Editing Mnemon Explains Solar Combat (section)

====Dragon Blooded====

Dragon Blooded are substantially weaker than Solars, but they're still Exalted. If you're tactically aware, you'll likely carve them up, but underestimate them and you will regret it. Dynastic Dragon-Blooded are numerous and well-resourced, and religiously inclined to kill you on sight. Outcaste Dragon-Blooded are as varied as Solars, but you will have an advantage against them in that their equipment is no better than yours.

Loath as I am to suggest it, consider diplomacy with Lookshy. They're power-armoured thermoptically-camoflagued military ninja. I'm sure you'll get on just fine.

Dragon-Blooded have poor parrying ability (other than with actions as normal), and rely heavily on armour and Dodge. Many of their defences fail against Charm enhanced attacks, so don't be afraid to use your offence charms - the exception being a powerful charm called Defence Against Anathema Technique that raises the difficulty of your charm-enhanced attacks against them. If you meet such a foe, try unenhanced attacks or simply blow past it with Accuracy Without Distance or Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Archers will love fighting Dragon Blooded. Their reliance on armour makes them perfect for raining target arrows on.

Dodge is their most potent defence ability. While it affords them few dice, they have some particularly nasty tricks. The one that frequently trips up beginning Solars is Safety Amongst Enemies, a dodge charm that allows them to reflexively redirect any attack to an adjacent person with a relatively easy Dodge roll. In general, do NOT engage a Dragon Blooded who you suspect may have this charm (which is quite common) with more than one person, or range-attack an already engaged Dragon Blooded, unless those engaged can happily defend against redirected attacks. It is best not to enhance such attacks, but simply rain easily defended attacks upon the target until they cannot afford the mote cost any longer. Also watch out for Arrow Consuming Flame Defence, which incinerates any incoming wooden arrows (use Phantom Arrow or metal Thrown weapons), and Virtuous Negation Defence, which allows them to take the place of an ally being attacked within five yards. Finally, Hopping Firecracker Evasion lets them leap half their running distance away after a successful dodge - either pursue or switch to ranged weaponry.

Dragon Blooded Melee is simply not very good. Their best trick is their scene-length dice adder, which is the sort of thing that terrifies people who don't understand layering defence. However, at a maximum of +8 dice (4 being more common), you probably should be OK provided you're careful with your defence. Incidentally, that charm is one of many that effects multiple people, so if you can identify the one who used the charm, kill her and be done with it. They have a slightly nifty trick allowing more than five people to attack a single target, so watch your weaker Circlemates if a Meleeist drives for them with a troop of soldiers. They also have an extra action charm. Kill anyone stupid enough to use it in front of you. Don't bother disarming them, as they can likely conjure an essence-blade. Finally, they have a reflexive parry charm that will block any attack if they roll so much as one success...except attacks powered by charms. So either they're using an expensive charm and you're spending nothing, or you're spending and they have no reflexive parry. It's all good.

Dragon Blooded Brawl is awful. It improves slightly with Aspectbook Water, but honestly, either you're a clincher yourself, in which case you'll probably just out-dice them with Dragon Coil, or you'll know that you never ever want to be in a clinch anyway, and thus you don't care what they could theoretically do to you if you ever let them clinch you. Just be aware that a DB brawler who is clinching can suck more people into the clinch.

I'll only discuss one Terrestrial Martial Arts style, Five Dragon Style. It's not bad - one of the entry charms, Five Dragon Fortitude, is extremely popular, allowing the DB to buy Instant soak. This is good for the DB (they don't die), but is hardly a bad result for you, as it's more precious essence down the drain for them. The Form lets them use Bashing soak for lethal damage, so your average practitioner is quite tough. They can hit hard, including with doubled base damage or aggravated damage, but both Charms are Simple, so defend and then kill the user.

Both Dragon-Blooded ranged trees are excellent, however. Both are capable of making attacking the Dragon Blooded and her allies very difficult with ranged weapons, including a ranged counterattack in both cases. Neither Accuracy Without Distance nor Cascade of Cutting Terror are particularly dismayed by such difficulties, of course, but in general it's best to try to have your hand-to-hand fighters close with ranged Dragon-Blooded, and kill them swiftly. Of special note are two of Thrown's best tricks - Loyal Weapon, which allows them to use any weapon at all (including daiklaves or direlances) in place of a thrown weapon, and a charm that allows them to hide multiple Thrown weapons Elsewhere, reflexively releasing them as attacks. The first is the one to watch out for - apparent Meleeists could easily be dangerous Thrown users (watch Air aspects in particular). The second is surprising, but very expensive for the Dragon-Blooded, so if you survive the attacks, they will likely be easy to defeat.

