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General Combat

• Huge soak - for every 5 (round down) soak that a character has in excess of the total unsoaked damage dice of an attack, the target number of the single die which is rolled goes up by one, to a max of 10.

Initiative

• Despite the fact that it slows down combat significantly, I play with the WoD system of declaring actions in reverse order of initiative. In my opinion, it encourages a more interesting and strategic battle.

• Actions are begun at the beginning of the round, and those who win initiative are able to hear the declarations of the actions of the characters who lost initiative.

• Those declarations include supplemental charm use. Storyteller discretion determines if a character is able to perceive a charm at work, with Solar charms very generally being best able to conceal their nature. Reflexive per+occult rolls may be made to determine the charm use, at a DC of 11- the number of motes spent to power the charms, min 1.

• Actions are begun at the beginning of the round.

• Characters' actions actually get underway on their initiative+speed, only if they are present at their target. Otherwise, characters of normal size and speed act at -1 from their initiative for every yard they must move to reach their target, +1 for every success the character makes on a reflexive Dex+Ath roll to move quickly, up to their normal initiative.

• Penalties to initiative for distance are non-cumulative with speed penalties for slow weapons. Use whichever is worse.

• Weapon speed is factored into initiative for an action only if the action taken uses the weapon.

• Every additional action taken during a round without charm use (normal multiple actions) acts at cumulative -1 initiative.

• Additional successes on defensive actions beyond what is necessary to dodge/parry/block an attack are usually added to speed on the following round.

• And, as an unnecessary change, I use wits before dex as the tiebreaker for initiative. If the final speeds are a tie, and each character has the same wits and dex, both characters declare silently.

-These rules are obviously significantly more complicated than those presented in the core, and not recommended for storytellers who are not very familiar with the combat system or players who want battles to move quickly. They are a work in progress that is constantly playtested with the intention of generating a system which integrates well into my very realistic style of gameplay, focusing on drama and realism above simplicity. They are in effect in my games, where I keep track of basically all of the number crunching for my players, and work well in that capacity. Please comment much. Thanks

Archery

Arrows may be parried or blocked. The DC is 3, and all of the successes from the attack roll must be removed by the parry or block for the defense to remove any of the success. It is an all-or-nothing attempt. Dodging works as normal.\\ -Parrying or blocking an arrow can be done, but it is very difficult, no matter the skill of the archer, and it's basically impossible to kinda parry an arrow

Aiming - I play that additional time may be spent aiming a ranged weapon to increase accuracy. Aiming is a simple action that requires the complete concentration of the character (no actions or charm activations at all), and my only be performed on a target that is either still or moving with utter predictability (ie a straight line, a slight rhythmic bob, or a constant curve, but not a falling leaf or an opponent in combat). Targets who notice the character and have any chance to act negate the aiming completely. For each round spent aiming this way, the character gains +1 accuracy on his eventual attack. Against immobilte targets less than the character's Dex+ (Arc or Thr) yds away, this bonus increases to +2 per round. No more dice may be gained in this way than the character's combat ability or perception, whichever is lower. An aiming action may be disrupted in a similar fashion to sorcery. \\ -This makes archery even more powerful. It also makes thrown a lot more useful. But you really can aim, and I strive for realism. Plus, this encourages aspects of archery and thrown like sniping an assassinations, which, in my opinion, are the greatest strengths of ranged attacks. And it helps to facilitate assassinations without charms or poison.

Ranged Disarm - Ranged disarms are DC 3, and the attacker's extra successes are limited by his melee.\\ - Weapons move very fast. Hitting them may not mechanically require a great knowledge of how a weapon is wielded, knowing when and where to hit them to disarm an opponent does. Simply hitting a sword with an arrow may well not be enough. You have to know how to hit it to make your opponent drop it.

Brawl

Strength in a Clinch - Instigating a clinch or hold requires a Dex+(Bra or MA) roll. Maintaining or escaping a clinch or hold may use (Dex or Str) + (Bra or MA)\\ -You can force your way out of a clinch, and strength is a major determiner for how hard you can hold onto someone.

Clinch Damage - During a clinch, damage dealt equals Str+ Bra/2 (rounded up)\\ -Actual fighting prowess does factor into the amount of damage you can do, even while clinching

Exceptional Blocks - (see Exceptional Parries in Melee)

Full Block - (see Full Parry in Melee)

Disarm - (see Disarm in Melee)

Sweep - A sweep is an offensive action using Brawl or MA. The difficulty of the roll is 2, and the attack may be dodged or parried. If successful, the attack does base Str-1 damage, with extra success counting half for damage rounded up). The target, if struck, must also roll Dex + Ath DC number of success scored on the attack, or fall.\\ -A sweep is difficult to hit with. It does little damage, and even a wonderful sweep won't do that much damage. However, a good sweep is good at doing what it is meant to, knocking the target down.

