1)  Yes

2)  No.  If you want to do extra damage with a Duelling Maneouver, use Lunge.

@MatthewAper, if you want some extensive insights into how fans are handling "dueling" in 7th Sea 2e here is a list of threads.

• http://www.7thsea2e.com/port/forum/combat-questions-problems-and-solutions
• http://www.7thsea2e.com/port/forum-tags/dueling
• http://www.7thsea2e.com/port/forum-tags/duelist

 

My take.

1st Question's answer is Yes, and this is spelled out in the rules on page 180 of the corebook.  For a non-Duelist, sometimes their best course of action in an Action Sequence is to pour all their raises into dealing damage, especialy if it's something like a Brute Squad or you're pretty confident the Villain's not going to come after you.

2nd Question is trickier.  While the Slash Maneuver doesn't outright say you can spend additional Raises for more damage, page 179 allows the Hero (or Villain as case may be) to spend additional Raises on their Action.  So it'd ultimately be up to the GM, as there's pros and cons to "Yes, they can spend raises on a Slash for more damage" and "No, they can't spend raises on a Slash for more damage."  Generally speaking, it's not beneficial for a Duelist Hero to spend extra Raises on increasing the damage of a Slash, since they've got other things they can do with those Raises that are far more effective.  For instance, a Duelist with Weaponry 3 and 3 Raises vs. a Strength 8 Brute Squad could (in my view) use Slash and then spend those two additional Raises for a total of 5 damage, leaving them to take 3 damage when the Brute Squad gets to act.  But that's grossly inefficient, since she could instead spend the first Raise to Feint, second Raise to Slash, and last Raise to Bash, dealing 6 damage all together and reducing the Brute Squad's damage by 3, which ends up preventing the Duelist from taking any Wounds.

Lunge is an "go big or go home" tactic, which has both strengths (can't negate any of the damage) and weaknesses (you HAVE to spend ALL your remaining Raises to use it), and because some players are cheese-seeking power-gamers that treat Lunge as the "I Win!" button for fights, there are GMs that have a big problem with the Maneuver.  But that's a seperate kettle of fish to be boiled, and probably more to treating a "duel to first blood" as being no different than a typical Action Sequence, when upon further contemplation such duels are probably better handled as a Risk, since most Villains when confronted aren't going to settle for "first blood" against a Hero that's been vexing them.

The rule on Page 179 is specifically around spending multiple Raises on Actions that either require multiple Raises (Dealing 1 Damage / Raise, Avoiding 1 Damage / Raise) or benefit from Multiple Raises (I want to succeed MORE than the person I'm going against). It doesn't let you just do additional damage in conjunction with an Action that doesn't already have the "Spend more Raises" built in.

For instance, a Hero cannot spend a Raise to active a special ability as their Action and then send additional Raises on that Action to also do damage for some reason. As an example, a Sorcerer with Dar Matushki could not spend a Raise to activate the Transform Gift to shift into a bear and then spend additional Raises on the same Action to cause damage in an attack. The Damage would come as the next Action in the sequence.

The same goes for Maneuvers. Each Dueling Maneuver has a specific effect when you spend the Raise and no mention of spending additional Raises. So a Duelist can't use Bash, deal 1 Wound and get the effect and spend additional Raises for more Damage using that maneuver.

John

The solution to all this may fall into a very overlooked bit in the description of the Action Sequence. Book is not in front of me so please correct me if am wrong. I recall some sort of passage that reads something like " a player may spend multiple raises to complete an action but they must do it all at once.". That then goes on to say something like " a player may not do the same action again in the sequence" If I remember right, that involved doing things like negating wounds from a single attack or spending to avoid a consequence or complete a contested challenge ( like grabbing a bag of gold). But, depending on how you interpret what is said, it could imply you may only make 1 basic attack on each target per sequence as well. So if we have a villain and a brute squad against a Duelist and a standard hero, the standard hero could attack the brute squad once and he villain once (and spend multiple raises in each attack or use them for other things). And the Duelist could attack each the same way, slash the villain, feint the villain, slash the brutes, and bounce through the rest of their abilities but only use each one once per target. This is another of those foggy writing spots in the book that is open to interpretation. And it very much changes how a Duelist and standard character approach a fight. (Essentially forcing the standard into a weak lunge option does not seem in spirit to the game in my view but neither does 1 poont pokes every action)

Donovon, as written I would agree that Matador's Flourish could be used at any time. If it's an error and should be limited to just after the maneuver for Wounds, that needs to be stated. While the game is certainly about "Rulings" and not "Rules", there need to be some rules stated if that is the intent, otherwise, each group can decide how they will play it. In any games I run, additional Raises cannot be spent on Slash unless there is an official clarification otherwise.

 

Salamanca, I at least was not suggesting that non-Duelists couldn't do multiple Wounds by spending multiple Raises. That is explicitly listed as the standard way to deal Wounds. Duelists can even use the standard 1 Raise = 1 Wound damage rule without using a maneuver. The rules you stated just ensure that for that Attack Action, you have to spend all the Raises you want to use for Wounds at once.

 

John

Which is why I wonder about it. I hate the idea of running a fight where one or more players gets to attack once when others may be taking 3-5 attacks. If that player doesn't find other things to do during the combat, they get relegated to observing which is far less fun.

Well, there is having and what they want to do. My "I want to build a scholar" guy will forget his role ten minutes into play and think he's a combatant. And that is where this all comes apart. When players want to do things and the system says no.