• Bash: Striking with a non-edged portion of the weapon, the attacker tries to injure, not kill or maim, her opponent. A successful attack inflicts one die less than that weapon’s normal damage in bashing, not lethal or aggravated, damage. A failed blow misses the target, and a botched one might snap the weapon if it’s thin enough to be broken – a blade, for instance, as opposed to a sturdy club. Obviously, this attack works only with hand-to-hand weapons that inflict lethal or aggravated damage; in certain cases, like chainsaws, it may be impossible even then. Roll: Dexterity + Brawl Difficulty: Weapon +1 Damage: Weapon -1/B Actions: 1

• Bind: Sweeping her antagonist’s weapon up with her own, a defending fighter uses gravity and leverage to prevent her enemy from using his weapon this turn. Essentially, this technique involves a block that denies the opponent the use of his weapon until he can break the bind. Unlike a typical block or parry, however, this maneuver succeeds automatically if the defender makes her roll.

As the opponent attacks, the defender captures his weapon with her own. A successful roll represents a successful capture attempt, which deflects that attack and immobilizes both weap ons (meaning that neither party can use them) until either the defender ends the bind or the opponent successfully breaks free as described under the Grapple maneuver (Mage 20, p. 421).

Both parties can use other attacks – kicks, head-butts, punches, etc. – during a successful bind. Due to the close range, occupied attention, and lack of leverage and space, however, attacks other than head-butts add +2 to their usual difficulty. Other opponents, however, subtract -2 from the difficulty of trying to hit either fighter while their weapons are bound.

Bind attempts typically begin with the defender maneuver ing her opponent into position – often with a held action, a Feint (see below), a taunting remark, or some similar enticement to strike. That enticement isn’t necessary, but it’s a common tactic that – if successful – reduces the difficulty of the Bind maneuver itself to difficulty 6, not 8. This enticement requires an additional action before the Bind attempt itself. As with other two-action moves, this enticement could be performed within the same turn if the player chooses to employ a multiple action (detailed in Mage 20, pp. 388-389).

Obviously, this is a hand-to-hand fighting technique that typically demands weapons that are strong and rigid enough to bind and be bound (blades, staves, clubs, etc.). That said, an especially flexible weapon (like a chain, whip, or rope) could be used to capture an opponent’s weapon too… and with such weapons, this is a popular technique. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 6/8 Damage: N/A Actions: 1+

• Curtain of Blood: With a superficial slash above his opponent’s eyes, the attack spills a bit of the red stuff into her vision. The resulting distraction sets him up for a better shot… or possibly for a quick retreat.

It takes at least two successes on the attack roll in order to cause that blood to flow. The “curtain” effect kicks in one turn after the slice is made. The cut itself is too shallow to cause damage; until the target can clear her eyes and staunch that flow of blood, however, she’s using half of her usual dice pools. (Stopping the flow requires one full action unless the opponent can close up wounds through force of will or innate healing abilities.) Naturally, this attack means nothing against opponents who do not bleed, or whose faces are protected from cuts and incidental blindness. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 8 Damage: N/A Actions: 1

• Feint: Faking a strike at a different location, the attacker sets her opponent up, redirects her weapon to hit a different place instead, and delivers a nasty surprise. Employed as both a test of the opponent’s defenses and a sincere attempt to harm the opponent, this technique draws the opponent’s attention away from the true target for that attack. Performing it involves two actions: the fake-out, and the strike.

For the fake-out, the attacker adds her Manipulation to the appropriate weapon Ability, and rolls against difficulty 6. The target gets a chance to notice the feint (Perception + whichever Trait is highest from among the target’s Melee, Martial Arts or Do Traits, difficulty 8); if he blows that chance, the attacker sets him up and – with her next action – strikes. If successful, this attack inflicts extra damage because it hits the opponent in an unexpected, vulnerable spot.

