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127 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Chapter Four: Disciplines Disciplines are supernatural powers granted by the Embrace, which vampires cultivate to bring to bear against their foes and prey. These powers separate the Damned from mortals, providing an incomparable mys-tical edge over those who would stand against them. With Disciplines, a vampire can exert the strength of a dozen men, force an enemy into thrall, ignite a ﬁre with a glance, or take the mantle of a beast. Even the youngest Kindred, with a few token powers at his com-mand, has an advantage over most threats, while the elders, who have often mastered a fearsome breadth of these potent gifts, can seem almost unassailable. The origin of Disciplines is a Kindred mystery. Are they a form of dark Biblical justice, bestowed upon Caine and his get as a damnation-scourge? Are they the wiles of a twisted natural world, taught by Lilith, the mother of monsters? Are they simply predatory advantages, intrinsic to the state of being Kindred? Whatever the answer, learning and honing these su-pernatural powers is paramount to being able to face undeath on a vampire's own terms. After all, the other forces at play in the Jyhad will be cultivating theirs.... Like other Traits, Disciplines are rated in progressive dots. A rating of one dot indicates that the Discipline Elder Discipline Powers (6+) Discipline powers at a rating of 6 and higher sometimes feature multiple powers at various lev-els; in such cases, the vampire increasing in power simply chooses which one she wants. Some Disci-plines have more options than others; usually, this means there are more commonly known applica-tions of those Disciplines. If the character wants to purchase the other option or options later, she can spend additional experience as if buying the same dot in the Discipline again to acquire it. Storytellers may also allow players to create their own elder Discipline powers, if they desire. It should be noted that 6-dot and higher powers can be abused to stomp a well-crafted chronicle into tiny little pieces. These potent abilities are often difﬁcult (but not impossible) to acquire, so Storytellers should consider the impact that high-level Disciplines might have on their chronicles before allowing them at all. 127 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION"When my energies ﬁrst surged through me, I discovered how to move like lightning, how to borrow the strength of the earth, how to be as stone. These were like breathing once was to me. " -The Book of Nod	disciplinas.pdf
128 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES in question has barely been awakened, while a rating of six dots or higher indicates mastery beyond the capac-ity of most neonates and even ancillae. As a character increases her rating in a Discipline, she gains access to the powers listed next to the appropriate number of dots, as well as retaining access to lesser powers. As with other Traits, Discipline levels of higher than ﬁve dots are available only to those Kindred of Generations seven and lower (see p. 270). Note: Unless stated in the description, Disciplines cost no blood or Willpower points to activate. Animalism The Beast resides within all creatures, from scut-tling cockroaches to scabrous rats up through untamed wolves and even powerful Kindred elders. Animalism allows the vampire to amplify his intensely primordial nature. He can not only communicate with animals, but can also force his will upon them, directing such beasts to do as he commands. As the vampire grows in power, he can even control the Beast within mortals and other supernaturals. Beasts grow distinctly agitated in the presence of a vampire who lacks this Discipline or the Skill of Ani-mal Ken, often to the point of attacking or running from the vampire. In contrast, vampires possessing Animalism exude a dominant vibe to lower creatures, which attracts them. Animalism is commonly found with vampires of the Gangrel and Nosferatu Clans. Manipulation and Cha-risma are important for the use of Animalism powers; the stronger the vampire's personality, the more inﬂu-ence he has over animals. Storytelling Animals It can be difﬁcult for the Storyteller to use animals as something more than a plot device whenever a character tries to communicate with them. It's easy to fall back on monosyl-labic speech and easily led creatures in order to get the story moving along. And indeed, animals are simpler than humans-they focus on the present and are directed by instincts instead of complex goals and elaborate schemes. However, simple doesn't necessar-ily mean stupid; animals need cunning and perception to survive, and both can be of great use to a vampire master. Storytellers can make animals dynamic, interesting characters that bring a lot to the chronicle, or they can quickly gloss over the ﬁner points of their characterization to get back to the more press-ing conﬂicts in the chronicle. Statistics for certain animals are found in Chapter Nine, p. 388. Advancing Disciplines Players begin the game with three dots to spend on their characters' Clan Disciplines, which are listed with each Clan description in Chapter Two. Caitiff may place their three dots on any Disciplines they like, subject to the Storyteller's discretion. Characters may also acquire Disciplines other than those commonly taught by their Clan, provided they spend the proper freebie or experience points and have access to a vampiric teacher (again, subject to the Storyteller's discre-tion). Learning a new out-of-clan Discipline requires that the teacher feeds the student a point of their blood before instruction begins, to start the mystical tie to the Discipline be-ing taught. Improving knowledge of a Disci-pline already known does not require such a transfer (although some unscrupulous teach-ers may claim that it's still necessary). Storytellers may decide that certain Disci-plines are more or less difﬁcult to acquire, de-pending on their chronicle. For example, it's generally easier for a Kindred to learn a com-mon power like Potence (which many Clans share) rather than Thaumaturgy (which is generally the domain of the Tremere and a few other bloodlines), but a chronicle set en-tirely around the storming and acquisition of a rogue Tremere chantry may ﬁnd that Thau-maturgy is much easier to learn and acquire.	disciplinas.pdf
129 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Feral Whispers This power is the basis from which all other Animal-ism abilities grow. The vampire creates an empathic connection with a beast, thereby allowing him to com-municate or issue simple commands. The Kindred locks eyes with the animal, transmitting his desires through sheer force of will. Although it isn't necessary to actu-ally “speak” in chirps, hisses, or barks, some vampires ﬁnd that doing so helps strengthen the connection with the animal. Eye contact must be maintained the entire time; if it's broken, the Kindred must re-estab-lish contact to continue communication. The simpler the creature, the more difﬁcult it be-comes to connect with the animal's Beast. Mammals, predatory birds, and larger reptiles are relatively easy to communicate with. Insects, invertebrates, and most ﬁsh are just too simple to connect with. Feral Whispers provides no guarantees that an animal will want to deal with the vampire, nor does it ensure that the animal will pursue any requests the vampire makes of it. Still, it does at least make the creature bet-ter disposed toward the Kindred. The manner in which the vampire presents his desires to the animal often de-pends on the type of creature. A Kindred can often bully smaller beasts into heeding commands, but he's better off couching orders for large predators as requests. If the vampire successfully uses the power, the ani-mal performs the command to the best of its ability and intellect. Only the very brightest creatures understand truly complex directives (orders dealing with con-ditional situations or requiring abstract logic). Com-mands that the animal does understand remain deeply implanted, however, and guide its behavior for some time. System: No roll is necessary to talk with an ani-mal, but the character must establish eye contact (see p. 152) ﬁrst. Issuing commands requires a Manipula-tion + Animal Ken roll. The difﬁculty depends on the creature: Predatory mammals (wolves, cats, vampire bats) are difﬁculty 6, other mammals and predatory birds (rats, owls) are difﬁculty 7, and other birds and reptiles (pigeons, snakes) are difﬁculty 8. This difﬁculty is reduced by one if the character speaks to the animal in its “native tongue,” and can be adjusted further by circumstances and roleplaying skill (we highly recom-mend that all communication between characters and animals be roleplayed).	disciplinas.pdf
130 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESThe number of successes the player achieves dictates how strongly the character's command affects the ani-mal. One success is sufﬁcient to have a cat follow an individual and lead the character to the same location, three successes are enough to have a raven spy on a target for weeks, and ﬁve successes ensure that a grizzly ferociously guards the entrance to the character's wil-derness haven for some months. The character's Nature plays a large part in how he approaches these conversations. The character might try intimidating, teasing, cajoling, or rationalizing. The player should understand that he does not simply play his character in these situations, but the Beast Within as well. Using this power cannot force an animal to do some-thing against its nature, or to force a creature to risk its life. While the aforementioned grizzly would stand guard to the vampire's haven and even ﬁght for it, it would not do so against obviously superior numbers or something overwhelmingly supernatural. A predatory bird might be convinced to harry a target, but would deﬁnitely not hold ground. A docile dog or skittish cat would have no problem with reporting something it had seen, but it wouldn't enter combat unless given no other option — though it would likely agree to stand and ﬁght and then ﬂee at the ﬁrst opportunity, if a harsh Kindred demanded it. Beckoning The vampire's connection to the Beast grows strong enough that he may call out in the voice of a speciﬁc type of animal — howling like a wolf, shrilling like a raven, etc. This call mystically summons creatures of the chosen type. Since each type of animal has a dif-ferent call, Beckoning works for only a single species at a time. All such animals within earshot are summoned, and some percentage of them will heed the Beckoning if it is successful. While the vampire has no further control over the beasts who answer, the animals who do are favorably disposed toward him and are at least willing to listen to the Kindred's concerns. (The vampire can then use Feral Whispers on individual animals to com-mand them, which may be at a decreased difﬁculty at Storyteller discretion. ) System: The player rolls Charisma + Survival (dif-ﬁculty 6) to determine the response to the character's call; consult the table below. Only animals that can hear the cry will respond. If the Storyteller decides no animals of that type are within earshot, the summons goes unanswered. The call can be as speciﬁc as the player desires. A character could call for all bats in the area, for only the male bats nearby, or for only the albino bat with the notched ear he saw the other night. Successes Result 1 success A single animal responds. 2 successes One-quarter of the animals within earshot respond. 3 successes Half of the animals respond. 4 successes Most of the animals respond. 5 successes All of the animals respond. Quell the Beast As the supreme predators of the natural world, Kin-dred are highly attuned to the bestial nature that dwells within every mortal heart. A vampire who develops this power may assert his will over a mortal (animal or human) subject, subduing the Beast within her. This quenches all powerful, strong emotions — hope, fury, love, fear — within the target. The Kindred must ei-ther touch his subject or stare into her eyes to channel his will effectively. Mortals who lack the ﬁre of their inner Beasts are quite tractable, reacting to even stressful situations with indifference. Even the most courageous or mad-dened mortal becomes apathetic and listless, while an especially sensitive individual may suffer from a phobic derangement while under the power's inﬂuence. Different Clans evoke this power in different ways, though the effect itself is identical. Tzimisce call it Cowing the Beast, since they force the mortal's weaker spirit to shrivel in fear before the Kindred's own inner Beast. Nosferatu refer to it as Song of Serenity, since they soothe the subject's Beast into a state of utter complacency, thus allowing them to feed freely. Gan-grel know the power as Quell the Beast, and force the mortal spirit into a state of fear or apathy as beﬁts the individual vampire's nature. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Intimida-tion if forcing down the Beast through fear, or Manipu-lation + Empathy if soothing it into complacency. The	disciplinas.pdf
131 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONdifﬁculty of the roll is 7 in either case. This is an ex-tended action requiring as many total successes as the target has Willpower. Failure indicates that the player must start over from the beginning, while a botch in-dicates that the vampire may not affect that subject's Beast for the remainder of the scene. When a mortal's Beast is cowed or soothed, she can no longer use or regain Willpower. She ceases all strug-gles, whether mental or physical. She doesn't even defend herself if assaulted, though the Storyteller may allow a Willpower roll if the mortal believes her life is truly threatened. To recover from this power, the mor-tal's player rolls Willpower (difﬁculty 6) once per day until she accumulates enough successes to equal the vampire's Willpower. Kindred cannot be affected by this power. Though a vampire's Beast cannot be cowed with this ability, the Storyteller may allow characters to use the “soothing” variation of this power to pull a vampire out of frenzy. With three or more successes, the frenzying vampire may roll again to pull herself out of frenzy, us-ing the same difﬁculty as the stimulus that caused the frenzy originally. Subsume the Spirit By locking his gaze with that of an animal, the vam-pire may mentally possess the creature. Some elders be-lieve that since animals don't have souls but spirits, the vampire can move his own soul into the animal's body. Many younger vampires think it a matter of transfer-ring one's consciousness into the animal's mind. In ei-ther case, it's agreed that the beast's weaker spirit (or mind) is pushed aside by the Kindred's own conscious-ness. The vampire's body falls into a motionless state akin to torpor while his mind takes control of the ani-mal's actions, remaining this way until the Kindred's consciousness returns. Some haughty Tzimisce eschew this power, consider-ing it debasing to enter the body of a lesser creature. When they do stoop to using it, they possess only pred-ators. Conversely, Gangrel revel in connecting to the natural world in this way. They delight in sampling dif-ferent animals' natures. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difﬁculty 8) as the character looks into the ani-mal's eyes (see sidebar on p. 152). The number of suc-cesses allows the character to employ some mental Dis-ciplines while possessing the animal, as noted below. Successes Result 1 success Cannot use Disciplines 2 successes Can use Auspex and other sensory powers 3 successes Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation 4 successes Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation 5 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers This power entwines the character's consciousness closely with the animal's spirit, so much so that the character may continue to think and feel like that ani-mal even after breaking the connection. This effect continues until the character spends a total of seven nights or three Willpower points to resist and ﬁnally overcome the animal nature. This should be role-played, though the character will be affected to a lesser degree if the player chooses to spend Willpower. At the end of any particularly exciting incident dur-ing possession, the player rolls Wits + Empathy (difﬁ-culty 8) for the character to retain his own mind. Fail-ure indicates that the character's mind returns to his own body, but still thinks in purely animalistic terms. A botch returns the character to his body, and also sends him into frenzy. The character may travel as far from his own physical body as he chooses while possessing the animal. The character retains no conscious connection with his vampire body during this time, though. The vampire may also venture out during the day, albeit in the ani-mal's body. However, the character's own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake (see p. 262). If the character leaves the animal's body (by choice, if his body falls asleep, or after sus-taining signiﬁcant injury), the vampire's consciousness returns to his physical form instantaneously. Although the vampire has no conscious link to his body while possessing the animal, he does form a sym-pathetic bond. Anything the animal feels, the vampire also experiences, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the animal's body sustains is also applied to the character's body, though the Kindred body may soak as normal. If the animal dies before the vampire's soul can ﬂee from the body, the character's body falls into	disciplinas.pdf
132 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINEStorpor. Presumably this is in sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, but some Kindred believe that the vampire's soul is cast adrift during this time and must ﬁnd its way back to the body. Drawing Out the Beast At this level of Animalism, the Kindred has a keen understanding of the Beast Within, and is able to re-lease his feral urges upon another mortal or vampire. The recipient of the vampire's Beast is instantly over-come by frenzy. This is an unnatural frenzy, however, as the victim is channeling the Kindred's own fury. As such, the vampire's own behavior, expressions, and even speech patterns are evident in the subject's sav-age actions. Gangrel and Tzimisce are especially fond of unleash-ing their Beasts onto others. Gangrel do so to stir their ghouls into inspired heights of savagery during combat. Tzimisce care less about who receives their Beast than retaining their own composure. System: The player must announce his preferred tar-get (since it must be someone within sight, Drawing Out the Beast cannot be used if the vampire is alone), then roll Manipulation + Self-Control/Instinct (difﬁ-culty 8). Refer to the table below for the results: Successes Result 1 success The character transfers the Beast, but unleashes it upon a random individual. 2 successes The character is stunned by the effort and may not act next turn, but transfers the Beast successfully. Alternatively, the character may act normally during the turn, but must spend a Willpower point or suffer a single level of lethal damage. 3+ successes The character transfers the Beast successfully. If the attempt fails, the character himself immedi-ately enters frenzy. As the character relaxes in expecta-tion of relieving his savage urges, the Beast takes that opportunity to dig deeper. In this case, the frenzy lasts twice as long as normal and is twice as difﬁcult to shrug off; its severity also increases exponentially. Botch-ing this roll is even more catastrophic; the heightened frenzy grows so extreme that not even expending Will-power curbs its duration or effects. The character is a hapless victim to the terrible fury of his Beast, and may well hurl herself into a savage, ﬂesh-rending rampage that leaves the Masquerade (and unfortunate nearby onlookers) in tatters. If the character leaves the target's presence before the frenzy expends itself, the vampire loses his Beast, perhaps permanently. While no longer vulnerable to frenzy, the character cannot use or regain Willpower and becomes increasingly lethargic. To recover the Beast, he must ﬁnd the person who now possesses it (who likely isn't enjoying herself very much) and coax the Beast into its proper vessel. The most effective way to do so is to behave in ways that make the Beast want to return — however, this isn't a guarantee that it will wish to do so. Alternatively, the character can simply kill the host (thus causing the Beast to return to the vampire immediately). Animal Succulence Most vampires ﬁnd the blood of animals ﬂat, taste-less, and lacking in nutritional value. Some Gangrel and Nosferatu, however, have reﬁned their under-standing of the spirits of such “lesser prey” to the point that they are able to draw much more sustenance from beasts than normal Kindred can. This power does not allow an elder to subsist solely on the blood of animals, but it does allow him to go for extended periods of time without taking vitae from humans or other Kindred. System: No roll is needed; once learned, this power is always in effect. Animal Succulence allows a charac-ter to count each blood point drawn from an animal as two in her blood pool. This does not increase the size of the vampire's blood pool, just the nutritional value of animal blood. Animal Succulence does not allow a character to completely ignore his craving for the blood of “higher” prey; in fact, it heightens his desire for “real food. ” Ev-ery three times (rounded down) the character drinks from an animal, a cumulative +1 difﬁculty is applied to the next Self-Control/Instinct roll the player makes when the character is confronted with the possibility of dining on human or Kindred blood. Animal Succulence does not increase the blood point value of the blood of other supernatural creatures (Gangrel, werecreatures, and so on) who have taken animal forms, nor does it change the vampire's feeding preferences (such as the Ventrue have).	disciplinas.pdf
133 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Shared Soul This power allows a character to probe the mind of any one animal she touches. Shared Soul can be very disconcerting to both parties involved, as each par-ticipant is completely immersed in the thoughts and emotions of the other. With enough effort or time, each participant can gain a complete understanding of the other's mind. Shared Soul is most often used to extract an animal's memories of a speciﬁc event, but some Gangrel use this power as a tool in the search for enlightenment, feeling they come to a better un-derstanding of their own Beasts through rapport with true beasts. Too close of a bond, however, can leave the two souls entangled after the sharing ends, causing the vampire to adopt mannerisms, behavior patterns, or even ethics (or lack thereof) similar to those of the animal. System: The character touches the intended subject creature, and the player rolls Perception + Animal Ken (difﬁculty 6). The player spends a Willpower point for every turn past the ﬁrst that contact is maintained. Lo-cating a speciﬁc memory takes six turns, minus one turn for every success on the roll. A complete bond takes 10 turns, minus one turn for every success on the roll. A botch on this roll may, at the Storyteller's discretion, send the vampire into a frenzy or give the character a derangement related to the behavior patterns of the animal (extreme cowardice if the vampire contacted the soul of mouse, bloodlust if the subject was a rabid dog, and so forth). Species Speech The basic power Feral Whispers (Animalism 1) al-lows character to communicate with only one animal at a time. With Species Speech, a character can enter into psychic communion with all creatures of a certain species that are present. Species Speech is most often used after an application of The Beckoning (Animal-ism 2), which can draw a crowd of likely subjects. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difﬁculty 7) to establish contact with the tar-geted group of animals. Once the character estab-lishes contact, the player makes a second roll to issue commands. There is no practical upper limit on the number of animals that can be commanded with this power, although all of the intended subjects must be in the vampire's immediate vicinity. Only one species of animal can be commanded at a time; thus, if a charac-ter is standing in the middle of the reptile house at the zoo, she could command all of the Komodo dragons, all of the boa constrictors, or all of the skinks, but she could not simultaneously give orders to every reptile or snake present. Species Speech functions much like Feral Whispers in all other respects. Note: Players (and Storytellers) shouldn't get too wrapped up in species differences like northern dia-mondback rattlesnakes and south-eastern diamondback rattlesnakes. At Storyteller discretion, the expenditure of an additional Willpower point allows the character's commands to extend to members of a similar species to the one initially commanded. Conquer the Beast Masters of Animalism have a much greater under-standing of both beasts in general and the Beast in particular. Those who have developed this power can master their own Beasts to a degree impossible for lesser Kindred to attain. Conquer the Beast allows the vam-pire both to control her frenzies and to enter them at will. Some elders say that the development of this pow-er is one of the ﬁrst steps on the road to Golconda. System: The character can enter frenzy at will. The player rolls Willpower (difﬁculty 7). Success sends the character into a controlled frenzy. He can choose his targets at will, but gains limited Dominate and wound penalty resistance and Rötschreck immunity as per the normal frenzy rules (p. 298). A botch on the roll sends the vampire into an uncontrolled frenzy which Con-quer the Beast may not be used to end. The player may also roll Willpower (difﬁculty 9) to enable the character to control an involuntary frenzy. In this case, a Willpower point must be spent for ev-ery turn that the vampire remains in frenzy. The player may make Self-Control/Instinct rolls as normal to end a frenzy, but if the vampire runs out of Willpower points before the frenzy ends, he drops into an uncontrolled frenzy again. A botch on the Willpower roll raises the difﬁculty of the vampire's Self-Control/Instinct rolls by two and renders Conquer the Beast unusable for the remainder of the night. Taunt the Caged Beast Some Kindred are so attuned to the Beast that they can unleash it in another individual at will. Vampires who have developed this power are able to send ad-versaries into frenzy with a ﬁnger's touch and the re-sultant momentary contact with the victim's Beast. The physical contact allows the vampire's own Beast to reach out and awaken that of the victim, enraging it by threatening its territory.	disciplinas.pdf
