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As I recall they stack, and their penalties and bonuses don't stack, but you take the worst. So if you had a drawback -2 to defence and -3 to defence, then you take -3. And if you are taking -2 and then take lose your defence, then your defence is zero. And if you lose your defence from two different manoeuvres, then you can still do both, and your defence is still zero.

Is this right? Something I read seems to indicate otherwise.

One of my players is combining Spetsnaz Knife Fighting, Fencing, and Two Weapon Fighting (main gauche + rapier) and I'm seeing some rather crazy things, like 17 defence (by declaring dodge). and a free attack in retaliation each round.

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Good day. For clarity's sake, and so I can tag it properly, is this using the tabletop rules set, or the live-action one? – Jadasc Dec 27 '10 at 15:28
this is the Table to rules set, I'm finding having low privilege and not being able to create tags, annoying. also the lack of tags (since the site is new) Though table-top should be in there, so I'll retag thatl. EDIT: Ok, it isn't, nor is pen and paper – Lyndon 'Frames' White Dec 28 '10 at 4:19
It's all good; I added the proper tag with my initial edit. There's no "tabletop" or "pen and paper" tag, as this site is primarily dedicated to games like that; nearly every question could bear such a tag. – Jadasc Dec 28 '10 at 5:01
...Maybe you should talk with your player about powergaming. If you feel that 17 dies is too much (heck it IS too much) speak with him about lowering it a bit. Remember that rules are more guidelines than stone-set divine mandates. – Lucas Famelli Apr 17 '12 at 19:20

1 Answer

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On page 62 of Armory Reloaded, we find the following guidelines for combining Fighting Style maneuvers:

  1. Unless the text specifically notes otherwise, Fighting Style maneuvers don't stack. If multiple maneuvers provide the same benefit within the game system (a Defense bonus or dice bonus, for instance), your character only benefits from the best of the lot.

  2. When it comes to benefits that manipulate dice mechanics — like X-Again, rote actions or automatic successes — you may only pick one option.

  3. If you end up combining Fighting Style benefits that don't violate numbers 1 or 2, all the disadvantages apply simultaneously, and the worst of any static penalties apply.

So you're right about the penalties, but wrong about the maneuvers — the 17 defense is almost certainly in error.

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This is a great answer, but is it the one the OP is looking for? I'm not 100% sure it's been tagged rightly. Might that be why this hasn't been accepted? – Pureferret Jan 3 '12 at 11:12
@Pureferret Judging by the date, I'm guessing that it's because the person has migrated from RPG.SE. (The OP hasn't been back since February.) I am sure it's been tagged correctly -- the question references Fighting Styles, which are merits that were introduced in the nWoD core. – Jadasc Jan 3 '12 at 11:18
They existed as a concept in oWoD, but as specialty skills like Do and Kailindo, and the bizarre constructions in WoD: Combat. Mundane techniques rendered as 5-dot merit trees are an nWoD thing. – Jadasc Jan 3 '12 at 11:36

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