As is possible with other multiple-action maneuvers, an attacker who can use two or more actions within the same turn can deploy the fake-and-strike in that same turn. This is a hand-to-hand combat technique that does not work at range. Roll: Manipulation + (Ability) Difficulty: 6 Damage: Weapon +2 Actions: 2

• Fleche /Charge: Darting in to close the distance, the attacker throws speed and momentum behind her assault. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 7 Damage: Weapon +1 Actions: 1

• Great Blow: Exposing himself to attack, the assailant throws everything he has behind a massive blow that will hope fully put a permanent end to the fight. This blow demands two actions – one to draw back, the other to strike – although it can, as usual, be performed within the same turn as a multiple action. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: Weapon +2 Damage: Weapon +3 Actions: 2

• Jab: A short, quick stab at the opponent tests his defenses and skill. The attacker also adds +1 to the difficulty of her opponent’s next attack against her, due to the fast, defensive nature of this move. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: Weapon +1 Damage: Weapon -2 Actions: 1

• Lash: A fast flick of the weapon – typically a thin and flexible blade, a whip, or some similar implement – strikes out at a small targeted object. Success knocks that object down (a lamp, cup, book, etc.), puts it out (a candle, light bulb, spotlight, etc.), cracks it out of someone’s hands (if the attacker rolls more successes with the attack than the holder has dots in his Strength Trait), or shatters it (if the weapon could normally break that object – a glass, a house plant, and so forth). This technique might flip levers, click buttons on machines, and otherwise manipulate items that are small and fragile enough to be affected by a quick strike from the weapon involved. Although this maneuver represents hand-to-hand attacks, a skilled marksman could use the same technique to hit objects at a distance – blasting out lights, knocking over lanterns, shooting objects out of people’s hands, and so forth. In this case, the usual modifiers for distance and cover apply to the usual specifics for this maneuver.

For details about the breakability of material objects, see Bustin’ Stuff (Mage 20, pp. 439-440) and Sample Objects and Surfaces (p. 457). Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 8 Damage: Weapon Actions: 1

• Lightning Parry: With a massive blow or a flurry of blazing-fast strikes, the character deflects incoming shots from a host of attackers. Despite implacable odds, she remains – for the moment – untouched. En garde, gentlemen!

The difficulty for this maneuver is 6 + 1 for every attacker beyond the first (+2 for three attackers, +3 for four attackers, and so on). With five successes or more, she breaks the op ponents’ weapons, too, forcing them to roll their Willpower (difficulty 7) or back away in fear.

Unless she has extra actions within a single turn, the defender cannot do anything this turn except deflect the in coming assaults. As a rule, this trick should work only against blade-fodder mooks, not against serious antagonists; for details, see Mook-a-Palooza, Mage 20, p. 414.

Realistically, this maneuver should apply only to hand-to- hand attacks; martial arts movies, though, use this technique against missile weapons all the time. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 6+ Damage: N/A Actions: 1

• Riposte: Following through on a previous parry, the attacker takes advantage of his surprised opponent and delivers a rapid counterstrike. This maneuver must follow a successful block or parry, and can be performed only with hand-to-hand weaponry. A fighter with multiple actions in a single turn (thanks to Time 3, a multiple-actions dice pool, or some other advantage that allows her to act more than once within that turn) can perform this maneuver in the same turn as the parry itself. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: Weapon -2 Damage: Weapon Actions: 1

• Shiv: Wrapping herself around her opponent, the at tacker shoves a short stabbing weapon into a sensitive location – an armpit, the belly, a helmet’s eye-slit, and so forth. As an extra benefit, the attacker restricts her opponent’s ability to move, making him vulnerable to other attacks from interested parties. The attacker herself becomes more vulnerable too, but desperate circumstances demand desperate measures.

A two-action maneuver, the shiv “technique” requires a successful Grapple maneuver first. (Again, see Mage 20, p. 421.) Assuming she’s successful, the attacker uses her next action to shove a short stabbing weapon (dagger, stiletto, hatpin, spike, etc.) into the vulnerable spot. This demands a second roll (Dexterity + Melee) but lets her ignore all protections from armor while inflicting a bit of extra damage too.

This attack’s base difficulty is 7; however, a target with very few vulnerable spots (that is, covered except for eyes and /or with only small chinks in their armor) raises that difficulty to 9.