134 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESSystem: The character touches the target. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipu-lation + Empathy (difﬁculty 7). The victim makes a Self-Control/Instinct roll (difﬁculty 5 + the number of successes); failure results in an immediate frenzy. A botch causes the character to unleash his own Beast and frenzy instead. This power maybe used on those individuals who are normally incapable of frenzy, send-ing ordinary humans into murderous rages worthy of the most bloodthirsty Brujah berserker. Unchain the Beast The self-destructive nature of Cainites can be turned against them by an elder who possesses this formidable power. With a glance, the vampire can awaken the Beasts of her enemies, causing physical injury and ex-cruciating agony as the victim's own violent impulses manifest in physical form to tear him apart from within. A target of this power erupts into a fountain of blood and gore as claw and bite wounds from an invisible source spontaneously tear his ﬂesh asunder. System: The character makes eye contact (see p. 152) with the intended victim. The player spends three blood points and rolls Manipulation + Intimida-tion (difﬁculty of the victim's Self-Control/Instinct + 4). Each success inﬂicts one health level of aggravated damage, which can be soaked normally. A botch in-ﬂicts one health level of lethal damage to the invoking character for each “1” rolled. This damage can also be soaked normally. Auspex Auspex gives the vampire uncanny sensory abilities. She starts with the capacity to heighten her natural senses signiﬁcantly, but as she grows in power, she can perceive psychic auras and read the thoughts of another being. Auspex can also pierce through mental illusions such as those created by Obfuscate — see the sidebar “Seeing the Unseen” on p. 142 for more. However, a vampire with Auspex needs to be careful. Her increased sensory sensitivity can cause her to be drawn in by beautiful things or stunned by loud nois-es or pungent smells. Sudden or dynamic events can disorient an Auspex-using character unless her player makes a Willpower roll to block them out (difﬁculty of at least 4, although the more potent the source of dis-traction, the higher the difﬁculty). Failure overwhelms the character's senses, making her oblivious to her sur-roundings for a turn or two. While the Malkavians and Toreador are more prone to these kinds of distractions, the Tremere and Tzimisce aren't immune. Dots in Perception are very useful for using Auspex powers, as more successes help the character gain more sensory information. Heightened Senses This power increases the acuity of all of the vam-pire's senses, effectively doubling the clarity and range of sight, hearing, and smell. While her senses of taste and touch extend no farther than normal, they like-wise become far more distinct; the vampire could taste the hint of liquor in a victim's blood or feel the give of the board concealing a hollow space in the ﬂoor. The Kindred may magnify her senses at will, sustaining this heightened focus for as long as she desires. At the Sto-ryteller's option, this may make hunting easier. Occasionally, this talent provides extrasensory or even precognitive insights. These brief, unfocused glimpses may be odd premonitions, ﬂashes of empathy, or eerie feelings of foreboding. The vampire has no control over these perceptions, but with practice can learn to interpret them with a fair degree of accuracy. Expanded senses come at a price, however. Bright lights, loud noises and strong smells present a hazard while the vampire uses this power. In addition to the possibility for distraction, an especially sudden or po-tent stimulus (like the glare of a spotlight or a clap of thunder) can blind or deafen the Kindred for an hour or more. System: It takes a reﬂexive action to activate this ability, but no roll or other cost is required. In certain circumstances, dice rolls associated with using the character's sense (such as Perception + Alertness) de-crease in difﬁculty by a number equal to the character's Auspex rating when the power is engaged. The Storyteller may also use this power to see if the character perceives a threat. In this case, the Story-teller privately rolls the character's unmodiﬁed Auspex rating, applying whatever difﬁculty he feels best suits the circumstances. For example, sensing that a pistol is pointed at the back of the character's head may require a roll of difﬁculty 5, while the sudden realization that a rival for Primogen is planning her assassination may require a 9. Note that even this “precognition” comes only as a result of interpreting details the Kindred is	disciplinas.pdf
135 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONable to notice. It's not an all-purpose insight or miracu-lous revelation. At the character's discretion, she may selectively heighten one speciﬁc sense, rather than leaving them all on. In these cases, the difﬁculty to perceive stimu-li using that sense drops by one, but the difﬁculty to avoid distraction or temporary bedazzlement increases by one. This power does not let characters see in pitch dark-ness, as does Eyes of the Beast (p. 199), but it does re-duce difﬁculty penalties to act in such darkness from +2 to +1, and the character may make ranged attacks in pitch darkness if she can hear, smell, or otherwise detect her foe. Aura Perception Using this power, the vampire can perceive the psy-chic “auras” that radiate from mortals and supernatural beings alike. These halos comprise a shifting series of colors that take practice to discern with clarity. Even the simplest individual has many shifting hues within his aura; strong emotions predominate, while momen-tary impressions or deep secrets ﬂash through in streaks and swirls. The colors change in sympathy with the subject's emotional state, blending into new tones in a con-stantly dancing pattern. The stronger the emotions involved, the more intense the hues become. A skilled vampire can learn much from her subject by reading the nuances of color and brilliance in the aura's ﬂow. Aside from perceiving emotional states, vampires use Aura Perception to detect supernatural beings. The colors in Kindred auras, while intense, are quite pale; mage halos often ﬂare and crackle with arcane power; the race of shapeshifters has strikingly bright, almost frantic, auras; ghosts have weak auras that ﬂicker ﬁt-fully like a dying ﬂame; and faerie creatures' radiance is shot through with capricious rainbow hues. System: After the character stares at the subject for at least a few seconds, the player rolls Perception + Em-pathy (difﬁculty 8); each success indicates how much of the subject's aura the character sees and understands (see the table below). A failure indicates that the play of colors and patterns yields no prevailing impression. A botch indicates a false or erroneous interpretation. The Storyteller may wish to make this roll, thus keep-ing the player in the dark as to the veracity of the char-acter's interpretation.	disciplinas.pdf
136 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Successes Result 1 success Can distinguish only the shade (pale or bright). 2 successes Can distinguish the main color. 3 successes Can recognize the color patterns. 4 successes Can detect subtle shifts. 5 successes Can identify mixtures of color and pattern. The Aura Colors chart offers some example ideas of common colors and the emotions they reﬂect that Storytellers can use. Note that it is nearly impossible to determine with certainty if a particular character is lying or not with this power-vampires are inherently deceitful by nature, but even mortals might react with anxiety to questions while still being truthful. It is, however, helpful in determine the target's emotional state, which might lead the vampire to decide that a particular target is suspicious. A character may choose to perform a very cursory aura scan of a large area like a nightclub's dance ﬂoor or the audience in a gallery. In this case, the player decides which characteristic of auras she's looking for, and that's the only information she's able to glean if the roll is successful. (At the Storyteller's discretion, on this general scan roll, more successes on the roll may more quickly yield what the character seeks. ) For example, the player may specify, “Who's the most ner-vous person in attendance?” or “Are there any vampiri-cally pale auras among the CEO's entourage?” There-after, the player may narrow down her scrutiny of a single individual, with an additional roll as normal. The character may focus in on a particular subject's aura only once per scene with any degree of clarity. Any subsequent attempts that result in failure should be considered botches. It is very easy for the character to imagine seeing what she wants to see when judg-ing someone's intentions. After 24 hours, the character may try again at no penalty. It is possible, though difﬁcult, to sense the aura of a being who is otherwise invisible to normal sight. Refer to “Seeing the Unseen,” p. 142, for more information. The Spirit's Touch When someone handles an object for any length of time, he leaves a psychic impression on the item. A vampire with this level of Auspex can “read” these sensations, learning who handled the object, when he last held it, and what was done with it recently. (For Aura Colors Condition Aura Colors Afraid Orange Aggressive Purple Angry Red Bitter Brown Calm Light Blue Compassionate Pink Conservative Lavender Depressed Gray Desirous or Lustful Deep Red Distrustful Light Green Envious Dark Green Excited Violet Generous Rose Happy Vermilion Hateful Black Idealistic Yellow Innocent White Lovestruck Blue Obsessed Green Sad Silver Spiritual Gold Suspicious Dark Blue Anxious Auras appear scrambled like static or white noise Confused Mottled, shifting colors Diablerist Black veins in aura Daydreaming Sharp ﬂickering colors Frenzied Rapidly rippling colors Psychotic Hypnotic, swirling colors Vampire Aura colors are pale Ghoul Pale blotches in the aura Magic Use Myriad sparkles in aura Werebeast Bright, vibrant aura Ghost Weak, intermittent aura Faerie Rainbow highlights in aura	disciplinas.pdf
137 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONthese purposes, a corpse counts as an “object” and can be read accordingly. ) These visions are seldom clear and detailed, registering more like a kind of “psychic snapshot. ” Still, the Kindred can learn much even from such a glimpse. Although most visions concern the last person to handle the item, a long-time owner leaves a stronger impression than someone who held the object brieﬂy. Gleaning information from the spiritual residue re-quires the vampire to hold the object and enter a shal-low trance. She is only marginally aware of her sur-roundings while using The Spirit's Touch, but a loud noise or jarring physical sensation breaks the trance instantly. System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy. The difﬁculty is determined by the age of the impressions and the mental and spiritual strength of the person or event that left them. Sensing information from a pis-tol used for a murder hours ago may require a 4, while learning who owned a bloodstained puppet fashioned a century ago might be a 9. The greater the individual's emotional connection to the object, the stronger the impression he leaves on it — and the more information the Kindred can glean from it. Events involving strong emotions (a gift-giving, a torture, a long family history) likewise leave stronger impressions than short or casual contact do. Assume that each success offers one piece of informa-tion, as per the chart below. Successes Information Botch The character is overwhelmed by psychic impressions for the next 30 minutes and unable to act. Failure No information of value. 1 success Very basic information: the last owner's gender or hair color, for instance. 2 successes A second piece of basic information. 3 successes More useful information about the last owner, such as age and state of mind the last time he used the item. 4 successes The person's name. 5+ successes A wealth of information: nearly anything you want to know about the person's relationship with that object is available. At the Storyteller's discretion, some impressions on objects may be so strong — a knife plunged into Caesar's breast, the tip of the Spear of Destiny, a fang pulled from the maw of Dracula — that any use of this power may be deemed a success. Telepathy The vampire projects a portion of her consciousness into a nearby mortal's mind, creating a mental link through which she can communicate wordlessly or even read the target's deepest thoughts. The Kindred “hears” in her own mind the thoughts plucked from a subject as if they were spoken to her. This is one of the most potent vampiric abilities, since, given time, a Kindred can learn virtually any-thing from a subject without him ever knowing. The Tremere and Tzimisce in particular ﬁnd this power es-pecially useful in gleaning secrets from others, or for directing their mortal followers with silent precision. System: The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge (difﬁculty of the subject's current Willpower points). Projecting thoughts into the target's mind requires one success. The subject recognizes that the thoughts come from somewhere other than his own consciousness, though he cannot discern their actual origin without a successful Perception + Awareness roll (difﬁculty equal to the vampire's Manipulation + Subterfuge). To read minds, one success must be rolled for each item of information plucked or each layer of thought pierced. Deep secrets or buried memories are harder to obtain than surface emotions or unspoken comments, requiring ﬁve or more successes to access. Reading thoughts with Telepathy does not com-monly work upon the undead mind. A character may expend a Willpower point to make the effort, mak-ing the roll normally afterward. Likewise, it is equally difﬁcult to read the thoughts of other supernatural creatures. However, the character may project her thoughts without expending a Willpower point. These thoughts, however, are still obviously intrusions into the target's mind, but the character may attempt to dis-guise her mental “voice” with a roll of Manipulation + Subterfuge (difﬁculty equals the target's Perception + Awareness) so the target doesn't recognize her as the “speaker. ” Storytellers are encouraged to describe thoughts as ﬂowing streams of impressions and images, rather than as a sequence of prose (powers such as Telepathic Com-munication are of more use for that). Instead of making ﬂat statements like “He's planning on killing his former	disciplinas.pdf
138 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESlover's new boyfriend,” say “You see a ﬂeeting series of visions: A couple kissing passionately in a doorway, then the man walking alone at night; you suddenly see your hands, knuckles white, wrapped around a steer-ing wheel, with a ﬁgure crossing the street ahead; your heart, mortal now and hammering with panic as you hear the engine rev wildly; and above all, a blazing an-ger coupled with emotional agony and a panicked fear of loss. ” Such descriptions not only add to the story, but they also force the player to interpret for herself what her character gleans. After all, understanding minds — especially highly emotional or deranged minds — is a difﬁcult and often puzzling task. Psychic Projection The Kindred with this awesome ability projects her senses out of her physical shell, stepping from her body as an entity of pure thought. The vampire's astral form is immune to physical damage or fatigue, and can “ﬂy” with blinding speed anywhere across the earth — or even underground — so long as she remains below the moon's orbit. The Kindred's material form lies in a torpid state while her astral self is active, and the vampire isn't aware of anything that befalls her body until she returns to it. An ephemeral silver cord connects the Kindred's psyche to her body. If this cord is severed, her conscious-ness becomes stranded in the astral plane (the realm of ghosts, spirits, and shades). Attempting to return to the vampire's physical shell is a long and terrifying ordeal, especially since there is no guarantee that she will ac-complish the journey successfully. This signiﬁcant dan-ger keeps many Kindred from leaving their bodies for long, but those who dare can learn much. System: Journeying in astral form requires the player to expend a point of Willpower and make a Perception + Awareness roll. Difﬁculty varies depending on the dis-tance and complexity of the intended trip; 5 is within sight, 7 is nearby or to a familiar location, and 9 reﬂects a trip far from familiar territory (a ﬁrst journey from North America to the Far East; trying to shortcut through the earth). The greater the number of successes rolled, the more focused the character's astral presence is, and the easier it is for her to reach her desired destination. Failure means the character is unable to separate her consciousness from her body, while a botch can have nasty consequences — ﬂinging her astral form to a random destination on Earth or in the spirit realm, arriving in a place where the sun is active (necessitat-ing a frenzy roll, although the sunlight doesn't do any damage), or hurtling toward the desired destination so forcefully that the silver cord snaps. The player may spend a point of Willpower to acti-vate this power, and an additional point of Willpower to gain the success necessary to perform the jaunt. This is an exception to the normal rule where a player may not spend more than a single point of Willpower per turn. Each scene in Psychic Projection requires another point of Willpower and a new roll. Failure indicates that the vampire has lost her way and must retrace the path of her silver cord. A botch at this stage means the cord snaps, stranding the character's psychic form in the mysterious astral plane. An astral form may travel at great speeds (the Sto-ryteller can use roughly 1000 miles per hour or 1500 kilometers per hour as a general guide) and carries no clothing or material objects of any kind. Some artifacts are said to exist in the spirit world, and the character can try to use one of these tools if she ﬁnds one. The character cannot bring such relics to the physical world when she returns to her body, however. Interaction with the physical world is impossible while using Psychic Projection. At best, the character may spend a Willpower point to manifest as a ghost-like shape. This apparition lasts one turn before fading away; while she can't affect anything physically dur-ing this time, the character can speak. Despite lacking physical substance, an astral character can use Auspex normally. At the Storyteller's discretion, such a char-acter may employ some or all Animalism, Dementa-tion, Dominate, Necromancy, Obtenebration, Pres-ence, Thaumaturgy, and similar non-corporeal powers she has, though this typically requires a minimum of three successes on the initial Psychic Projection roll. If two astral shapes encounter one another, they interact as if they were solid. They may talk, touch, and even ﬁght as if both were in the material world. Since they have no physical bodies, astral characters seeking to interact “physically” substitute Mental and Social Traits for Physical ones (Wits replaces Dexter-ity, Manipulation supplants Strength, and Intelligence replaces Stamina). Due to the lack of a material form, the only real way to damage another psychic entity is to cut its silver cord. When ﬁghting this way, consider Willpower points to be health levels; when a combat-ant loses all of her Willpower, the cord is severed. Although an astrally projected character remains in the reﬂection of the mortal world, she may venture fur-ther into the spirit realms, especially if she becomes	disciplinas.pdf
139 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION lost. Other beings with particular sensitivity to psychic activity, such as ghosts, werewolves, and even some magi, travel the astral plane as well, and can interact with a vampire's psychic presence normally (although the astrally projected character is not considered a “ghost” for powers such as Necromancy). The observ-ing character notices the astrally projecting vampire with a Perception + Awareness roll (difﬁculty 8), re-quiring more successes than the Psychic Projection activation roll. Even those who do notice you won't be able to identify you; you are merely an immaterial shade hovering in the general area. Storytellers are en-couraged to make trips into the spirit world as bizarre, mysterious, and dreamlike as possible. The world be-yond is a vivid and fantastic place, where the true na-ture of things is stronger and often strikingly different from their earthly appearances. Clairvoyance By using Clairvoyance, a vampire can perceive dis-tant events without using Psychic Projection. By con-centrating on a familiar person, place, or object, a character can observe the subject's immediate vicinity while staying aware of her own surroundings. System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy (dif-ﬁculty 6) and describes the target she's trying to look in on. If the roll is successful, the character can then perceive the events and environment surrounding the desired target for one turn per success. Other Auspex powers may be used on the scene being viewed; these are rolled normally. Clairvoyance does split the vampire's perceptions between what she is viewing at a distance and what is taking place around her. As a result, while using this power, a character is at +3 difﬁculty on all rolls relating to actions that affect her physical surroundings. Prediction Some people are capable of ﬁnishing their friends' sentences. Elder vampires with Prediction sometimes Auspex Rating No. of Targets Approximate Range Auspex 6 3 subjects 500 miles/800 kilometers Auspex 7 Perception rating 1000 miles/1500 kilometers Auspex 8 Perception + Empathy 500 miles/800 kilometers per point of Intelligence Auspex 9 2x (Perception + Empathy) 1000 miles/1500 kilometers per point of Intelligencebegin their friends' sentences. Prediction is a constant low-level telepathic scan of the minds of everyone the character is in proximity to. While this power does not give the vampire the details of his neighbors' conscious thoughts, it does provide a wealth of cues as to the sub-jects' moods, suppressed reﬂexes, and attitudes toward the topic of conversation. System: Whenever the character is in conversation and either participant in the discussion makes a Social roll, the player may pre-empt the roll to spend a blood point and make a Perception + Empathy roll (difﬁ-culty of the target's Manipulation + Subterfuge). Each success is an additional die that can be applied to the player's Social roll or subtracted from the dice pool of the Social roll being made against the character. Telepathic Communication Telepathy (p. 137) allows a character to pick up only the surface thoughts of other individuals, and to speak to one at a time. With Telepathic Communication, a character can form a more powerful link between his mind and that of other subjects, allowing them to converse in words, concepts, and sensory images at the speed of thought (and without the need for Willpower expenditure, unlike with Telepathy). Vampires with this level of Auspex can act as “switchboard operators,” creating a telepathic web that allows all participants to share thoughts with some or all other members of the network as they choose. System: The player rolls Charisma + Empathy (dif-ﬁculty equals the target's current Willpower points) to establish contact, although a willing subject may allow the vampire access and thus obviate the need for a roll. The maximum range at which a subject may be con-tacted and the maximum number of individuals who may be linked simultaneously with this power depends on the Auspex rating of the vampire who initiates con-tact (see sidebar).	disciplinas.pdf
140 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Karmic Sight The power of Aura Perception (Auspex 2) allows a vampire to take a brief glimpse at the soul of a sub-ject. This power takes Aura Perception several steps forward, allowing a vampire who has mastered Auspex 2 to probe the inner workings of a subject's mind and soul. System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy (dif-ﬁculty equals the subject's current Willpower). The de-gree of success determines the information gained. Successes Result Botch The character gains a Derangement or Psychological/Mental/ Supernatural Flaw similar to one of the target's for one night, at Storyteller discretion. 1 success As per ﬁve successes on an Aura Perception roll. 2 successes Subject's Nature, Demeanor, and Humanity or Path can be determined. 3 successes Any outside inﬂuences on the subject's mind or soul, such as Dominate or a demonic pact, can be detected. 4 successes Subject's Willpower, Humanity or Path, and Virtue ratings can be determined. 5 successes The state of the subject's karma may be determined. This is a highly abstract piece of information best left to Storyteller discretion, but should reveal the general balance between “good” and “bad” actions the subject has performed, both recently and over the course of his existence. If the plot merits it, the character may receive visions of one or more incidents in the subject's past that radically altered his destiny. With this degree of success, some fate-related Merits and Flaws (e. g. Dark Fate) can be identiﬁed as well.	disciplinas.pdf
141 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Mirror Reflex This power was developed by a Toreador elder who made a fearsome reputation through her fencing prow-ess, acting as a hired champion in dozens of Ventrue duels. Mirror Reﬂex is similar to Prediction in that it is in essence a low-level telepathic scan of an opponent, but this power taps into physical (rather than social) reﬂexes, allowing the character to anticipate an en-emy's moves in personal combat. System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Perception + the combat skill the opponent is using (difﬁculty of the subject's Manipulation + combat skill in use). Each success is an additional die that can he ap-plied to the character's dice pools during the next turn of combat for any actions taken against the scanned op-ponent. The use of Mirror Reﬂex does take one combat action, and the power has a maximum range in yards or meters equal to the character's Willpower rating. Psychic Assault Psychic Assault is nothing less than a direct mind-to-mind attack which uses the sheer force of an elder's will to overpower his target. Victims of Psychic Assault show little outward sign of the attack, save for nose-bleeds and expressions of intense agony; all injuries by means of this psychic pressure inﬂicted are internal. A medical examination of a mortal victim of a Psychic Assault invariably shows the cause of death to be a heart attack or aneurysm, while vampires killed with this power decay to dust instantly, regardless of age. System: The character must touch or make eye con-tact with his target. The player spends three blood points (and a Willpower point, if assaulting a vampire or other supernatural being) and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation in a contested roll against the victim's Willpower. The result depends on the number of net successes the attacker rolls. Successes Result Botch The target becomes immune to the attacker's Psychic Assault for one night per each “1” rolled. Failure The target is unharmed and may determine that a psychic assault is taking place by succeeding on a Perception + Awareness roll (difﬁculty 6). 1 success The target is shaken but unharmed. He loses a temporary Willpower point. 2 successes The target is badly frightened. He loses three temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage (difﬁculty of the attacker's Auspex rating) to avoid Rötschreck. 3 successes The target loses six temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage as above. If this causes him to lose his last temporary Willpower point, he loses a permanent Willpower point and receives three health levels of bashing damage (soaked normally). 4 successes The target loses all temporary Willpower points and half of his permanent Willpower points (round down) and suffers three health levels of lethal damage (soaked normally). 5 successes The target must roll his permanent Willpower (difﬁculty 7). If he succeeds, apply the effect of four successes, and is also rendered unconscious for the rest of the night. If he fails, the Psychic Assault kills him instantly. False Slumber Possibly the source of many Malkavians' conviction that their sire is alive and well on the astral plane, this power allows a Methuselah's spirit to leave his body while in torpor. While seemingly asleep, the vampire is able to project astrally, think, and perceive events normally. System: No roll is needed. This power is considered to be active whenever the vampire's body is in torpor, and astral travels are handled as per the rules for Psy-chic Projection. The vampire is not able to awaken physically at will, however — waking from torpor is handled per the normal rules for such an action (see p. 283). A vampire with this power whose silver cord is severed in astral combat loses all Willpower points, as per the rules for astral combat under Psychic Projection, but is not killed. Instead, he loses the use of this Auspex power and half of his permanent Willpower points. Both the Auspex 9 power and the Willpower must be bought back with experience points. The vampire's soul slowly returns to his body over the course of a year and a day, during which time he may not be awakened from torpor by any means.	disciplinas.pdf
