Fighting Styles

Boxing (Style; • to •••••)
Prerequisites: Strength ••, Dexterity ••, Stamina ••, Brawl ••, Athletics ••

Style Tags: Striking

Effect: Trading blows with the hands dates back to Classical times, and probably earlier — some biologists believe our hands have been optimized to deliver blows. There are hundreds of folk styles of boxing, from West Africa’s Dambe to the Filipino method known as Suntukan or Panantukan. This style concentrates on the modern combat sport, which combines European methods with innovations developed by trainers or borrowed from other cultures. Your character is trained in modern boxing, or a similar traditional style.

Head Protection (•): The head is the primary target for most boxers, so your character has learned to protect it by bobbing, weaving, and angling away from blows. Your character’s Defense increases by 1 against unarmed strikes or weapons that use the Brawl Skill, and attackers suffer an additional –1 penalty to target her head.

Defensive Jab (••): Your character interrupts attacks with well-timed punches from the lead hand. Any time an opponent misses with a Brawl or Weaponry attack, your character inflicts one point of bashing damage which ignores armor. If your character Dodges, change this to one point of bashing damage per two successes that exceed the opponent’s attack successes (a minimum of one, but round fractions down).

Knockout Artist (•••): Your character knows how to knock someone out. She now treats the target’s Size as 1 lower at all times for the purposes of inflicting the Stunned Tilt, reflecting her ability to casually hit someone in the head. If you suffer a penalty to target the head as a true specified target, treat the target’s Size as 2 lower for the purpose of inflicting the Tilt.

Combination (••••): Your character learns to fire off several blows in rapid succession, so that if one hits, the others often follow. If your character’s Brawl strike succeeds, roll her Dexterity dots as dice and add successes to damage to reflect other blows striking home.

Out for the Count (•••••): When your character knocks someone out they don’t get back up any time soon. When she inflicts the Stunned Tilt it not only lasts for a number of turns equal to the damage she inflicted, but it produces true unconsciousness for that period unless the victim spends a point of Willpower.

Brute Force (Style; • to ••••)
Prerequisites: Strength •••, Brawl •••

Effect: This Fighting Style Merit was originally presented in the Strange Alchemies sourcebook for Promethean: The Created. See p. 57 of that book for a full accounting. Dots purchased in this Merit allow characters access to specific combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the subsequent maneuver. So, your character cannot possess “Crush and Bite” before he has “Falling Pillar.” The Merit’s maneuvers and their effects are described below. All Maneuvers are based on the Brawl Skill.

Falling Pillar (•): By spending a Willpower point, you may gain 9 again on a Brawl attack. This expenditure does not add the usual three dice to the dice pool, and you must have both hands free to use the maneuver.

Crush and Bite (••): This maneuver is used only during a successfully maintained grapple. If the character succeeds on a grapple with his opponent, any Strength + Brawl rolls made in an effort to do damage to the subdued opponent inflicts lethal damage, not bashing. (The character needn’t truly “crush and bite,” and may instead choke, head-butt or even smother. The damage is still lethal.)

Juggernaut (•••): The character uses his entire body as a weapon. He barrels forward, smashing his head into his opponent and throwing the rest of his weight into the attack. This is an “all-out attack” per p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook. The character foregoes his Defense, but gains a +4 bonus to the roll as opposed to the normal +2 bonus. Normal all-out attack rules apply. If the attack fails, he loses a single point of Willpower.

Bone Cracker (••••): The character grabs a foe’s limb with both hands, twisting as if wringing water from a dish rag. This is a targeted attack, and is made at –2 dice (due to targeting an arm or leg). If the attack does damage equal to or exceeding the target’s Stamina, however, the bone breaks and the damage becomes lethal. A broken bone also forces the target to lose a dot of Dexterity until those lethal levels heal. Lowered Dexterity also takes away from the target’s Initiative modifier, Speed, and possibly Defense. Both hands must be free for this attack to succeed. Also, the attacker loses his Defense for the remainder of the turn.

Dream Combat (Style; • to •••••)
Prerequisite: Wyrd •••, Empathy •••

Effect: Your character has honed her oneiromachy skills to a high degree, allowing her to push the envelope of dream-battle and take the dream-bound combat beyond the reach of less experienced or dedicated oneiromancers. Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to special combat maneuvers that are only applicable for oneiromachy (dream-battles). Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. So, your character can’t have Double Team until he has Stunning Blow. The maneuvers and their effects are described below.

Stunning Blow (•): Your character’s dreamonslaught is overwhelming, literally stunning your opponent to the point of inaction. If successes inflicted in a single attack equal or exceed a target’s Wyrd, the victim loses his next action. Attacks of this strength are often accompanied by appropriate special effects in a dream, from shockwaves to tendrils of grasping fog that seem to stall the stunned opponent for a moment.

Double Team (••): Not content with a single avenue of attack, your character is adept enough with oneiromancy that he can coordinate an environmental and a personal attack against his target at the same time. The second attack suffers a –1 penalty. Drawback: Your character cannot use his Defense against any attack in the same turn in which he intends to use this maneuver. If he uses Defense against attacks that occur earlier in the Initiative roster, before he can perform this maneuver, he cannot perform the maneuver in the same turn, his attention is too focused on protecting himself.

Blind Spot (•••): Your character’s control of the dream environment is so great that it allows him to attack from the vantage point most detrimental to his opponent. He must use the lowest, rather than the highest, of her Finesse Traits (Wits, Dexterity or Manipulation) as her Defense and the lowest, rather than the highest, of her Resistance traits as her armor.

Wyrd Armor (••••): Your character’s mastery of the dream-realm protects him in battle. He may add his Wyrd to the highest of his Finesse Traits to serve as his Defense and to the highest of his Resistance traits to serve as his armor.

Coup de Grace (•••••): Even as your character’s opponent fades from the dream-arena, he is capable of delivering a final blow. At any time that an opponent in a dream-combat is beginning to waken (i.e., has dropped to or below 0 Willpower), he may deliver one final dream-attack (environmental or personal) against her as she wakes. She may not use her Defenses or armor against this attack.

Thrown Weapons (Style; • to ••)
Prerequisites: Dexterity •••, Athletics ••, Quick Draw with a thrown weapon Specialty •

Style Tags: Light Melee, Agile

Effect: Knives, darts, throwing stars, and tomahawks are all weapons your character can send flying in her enemy’s direction. Many warrior cultures have used thrown projectiles in wartime or for hunting purposes and may teach this Style. Also, similar techniques are found among circus and sideshow acts. These manoeuvres may only be performed with edged weapons Size 1 or smaller.

Practised Toss (•): Your character knows how to throw her weapon with a quick and fluid motion. Add her Athletics score to Initiative when using a thrown weapon.

Impalement Arts (••): A well-placed throw staples an opponent’s limbs to the environment. If your character succeeds in damaging a specified target arm, leg, or hand with a thrown weapon, she inflicts the Impaled Tilt.

Drawback: The heft needed to make her throw penetrate leaves your character vulnerable. She loses her Defence any turn she uses this manoeuvre.