 
  other effects. Okay, it has one benefit over Flying Claw – it does 2d8 damage instead of 2d4. 
  That is a lot, but it's not double strain startup cost plus waste an action card better. 
   
  Flying Guillotine (***): An instant death attack that only works on human-like creatures, but 
  actually works really really well. Essentially the TN for your Throwin': Flying Guillotine attack is 
  11 with the -6 to hit, but if you do hit, they're dead. It's as simple as that. No opposed Vigor vs. 
  
  Whatever, no check on the Target's part, they simply lose their head. I guess saying they’re 
  dead at that point really depends on whether they're undead or not. It has some drawbacks of 
  course - the 4 strain cost is pretty expensive (but surprisingly not necessarily as expensive as it 
  gets) and you need to have a really good Deftness to be able to make the called shot – but this 
  does help the Deftness Based Martial Artist gain some ground as being viable. 
   
  Fury Fans the Flame (*****): If you have the definite advantage on the Fightin’ skill (aka, your 
  target has few or no ranks in the skill themselves) they will almost instantly regret it. For two 
  strain you basically can chain together an infinite number of attacks. It also says these attacks 
  can be maneuvers too, so if you picked up Sweep, you can knock them prone with a +4 to hit on 
  your first attack and then enjoy the +2 to-hit while you stomp their face in. Don't bother tacking 
  on things like Spin Kick, all you need to do is continue getting attacks with at least a single raise. 
   
  Gimmick Weapons (**): Very flavorful, but also very expensive. If you have pretty good odds of 
  getting a few raises on your Chi roll this impromptu can be pretty devastating. The killer here is 
  the strain cost, and possibly the action cost. If your Marshal interprets the action card cost as a 
  startup cost (as in you can't pick up the weapon and attack with it in the same action) then this 
  is total garbage. Just punch the enemy. But even if you can attack on that first action the 2 
  strain startup cost is pretty high for the effect, and then you still have to maintain it if you use 
  your Gimmick Weapon for more than one round. Again though, if for whatever reason you're 
  pretty confident that you're going to get a lot of raises (aka, you have a huckster who's going to 
  use Raisin' the Pot on you) this can make a pretty nasty weapon. 
   
  Hell's Thunderclap (***): Gives the target penalties to their actions equal to the difference 
  between an opposed Chi vs. Spirit roll. Doesn't work on undead, so unless your campaign 
  focuses heavily on humans or other eligible living creatures this may or may not be too 
  circumstantial to consider. The strain cost is as low as it gets though, and the effect is potentially 
  really good, even if you only beat the opposed roll by 1 point. 
   
  Jade King's Stance (****): This is actually a very interesting power that is especially good if you 
  have a decent Mien to take advantage of the Overawe bonus. Not only does this make your 
  enemy have to make a Spirit roll to even attack you but even if they succeed on the Spirit roll 
  they take a penalty to hit you. Now you can't do anything but speak while you're in this stance, 
  but it makes a really good stance to do Tests o' Wills in since you can still speak. Oh look! This 
  even gives a +2 to your Overawe attempts and even lets you use it on every creature within a 
  range. The strain cost looks expensive at first, but if you do have ranks in Overawe, this is 
  definitely worth checking out – it's a real posse helper. 
   
  Leopard and Her Cubs (***): The startup cost on this is high, being at least 3 strain if it's only 
  you and one person – and it requires one person. If your hero is already Brawny, you don't have 
  to use this on yourself at all and I actually recommend expanding it to different people since you 
  only gain a +1 benefit for the strain cost. Once you have paid the initial cost though the 
  maintenance should be able to hold out for the rest of combat. In the right situations this could 
  be a total life saver. 
  
  Mantis Punch (*): Very reminiscent of Hell's Thunderclap but instead of giving a flat penalty to 
  the target it lowers their dice type by one level. It has all the same problems that Hell's 
  Thunderclap has – it doesn't affect Abominations and Undead – but my biggest problem with it 
  is how rigid it is in comparison. Chi vs. Vigor gives a different stat to target, but the fact that its 
  effect is based on successes and raises rather than just a difference between the two rolls 
  separates this power's potential into increments of 5, making Thunderclap potentially better in 
  marginal situations. Additionally, Thunderclap affects all rolls, this one you have to pick a Trait to 
  lower. Mantis Punch does have a more controllable duration, but that also makes it a whole lot 
  more expensive. Personally I'd just stick to Hell's Thunderclap. 
   
