Editing Exalted Power Combat 101 (section)

=== Increased Minimum Damage ===

Marissa felt searing pain errupt in her back, and the stone beneath her feet crunching with the impact of the Anathema's blows upon her body.  Summoning the might of the Five Dragons, she sought to reinforce her frame with Essence, but to no avail--while the blows were dulled somewhat, bright red blood arced out from her body to paint the ruined plaza behind.

<i> Alakra declares three attacks with his claws on his initiative.  Ordinarily he'd be unable to do this, since he declared a Full Parry, but as he has a Gemstone of Perfect Mobility, he has an additional action, which he may use freely for multiple actions according to normal rules. </i>

<i>Note that the gemstone would also allow him to take up to 14 actions with his claws--7 with his first pool, and 7 with his second, never exceeding the Rate with a single pool. </i>

<i>Alakra's first attack is made with a dice pool of his Dex 5 + MA 5 + Specialty 3 + Accuracy 2 + Stunt Bonus 2 - Multiple Actions 3 for a total of 14.  He chooses to use Striking Fury Claws on this attack to increase the damage, and rolls 7 successes. </i>

<i>Marissa uses her held action to parry, with a pool of Dex 4 + MA 4 + Specialty 2 + Defence 3 - Multiple Actions 5 for a total of 8 dice.  She rolls 4 successes, and her shield subtracts 2 successes, leaving Alakra with one success.  She activates Flickering Candle Meditation in order to build a dodge pool of 4, to which her Essence is automatically added, as with all dodges, and a -2 mobility penalty from her armour for a total of 5 dice.  Rolling 3 successes, she easily evades the first blow. </i>

<i>The second blow, also with Striking Fury Claws, rolls 9 successes on 13 dice!  With no parry, she is forced to dodge again, once more for 3 successes, leaving Alakra with four successes after her shield. </i>

<i>His damage is Str 6 + Tiger Form 5 + Striking Fury Claws 3 + Claws 5 + Hearthstone Bracers 2 + Extra Successes 4 for a total of 23, five damage over Marissa's lethal soak of 18.  Note that Marissa's armour's Hardness of 4 is entirely irrelevant--the raw damage was in excess of it, and thus it is ignored. </i>

<i>Marissa activates Five Dragon Fortitude, and buys four lethal soak in order to buy Alakra's damage down to the minimum of one die--or at least, that's how it used to work. </i>

<i>In Exalted Power Combat, Marissa is out of luck.  Soak cannot reduce the damage of an attack to less than the attacker's Essence.  Hence, Alakra still does 3 dice of damage.  He rolls, and scores 1 HL of damage. </i>

<i>Realising she's spending Essence too fast, Marissa offers no resistance to the third blow, trusting to her armour.  Alakra scores 6 successes on 12 dice with the third attack, for a damage total of 26.  Marissa's armour soaks 18, and Alakra rolls 3 HL of damage upon her from the remaining 8 dice.  She has lost her -0 level and three of her four -1 levels. </i>