Martial Arts

Mobility penalty subtracts dice from basically all martial arts actions.\\ -I prefer to see all martial arts as requiring a degree of body control that is inhibited by armor. Plus, this helps to balance it with brawl

Exceptional Block - (see Exceptional Parry in Melee)

Full Block - (see Full Parry in Melee)

Disarm - (see Disarm in Melee)

Sweep - (see Sweep in Brawl)

Melee

Full Parries - Characters in combat who win or lose initiative may revert to a full parry. This allows them to split their dice pools to attempt to parry all of one opponent's attacks. The dice pools for these parries work the same way as normal multiple action dice pools +1. This +1 is applicable only if the parrier makes multiple parries, and will not bring any parry pool above his normal, unsplit parry pool. For example, a character with 10 dice has won initiative over a character with 10 dice, and declared 4 attacks. The character who lost initiative reverts to a full parry, which is possible because all of the attacks came from one person, and decides to full parry with a full 4 parries. The attacker's dice pool is the normal 6,5,4,3 (10-4,10-5, etc). The defender's pool is 7,6,5,4. (10-4+1,10-5+1, etc). The defender could have decided to full parry only 3 of the attacks, in which case, his pool would have been 8,7,6 (10-3+1, 10-4+1,etc). \\ -For cinematic reasons, I prefer people to not have to either take dodge or win initiative. This allows actual swordfights between two people who are skilled and still don't want to be hit. It does lessen the necessity and value of dodge, but I believe that the restriction that one can only full-parry one person leaves dodge with easily enough value to balance it with the other combat stats for general usefulness. The +1 for the full-parry attempts to facilitate a slight advantage for the defender.

Exceptional parries - For every success beyond what is necessary to parry the final incoming attack of a round, a character gets +1 on his speed against the same person for the next round of combat. \\ -This helps to emulate non-magical ripostes and grants slower characters the possibility of winning initiative if they are very skilled, which is especially important for mortals with slow weapons. This way, even they won't have to revert all the time if they outmatch their opponent

Disarm - The difficulty on disarm rolls is now 2, and weapons which lower the difficulty of disarms by 1 now add 1 die to disarm attempts. If the initial attempt succeeds, the attacker must roll Str + successes, with a difficulty of the opponent's combat ability. Success means that the weapon is knocked away.\\ -Disarms should be relatively easy on targets who lack skill, and very difficult on very skilled opponents. But it should not be nearly impossible without the use of charms.

Thrown

Thrown weapons can be parried or blocked. Most slow-moving and larger weapons, like javelins, knives, and hatchets are DC 2 to parry or block. Smaller things like darts and bullets are DC 3. Either way, all successes must be removed for the defense to have any effect. Dodges work normally.\\ -Thrown weapons move very quickly, and are so small that they are difficult to block, and it is very unlikely that anyone should kinda block a thrown weapon

Aiming - (see Aiming in Archery)

Ranged Disarm - (see Ranged Disarm in Archery)

Comments

ISo. Some of these look like you've got some interesting postmodern understanding of the rules. I'm about to ask a few questions; please forgive the cold and bitter wording.

• Initiative: Is the Dexterity + Athletics "moving quickly" roll a dice action, or a reflexive action?
• Arrow parrying: Your rules change makes it dramatically more difficult to parry arrows, especially the flights of the Chosen. This worries me; Solar Archery is strong under the basic rules, and you have just amped it up even farther. I would remind you that success-reduction is a very important defensive tactic in Exalted; you should think carefully about removing it for any form of combat, and particularly about removing it for one type of defense versus one type of attack.
• Who are you?

- willows

-Hi. I'm Morpheus. I'm an unimportant storyteller and player of various games. Exalted is my favorite. It's nice to meet you, willows. \\ So, the moving quickly roll for my games is a reflexive roll. \\ The arrow parrying rule that I play with is annoying as anything can be. I always have seen archery as a form of combat which is capable of bringing down powerful fighters, in a way similar to that in the movie Fellowship of the Ring. I like the idea that a guy who's great with a sword with 4 archers on him is screwed. However, archery in my games gets a lot of similarly annoying rulings. Archery is for distance, and as a result, it takes up both your hands, and it's similarly difficult to parry or block things with arrows. I think it evens out, especially with a full parry rules I play with. But I do get your point. As a balance issue, though, it's tough.\\ -Morpheus

I'm kinda with Willow on the Archery thing. I understand the "not kinda parrying," but I'd say that that accounts for the over-all difficulty of parrying an arrow anyway. In other words I think the diff. 3 to parry an arrow is unnecessary if it's an all-or-none situation anyway (which I like).\\ ~*~Braydz~*~

Actually, after lengthy convincing at the hands of the forumites, I tend to agree that you only get to declare on your initiative. The initiatives are read in reverse numerical order, and when your initiative comes up, you can either declare, hold, or split your dice pool and use some now and hold others. This way, if you're faster than someone, you can get the drop on 'em by pressing the speed advantage, or you can hold your action and split it as you go for reactive actions, like parries and counterattacks. - SilverMeerKat

-I didn't get that. Do you go with declaring actions like the WoD does, or do you go for the declare/act method?\\ -Morpheus