  Many Arms of the Spider (*): The Melee answer to Abundance of Pecking Birds. While 
  cheaper than its Bow counterpart, it's just not as good. The big issue is that it takes action 
  cards, so if you're "surrounded" by people this just doesn't perform as advertised because even 
  if you get an amazing Quickness roll, the most people you may affect with this power is 5... And 
  then you're done for the round. Essentially what this does is let you take all your action cards at 
  once. I think it might just be better to wait your turn and take your action cards as they come – 
  you can perform maneuvers as necessary in reaction to what your opponents do and it doesn't 
  cost you a strain for every action card you give up. 
   
  Merciful Sparrow (****): Roll your Chi against your target's Ranged Attack aptitude to block an 
  attack at the cost of only one strain and a vamoosed action card. What I like about this power is 
  that it effectively replaces the need for the Dodge aptitude which could save you some BP. The 
  flavor is also really fun. 
   
  Mind of Quicksilver (*): Lets you copy other Martial Artist's Chi Techniques. This is really good 
  for learning new Martial Arts techniques. It's really bad in its own application though because 
  you're going to run out of strain before you know it. Throw in the fact that it's circumstantial 
  being useful only against other Martial Artists and you're looking at a completely skippable 
  power. Just go find a Sifu and save the 5 BP on this. 
   
  Monkey Goes to the Mountain (****): I really didn't like this at first because 3 strain is a lot, but 
  there are four factors that make this an A+ power though. It doesn't seem to count against your 
  normal pace movement for the round (which is good because this costs an action card unlike 
  normal movement). It's 5 yards for a TN 3 and 5 more yards for only +2 TN, so with not-so-hard 
  TN of 7 you can move 15 yards which is like having a d12 in Nimbleness and 3 ranks of Fleet 
  Footed. You can go in ANY direction, vertical, horizontal, or otherwise (as it says, it's practically 
  flying). And best of all, there is absolutely no limit to how far you can go provided you meet the 
  TN you've set for yourself. If you have any way of boosting your Chi Roll, like Fate Chips, and 
  you need to get somewhere fast, this will shoot you over there real good. Most importantly this 
  will let you get on top of those buildings those dang snipers are shooting from in record time. 
   
  Palm of Prevention (*): The Chi power says it has a speed of 1, but it might as well be a speed 
  of 2. So basically you spend 2 of your action cards to hopefully make your opponent lose more 
  than one. To be honest you're better off pulling this off with maneuvers and Brawlin' damage 
  
  rather than wasting your strain – making your enemy prone with Sweep or Throwin' People 
  makes them lose action cards all the same, but if they decide not to spend their action cards 
  getting up you only have more bonuses to stun them or whatever you want to do. Palm of 
  Prevention does have a little more flavor than my preferred brasher approach, but this just 
  doesn't really give back as much as it takes. Additionally while the free Overawe check is nice, 
  unlike the Jade King's Stance it doesn't even give any bonuses to your Overawe. 
   
  Righteous Reversal (***): Vamoose and make your enemy make a Stun check instead of you. 
  This can really save your life if you happen to take a wound. The return Stun check is not as 
  good as the incoming Stun check, but there's a good chance you're going to have a higher 
  number of dice for rolling Chi than you have for Vigor so if nothing else this improves your odds 
  for overcoming the check even if they make theirs. 
   
  River Flows Uphill (*): This does have a very good chance of success, but considering you 
  could be vamoosin' to avoid the hit entirely, changing the hit location of a Wound is hardly worth 
  your action card much less your strain. 
   
  Seize the Pearl of Death (****): If you're considering that Deftness-based Enlightened, this is 
  the coolest and best reason to try it out. It has a very high strain cost – being at least 2 strain for 
  the first bullet. I say first bullet though because this specifically states that you catch as many as 
  are fired at you and you have strain for before your next action card. That is powerful – and this 
  only costs you the one action card to activate. This basically gives you extra attacks if you're 
  being fired upon, and is especially awesome against automatic weapons. The biggest limiting 
  factor on this besides the strain though is the necessity to have the proper Throwin' skills to 
  make it worthwhile – with Throwin' Bullet only being useful for this power. If you want to just stop 
  ranged attacks, just take Merciful Sparrow (though this is a lot more action card efficient if you 
  are being assaulted by many shots). 
   
  The Serpent's Embrace (***): An interesting power and sort of unique – you make a called shot 
  to an arm or a leg followed by a Chi vs. Vigor roll and if successful they can't use that limb. This 
  is a great way to immobilize a target to keep them off your allies, or stop them from being able 
  to use their two-handed Gatling gun. The strain cost keeps me from rating it higher, but as I 
  mentioned, it is a little different from anything else available in Deadlands – at least not anything 
  that is so clearly defined as this. 
   
