Bushido 101 - Melee Traits

You aren't entirely reliant on the whims of your dice rolls during melee in Bushido. Many characters have traits that allow you to re-roll or adjust some of your dice reflecting their advanced combat training or supernatural abilities.

In our example, Hagane has engaged a vile Yama Uba (don't worry, she passed her Fear test!). She uses Iaijutsu to gain Reach, countering the Yokai's own natural Reach ability. She also used Do Kote and subsequently sacrifices one of her Melee dice to gain Feint (1). This means that each participant in the combat is rolling 3 dice. Both elect to roll 2 dice in attack and 1 in defence.

As you can see, Hagane, perhaps a little unnerved by her opponent, has rolled 1 and 5 in attack and 3 in defence. The Yama Uba meanwhile has rolled 6 and 3 in attack and 5 in defence. That could have gone better for Hagane. As things currently stand, the success level of her attack is 0, while the Yama Uba has a success level of 4.

However, both Hagane and Yama Uba have traits that can affect the combat. Like all samurai, Hagane has Prowess [Melee] (1) which allows her to re-roll one of her attack dice. She naturally chooses to re-roll the 1 result. Furthermore, because she gave herself Feint (1), she can also re-roll the Yama Uba's single defence dice. Meanwhile, her Yokai opponent's unnatural speed grants it Dodge (1) which enables it to re-roll one of Hagane's attack dice. It chooses to re-roll the 5.

After all the re-rolls, Hagane's attack result of 1 has become a 5, while her original roll of 5 is now a 3. Meanwhile, the Yama Uba's defence result has changed from a 5 to a 2. Hagane has one last trait that will affect the combat and that is Parry (1). This enables her to add +1 to her defence roll, changing it from 3 to 4.

The re-rolls and adjusted totals now mean that Hagane's success level has increased from 0 to 4 while the Yama Uba's success level has dropped from 4 to 3. Hagane now has a reasonable chance of destroying the creature before its attack takes affect.