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===Physical Conflict Dice Pools===
The core book presents a number of potential dice pool options for physial combat, due to the malleability of what can be done during a combat turn in this section. This confuses a lot of people, since legacy editions of Vampire the Masquerade generally had very set dice pools for specific actions. For ease of access, some of the most common pools characters will use (including some pools listed in Advanced Combat, reiterated here for ease) arepresented as follows. Note that this is NOT a comprehensive list, and Attribute + Skill combinations should be determined based on the narrative by the Storyteller:
* Brawl-based Physical Combat: Strength + Brawl (punches, kicks, bodyblows, martial arts maneuvers, claws)
* Light weapon-based Physical Combat: Dexterity + Melee (attacks that don't rely solely on your strength, but on the speed and accuracy of a lighter weapon such as knives, short swords, rapiers, whips, light spears)
** Composure + Firearms (keeping cool in combat; knowing when and where to fire to hit your opposition, not being surprised by the sudden appearance of new combatants). A media example of this would be how the TV show SWAT handles their firearms, or Will Smith's training gun shot in the first Men in Black movie; it's more about keeping calm and knowing when/where to fire than simply the speed to do so.
** Dexterity + Firearms (speed-based gun combat; quick draw 'high noon' showdowns, dealing with an erratically moving target, getting a gun out of hiding and firing it before you get stabbed up close, clearing your gun before the enemy can draw theirs). A media example of this would be any cowboy TV show or movie with two people facing off to see who can fire first, or the movie Collateral as shown [https://www.pewpewtactical.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Collateral-Mozambique-Drill.gif here].
** Resolve + Firearms (dealing with endurance and how it applies to firearms; a sniper sitting in the brush for a full day waiting on a target or a combatant under some other mental duress such as having been tortured, laying down suppressing fire to ensure that specific targets are suppressed). A media example of this would be the movie Wanted, and the time and preparation/setup for the various distance sniping scenes (not the best example, but it gets the poitn point across).* Defending: Defending can be done in two ways: dodging, or non-lethal defense such as parrying or blocking. This was implied by the V5 core rulebook, and clarified in the ''Hunter: The Reckoning 5th Edition'' core book (H5 pg. 118-119).** Dodging: Dexterity + Athletics (using your speed and athleticism to move and stay fast on your feet to dodge).** Non-lethal defense: A pool using the Brawl or Melee skills (utilizing your brawling talents to block or redirect, or your melee talents to defend with a parry or a bind). Non-lethal defenses normally can't be used in response to Firearms conflicts, but may at ST discretion if narratively appropriate, such as if a gunner is in melee/brawl with the defender.
Both the attacker and defender will use these pools (in the case of someone trying to solely defend, will use Dexterity + Athletics to dodge). Other factors can change combat (such as setting a static Difficulty for Ranged combat, rather than a dodge pool). By default, however, if someone is trying to not get hit and they're not immobilized or assumed to have no cover, they would use the Dex + Athletics pool. The conflict examples in the book are a bit bad, and Karim has said that some of the intent was lost; a full set of examples will be below showing how pools interact.
===Conflict Order of Operations===
The conflict order of operations for Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition is pretty straightforward, based on the options presented on pages 124 and 125 of the core rule book, but there are often many questions such as when to use Disciplines, what happens with Initiative, and others that are unclear. After running V5 regularly since its release, the discussions with Karim Muammar about the unclear combat/conflict mechanics and studying the limits of other things from the book such as Discipline activations, we have determined what we are referring to as the Optimal Conflict Order. In practice, the below layout has held up in both tabletop and LARP conflicts using the core book mechanics.
====The Combat Turn====
* Is this fight dramatically appropriate and/or necessary?
If the answer is NO or not really, then narrate and move on. For example, if 5 vampires roll up on 2 unprepared street thugs, then the combat should be narrated as the ass beating it is. If the combatants are equal in power but not intent on causing long term consequences, consider a roll off. (IE: a sparring match or “friendly” 'friendly' brawl.)
If it is conflict between players, you can offer Mediation. Mediation combat simply is based on the players and Storyteller discussing the outcome of a conflict, with the appropriate changes being handled (damage, Stains gained, etc.) based on the logical outcome of the narrative. STs and players can use the Concessions section of Advanced Conflict, on pg. 295, as some useful guidelines for Mediation.
=====Phase 2: Conflict=====
This phase is the ‘core’ of V5 LARP Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition combat, but should resolve fairly quickly assuming everyone is organized. All movement positioning is now complete, and most Minor Actions should be completed by this time. A few notes about conflict:
* Rouse Checks: Rouse Checks are performed when they are required by an action that uses Rouse Check. As a reminder, you may perform a Rouse Check once per turn per each thing that requires a Rouse Check. For example:
** A player may use a Rouse Check to Blood Heal at any point in Conflict, in any phase or part of the action order.
From here, we wrap up and move back to the top of the queue and repeat until all conflict is done. This combat flow works for both the Three Turns and Out/Three, Two, Done shorter conflicts, as well as longer more engaged conflicts.
Storytellers may also opt to use any of the following rules based on the flow/necessity of the conflict:
* Three Turns and Out, ''Vampire the Masquerade 5th Edition pg. 130'' / Three, Two, Done, ''pg. 295'' - This will likely be used for heavily lopsided conflicts or conflicts that a Storyteller may want to wrap up faster than others.