Fighting Styles

This page will hold information on fighting styles to be used with world of darkness games. Right now, it only contains information to use with my home-brew revised edition.

Space age Science-Fiction d10
Some of these styles (if not all of them) are incredibly setting specific.

Blaster Style
(• to •••••, Style)

Prerequisites: Combat •, Combat Training (Any Ranged Weapon that functions similar to a pistol or a rifle). Dot 3 requires 1 dot in Spaces, dot 4 requires 1 dot in Time. Dot 5 requires two dots of Energy.

Bulls-eye (•): You subtract your dots in blaster style from any penalty you might receive to hit a specific target.

Open Fire (••): You add your dots in Blaster Style to your initiative rating when wielding a rifle or pistol.

Eyes straight ahead (•••): You can shoot at something without looking at it. You can aim without actually raising your gun and can shoot at targets behind you or otherwise obscured targets - Concealment is irrelevant to you when shooting.

Evasion Tactics (••••): Soresu Style and Ataru Style can no longer deflect blaster bolts back at you. Further more, when using those two styles against you, the subject recieves no particular bonuses, except a normal melee defense roll against you. Without those two styles, it's impossible to defend against your shooting with a lightsaber.

Wild shot (•••••): You can shoot around-, over- or/and under cover. Anything but total cover doesn't affect you when you're shooting at people.

D10/WoD Revised
The total rework of the combat system made most of the fightingstyles utterly redundant. The following merits are combat specific.

Disarm
(• to •••••, Style)

Prerequisites: Melee •••, Tough Guy •

Your character is trained in the art of disarming opponents.
 * Defensive Disarm (•): You can disarm someone if they attack you. It's the most basic disarm technique straight out of the book, taught at most self-defense classes. When someone armed attacks you, if you succeed at a defense roll at any point, you may then follow up with a melee+dexterity roll versus their defense, and if you succeed on both you're now in possession of their weapon (or optionally they drop it). If you only succeed on the first roll, then you just avoid damage and can attempt again the next time you're attacked. It's important to remember however, that you need to have available action points to make these moves. This defensive maneuver doesn't require a designated target.
 * Active disarm (••): You don't fancy waiting around for someone to try to stab you. You know how to attack someone in ways that enables you to targert their weapons. You can skip the first step from above and go directly to the disarm move. Using this ability doesn't result in an attack of opportunity. Active disarm requires targetting the arm (-1 penalty).
 * Pro-active disarm (•••): You've practiced the basic disarming techniques to the point where you could disarm someone in your sleep. You don't need to spend an action point to use defensive disarm anymore, disarming is part of your natural defensive maneuvers.
 * Grabber (••••): Why come armed to a gunfight, when you can just use the guns the other guy brings? Trained to grab weapons, you can quickdraw other people's weapons (even without having the quickdraw merit). If the owner wishes to contest this, the owner can roll his defense, and you then roll a melee attack. If you fail to grab a specific weapon and another one is availabe, at the cost of an action point, you can attempt grabbing a new weapon, but not the same one again. The first time you use this it's reflexive though. Rolling larceny+dexteriy allows you to attempt doing this unnoticed.
 * Disabler (•••••): You never understood why "Batman" and "The Matrix" are regarded as unrealistic movies. You can easily disable a handgun while someone is aiming it at you, in less than a split second. Let's face it, you're a master at disarming, that probably means you bet your horses on melee combat, so why put yourself at a disadvantage using noisy clumsy guns when you can just disable them? Using active disarm, you may if you choose, disable the gun instead of taking possession of it, thus taking it out of the picture. The gun isn't broken, and the GM has the final say in how this disabling takes place. It might be something as simple as taking out the magazine and forcing the user to fire the remaining chambered bullet blindly, or removing the loading sled from a handgun. This is a rather epic move, and requires the expenditure of a willpower point.

The mark of Zorro
(•)

Prerequisites: Melee •••, Disarm • and Weapons training (any melee weapon) •

Your skills with a weapon are extremely refined and renown to the point where you can perform such epic feats such as armed disarming. You may use any of the first three dots of Disarm, if you have these dots already purchased, while armed with a melee weapon that you're trained to use.

