Combat House Rules

Combat

Posted Thu May 15 by Judge Dredd
Create Element - Shifter
Dominate - Vampire
Jam Technology - Shifter
Presence - Vampire
Scent of Sweet Honey - Shifter
Shroud - Shifter
Speed of Thought - Shifter
True Fear - Shifter
Okay this part is about the use of powers in Combat. Also on pages 78-82 of the Combat book.
CREATE ELEMENT:(Metis Gift) If used to create fire, this Gift can cause damage. Fire caused using ordinary fuel to do damage as specified in the rulebooks. If the Garou attempts to set another character on fire directly , the character will suffer 1 Health Level per success achieved. Personal affects (such as clothing) and hair and fur are likely to continue burning, inflicting further damage, unless the character does something to put it out (like Stop, Drop and Roll).

DOMINATE: Due to the stress of combat situations the Storyteller may wish to increase the difficulty of any rolls associated with this Discipline by one or two.

Dominate 5 - Possession: This Discipline can be used to take control of an opponent and force him to kill himself, restrain others, or otherwise eliminate his combat effectiveness. If the Possessed character is killed, the possessor's mind instantly snaps back to his own body, but he is disoriented and unable to take any actions for one turn.
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JAM TECHNOLOGY: (Homid Gift) This Gift may be used to jam firearms, requiring the user to unjam them before they can be fired, or to make a weapon temporarily unusable (by detaching parts, causing it to fall to pieces and so forth)

PRESENCE 1 and 3: Awe and Entrancement: Generally, these Disciplines cannot be used in combat situations, they require a subtlety that is not present in a firefight.
PRESCENSE 2-Dread Gaze: In Combat situations, when people are already afraid, the vampire is considered to have one extra dot in Intimidation for purposes of using this Discipline.
PRESCENSE 4-Summon:If a vampire attempts to use this Discipline on a character while she is currently in combat, she is considered to have one less dot in Charisma and one less dot in Subterfuge.
PRESCENSE 5-Majesty: If this ability is successfully used in combat, the effect character will automatically flee, terrified at the thought of having dared to fight against such august a person.
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SCENT OF SWEET HONEY (Bone Gnawers Gift): Victims of this effect suffer a 1 die penalty to all rolls in combat.

SHROUD (Uktena Gift): Attacks made by or against characters in the pitch black darkness creates by this gift are at -3 unless the character possesses the means to see into or out of the darkness clearly.

SPEED OF THOUGHT (Silent Strider Gift): This Gift doubles a Garou's move for the scene.
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TRUE FEAR (Ahroun Gift) Refer to presence - DREAD GAZE above for information on how this ability works in combat.
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After much consideration, we have decided to go with the Stun/Kill/Aggravated damage system in the Combat Book, page 13.
There are three types of damage, that can be inflicted on characters: Standard(Kill) damage, Stun and aggravated.
The standard sort of damage for the ST system (called kill for short) has the potential to inure a character permanently, or even end his life. Damage from claws, fangs, ALL WEAPONS and most types of trauma (IE fire, electricity, falling, poisons) is Kill damage. Kill damage is healed as described in the various rulebooks.

Stun damage does not permanently inure a character; instead it knocks them out. When a character is incapacitated, he has been knocked unconscious. All stun damage he receives there after is considered Kill damage. Thus it's possible for one PC to beat another to death with his hands, but it takes some effort.
Garou (and other shifters) recover Stun damage at one Health level per turn. Mortals and vampires recover Stun damage at the rate of one Health level per hour. However they can make a Stamina roll (diff 6,+1 for every 2 Health Levels of Stun damage suffered) to reduce the recovery time to 1 health level per every 10 minutes.

Aggravated damage is essentially a "subspecies" of Kill Damage. Agg damage is ALWAYS kill damage. The rules on how agg damage affects and is healed by the different types of supers can be found in the rules books.
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When someone tries to surprise another in combat, several rolls must be made:
First a danger sense roll is made by the victim of the surprise. A danger sense roll consists of Auspex, Danger Sense, Primal Urge rolls, and heightened senses. If the victim makes this roll, he is not surprised.
Then a resisted action roll between the victim's per + alert vs. the attacker's dex + stealth is made. If the attacker gets no net successes, the victim is not surprised. If the attacker gets two or less successes, the victim is at +2 difficulty on all rolls for one round. If the attacker gets 3 or more net successes, the attacker gets 1 free round of attack, with the victim not getting any actions.
The definition of unsurprised will vary from case to case, but in the general case means that you detect the attack moments before it hits you. So, you'll have the opportunity to dodge at the very least.
An example of surprise:
Bob the vampire uses Obfuscate to sneak up on Dan the Werewolf. Dan makes a primal urge roll (the danger sense roll) and fails. Bob then makes a dex + stealth roll, and then Dan makes a per + alert roll. Bob gets 5 successes, Dan only gets 3, so Dan's at +2 for all rolls for the first round.
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