In general, Dragon Blooded defence is poor. In order to take any offensive action at all, a Dragon-Blooded will need to expose themselves. Watch out for Safety Amongst Enemies, but you can usually cheerfully murder any Dragon Blooded who has taken an offensive action, ESPECIALLY those who've used a simple charm.

The Immaculate Martial Arts are far more dangerous than the secular abilities of the Dragon Blooded (though never make the mistake of assuming a given Immaculate doesn't have a backup complement of secular charms). However, do not overestimate them. Proper application of tactics will see them fold; while powerful charms, designed by the cunning of the Sidereals as a perfect fit for the Dragon Blooded, they are not the equal of Solar magic.

Air Dragon is by far the most dangerous of the Immaculate styles. It not only allows withering storms of chakrams, but it boosts the accuracy and dodge of its practitioner, and has several area-effect charms that are not attacks, and thus quite difficult to defend against. If possible, use Accuracy Without Distance and target arrows to kill the Air Dragon as quickly as possible, though Cascade of Cutting Terror will serve. If the Air Dragon uses her chakrams rather than one of her area-effect charms, maul her without hesitation or mercy using anything that comes to hand. Consider the Air Dragon a priority target.

Earth Dragon is not as dangerous, but it is deeply problematic for Melee fighters. Earth Dragons can hit extremely hard, so do not be hit. They can (at expense), reflexively parry and break any weapon used against them; only attack them with a weapon that you are prepared to lose (like, say, arrows, or essence weapons, or an exceptional weapon from the bag you're carrying for the purpose). Earth Dragon does have two non-attack effects, including an area effect (which isn't too bad, doing a little bashing damage and knocking you down), and a rather nasty attack that causes the ground to swallow up multiple targets. Both are Simple, and both require the targets to be on the ground - if possible, avoid the ground when fighting near an Earth Immaculate. The best strategy is to simply rain ranged fire down on the Immaculate and kill them as swiftly as possible, though removing them from the ground robs them of their best weapons; scenery modification and stunting are key here. Earth is also a priority to slay.

Fire Dragon is a poor style. It can create a rather high difficulty to hit, but what of it? Without armour, its practitioners are extremely vulnerable to even grazing blows. They have reasonable offences, but you would expect that. Either ignore the Fire Dragon until he runs out of essence after three or four turns, or kill him swiftly with ranged attacks or high-damage Melee blows. Obviously, don't clinch them (Fire Aspects typically being deadly to clinch).

Water Dragon is not the most dangerous of the Immaculate Arts, but it is the best - they're just so bloody hard to kill. They have good soak, can reduce your dice pool to attack, but most importantly, have a charm called Bottomless Depths Defence, which prevents all damage to them for a turn. It is a costly charm, and they can't use it indefinitely, but it is extremely annoying (in fact, the developer originally suggested an erratad cost of 3 Aggravated Health Levels a turn, and the Player's Guide changes it to all attacks doing 1 dice damage). They can create an area-effect attack by striking someone, so keep them away from your more vulnerable friends. Their pinnacle charm allows a rather damaging area-effect non-attack damaging technique, but it's not too bad if you have decent armour soak. All in all, it's best to completely ignore anyone you suspect may have Bottomless Depths Defence. Take them prisoner when the battle is over (though they do have a charm that lets them shrug out of restraints). You COULD kill them, but it's so terribly tedious.

Wood Dragon is pathetic. If in actual combat, kill them whenever it's convenient. They will slowly regenerate, so make sure to finish them. Their pinnacle charm has a chance of automatically killing you, so I suggest not being hit by it, but it glows green in obvious fashion, so it's not going to be a surprise. Outside of combat (and often during the beginning of the combat, or when the Wood Dragon is trying to escape), they have an exceptionally annoying charm called Unbreakable Fascination Kata. Ensure your reflexive defences are up early, as when they start the charm, nobody - nobody - is doing anything until the Wood stops dancing. It's extremely irritating, but it breaks whenever there's an attack, so you're unlikely to be hurt.