A modern William Tell
(•)

Prerequisites: Melee •••, Firearms 3, Disarm •• and Weapons training (any ranged weapon) •

You're probably the kind of person they hire for childrens birthday parties in Texas. Your trick shooting is likely to gain at least hundred thousand views on youtube per video, and the armount of dedication it's taken for you to reach this level of mastery is also admirable. Using your extensive knowledge of disarming techniques AND firearms, you use any ranged weapon at your disposal to disarm a target... The painful way. You may use the second dot and the last dot of disarm, if you possess these, but with a ranged weapon. You shoot your enemy just the right way to make him drop his gun, still causing all the damage you would have otherwise, and the bonus here is that he doesn't get to use his defense in most cases. It's an automatic success if you hit your mark. Alternatively, your extensive knowledge of firearms allows you to disable a weapon by destroying it's vital parts. Remember that using this maneuver requires making a targetted shot. A disarm requires targetting the arm (-1) and a disable requires targetting the gun (anywhere from -3 to -5).

Fighting Finesse
(•)

Prerequisites: Dexterity ••••, may not have Brute Force

You're so elegant people should be calling you "Your Grace". Nimble as a ninja and agile as a... Uh... We're talking about dexterity here, not elequonce! When in a fight, you rely solely on your agility instead of your melee combat value. The possible disadvantage would be in a situation where your strength was suddenly raised above your dexterity temporarily, because using your agility at this point, isn't optional!

Brute Force
(•)

Prerequisites: Strength ••••, may not have Fighting Finesse

Raw power, that's the one word that best describes you. Unfortunately, your math skills didn't improve from all the weights you lifted. It matters little though, as no one would dare insult such a hulking brute as yourself. In all seriousness, when in a fight, you rely almost entirely on your strength instead of your melee combat value. The possible disadvantage would be in a situation where your dexterity was suddenly raised above your strength temporarily, because using your muscles at this point, isn't optional!

Quick draw
(•)

Prerequisites: Dexterity or Wits ••• and Weapon training (any weapon)

You're fast on the draw, so fast that it matters little whether you go in prepared or not. Maybe you've watched too many Clint Eastwood movies, or maybe you've almost been caught watching porn too many times, but you act almost instinctively with your hand when a pressing situation arises, finding your weapon naturally. Drawing a weapon you're familiar with from somewhere it's readily acessible from counts as a reflexive action. The drawback is, in certain situations, you might be a little TOO quick on the draw. The GM may at any time when something happens very suddenly have you roll wits+composure to quickly evaluate the situation. Should you fail, you will have drawn your weapon, possibly creating a tense situation, possibly starting a fight... But hey, you probably live in Texas anyway, so what do you care?

Tough guy
(• to •••••, Style)

Prerequisites: Melee •••

You probably live in a rough neighborhood, or maybe you were in the army or just practiced martial arts for a good while. Regardless of what the case is, you know how to defend yourself.
 * Aggression (•): Most people would probably run if someone flashed a weapon. Not you. Other tough guys likes like yourself might wait for a good chance to disarm the opponent. Not you. You're a fucking attack-dog, you go straight for the kill. Armed opponents do not get an attack of opportunity against you when you make unarmed attacks against them.
 * Cover the angles (••): You know how a good shit-kicking goes down, when you hit the floor they turn you into dog-meat, and those suckers will gang up on you any chance they get, but their tactics won't work against you! Your base-defense isn't expended when an unarmed opponent attacks you (meaning you can defend against an inifinate number of unarmed attacks).
 * Anti-shank measurements (•••): You're a pretty a tough guy who can handle himself in a fight, but okay, but what if someone tries to shank you? The answer is; they don't. You're so trained in combat that it doesn't matter what they're trying to hit you with, you can block it with your bare hands. You may use your melee for active defense against armed opponents, even if unarmed.
 * Knife to a gun fight  (••••): Okay, so someone brings a gun... Surely this is enough to deter you from picking a fight? Wrong again! You're fast and deadly, even when unarmed. You can use your defense against a person armed with a firearm, even outside of melee, but only as long as the opponent is within a single move of you (as far as you can move with a free move-action). If you are in melee range, you can even use your melee for your active defense against the shooter. If the opponent has a merit or ability that normally prevents their target from using it's defense in melee, then you may still use your defense in melee with the shooter, but not outside as you normally would be able to.
 * Honing on the target (•••••): Okay, we've figured out your only weakness now! If the shooter moves out of your reach, he can pop you dead! Still wrong! You reflexively move to stay within range of your target, allowing you to keep dodging bullets like an uglier version of Keanu Reeves, in a much less classy outfit. Turning on this ability will automatically keep you in cover if possible, it will allow you to move further than normal (but no more than 5 additional squares), and activation costs a point of willpower. The limitation of this ability is of course if the shooter is so far out of your reach that you couldn't possibly reach him in one turn. It'd take a more than a tough guy to be sniper proof after all...