142 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Seeing the Unseen Auspex enables Kindred to perceive many things beyond the limits of lesser senses. Among its many uses, Auspex can detect the presence of a supernatural being who is hidden from normal sight (a vampire using Obfuscate, for example, or a ghost) or pierce illusions created by the Discipline of Chim-erstry. Note: “Normal sight” includes regular, non-Auspex use of the Awareness skill. Obfuscate: When a vampire tries to use her heightened perceptions to notice a Kindred hidden with Obfuscate, she detects the sub-ject's presence if her Auspex rating is higher than his Obfuscate, and she succeeds at a Perception + Awareness roll (difﬁculty equals 7 minus the number of dots by which her Auspex exceeds his Obfuscate). Conversely, if the target's Obfuscate outranks her Auspex, he remains undiscovered. If the two ratings are equal, both characters make a resisted roll of Perception + Awareness (Auspex user) against Manipulation + Subterfuge (Obfuscate user). The difﬁculty for both rolls is 7, and the character with the most successes wins. Chimerstry: Likewise, vampires with Auspex may seek to penetrate illusions cre-ated with Chimerstry. The Auspex-wielder must actively seek to pierce the illusion (i. e., the player must tell the Storyteller that his character is trying to detect an illusion). The Auspex-user and Chimerstry-wielder then compare relative ratings, per Obfuscate, above. The process is otherwise identical to piercing Obfuscate. Other Powers: Since the powers of beings like magi and wraiths function differently from vampiric Disciplines, a simple compari-son of relative ratings isn't applicable. To keep things simple, both characters make a resisted roll. The vampire rolls Perception + Aware-ness, while the subject rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge. Again, the difﬁculty is 7, and the character with the most successes wins. Celerity Not all vampires are slow, meticulous creatures. When needed, some vampires can move fast — really fast. Celerity allows Assamites, Brujah, and Toreadors to move with astonishing swiftness, becoming practi-cally a blur. The Assamites use their speed in conjunc-tion with stealth to strike quickly and viciously from the shadows before they are noticed. Brujah, on the other hand, simply like the edge that the power gives them against overwhelming odds. The Toreador are more inclined to use Celerity to provide an air of un-natural grace to live performances or for an extra push to complete a masterpiece on time, but they can be as quick to draw blood as any assassin or punk when angered. System: Each point of Celerity adds one die to every Dexterity-related dice roll. In addition, the player can spend one blood point to take an extra action up to the number of dots he has in Celerity at the beginning of the relevant turn; this expenditure can go beyond her normal Generation maximum. Any dots used for extra actions, however, are no longer available for Dexteri-ty-related rolls during that turn. These additional ac-tions must be physical (e. g., the vampire cannot use a mental Discipline like Dominate multiple times in one turn), and extra actions occur at the end of the turn (the vampire's regular action still takes place per her initiative roll). Normally, a character without Celerity must divide their dice if she wants to take multiple actions in a single turn, as per p. 248. A character using Celerity performs his extra actions (including full movement) without penalty, gaining a full dice pool for each sepa-rate action. Extra actions gained through Celerity may not in turn be split into multiple actions, however. Celerity 6+ Usually, elders progress in Celerity according to the existing progression-more dots mean more dice and potential actions a turn that are available, and levels 6 through 9 have those powers available at each level, as normal. Similar to other Disciplines at level 6 or higher, though, alternative powers exist. If the elder wants to purchase an alternative power instead of the typical progression (as per the sidebar on p. 127), she can, but she forfeits the capacity an extra Dexterity die and potential for an extra action to gain the special	disciplinas.pdf
143 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONpower instead. She can go back later and purchase the “normal” dot of Celerity later, as desired. Note that it isn't possible to “skip” levels of progres-sion for the normal Discipline-an elder with Celerity 7 that buys Projective at level 6 needs to go back and buy the normal level 6 power before getting the access to his level 7 power that grants the capacity for up to seven Dexterity dice or actions in a turn. Projectile Despite the fact that a vampire with Celerity moves at incredible speeds, any bullets he ﬁres or knives he throws while in this state don't move any faster than they normally would. Scientiﬁcally minded Kindred have been bafﬂed by the phenomenon for centuries, but more pragmatic ones have found a way to work around it. Projectile enables a vampire to take his pre-ternatural speed and transfer it into something he has thrown, ﬁred, or launched. System: Projectile requires the expenditure of a blood point. In addition, the player must decide how many levels of his character's Celerity he is putting into the speed of the launched object. Thus, a character with Celerity 6 in addition to Projectile could decide to put three dots' worth of speed into a knife he is throwing, and use the other three dots as dice or potential extra actions as per normal. Each dot of Celerity infused into a thrown object becomes an automatic success to the attack's damage roll, assuming the weapon or projectile actually hits. Flower of Death In combat, speed kills. A proper application of Ce-lerity in combat can turn even the meekest Cainite into a walking abattoir. How much more deadly, then, is a vampire with the ability to utilize his preternatural speed to the utmost in combat? Flower of Death allows a vampire to take his Celerity and apply it in full to each hand-to-hand or melee attack he makes. System: Flower of Death costs four blood points, but the spectacular effect is well worth it. Once the power is in effect, the vampire's bonus dice for Dexterity rolls get added to every dice pool for attack the character makes (even if the roll doesn't use Dexterity) until the end of the scene. Further, even if the Kindred uses some of his Celerity dots for extra actions during the scene, these extra dice are still available. The effect is limited to hand-to-hand or melee weapon attacks — ﬁrearms,	disciplinas.pdf
144 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESbows, and other ranged weapons are excluded — but does grant the attacker additional dice for damage rolls. Flower of Death is not cumulative — it is impossible to “layer” uses of the power over one another to create astronomical dice pools. Zephyr Zephyr produces an effect vaguely similar to one of the legendary comic book-style uses of enhanced speed, allowing its practitioner to run so fast he can run across water. Particularly successful applications of Zephyr al-low a vampire to go so far as to run up walls and, in at least one recorded instance, across a ceiling. System: Zephyr requires the expenditure of one point of blood and one point of Willpower. Unfortunately, Zephyr requires such extremes of concentration that it cannot be combined with any form of attack, or indeed, with most any sort of action at all. If a character using Zephyr feels the need to do something else while mov-ing at such tremendous speeds, a Willpower roll (dif-ﬁculty 8) is required. Needless to say, botches at Zephyr speed can be spectacular in all the wrong ways. Most times, a vampire moving at such a rate of speed is barely visible, appearing more as a vampire-shaped blur than anything else. Observers must succeed on a Perception + Alertness roll (difﬁculty 7) to get a de-cent look at a Kindred zooming past in this fashion. Chimerstry The Ravnos are known as masters of illusion, al-though the reason why is lost to history. Rumors abound of Ravnos ghûls, rakshasas, and shapeshifters, but whatever its origins, Chimerstry remains a potent and powerful weapon for the Deceivers. The Discipline is, fundamentally, an art of conjuration that converts the vampire's will into phantoms that confound the senses and technology alike. Even vampires fall under the sway of the Ravnos' illusory world, unless they have a strong enough grasp of Auspex (see p. 142). The Rav-nos often use this power to swindle and seduce their victims into acts that work out badly for the victim (but great for the Ravnos). Illusions created by Chimerstry can be seen for what they are by a victim who “proves” the illusion's false-hood (e. g., a person who walks up to an illusory wall, expresses his disbelief in it, and puts his hand through it effectively banishes the illusion), and explicitly in-credible illusions are seen as false immediately (e. g., dragons breathing ﬁre or gravity working in reverse). Sometimes, frequent targets of Chimerstry end up at-tempting to disbelieve everything around them, lead-ing to derangements (and, quite often, to the amuse-ment of the Ravnos). Ignis Fatuus The vampire may conjure a minor, static mirage that confounds one sense. For instance, he may evoke a sul-furous stench, the appearance of stigmata, or the shat-ter of broken glass. Note that though tactile illusions can be felt, they have no real substance; an invisible but tactile wall cannot conﬁne anyone, and invisible razor-wire causes no real damage. Similarly, the vam-pire must know the characteristics of what he's creat-ing. While it's easy enough to estimate what a knife wound might look like, falsifying a person's voice or a photograph of a childhood home requires knowledge of the details. System: The player spends a point of Willpower for the vampire to create this illusion. The volume of smells, ambient lighting, smoke clouds, and the like are limited to roughly 20 cubic feet (half a cubic me-ter) per dot the vampire has in Chimerstry. The illu-sion lasts until the vampire leaves its vicinity (such as stepping out of the room) or until another person sees through it somehow. The Cainite may also end the il-lusion at any time with no effort. Fata Morgana The Cainite can now create illusions that appeal to all the senses, though they remain static. For example, the vampire could make a ﬁlthy cellar appear as an opu-lent ballroom, though she could not create a glittering chandelier or a score of graceful dancers. Again, the illusion has no solid presence, though it's easy enough to fool an enraptured visitor with suggestions of what she might expect. A bucket of brackish water is as cool as chilled champagne, after all. System: The player spends a Willpower point and a blood point to create the illusion. These static images remain until dispelled, in much the same way that an Ignis Fatuus illusion does. Apparition Not really a power unto itself, Apparition allows a vampire to give motion to an illusion created with Ig-nis Fatuus or Fata Morgana. Thus, the Cainite could create the illusion of a living being, running water, ﬂuttering drapes, or a roaring ﬁre.	disciplinas.pdf
145 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONSystem: The creator spends one blood point to make the illusion move in one signiﬁcant way, or in any number of subtle ways. For example, the vampire could create the illusion of a lurking mugger lurching at her victim, or she could create the illusion of a desolate street, down which a chill wind blows trash while a streetlamp ﬂickers and hums. Taking complicated ac-tions besides maintaining the illusion — that is, any-thing that would require a dice roll — ﬁrst requires suc-cess on a Willpower roll, resulting in the dissolution of the false construct if the roll fails. Once the creator stops concentrating on the illusion, it can continue in simple, repetitive motions-roughly speaking, anything that can be described in a simple sentence, such as a guard walking back and forth in front of a steel door. After that, the vampire cannot regain control over the illusion-she can either allow it to continue moving as ordered, or let it fade as de-scribed under Ignis Fatuus. Permanency This power, also used in conjunction with Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana, allows a mirage to persist even when the vampire cannot see it. In this way, Ravnos often cloak their temporary havens in false trappings of luxury, or ward off trespassers with illusory guard dogs. System: The vampire need only spend a blood point, and the illusion becomes permanent until dissolved (including “programmed” illusions like those created by Apparition). Horrid Reality Rather than create simple illusions, the vampire can now project hallucinations directly into a victim's mind. The target of these illusions believes completely that the images are real; a hallucinatory ﬁre can burn him, an imaginary noose can strangle him, and an il-lusory wall can block him. This power affects only one person at a time; though others can see the illusion, it doesn't impact them in the same way. Other people can try to convince the victim that his terrors are not real, but he won't believe them. Note that targets with enough dots in Auspex can still attempt to roll for See-ing the Unseen (p. 142). System: A Horrid Realty illusion costs two Will-power points to set in motion and lasts for an entire scene (though its effects may last longer; see below). If the vampire is trying to injure his victim, his player must roll Manipulation + Subterfuge (difﬁculty of the victim's Perception + Self-Control/Instinct). Each success inﬂicts one health level of lethal damage on the victim that cannot be soaked — the Cainite as-saults the victim's mind and perceptions, not his body. If the player wishes to inﬂict less damage or change it to bashing, he may announce a maximum amount of damage before rolling the dice. Secondary effects (such as frenzy rolls for illusory ﬁre) may also occur. The victim heals all his damage instantaneously if he can be convinced that the damage he took was il-lusory, but convincing him may take some doing, such as with at least two successes on a Charisma + Empathy roll (difﬁculty equal to the Manipulation + Subterfuge of the Cainite using Horrid Reality). The target must be convinced of the attack's illusory nature within 24 hours of its taking place, or it becomes too well estab-lished in his memory, and he will have to heal the dam-age using blood (if a vampire) or over time (if mortal). This power cannot actually kill its victims (though a target with a heart condition may well die from fright). A victim “killed” by an illusory attack loses conscious-ness or enters torpor. False Resonance Illusions of living or unliving beings are all well and good until someone decides to read the illusion's mind or its aura. The automatic failure to perceive any sense of the target's thoughts or emotions will usually be passed off as bad luck, lack of concentration, or whatever reason any Kindred might construct to ex-plain why he didn't succeed in gleaning information through supernatural means. A vampire can use False Resonance to overlay auras and thoughts on illusions, as well as leave a trace that other emotionally resonant powers can detect later. System: This power automatically applies to any other use of Chimerstry as the user wishes. In effect, any attempt to use Auspex, the Dementation power Eyes of Chaos, or similar sensory powers that generates ﬁve or fewer successes will detect an aura, thoughts, Demeanor or whatever the power would normally de-tect. Thoughts won't be exceptionally complex, and will relate to whatever is going on around the illusion in a mundane and simplistic way. Auras will consist of colors related to speciﬁc emotions (anger, sadness, hatred, love, and happiness) and will not show much complexity beyond that. Spirit's Touch can pick up the same emotional resonance until the next sunrise.	disciplinas.pdf
146 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Fatuus Mastery A Ravnos with Fatuus Mastery has no restriction on how often she may use the ﬁrst three levels (Ignis Fatuus, Fata Morgana, and Apparition) and can main-tain or control illusions with minimal concentration or fatigue. Kindred who rely on the high cost of Chim-erstry to limit a vampire's ability to use illusions are in for a very rude surprise when they encounter a Cainite with this power. System: Fatuus Mastery negates the Willpower and blood cost for using the ﬁrst three levels of Chimerstry. In addition, the Kindred may direct movement for a number of illusions equal to his Intelligence without intense concentration. Furthermore, the character can maintain the illusion as long as it remains within his Willpower rating in miles (or about one and a half times that in kilometers), although he may not make it react to events around it if he has no way to perceive those events. Shared Nightmare Even though Horrid Reality is visible to all onlook-ers, it can only inﬂict “damage” on one victim. With Shared Nightmare, a vampire can inﬂict her tormented visions on a crowd. System: To use this power, the player must spend two Willpower points, plus one blood point per target. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge once, but compares the results against each target individually. The difﬁculty is still each victim's Perception + Self-Control/Instinct. Far Fatuus This power allows a Kindred to project illusions to any area he can see or visualize. Under most circum-stances, accomplishing this requires him to have vis-ited the location in question before he can project il-lusions there. Although more difﬁcult, a vampire may project illusions on the basis of a description, a photo, or a video clip. System: The difﬁculty for using Far Fatuus depends on the user's familiarity with the location. The player must roll Perception + Subterfuge to affect the loca-tion. Once this roll is successful, the vampire may then use any other Chimerstry power on that location. Difﬁculty Familiarity 6 As familiar as one's haven; currently viewing with Clairvoyance or Psychic Projection7 Visited three or more times 8 Visited once; viewing on a live feed 9 Described in detail; seen it in a video or have a undoctored photo Suspension of Disbelief A Ravnos with this power can imbue her Chimerstry with a sense of reality that makes it easier for view-ers to believe in the illusion. No matter how strange or surreal the illusion is, an onlooker will accept it as real. If the illusion is wildly unrealistic (ﬁre-breathing dragons, a pack of aliens), once it is no longer in his sight, the observer will question what he saw and even-tually deny the event ever happened. A vampire can also use this power to make something appear unbe-lievable, whether it's real or not. In this case, observers will write off what they're seeing as some kind of trick or hallucination. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Subter-fuge (difﬁculty 7). The number of successes determines how many witnesses are affected. If the player uses the power to make something look unbelievable, Auspex will show the thing in question to be an illusion unless the Auspex rating is not high enough to penetrate the Kindred's Chimerstry. Successes Result 1 success Five people 2 successes 10 people 3 successes 25 people 4 successes 50 people 5 successes Everyone who can see it Synesthesia A Cainite who masters this power can shufﬂe oth-ers' senses around to suit his preferences. He can se-lect one target and inﬂict a serious, disorienting, and all-encompassing case of synesthesia upon her, mak-ing it impossible for her to interact meaningfully with the real world for the power's duration. The vampire has complete control over how the target's senses work and can manipulate them to suit. For example, he may decide that she smells all sounds as varieties of nauseat-ing stenches, or more subtly, he may exchange pain for pleasure. Used against a crowd, sensations are random-ly shufﬂed, so one man will see what the woman next	disciplinas.pdf
147 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONto him sees, but hears what the man 15 feet behind him hears and feels what the child a block away feels. The end result is extremely disorienting for all victims. System: When used against a single victim, the play-er must spend one Willpower point and roll Manipula-tion + Intimidation (difﬁculty is victim's current Will-power points). For use against crowds, the difﬁculty is 7, and the power affects everyone within the vampire's line of sight and subtracts one point from Perception per success rolled. Victims whose Perception has been reduced to zero can only sit down and wait for the dis-orientation to end. Duration against a single victim is determined below. Against a crowd, the power persists until sunrise. Successes Result 1 success One week 2 successes One month 3 successes Six months 4 successes One year 5 successes Permanent Mayaparisatya This expression of Chimerstry allows the Cainite to directly alter or create real objects or creatures, al-though such changes are of ﬁnite duration. A vampire with this power can transform the air around a rival Kindred into ﬁre or render a locked door insubstantial. A more harrowing use of this power enables the vam-pire to force an object out of existence by transforming it into nothing more than a wisp of its former reality. System: To use this power, the player must spend 10 blood points and one permanent Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. Difﬁculty for the roll is 6 for affecting inanimate objects, and the victim's Willpower rating for affecting characters. This power can affect anything within miles (kilometers) of the vampire, as long as the character is aware of the target in some way. If used with Far Fatuus, the effects are centered on the chosen location. This power can affect a number of conscious targets equal to the Kindred's Willpower per use. When dealing with inanimate objects, the number of successes determines how drastic the alteration may be. No matter how many successes the player rolls, the duration is always a scene. This power can affect any objects of a type within the vampire's targeted area. Successes Result 1 success Render an object harmless (swords won't cut, ﬁrearms won't shoot), create a large volume of obscuring smoke 2 successes Change an object into another object (turn candles into tarantulas, etc. ) 3 successes Render the object insubstantial, make smoke solid 4 successes Cause drastic changes (stone becomes highly ﬂammable) 5 successes Cause the environment to behave illogically (gravity twists sideways, rivers stand still as hills ﬂow upward) 6+ successes Delete any offending material objects from existence. This effect is permanent (to use this on conscious targets, follow the system described below). When using the power on conscious targets, consult the table above for alterations (such as forcing the vic-tim into another form or transforming her into a differ-ent substance). If using the power to negate the victim's existence, the power inﬂicts two levels of unsoakable aggravated damage per success. If the power doesn't kill the victim, subtract one dot of Strength and Stamina per success. The damage must be healed normally, but the lost Attributes return at the end of the scene. Vic-tims of this power look hazy and insubstantial. Victims destroyed with this power simply vanish. Dementation Dementation is the Discipline that allows a vampire to focus and channel madness into the minds of those around him. Though it's the natural legacy of the Mal-kavians, practitioners of Dementation need not actu-ally be mad to use the Discipline... but it helps. Disturbingly, Dementation doesn't actually make their victims mad, but rather it seems to break down the doors to the hidden darkness of the target's mind, releasing into the open whatever is found there. The Malkavians claim that this is because insanity is the next logical step in mental evolution, a transhuman-ist advancement of what modern people consider con-sciousness. Other Kindred scoff that this reasoning is an outright justiﬁcation for the chaos that Dementa-	disciplinas.pdf
148 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINEStion brings. They don't scoff too loudly, however, lest the Malkavian advance their consciousness next. Passion The vampire stirs his victim's emotions, either heightening them to a fevered pitch or blunting them until the target is completely desensitized. The Cain-ite may not choose which emotion is affected; she may only amplify or dull emotions already present in the target. In this way, a vampire can inﬂame mild irrita-tion into quivering rage or atrophy true love into ca-sual interest. System: The character talks to her victim, and the vampire's player rolls Charisma + Empathy (dif-ﬁculty equals the victim's Humanity or Path rating). The number of successes determines the duration of the altered state of feeling. Effects of this power might include one-or two-point additions or subtractions to difﬁculties of frenzy rolls, Virtue rolls, rolls to resist Presence powers, etc. Successes Result 1 success One turn 2 successes One hour 3 successes One night 4 successes One week 5 successes One month 6+ successes Three months The Haunting The vampire manipulates the sensory centers of his victim's brain, ﬂooding the victim's senses with visions, sounds, scents, or feelings that aren't really there. The images, regardless of the sense to which they appeal, are only ﬂeeting “glimpses,” barely perceptible to the victim. The vampire using Dementation cannot con-trol what the victim perceives, but may choose which sense is affected. The “haunting” effects occur mainly when the vic-tim is alone, and mostly at night. They may take the form of the subject's repressed fears, guilty memories, or anything else that the Storyteller ﬁnds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtru-sive, however. The Storyteller should let her imagina-tion run wild when describing these sensory impres-sions; the victim may well feel as if she is going mad, or as if the world is. System: After the vampire speaks to the victim, the player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difﬁculty of his victim's Perception + Self-Control/Instinct). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory “visitations. ” The precise ef-fects are up to the Storyteller, though particularly ee-rie or harrowing apparitions can certainly reduce dice pools for a turn or two after the manifestation. Successes Result 1 success One night 2 successes Two nights 3 successes One week 4 successes One month 5 successes Three months 6+ successes One year Eyes of Chaos This peculiar power allows the vampire to take ad-vantage of the ﬂeeting clarity hidden in insanity. She may scrutinize the “patterns” of a person's soul, the convolutions of a vampire's inner nature, or even ran-dom events in nature itself. The Kindred with this power can discern the most well-hidden psychoses, or gain insight into a person's true self. Malkavians with this power often have (or claim to have) knowledge of the moves and countermoves of the great Jyhad, or the patterns of fate. System: This power allows a vampire to determine a person's true Nature, among other things. The vampire concentrates for a turn, then her player rolls Perception + Occult. The difﬁculty depends on the intricacy of the pattern. Discerning the Nature of a stranger would be difﬁculty 9, a casual acquaintance would be an 8, and an established ally a 6. The vampire could also read the message locked in a coded missive (difﬁculty 7), or even see the doings of an invisible hand in such events as the pattern of falling leaves (difﬁculty 6). Almost anything might contain some hidden insight, no mat-ter how trivial or meaningless. The patterns are pres-ent in most things, but are often so intricate they can keep a vampire spellbound for hours while she tries to understand their message. This is a potent power, subject to adjudication. Sto-rytellers, this power is an effective way to introduce plot threads for a chronicle, reveal an overlooked clue, foreshadow important events, or communicate critical	disciplinas.pdf
