Combat

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Basics

Some of the information below applies to races that are currently closed. Staff is aware. These races may show up in combat scene, thus this information is included.

Combat Chart'

Declaring actions

Characters declare intended actions in order of initiative, low to high

• Characters performing multiple actions, using supernatural powers, or spending Willpower must declare those things during this step
• Characters will act in the opposite order (high to low), thus slower characters telegraph their intent and faster ones can take it into account

Performing actions

Characters act in order of initiative, high to low

• A character can delay their action and take it at any point later in the turn
• If two characters have the same initiative (or delay until the same moment), then the one with the higher initiative rating acts first. If their initiative ratings are also equal, then they act simultaneously

Timing of multiple actions

• Main phase: Each character acts once (unless they lose their action due to being stunned, etc.)
• Extra phase: Any characters with multiple actions perform the rest of their actions in the usual order of initiative
  • Even if multiple actions are described by a book or +note as simultaneous, the player must choose an order for the purpose of determining their outcomes, and only the first one occurs in the main phase

Attack

Close combat

Roll:

• Without a weapon: Dexterity + Brawl
• With a weapon: Dexterity + Melee

Modifiers:

• If you don't have Brawl, roll Dexterity at normal difficulty
• If you don't have Melee, roll Dexterity at +1 difficulty
• +(variable) difficulty for wearing armor / shield
• +1 difficulty for melee with a weapon designed for throwing

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Ranged combat

Attacker rolls:

• With a gun: Dexterity + Firearms
• With a thrown weapon: Dexterity + Athletics (or Dexterity + Throwing at -1 difficulty)
  • Maximum range = (5 * Strength) yards
  • This is for objects up to 3 pounds (e.g. grenades, knives); -5 yards for every 2 additional pounds, down to minimum of 1 yard
  • If you can't lift it, you can't throw it
• With a bow: Dexterity + Archery (or Dexterity + Athletics at +1 difficulty)
  • Before shooting a bow, a character must spend an action nocking and drawing an arrow (house rule: Archery 4+ eliminates this requirement)
  • On a botch, the bowstring snaps. Repair requires a spare bowstring and an action (Wits + Archery, or Wits + Crafts at +1 difficulty)
• With a crossbow: Dexterity + Archery (or Dexterity + Firearms at +1 difficulty)
  • Before shooting a crossbow, a character must spend two actions reloading it (house rule: Archery 4+ reduces this to one action)

Modifiers:

• If you don't have the appropriate skill, roll Dexterity at +1 difficulty
• +(variable) difficulty for wearing armor / shield
• +1 difficulty for throwing a weapon designed for melee

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Resolution

Damage

Attacker rolls damage

• A botch just counts as a failure
• If you got multiple successes on the attack roll, add 1 damage die for each one beyond the first

Soak

Target rolls soak

• Reflex
• A botch just counts as a failure
• Unsoaked damage decreases target's health (Corpus for Wraiths/Risen)
• If an attack is described as "unsoakable" or "cannot be soaked":
  • If it's affecting your enemy due to a successful action, then ignore it; the enemy may be able to soak it depending on damage type
  • If it's affecting you or your ally due to a failed or mixed-blessing action, then it applies as written: it cannot be soaked at all, even if the victim can normally soak that type of damage
  • Exception: If someone is explicitly able to soak any type of damage (not just "can soak agg"), then that takes precedence

Race	Bashing	Lethal	Aggravated
Vampire	Stamina + Fortitude	Stamina + Fortitude	Fortitude
Ghoul	Stamina + Fortitude	Stamina + Fortitude	Fortitude
Werewolf and other shifters	Stamina	Stamina (see below)	Stamina (see below)
Demon	Stamina	Stamina (apocalyptic form only)	none
Other	Stamina	none	none