  The Slithering Eel (*****): I love powers like this. Carry a lot of rope with you and you can tie up 
  a lot of people with this, and the strain cost is reasonable for the effect (note that it does NOT 
  increase as you tie up more people). This isn't something you'd use to hold a hostage or 
  anything because of the strain involved, but it makes an excellent combat power for battlefield 
  control that rivals a lot of what even the Huckster is capable of. The best thing about this power 
  is that it says nothing about keeping your Fu-Fighter tied up with the enemy, so you can lock out 
  enemies and then continue to do your thing to whoever else isn't in your grasp. Another 
  interesting factor is that it doesn't specifically call out abominations as excluded from being 
  affected by this – probably need more rope for the bigger critters though. 
  
  Smoke Parts for hard for you to deal Iron (**): Fu-Fighters are powerful, I'll admit that, but for 
  whatever reason they wanted to make it deal magic damage as a Fu-Fighter. Seriously though, 
  a 3 strain activation and a 2 strain maintenance means that even the hardiest Fu-Fighter is 
  going to be out of strain within 2-4 rounds. To add insult to injury it takes TWO action cards to 
  activate, meaning that unless you beat a 10 on your Quickness roll you're not even going to be 
  able to take advantage of this until after a round. There are going to be enemies that this will be 
  completely necessary for though if you rely entirely on your fists. I think you ought to go seek 
  out a priest and get some blessed Butterfly Knives or a Holy Flying Claw instead for such 
  enemies though. 
   
  Step Back to Ward off the Monkey (***): This is a great defensive power. What I like most 
  about this is that it increases the TN rather than giving them a penalty to hit. That means that 
  Shootists attacking you can't just shrug off your defenses with Kentucky Windage. Even better 
  this also affects powers that are otherwise really hard to defend against, like Soul Blast and 
  other similar attacks. It's going to kill your strain pool for doing other things, but in the right 
  situation you'll be really glad you had this. 
   
  Ten Foot Punch (**): I love the idea of this power, but the strain really kills it. You're not going 
  to find a better range increase than this though. Even compared to Flying Claw, which can be 
  25' range from start, this has a 30' range on a single success. After that it becomes 60' and so 
  forth. It's just that strain cost though that makes it really tough to recommend, and to make 
  things worse the initial TN is 7 making getting raises even harder. 
   
  Thunder Strums the Pipa (**): Add bonus Brawlin’ damage to your attack and cause them to 
  make a stun check. The stun check is exactly the same as Wind Blows Over The Earth, but 
  lacks the overall utility of that power, and the damage isn't as good as Devastating Gorilla 
  Strike. As a result you get a kind of weird in-between attack that doesn't really shine compared 
  to other powers. 
   
  Tiger Shakes Its Mane (*****): Activate this power while you are stunned to instantly recover 
  from being stunned. That makes this an amazing power to keep in your toolbelt all by itself. But 
  in addition this also lets you ignore the penalties of wound. Talk about a power that works as 
  advertised! 
   
  Veins of Iron (***): In the right situation (like the barfight this power mentions) negating wind 
  damage could make you steal the show. The strain cost is reasonable too. 
   
  Vengeance of a Monkey (*): This power is just silly. It lets you make a ranged attack with 
  basically anything, but the range increment is 5. That kind of sucks and it makes it hard to 
  actually hit anything. To top it off it costs 1 strain and an action card per throw. Compare this to 
  Flying Claw which doesn't bother with nonsense like range increments. Granted this power does 
  give you some flexibility in an unarmed situation, but I'd wager you're better off spending the 
  enormous strain cost of Ten Foot Punch. 
  
  Venom Punch (***): According to the accumulated rulings the damage from this is magical and 
  will affect creatures accordingly. So that makes this power something that should be compared 
  to Smoke Parts for Iron. This too takes two action cards to activate according to the text - similar 
  to Palm of Prevention. Basically this is going to deal at least 2d6 plus 2d8 magic damage to 
  your target at the cost of 3 strain and 2 action cards. Smoke Parts takes two action cards to do 
  nothing and costs 3 strain to start, so whether Venom Punch wins on the first round depends 
  really on your Quickness and Strength. After the first round Smoke Parts wins with its 2 strain 
  per round cost. Overall though I'd say Venom Punch is more usable since it's also good for 
  regular folk, justifying its slightly higher score. It's also nice that Venom Punch doesn't make you 
  lose strain if it fails. If you have a way of increasing your number of raises on an attack – like a 
  Huckster with Raisin' the Pot – Venom Punch wins hands down. 
   
  Wind Blows Over The Earth (*****): Mechanically this is just an upgraded version of Throwin' 
  People – and as Throwin' People was sort of an all in one attack, so is this... but upgraded. The 
  cost of 1 strain and the base TN of 5 for the Stun check along with the guaranteed Wind 
  damage and at least 3 yard knockback makes this a really cool power to keep around. 
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Deadlands [multi]/Deadlands, classic/3rd party/Deadlands - Professor Qs Guide to the Enlightened.pdf