Frenzied Assault

(• to •••••)

Prerequisites: Strength •••, Stamina •••, Intimidation ••, Weaponry ••

Your character knows how to use her weapon to great effect, lashing around her in an orgy of blood and death. She doesn’t think when fighting, instinct drives her to kill with a passion that only a few people will ever really understand. She’s a natural killer, making up for her lack of finesse with savage fury and dismembering opponents with each swing. Despite her almost animal intelligence, she realizes the benefit of having a weapon, and the bigger the better — though some spree killers prefer to use a more concealable tool, hiding it like a tiger hides its claws.

Bestial Instincts (•): Your character sees weakness as an opening, and strikes before her prey has a chance to defend herself. Your character may substitute her Weaponry score for her Composure when determining her Initiative modifier. Terrorize (••): Whether she grins manically whilst drenched in other people’s blood or refuses to speak from behind a gore-spattered hockey mask, your character can use her very presence to scare her targets into submission. Instead of attacking, you may make a contested Strength + Intimidation roll. Everyone who has seen you inflict at least two levels of lethal damage resists with their Resolve + Composure. Every character who fails the contested roll loses their Defense until after your character’s next action. Hard to Kill (•••): Your character doesn’t feel pain when he could be inflicting it. Whenever he is engaged in combat — specifically, part of a scene where he takes specific actions in order of Initiative — he gains an extra two points of Health and doesn’t have to roll for unconsciousness until his rightmost Health box is filled with lethal damage. Drawback: The bonus Health vanishes at the end of the combat — when the action fades to a point that Initiative is no longer necessary. See “Temporary Health Dots” on page 137 of the World of Darkness Rulebook for more information. Savage Rending (••••): Your character swings wildly with her weapon, rending flesh from bone — and limbs from bodies — in an orgy of death. Reduce all penalties for targeting specific body parts by two (see “Specified Targets,” World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 165). If you target an arm or leg and do five or more points of lethal damage, the blow severs the limb. Each character witnessing the attack must succeed at a reflexive Resolve + Composure roll or suffer a -2 modifier on their next action. Drawback: Your character cannot use her Defense on the same turn she intends to use this maneuver. If your attack is a dramatic failure, the weapon lodges in your foe, wrenching it from your character’s hands. Trance of Death (•••••): Your character is so far removed from normal humanity that the dangerous and chaotic whirl of combat means very little to him. Maybe he tunes it all out, like a soldier who has seen too much. Maybe he actually enjoys it, finding solace in knowing that he could die at any second. Whatever it is, nobody can question his effectiveness. Gain a second attack. Drawback: Spend 1 Willpower per attack. This willpower expenditure does not add three dice to the attack.