Field Training: Everything You Need To Know About Combat Damage

Roundhouse by Carmen Cornet

Combat damage must be the part of the game I get asked the most questions about. Regardless of the level of experience, I find the majority of players don't have a full understanding of how it works. A part of this is down to a common misunderstanding that we tend to teach people as short hand, so let's look in to things with a lot more detail.

When teaching the complex game of V:tES its kinda necessary to short hand a few rules rather than being exact and pointing out the minor technicalities. However, this can hinder those players in the long run if we don't address them once they're getting the hang of it. When we're explaining combat we tend to say things like "because I punch you with Roundhouse. Your vampire takes 4 damage which means you lose 4 blood.". While this is true, its not the whole truth, and this oversight leads to the majority of the questions I get.

So what are we missing out? Let's turn our textbooks to page 31;

"For each point of damage inflicted on a vampire, they must burn 1 blood to mend the damage. A vampire can burn all of their blood if needed, and doing so does not have any other negative effects on the vampire. If a vampire cannot mend all the damage (that is, more damage is inflicted than they have blood with which to mend), they burn blood to mend what damage they can, and the unmended damage leaves them wounded."

This mainly gets confused when it comes to aggravated damage. It's not that agg damage sends you to torpor, any unmended damage wounds a vampire. The reason agg torpors you is because you can't burn blood to mend aggravated damage, and are therefore wounded. A wounded vampire may however burn a blood to prevent destruction caused by agg damage. This also explains the resolution of strikes that steal blood, as we're going to explore now...

Stike: Steal Blood

This classic comes up all the time, especially when playing with the 5th ed box set.

"What happens if I my vampire plays Theft of Vitae when they're at full capacity and my opponent declares a hand strike?"

Well, now we've read the details of how damage works, we can apply them. Let's say Goratrix is at full capacity and decides to use his built in strike to steal 2 blood. The opposing Vampire has 5 blood and declares a hand strike for 1. How much blood will Goratrix have at the end of the round? Well, let's look at the steps in which we resolve it, page 29 of our rulebook shows us the steps of combat:

Each round of combat has seven steps: 1. Before Range: Play cards before range is chosen. 2. Determine Range: Use maneuvers to change the range to close or long. 3. Before Strikes: Play cards before strikes are chosen.

4. Strike: Announce and resolve strikes.

5. Damage Resolution: Prevent and mend damage.

6. Press: Use presses to continue into another round or to end combat.

7. End of Round: End of round cards and effects are played here.

Let's run down the combat, we'll assume nothing was done pre-strike. Strikes have been declared, so next step is to resolve them. The strikes are simultaneous and so Goratrix steals the blood at the same point the opposing vampire punches for one. The next step is damage resolution. However, we first have an issue to address. Any blood a vampire would gain that exceeds their capacity "drains off" and goes to the blood bank. This happens immediately so we can't move forward with the combat until we've resolved this. That two blood that Goratrix stole geos to the blood bank and we move forward to step 5: Damage Resolution.

Damage Resolution

Now, damage resolution has two parts. That's right, leave it to V:tES to have steps within its steps. First we have prevention, then mending. Once strikes are resolved you have an opportunity to prevent damage, so Goratrix could play something like Rego Motum to prevent the damage. If the damage wasn't prevented we then move to damage mending. Now Goratrix must burn a blood to mend any damage he's taken. Goratrix ends the round with 9 blood.

Now we understand damage resolution, we can look in to other types of damage and clear up just what they are. How about next we talk about...

Environmental Damage

The most common occurence of environmental damage would be Carrion Crows. There's really not much to say here but worth mentioning to clear up a few FAQs. Environmental damage works exactly like the damage of a hand strike, it just doesn't come from the vampire. Additional strikes do not trigger it again as the vampire isn't doing the damage, it also means it doesn't count toward cards like Disarm or Pulled Fangs. It is still, however, damage dealt to the opposing vampire so it counts for cards like Taste of Vitae.

That pretty much covers it, just remember its not done by the vampire.

Aggravated Damage

We've already discussed how this works, if a vampire is dealt a point of aggravated damage then it can't mend it by burning blood. The vampire is then wounded, and a vampire that is wounded goes to torpor. The only small detail we haven't mentioned is that aggravated damage is handled after regular damage, however, you can choose to play prevention cards on the agg before resolving the normal damage.

Let's run it through with an example though, using everything we've learned. In this example our opponent will be a 3 capactiy vampire from the 5e box, Rosalina Cortez, holding an Ivory Bow. For this example, both combatants will be fully blooded.

1. Before Range: Goratrix plays Carrion Crows 2. Determine Range: Nobody maneuvers 3. Before Strikes: No cards played

4. Strike: Goratrix declares a strike to steal 2 blood. Rosalina uses her Ivory Bow and the Crows happen. Rosalina will lose 2 blood to Goratrix's strike and he gains 2 blood (which is lost as he cannot exceed capacity).

5. Damage Resolution: Firstly, we have the prevention window, where a card such as Rego Motum or Soak would be played. Neither combatant will be playing anything this time. Blood is then burned to mend any unprevented damage. We handle normal damage first so Rosalina burns 1 blood to mend one of the damage, but cannot burn a blood for the second and is therefore wounded. The game rules state that Goratrix cannot mend the initial point of aggravated damage by burning a blood, meaning he is also wounded. With no combatants ready, the combat is automatically ended.

Hopefully that clears it all up. We've left ourselves with a messy boardstate, and given our cross table the choice of diablerising either for blood or a bow, but at least we understand how damage works. For now, I'll leave you to plead desperately for a rescue.