149 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONinformation a player seeks. Important to its use, though, is delivering the information properly. Secrets revealed via Eyes of Chaos are never simple facts; they're tanta-lizing symbols adrift in a sea of madness. Describe the results of this power in terms of allegory: “The man before you appears as a crude marionette, with garish features painted in bright stage makeup, and strings vanishing up into the night sky. ” Avoid stating plainly, “You learn that this ghoul is the minion of a powerful Methuselah. ” Voice of Madness By merely addressing his victims aloud, the Kindred can drive targets into ﬁts of blind rage or fear, forcing them to abandon reason and higher thought. Victims are plagued by hallucinations of their subconscious de-mons, and try to ﬂee or destroy their hidden shames. Tragedy almost always follows in the wake of this pow-er's use, though offending Malkavians often claim that they were merely encouraging people to act “according to their natures. ” Unfortunately for the vampire con-cerned, he runs a very real risk of falling prey to his own voice's power. System: The player spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Empathy roll (difﬁculty 7). One tar-get is affected per success, although all potential vic-tims must be listening to the vampire's voice. Affected victims ﬂy immediately into frenzy or a blind fear like Rötschreck. Kindred or other creatures capable of frenzy, such as Lupines, may make a frenzy check or Rötschreck test (Storyteller's choice as to how they are affected) at +2 difﬁculty to resist the power. Mortals are automatically affected and don't remember their actions while berserk. The frenzy or fear lasts for a scene, though vampires and Lupines may test as usual to snap out of it. The vampire using Voice of Madness must also test for frenzy or Rötschreck upon invoking this power, though his difﬁculty to resist is one lower than nor-mal. If the initial roll to invoke this power is a failure, however, the roll to resist the frenzy is one higher than normal. If the roll to invoke this power is a botch, the frenzy or Rötschreck response is automatic. Total Insanity The vampire coaxes the madness from the deepest recesses of her target's mind, focusing it into an over-whelming wave of insanity. This power has driven countless victims, vampire and mortal alike, to unfor-tunate ends.	disciplinas.pdf
150 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESSystem: The Kindred must gain her target's undi-vided attention for at least one full turn to enact this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Ma-nipulation + Intimidation (difﬁculty of her victim's current Willpower points). If the roll is successful, the victim is afﬂicted with ﬁve derangements of the Sto-ryteller's choice (see p. 290). The number of successes determines the duration. Successes Result 1 success One turn 2 successes One night 3 successes One week 4 successes One month 5+ successes One year On a botch... well, the Storyteller can decide what a vampire inﬂicts upon herself by attempting to incite the primal hells lurking within the darkest recesses of a victim's mind. The victim (or the target of a botch) can spend a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled to end the duration prematurely. The Storyteller decides when such Willpower points can be spent (such as after a therapy session or after a friend has managed to prove a particular delusion to be false). Lingering Malaise While lesser Dementation powers allow a vampire to inﬂict temporary (though often long-lasting) madness upon a victim, elders of the Clan have developed the ability to infect the minds of their victims with per-manent maladies. Lingering Malaise causes permanent psychological shifts within the victim, making him, as one Gangrel elder remarked, “an honorary Lunatic. ” System: The character speaks to his victim for at least a minute, describing the derangement that Lin-gering Malaise will inﬂict. The player rolls Manipula-tion + Empathy (difﬁculty equal to the victim's current Willpower points); the victim resists with a Willpower roll (using his permanent Willpower at difﬁculty 8). If the user of Lingering Malaise scores more successes, the victim gains a permanent derangement chosen by the individual who inﬂicts it. Lingering Malaise may only be used to inﬂict one derangement per night on any given victim, though multiple attempts may be made until the derangement takes hold. Shattered Mirror Although Dementation's low-level effects are pri-marily to initiate or promote insanity rather than to create it spontaneously, some of its more potent mani-festations are not as subtle. The wielder of this fear-some power can transfer her own deranged mindset into the psyche of a hapless victim, spreading her own brand of insanity like a virus. System: The vampire must establish eye contact (p. 152) with her intended victim to apply this power. The player then rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points) resisted by the target's Wits + Self-Control/Instinct (difﬁculty equal to the Dementation user's current Willpower points). If the aggressor wins, the target gains all of her derangements and Mental Flaws for a period of time determined by the number of net successes the aggres-sor scored: Successes Result 1 success one hour 2 successes one night 3 successes one week 4 successes one month 5 successes six months 6+ successes one year per success over 5 Restructure The elder with this fearsome power has the ability to twist his victims' psyches at their most basic levels, warping their very beings. The subject of Restructure retains her memories, but her outlook on life changes completely, as if she has undergone a sudden epiphany or religious conversion. This effect goes much deeper than the implantation of a derangement; it actually performs a complete rewrite of the victim's personal-ity. System: As the description says, this power allows the vampire to change his target's Nature to one more suitable to his ends. To accomplish this, the character must make eye contact (p. 152) with his intended vic-tim. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difﬁ-culty equals the victim's Wits + Subterfuge). If he rolls a number of successes equal to or greater than the tar-get's Self-Control/Instinct, the target's Nature changes to whatever the player using Restructure desires. This	disciplinas.pdf
151 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONeffect is permanent and can be undone only by another application of Restructure (though subtle differences from the character's original Nature may still remain, as it is impossible for such a fundamental change to oc-cur ﬂawlessly). A botch on this roll changes the char-acter's own Nature to that of his intended victim. Personal Scourge Similar to the Auspex power of Psychic Assault (p. 141), this fearsome ability allows the elder to turn the very strength of her victim's mind against him, inﬂicting physical harm with the power of his own will. Victims of this self-powered attack spontaneously erupt in lacerations and bruises, spraying blood in ev-ery direction and howling in agony. Those who have observed such an attack with Auspex note that the victim's aura swirls with violent psychosis and erupts outward in writhing appendages — a sight that can make even the most jaded Tzimisce quail. System: The vampire must touch or establish eye contact (p. 152) with her target. The player rolls Ma-nipulation + Empathy (difﬁculty equal to the target's Stamina + Self-Control/Instinct) and spends two Will-power points. For a number of turns equal to the num-ber of successes rolled, the victim rolls his own perma-nent Willpower as lethal damage against himself. This damage can be soaked with his own Humanity or Path of Enlightenment (difﬁculty 6); Fortitude does not add to this soak dice pool, nor does body armor. He may take no actions during this time other than thrashing and gibbering; this includes spending blood to heal. Lunatic Eruption This fearsome ability is only known to have been applied a few times in recorded Kindred history, most spectacularly during the ﬁnal nights of the last battle of Carthage. It is effectively a psychic nuclear bomb, used to incite every intelligent being within several miles (kilometers) into an orgy of bloodlust and rage. It is suspected that the Malkavians have used the threat of this power as a bargaining chip in several key negotia-tions. System: The player spends four Willpower points and rolls Stamina + Intimidation (difﬁculty 8). The area of effect is determined by the number of successes scored: Successes Result 1 success One city block 2 successes An entire neighborhood3 successes A large downtown area 4 successes Several neighborhoods 5 successes An entire metropolitan area (approximately 30 miles or 45 kilometers) 6+ successes An additional 10 miles or 15 kilometers for every success past 5 Within this area, all sentient creatures fall prey to their baser instincts. Mortals spontaneously riot, looting and burning between bouts of mass violence. Kindred enter hunger-induced frenzies, draining dry as many vessels as they can sink their fangs into. An entire city can quite literally be driven temporarily in-sane by this power. Lunatic Eruption's effects persist until the next sunrise, and anyone entering its area of effect (centered on the site at which it was used, not on the character who applied it) falls under its spell. However, momentum may carry the violence spawned by this power much farther — and keep it going much longer — than the power itself can force. Victims of Lunatic Eruption may resist with Self-Control/Instinct rolls (difﬁculty equal to the Dementa-tion user's permanent Willpower rating); each success provides one hour of lucidity, which most wise indi-viduals use to leave the power's area of effect (leav-ing the “blast radius” removes the power's inﬂuence). The source of Lunatic Eruption may be pinpointed if a character is using Heightened Senses or an equiva-lent power at the time it is used; this is automatic and requires no roll. However, this grants no knowledge of what actually happened — the observer simply “feels” a massive psychic shockwave explode from the charac-ter using the power. Dominate Dominate is one of the most dreaded of Disciplines. It is a vampire's ability to inﬂuence another person's thoughts and actions through her own force of will. Dominate requires that the vampire capture her vic-tim's gaze (see p. 152) ; as such, it may be used against only one subject at a time. Further, commands must be issued verbally, although simple orders may be made with signs — for example, a pointed ﬁnger and force-ful expression to indicate “Go!” However, the subject won't comply if he can't understand the vampire, no matter how powerful the Kindred's will is.	disciplinas.pdf
152 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Perhaps unsurprisingly, vampires to which Dominate comes naturally tend to be from willful, domineering Clans. The Giovanni, Lasombra, Tremere, and Ven-true all consider an iron will to be a boon, and are ea-ger to impose that iron will on any who would move against them. Eye Contact Many myths and stories exist about a vam-pire's mystical ability to put people under her spell by looking deeply into her victim's eyes. The persistence of such stories through the ages isn't surprising, since a number of Kin-dred Disciplines powers (most notably Domi-nate) require eye contact in order to work. Other vampires, learning of this requirement, have attempted everything from wearing mir-rored sunglasses to gouging out their own eyes in order to prevent an elder from exerting his will upon them. But Kindred are not so easily thwarted. The need for eye contact stems from the ag-gressor Kindred's need to see his victim's soul, and the eyes are the traditionally known as the windows to the soul. While the vampire needs to capture his target's attention, the target's eyes need not be present for such a power to work (although the arts of the Tzimisce make this somewhat challenging at times) — they only need to ﬁnd the soul of his victim laid bare. A target trying to avoid eye contact can make a Willpower roll against a difﬁculty equal to Dominate user's Manipulation + Intimida-tion (or other appropriate combination for other Disciplines or speciﬁc situations, at the Storyteller's discretion). The difﬁculty may be reduced for mitigating factors:-1 in the case of the target obscuring his eyes slightly (such as closing her eyes or wearing dark sunglasses) up to a-3 for the eyes being completely un-seen (such as with a thick blindfold or having her eyes torn out). Ultimately, however, it is up to the Storyteller to decide whether eye contact is established in a particular case. Command The vampire locks eyes with the subject and speaks a one-word command, which the subject must be obey instantly. The order must be clear and straightforward: run, agree, fall, yawn, jump, laugh, surrender, stop, scream, follow. If the command is at all confusing or ambiguous, the subject may respond slowly or perform the task poorly. The subject cannot be ordered to do something directly harmful to herself, so a command like “die” is ineffective. The command may be included in a sentence, there-by concealing the power's use from others. This ef-fort at subtlety still requires the Kindred to make eye contact at the proper moment and stress the key word slightly. An alert bystander — or even the victim — may notice the emphasis. Still, unless she's conversant with supernatural powers, the individual is likely to attribute the utterance and the subsequent action to bizarre coincidence. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Intimida-tion (difﬁculty equals the target's current Willpower points). More successes force the subject to act with greater vigor or for a longer duration (continue run-ning for a number of turns, go off on a laughing jag, scream uncontrollably). Remember, too, that being commanded to against one's Nature confounds the use of this power. Being told to “sleep!” in a dangerous situation or “attack!” in police custody may not have the desired effect, or indeed, any effect at all. Mesmerize With this power, a vampire can verbally implant a false thought or hypnotic suggestion in the subject's subconscious mind. Both Kindred and target must be free from distraction, since Mesmerize requires intense concentration and precise wording to be effective. The vampire may activate the imposed thought immediate-ly or establish a stimulus that will trigger it later. The victim must be able to understand the vampire, though the two need to maintain eye contact only as long as it takes to implant the idea. Mesmerize allows for anything from simple, precise directives (handing over an item) to complex, highly involved ones (taking notes of someone's habits and relaying that information at an appointed time). It is not useful for planting illusions or false memories (such as seeing a rabbit or believing yourself to be on ﬁre). A subject can have only one suggestion implanted at any time.	disciplinas.pdf
153 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONSystem: The player rolls Manipulation + Leader-ship (difﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points). The number of successes determines how well the suggestion takes hold in the victim's subconscious. If the vampire scores one or two successes, the subject cannot be forced to do anything that seems strange to her (she might walk outside, but is unlikely to steal a car). At three or four successes, the command is effec-tive unless following it endangers the subject. At ﬁve successes or greater, the vampire can implant nearly any sort of command. No matter how strong the Kindred's will, his com-mand cannot force the subject to harm herself directly or defy her innate Nature. So, while a vampire who scored ﬁve successes could make a 98-pound weakling attack a 300-pound bouncer, he could not make the mortal shoot herself in the head. If a vampire tries to Mesmerize a subject before the target fulﬁlls a previously implanted directive, com-pare the successes rolled to those gained during the im-planting of the ﬁrst suggestion. Whichever roll had the greater number of successes is the command that now governs in the target's behavior; the other suggestion is wiped clean. If the successes rolled are equal, the newer command supplants the old one. The Forgetful Mind After capturing the subject's gaze, the vampire delves into the subject's memories, stealing or re-creating them at his whim. The Forgetful Mind does not allow for telepathic contact; the Kindred operates much like a hypnotist, asking directed questions and drawing out answers from the subject. The degree of memory altera-tion depends on what the vampire desires. He may al-ter the subject's mind only slightly (quite effective for eliminating memories of the victim meeting or even being fed upon by the vampire) or utterly undo the vic-tim's memories of her past. The degree of detail used has a direct bearing on how strongly the new memories take hold, since the vic-tim's subconscious mind resists the alteration. A sim-plistic or incomplete false memory (“You went to the movies last night”) crumbles much more quickly than does one with more attention to detail (“You thought about texting your girlfriend while you were in line at the new movie theater, but you knew you'd have to turn your phone off once you got inside. You liked the movie well enough, but the plot seemed weak. You were tired after it ended, so you went home, watched a little late-night television, and went to bed. ”).	disciplinas.pdf
154 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESEven in its simplest applications, The Forgetful Mind requires tremendous skill and ﬁnesse. It's a relatively simple matter to riﬂe through a victim's psyche and rip out the memories of the previous night without know-ing what the subject did that evening. Doing so leaves a gap in the victim's mind, however — a hole that can give rise to further problems down the road. The Kin-dred may describe new memories, but these recollec-tions seldom have the same degree of realism that the subject's original thoughts held. As such, this power isn't always completely effective. The victim may remember being bitten, but believe it to be an animal attack. Greater memories may return in pieces as dreams, or through sensory triggers like a familiar odor or spoken phrase. Even so, months or years may pass before the subject regains enough of her lost memories to make sense of the fragments. A vampire can also sense when a subject's memories were altered through use of this power, and even restore them, as a hypnotist draws forth suppressed thoughts. System: The player states what sorts of alteration he wants to perform, then rolls Wits + Subterfuge (dif-ﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points). Any success paciﬁes the victim for the amount of time it takes the vampire to perform the verbal alteration, provided the vampire does not act aggressively toward her. The table below indicates the degree of modiﬁca-tion possible to the subject's memory. If the successes rolled don't allow for the extent of change the charac-ter desired, the Storyteller reduces the resulting impact on the victim's mind. Successes Result 1 success May remove a single memory; lasts one day. 2 successes May remove, but not alter, memory permanently. 3 successes May make slight changes to memory. 4 successes May alter or remove entire scene from subject's memory. 5 successes May reconstruct entire periods of subject's life. To restore removed memories or sense false ones in a subject, the character's Dominate rating must be equal to or higher than that of the vampire who made the alteration. In that situation, the player must make a Wits + Empathy roll (difﬁculty equal to the origi-nal vampire's permanent Willpower rating) and score more successes than his predecessor did. However, the Kindred cannot use The Forgetful Mind to restore his own memories if they were stolen in such a way. Conditioning Through sustained manipulation, the vampire can make a subject more pliant to the Kindred's will. Over time, the victim becomes increasingly susceptible to the vampire's inﬂuence while simultaneously growing more resistant to the corrupting efforts of other Kin-dred. Gaining complete control over a subject's mind is no small task, taking weeks or even months to ac-complish. Kindred often ﬁll their retainers' heads with subtle whispers and veiled urges, thereby ensuring these mor-tals' loyalty. Yet vampires must pay a high price for the minds they ensnare. Servants Dominated in this way lose much of their passion and individuality. They follow the vampire's orders quite literally, seldom tak-ing initiative or showing any imagination. In the end, such retainers become like automatons or the walking dead. System: The player rolls Charisma + Leadership (dif-ﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points) once per scene. Conditioning is an extended action, for which the Storyteller secretly determines the number of successes required. It typically requires between ﬁve and 10 times the subject's Self-Control/Instinct rat-ing. Targets with more empathic Natures may require a lower number of successes, while those with willful Natures require a higher total. Only through roleplay-ing may a character discern whether his subject is con-ditioned successfully. A target may become more tractable even before becoming fully conditioned. Once the vampire accu-mulates half the required number of successes, the Sto-ryteller may apply a lower difﬁculty to the vampire's subsequent uses of Dominate. After being conditioned, the target falls so far under the vampire's inﬂuence that the Kindred need not make eye contact or even be present to retain absolute control. The subject does ex-actly as she is told (including taking actions that would injure herself), as long as her master can communicate with her verbally. No command roll is necessary un-less the subject is totally isolated from the vampire's presence (in a different room, over the phone). Even if a command roll fails, the target will still likely carry out part of the orders given, simply because her master wishes it.	disciplinas.pdf
155 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONAfter the subject is fully conditioned, other Kindred ﬁnd her more difﬁcult to Dominate. Such conditioning raises others' difﬁculties by two (to a maximum of 10). It is possible, though difﬁcult, to shake Condition-ing. The subject must be separated entirely from the vampire to whom she was in thrall. This period of separation varies depending on the individual, but the Storyteller may set it at six months, less a number of weeks equal to the subject's permanent Willpower rating (so a person with 5 Willpower must stay away from the vampire for just under ﬁve months). The subject regains her personality slowly during this time, though she may still lapse into brief spells of listless-ness, despair, or even anger. If the vampire encounters the target before that time passes, a single successful Charisma + Leadership roll (difﬁculty of the target's current Willpower points) on the part of the vampire completely reasserts the dominance. If the subject makes it through the time period with-out intervention by her master, the target regains her former individuality. Even so, the vampire may rees-tablish conditioning more easily than the ﬁrst time, since the subject is now predisposed to falling under the Kindred's mental control. New attempts require half the total number of successes than the last bout of conditioning did (which means the subject reaches the threshold for reduced difﬁculties sooner, as well). Possession At this level of Dominate, the force of the Kindred's psyche is such that it can utterly supplant the mind of a mortal subject. Speaking isn't required, but the vam-pire must capture the victim's gaze. During the psychic struggle, the contestants' eyes are locked on one an-other. Once the Kindred overwhelms the subject's mind, the vampire moves his consciousness into the victim's body and controls it as easily as he uses his own. The mortal falls into a mental fugue while under possession. She is aware of events only in a distorted, dreamlike fashion. In turn, the vampire's mind focuses entirely on controlling his mortal subject. His own body lies in a torpid state, defenseless against any actions made toward it. Vampires cannot possess one another in this fashion, as even the weakest Kindred's mind is strong enough to resist such straightforward mental dominance. Only through a blood bond can one vampire control another to this degree. Supernatural creatures also cannot be possessed in this way, although ghouls that have drunk from the vampire using Possession can. System: The vampire must completely strip away the target's Willpower prior to possessing her. The player spends a Willpower point, then rolls Charisma + In-timidation, while the subject rolls his Willpower in a resisted action (difﬁculty 7 for each). For each success the vampire obtains over the victim's total, the target loses a point of temporary Willpower. Only if the at-tacker botches can the subject escape her fate, since this makes the target immune to any further Dominate attempts by that vampire for the rest of the story. Once the target loses all her temporary Willpower, her mind is open. The vampire rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difﬁculty 7) to determine how fully he assumes control of the mortal shell. Similar to the Ani-malism power Subsume the Spirit, multiple successes allow the character to utilize some mental Disciplines, noted on the chart below. (Vampires possessing ghouls can use the physical Disciplines the ghoul possesses, but not the mental ones. ) Successes Result 1 success Cannot use Disciplines 2 successes Can use Auspex and other sensory powers 3 successes Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation 4 successes Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation 5 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers The character may travel as far from his body as he is physically able while possessing the mortal. The vam-pire may also venture out during the day in the mortal form. However, the vampire's own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake (see p. 262). If the vampire leaves the mortal shell (by choice, if his body falls asleep, through supernatural ex-pulsion, after sustaining signiﬁcant injury, etc. ), his con-sciousness returns to his physical form in an instant. Once freed from possession, the mortal regains men-tal control of herself. This can happen in an instant, or the victim may lie comatose for days while her psyche copes with the violation.	disciplinas.pdf
