Combat
From Ascension Sojourns
| Gear | Weapons | Charts |
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
| Gear | Weapons | Charts | |
| Combat Systems Chart | Dramatic Feats Charts | Feats of Strength Chart | Xp Chart |
For specific wizard duel systems, see the General Mage Help under Duels and Challenges section.
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Action Summaries
| Action | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Reflexive | No roll | Spending Willpower, soaking damage, saying something brief. |
| Simple | One roll, one success needed | Throwing a punch, looking up to spot someone, making a clever remark designed to impress someone. |
| Multiple | Divide lowest dice pool between actions | Pulling out a wrench and hitting someone with it, running to a door and then yanking it shut. |
| Extended | Several rolls, with an assigned number of successes | Fixing a computer, conducting a ritual. |
| Resisted | Opposing players roll against each other | Grabbing an angry cat, impressing a potential client. |
| Extended and Resisted | Several rolls against each other | Bathing angry cat, arguing online to impress an audience. |
Declaring actions
Players will be guided to take their actions from highest initiative roll to lowest.
Staff can not find any evidence in M20 for "reverse declaration of actions" before
actions take place. The average character would not necessarily know what anyone else
in the scene is planning to do. (This is not saying you can't read an opponent to
know if they might thrust or parry).
To know the actions of your "team" before they perform, will require a Time or Entropy
rote to be in place somehow prior to the scene.
If you find evidence that reverse declaration is a 'thing' in M20, please submit +request and we will correct this.
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 Initiate roll is tied: character with highest Wits goes first,
- If Wits are tied: character with highest Dexterity goes first.
"In story terms, both characters act simultaneously, and the effects of their actions hit home at the same time." M20 Anniversary pg 400
Timing of multiple actions
See 'Multiple Actions' belwo or else the use of a Time 3 Effect that lets you move faster than usual. All multi-actions are understood to be simultaneous. Though players must declare which order they are doing their actions.
Attack Modifiers
Close combat
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
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
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
- Determine which pools your actions would require, use the lowest pool available
If you want to use do three actions and the dice pool for each action is 6,4,5 then you use the 4 dice pool and divide those 4 dice across each action. You may alott 2 dice to action 1, 1 die to action 2, and 1 die to action 3.
- Or else the use of a Time 3 Effect that lets you move faster than usual
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)