Armor

• Generally adds to soak, regardless of severity (bashing / lethal / aggravated)
• May not apply, depending on damage type (kinetic, fire, electricity, mental, etc.)
• Doesn't apply if an unarmored body part is successfully targeted
• If damage (before soak) is at least twice the armor rating, then the armor is damaged until the wearer has time to repair or replace it
  • Only if the armor applied to that attack

Running out of health

• Health 0 -> incapacitated
• Incapacitated and take more bashing -> convert it to lethal
• Incapacitated and take more lethal:
  • Vampires go into torpor (VtM Revised page 216)
  • Werewolves and other shifters revert to breed form, but die if they take yet more damage of any type (WtA Revised page 187)
  • Others die
• Incapacitated and take more aggravated -> die (werewolves and most other shifters may still be able to Rage-heal, see below for details)

Wound penalties and healing

• Wounds may subtract dice from your action dice pools.
  • Not reflex dice pools
  • Not damage dice pools
  • Not Arete rolls unless mage is incapacitated (MtA 130)
  • Risen wraiths only subtract dice for aggravated damage (The Risen 50)
• Wounds may also limit your movement.
• Spend a Willpower to ignore all wound penalties for one turn, unless you're incapacitated or worse (VtM 137, MtA 126, DtF 163)

Damage	Description	Penalty	Time to heal 1 bashing	Time to heal 1 lethal/agg
1	Bruised	none	1 hour	1 day
2	Hurt	-1	1 hour	3 days
3	Injured	-1, half speed	1 hour	1 week2
4	Wounded	-2, walk	1 hour	1 month2
5	Mauled	-2, hobble (3 yards/turn)	3 hours1	2 months2
6	Crippled	-5, crawl (1 yard/turn)	6 hours1	3 months3
7	Incapacitated	cannot act or move	12 hours1	5 months3

¹ Requires medical care to avoid further effects (e.g. extreme pain, broken bones, concussion, impaired senses)
² Requires medical care to avoid worsening (1 level per day), then healing continues on its own
³ Requires continuous medical care to heal at all

Supernatural healing

Mages:

• A mage healing another person directly requires Life 3 (Mage ST Handbook 13).
• Mages healing aggravated damage is vulgar and costs 1 Quint per level of agg healed (MtA 246). They can optionally spend extra Quint to lower difficulty as usual.

Demons:

• Requires a full turn of concentration per Faith spent, and only heals one type at a time, not both.
• If further damaged during the turn, healing fails but Faith is not spent.

General maneuvers

Aborting actions / Changing actions

• Requires succeeding at a Willpower roll or spending a Willpower, unless your declared action is now pointless (e.g. attacking a target that was already killed)
  • Reflex
  • Spending a Willpower this way need not be declared ahead of time
• New action is +1 difficulty unless it's defensive

Ambush

• Can't target someone already in combat
• Resisted roll, attacker's Dexterity + Stealth versus target's Perception + Alertness
  • Attacker wins: one free attack, each additional success adds 1 die to attack roll
  • Tie: attacker acts first but target can perform a defensive action
  • Target wins: determine initiative normally

Blind fighting / Blind firing

see Complications -> Blinded

Flank attacks / Rear attacks

• Attack from target's side: +1 die
• Attack from target's rear: +2 dice

Movement

• A character moves by walking, jogging or running. Per turn movement is:
  • Walk 7 yards
  • Jog 12 + Dexterity yards
  • Run 20 + (3 x Dexterity) yards
    • Crinos Form: Move an additional 2 yards per turn by dropping to all fours.
    • Hispo Form: Move at one and one-half times human speed.
    • Wolf Form: Move at twice human speed.
• Movement while performing another action:
  • Limited to half your running distance
  • Doesn't count as multiple actions, but the action is -1 die per yard moved
  • Specific types of movement (e.g. leaping, tumbling) may require an action to perform