156 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESThe vampire experiences everything the mortal body feels during possession, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the victim's body sustains is also applied to the character's body (though the Kindred may soak as normal). If the mortal dies before the vampire's soul can ﬂee from the body, the character's body falls into torpor. Presumably this is in sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, though some Kindred be-lieve that the vampire's soul is cast adrift during this time and must ﬁnd its way back to the body. The Kindred can remain in the mortal's body even if his own torpid form is destroyed, though such a pathetic creature is not likely to exist for long. At each sunrise, the vampire must roll Courage (difﬁculty 8) or be ex-pelled from the body. If forced from the mortal body, the vampire tumbles into the astral plane, his soul perma-nently lost in the spirit world. A vampire trapped in a mortal body may not be “re-Embraced. ” If the Embrace occurs to such a creature, he simply meets Final Death. Chain the Psyche Not content with merely commanding their subjects, some elders apply this power to ensure obedience from recalcitrant victims. Chain the Psyche is a Dominate technique that inﬂicts incapacitating pain on a target who attempts to break the vampire's commands. System: The player spends a blood point when her character applies Dominate to a subject. Any attempt that the subject makes to act against the vampire's implanted commands or to recover stolen memories causes intense pain. When such an attempt is made, the Storyteller rolls the character's Manipulation + In-timidation (difﬁculty equal to the subject's Stamina + Empathy). Each success equals one turn that the vic-tim is unable to act, as she is wracked with agony. Each application of Chain the Psyche crushes a number of resistance attempts equal to the character's Manipula-tion rating, after which the effect fades. Loyalty With this power in effect, the elder's Dominate is so strong that other vampires ﬁnd it almost impossible to break with their own commands. Despite the name, Loyalty instills no special feelings in the victim — the vampire's commands are simply implanted far more deeply than normal. System: Any other vampire attempting to employ Dominate on a subject who has been Dominated by a vampire with Loyalty has a +3 difﬁculty modiﬁer to his rolls and must spend an additional Willpower point. Obedience While most Kindred must employ Dominate through eye contact, some powerful elders may command loy-alty with the lightest brush of a hand. System: The character can employ all Dominate powers through touch instead of eye contact (although eye contact still works). Skin contact is necessary — simply touching the target's clothing or something she is holding will not sufﬁce. The touch does not have to be maintained for the full time it takes to issue a Domi-nate command, though repeated attempts to Dominate a single target require the character to touch the sub-ject again. Mass Manipulation A truly skilled elder may command small crowds through the use of this power. By manipulating the strongest minds within a given group, a gathering may be directed to the vampire's will. System: The player declares that he is using this power before rolling for the use of another Dominate power. The difﬁculty of the roll is that which would be required to Dominate the most resistant member of the target group — if he cannot be Dominated, no one in his immediate vicinity can. For every success past that needed to inﬂict the desired result on the ﬁrst target, the player may choose one additional target to receive the same effect in its entirety. The vampire needs to make eye contact only with the initial target. Still the Mortal Flesh Despite its name, this power may be employed on vampires as well as mortals, and it has left more than one unfortunate victim writhing in agony — or unable to do even that. A vampire who has developed this power is able to override her victim's body as easily as his mind in order to cut off his senses or even stop his heart. It is rumored that this power once came more easily to the Kindred, but modern medicine has made the bodies and spirits of mortals more resistant to such manipulations. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Medicine (difﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points + 2; a difﬁculty over 10 means that this power cannot affect the target at all). The effect lasts for one turn per success. The player must choose what func-tion of the target's body is being cut off before rolling. She may affect any of the body's involuntary functions; breathing, circulation, perspiration, sight, and hearing are all viable targets. While Still the Mortal Flesh is in	disciplinas.pdf
157 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONeffect, a vampire can either stop any one of those func-tions entirely or cause them to ﬂuctuate erratically. The exact effects of any given bodily function being shut off are left to the Storyteller. Most mortals panic if suddenly struck blind, but only the shutdown of the heart will kill a target on the spot. Vampires are un-affected by loss of heartbeat or breathing, but may be rendered deaf and blind as easily as mortals. Far Mastery This reﬁnement of Obedience (though the character need not have learned Obedience ﬁrst) allows the use of Dominate on any subject that the vampire is familiar with, at any time, over any distance. If the elder knows where his target is, he may issue commands as if he were standing face-to-face with his intended victim. System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Perception + Empathy (difﬁculty equal to the sub-ject's Wits + Stealth) to establish contact. If this roll succeeds, Dominate may be used as if the character had established eye contact with the target. A second Will-power point must be spent in order for a vampire to use this power on another vampire or other supernatural being. Speak Through the Blood The power structures of Methuselahs extend across continents and centuries. This power allows such an-cients to wield control over their descendants, even those far outside their geographic spheres of inﬂuence. Speak Through the Blood allows an elder to issue com-mands to every vampire whose lineage can be traced to her — even if the two have never met. Thus, en-tire broods act to further the goals of sleeping ancients whose existences they may be completely unaware of. The vampires affected by this power rarely act directly to pursue the command they were given, but over a decade or so, their priorities slowly shift until the ful-ﬁllment of the Methuselah's command is among their long-term goals. Speak Through the Blood, because it takes effect so slowly, is rarely recognized as an outside inﬂuence, and its victims rationalize their behavior as “growing and changing,” or something to that effect. System: The player spends a permanent Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Leadership. The dif-ﬁculty of this roll is equal to four plus the number of Generations to which the command is to be passed. Unless the character is aware of the location and pres-ent agenda of every descendant of his — a highly un-likely event — he may only issue general commands, half page art here	disciplinas.pdf
158 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES such as “work for the greater glory of Clan Malkavian” or “destroy all those who seek to extinguish the light of knowledge. ” Speak Through the Blood can be used by a vampire in torpor. Commands issued through this power last for one decade per success on the roll. Dif-ﬁculties over 10 require one additional success for each point past 10, making it that much more difﬁcult to issue long-lasting commands stretching down to the ends of one's lineage. A vampire who has reached Golconda is not affected by this power, and is completely unaware that it has been used. Her childer, however, are affected normally unless they are also enlightened. Ghouls of the victims of this power are also affected, but to a lesser extent. Resisting Dominate Most victims cannot stand against the ef-fects of Dominate. Still, there are situations where this Discipline is powerless to sway the subject. Mortals: Few mortals can hope to resist Dominate, as their strength of will nothing compared to the supernatural magnetism of a vampire. Still, there are extremely rare individuals who, due to strong religious faith, unique psychic talent, or extraordinary mental resolve, can shrug off this Discipline's effects. Only a foolish vampire ignores the potential threat such human beings represent. (See p. 372 for more information about True Faith, for example. ) Vampires: It is impossible to Dominate another Kindred who is of stronger Blood. The vampire must be of an equal or higher Generation than the target for the powers to be effective. Scholars of the Kindred condi-tion suspect that this is one of the protections Caine put in place to protect himself from the whims of his willful childer. A faction of those who believe this theory also maintain that this implies that Caine himself employed the Discipline of Dominate. Nature: A character's Nature can have a distinct impact on how easily Dominate inﬂu-ences her. A vampire might easily control subjects with inherently empathic Natures (Caregiver, Child, Conformist), while those whose Natures denote a great degree of inner strength (Bravo, Director, Rebel) can be more of a challenge. The Storyteller may reduce the required difﬁculty or number of successes by one or two when the player rolls against those subjects with “weaker” Natures, or raise them by a similar amount for “stronger” Natures. On the other hand, “strong” Na-tures might be more easiliy inﬂuenced to take aggressive actions — for example, coaxing a Rebel to denounce the Prince is likely easier than goading a Conformist to do the same thing. Ultimately, the Storyteller must adjudi-cate. Botches: If a Dominate roll botches, the target is rendered immune to future attempts by the same vampire for the rest of the story. Fortitude Although all vampires have an unnatural constitution that make them much sturdier than mortals, Fortitude bestows a resilience that would make an action movie hero envious. Vampires with this Discipline can shrug off agonizing trauma and make the most bone-shatter-ing impact look like a ﬂesh wound. The power even of-fers protection against the traditional banes of vampires, such as sunlight and ﬁre, and the Gangrel, Ravnos, and Ventrue all ﬁnd that edge incredibly useful. System: A character's rating in Fortitude adds to his Stamina for the purposes of soaking normal damage (bashing and lethal). A character with this Discipline may also use his dots in Fortitude to soak aggravated damage, though Kindred cannot normally soak things like vampire bites, werewolf claws, magical effects, ﬁre, sunlight, or massive physical trauma. See p. 272, for further details on soaking and damage. Fortitude 6+ Elder vampires progress in Fortitude in the same way as Celerity (see p. 142). They can increase their basic mastery of the Discipline or to take an alternate power such as one of those detailed below.	disciplinas.pdf
159 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Personal Armor Nobody likes to get hit, not even Cainites. The easiest way to ensure that one is not hit (or shot, or stabbed) repeatedly is to take the weapon with which one is assaulted away from one's attacker and break it. That's where Personal Armor comes in. This applica-tion of Fortitude, derived from one popular in the 12th century, causes anything that strikes a Kindred who employs Personal Armor to shatter on impact. System: With the expenditure of two blood points, a vampire can add preternatural hardness to his ﬂesh. Every time an attack is made on the Kindred using Per-sonal Armor (one which he fails to dodge), his player rolls Fortitude (difﬁculty 8). If the roll grants more suc-cesses than the attacker rolled, then the weapon used to make the attack shatters against the vampire's ﬂesh. (“Magical” weapons may be resistant to this effect, at the Storyteller's discretion. ) The vampire still takes normal damage if the attack is successful, even if the weapon shatters in the process, though this damage may be soaked. If the attack roll botches, any normal weapon automatically shatters. A hand-to-hand attack causes the attacker equal damage to that suffered by the defender when Personal Armor comes into play. If the attacker misses entirely, she still takes one level of bashing damage. The effects of this power last for the duration of the scene. Shared Strength It's one thing to laugh off bullets, rather another to watch the ricochets mow down everyone around you. Many Kindred have wished, at one time or another, that they could lend their monstrous vitality to those around them. Those few vampires who have mastered Shared Strength can — if only for a little while. System: Shared Strength duplicates a portion of a vampire's Fortitude (one dot for every point of blood the vampire spends) to another being. Activating the power requires a Stamina + Survival roll (difﬁculty 8, increased to 9 if the target is not a normal mortal), and the expenditure of a point of Willpower. Furthermore, the vampire must mark his target by pressing a drop of his blood onto the target's forehead. This stain remains visible as long as the power is in effect, the duration of which is determined by the initial roll. Successes Duration 1 One turn 2 One scene 3 One hour 4 One night 5 One week 6 One month 7 One year The target of this power need not be willing to ac-cept the beneﬁt to receive it, and the bestowing vam-pire can end the effect at any time for no cost. Particu-larly sadistic Kindred have come up with any number of ways in which a target's “devil's mark” and super-natural endurance can be used to land him in a great deal of trouble. A vampire can never bestow more levels of Fortitude than he himself possesses. Adamantine Adamantine functions as a more potent version of Personal Armor. System: This power mimics the effects of Personal Armor, save that the vampire who uses it takes no damage from attacks that shatter on her skin. Necromancy Necromancy is both a Discipline and a school of blood magic devoted to the command of the souls of the dead. It's similar to Thaumaturgy in that it has several “paths” and accompanying “rituals” rather than a strict linear progression of powers. The study of Necromancy is not widespread among the Kindred, and its practi-tioners — primarily the Giovanni — are shunned and despised for their foul practices (until those practices become useful, of course). Over the centuries, the various schools of vampiric Necromancy have evolved and diversiﬁed from an ear-lier form of death magic, leaving several distinct paths of necromantic magic available to Cainites. Nearly all modern necromancers learn the Sepulchre Path ﬁrst before extending their studies to other paths. The pri-mary Necromancy path increases automatically as the character increases her overall Necromancy rating. Other paths must be bought separately, using the expe-rience costs for secondary paths.	disciplinas.pdf
160 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESLike Thaumaturgy, Necromancy has also spawned a series of rituals. While not nearly so immediate in ef-fect as the basic powers of Necromancy, Necromantic rituals can have impressive long-term effects. Unsur-prisingly, the elements of Necromantic ritual are things like long-buried corpses and hands from the cadavers of hanged men, so obtaining suitable materials can be quite difﬁcult. System: A Cainite necromancer must learn at least three levels in his primary path before learning his ﬁrst level in a secondary Necromancy path. He must then master the primary path (all ﬁve levels) before acquir-ing any knowledge of a third path. As with Thaumaturgy, advancement in the primary path costs the normal experience amount, while study of additional Necromantic paths incurs an additional experience-point cost (see p. 124). Because Necromancy is not quite so rigid a study as Thaumaturgy is, the rolls required to use Necromantic powers can vary from path to path and even within individual paths. The common-ly-learned Sepulchre Path is presented ﬁrst, with the re-maining paths presented in alphabetical order. Statistics for ghosts may be found in Chapter Nine, p. 385. The Sepulchre Path Through the Sepulchre path, the vampire can wit-ness, summon, and command the spirits of the dead. At higher levels, the necromancer can force the ghost to remain in a particular place or object, or even dam-age wraiths directly. Since many other areas of Nec-romancy involve dealing with ghosts, this is the most common path for necromancers to start with. Note: If a Kindred uses a Sepulchre Path power in the presence of something of great importance to the ghost the power affects, the chances for success in the summoning increase dramatically (reduce the difﬁculty by 2). This might be the bathtub in which the ghost's mortal body was drowned, the rusted-out wreck of the car where the ghost's physical body was trapped alive, or something unrelated to the ghost's demise, such as a favorite book or a child-ghost's beloved nursery. Witness of Death Before it is possible to control the dead, one must perceive them. This power allows just that, attuning a vampire's unliving senses to the presence of the in-corporeal.	disciplinas.pdf
161 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONUnder its effects, a necromancer sees ghosts as trans-lucent phantoms gliding among the living and hears their whispers and moans. She feels the spectral cold of their touch and smells their musty hint of decay. Yet one cannot mistake the dead for the living, as they lack true substance, and appear dimmer and less real than creatures of ﬂesh and blood. When a vampire uses this power, her eyes ﬂicker with pale blue ﬁre that only the dead can see. Ghosts resent being spied upon, and more powerful shades may use their own powers to inﬂict their dis-pleasure on the incautious. System: The player rolls Perception + Awareness (difﬁculty 5). Success allows the vampire to perceive ghosts as described for the rest of the scene (in the mortal world — seeing ghosts in the land of the dead requires Shroudsight, on p. 163 ). Failure has no special effect, but a botch means the vampire can see only the dead for the scene; everything else appears as shapeless, dim shadows. While the vampire's other senses remain attuned to the living, he is all but blind in this state and suffers a +3 difﬁculty to most vision-based Percep-tion rolls and attacks. Ghosts notice the glowing eyes of a vampire using this power only with a successful Perception + Alertness roll (difﬁculty 7). Summon Soul The power of Summon Soul allows a necromancer to call a ghost back from the Underworld, for conversa-tional purposes only. In order to perform this feat (and indeed, most of the feats in this path), the vampire must meet certain conditions: The necromancer must know the name of the wraith in question, though an image of the wraith ob-tained via Witness of Death (see above), Shroudsight (see p. 163), Auspex, or other supernatural perception will sufﬁce. An object with which the wraith had some contact in life must be in the vicinity, though it need not be something of signiﬁcant importance to the ghost's liv-ing consciousness. A piece of the ghost's corpse works well for this purpose (and even provides a-1 difﬁculty modiﬁer). Certain types of ghosts cannot be summoned with this power. Vampires who achieved Golconda before their Final Deaths, or who were diablerized, are beyond the reach of this summons. Likewise, many ghosts of the dead cannot be called — they are destroyed, un-able to return to the mortal plane, or lost in the eternal storm of the Underworld. System: The player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difﬁculty equal to 7 or the ghost's Willpower, whichever is higher). The vampire must know the name of the ghost and have on hand an object the ghost had contact with in life. Provided that the target has died and become a ghost, success means the shade appears before the necromancer as described above. Not everyone becomes a ghost — it requires a strong will to persevere in the face of death, and souls that have found peace pass on to their eternal rewards. Moreover, it is possible for the dead to suffer spiritual dissolution and destruction after they become ghosts. The Storyteller should consider all these factors when deciding whether a particular ghost exists for a vampire to summon. Vampires know if their summons should have suc-ceeded by a feeling of sudden, terrifying descent as they reach too far into the great Beyond, so this power can be used to determine whether a soul has endured be-yond death. While a failure means the vampire wastes blood, a botch calls a spirit other than the one sought — usually a malevolent ghost known as a Spectre (see p. 385). Such a ﬁend torments the one who summoned it with every wicked power at its disposal. Once a ghost is summoned, it may not deliberately move out of sight of the vampire, though it can take any other actions, including direct attack. The vam-pire's player may spend a Willpower point to dismiss the ghost at any time (unless he rolled a botch). Other-wise, at the end of the scene, shadows engulf the spirit once more and return it to its original location. Compel Soul With this power, a vampire can command a ghost to do his bidding for a while. Compulsion of the soul is a perilous undertaking and, when used improperly, can endanger vampire and wraith alike. System: The vampire locates and approaches the in-tended ghost or calls it to his presence with Summon Soul. As with the previous power, he must have the ghost's name and an object it handled in life. His player then spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult in a resisted roll against the ghost's Willpower (difﬁculty 6 for both rolls). If the vampire wins, the number of net successes de-termines the degree of control he has over the ghost (as described below). Moreover, the vampire's control keeps ghosts that have been called with Summon Soul from returning to their original locations at the end of the scene. If the ghost wins, the vampire loses a number	disciplinas.pdf
162 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESof Willpower points equal to the ghost's net successes. On a tie, the roll becomes an extended contest that continues each turn until one side wins. If the vampire botches at any point, the ghost is immune to any use of the vampire's Necromancy for the rest of the scene. If the ghost botches, it must obey as if the vampire's player had rolled ﬁve net successes. Successes Result 1 success The ghost must perform one simple task for the vampire that does not place it in certain danger. It must attend to this task immediately, although it can delay the compulsion and pursue its own business at a cost of one Willpower point per scene. The ghost may not attack the vampire until this task is complete. It is possible to issue the task of answering one question, in which case the ghost must answer truthfully and to the best of its knowledge. 2 successes The vampire may issue two orders or ask two questions as outlined for one success. Alternatively, the vampire may demand a simple task with a real possibility of danger, as long as the danger is not certain. The ghost may delay this compulsion with Willpower. 3 successes The vampire may issue three orders as outlined for one success. Alternatively, he may demand the ghost fulﬁll one difﬁcult and dangerous task or a simple assignment that has an extended duration of up to one month. The ghost may delay such orders with Willpower. 4 successes The vampire may issue four orders, as outlined for one success, or assign two tasks, as for two successes. Alternatively, the vampire may command the ghost to perform one complex assignment that puts the ghost at extreme risk, or perform any number of non-threatening tasks as the vampire's slave for up to one month (or, if the necromancer spends a permanent point of Willpower, for a year and a day). It is possible for ghosts to delay individual tasks, but not put off enslavement. 5+ successes The vampire may issue multiple orders that have a sum complexity or danger of ﬁve successes' worth. Instead, the vampire may order the ghost to perform any one action that it is capable of executing within one month. Such a task can place the ghost in immediate peril of destruction, or even force it to betray and assault loved ones. It is not possible for ghosts to delay a task of this magnitude with Willpower — they must obey. Haunting Haunting binds a summoned ghost to a particular location or, in extreme cases, an object. The wraith cannot leave the area to which the necromancer binds it without risking destruction. System: The player spends one blood point while standing at the location for the haunting or touching the intended prison. She then has the ghost brought to her by whatever means she desires, though Summon Soul is quickest and most reliable. Her player then rolls Manipulation + Occult (difﬁculty is equal to the target's current Willpower points if resisted, to a mini-mum of 4; otherwise it is 4). The difﬁculty rises by one if the vampire wishes to place the ghost in an object. As usual, the difﬁculty decreases by one if the necro-mancer has a part of the spirit's corpse in addition to knowing its name (minimum difﬁculty 3). Each success binds the ghost within the location or object for one night. This duration extends to one week if the player spends a Willpower point or a year and a day for a dot of permanent Willpower. A wraith at-tempting to leave the area of a haunting must make an extended Willpower roll (difﬁculty 9, four cumulative successes necessary in a single scene) or take a level of aggravated damage for each roll. If the wraith runs out of health levels, it is hurled deep into the Underworld to face destruction. Torment It is through the use of this power that powerful nec-romancers convince bound ghosts to behave — or else.	disciplinas.pdf
