Modern Army Combatives

Prerequisites: Strength ••, Dexterity ••, Stamina •• and Brawl ••.

The character is trained in Modern Army Combatives, the modern military style of hand-to-hand combat that blends a number of fighting styles such as Muay Thai to provide a soldier with an all-round means of unarmed self-defense and defense with short weapons. Each dot of this Fighting Style is the prerequisite for the next higher dot; one cannot purchase “Atemi Attack” until one has purchased “Tactician’s Sense”, for example.

• Tactician’s Sense: The character gauges the body language of combatants in his proximity. In game terms, he can make a Refl exive Wits + Composure perception roll and gauge the Initiative modes of all combatants before a fi ght starts. •• Atemi Attack: The human body has a variety of pressure points, any of which can cause an opponent great pain. The trained fi ghter knows where to strike for maximum effect. When striking with a Brawl or Weaponry attack, the character may ignore up to 1 point of the enemy’s Armor protection per dot in this Fighting Style. ••• Forearm Choke: The character applies pressure to an enemy’s carotid artery in an attempt to knock him out. The character must successfully achieve a Grapple attack (see “Grapple”, the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 157). The character may apply the choke hold from the following turn. The hostile may attempt to free himself on his next action with Strength + Brawl, his dice pool penalized by the character’s Strength + 1. This maneuver is designed to render the foe unconscious. The foe may resist each turn at a cumulative –1 dice pool penalty. When your character has sustained the choke hold for a number of turns equal to the hostile’s Stamina, the hostile is rendered unconscious, and sustains a single point of bashing damage. The Forearm Choke is useless against creatures that do not need to breathe.

•••• Bullring: The character is trained in fighting off multiple opponents simultaneously. His Defense is applied in full to each and every simultaneous hand-to-hand attack in a single turn. ••••• Lethal Strike: The soldier’s hands become deadly weapons when the character spends a Willpower point. A successful Brawl strike delivered in a turn in which he spends Willpower delivers lethal, rather than bashing, damage. Drawback: Because the lethal attack takes place in that turn, the character cannot spend Willpower to boost his attack dice pool.