Acrobatic
(• to •••••, Style)

Prerequisites: Athletics ••• and Dexterity •••

You may very well have been a monkey in your previous life. Your movements may at times seem chaotic or erratic, but it's all subconsiously well-calculated. You have near total control of your own body, and it's an undeniable advantage in combat.


 * Falling technique (•): You may not be flying, but you're falling with style! You ignore the roll to avoid bashing damage from falling small distances. Only when falling a distance that could potentially deal lethal damage will you roll to avoid damage. You may also hit the deck reflexively without risking an attack of opportunity.
 * Bounce back up (••): You've done enough burpees at the gym that by now, you can change position faster than a master of Kama Sutra. You can stand up from prone as a reflexive action, and even deny any opponents the chance to get an attack of opportunity against you.
 * DUCK, DUCK... Duck? (•••):  You move effortlessly. Ducking and diving for cover, standing and hitting the deck constantly changing position. You may not be able to dodge bullets, but if there is a cover within range, you may take it reflexively, even if it's not your turn, allowing you to use your free move action, or even take an extensive move action (cost of one action point) or a double move action even ahead of your own turn. If it's already been your turn, if you have an action point unspent you can spend it reflexively to move the extra bit you'd be allowed to move during an extensive move action, if you didn't use your free move action entirely, you'll be able to move the remaining squares.
 * Battle-dancer  (••••): When you make an extensive move-action, you're allowed to move twice your movement speed instead, and you may completely ignore any obstacle in your road that isn't outright impassable without climbing it, scaling it or any such extensive maneuvers. You may further more roll dexterity+athletics to simply dance around in your enemies threaten fields. You could even dance your way right out of a suppressed area.
 * We believe you can fly (•••••): And so do you. You may reflexively make complicated dicerolls such as to scale a wall or make a daring leap. These maneuvers further more do not count when calulating how far you've moved, so if you leap across a gap, you retain all the meters and can continue to move on the other side.

Artful grappler
(• to •••••, Style)

Prerequisites: Melee ••• and Dexterity •••, Acrobatic •

You turn grappling into an artform. They might have an exhibition of you strangling someone in the Louvre.
 * Grapple holds (•): If you grapple someone, as long as you win succeed in establishing a grapple check, you will be allowed to make the first move, without even rolling for it. If someone attempts to grapple you, you may roll your own attack pool against them to instead be the one grappling them. If both combatants has this, it can result in a near endless loop of changing grapple-holds until someone fails a roll, kinda like watching an Olympic Judo match in super-slow-motion. Very boring.
 * WHAM! (••): Not only do you have all the albums, you also master the art of throwing your opponent like a sack of potatoes. That's pretty ***. Except for the throwing part. When you've established a grapplehold and are allowed to make a grapple maneuver, you can choose to throw your opponent, essentially combining the bullrush, the go prone and the hurt option into one very humbling combo. You roll a regular attack that the opponent cannot defend against, and your successes determines how many squares you can throw the opponent and how much damage you do (bashing). The opponent will be knocked prone, while you remain standing, and the grapple is terminated, though can optionally be kept if you do not throw your opponent out of your natural reach, but bear in mind that you cannot throw a prone opponent.
 * Putting pressure on it (•••):  When you pin an opponent, you pick a limb to lock and may then roll strength each round he remains pinned and do damage equal to your successes. If someone uses this move against you, you can reflexively make an attack roll to resist it, practically doubling your chances to escape the hold.
 * It's a bit tight (••••): When pinning an opponent, you may choose to choke him out. Choking him for a number of rounds equal to his stamina results in him having to roll stamina+resolve to stay conscious, but he is penalized with -1 every consecutive round that passes after his stamina threshold was met. If someone uses this move against you, you can reflexively make an attack roll to resist it, practically doubling your chances to escape the hold.
 * Oh snap (•••••): When choking an opponent, you may immediately or at any point during the pinning move choose to roll strenght vs. the opponents strength. If you at any point succeed, you snap the opponents neck. If someone uses this move against you, you can reflexively make an attack roll to resist it, practically doubling your chances to escape the hold.

