Combat

Basic Rules

Initiative

• Dexterity + Awareness + Celerity. This is not rolled, just the dots are totaled. In the event of a tie, actions happen simultaneously.

Close Combat

• Unarmed/Brass Knuckles: Strength + Brawl

• Melee Weapon (1H): Dexterity + Melee

• Melee Weapon (2H): Strength + Melee

Ranged Combat

• Thrown Weapons: Dexterity + Athletics

• Firearms: Composure + Firearms

• Firearms in Close Combat: Strength + Firearms vs Close Combat Defense

Defenses

• Close Combat Defense: Opposed Close Combat skills or Dexterity + Athletics

• Ranged Combat Defense: Dexterity + Athletics + 1 or +2 for Cover

• Multi-Defense Penalty: Each defensive action after the first is made with cumulative -1 dice. 

• Full Defense: No actions taken during turn, +2 dice for all Defenses this turn. Does not suffer from Multi-Defense.

Weapon Damage

Situational Rules

Action Block

• Use your action to prevent another action. Make a roll against a difficulty of 1. The measure of success becomes the new difficulty.

Brutal Attacks

• When involved in combat between large amounts of weaker combatants versus much stronger characters, a vampire can elect to loosen their hold on the Beast, inviting power at the potential price of Humanity.

• The player can choose to pin one of their Hunger dice to a "10". It always must be a Hunger die. 

• This dramatically increases the odds of a messy critical, which should incur Stains.

Dirty Fighting

• Manipulation + Brawl, Firearms or Melee vs Wits + Insight or Composure + Streetwise. Subjects won't fall for the same trick twice.

• Success increases weapon damage by +2 for this one attack.

Grappling

• Grappling: Opposed Strength + Brawl. Winner does no damage against the opponent, but next round may engage in a contest that either 1) does damage based on Margins of Success 2) bite the foe for two Aggravated damage and allows the attacker to feed, or 3) hold the defender in place. If the defender wins, they escape.

Maneuver

• Maneuvers comprise any action used to gain an advantage in a conflict. This includes such actions as Aiming, Flanking, Distracting, etc. You set it up as an action with a die roll against a Difficulty of 2. Success generates 1+ measure of success in bonus dice for the next action.

Multiple Actions

• Multi-Action: Declare the number of actions you will take in the round up to a maximum of three actions. You suffer a die penalty based on the number of declared actions after the first. Example: If you declare two actions, all actions suffer a -1 penalty. If you declare three actions, all actions suffer a -2 penalty. 

• Multi-Action & Celerity: Celerity gives a kindred +1 action for every dot in Celerity, breaking the three action maximum rule. Multi-Action Penalties still apply and are further compounded. So a kindred with five dots in Celerity can attempt 8 actions in a turn, but all actions will suffer a -7 penalty. Just because you have the supernatural speed to attempt these actions does not mean you will be any better off accomplishing them.  

Surprise Attacks

• All stealthy parties roll Dexterity + Stealth vs the best opposing Wits + Awareness. This is all or nothing, so if one person fails Stealth, they all fail. The first attack with successful surprise should be made against a static Difficulty 1, allowing for devasting strikes.