Multiple actions

• If you declare N actions, then subtract N dice from the first, N+1 from the second, N+2 from the third, etc.
  • Doesn't apply to desperate defense
• Extra actions from supernatural powers:
  • Not included in the above penalty
  • Can't be split further
  • Can occur in the same turn as multiple non-supernatural actions, in which case they occur last
  • Example: A vampire with Celerity 3 spends a blood point to activate it. Next turn, he declares 2 actions (N = 2) in addition to the Celerity effect; his first action is -2 dice, his second is -3 dice, and his last three (from Celerity) are all normal.
• Specific supernatural powers
  • Celerity: spend a blood point, next turn get one extra action per dot of Celerity
    • Activating Celerity is a reflex (does not count as an action, thus cannot be activated multiple times per turn). (VtM 153 "spends a single blood point", 191)
    • Celerity extra actions must be physical, not mental like Dominate. (VtM 153)
  • Rage (Certain Shifters Only): this turn, get one extra action per point spent (maximum = half your Rage)
    • The 'half your Rage' cap applies only to Rage spent for extra actions, you can spend more Rage on other things in the same turn (WtA 205)
    • If you perform more actions in a turn than either Dexterity or Wits, all actions are +3 difficulty
      • Dexterity is the only limiter during Frenzy, Wits is ignored.
  • Distort Time (Time 3): next turn, get one extra action per 2 successes
  • Faith (some apocalyptic forms): this turn, get one extra action per point spent; first extra action is -1 initiative, second is -2, etc.

Targeting

• May bypass armor or cover
• Medium (arm, leg, briefcase): +1 difficulty, normal damage
• Small (hand, head, laptop): +2 difficulty, +1 damage
• Precise (eye, heart, lock): +3 difficulty, +2 damage
  • Stake through heart: target vampire's heart and do 3+ damage (after soak); vampire is conscious and can use Auspex, but can't move or spend blood

Defensive maneuvers

• Each of the target's successes cancels one of the attacker's successes on the attack roll.
• Even if you have lower initiative, you can declare a defense against an anticipated attack that hasn't been declared yet. If the attack does occur, then your defense resolves at the same time (though it may turn out to be ineffective, e.g. trying to block a gunshot).
• To abort to a defense, see "Aborting actions / Changing actions".

Block

• Dexterity + Brawl
• Close combat only
• Can't block lethal or aggravated unless you can soak it

Dodge

• Dexterity + Dodge
• Versus Melee or Brawl: requires enough room to bob and weave
• Versus Firearms: requires moving at least one yard and ending up behind cover, or dropping to the ground
• Difficulty may vary based on how much cover is available (see Cover) and how far away it is (see Movement)
• Does not require declaring which attack you're trying to dodge
• Kitsune can't botch Dodge rolls (counts as simple failure)

Parry

• Dexterity + Melee
• Close combat only
• Requires weapon or shield
• If you parry an unarmed attack with a lethal or aggravated weapon and get more successes, you damage the attacker, adding 1 damage die for each extra success

Desperate defense

• Declare that you'll spend the entire turn performing defensive actions
• Instead of the usual penalties for multiple actions, just subtract 1 die from the second action, 2 from the third, etc.

Against combat magic

• If a magic power/item would do damage to a character, then that character can defend against it (e.g. with Dodge), subject to the same mechanics as defending against a normal attack.
  • Exception: If the power specifically locks onto the target (e.g. mage using Forces + Life and allocating a success to the latter), and the target doesn't specifically have something that negates that (e.g. another Mage with a Life shield already up and running). See also When Are Pattern Spheres Required?
  • Exception: Area-of-effect attacks require escaping the area of effect.

Close combat maneuvers

Attacks that require you to either directly touch the target, or hold a weapon that does so.

