GameBanshee Forums

I need some suggestion about a melee character. Should I go gangrel or brujah?
For gangrel I have a doubt: I don't understand the protean form. Should I improve brawl or strenght, if I wish to get +5 protean form? IS the protean form as badass as I think?

Protean IS pretty badass.. but to level it up you level the discipline? not the brawl or strength feats. To my understanding anyway. I'm a Malk/Nossie and im just going by how it should be, but the strength and drawl is just how hard you hit. Protean is just the like.. increase? but if you level protean to +5 it will be uber mad awesomeness. Its at the bottom of the char sheet =) xoxo

Brujah w/ Celerity +5 is tough. They can't hit back if they can't catch you. You can get 5 strikes in to their one.
Jack is a Brujah.

Very true. My first char was a brujah but i didnt get too far with her. But yes celerity is a beast. If your feeling devilish you can always tweak someone to have the disciplines you want?

Here's the rundown:

Gangrels are unmatched in weaponless combat; Brujahs are probably the best with melee weapons. Strictly speaking, Brujahs do more damage. However, the Gangrels with Protean form are incredibly powerful. Likewise, the fact that you don't rely on weapons means that you'll never be caught without your pants on. Finally, the high brawl skill that you'll have as a Gangrel means that enemies will never be able to block your feed attack, giving you easy access to blood and a simple way to finish off the last enemy of any group.

My first run through was as a Gangrel, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It is not, however, the only enjoyable choice.

Gangrel! If nothing else, then simply for the fact that you get to turn into a werewolf(ish)!

It's really a matter of perspective as to which is the best at either weaponless or melee. Since I've played both, I like both equally.

Meaning you don't have any perspective?

Actually you can create almost any clan to a very good melee fighter. The most important abilities you need for melee is melee/brawl and a high strength and stamina attribute. Furthermore the best currently armor is advisable but you generally get at least the first 3 armors anyway asap.
Yes that means you want to have Heather as a Ghoul until the end.

And Brujah and Gangrel aren't the only ones who got useful disciplines for close combat.

Toreador: Celerity and Presence are great for melee. Sure they are potentially the best gun slinges with added Auspex but that does not mean you need to restrict yourself to guns all the time. They are just as good in melee.

Venrue: Presence and Fortitude make you incredibly resilient in close combat. Add to that a good weapon and good comat stats -> Beast in melee.

Tremere: Yes you can increase your physical attributes to 4 only. Bohoo. With a basic Melee/Brawl Feat of 9 and Thaumaturgy you are still a very potent melee. And there is still Blood Buff.

Now let's take a closer look at Thaumaturgy:

Bloodhsield is about as good as Fortitude 3. Really nice. Plus it looks cool.
Purge: Basically an instant win against most non boss enemies who come too close to you. Just whack them after they start puking at your leisure.
Blood Salvo: Endless Blood if you stand in the middle of a melee group + serious damage. Just hold on the tab key to defend properly.
Blood Boil: Basicall death sentence to any non boss and big damage to all nearby enemies while pieces are flying around.

Not sure:

Nosferatu: Potence and Obfuscate sound like a potent combination. I never played a Nos extensively a melee character so cannot say for real.

Malkavian: Got Obufscate but that's all. Imho the worst of all potential melee characters. On top of that starts with 1 in all physical attributes. Not a big minus but still a minor minus.

Disagree Malkavian can also be a melee fighter except you would lose a lot of blood the same with Ventrue's ability domination.
Lol seriously most boss i have taken down especially the 1st sheriff form would be dementation and melee.

Just vision of death your opponent then your opponent kinda receive stun also he receive some small damage then hack n slash but really expensive with blood.

I would gonna say that bedlan is a useless due of its backfire and berserk so don't invest with this skill

I am gonna agreed obsturate is really useless skill in melee, investment and fighting with the boss i really wish they really cannot spot you when you activated it but using it in ninja moves and doing some nosferatu stuff this disciples rocks.

Obfuscate is a good thing to use on human or normal vampire enemies. For bosses, I'd use anything that would help, such as fortitude, etc.

My first char was a Toreador, a melee one (guns didn't seem to work well) and with Celerity and the Bradbury katana, she could simply go against the Sherriff in melee.

I could not repeat that feat with a Malkavian - who instead used Obfuscate and the flamethrower.

Gangrel.

I can create one, that has Unarmed 20 (Protean 5, Str 4, Brawl 5). 50 dmg per hit. Ming Xiao was nothing. Wanna hit me back? Fortitude 5, coupled with Stamina 5 and Defense 10. As I said, I was able to overrun Ming Xiao with ease, I didn't pay attention to her clones and whatever, because the amount of damage I was being inflicted was a laugh. Just activate the fortitude and the protean and slash, slash, slash. By the end of the fight I had just spent 4 blue blood packs or something like that, not because of the damage taken, but because of the amount of blood I had to expend.

No other clan has been able to accomplish such melee prowess. Not even the Brujah.

I am confused why Toreador are supposed to be worse than Brujah in melee ?

They get all the goodies Brujah get.

All thats different is just the kind of starting skilling they have. But that gets fixed over time. In the end, Brujah have a useless power (Potence) vs a super useful of Toreador (Auspex).

Tenser wrote:I am confused why Toreador are supposed to be worse than Brujah in melee ?

They get all the goodies Brujah get.

All thats different is just the kind of starting skilling they have. But that gets fixed over time. In the end, Brujah have a useless power (Potence) vs a super useful of Toreador (Auspex).

Why is Potence useless? it did wonders for my Nosferatu. I was making 150 dmg hits against the Sheriff. (Obfuscate+Potence). And against Ming Xiao I was dealing 40-50 dmg per hit with the Ra blade.

Hmm ok maybe I'm wrong then.

Tenser wrote:Hmm ok maybe I'm wrong then.

I'm not sure on which one, but on the unofficial patches that was one of the fixes, where you can get up to unarmed or melee in 20. That makes Potence stackable with strength and any other related skill and thus making it valuable again.