Gut Feeling
(•)

Prerequisites: Wits ••••, may not have Lighting Reflexes

Your gut feeling has never been wrong, except that one time when it said it was okay to eat those leftovers. You should not have done that. Excepting that one unfortunate incidence, you tend to go with your instincts, and it's worked for you thus far. Your base defense is equal to your wits. The only drawback is if your dexterity ends up being higher than your wits, because trusting your instincts at this point is not something you can simply quit, even when they might be wrong.

Lightning Reflexes
(•)

Prerequisites: Dexterity ••••, may not have Gut Feeling

Your reaction time is almost superhuman. Something happens, and you've reacted before you even realized it. It might be pure muscle memory, or maybe you're the Chosen One. You use your dexterity alone to calculate your base defense. The only drawback is if your wits ends up being higher than your dexterity, because by now, you rarely think, you just act, and even in situations where that might get you killed, it's not something you can just turn off.

Weapon Training
(•) - May be bought several times with different weapon groups.

Prerequisites: Melee, Athletics or Firearms ••

The advantage gained from this merit differs on the weapon group. Note that "Manually re-armed weapons" or any of the other headlines below do not constitute a weapon category. Knives, swords, axes, polearms, rifles, shotguns, revolvers, handguns, assault rifles, machine guns all count as categories. Large SMG's are covered by Assault Rifles.

Manually re-armed weapons

While "Rifle" is a perfectly valid weapon group, the same advantage doesn't apply to all weapons in this group, the same goes for revolvers and shotguns, because many of these weapons are manually rearmed, either by lever, pump- or bolt action, or in the case of revolvers; by cocking it. You still count as being trained with these weapons by having selected their parent weapon group though, but it the normal advantage is not offered, instead you're allowed to automatically rearm the weapon. In doing so, you do not also need to ready the weapon, so effectively this might seem totally irrelevant, but the ruling is here to help prevent confusion.

Manually fed weapons

Some weapons need to have each individual bullet fed into it, one by one. These weapons typically include shotguns, revolvers and rifles. In the case of revolvers, it also needs to be emtied but can be reloaded faster with a speedloader. If you have training in a weapon type that may include weapons that need manual feeding, you can manually feed that particular weapon type faster than normal, at a rate of 10 bullets per action point spent. If 10 bullets is enough, you may also reflexively re-arm the weapon and ready it in the same go.

Weapons with external detachable magazines

External magazine fed weaponry is mostly tactical or for competition use (for practical reasons). Such weaponry can be reflexively reloaded, re-armed and readied if the shooter has a magazine available that he can easily get to, but this means he drops the previously used magazine.

Size 3 weapons

Size three melee weaponry needs to be readied after each attack, unless you have weapon training.

Weapons that do not fall under any of the above categories

If your weapon doesn't fall under any of the above categories, you gain 9 again. If you already have 9 again, upgrade to 8 again.

Weapon Retention
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training (•)

If you're using a weapon you're trained with, and something happens that threatens to liberate said weapon from your possession, you may add your firearms or melee in addition to what ever other stats you roll to keep hold of it. If you aren't allowed a defensive roll in the given situation normally, you are with this merit, and that defensive roll is your combat value plus the relevant of the two above mentioned skills. This merit applies to any weapons you have Weapon Training with.

Predator
(•)

Prerequisites: The ability to take the form of a four legged predator that attacks primarily with teeth and Tough Guy •

Your time spent in the form of a predator allows you to fight just like one, and not just like a clumsy parody. When initiating a grapple-hold, you still deal damage as if it was a normal attack. If your target hasn't pinned you, or attempted to pin you, you may terminate the grapple at any time. While in a grapple and a grapple hold is established. The downside of being a predatory animal is that you don't have opposable thumbs, making it incredibly difficult to do much else than just bite down, so you can't while in this form (has nothing to do with the merit here!), though with this merit, you may still attempt to take an opponent prone in a grapple. If you have claws that can be used in combat, you may combine your damage modifier from your teeth and the one from your claws when ever you try to do damage.

CQB
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training • (with a firearm)

You're trained for close-quarter-battle, and where as most marksmen perfect the art of shooting a target from impossible distances, or as many targets as fast as possible, you've perfected the art of shooting something you couldn't possibly miss. Good job. The reality is of course that it's a lot harder than it looks, especially because of the large amount of aim correction that needs to be done to hit a target moving at close range. Your training allows you to ignore the defense of someone within melee range when using a firearm against them.