I don't do it WoD-style. I think that getting better initiative than someone should give you a choice: either act now and force them to react, or wait and react to them. Or, of course, split your dice pool, do something now, and hold an action or three to react with. The advantage of winning initiative is that you get to choose whether you act or react, not that you get to do both (without splitting your action) - if you act before someone, you're not waiting to see what they're going to do, and if you're reacting to them then you're not acting before they do. \\ -SilverMeerKat

These houserules are horrifyingly ill-conceived, disgustingly overpowered, and generally dangerous and illegal. Why, just the other day I saw one selling heroin to a 9-year-old on a streetcorner. Curb your houserules, Morpheus ... curb them before it's too late! \\ -- The Goddess of Stories

You make confusing noises, Ms. Goddess of Stories lady. The only thing I really disagree with here (other than the WoD-style initiative) is the exceptional dodge/parry/block rule. That strikes me as both unnecessary and overcomplicated. I like the movement-based initiative modification, though. Also, you helped make these houserules. =P \\ - SilverMeerKat

My houserules have just been getting more and more complicated. One day Lydia got 10 successes to parry a zombie, and asked me if that had any effect beyond just blocking it, and I simply got tired of saying no. I'm hoping that I can play with it enough that it'll either be second nature to me or I'll be able to expand it further. Either way, I'm probably going to end up being the only one in my games who keeps track of all the numbers. ::shrugs:: Oh well.\\ -Morpheus

Morpheus neglects to mention that that was 10 successes on five dice. \\ Yes, that's right, 10 successes ... on ... five ... dice. On the one single roll -- a parry against a zombie -- when 10 successes on 5 dice didn't actually do a goddamn thing. \\ Screw you too, Probability. I hate you and I hope you die. On a botch. \\ ~ L

So did you parry the zombie?\\ But really dude, I implore you in the name of playability, stop before it's too late.\\ ~*~Braydz~*~

The Exceptional Etc. rule is mechanically broken. By taking a turn to parry something with a small attack pool, and gaining a significant number of successes, you boost your initiative for whatever next turn substantially, which is a significant benefit that would let you then get the upper hand on more powerful\faster opponents. It also makes no sense, cinematically; the only solution for that is if the bonus only affects actions against the same opponent, which only works most-of-the-time, if you declare actions in reverse, as you do in your rules: if two characters are fighting, and one gains a speed bonus from parrying which places them higher than their opponent, they loose a mechanical advantage if they first have to declare that they're not not attacking their opponent. Et cetera. That's the most glaring flaw, though adjusting rules-the-game-is-balanced-for so radically will certainly have some more subtle effects. ~Jabberwocky

Much thanks to you guys for the comments. I'm so glad that I'm getting criticism this quickly. So, yea. I do just what you said, adding the speed bonus for exceptional parries only on the next round's action versus a single opponent. And, since in my games, speed is factored in after initiative is rolled and actions declared, it is basically always a tactical advantage. And, I know what you mean about significantly altering the rules and stuff. I've done an awful lot of work on the game on my own time, tweaking it to my own style and for my own strengths as a storyteller, so I'm not surprised that the houserules sound crazy. But I've played with the initiative rules for a while, and they work to my satisfaction generally, so they're not too broken. The cinematicness of the exceptional parry comes into play when I think about duels, but also works for larger fights. The fighters go back and forth, and an exceptional parry can sort of turn the tide. It also means that just not having the wits + dex won't keep very well trained fighters from having to revert all day versus militiamen with spears, if you get my drift. So yea, thanks a lot.\\ -Morpheus

Oh, Morpheus, I don't have those finished rules. Adam was supposed to be working on them before he dropped off the face of the planet. Which, by the way, is why the game hasn't been happening, so if you hear from him tell him to call me. - SilverMeerKat

Would SOMEONE PLEASE get me a copy of the combat rules we're using?\\ PLEASE???\\ ~*~Braydz~*~

It's all Adam at this point. He's the only one who has anything like a copy, and it's more like a working draft. By the way, he asked me to apologize to everyone for going poof. I'm getting pretty close to just NPCing him for a couple of sessions and then letting him just stay back at his hometown, so he could "reappear" when he wanted. - SilverMeerKat

I like most of the combat house rules you have made and will start to use them in my own campaign. The only parts I did not like is the initiative rules. I have tried them in the past and found them to combersome. My players are still going to have to come up with a stund to dodge arrows. And I won't use the Brawling rules as I think they work very well as stated in the core book. -Trueform

Why thank you very much. I'm so pleased that anything at all appeals to you. I'd kinda like to know who you are, though. - Morpheus

My grapples are posted in the link below (Edit: posted at LorienFeanturi/HouseRules). I'll post them on Vin's page, too, once me and him work out idiosyncracies for his game. These are based on an old copy, and so are far from complete (new copy died with computer.) Apologies for the absence. In all liklihood, Vin's going to NPC me until my comp comes back. I can't promise enough access to be fair to the rest of the group. Sorry. - ~Adam~

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