163 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONTorment allows the vampire to strike a wraith as if he himself were in the lands of the dead, inﬂicting dam-age on the wraith's ectoplasmic form. The vampire remains in the real world, however, so he cannot be struck in return. System: The player rolls Stamina + Empathy (dif-ﬁculty equal to the wraith's current Willpower points), and the vampire reaches out to strike the wraith. Each success inﬂicts a level of lethal damage on the wraith. Should the wraith lose all health levels, it immediately vanishes into what appears to be a doorway to some hideous nightmare realm. Ghosts “destroyed” thus can-not reappear in or near the real world for a month. The Ash Path The Ash Path allows necromancers to peer into the lands of the dead, and even affect things there. Of the paths of Necromancy, the Ash Path is the most peril-ous to learn, because many of the path's uses increase a necromancer's vulnerability to wraiths. Shroudsight Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see through the Shroud, the mystical barrier that separates the living world from the Underworld. By using this power, the vampire can spot ghostly buildings and items, the land-scape of the so-called Shadowlands, and even wraiths themselves. However, an observant wraith may notice when a vampire suddenly starts staring at him, which can lead to unpleasant consequences. System: A simple roll of Perception + Awareness (difﬁculty 7) allows a necromancer to utilize Shrouds-ight. The effects last for a scene. Lifeless Tongues Where Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see ghosts, Lifeless Tongues allows her to converse with them effortlessly. Once Lifeless Tongues is employed, the vampire can carry on a conversation with the deni-zens of the ghostly Underworld without spending blood or causing the wraiths to expend any effort. System: To use Lifeless Tongues requires a roll of Perception + Occult (difﬁculty 6) and the expenditure of a Willpower point. Dead Hand Similar to the Sepulchre Path power Torment, Dead Hand allows a necromancer to reach across the Shroud and affect a ghostly object as if it were in the real world. Ghosts are solid to necromancers using this power, and can be attacked. Furthermore, the necromancer can pick up ghostly items, scale ghostly architecture (giving real-world bystanders the impression that he's climbing on air!), and generally exist in two worlds. On the other hand, a necromancer using Dead Hand is quite solid to the residents of the Underworld — and to whatever hostilities they might have. System: The player spends a point of Willpower and makes a successful Wits + Occult roll (difﬁculty 7) to activate Dead Hand for one scene. For each additional scene the vampire wishes to remain in contact with the Underworld, he must spend a point of blood. Ex Nihilo Ex Nihilo allows a necromancer to enter the Un-derworld physically. While in the lands of the dead, the vampire is essentially a particularly solid ghost. He maintains his normal number of health levels, but can be hurt only by things that inﬂict aggravated damage on ghosts (weapons forged from souls, certain ghostly powers, etc. ). A vampire physically in the Underworld can pass through solid objects in the real world (at the cost of one health level) and remain “incorporeal” for a number of turns equal to her Stamina rating. On the other hand, vampires present in the Underworld are subject to all of the Underworld's perils, including ulti-mate destruction. A vampire killed in the realm of the dead is gone forever, beyond even the reach of other necromancers. System: Using Ex Nihilo takes a tremendous toll on the necromancer. To activate this power, the vampire must ﬁrst draw a doorway with chalk or blood on any available surface. (The vampire may draw doors ahead of time for exactly this purpose. ) The player must then expend two points of Willpower and two points of blood before making a Stamina + Occult roll (difﬁcul-ty 8) as the vampire attempts to open the chalk door physically. If the roll succeeds, the door opens and the vampire steps through into the Underworld. When the vampire wishes to return to the real world, he merely needs to concentrate (and the player spends another Willpower point and rolls Stamina + Occult, difﬁculty 6). At Storyteller discretion, a vampire who is too deeply immersed in the Underworld may need to journey to a place close to the lands of the living in order to cross over. Vampires who wander too far into the lands of the dead may be trapped there forever. Vampires in the Underworld cannot feed upon ghosts without the use of another power; their only sustenance is the blood they bring with them.	disciplinas.pdf
164 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Shroud Mastery Shroud Mastery offers the Kindred the ability to manipulate the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead. By doing so, a necromancer can make it easier for bound wraiths in his service to function, or make it nearly impossible for ghosts to contact the material world. System: To exercise Shroud Mastery, the necro-mancer expends two points of Willpower, then states whether he is attempting to raise or lower the Shroud. The player then makes a Willpower roll (difﬁculty 9). Each success on the roll raises or lowers the difﬁculties of all nearby wraiths' attempts to cross the Shroud in any way by one, to a maximum of 10 or a minimum of 3. The Shroud reverts to its normal strength at a rate of one point per hour thereafter. The Bone Path The Bone Path is concerned primarily with corpses and the methods by which dead souls can be restored to the living world — temporarily or otherwise. Tremens Tremens allows a necromancer to make the ﬂesh of a corpse shift once. An arm might suddenly ﬂop forward, a cadaver might sit up, or dead eyes might abruptly open. This sort of thing tends to have an impressive impact on people who aren't expecting a departed rela-tive to roll over in his cofﬁn. System: To use Tremens, the necromancer spends a single blood point, and the player must succeed on a Dexterity + Occult roll (difﬁculty 6). The more suc-cesses that are achieved, the more complicated an ac-tion can be effected in the corpse. One success allows for an instantaneous movement, such as a twitch, while ﬁve allow the vampire to set up speciﬁc conditions un-der which the body animates (“The next time someone enters the room, I want the corpse to sit up and open its eyes. ”). Under no circumstances can Tremens cause a dead body to attack or cause damage. Apprentice's Brooms With Apprentice's Brooms, the necromancer can make a dead body rise and perform a simple function. For example, the corpse could be set to carrying heavy objects, digging, or just shambling from place to place. The cadavers thus animated do not attack or defend themselves if interfered with, but instead attempt to carry out their given instructions until such time as they've been rendered inanimate. Generally it takes dismemberment, ﬂame, or something similar to destroy a corpse animated in this way. System: A roll of Wits + Occult (difﬁculty 7) and the expenditure of a point of both blood and Will-power are all that is necessary to animate corpses with Apprentice's Brooms. The number of corpses animated is equal to the number of successes achieved. The nec-romancer must then state the task to which he is set-ting his zombies. The cadavers turn themselves to their work until they ﬁnish the job (at which point they col-lapse) or something (including time) destroys them. Corpses animated in this way have no initiative of their own, and are unable to make value judgments. They respond to very literal instruction. Thus, a zom-bie could be told “sweep this room every day until all the dust and cobwebs are gone” or “transcribe this manuscript” with an expectation of reasonable results, while a more open-ended command such as “ﬁx this motorcycle” or “research this Necromantic ritual and write down the results” would be doomed to failure. Bodies energized by this power continue to decay, al-beit at a much slower rate than normal. Zombie Statistics Corpses animated by a necromancer of the Bone Path have Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4, Brawl 2, and always act last in a turn (unless there are mitigating circum-stances). They have zero Willpower points to spend, but resist attacks as if they have Will-power ratings of 10. All Mental and Social ratings are zero for a reanimated corpse, and zombies never attempt to dodge. Zombies' dice pools are not affected by damage, except that caused by ﬁre or the claws and teeth of supernatural creatures. Most zombies have 10 health levels, but they are incapable of healing any damage they suffer. They have no minds or personalities to affect, so they are immune to uses of powers such as Dominate and Presence. Unless otherwise noted, they likewise cannot be usurped from the control of the necromancer invoking them.	disciplinas.pdf
165 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Shambling Hordes Shambling Hordes creates obvious results: reanimat-ed corpses with the ability to attack, albeit neither very well nor very quickly. Once primed by this power, the corpses wait — for years, if necessary — to fulﬁll the command given them. The orders might be to protect a certain site or simply to attack immediately, but they will be carried out until every last one of the decom-posing monsters is destroyed. System: The player spends a point of Willpower. The player then must succeed on a Wits + Occult roll (difﬁculty 8). Each success allows the vampire to raise another corpse from the grave, and costs one blood point. If the player cannot or chooses not to pay the blood point cost of additional zombies past a certain number, the extra successes are simply lost. Each zom-bie can follow one simple instruction, such as “Stay here and guard this graveyard against any intruders,” or “Kill them!” Note: Zombies created by Shambling Hordes will wait forever if need be to fulﬁll their functions. Long after the ﬂesh has rotted off their mystically animated bones, the zombies will wait and wait and wait, still able to perform their duties. Soul Stealing This power affects the living, not the dead. It does, however, temporarily turn a living soul into a sort of wraith, as it allows a necromancer to strip a soul from a living body. A mortal exiled from his body by this power becomes a wraith with a single tie to the real world: his now-empty body. System: The player spends a point of Willpower and then makes a contested Willpower roll against the intended victim (difﬁculty 6). Successes indicate the number of hours during which the original soul is forced out of its housing. The body itself remains auto-nomically alive but catatonic. This power can be used to create suitable hosts for Daemonic Possession. It has no effect on Kindred or other supernatural creatures (except ghouls) until such creatures are dead-in the case of vampires, this means Final Death. Daemonic Possession Daemonic Possession lets a vampire insert a soul into a freshly dead body. This does not turn the reanimated corpse into anything other than a reanimated corpse, one that will irrevocably decay after a week, but it does	disciplinas.pdf
166 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESgive either a wraith or a free-ﬂoating soul (say, that of a vampire using Psychic Projection) a temporary home in the physical world. System: The body in question must be no more than 30 minutes dead, and the new tenant must agree to in-habit it — a ghost or astral form cannot be forced into a new shell. However, most ghosts would gladly seize the opportunity. Should the vampire, for whatever reason, wish to insert a soul into another vampire's corpse (be-fore it crumbles to ash), the necromancer must achieve ﬁve successes on a resisted Willpower roll against the original owner of the body. Otherwise, the interloper is denied entrance. Note: The soul can use whatever physical abilities (Athletics, Brawl, Potence) his new ﬂeshy home pos-sesses, and whatever mental abilities (Computer, Law, Presence) he already possessed. He cannot use the physical abilities of his old form, or the mental abilities of his new one. The Cenotaph Path Practitioners of the Cenotaph Path are primarily concerned with discovering or forging links between the living world and the Shadowlands. It functions on the principle that a Kindred, already a corpse, is an unnatural bridge between the living and the dead, and the necromancer can use this to ﬁnd other, similar linkages. The basic rudiments of the Cenotaph Path function easily enough once the Kindred learns to at-tune himself to these connections. Advanced mastery of the path usually entails some brief ritual to forge ar-tiﬁcial connections, either through focusing unsavory passions or commanding this world and the Shadow-lands together. A Touch of Death Just as a necromancer may exert mastery over the Shadowlands, so too can some ghosts exert them-selves in the mortal world. Whereas obvious displays of ghostly power such as bleeding walls or disembodied moans certainly won't be mistaken, some ghostly abili-ties exert subtle effects that aren't easily recognized. A necromancer sensitized to the residue of the dead, though, can feel whether an object has been touched by a ghost or sense the recent passage of a wraith. System: The necromancer simply touches a person or object that he suspects is a victim of ghostly inﬂuence. The player rolls Perception + Awareness (difﬁculty 6). If successful, the necromancer can determine whether a ghost has exerted any sort of power on the subject, or even crossed nearby, to the duration detailed below. Successes Result 1 success Last turn; detect use of ghostly powers 2 successes Last three turns; detect use of ghostly powers 3 successes Last hour; detect ghost's touch and use of ghostly powers 4 successes Last day; detect ghost's touch and use of ghostly powers 5 successes Last week; detect nearby passage of ghost, ghost's touch, and use of ghostly powers On a failure, the necromancer receives no impres-sions. A botch reveals a misleading answer (an object may seem tinged with ghostly power when it's not, or vice versa). Should the necromancer succeed in detec-tion while touching an object or person that a ghost is possessing, he immediately becomes aware that the ghost is still inside. The impression gained in such a case is sufﬁcient to count as an image of the spirit for purposes of the Sepulchre Path's powers, so the Kin-dred may be able to (for example) immediately com-mand a ghost to exit a person whom it possesses. Reveal the Catene Necromantic compulsions function much more ef-fectively when the caster uses an object of signiﬁcance to the ghost in question. Such fetters tie the dead to the living lands through their remembered importance — a favored recliner for relaxing, a reviled piece of art foisted off by hated relatives, or some object of similarly intense emotion. Many necromancers can detect such catene through the use of rituals (see Ritual of the Un-earthed Fetter, p. 181). With this power, though, the necromancer can determine a fetter with just a few mo-ments of handling. The Kindred simply runs his hands over the object and concentrates on it. He quickly receives an impression of the item's (or person's) im-portance to wraiths, if any; should the wraith be one known to the necromancer, he immediately recognizes the object as a fetter to that (or those) ghost(s). Suc-cessful identiﬁcation of a connected ghost is not exclu-sive; that is, if the vampire determines that the object is important to a given wraith, he can also determine if there are other ghosts tied to the item, though he must use the power again to gain their identities.	disciplinas.pdf
167 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONMany necromancers use this power on objects al-ready identiﬁed with A Touch of Death, in order to determine whether the ghost is trying to attune a given fetter or simply toying with the world of the living. System: The necromancer holds and examines the object for at least three turns — if it's an item, this means turning it over in his hands, running his ﬁn-gers along it, or otherwise giving it a critical eye; with a person, this may require a more... invasive... ex-amination. The player then spends a blood point and rolls Perception + Occult (difﬁculty 7). If successful, the Kindred determines whether the object holds any signiﬁcance to any ghost and, with three or more suc-cesses, the identity of at least one such ghost (which allows the Kindred to use the Sepulchre Path on that wraith, if desired). If the necromancer already knows any of the ghosts involved, their ties are revealed with their identity — so, if the necromancer already knows a wraith well enough to summon and compel it with other powers, successful identiﬁcation of a fetter tells whether the object is tied to that ghost, in addition to any other impressions gained. If a botch is scored, the necromancer can never suc-cessfully use this power on the item being examined. Tread Upon the Grave The extended awareness granted with the Cenotaph Path allows the necromancer to ﬁnd locations where the Shadowlands and the living world come close. Often, the necromancer experiences a chill or shiver when stepping into an area where the Underworld lies near the living one. With practice, the vampire can tell exactly where such locations are. Experienced necromancers learn that certain loca-tions are susceptible to ghostly inﬂuence; these haunt-ed areas often become homes of a sort for ghosts. A knowledgeable vampire can thus discover places where the dead are likely to congregate, the better to snare them with other Necromancy powers. System: The player simply declares intent to sense the Shroud in an area and makes a Willpower roll (difﬁculty 8). Success reveals whether the location is highly attuned to the Shadowlands, about average (not particularly close to the world of the dead), or far re-moved from the realm of death. A failing attempt at using the power has no adverse effect, though it may be attempted only once per scene (so the necromancer must either wait for a time or move to a different area before attempting Tread Upon the Grave once more). A botch stuns the necromancer into inaction for a full turn and costs him a temporary Willpower point, as he is overcome by shivers and a sense of overwhelming despair. With three or more successes, the necromancer can determine whether the Shroud's strength has been ar-tiﬁcially altered in the area. Death Knell Not all who die go on to become ghosts — many lack the drive to hang on after death or simply have no overwhelming needs that compel them to stick around. Normally, even necromancers have no way to sort those who might become ghosts from the masses who go on to whatever rewards await. Over time, though, a necromancer can become sensitized to the pull that oc-curs when a soul escapes from a body only to hover in wait, enslaved by its desires. The weight of desperation becomes like a tangible tug, and some necromancers savor this emotion even as they follow the sensation to ﬁnd the new ghost. Of course, actually discovering the new ghost can be problematic. The Kindred may need some means to see through the Shroud or may have to send other wraiths to look for the new unfortunate, especially if a large accident or massacre leaves too many corpses for the necromancer to easily discern and test names. System: Whenever someone dies and becomes a ghost within a half-mile or kilometer of the necroman-cer, she automatically senses the demise (though many choose to ignore this “always-on” power unless actively seeking someone). This power does not automatically pinpoint the location of the new ghost or identify it, but the player may spend one Willpower point and roll Perception + Occult (difﬁculty 7) for the necromancer to gain a vague sense of the distance and direction to the new wraith. With one success, the Kindred may sense a vague pull in a general direction; with three successes, the necromancer can sense the direction and guess distance to within a quarter-mile or half a kilo-meter. With ﬁve successes, the necromancer immedi-ately senses the location of the new ghost to within one foot or 30 cm. A failure carries no penalty but a botched attempt sends the necromancer scurrying off in the wrong direction. The Storyteller may rule that disturbances in the Underworld, intervening magic, or other similar phe-nomena cloud this sensation, simply to prevent over-burdening a chronicle with constant ghost-hunting and dice rolling.	disciplinas.pdf
168 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Ephemeral Binding The most puissant necromancers learn not only to sense the ties between living and dead, but to forge such ties themselves. The master of Ephemeral Bind-ing turns an otherwise mundane object or person into a depository for his own necromantic energy. The undy-ing Curse transforms the subject into a sort of linkage between the living and dead. The necromancer smears his blood on the item in question, which mystically ab-sorbs the vitae and, in doing so, becomes a vessel to anchor a spirit. System: The necromancer must coat an object with his blood (a full blood point's worth); if the subject is a person, then that individual must ingest the vitae. The player marks off the blood point, spends a point of Willpower, and rolls Manipulation + Occult (dif-ﬁculty 8). If successful, the item temporarily becomes a fetter to one wraith. If the Kindred already knows the name of the wraith or has a strong psychic impres-sion, then the object can become a fetter at any range, even to a ghost who normally does not come near the living world (so long as the ghost still exists). Other-wise, the necromancer must be able to see or sense the ghost (with Witness of Death, Shroudsight, or other such means). A fetter artiﬁcially created in this fashion functions for all necromantic and ghostly purposes as a normal fetter: It can be detected with other Necromancy pow-ers, the vampire gains a bonus to Necromancy against the wraith attuned to it, and the ghost similarly ﬁnds exertion of its powers easier upon the subject (so the vampire might turn an unwitting ghoul into a consort for a wraith familiar with possession... ). The ghost can sink into the fetter to heal; conversely, if the fetter is destroyed, the wraith is banished to some inaccessible region of the Underworld, perhaps never to return. A fetter created with Ephemeral Binding lasts for one night per success scored. The expenditure of an ad-ditional point of Willpower increases this duration to a week per success, whereas spending a permanent dot of Willpower extends the duration to a year and a day. Botching with this power not only causes failure but also makes the ghost immediately aware of what the necromancer was trying to do. Most ghosts do not take kindly to meddling Kindred trying to make artiﬁcial chains for them. The Corpse in the Monster This path enhances the necromantic understanding of the unliving form and allows the user to fully experi-ence the corpse as a gateway between life and death. The path lets the vampire apply some of a corpse's traits to a vampire, and she can enhance or reduce these traits at various levels of the power. Whither Mortis? Lost Clans and bloodlines, such as the Cap-padocians and the Lamia, had access to an ancient Discipline known as Mortis. Some Kindred scholars claim that Mortis and Nec-romancy are distinct Disciplines, but for ease the three Mortis paths presented in this book are listed as Necromancy paths. The Cappa-docians (see p. 418) specialized in either the Corpse in the Monster or the Grave's Decay, while the Lamia (see p. 422) generally took the Path of the Four Humors as their primary path. Rumors are that the Harbingers of Skulls (see p. 402) in the Sabbat have relearned the Corpse in the Monster and the Grave's Decay, claiming them collectively as the “Mortuus Path,” but they still tend to follow most mod-ern necromancers and choose Sepulchre Path as their primary path before learning Grave's Decay or the Corpse in the Monster. Masque of Death The character with this ability can assume a visage of death or inﬂict that shape on another vampire. The victim's ﬂesh becomes pallid and thin (if it is not al-ready), and skin pulls tight against bone. This ability can be very useful, as it allows one to hide in plain sight in a tomb or crypt at any time (though the character remains as vulnerable to sunlight and ﬁre as ever). When a necromancer uses this power on another Kin-dred, the victim gains the same corpselike demeanor. In this sense, the ability works as something of a minor curse. System: The player spends one blood point for the character to gain the form described. Those afﬂicted	disciplinas.pdf
169 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONwith the Masque of Death lose two points of Dexter-ity and Appearance (minimum of 1 in Dexterity and 0 in Appearance) for the duration of the power. The player also gets two extra dice to his Intimidation dice pool, should he wish to terrify any onlookers. Further, if the character remains perfectly still, observers must roll ﬁve successes on a Perception + Medicine roll (dif-ﬁculty 7) to distinguish the character from a normal corpse. The player doesn't need to roll anything to have the character stop moving — vampires have no autonomic functions. If the user inﬂicts Masque of Death on another vam-pire, he must spend a blood point, touch the target, and then make a Stamina + Medicine roll (difﬁculty equal to the target's Stamina + 3). The Masque of Death lasts until the next sunset, unless the character who created the masque wishes to extinguish its effects earlier. Cold of the Grave The dead feel no pain, though most undead do. With this ability, the character can temporarily take on the unfeeling semblance of the dead, in order to protect herself from physical and emotional harm. When as-suming the Cold of the Grave, the vampire's skin be-comes unusually cold. When she speaks, her breath mists even in warm air — those with exceptional sens-es might even see a slight red tinge to the breath. The power brings a sense of lethargy over the char-acter, as a mortal might feel under the inﬂuence of a mildly unpleasant disease. It becomes difﬁcult to rouse oneself to action, and very little seems important enough to really worry about. A corpse has no worries, after all. System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the remainder of the scene, the character takes no wound penalties, and the player gains an additional die to all dice pools that involve resisting emotional ma-nipulation, such as Intimidation or Empathy. However, the player also loses a die from dice pools to emotion-ally manipulate others. The character is a cold ﬁsh to those she interacts with, and they do not respond read-ily to her. The Cold of the Grave does not protect the character against the depredations of the Beast. She may be emotionally cold on the surface, but if others taunt and anger her sufﬁciently, she is still subject to frenzy as normal. Curse of Life The Curse of Life inﬂicts some of the undesirable traits of the living upon the undead, removing their corpselike nature and creating a false life to remind them of the worst things about being alive. Targets of this power regain only the unpleasant aspects of life, as culled from the memory of the Discipline's user. This may include mundane hunger and thirst, sweat and other excretions, the need to urinate and defecate, a decrease in sensory acuity, and a particular vulnerabil-ity to attacks that the character might normally shrug off. System: The player spends one Willpower and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difﬁculty 8) to affect a target within line of sight and no farther than 20 yards or me-ters from the character. If the roll succeeds, the target suffers the weaknesses of the living without gaining any beneﬁt from that state. He does not become immune to sunlight or holy artifacts, for instance. However, he does become badly distracted by mundane needs, with the net result that his player suffers a +2 difﬁculty pen-alty to all rolls. He can ignore these distractions at the cost of one Willpower point per scene. Additionally, the victim cannot use blood to raise his Physical At-tributes while this power is in effect, and Willpower cannot eliminate this penalty. The power remains in effect until the next sunset. Gift of the Corpse This power, one of the most potent on the Corpse in the Monster path, enables a necromancer to ignore most of her race's inherent weaknesses for a short time. A dead body is not particularly vulnerable to sunlight, holy artifacts, frenzy, or being staked through the heart, after all, and so it is with a vampire using the Gift of the Corpse. As with the Cold of the Grave, above, the character using this power takes on an even more deathlike mien. It lasts for less than a minute, typical-ly, but that time may be enough to enable a character to charge through a burning building without fearing frenzy or instant death. System: The player spends one Willpower and rolls Stamina + Occult (difﬁculty 8). For every success, the character can spend one turn in a state in which he is more akin to an animated corpse than a vampire. Holy artifacts and sanctiﬁed ground have no effect, and the character is immune to frenzy and Rötschreck. Sun-light does only bashing damage, and then only if bare skin is exposed on a clear day. Being staked through the heart is only as much of a danger as getting stabbed through his dead spleen would be. Fire harms him only as it would a mortal — causing lethal damage instead of aggravated.	disciplinas.pdf