So long as the attacker keeps her weapon in the target, she can twist it around and inflict an extra level of aggravated damage per turn. This damage cannot be soaked unless the target is essentially immune to harm caused by weapons dig ging around in his innards. Werewolves, vampires, dragons, and similar critters can attempt to soak such damage because they’re just that tough to kill; cyborgs and so forth, though, can have their workings seriously messed up by this sort of thing. (Spirits and ghosts, lacking physical substance, can’t be harmed by a shiv attack unless the fighter employs a weapon that can hurt them, they’ve already materialized, or both. Zombies, skeletons, and other critters that lack functioning organs are unfazed by such mayhem.)

As with the Bind, Grapple, and Stabbing Frenzy ma neuvers, the attacker remains vulnerable to other assailants. Characters who take shots at her subtract -2 from their usual difficulties; if they miss, however, they hit her target instead. Roll: Dexterity + Melee Difficulty: 7/9 Damage: Weapon +1 + Special Actions: 2

• Slash: Going for the kill, the attacker brings his weapon around for a slicing blow. This attack applies only to hand-to- hand combatants. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: Weapon +1 Damage: Weapon +2 Actions: 1

• Spinning Bloodbath: In a whirl of unmatchable speed, the attacker turns a crowd of incoming enemies into geysers of explosive carnage. Limbs fly. Gore erupts. Hip-hop soundtrack or ironic 1970s pop song not included.

The feat demands at least three dots in both Dexterity and the appropriate weapon Ability on the part of the attacker. For each success, that attacker renders one mook-level assailant either dead or dying of grotesque mortal wounds. This maneuver works only against faceless agents of antagonism – serious foes must be fought with the usual combat methods. Although it’s usually associated with martial-arts films, this maneuver can be used with bows and firearms as well, to reflect Legolas- or Rambo-style prowess. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: 6 Damage: Special Actions: 1

• Stabbing Frenzy: Armed with a short-bladed knife, the attacker ducks inside the opponent’s reach and unleashes a storm of rapid jabs and stabs. It’s a risky attack, because the attacker cannot dodge or counter any assaults at such close range; the sudden massive trauma involved, however, usually occupies the opponent’s attention that turn. That said, the attacker is vulnerable to other opponents, who subtract -2 from their difficulty when trying to hit him. Thus, this is a sort of sacrifice technique, best used in a one-on-one fight.

On a similar note, this attack is useless against armor that’s thicker than 2 points of protection. These zero-range stabs have no momentum behind them, and so cannot penetrate thicker types of armor.

Because it depends upon using a short, fast weapon to stab the target at exceedingly close range, this maneuver can be performed only with short knives (switchblades, pocket knives, stilettos, etc.), razor blades, needles, broken bottles, small hand axes, or spiked fist-load weapons. There’s no room in this frenzy for slashing or elaborate technique – it’s just a brutal, desperate barrage. Hence, this maneuver employs either Brawl or Melee, not any form of refined martial art. Roll: Dexterity + Brawl or Melee Difficulty: 4 Damage: Weapon +3 Actions: 1

• Stillness Strike: A staple of samurai showdowns, this technique demands utter dedication to the moment and withdrawal from all other concerns. Entering a Zen trance, the warrior stands near-motionless until her opponent moves; at the instant of contact, she dodges his weapon and strikes with her own. If she’s successfully judged that moment, her attack is devastating; if not, her life may be the price for inattention.

Unlike most combat maneuvers, this technique depends upon awareness, not agility. And so, the roll is Wits + Awareness. Each success rolled adds one automatic success to the dam age that weapon would normally inflict, plus one automatic success for each dot of Willpower the opponent has that is less than 5. (She would, then, receive an extra two successes when striking a Willpower 3 opponent.) This maneuver does not receive the usual success-based bonus damage that hand-to- hand weapons normally receive, but the attack is devastating enough without them.

If the warrior blows her roll, her attack misses completely. If she botches it, the bonus damage she would have inflicted on her opponent gets inflicted upon her instead. That opponent also subtracts -2 from his next attack against her if the warrior fails or botches her roll; if he still misses her, though, then the warrior remains unharmed that turn.