Feint
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training (•) with a melee weapon or Tough Guy (•), Wits ••• and melee •••

Baiting an opponent to go for you by lowering your defenses is a nifty trick to create an opening... In your gut. Of course, people like you know how to do it, ALMOST without risk. If an opponent attacks you, you may opt out of your defense and instead roll attack. If you win, your opponent loses his defense against your next attack. Alternatively, when it's your turn, you may roll wits+melee to bait the opponent into attacking you if he fails a composure+empathy roll, he loses his defense against your next attack regardless, but you're only home-free if he doesn't beat your defense. Feinting works best against opponents you have a technical edge over.

Riposte
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training (•) with a melee weapon or Tough Guy (•), Dexterity ••• and melee •••

By spending an action point, you may interupt the turn of an attacking opponent who just rolled against you, provided your defense held up against his attack, to attack your opponent. You can either use action points you're yet to spend in your upcoming turn if you haven't acted yet, or otherwise use an unspent action point you might have saved just for this occasion.

Morbid Student
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training (•) with a any weapon or Tough Guy (•), and medicine (•)

You haven't just looked in anatomy books to figure out the path of least resistance to all the vital organs, you've also tested your theories. You know exactly how much force you need to apply to stab through to the liver. Your knowledge of basic human physiology and practice allows you to much more effortlessly target vital spots. You can reduce the penalty from called shots (designating a target) by your dots in medicine.

Hip Shot
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training (•) with a any ranged weapon and Dexterity (••••)

You don't aim a lot. You just sort of have an understanding of where the bullet is going to hit. You're not sure how you do this, and keeping that in mind, you've got to ask yourself why on earth you keep doing it, but it's worked for you this far. The truth behind the hip-shooting you pull off is that through seriously good hand-to-eye coordination, you just always know exactly what you're pointing your gun at, because you're always pointing it at what you're also looking at. You use dexterity instead of your RAV when calculating your dicepool for shooting, but only on short range. The drawback is that you don't get any bonuses on short range for having various aiming aids, except the laser-sight which offers a +2 bonus instead of the regular +1, and further allows you to engage on Medium distance with hipshots.

Police Training
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training • (with handguns) and Profession Training • (relevant profession, i.e. Cop, detective, bodyguard ect.), CQB •, Drive • Athletics •, Tough Guy •, Disarm •.

You're trained to apprehend people and fight like a cop. You're probably either a police officer, a detective, a body- or security guard or maybe a veteran infantrist with the military. Maybe you're just an advanced combat trainer. When pinning someone in a grapple, you can attempt to cuff them in any subsequent round they remain pinned in after the pin was established. This allows them a second chance to try to escape, and takes two rounds for zip-cuffs and handcuffs but may take longer with duct tape or rope, or may not even be possible (GM's discretion). The roll made to do this is MAV+melee. You count as being trained with pump-action shotguns and batons of any type, and large SMG's of the same kind they use where you trained and any variants of this model (i.e. if trained with an MP5, you can also use a H&K UMP or a MP5K). If not trained at an actual police academy or something equally official, at the GM's discretion, you may be allowed to choose a different weapon. Further more, you know police protocol and radio procedures and never need to roll for anything involving this.

HEMA
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training (•) with a an archaic melee weapon and melee (•••)

TBA

Basic Infantry Training
(•)

Prerequisites: Professional Training • (Relevant profession, Soldier or Police officer ect.), Weapon Training • (with a assault rifles), CQB •, stealth •, survival •, athletics •

You were a soldier at some point, or at least trained like one. You know military protocol and never need to roll to follow this or understand such. You can operate radios without rolling. Any military equipment that falls within your pay grade, you can check the condition of, and possibly maintain (GM's discretion). You can suppress an area twice as large as normal when using supressive fire. When moving as part of a unit, who ever in the unit has the highest dice pool for survival, stealth or athletics can make rolls on behalf of the entire group, without you having to succeed on such a roll. You never incur a penalty for shooting near a friendly target, unless said target is grappling your ally, or said ally is blocking the view partially. The bonus to stealth you gain from camuflage is doubled (from +1 to +2 when standing still). You get an awareness+survival roll when ever artillery fire or other barrages happen (see Dogs of War for more information on passive battlefield hazards). Reflexively take cover or drop prone when a grenade is within your vacinety if you have eyes on it. You count as being trained with any handguns, light machineguns, heavy machineguns or light support weapons that are used at the place where you were trained, and any variants of these types (i. e. you don't suddenly count as untrained if presented with an FN minime that isn't identical to the exact model you were trained with). You also count as trained with combat knifes of any type.