170 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESShould the character end the power's duration while exposed to any of the aforementioned harmful things, he immediately takes their full effect. If he is staked, he become immobilized; if he is on or near ﬁre, he begins to take the damage a Cainite should take, and he must immediately roll against Rötschreck. Gift of Life With the Gift of Life, the character can experience the best and most positive things about being alive. The overwhelming hunger for blood temporarily abates, al-lowing the character to consume and enjoy food and drink. She can also enjoy sex as she wishes, and the sun does not burn her. The Gift of Life comes with a dark, terrible cost, however. Its use is almost sure to result in the death of a mortal, as the vampire must expend an enormous quantity of vitae in order to initiate it. The Discipline's effects last until the midnight after the character uses the power, so it is in her best interests to use it just after midnight. System: The player spends 12 blood points, burning as much blood as possible each turn until she meets that level. She then rolls Stamina + Occult (difﬁculty 6) and needs only one success for the power to work. A botch has catastrophic effects. The character might be instantly killed or might inadvertently Embrace her victim, for example. If it takes longer than one turn to spend the necessary blood to enact this ability, it does not take effect until all 12 points have been spent. However, the blood must be spent continuously — the vampire cannot burn ﬁve, run off and feed, then burn seven more an hour later. On the other hand, she may feed as she activates the power — in one turn she might burn one blood point while drinking three. Since few Kindred above the Seventh Generation can easily ex-pend such an amount of blood, the most efﬁcient way to activate this power is to have a human nearby who can be sacriﬁced to power the transformation. After her transformation, the character gains many traits of an ordinary human. She is largely immune to the scorching effects of the sun (Fortitude difﬁculties to soak damage from direct sunlight are halved, and she takes no damage if she is sufﬁciently covered), and she can experience and enjoy many of the ﬁne things about human life. She retains a few of her vampiric beneﬁts, however. Fortitude and Auspex abilities re-main in place if she has either of those Disciplines, and the Storyteller may allow her to retain other Disciplines as well if he deems them dramatically appropriate. She also retains a vampire's beneﬁts when it comes to han-dling bashing damage. However, she is still vulnerable	disciplinas.pdf
171 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONto holy artifacts, human faith, and being staked. Her blood remains vitae, not human blood. Use of this abil-ity — which creates a mockery of human life — may interfere with a character's Path advancement, at the Storyteller's discretion. The vampire is no more vulnerable to ﬁre than any other mortal while in this half-alive state, but she still suffers somewhat from the Beast. Frenzy and Rötschreck difﬁculties are halved (round up). She can remain ac-tive during the day without Humanity or Path-based dice pool caps, although she is certainly tired during the day, since that is not her usual time of activity. Her Beast exacts a dangerous retribution when her day of “life” is done. Although its inﬂuence is greatly suppressed during this power's duration, the Beast has its way with the vampire for the next six nights, as all difﬁculties to resist frenzy increase by three. The wise necromancer hides herself away somewhere during that period, but, depending on morality and tempera-ment, enforced isolation might drive her to frenzy on its own. The Grave's Decay This path is derived from the observation of the working of time on all things mortal. Stone crumbles and the corpse rots away to nothing, a process of end-less fascination to the lost Cainites known as Cappa-docians. Indeed, for the undying, the process of decay is a fascinating disease that afﬂicts everyone and ev-erything save them. Under this path, a practitioner of Necromancy channels that force. Destroy the Husk Cainites who kill their victims, rather than just feed-ing upon them, frequently ﬁnd themselves in need of a quick way to dispose of a corpse. While there are many ways to make sure that a corpse is not found — feed it to a pack of hounds or weigh it down and throw it in a river — many of these methods do involve risk to the vampire and are not guaranteed to succeed. Destroy the Husk, by contrast, is foolproof. Use of this power simply turns one human corpse to a pile of about 30 pounds (13 kilograms) of unremarkable dust, roughly the size and shape of that body. System: The player spends one blood point as the vampire drips her vitae onto the corpse. The player then rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difﬁculty 6). One success is all that is needed to render the corpse into dust, although the process takes a number of turns equal to ﬁve minus the successes. Rigor Mortis One of the ﬁrst changes that comes over a dead body is rigidity; the corpse becomes stiff as a board, frozen in a single pose. The Cainite who wields Rigor Mortis is able to push a living or undead body to that frozen point using only his will and understanding of the forc-es of decay. She forces her target to become rigid and unable to move without enormous effort of will, as his very muscles betray him. System: The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difﬁculty 7). Each suc-cess freezes the target in place for one turn. A failure simply indicates the loss of the Willpower point, while a botch renders the target immune to powers in the Grave's Decay path for the next 24 hours. The target must be visible and within about 25 yards or meters for this ability to take effect. A frozen target is treated as though he has been staked (see p. 280). With a Will-power roll (difﬁculty 7) and two successes, the target can break out of the rigor on her turn. Failure causes her a level of bashing damage and means another turn wasted and frozen. Wither Reminiscent of some of the powers of Vicissitude, Wither allows a vampire to cripple an opponent's limb. Whether the foe is living or undead, muscle shrivels away, skin peels, and bone becomes brittle. The tar-get is unable to exert any noteworthy strength in the crippled limb. This injury lasts for far longer than most injuries trouble vampires, and in mortals it simply does not heal. Wither doesn't have to be used on a limb, although that is its usual purpose. It can also be used simply to affect the target's face and hair, making him appear far older than his years. It could also be applied to a tar-get's eye or ear, killing the sense in that organ (and thus requiring two uses to permanently blind or deaf-en). Wither cannot be used as an “instant-kill” power — necromancers cannot wither internal organs — but it can inﬂict a wide variety of injuries on a foe. System: The player spends a Willpower point. The character chooses a limb on the target and then touch-es that limb. If the target is trying to avoid contact, the invoker's player rolls Dexterity + Brawl to hit as nor-mal. If the character succeeds in touching the intended limb, the target suffers two aggravated wounds. Unless the target soaks both wounds (such as with Fortitude), the struck limb is crippled and unusable until both of those wounds have healed. Kindred heal the wounds as	disciplinas.pdf
172 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESthey would any other aggravated wound (see p. 285). Mortals are incapable of healing aggravated wounds, so they suffer throughout their lives unless they are healed through supernatural means. A withered limb does not degenerate further, even on a mortal. The character may be crippled for life, but the limb won't become infected or gangrenous. The effects of the withering depend on the affected limb. A crippled arm has a Strength of 0, cannot ben-eﬁt from Potence, and cannot carry anything heavier than about half a pound (200 grams). A crippled leg prevents the character from moving faster than a stut-tering hop or dragging limp. The character suffers the effects of the Lame Flaw (see p. 482). A single withered eye or ear imposes a +1 difﬁculty to relevant Perception rolls. Losing both eyes or both ears imposes the effects of the Blind or Deaf Flaws (see pp. 484 and 483). A withered tongue imposes the effects of the Mute Flaw (p. 483), while a withered face reduces the target's Ap-pearance by one for each aggravated wound suffered. Corrupt the Undead Flesh Corrupt the Undead Flesh blurs the line between life and undeath, turning an undead creature into some-thing just living enough to carry and suffer from dis-ease. The disease inﬂicts the target, causing lethargy, dizziness, loss of strength, clumsiness, and the inabil-ity to keep blood in his system. This pernicious inﬂu-ence is extremely virulent among mortals. They pick the disease up simply by spending a few hours near the victim. Other vampires have a harder time acquiring the disease. They must consume the victim's blood to do so, but afterward, they suffer just as much as the original target — including passing the afﬂiction on to others. The disease fades after roughly a week. System: The player chooses a target within her character's line of sight and no more than 20 yards or meters away. She rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difﬁ-culty 6) and spends a point of Willpower. The victim's player must roll Stamina (+ Fortitude, if appropriate) against a difﬁculty equal to the attacker's Willpower. If the player scores more successes than the victim, he ac-quires a virulent disease immediately. The disease has the following effects: The victim's Strength and Wits are halved (round down). The victim loses one point of Dexterity. The victim's player must spend one additional blood point every evening for the vampire to rouse himself to consciousness. Mortals lose one health level per day instead. The victim's player must roll Self-Control or In-stinct each time the character feeds (difﬁculty 8). On a failure, the vampire cannot keep the blood he just ingested inside his body, and he vomits it up in great horrifying gouts of gore, losing any beneﬁt the blood might have provided. Humans vomit up food. Every evening at sunset, the victim has a chance to throw off the plague. The victim's player rolls Stamina, with a difﬁculty equal to 10 minus the number of sun-sets since acquiring the plague. On a successful roll, the character ﬁghts the disease to a standstill and begins to recover. He instantly regains his ability to manage blood, and he heals back one lost Attribute point per hour until all have returned. Dissolve the Flesh This ability brings the Grave's Decay path full circle, as it causes Destroy the Husk to apply to vampires. Dis-solve the Flesh allows a necromancer to attempt to turn vampiric ﬂesh to dust or ash, as though the target had been burned or left out in the sun. System: The player spends two blood points and a Willpower point as the vampire extracts a quantity of her vitae charged with the power of the grave. If she drips it onto a single Kindred victim anytime within the next few turns (most of the blood must reach the victim, so ﬂinging a few drops is ineffective), it causes whole chunks of the victim's body to crumble to ash. The player rolls Willpower against a difﬁculty of the victim's Stamina + 3. For every success, the target takes one aggravated wound. The undead ﬂesh damaged by this power turns to dust (gone for the time being), and it must be regen-erated painstakingly by the victim, should he survive. That dust doubtlessly has mystical properties that vari-ous sorcerers might be able to take advantage of. Every wound inﬂicted by this ability represents the loss of about one-eighth of the target's weight; the Storyteller chooses where the loss comes from. (It might also be shed from all over, leaving the victim a bit gaunter or missing chunks of ﬂesh. ) Regenerating body parts occurs naturally while heal-ing aggravated wounds at the normal rate (see p. 285).	disciplinas.pdf
173 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONPath of the Four Humors Philosophically, the four humors represent different qualities, split along two axes: hot and cold, and wet and dry. Blood is hot and wet; phlegm is cold and wet; yellow bile is hot and dry; and black bile is cold and dry. Historically, when a mortal was out of sorts or ill, it was said that his humors were out of balance, and a philoso-pher or physician would try to heal him by bringing his humors back into balance. Ancient necromancers be-lieved that in their undead forms, all four humors were held in a mystical stasis, and that they could tap into all four of them instead of merely tapping into blood in the form of vitae as other vampires did. This antiquated path was primarily considered the knowledge of the Lamia bloodline, and certainly very few necromancers have learned this path without tu-toring from a Lamia. Since the loss of the Lamia, elder necromancers have searched everywhere (both in this world and the next) for clues to its existence. Whispers to the Soul The necromancer with this ability can let slip a little of her own undead bilious humor as she speaks to an-other being (whether mortal or Kindred). The wicked vapor slips into the target's ear and whispers night-mares to the target throughout the day and night. The target has a harder time sleeping, and becomes irritable and distracted during his waking hours. System: The character must whisper the target's name (as she knows it) into his ear. The victim rolls Willpower (difﬁculty 8). If the roll fails, the victim suf-fers from nightmares and hears mad, wicked mutter-ings while awake, for a number of full days equal to the necromancer's Manipulation. The victim loses one die from all dice pools while thus afﬂicted, and at the Sto-ryteller's discretion, the difﬁculty to resist Rötschreck may be increased by one at the same time. Kiss of the Dark Mother Kiss of the Dark Mother allows the necromancer who uses it to mix her vitae with black bile, turning it into a noxious poison. The necromancer forces it into her mouth as saliva might once have come; the vitae tastes acrid and bitter, as though it had been scorched. Once the necromancer coats her teeth and lips with it, she can inﬂict terrible damage with her bite. System: The player spends one blood point; activat-ing this power is a reﬂexive action, but it must be done before making a bite attack. If the bite hits, the aggra-vated damage inﬂicted by a single bite is doubled be-fore soak is calculated. This power does not affect the character's ability to drain blood from the target, nor does it increase the amount of damage done by blood loss. The necromancer's bite remains potent until this ability is discharged by a successful hit or she spends one turn cleansing the dark blood from her mouth. Dark Humors The vampire can exude a coat of a particular humor onto her skin, causing all that touch it to experience the most intense form of that humor. After a necro-mancer has used this power, she generally feels the opposite of the sensation the humor usually conveys: Using blood leaves her depressed and pessimistic; using yellow bile renders her calm and placid; using black bile leaves her optimistic; and using phlegm makes her aroused and angry. System: The player spends two blood points. The necromancer chooses which humor she wishes to ex-crete. The humor can simply coat the skin — in which case touching the victim's skin lets the humor take ef-fect — or it can act as a poison if placed in a bever-age (or in vitae). The victim must make a Stamina roll (difﬁculty 8) to resist the effects of the humor: Phlegm: Target becomes lethargic; all dice pools are reduced by two for the remainder of the scene. Blood (vitae): Target becomes prone to excessive bleeding, and any lethal or aggravated wounds he suf-fers deal an additional health level of damage on the turn after they originally occur. Vitae altered by Dark Humors will not turn a human into a ghoul if ingested, nor will it initiate a blood bond. Black Bile: Target suffers a number of health levels of damage equal to the necromancer's Stamina. This damage is considered lethal and can be soaked (if the victim is normally capable of soaking such damage), though armor does not protect against it. Yellow Bile: Target becomes melancholic and is plagued with visions of death. He cannot spend Will-power for the remainder of the scene, and all Willpow-er rolls receive a +2 difﬁculty. Clutching the Shroud Blood, the sanguine humor, was regarded by philoso-phers as being both hot and wet. Blood from a cold corpse has been transubstantiated into a dead form — a cold incarnation of a hot, wet element. This trans-formation of the living into death holds great power; the necromancer knows how to infuse her own being with the blood of a cold corpse and transform herself	disciplinas.pdf
174 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESinto something not wholly vampiric. Instead, the nec-romancer edges closer to being an animated corpse in fact as well as name. She grows distant and chill, as though possessed by the spirit of Death itself; she has to work to push her attention into the physical world. System: The character must drink, and then spend, ﬁve blood points from a cold corpse (one dead for 24 hours or more, but generally less than three days). It will generally take at least two turns to consume that blood, and the power is not activated until the char-acter can spend all of it. For example, if the character is Twelfth Generation, Clutching the Shroud takes at least seven turns total to activate (two to consume the blood and ﬁve to spend it). After the power is active and for the rest of the scene, the necromancer gains several beneﬁts. First, she re-ceives two additional soak dice, which may be used to soak any sort of damage, even if the character does not possess Fortitude. Second, she gains a mystic sense of how far those in the area are from death — whether they are healthy or inﬁrm, suffer from diseases, or are undead, ghouls, or mortals. Finally, a Manipulation + Occult roll lets her speak with ghosts freely. The dif-ﬁculty for this roll depends on how attuned to death a locale is; a cemetery would be difﬁculty 5, while a cozy apartment might be difﬁculty 7. However, this ability makes the necromancer much more susceptible to the effects of powers used by ghosts, which means that she must act carefully. Black Breath A necromancer who has mastered this path can har-ness the undead black bile that festers at the core of her being; she pulls that melancholy to her lungs and lets it mingle with her outgoing breath. She then exhales the dark mist, letting it engulf those nearby. The necro-mancer feels curiously lightheaded and optimistic after using this power, as she has forced some of her most depressed nature out into the world; those caught in the black vapors grow despairing and hopeless. System: The player spends one Willpower and one blood point, and rolls Stamina + Athletics (difﬁculty 7). Black Breath allows the character to exhale a dark cloud of vapor that is ﬁve yards or meters in diameter per success rolled. Those caught in the mists may attempt a Dexterity + Athletics roll to escape it if they have an available action; otherwise, they may be overwhelmed by depression to the point of suicide. Those who can-not escape the mists must immediately roll Willpower (difﬁculty 8 for mortals, 7 for supernatural beings) and achieve more successes than the invoker did. Mortals who fail in this actively attempt to kill themselves on their next turn. They do not attempt such ludicrous suicides as praying for a lightning bolt or holding their breath; they use the most effective means at hand to end their own lives. If prevented from suicide, they at-tempt it again as soon as an opportunity presents itself. This impulse lasts for the rest of the scene, and the Sto-ryteller may impose ﬂare-ups over the next day or so at his discretion. Those who succeed on the Willpower roll still become enchanted with the prospect of death, whether mortal or Kindred, and lose two dice from all dice pools for the rest of the scene. Kindred who fail the Willpower roll do not attempt suicide; as they are already dead, the malign inﬂuences of undead humors do not have as strong an effect on them. Instead, the affected vampire sinks into torpor. The duration of this torpor is based on the vampire's Humanity or Path rating, just as if lethal wounds had forced him into it. Vitreous Path The Vitreous Path allows a necromancer to control and inﬂuence the energies pertaining to death. This extremely rare path manipulates entropy, a force that even most necromancers are uncomfortable harness-ing. A development of the Nagaraja bloodline (p. 406, although they sometimes call the path “Nihilistics”), the Vitreous Path makes a formidable complement to the necromantic craft, and those obsessed with mas-tery over death and souls — such as the Harbingers of Skulls — would certainly risk much to uncover this path's secrets. Like most necromancers, Nagaraja generally learn the Sepulchre Path before any others. The Vitreous Path is usually their second focus of study. Eyes of the Dead The necromancer employing the Eyes of the Dead can see with the perceptions of the Restless Dead (called Deathsight). To such a manipulator of ghostly energies, the auras of surrounding beings give off tell-tale hints as to their health and even their ultimate fate; the necromancer can see the energies of death ﬂowing through everyone, just as ghosts can. By look-ing at the entropic markings on a person's body, the necromancer can gain rough knowledge of how far that person is from death, how soon that person is likely to die, and even what the cause of her death is likely to	disciplinas.pdf
175 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONbe. The information thus gained is not exact by any means, but it gives the necromancer an edge over those she scrutinizes. System: The player rolls Perception + Occult, dif-ﬁculty 6. One success lets a necromancer determine whether someone is injured, diseased, or dying, as well as whether the individual labors under any sort of curse or baleful magic. Further, the vampire can divine the target's eventual demise, depending on the successes scored. One suc-cess means the character can guess how long the tar-get has to live to within a few weeks. Three successes means the character can estimate how long the target has to live and what the probable source of death will be, as the entropic markings show the wounds that will someday exist on that person. Five successes means the character can actually see where and when the event will occur by interpreting the black marks on the tar-get's soul. This ability lasts for one scene, though the necro-mancer may choose to end the power early. It can be used to read the fate of only one target at a time. Story-tellers should exercise judgment with this power, since the markings of death are typically unavoidable. He may decide to roll the dice himself, so that the player has no way of knowing whether her insight is correct. Aura of Decay The necromancer can strengthen the feeling of en-tropy around her to the point where it breaks down nonliving objects and machines. It can gnarl wood, rust metal, crack silicon chips, and erode plastic, glass, and dead organic material. This power has a range of one yard or meter from the necromancer's body, but all those in the presence of the vampire can feel her cor-ruption as an icy wind. System: No roll is required, but this power does cost at least one blood point. Objects subjected to this Aura of Decay break down and become useless after being targeted. How the object gives out, as well as the exact mechanism of failure, is up to the Storyteller. Corro-sion, metal fatigue, or sheer brittleness are all suitably likely for any given item's demise, but the in-game ef-fect of using a doomed item is as if the owning charac-ter rolled a botch. The speed at which an item breaks down depends on how many blood points are spent. Blood Spent Time to Breakdown One One week Two One day Three End of scene Four Five turns Five One turn Note that since this power requires the expenditure of blood points, a character cannot cause an Aura of Decay while staked. Soul Feast Just as the necromancer can release entropic ener-gies from within, she may also pull them into herself as a source of power. Soul Feasting allows the caster to either draw on the ambient death energies around her or to actively feed on a ghost, stealing the wraith's substance and mystically transforming that energy into sustenance. System: The player spends one Willpower point to allow the vampire to feed on the negative energies of the dead. If the character is drawing the energies from the atmosphere, she must be in a place where death has occurred within the hour or in a place where death is common, such as a cemetery, a morgue, or the scene of a recent murder. Generally, the necromancer can draw anywhere from one to four points of entropy from such a location, although the difﬁculty in using all Nec-romancy and similar deathly powers within the area increases by an equal amount for a number of nights equal to the points taken. The energies of such an area may only be drained once until the area's entropy re-plenishes. In cases when the necromancer feeds on a ghost, the vampire must actually attack the wraith as if feeding normally. Wraiths have up to 10 “blood points” that may be taken from them, and they become less and less substantial as their spirit essence drains away. The character is vulnerable to any attack the ghost might make, even those that do not normally affect the phys-ical world; while feeding, the vampire is essentially in a half-state, existing in both the living lands and the Underworld simultaneously. The wraith so attacked is considered immobilized and cannot run or escape un-less it can defeat the vampire in a resisted Willpower roll (difﬁculty 6 for both sides). This power may also be used in conjunction with Ash Path Necromancy, allowing the vampire to drain power (though not sus-tenance) from ghosts while traveling in the lands of the dead. This soul energy may be used just like blood in ev-ery respect except for when the vampire rises for the	disciplinas.pdf
