Yeah, speed beats power 9 times out of 10 in real combat, iirc it's really just European combat that developed toward 'greater & greater force' and that was just because they had such thick & heavy armor.<br/>And even that could be beat by speed; ala  Bronn v Ser Vardis Egen.<br/><br/>I just didn't realize that naginata were so thin; I guess they must have been made thinner recently because historic images show naginata appear much thicker<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Late 1800s photograph of samurai and retainers wearing armour and holding naginata</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Samurai_wearing_kusari_katabira_%28chain_armor%29.jpg)</div></div>Those are significantly thicker than the ones used in the modern tournament.<br/><br/>Although speaking of how combat works in nWoD; I know how attack & defense works fine, but how does health loss work? You talk about how it's over in a one blow but Selene has 8hp, 5+1 Defense and rolls 9 to hit with +3 damage. If she attacked herself she could<em>maybe</em>do 6 damage; assuming all her die were successes but no natural 10s.<br/><br/>Granted 2hp isn't exactly fighting fresh. Is there like a 'Bloodied' condition she'd gain or something?<br/><br/><strong>Additional Question</strong>: And this one just comes from my own ignorance of nWoD equipment (I played one game before but it was set in the 1940 & my character was a librarian, I think her defacto weapon was an old stone knife she 'borrowed' from some cultists.)<br/><br/>A +3 weapon is like,<em>really</em>mean, right? The World of Darkness Armory (home of the naginata & staff fighting merit) has Generic Derringer at "Damage 1"