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The following are some additional combat actions, or existing actions with clarified and expanded explanations.
Without Charms, engaging in an argument with another combatant in a battle is a Banter action. This allows the character to make Social Attacks on a vastly abbreviated time-frame. The lack of time to articulate detailed arguments is partially offshoot by the captive & distracted audience.
Without Charms, blocking another individual’s movement uses the Blockade Movement action. It requires that the character be directly interposed between the individual or individuals whose movement he is attempting to restrict and the place he is attempting to keep them from reaching (such as a doorway, or another character's back). When the targets attempt to move past the blocker, make a contested ([Strength or Dexterity] + Athletics) roll for both parties. Ties favor the blocker. If the blocker wins, the target cannot move past him toward the blocked destination. If the target wins, she may move as she wishes. A single blocker may impede up to three targets per Blockade Movement action at a time. Blockade Movement may be flurried to impede more than three individuals at once, if needed.
Without Charms, defending another individual uses the Defend Other action. It requires that the character be within (Dexterity) yards of his ward, and allows him to interpose his Parry DV against attacks which target the individual he is protecting. If an attack bypasses or surpasses the character’s Parry DV, the attacker has the option of either letting the attack continue on to the guardian’s ward (in which case the attack will need to use its remaining successes to also beat the ward’s DVs), or she may simply let the attack strike the guardian himself. Parry-based perfect defenses such as Heavenly Guardian Defense may be used to automatically guard others, while dodge-based perfect defenses such as Seven Shadow Evasion do not impede attacks against the character's ward at all an cannot be used for this purpose. Only one Defend Other action may be placed in a flurry.
If multiple characters attempt to defend a single target, one guardian (generally the individual with the highest Parry DV) becomes the leader of the guard, who actually applies his DV against attacks. Each additional character guarding the same ward raises the leader's Parry DV by 1 when defending the ward. Up to five characters may simultaneously guard one human-sized ward on open ground.
Without Charms, obtaining a full and complete impression of the battlefield is a Survey action. It requires the character remove his attention from his immediate surroundings and the people with which he's engaged, hence the action's sizable penalty to DV. The character makes a (Perception + Awareness) roll, with any appropriate external penalties. The Storyteller decides on the difficulty to notice various battlefield features or conditions, with the character being informed of all battlefield features and conditions whose difficulty he equals or exceeds with his rolled successes. The difficulty of any condition that is completely unconnected to the battle, in the Storyteller's opinion, should have its difficulty raised by +2 to account for battlefield confusion. Only one Survey action may be placed in a flurry, and the DV penalty for Survey is reduced by Flow Like Blood rather than Fivefold Bulwark Stance.
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