Combat

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The Solar Exalted have returned to a world teeming with enemies, from the hired armies of greedy princes and the elite assassins of the Wyld Hunt to hostile Exalts determined to halt the Solars' rise to power. Battle is unavoidable.

How Combat Works

Combat in Exalted is a dynamic and cinematic affair. Heroes leap into battle, daiklaves flashing. They knock opponents through teahouse railings in showers of splintered wood; they're hurled through stone walls by the blows of terrible demons, only to rise and rush back into the fray. Nimble demigods run across treetops or race over the massed arrow barrages of armies. Swordsmen drive each other through rain-slick streets in symphonies of ringing steel, until a final, fatal blow settles the fight.

In order to win a battle in the Exalted Storyteller System, characters must seize the upper hand during the course of battle (by raising their Initiative) and then find the proper moment to capitalize on their advantage with a decisive blow (filling an enemy's Health Track with damage). A character whose Health Track is completely filled with damage is Incapacitated—unconscious (if his last Health Level is marked off with bashing damage), or dead or dying (if filled with lethal damage). In any event, he's not a threat any more.

Combat proceeds in a series of rounds, during which each combatant acts once; the order in which characters take turns acting is determined by their Initiative ratings (in order from highest to lowest). Generally each combatant will attempt to attack another character in each round, attempting to either bolster her Initiative at the expense of an enemy's Initiative (known as a withering attack), or to "cash in" a high Initiative value to damage an opponent's Health Track and hopefully defeat him (known as a decisive attack). When no enemies remain to offer resistance, the battle is over.

When no enemies remain to offer resistance, the battle is over.

Withering and Decisive Attacks

Whenever a character attacks, his player must decide whether the attack is withering or decisive. Withering attacks attempt to damage their target's Initiative score, raising the attacker's Initiative by the same amount of damage inflicted on the target. Decisive attacks inflict damage directly to an opponent's Health Track, but their potential to inflict that damage is determined by the attacker's current Initiative rating.

Withering attacks model the rising tension of cinematic combat, allowing drama to drive the mechanics of battle. Daiklaves and armor ring in showers of sparks. Near-misses cleave and shatter the fighters' surroundings, as the two drive one another across the battlefield. These are the exchanges that escalate a battle toward its conclusion—in cinema, it is the beginning of the fight where martial artists exchange blows that sting and stagger, or where two swordsmen clash and attempt to force an opening.

Because withering attacks determine the ebb and flow of battle, they factor in all the advantages that combatants brings to the battlefield—the strength of their weapons, their fighting prowess, and the protection of their armor. The more advantages a combatant has in a fight, the easier it is for him to seize the upper hand!

An opponent who is 'struck' by a withering attack is disadvantaged in some way. He may be left off-balance as his desperate avoidance leaves him backing toward a corner, or landing on unstable footing. He may suffer a glancing blow from a weapon that sets him off-balance, or suffer an unarmed strike that winds him, but doesn't put him down for the count. Because withering attacks only damage the target's Initiative, they never inflict more than superficial damage to the opponent—a dramatic scratch or slight bruise at most.

If withering attacks are the cinematic build-up which makes up the majority of clashes between heroes, decisive attacks are the turning points or conclusions of such battles. In a decisive attack, the character makes a dramatic play to end the fight; the result of the dice roll tells whether he succeeds completely, partially, or not at all.

Successful decisive attacks inflict damage to the opponent's Health Track. A daiklave rips through the opponent's chest or beheads him entirely; a warhammer staves in ribs; a martial artist lands a brutal spinning kick to the opponent's temple, staggering him or knocking him out. One character seizes the Initiative he's accumulated and uses it to end the fight—or tries to. A character that attempts a decisive attack and fails cedes some of his advantage, and may soon find himself facing a comeback from his opponent.

Because decisive attacks are the result of seizing the Initiative provided by withering attacks, the quality of the combatants' arms has only a limited effect on their outcome. Even a lowly mortal hero armed with a knife may strike down one of the Solar Exalted, should the battle have brought him to the right moment.

Withering Attacks and Drama

To be clear, withering and decisive attacks are a game abstraction used to model the cinematic nature of combat between heroes in Creation. Individuals within the world of Exalted would recognize no such distinction; setting aside feints and the like, characters absolutely intend for most withering attacks to injure or kill their target. The players and Storyteller declare attacks as withering or decisive to create satisfying and exciting battles; for characters, each cut and thrust is made in deadly earnest.

The default assumption is that a withering attack depicts a glancing blow—something that grazes the character, or strikes his armor without wounding. Players might use stunts to also depict successful withering attacks as nearmisses that characters unbalance themselves avoiding, or put themselves into bad tactical positions parrying at the last moment, but the usual assumption is that it's a glancing blow.

Withering attacks must be described as serious combat maneuvers—they're usually intended as killing or disabling blows by the characters who make them. You might also describe a withering attack as a feint to draw your opponent off-guard, or an intricate kata intended to force an opening for a finishing blow. What's not valid, ever, is "I wither him to steal some Initiative." Initiative is a system abstraction of momentum and tactical advantage—you have to do things to establish that advantage. It isn't something combatants directly interact with in the setting.

Resolving Attacks

Explained below are the steps in resolving attacks, followed by an explanation of the elements involved.

Resolving a Withering Attack

First, you decide what combat Ability your character is attacking with—Archery, Brawl, Martial Arts, Melee, or Thrown. Based on this decision, you make an attack roll:

Step One: Roll (Dexterity + [relevant combat Ability] + weapon's accuracy and any other modifiers) against a difficulty of the target's Defense. If the roll produces fewer successes than the target's Defense, it fails.

Step Two: If attack succeeds, determine its raw damage. Raw damage is an attack's damage rating before soak is subtracted. Raw damage is usually calculated as (attacker's Strength + weapon's damage value + threshold successes on attack roll in Step One.) A few weapons, such as firewands and crossbows, omit Strength from this calculation.

Step Three: Subtract target's soak from the attack's raw damage. This cannot produce a result lower than the weapon's Overwhelming rating. Roll a dice pool equal to whatever damage remains after soak. Unlike decisive attacks, the Double 10s rule does apply to withering damage rolls.

Step Four: First, you gain one point of Initiative simply for landing a successful withering attack. Then count up the successes on the damage roll. Subtract that amount from the target's Initiative, and add it to your character's Initiative.

Resolving a Decisive Attack

Decisive attacks carry a penalty if used unsuccessfully— choose your moment to launch decisive attacks carefully! As with a withering attack, you start by selecting which combat Ability your character is attacking with.

Step One: Roll (Dexterity + [relevant combat Ability] + any modifiers) against a difficulty of the target's Defense. You do not add your weapon's accuracy to this roll. If the roll fails, and your current Initiative is 1-10, your character loses 2 Initiative. If it's 11+ and the attack fails, your character loses 3 Initiative.

Step Two: If attack is successful, roll your current Initiative value as a dice pool. The Double 10s rule does not apply to this roll. If your target has Hardness equal to or greater than your damage pool in this step, you inflict no damage but your attack is still considered a success; proceed to Step Four.

Step Three: Count up the successes on the Initiative roll. Apply that many levels of damage to the target's Health Track. This damage will be bashing or lethal, as determined by the weapon used.

Step Four: If the attack was successful, reset your character's Initiative value to 3 (also known as "Resetting to base value.")

Elements of Combat

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Combat Timing

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