Bite

• Vampire in clinch or hold, or a turn after successfully tackling
• Shifter in appropriate form
• Dexterity + Brawl + 1
• Damage = Strength + 1 aggravated
  • Increased to Strength + 2 for Redcaps and shifters in appropriate form
  • Reduced to Strength - 1 for Gila monster Mokole in Suchid
  • Vampire can drain blood instead (up to 3 per turn)

Claw

• Vampire with Feral Claws (Protean 2, aggravated) or bone spurs (Vicissitude 3, lethal)
• Shifter in appropriate form (aggravated)
• Dexterity + Brawl
• Damage = Strength + 1

Clinch / Grapple

• Strength + Brawl
• On success, attacker does damage = Strength
• Either character already in a clinch can use their action to:
  • Do damage = Strength
  • Escape (succeed at resisted Strength + Brawl versus Strength + Brawl)
  • Something else that doesn't require moving limbs

Disarm

• Target their weapon with your weapon: Dexterity + Melee, +1 difficulty
  • Target their weapon without a weapon: Dexterity + Brawl - 1, +2 difficulty
• If damage (before soak) exceeds target's Strength, their weapon is knocked out of their hand
• Target doesn't take damage
• Garou can only do this in Homid/Glabro/Crinos

Hold

• Strength + Brawl
• On success, attacker holds target (no damage)
• Either character already in a hold can use their action to:
  • Escape (succeed at resisted Strength + Brawl versus Strength + Brawl)
  • Something else that doesn't require moving limbs

Jab pistol

• Dexterity + Melee with pistol
• On success, shoot for +2 damage
  • Rubber bullets do normal damage, but lethal instead of bashing
• Target can try disarm if they act before you

Kick

• Dexterity + Brawl, +1 difficulty, damage = Strength + 1
• Garou can only do this in Homid/Glabro/Crinos

Multiple opponents

• Attack and defense are +1 difficulty per each additional attacker, maximum +4

Riposte

• Successful parry with weapon, next action is attack with that weapon against that character: +1 die

Strike / punch

• Normal brawl attack
• Garou can only do this in Homid/Glabro/Crinos

Sweep

• Dexterity + Brawl (leg) or Melee (weapon)
  • Garou in Crinos can sweep smaller target with arm
• +1 difficulty
• On success:
  • Damage = Strength (leg) or normal (weapon)
  • Target knocked down unless they succeed at Dexterity + Athletics (+2 difficulty, reflex)

Tackle / Body slam

• Strength + Brawl
• +1 difficulty
• On success:
  • Damage = Strength + 1
  • Attacker knocked down unless they succeed at Dexterity + Athletics (+1 difficulty, reflex)
  • Target knocked down unless they succeed at Dexterity + Athletics (+1 difficulty, reflex)
  • Target is +1 difficulty to all actions next turn
• On botch, attacker is knocked down or takes damage = target's Stamina

Weapon length / Close distance

• Target's weapon longer than yours: -1 die

Weapon strike

• Normal melee attack

Ranged maneuvers

Aiming

• Requires Firearms 1+ for a gun or Archery 2+ for a bow
• Can't be used with shotguns or SMGs
• Spend one or more turns doing nothing but aiming
• +1 die per turn (maximum of your Perception)
• Additional +2 dice (regardless of number of turns) if using a scope or laser sight
• Target must be moving no faster than walk

Automatic fire

• Requires SMG or assault rifle with clip at least half full
• +2 difficulty, +10 dice, empty clip
• Damage isn't increased, except by extra successes as usual
• Can't target specific body parts
• Counts as a single action

Cover

• Light (lying prone, behind telephone pole / streetlight): +1 difficulty to be hit, normal difficulty to hit
• Good (behind wall): +2 difficulty to be hit, +1 difficulty to hit
• Superior (only head exposed): +3 difficulty to be hit, +2 difficulty to hit
• Relic bullets discorporate upon hitting a solid Skinlands object

Multiple shots

• Multiple-action penalties apply as normal
• Can't exceed weapon's rate of fire

Range

• Within 2 yards (point-blank): -2 difficulty
• Outside normal range: +2 difficulty
• Outside maximum range (twice normal range): automatic miss

Reloading

• Takes an action
• While readying another arrow for a bow normally takes an action, if the archer has prepared additional arrows for easy acceess beforehand - such as by stabbing them tip-first into the ground in front of them - they may freely split pools and otherwise take extra shots as normal without having to spend actions on reloading (at least until they run out of prepared arrows).

