Editing Exalted Power Combat 101 (section)

=== Clinches ===

Whirling about, determined not to allow the Anathema to see the pain his cruel blows had inflicted, Cathak Marissa held her shield out towards him, spinning her lance about the axis of her hand in an entirely defensive posture, desperate to regain a tactical advantage.  How could she deal with such speed?

Alakra crouched, a finger tracing its way through Marissa's fresh, bright blood upon the ground.  He looked up, green eyes flecked with gold, his Anima still burning.

"You are not sufficiently skilled with that lance to defeat me.  Let us test your abilities in other modes of combat."  He vanished in a blur, and three times she felt her lance ward away his razor-sharp claws, but then pain shot through her skull as he seized her long white hair, bringing her down to her knees, bent backwards over his own as his free hand closed about her throat...

<i> Next round! </i>

<i>Wound penalties now apply to initiative, so Marissa loses 1 from her initiative total.  This does not change the fact that she still has a comfortable 12 points of base initiative up on the Solar, and hence she wins initiative again. </i>

<i>Marissa chooses to full parry.  This allows her, as explained above, to parry a number of times equal to the weapon's rate (3), losing one die from her pool each time after the first. </i>

<i>Note that you must choose which weapon to full parry with--if she was dual wielding two lances, she could not add their rates to parry 6 times with a full parry (though she could do so with normal multiple action rules, parrying three times with each lance).  Alakra, on the other hand, could take two full parries--one with each of his two pools--and if he chose, he could take one with his claws (Rate 7), and one with his left fist (Rate 5), though since nothing would be stopping him from using his claws for both, this would be unlikely.  He would still only be able to apply one parry action to each attack, regardless. </i>

<i>Alakra makes three probing attacks with his first pool in order to draw out her parries.  We will assume that between the parries, the shield and Flickering Candle, she avoids them all.  With his second pool, however, he makes a single attack--a Clinch. </i>

<i>All attacks or maneuvers of the grappling type are now considered clinches.  Holds, throws and the like are still possible, but they are now consequences of a clinch rather than maneuvers in their own right.  A clich is a -6 speed, 0 accuracy, Rate 1 attack, and hence Alakra cannot take multiple action penalties in order to make multiple clinch attempts. </i>

<i>Alakra makes his Clinch attack, activating Dragon Coil Technique, which gives him bonus dice equal to his Essence.  He may use either Strength or Dex plus Brawl or Martial Arts to make the attack, and chooses Str 6 + Brawl 5 +  Specialty 3 + Dragon Coil 3 for 17 dice total, rolling 9 successes. </i>

<i>Marissa attempts to dodge with Flickering Candle, and rolls a measly 2 successes.  Alakra still has five successes after her shield, and has successfully initiated a clinch. </i>

<i>Despite the ferocity of Alakra's stunt (for which miserly ST gave no bonus, wah!), no-one is in control of the clinch just yet.  If either party had any remaining actions, they could attempt to take control of the clinch, but as they don't, nothing happens for the moment. </i>

<i>What's control of the clinch, you ask?  Well, we'll see next turn. </i>

<i>Alakra does, incidentally, take 1 lethal damage dice from Marissa's anima at this point.  She does not roll a success, however.  If Alakra had have been wearing armour with a Hardness rating of 1 or higher, he would have ignored the anima entirely. </i>