Who goes First?
There are a couple of ways that this can be resolved.
- The first and most basic is descending order of action. Close combat between already engaged parties goes first, followed by ranged combat, followed by newly initiated physical combat, followed by everyone else.
- Another way that can be used is Character Initiative. You do not make an initiative test, it stays the same through the entire combat. Highest goes first, then descending from there. In case of ties, player characters act before NPCs. Vampires before mortals, then by highest composure, and if still tied then roll a die. At the beginning of each turn everyone declares and executes their action in order of initiative.
Surprise Attacks
Generally this needs something like a Dexterity + Stealth vs. the best opposing Wits + Awareness. This includes attacks from supernatural concealment like Obfuscate.
If successfully surprised, the first attack is made against a static Difficulty 1, allowing for devastating strikes to happen.
Example: Paul has managed to sneak up on Joe. They attack Joe with a Strength + Brawl and converts every success above 1 into damage.
Called Shots
When you seek to place your attack in a specific location on your opponent, it is a called shot. This can include shooting out the tires of a car, hitting a cup out of a hand, slicing a thigh. Called shots are also used when trying to decapitate or stake someone.
To do so, the attacker declares the action and called shot before rolling dice. After they test, you subtract successes. This subtraction is usually -2, but the ST can modify this number in either direction depending on the nature of the target. Hitting the car wheels might only be a -1, where trying to pierce the fuel line of a plane might be -4.
Called shots are more likely to aim for less damage, at the expense of effectiveness.
Minor Actions
There are often little actions your character will want to do during rounds of combat that won't necessarily require a dice roll or full action dedicated to them. However they aren't insignficant enough that it shouldn't have some impact. Things such as readying/drawing a weapaon or item, reloading a weapon, running more than a few steps do take time away from your main action. Minor actions will subtract dice from your dice pool, as assigned by the ST. The ST will take into consideration the impact of the minor action against the primary action as well as the time frame. The ST may allow minor actions asigning a dice penalty for each. If a player wishes to only perform minor actions in a turn (and thus no dice roll to be impacted), then the ST will determine how many minor actions will be possible.
Examples:
- Drawing a weapon: 1-2 dice
- Reloading a weapon: 2 dice
- Digging through an overstuffed purse for the can of mace: 2 dice
- Showing up late to an investigation: 1-3 dice
Close Combat
Rolls for Close combat is usually as follows:
- Unarmed attacks: Strength + Brawl
- One-handed melee weapons: Dexterity + Melee
- Two-handed melee weapons: Strength + Melee
The defender rolls as above, or uses Dexterity + Athletics to dodge. In cases where both are attacking each other, they both roll once and who ever gets more successes does damage to the other.
Bite Attacks
Vampires can use their fangs as weapons during a brawl based encounter. To attempt such a maneuver, the player must declare their intention to bite before rolling. This is done either through a successful grapple or directly with a Strength + Brawl called shot with a -1 success penalty. Unless they are part of a grapple they are easier to defend against.
On a win the attacker bites their victim and deals them exactly 2 Aggravated damage no matter the margin of success. The one that has been bitten can break free with a contest of Strength + Brawl as per the rules of grappling. Feeding does one point of Aggravated Damage to mortals per turn as well as slake 1 Hunger for the feeder. Against a vampire, a feeding attack increases the target's Hunger instead. Feeding on a vampire slakes 1 point of Hunger. However, if you are 2 points of Blood Potency higher or more, then the drinker slakes 2 points of Hunger per one taken from the Donor. The opposite is true as well, feeding from a vampire of at least 2 levels of Blood Potency less than the drinker slakes only 1 point of Hunger and gives 2 points of Hunger to the donor. This risks a blood bond.
Grappling
You can attempt to grapple, hold, tackle, or otherwise restrain someone by rolling Strength + Brawl. If you get more successes, you do no damage, but instead successfully grapple your opponent. This prevents them from moving, engaging other opponents and forces them to react to you as normal or attempt to break the grapple. The next round the one grappling can do a contest of Strength + Brawl. If the grappler wins, they can do a few things:
- Damage the one being held by the margin of successes, like a normal attack
- They can bite the foe if a vampire and apply 2 Aggravated damage for a bite attack
- Hold them in place
If the one that was being held wins the contested roll, they break free and escape the grapple.
Ranged Combat
This includes all manner of ranged weapons, such as pistols, crossbows and vehicle-mounted machine guns.
Standard roll is Composure + Firearms, but a sniper might use Resolve instead. A firearm showdown would be Dexterity + Firearms for the first shot. Firing at a target beyond effective range is a -2 dice penalty.
Example: Jason shoots Sam. He rolls Composure + Firearms with 4 successes. Sam attempts to dodge with Dexterity + Athletics with 2 successes. Jason does 2 damage plus the weapon rating of his gun.
Thrown weapons: this uses Dexterity + Athletics. For vampires this includes things that are thrown that are not typical weapons, such as cars or a piece of an I-beam. This also includes things like Molotov cocktails.
Ranged weapons in closed combat: if in close combat the wielder of a firearm uses Strength + Firearms against the opponents Brawl or Melee. The firearm user suffers a -2 dice penalty if targeting someone outside of the scuffle, as well as a -2 penalty for any firearm larger than a pistol.
Reloading and ammunition: V5 does not generally track ammunition expendatures for small arms, but an attack can often represent more then one shot of the gun. STs can require reloading after a single attack with small-capacity firearms such as the Colt 45, after two attacks with most automatic pistols and rifles and after three attacks from a 30+ cartridge magazines. Reloading is a 2 dice minor action.