For example: "Impaler" Add 1 to any penetratign melee attack you make. does this mean it works only on cards with the penetrating effect, such as "penetrating cut"? ......... "Bruiser" add 1 to any bash you play Does this mean it only works on cards with "bash" in their name, like simple bash? .................................. On a similar note does "slicer" work on anything with "chop" in the name, such as weak chop, or just the skill "chop"
Impaler works on any attack with the penetrating key word. So this is the one warrior trait (currently) that checks the actual card text. Many, but not all penetrating attacks call it out in the card name, for example Impaling Stab still has the penetrating keyword. Bruiser works with any of the "Bash" attack cards, just based on the name of the card. Similarly, slicer works on any of the "Chop" attack cards, based on the name of the card.
This confused me at first too. Used to seeing a real keyword on the card rather than just having the card name effectively be the keyword. And to answer your question, there is no martial trait that specifically benefits non-penetrating piercing attacks, non-chop slashing attacks, or non-bash crushing attacks.
This is almost guaranteed to confuse any new player, and I've made a suggestion to fix it in this thread. I don't mind having bash/penetrating/chop-specific martial skill cards. But the basic cards should cover a broad range of attacks like crushing/piercing/slashing, (1) to avoid confusing new players and (2) to give at least one useful trait card for any build.
Yes. This problem is compounded by the fact that some of the Bruiser cards have attacks included with them that do not benefit from the trait card. Novice Bashing has Bruiser, Simple Bash, and Bludgeon. When I first saw this, I thought Bruiser worked on all crushing cards and I was really confused until I realized that it actually mean cards with "Bash" in the name only. That makes martial skill cards VERY narrow minded. They should really be changed to benefit the melee attack type. That would make them much more useful.