Attacking

Combat | Attacking | Stunts | Environment | Extras | Morale | Special Attacks | Mass Combat | Social Combat
Much like combat as a whole, every attack involves a number of discrete steps that must be resolved in the proper order.

Step One: Declaration of Attack

Order of Attack Events

1) Declaration of Attack: The attacker's player states that the character is attacking and what Charms (if any) he will activate to enhance the attack, excepting reroll effects. If the attack cannot be stopped by a particular mode of defense (dodge or parry), the attacker's player must include this information in the declaration.
2) Defender Declares Response: The defender's player decides how the character responds: A) Do nothing and accept the attack, generally resulting in severe injury, or B) Defend using best option of parry or dodge. The defender’s player must declare the use of any defensive Charms not based on a reroll.
3) Attack Roll: The attacker's player rolls (Dexterity + the Ability that governs the method of attack used—Archery, Martial Arts, Melee or Thrown) at difficulty 1, subject to the usual order of modifiers.
4) Attack Reroll: Attackers with access to reroll effects or Charms such as Essence Resurgent may use them if the player does not like the attack roll results. No die may be rerolled multiple times, and the best result is final. Characters who have already used another Excellency Charm to augment their attack may not use Essence Resurgent. If a reroll and the original roll both result in failure, the attack misses.
5) Subtract External Penalties/Apply Special Defenses: Remove successes for any external penalties that apply to the attack roll, ending with the defender’s DV. Roll the dice granted by stunts, Charms such as Essence Overwhelming and other transient dice bonuses, adding the successes to DV. Other defensive effects requiring a dice roll also occur during this step, except those involving a reroll. If no successes remain, the attack misses or the defender successfully deflects it.
6) Defense Reroll: Defenders with access to reroll Charms or like effects may use them if their DV is insufficient to completely stop the attack. In the case of Essence Resurgent, defenders can only use this Charm if they have not previously used another Excellency Charm to enhance DV against the attack.
7) Calculate Raw Damage: If the attack hits, it has a raw damage equal to its base damage (usually Strength + a fixed value for most weapons and unarmed attacks), plus a number of extra dice equal to the successes remaining after step 5. Effects modifying the raw damage of an attack apply accordingly.
8) Apply Hardness and Soak, Roll Damage: If the victim has a Hardness rating against the attack's damage type, compare the Hardness with the raw damage. If Hardness is equal or greater, the defense absorbs the attack without effect. Otherwise, the damage ignores the defender's Hardness. Next, remove the target's appropriate soak rating from the damage of the attack. If the post-soak damage is less than the attack's innate minimum damage (assume 1 unless otherwise listed) or the attacker's Essence, the raw damage has a final value equal to the greater of these two values. This cannot result in a greater raw damage than its original calculated value. Apply any effects that increase or decrease post-soak damage to the final value. Roll dice equal to the final damage of the attack, applying successes as health levels of the appropriate type of damage to the defender. The Twilight Caste anima effect resolves during this step after damage is rolled but before it is applied.
9) Counterattacks: If the victim retaliates using a counterattack (most commonly obtained through use of Charms), apply steps 1-8 to that attack.
10) Apply Results: Any non-damage effects of the attack also occur at this stage, as does the damage and effects from any counterattack launched by the defender.

The attacker's player states that her character is using an available action to attack. At this time, the player also declares any Charms or other magic that will improve the attack. This includes most supplemental, extra action and simple Charms, as well as any reflexive Charm that directly benefits the attack. Charms that are exempt from this declaration explicitly state so in their description. If the attack bypasses dodges or parries, the declaration must include this information.

Step Two: Declaration of Defense

Targets who are unaware of an attack cannot defend against it without the aid of magic. Similarly, a defender can always gamble on the opponent missing or not inflicting much damage (conserving defenses for more powerful adversaries or attacks). However, in most cases, defenders who perceive an incoming attack use the most effective means at their disposal to avoid injury. Unless she opts otherwise, the defender automatically falls back on whichever mode of defense has a better rating. In addition to declaring the type of defense, the defender's player must also declare the use of any defensive Charms not based on a reroll, unless the magic explicitly allows the defender to wait for the results of the attack roll before being activated.

