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Composure is used in the resistance of Natural Mental Influence, in place of Willpower. Your Permanent Composure is equal to ([Higher of Charisma or Manipulation] + Socialize), and every day your Temporary Composure begins equal to its Permanent Value. There is no upper cap to high how Temporary Composure can go, though any Composure in excess of one's permanent value is lost when you take a Join Debate action. Similarly, regardless of its current rating, your Composure always resets to its permanent value in the morning. Anything that prevents a character from regaining Willpower from a night's rest also inhibits Composure; in such circumstances the character's Temporary Composure starts at 0.
You must spend from 1-3 Composure to resist a successful social attack, depending on the attacks' Threshold. You can gain one point of Composure, in lieu of a point of Willpower, from a successful +2 or +3 stunt. You may also gain a point of Composure by relenting to a failed Social Attack that aligns with your character's Motivation or one of your character's Intimacies.
| Threshold | Effects on Subject |
|---|---|
| 0 | Failed attack; 0 composure to resist. |
| 1 | 1 composure to resist; 2 for scene-long immunity. |
| 2 | Subsequent attempts have a -1 penalty to Dodge MDV. |
| 3 | 2 composure to resist; 4 for scene-long immunity. |
| 4 | Subsequent attempts have a -2 penalty to Dodge MDV. |
| 5 | 3 composure to resist; 6 for scene-long immunity. |
| 6 | Subsequent attempts have a -3 penalty to Dodge MDV. |
| 7 | No scene-long immunity possible. |
| (x2 MDV) | Instantly gain a relevant Intimacy. |
A composure expenditure provides immunity to that argument for the entire Cycle; all similar social attacks are defeated without loss of Composure. If a character pays extra for Scene-length Immunity, he's similarly immune to similar arguments for the rest of the scene. In both of these cases, the usage of Unnatural Mental Influence or a particularly clever Social Stunt can get around these defenses. You may buy Scene-length Immunity for a failed Social Attack, but it costs 1 willpower rather than any amount of Composure. It is impossible to purchase scene-length immunity against an attack that's managed a threshold of 7 or higher.
If a character does not pay extra for Scene-length Immunity, he can be attacked again on this and similar subjects. A particularly high threshold social attack also creates a "weakness" in the targets Dodge MDV which can be exploited by these subsequent attacks. This is considered an innate modifier, along the lines of the modifier from Appearance, and it is capped in any fashion. The usage of Parry MDV avoids this weakness, however.
If your attack achieves a threshold equal to or greater than double your subjects MDV, that subject instantly gains a relevant intimacy. If you were attempting to build an Intimacy, that is the intimacy that is gained. In other circumstances, the Storyteller may decide.
Appearance can be a powerful tool in Social Combat, but it is not necessarily applicable to every possible situation. Those of exceedingly different mindset and physiology neither impose nor suffer any Appearance-based adjustments to MDV, while creatures very different from on another lower the effects of Appearance, restricting themselves to at most a bonus or penalty of +1/-1 and requiring a two dot difference in Appearance to even achieve that.
--- (note, old material archived at Tickless Social Combat Archive.)
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