Ambidextrous
(•)

Prerequisites: Dexterity ••• at character creation or Dexterity •••• if purchased later

You have no dominant hand. When using your off-hand for servicing a one-handed weapon, or other matters that would normally require the use of the dominant hand, you normally suffer a -2 penalty. This merit eliminates that penalty.

Gunslinger
(•)

Prerequisites: Hip Shot •, and Weapon Training • (handguns or revolvers)

You might be related to Clint Eastwood. Combining your extreme dexterity and training with small-arms, you've mastered the art of dual-wielding pistols. When dual-wielding, by spending a single action point, you can use the hipshot merit to take two shots (two separate attack rolls, but it coutns as one attack in regards to defense) against the same target. As dictated by the hipshot merit, this only works on short  range. While dual-wielding, you need to take into account that reloading your weapons is impossible without letting go of one of them. If using guns that aren't practically identical, you gain a -1 penalty on both shots because of the confusion from operating two different weapons. If said weapons have differing calibers (seeing as we do not deal in calibers, but categories; that is what applies here), the heavier weapon will only be able to fire once per round. It's important to remember that handguns, when fired one-handed have a higher strength requirement than normal (+1). If firing at two different targets, the second shot has a further -2 penalty. Remember that, unless the ambidextrous merit is possessed, the off-hand has a -2 penalty.

Marksmanship
(• to •••••, Style)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training • (with rifles), Firearms •••, Survival ••, Stealth ••

This style doesn't need to represent Sniping, at least not on the lower levels. It can just as well represent being an experienced hunter, or a rifle-target shooter.


 * Target shooting (•): Hitting smaller and smaller targets is part of the drill when you're practicing marksmanship. This gives you a distinct advantage when designating a target. The penalty to hit a designated target is lowered by your dots in this merit, but only when using a scope, and only when using the Aim maneuver.
 * Moving Target(••): Normally, a moving target is a disadvantage. You find there is one advantage to moving targets, and that is that you already know they aren't staying in the same position, so you wont be surprised by a sudden move. You are not penalized for a normal moving target.
 * Scout (•••): You've transcended the point where medium range was part of the difficulty curve. Engaging targets at medium range doesn't result in a penalty when using a rifle, it doesn't even need to be scoped.
 * Maksman (••••): A rifle has a long range, and that range is not even fully utilized by using a scope. That's the reason why good marksmen can still hit targets at over a KM distance, despite this seemingly being impossible. It's about knowing how the bullet behaves when fired, and goes beyond actually aiming. You no longer suffer a penalty from long range. Using scopes and bipods each awards a +1 bonus, as their original purposes have become useless to you. Now they're just tools of the trade.
 * Spotter/Sniper-team (•••••): If you have a designated spotter who has the trained observer merit, this person can aim for you, spending his action points to provide you with the aim bonus. As long as this character agrees to do this for you, you are allowed to spend action points to shoot during the spotters turn, as the spotter aims at targets for you.

Dual-wielding
(•)

Prerequisites: Weapon Training • (with a melee weapon), Melee •••,

The art of dual-wielding melee weapons can provide an edge in certain situations, especially against less-skilled enemies and lightly armed foes. When dual-wielding melee weapons, there is no real requirement about said melee weapons size or kind, though certain weapons might require too much motor function, and will incur a -2 penalty (such as a flail or nunchucks). Obviously, the weapon should be one-handed. Attempting to use a two-handed weapon in one hand will incur a -2 penalty and the strenght requirement will count as one higher. If the Ambidextrous merit is not possessed, dual-wielding results in a -2 penalty for the weapon in the off-hand. Dual wielding can be used in two ways, either defensively, by applying the weapon damage mod of the off-hand weapon (or optionally the mainhand weapon - though that would be disadvantagous as penalties to use dual-wielding defensively do not apply) to any defense rolls that utilize the melee skill in active defense. Alternatively, the character dual-wielding can attack twice for a single action point, but remember that both attacks will be against the same defense roll. If the attacking character wishes to attack two separate targets, the second attack has a -2 penalty.