Dodge DV

The first Defense Value is Dodge DV, which measures a character's capacity to get out of the way of incoming attacks. This trait equals the character's ([Dexterity + Dodge (+ Essence, if Essence is rated at 2+)] ÷ 2). Exalted and other divine beings round up, mortals and heroic mortals round down. For example, a mortal soldier with Dexterity 2, Dodge 3 and Essence 1 would have a Dodge DV o f 2, while Anoria, the glorious Solar martial artist with Dexterity 4, Dodge 4 and Essence 5 would have a Dodge DV of 7.

Parry DV

The second DV is the Parry DV, which measures a character's ability to deflect incoming attacks by interposing a weapon or even a limb in the path of the attack. This value equals ([Dexterity + (Ability used to wield the currently equipped weapon with the highest Defense, almost invariably Martial Arts or Melee) + (the Defense of said weapon)] ÷2). Exalted and other divine beings round up, mortals and heroic mortals round down. For example, an Immaculate monk with Dexterity 3 and Martial Arts 4 finds himself accosted by brigands. He only has the natural weapons of his body to protect himself, of which his fist has the highest Defense (+2). His Parry DV is 5. Were he equipped with a seven-section staff (Defense +3) he would still have a DV of 5, because he rounded up for his fist. Characters cannot use a hand for parrying if they are holding a weapon in it, so anyone wielding an extremely slow and ungainly two-handed weapon such as a sledge (Defense -3) must accept the negative impact this weapon choice has on Parry DV.

Inaccplicable Defense

Whenever a particular mode of defense is prohibited by an attack, this condition lowers the appropriate DV to 0. A character who chooses not to defend has both Dodge DV and Parry DV at 0. A magical attack that is explicitly unblockable drops Parry DV to 0, but not Dodge DV. Of particular note, even the Exalted cannot parry attacks that inflict lethal or aggravated damage and/or ranged attacks if they are not armed, unless they augment their block with a stunt or magic enabling such defense. Without such conditions, Parry DV drops to 0. Tougher creatures (especially those with natural full body armor) are exempt from this limitation. Keep in mind that bonuses and penalties apply to inapplicable DVs after the reduction to zero, so a character huddled behind a rock may still benefit from its cover, and so on.

DV Bonuses

Characters have a number of ways to improve DVs, all of which are cumulative. Carrying a shield adds its appropriate Defense rating directly to both base ratings, as does the concealment afforded by cover. Shields and cover are not cumulative with one another, however, only the greater bonus applies. Opponents who are mounted or otherwise have the advantage of height add a modifier to both DVs based on the slope or lift against close-combat attacks (see table), unless their opponents are armed with weapons that have the reach tag. DV bonuses for characters mounted on an inclined surface stack with one another. Both height and cover counts as a form of external penalty. Dice awarded for stunts can temporarily inflate one of the two DVs against a specific attack, in which case the defender's player rolls the stunt dice separately and adds any successes to the character's DV. Stunts to aid defense occur immediately after the attack roll, but before determining whether the attack actually hit. Reflexive Charms may also increase or adjust DV. In particular, the three Excellencies have special effects when used to aid a defense. When Essence Overwhelming aids DV, the player rolls the dice granted by the Charm and adds successes to the DV like a stunt. Essence Triumphant adds its successes directly as points of DV. Essence Resurgent allows players to add half the Ability to the dice pool from which the DV was derived.

