Vampire V5 Combat cheat sheet
Turn order, actions, and reminders. At-the-table reference for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition.
Vampire: The Masquerade V5 combat: d10 dice pools with Hunger dice creating personal-horror volatility. Fast, narrative, and driven by the Beast.
Initiative
- Value
- Composure + Awareness
- Method
- No dice roll; flat value, highest goes first
- Ties
- Dexterity breaks ties, then player choice
Action economy
- 1 major action per turn: attack, use a Discipline power, grapple, interact with environment.
- 1 minor action: move, speak, draw/sheathe a weapon.
- Splitting dice pool: divide your pool to act against 2 different targets (no die can be in both).
Attack roll
- Melee
- Strength + Melee (or Brawl) vs defender's Dexterity + Melee (or Athletics)
- Ranged
- Composure + Firearms vs difficulty (2-4 based on range/cover)
- Success
- Each die showing 6+ = 1 success
- Critical
- Two 10s in the pool = critical (4 successes from those 2 dice)
- Melee is always an opposed roll (attacker vs defender).
- Ranged attacks roll against a flat difficulty, not opposed.
- Margin of success = extra successes beyond the target, added to damage.
Hunger dice
- Replacing dice
- Replace the last N regular dice with Hunger dice (N = current Hunger)
- Hunger 10 + another 10
- Messy critical: succeed, but violently or horribly
- Fail + Hunger 1
- Bestial failure: fail and risk frenzy or compulsion
- Hunger dice are always d10s of a different color.
- They cannot be removed by Willpower rerolls.
- Hunger 0 = no Hunger dice (only possible for thin-bloods or immediately after feeding).
Damage types
- Superficial
- Halved (round up) before marking on the tracker
- Aggravated
- Marked directly; harder to heal
- Vampires take Superficial damage from most weapons (fists, blades, bullets).
- Aggravated from: fire, sunlight, claws/fangs of supernatural creatures, some Discipline effects.
- Fill all Health boxes: Impaired (-2 dice to all pools). Take more: torpor.
- Fill all Willpower boxes: Impaired (-2 dice). Take more: mental breakdown.
Frenzy
- Triggers
- Provocation, Hunger 5 messy crit, fire, sunlight, humiliation
- Resist
- Willpower (Composure + Resolve) vs difficulty (base 3, higher for extreme triggers)
- In frenzy: attack the nearest threat, flee, or feed (Storyteller decides based on trigger).
- Ends when the trigger is removed or the vampire spends Willpower to suppress.
- Riding the wave: choose to frenzy willingly for +2 dice to physical pools (but no self-control).
Rouse check
- Roll
- 1d10; 6+ = success (Hunger stays), 1-5 = fail (Hunger rises by 1)
- Double rouse
- Roll 2d10; both must succeed or Hunger rises
- Rouse checks happen when: using Disciplines, waking at dusk, mending damage, using Blood Surge.
- At Hunger 5: cannot voluntarily rouse (the Beast is too close to the surface).
Mending damage
- Superficial: one Rouse check per turn mends an amount of Superficial damage based on Blood Potency (1-5), not the whole track at once.
- Aggravated: requires extended rest and multiple Rouse checks over nights.
- Mortals heal slowly: no mending, regular first aid and hospital time.
Common mistakes
- Superficial damage is halved BEFORE marking, rounded up, not after. 3 Superficial becomes 2 marked.
- Hunger dice cannot be rerolled with Willpower; they are always in the pool.
- Messy critical requires a Hunger die showing 10 paired with another 10 (any die); a lone Hunger 10 is just a success.
- Bestial failure requires both a failed roll AND a Hunger die showing 1; either alone does nothing special.
- Splitting pools is the only way to attack two targets; there is no extra attack action.
- Vampires do not take wound penalties: it is Impaired (-2) or torpor, nothing in between.