Strafing / Spraying

• Requires SMG or assault rifle with clip at least half full
• +2 difficulty, +10 dice, empty clip
• All targets must be within 3 yards of each other
• Successes divided evenly among all targets, attacker chooses how to assign leftovers
  • If only one target, successes are halved
• Damage isn't increased, except by extra successes as usual
• Dodging such an attack is +1 difficulty
• Can't target specific body parts
• Counts as a single action

Three-round burst

• Requires rate of fire 3+
• +1 difficulty, +2 dice
• Damage isn't increased, except by extra successes as usual
• Counts as a single action

Two weapons

• Off hand is +1 difficulty, unless you have the Ambidextrous merit at either 1 or 2 dots
• Multiple-action penalties apply as normal, unless you have the Ambidextrous merit at 2 dots and take no other actions that turn
  • See '+explain Ambidextrous' for further details
• Some weapons require both hands, though the +1 difficulty does not apply (all relevant +equip templates include 'Two-Handed: Y')

Complications

Blinded

• Attacking a blinded target: +2 dice
• Close combat or other vision-dependent action while blinded: +2 difficulty
• Ranged combat or other vision-dependent action while blinded: +6 difficulty
• Partly/fully reduced by:
  • Heightened Senses (Auspex 1, penalty halved)
  • Eyes of the Beast (Protean 1, no penalty)
  • Blind Fighting skill (close combat only, Perception + Blind Fighting without applying blindness penalty, reflex)
    • A success reduces your penalty by 1 or reduces bonus to attack you by 1
    • Each 2 additional successes reduce your penalty by 1 or reduce bonus to attack you by 1
  • Other relevant supernatural effects

Dazed / Stunned

• Occurs when damage successes (after soak) exceed target's Stamina (mortal or mortal+) / Stamina+2 (supernatural)
• Target loses all actions next turn
• Attacking a dazed target: -2 difficulty

Immobilized

• Attacking a partly immobilized target: +2 dice
• Attacking a fully immobilized target: minimum 1 success

Knockdown

• Dexterity + Athletics (reflex)
  • Success: get up immediately, but -2 initiative next turn
  • Failure: getting up requires an action
  • Botch: 1 bashing, unsoakable
• Until you get up:
  • Close combat attacks by you are -2 dice
  • Attacks against you are +2 dice

Movement

• Attacker moving faster than walk: +1 difficulty
• Target moving faster than walk: +1 difficulty

Magic during combat

Limits by race

• Mages can only cast one Arete effect per turn. (MtA 155)
  • Triggering an Artifact/Invention uses your Arete (but gives you more oomph per success) and thus counts against your limit. Continuously active items don't need to be triggered. (FbDF 15-16)
  • Triggering a Talisman/Device uses the item's Arete and thus doesn't count against your limit; you and the item can each cast one Arete effect per turn. (FbDF 46)

Durations

• One-turn duration ends at the end of the turn in which the power was used, unless the power specifies otherwise (e.g. Celerity gives extra actions during the turn after you use it).
• In general, the power's stated effect is part of the same action, unless it explicitly sets up for a future action (e.g. Lore of Winds 3: the evocation's effect is limited to forming the dice pool, then you use it on a later action).

Additional fera stuff

• Corax in Crinos or Corvid: -1 diff Athletics
• Gurahl in anything but Homid: -2 diff Perception based on smell, +2 diff Perception based on sight
• Rokea in Chasmus or Gladius have jagged skin (hit them barehanded -> 2 levels lethal, soakable if you can soak lethal)