DV Penalties

Many factors can reduce a character's DVs, either both kinds or singly. Such penalties are cumulative with one another. The most common such penalty comes from taking actions, as noted previously. For instance, each attack the character makes reduces both DVs by one. This penalty disappears on the tick the character is next permitted to act. Wound penalties also subtract directly from both DVs. If a character is attacked multiple times by the same opponent, each attack cumulatively imposes an additional -1 penalty to both DVs (called an onslaught penalty). Therefore, a sufficiently savage cascade of blows can batter through the best defenses. Onslaught penalties apply only when defending against the character that imposed them and only against the attacks of an individual flurry. If an attacker acts a second time before the defender's DV refreshes, the onslaught penalty is reset to 0 at the start of the second series of attacks. Coordinated Attacks are another matter entirely. Most armor impedes any sudden movement such as dodging, subtracting its mobility penalty from a character's Dodge DV while worn. Terrain such as loose pebbles or marsh muck may likewise impede Dodge DV, generally between -1 for bad conditions and -3 for extreme environments. Conditions worse than a -3 simply make dodging inapplicable. Dodge also becomes inapplicable for characters who are unable or unwilling to give ground, such as those fighting in close-ranked formations or in a narrow crevasse. Characters who are unarmed may not use their Parry DV against attacks that inflict lethal or aggravated damage. Any such mundane inapplicability may be circumvented by a stunt or Charm. However, certain magical attacks directly specify that they cannot be blocked or dodged (and some horrific few exclude both modes of defense). If a description of a magical effect states that an attack cannot be dodged, it cannot be dodged, even with the aid of a stunt. The same goes for magically unblockable attacks.

Negative DV

In particularly unfortunate circumstances, it is possible for a character to have both DVs lowered so much that the highest value of the two is actually negative. Treat negative DVs as DV 0—the enemy may still miss if she rolls no successes on her attack. However, track the character’s negative DV if there is any possibility that DV-enhancing effects might be applied, as the true DV is still negative.

Automatic Defense

Finally, a sufficiently high DV can impart a limited form of automatic success. If a character's DV is higher than the Accuracy dice pool of an opponent's attack and the opponent is an extra, the attack automatically misses without a roll. This automatic miss still counts toward imposing the onslaught penalty, but this is almost a moot point since an opponent who lacks sufficient dice to pierce a character's defenses with his first attack will only degrade in effectiveness if he launches a flurry.

Putting it All Together

When confronted with an attack, establish the base values for Dodge DV and Parry DV. Most often, these will be positive numbers, but if the particular mode of defense is prohibited, then the value is 0. Next, add any applicable bonuses to each value, followed by applicable penalties. With all calculations complete, the highest of these two numbers is the DV used (unless the player wants to use the inferior defense for some reason). If positive, the DV will cancel attack successes.

Shields and Cover DV Bonuses

Type	Hand-to-Hand Cover	Ranged Cover
Buckler	+1	None
Target Shield	+1	+1
Tower Shield	+1	+2
25% Hard Cover (Shoulder and leg protected)	None	+1
50% Hard Cover (Half body protected)	+1	+2
75% Hard Cover (All but shoulder, arm and face protected)	+1	+3
90% Hard Cover (All but eyes protected)	+2	+4

Defense Value Modifiers

Situation	Modifier
Taking Actions	-(Varies)
Wound Penalties	-(1–4)
Wearing Armor*	-(Varies)*
Onslaught Penalty	-1 per successful attack**
Unstable Terrain	-(1–3)
Shield	+(Defense)
Steps/Gentle Slope/Mounted	+1***
Steep Slope/Riding in Howdah	+2***
Too Steep to Climb Without Hands/Scaling Ladder	+3***

* Reduces only Dodge DV.
** Applies only against a single attacker, unless a group makes a coordinated attack.
*** Height modifier applies in close combat only and may be negated by attacks with long weapons. Apply as a DV penalty to characters with lower height in the designated situation.

Step Three: Attack Roll

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Step Four: Attack Reroll

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Step Five: Subtract External Penalties/Apply Special Defenses

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Range Penalties

When making ranged attacks, characters may fire or throw a weapon out to its Range rating without penalty. They may fire out to twice this distance with a -1 external penalty, or between two and three times listed range at -2 successes. Accurate shooting beyond this range is impossible without the aid of magic.

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