[DL] are martial artists underpowered?

[s <neko@evolove.net>]

Hey Deadlanders,

I have a question for you - are martial artists underpowered, compared to 
hucksters, sykers, doomsayers etc etc? From what I gather, any character 
with 'powers' in the deadlands universe has a single skill which they use 
to perform all their cool powers. They then get a number of powers equal to 
their skill and can buy more later. Therefore a syker has blastin', a 
doomsayer has his faith and so on.

I've just looked through the martial arts supplement that came with 'the 
great maze' and it seems that martial artists have to 'buy' _each_ power 
from the get-go, which seems unfair? Wouldn't it be more consistent if, 
once the arcane background is purchased, the character can buy a 'chi' 
skill (like the faith skill) which would be spirit based. They then get a 
number of powers equal to their chi (so normally that would be 5) and can 
buy more later (cost depending on whether they have a sifu, etc etc).

or am I missing something here? has this already been addressed?

neko