This technique demands concentration, and so the warrior must take one action to enter the Zen trance. After that, she may remain essentially motionless for one hour per point of Willpower, and yet respond instantly to any form of attack.

Because of her stillness, the attacker seems like easy prey; a character who attacks her at close range, however, winds up on the receiving end of the strike. The first long-range attack is automatically deflected by the character’s weapon. From that point onward, the trance is broken and the fighter acts as usual.

If two warriors face off and employ this technique, both players must make an extended and resisted roll (Mage 20, p. 390). The difficulty of that roll is the lowest Willpower Trait between those two warriors; if a warrior with Willpower 7 faces off against one with Willpower 5, then the difficulty is 5. Each roll reflects one hour of stillness. The first warrior to roll 10 successes wins, and the losing warrior automatically attacks her. A warrior who runs out of Willpower before 10 successes have been rolled automatically attacks; because he’s lost his cool, he attacks using a normal attack maneuver, not the Stillness Strike. Otherwise, he can still use the normal damage bonus from this maneuver. Yes, this means that both warriors can kill each other in a single blow. That sort of thing happens during these showdowns!

If the warrior has more dots in the Meditation Ability than she has in Awareness, then she may use Meditation in stead of Awareness when making this roll. She must, in any case, have no less than three dots in Martial Arts, Fencing / Kenjutsu or Do, and at least five dots in Willpower. This is not a technique for amateurs!

The Stillness Strike is a hand-to-hand fighting technique. For similar situations with guns at very close range, see the Mexican Standoff sidebar, above. Roll: as above Difficulty: 6 Damage: Special Actions: 2+

• Thrust: Spotting an opening, the attacker lunges in and spears her enemy through a significantly vital spot.

If she scores three successes or more, that enemy will continue bleeding out, suffer from perforated organs, or otherwise take an additional level of lethal damage per turn until someone with medical expertise treats his wound. Armor, obviously, will not help him soak that internal damage. Roll: Dexterity + (Ability) Difficulty: Weapon +1 Damage: Weapon +2 Actions: 1

Additional stunts and flashy maneuvers can be found in the Mage sourcebook Tales of Magick: Dark Adventure (pp. 72-76), and the Sorcerers Crusade supplement

The Swashbuckler’s Handbook (pp. 121-128). Specific systems might require a bit of tweaking in order to reflect the 20th Anniversary Edition rules; even so, for the warrior-mage with a touch of style, you can never have too many options when it’s time to bust somebody’s head.

Maneuver Roll #1 Difficulty Damage

Bash Dexterity + Brawl

Weapon +1

Weapon -1/B

Bind Dexterity + (Ability)

6/8 Immobilizes weapon

Curtain Blood

Dexterity + (Ability)

8 Target ½ dice pool until vision cleared (min. 2 successes)

Feint #2 6 Weapon +2

Fleche / Charge

Dexterity + (Ability)

7 Weapon +1

Great Blow Dexterity + (Ability)

Weapon +2 Weapon +3 #3

Jab Dexterity + (Ability)

Weapon +1 Weapon -2 #4

Lash Dexterity + (Ability)

8 Weapon /dam ages targeted object

Maneuver Roll #1 Difficulty Damage

Lightning Parry

Dexterity + (Ability)

6+ Deflects 1 incoming attack / success #5

Riposte Dexterity + (Ability)

Weapon -2 Weapon #6

Shiv #7 Dexterity + Melee

7/9 Bypasses Armor + additional dam age per turn

Slash Dexterity + (Ability)

Weapon +1 Weapon +2

Spinning Bloodbath

Dexterity + (Ability)

6 Eliminates 1 mook /success #5

Stab Frenzy Dexterity + Brawl/Melee

4 Weapon +3 #8

Stillness Strike

Wits + Awareness

6 #9

Thrust Dexterity + (Ability)

Weapon +1

Weapon +2 #10

Notes #1 = Ability refers to the Ability used by the attacker to employ weapon. #2 = Two rolls, two actions. First roll is Manipulation + (Ability), difficulty 6. Opponent can counter with Perception + (Ability), difficulty 8;