176 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESnight. It can activate Disciplines, heal wounds, boost Attributes, etc. Botching this power renders the vam-pire unable to feed through the Shroud for the rest of the night. However, she remains susceptible to the as-saults of ghosts and spirits for several turns (generally, a number of turns equal to the amount of energy that could have been drawn from the area, or one turn if at-tacking a ghost) as she hovers between worlds, unable to function effectively in either. Breath of Thanatos The Breath of Thanatos allows the necromancer to draw out entropic energy and focus it upon an area or person by taking a deep breath and then forcefully exhaling a fog of necromantic energy. This cloud of virulence is completely invisible to anyone without the ability to see the passing of entropy. The energy of this cloud is like a beacon for Spectres, and they are drawn to the entropic force like moths to a ﬂame. Once the energy is pulled from the necromancer's body, she can either disperse it over a large area as a lure for Spectres, or use the mist for more sinister pur-poses. Channeled into an object or person, the death-mist inﬂicts the subject with a debilitating, wasting ill-ness. Furthermore, the focused energies are tainted and eerie, and though generally invisible (except to powers such as Aura Perception), they tend to cause people and animals to feel uncomfortable around the victim. System: The player spends one blood point and rolls Willpower (difﬁculty 8). Only one success is needed to draw out the Breath of Thanatos. If dispersed to sum-mon Spectres, the energies cover roughly one-quarter of a mile (400 meters) in radius, centered around the necromancer. The range increases by an additional one-quarter mile or 400 meters for every additional blood point expended. Spectres summoned with this power will ignore the summoning necromancer for the duration of the pow-er unless provoked, but may well go out of their way to wreak havoc on anyone else in the vicinity. The necromancer can then use other Necromancy powers (such as those in the Sepulchre Path) to manipulate and affect these Spectres. Ghosts so targeted may then interact with the necromancer as normal, although the other Spectres in the area will continue to ignore both the vampire and the targeted ghost. This energy dis-perses after a scene, after which the Spectres leave to ﬁnd new prey. Mechanics for Spectres can be found on p. 385. If the cloud is directed toward a particular target, the necromancer must either touch the target or direct the stream of entropy using Dexterity + Occult (difﬁculty 7). A target laden with entropy suffers one (and only one) level of aggravated damage; this generally mani-fests as sudden illness or decay. The target's social dif-ﬁculties while interacting with those unfamiliar with the touch of death — most normal humans, as well as some supernatural creatures — increase by 2. Further-more, supernatural perceptions indicate the target is tainted with decay, which can be dangerous. This form of taint lasts until sunrise; a victim already plagued by this power cannot be affected again until the previous fog of entropy has dispersed. A botch on the roll to control this power indicates that the vampire has turned the energy upon himself, and suffers all the effects of the vitriolic breath. This inﬂicts the usual injury and may subject the necroman-cer to the possibly dangerous attention of provoked Spectres and other creatures from beyond the grave. Night Cry The breath of entropic energy becomes a scream of pure chaos. The necromancer can issue an unearthly cry (heard both in the living world and in the Shadowlands). The howl pours icy oblivion into a target or group of targets — either sweeping away the inherent entropy or collecting that destruction and unleashing it. System: The vampire chooses a number of targets within one yard or meter per dot of Necromancy and invokes Night Cry with a terrible scream. The player spends a Willpower point and a blood point for each target beyond the ﬁrst. (In other words, she spends no blood if only going after one target, or one blood for two targets. Generational blood limits apply, and the vampire may not “pre-spend” blood prior to using Night Cry. ) The player then chooses whether the vampire will aid or harm the targets, and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difﬁculty 6). If she chooses to aid the target or targets, each success gives each affected target a-2 difﬁculty modiﬁer to all of his actions for one turn per success. If she instead chooses harm, each success causes an aggra-vated wound to each target. Targets may be any kind of living creature, including supernatural ones. No matter the result, the Night Cry is heard on both sides of the Shroud, attracting the attention of anyone nearby. On a botch, the necromancy may summon un-ruly ghosts or Spectres, similar to Breath of Thanatos	disciplinas.pdf
177 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION(although the ghosts are under no compulsion to ig-nore the necromancer... ). Necromantic Rituals The rituals connected with Necromancy are a hodge-podge lot. Some have direct relations to the paths, while others seem to have been taught by ghosts themselves, for whatever twisted reason. All beginning necroman-cers gain one Level One ritual automatically, but any others learned must be gained through in-game play. Necromantic rituals are otherwise identical to Thau-maturgy rituals (pp. 230-240) and are learned in similar fashion, though the two are not at all compatible. System: Casting times for necromantic rituals vary widely; see the description for particulars. The player rolls Intelligence + Occult (difﬁculty 3 + the level of the ritual, maximum 9). Success indicates the ritual proceeds smoothly, failure produces no effect, and a botch indicates something has gone horribly wrong. Level One Rituals Call of the Hungry Dead Call of the Hungry Dead takes only 10 minutes to cast and requires a hair from the target's head. The rit-ual climaxes with the burning of that hair in the ﬂame of a black candle, after which the victim becomes able to hear snatches of conversation from across the Shroud. If the target is not prepared, the voices come as a confusing welter of howls and unearthly demands; he is unable to make out anything intelligible, and may go brieﬂy mad. Eldritch Beacon Eldritch Beacon takes 15 minutes to cast. The mate-rial component is a green candle, the melted wax from which must be collected and molded into a half-inch (1. 5 cm) sphere. Whoever carries this sphere, whether in his hand or in a pocket, is highlighted in the Shad-owlands with a sickly-glowing green-white aura. All ghostly powers affect this individual with greater ease and severity. The sphere retains its power for one hour per success on the casting roll. Insight This ritual allows a necromancer to stare into the eyes of a corpse and see reﬂected there the last thing the dead man witnessed. The vision appears only in the eyes of the cadaver and is visible to no one ex-cept the necromancer using Insight. The player rolls as normal as the vampire stares into the target's eyes for ﬁve minutes. The number of successes on the roll determines the clarity of the vision. A botch shows the necromancer his own Final Death, which can provoke a Rötschreck roll (see p. 299). This power cannot be used on the corpses of vampires who have reached Golconda, or on bodies in which both eyes are missing or advanced decomposition has already occurred. Successes Result 1 success A basic sense of the subject's death 2 successes A clear image of the subject's death and the seconds preceding it 3 successes A clear image, with sound, of the minutes preceding death 4 successes A clear image, with sound, of the half-hour before the subject's demise 5 successes Full sensory perception of the hour leading up to the target's death Knowing Stone By use of her own blood and the proper rituals, a necromancer can mark a person's spirit, allowing the vampire to see where her subject is at any time, even after he has died. In this fashion many of the spirit-haunted vampires keep tabs on their close kin and their enemies. The necromancer cuts her skin or otherwise bleeds herself, and then uses the vitae to paint the name of the target on a consecrated stone. If the ritual is suc-cessful, she can afterward learn the target's current whereabouts by dancing around the stone in a trance state until one of the spirits whispers the desired infor-mation into her ear. The stone loses its powers on the night of All Saints Day unless the vampire spends a blood point. Minestra di Morte The necromancer obtains a piece of a dead body and simmers it in a pot with half a quart (or half a liter) of vampiric vitae. To this stew, the necromancer adds rosemary (for remembrance), basil (the funerary herb), and salt (the alchemic principle of clariﬁcation). After bringing the concoction to a full boil, the necromancer eats it. If the roll to activate this ritual is successful, the character discovers whether the subject of the grisly	disciplinas.pdf
178 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESrite became a wraith or Spectre after death, or if indeed she became either. Unfortunately, this information can be learned only about the person from whose body the “stew meat” was taken. The blood component is spent progressively through the ritual: If the Necromancer takes the blood from another Kindred, she doesn't become partially bound from drinking it, nor does she add a point to her blood pool. Similarly, if she uses her own blood, her pool de-creases by a point but does not increase when she con-sumes the soup. Necromantic vampires without the Eat Food Merit (see p. 480) can't keep the soup down, but can still use the ritual and gain the information. Ritual of the Smoking Mirror This ritual allows the necromancer to use an obsidian mirror to see as ghosts do. By gazing into the mirror's ebony depths, the vampire may discover an object's ﬂaws, assess the general health of mortals, or even read a being's aura. At the start of the ritual, the Kindred decides which of the ritual's two aspects she will use — she may not use both at the same time. With Lifesight, the nec-romancer may read auras as if she had the level two Auspex power Aura Perception. Deathsight, on the other hand, grants the necromancer the ability to see ghosts and the Shadowlands. It also shows the stain of oblivion on the living, as per Eyes of the Dead (p. 174). At the Storyteller's discretion, the Kindred may make a similar study of an inanimate object's ﬂaws and how to repair them, if that object has a strong link to either life-or death-energies (such as a murderer's knife or a window box used to grow healing herbs). To perform the ritual, the necromancer grasps an ob-sidian mirror that has had its edge sharpened so that it cuts the ﬂesh of whoever takes hold of it. As the vitae ﬂows onto the mirror's surface, it allows the mirror's re-ﬂective power to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead, much as it allows the necromancer herself to do. The player then rolls to activate the ritual as normal. If successful, the Necromancer may view the world as a ghost does via the reﬂective surface of the mirror, for one scene. On a botch, the vampire may well invoke the ire of the spirits upon whom she calls.	disciplinas.pdf
179 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONLevel Two Rituals Eyes of the Grave This ritual, which takes two hours to cast, causes the target to experience intermittent visions of her death over the period of a week. The visions come without warning and can last up to a minute. The caster of the ritual has no idea what the visions contain, as only the victim sees them. Each time a vision manifests, the tar-get must roll Courage (difﬁculty 7) or be reduced to quivering panic. The visions, which come randomly, can also interfere with activities such as driving, study-ing, shooting, and so on. Eyes of the Grave requires a pinch of soil from a fresh grave. The Hand of Glory The Hand of Glory is a mummiﬁed hand used by the necromancer to anesthetize a home's residents and, thereby, allow him free rein to do what he will in the residence. To create one, the necromancer wraps the severed hand of a condemned murderer in a shroud, draws it tight to squeeze out any remaining blood, and preserves the hand in an earthenware jar with salt, salt-peter, and long peppers. After a fortnight, the vampire removes the hand and dries it in an oven with vervain and fern. At the end of this process, if the roll to ac-tivate the ritual garners any successes, the creation is viable. To use the Hand of Glory, the vampire ﬁrst coats the ﬁngertips of the mummiﬁed hand with a ﬂammable substance derived from the fat of a hanged man and sets the ﬁngers alight. The necromancer then recites the phrase, “Let all those who are asleep be asleep, and let those who are awake be awake. ” All mortals within a household who are affected fall into a deep sleep and cannot be roused (the hand has no effect on supernatu-ral creatures). For each unaffected occupant of a home, one ﬁnger of the hand will refuse to light. Botches may result in all of the ﬁngers being lit but no one in the home being asleep. The hand may be extinguished at any time by the necromancer who created it. Anyone else wishing to douse the hand must use milk to do so — nothing else works. Once made, the Hand of Glory may be reused indeﬁnitely. Effects last for one scene. Occhio d'Uomo Morto To cast this ritual, the necromancer needs an eye from a corpse whose absent soul became a ghost or Spectre. The eye is ritually prepared in a process in-volving incense, the new moon, and a period of mid-night chanting. The chanting climaxes when the nec-romancer removes one of her own eyes and replaces it with the one from the corpse (fresher is better). Kin-dred healing takes over at that point, sealing the eye within the socket. If the ritual succeeds, the Necromancer permanently gains the Shroudsight ability (see p. 163). This ability is always active and does not require a roll. Furthermore, if it was a Spectre's corpse, the vampire can hear the vague murmuring of any Spectres in the area. This ability isn't very precise; rather than mind reading, it's more like trying to overhear a low-voiced conversation in the next room. With a Perception + Occult roll, the Necromancer can glean a very vague impression of what nearby Spectres are up to. Botching this roll may well earn the necromancer a new derange-ment (at the Storyteller's discretion), as the whispers creep into the caster's subconscious. This ritual has some major drawbacks, the ﬁrst being that its proper result is hideously ugly. Unless the vam-pire wears sunglasses or ﬁnds some other way to con-ceal her eye, her Appearance is reduced by one dot. Also, dead or rotted tissue is not the best for normal perception. Any mundane visual Perception rolls are at +1 difﬁculty (possibly more if the corpse had bad eye-sight in life). On the other hand, since the eye offers a window into a different soul than the necromancer, it offers some protection against powers requiring eye contact. These Disciplines are used against the dead-eyed necromancer at +1 difﬁculty. Most importantly, however, the ghost whose body was desecrated knows it, and very likely hates it. The ghost can ﬁnd the necromancer possessing his eye any-where, and all ghostly powers used against the necro-mancer by that particular ghost are at-1 difﬁculty. Puppet Used primarily to facilitate conversations with the recently departed, though also applied as a method of psychological torture, Puppet prepares a subject (will-ing or unwilling) as a suitable receptacle for ghostly possession. Over the course of one hour, the necroman-cer smears grave soil across the subject's eyes, lips, and forehead. For the remainder of the night, any wraith attempting to take control of the subject gains two au-tomatic successes. The ritual's effects remain even if the soil is washed off.	disciplinas.pdf
180 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESThe Ritual of Pochtli This ritual cannot be cast by itself, but only in con-junction with another Necromantic ritual, or with the heavily ritualized use of a Necromantic path. The ac-tion of the ritual is this: Two or more Kindred necro-mancers restrain a mortal vessel and inﬂict incisions in the shape of blasphemous symbols (typically subverted Egyptian hieroglyphs or Aztec symbols). They then drink from these injuries. Each participating Necro-mancer must make his own cut and drink from no oth-er cut. Thereafter, the Necromantic power the Kindred seek to employ gains the beneﬁt of all the participants' knowledge. This ritual makes it possible for Necroman-cers to create truly fearsome feats of death magic. The player rolls to activate this ritual as normal. If the roll succeeds, the Kindred who have participated in the ritual may work together on the path or ritual the Ritual of Pochtli is intended to assist, and players share successes. Note that the primary application of Necromancy requires its own roll, and that successes (and failures) garnered by the group are pooled. All Kindred participating in the ritual must know the Rit-ual of Pochtli as well as the ritual or path power the group seeks to enact. The downside of this power is that a single player's botch negates the successes of the entire group, result-ing in a horriﬁc failure for all the ritual workers. Two Centimes The necromancer ceremonially “kills” a mortal, lay-ing him out on a pallet and putting pennies on his eyes. The mortal's soul journeys to the Underworld, which he perceives, initially at least, as a way-station. The mortal can interact with the souls of the dead and trav-el elsewhere in the Underworld, while also retaining the power to speak to the vampire and describe what he's experiencing. While in the Underworld, however, the subject's soul cannot affect the environment. Al-though he may talk to other spirits, he may not physi-cally interact with them or their surroundings — he is a “ghost among ghosts,” as it were. Minions may vol-untarily undergo the ritual to assist necromancers, or the vampire may use Two Centimes to terrify unwill-ing victims. Level Three Rituals Blood Dance The Blood Dance allows a ghost to communicate with a living relative. Necromancers sometimes per-form this ritual for people in exchange for money or favors. The vampire must dance and chant for two hours, calling forth the right spirit and entreating all other ghosts to leave the area. While dancing, the vampire pours colored sands and ocean salt on the ground in a precise pattern and then makes the link between the living person and the deceased. If successful, the ghost “appears” within the necromancer's sand-sigil and the living person can communicate with her for one hour. Failure means the spirit could not be contacted. Divine Sign Upon learning a person's birth date, the necroman-cer's player may roll to activate this ritual. If successful, the Kindred may use this to predict the target's next course of action, allowing him to deal with it accord-ingly. The effect on ghosts is quite different: Instead, the ritual imparts upon the necromancer so intimate an understanding of the wraith in question that it acts as a connection to the ghost, making it easier to invoke other Necromancy effects on that spirit. For story pur-poses, it's the equivalent to holding one of that wraith's fetters (see Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter, below). Din of the Damned This ritual is similar to the Level One Ritual Call of the Hungry Dead (see p. 177) in that it makes the sounds of the Underworld audible in the physical realm. However, Din of the Damned is an area-effecting rit-ual used to ward a room against eavesdropping. Over the course of half an hour, the necromancer draws an unbroken line of ash from a crematorium along the room's walls (this line may pass over doorframes to al-low entrance and egress). For the rest of the night, any attempt to listen in on events inside the room, whether simple (such as a glass to the wall), electronic (like a laser microphone), or mystic (including powers such as Heightened Senses), requires the eavesdropper to score more successes in a Perception + Occult roll (difﬁculty 7) than the caster of the ritual scored. Failure to beat this mark gives the listener an earful of ghostly wailing and moaning and the sound of howling winds; a botch deafens him for the rest of the night. Nightmare Drums The necromancer using this ritual sends the dead to haunt the dreams of an enemy, using the ghosts to drive an opponent slowly insane. Once the ritual is cast, the vampire has no control over this power, except to stop it from continuing. The shape of the nightmares and	disciplinas.pdf
181 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONthe images that assault the target are not under the control of the necromancer; they are under the control of the ghosts who actually do the haunting. The necromancer uses his own blood and a personal possession of the target's in this ritual. Once the item has been coated with blood, the vampire must burn the item, sending a ghostly icon of it to the Shadowlands both as an identifying badge and as a reward to the ghosts who agree to haunt the target. While the item burns, the necromancer (and assistants, if available) pound out a relentless beat on gigantic drums of hu-man skin. The drums are inaudible in this realm but thunderous in the home of the dead. To silence the deafening drums, the ghosts resignedly agree to negoti-ate with the necromancer. They promise to send night-mares to the victim for as long as the vampire demands, in return for a favor. Their request normally runs along the lines of passing a message to a living relative or ex-acting revenge against someone who slighted them. Ritual of The Unearthed Fetter This ritual requires that a necromancer have a ﬁn-ger bone from the skeleton of the particular ghost he's interested in. When the ritual is cast, the ﬁnger bone becomes attuned to something vitally important to the wraith, the possession of which by the necromancer makes the casting of Necromantic powers against that ghost much easier (see the Sepulchre Path, p. 160, for an example). Most necromancers take the attuned ﬁn-ger bone and suspend it from a thread, allowing it to act as a sort of supernatural compass and following it to the special item in question. Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter takes three hours to cast properly. It requires both the name of the ghost targeted and the ﬁnger bone already mentioned, as well as a chip knocked off a gravestone or other marker (not necessarily the marker of the bone's former own-er). During the course of the ritual the stone crumbles to dust, which is then sprinkled over the ﬁnger bone. Tempesta Scudo Unlike most rituals, Tempesta Scudo can be cast speedily. The necromancer performs a short and awk-ward dance that ends with her biting through her own lip and spitting the blood in a circle around her. All ghosts' actions within the circle of blood are made at +2 difﬁculty. To cast this ritual successfully, the necromancer must spend one combat turn performing the dance. At the end of the turn, she makes a Dexterity + Performance roll against difﬁculty 7 (if done outside of combat, the difﬁculty is only 6). During the next combat turn, she bites through her own lips (taking a level of bashing damage) and spits (spending one blood point). Then the normal ritual roll is made to see whether the power takes effect. Level Four Rituals Baleful Doll A baleful doll is a powerful ﬁgure that is linked di-rectly to the spirit of the target. This doll must be hand-crafted, and is only ﬁnished when it has been painted with the blood of the necromancer and dressed in some article of clothing from the victim (which should be unwashed for a better connection). Once the doll has been cursed, the vampire can use it to cause physical damage to the target. If the doll is injured (often with pins or other items), the victim takes six dice of bash-ing damage. If the doll is destroyed, the target suffers six dice of lethal damage. The necromancer must craft the doll, using ritual chants throughout the process. This normally takes four to ﬁve hours. The player rolls Stamina + Crafts (difﬁculty 8) to succeed in this part of the ritual — a doll that does not resemble its victim is useless for the purposes of this ritual, though some necromancers sell failures as “authentic voodoo dolls” to tourists. Bastone Diabolico Casting this ritual is tricky because it requires the removal of a leg bone from a living person. The donor must survive the removal, at least for a little while. The bone is then submerged in molten lead. Once it cools, the thin lead coating is inscribed with various runes. The necromancer then uses this metal-shod bone to beat its donor to death while repeating a droning Greek chant. With a successful roll, this ritual produces a bastone diabolico or “devil stick. ” The stick can be activated by anyone who holds it and expends a point of Willpower. Activation lasts for a scene, and during that time any ghost hit with the devil stick loses a point from its Pas-sion pool (see p. 385). In addition to its normal effects, this club does an additional die of damage when used against the walking dead (not vampires), and such damage is aggravated. Unfortunately for the necromancer, ghosts can sense that the bastone diabolico is bad news, even if they don't know exactly what the thing does. They tend to stay	disciplinas.pdf
182 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESaway from anybody carrying one, which means that all rolls for such a character to use powers that summon or attract ghosts occur at +1 difﬁculty. Cadaver's Touch By chanting for three hours and melting a wax doll in the shape of the target, the necromancer turns a mortal target into a corpselike ruin. As the doll loses the last of its form, the target becomes cold and clammy. His pulse becomes weak and thready, and his ﬂesh pale and chalky. For all intents and purposes, he becomes a rea-sonable facsimile of the walking dead. This can have some adverse effects in social situations (+2 difﬁculty on all Social rolls). The effects of the ritual wear off only when the wax of the doll is permitted to solidify. If the wax is allowed to boil off, the spell is broken. Peek Past the Shroud This hour-long ritual enchants a handful of ergot fungi mold to act as a catalyst for second sight. By eat-ing a pinch of the mold, a subject gains the beneﬁts of Shroudsight (p. 163) for a number of hours equal to the necromancer's Stamina score. Three doses of the en-chanted ergot are created for every success on the roll. Ergot is normally poisonous to some degree; this ritual removes its toxic properties. However, a botch renders the ergot highly and instantaneously toxic, inﬂicting eight dice of lethal damage on any subject who ingests it — including vampires. Ritual of Xipe Totec To perform the ritual, the Kindred removes his vic-tim's top layer of skin with an obsidian dagger, tak-ing care to damage the skin as little as possible in the process. The victim must survive this process (though she may well die of blood loss shortly after the ritual if not seen to properly). He then drains the victim's blood into a large ceremonial golden bowl. There the blood is mixed with octli, amaranth ﬂower, and other ingredients. When imbibed by the necromancer, this mixture causes him to sweat a glistening sheen of blood (equal to one blood point). The Kindred then dons the skin of his victim, which on a successful roll absorbs the Kindred vitae and begins to heal, forming a second skin over the vampire's own. The victim needs to be of similar stature — otherwise, the features become dis-torted and the disguise is rendered useless. This power also has no effect on supernatural creatures (although it can affect ghouls). Under normal visual scrutiny, the ruse is ﬂawless. Of course, it imparts none of the victim's knowledge or	disciplinas.pdf
183 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONmannerisms (and does nothing to mask the Kindred's own undead nature). Therefore, it works best for situ-ations in which contact with friends and family may be minimized. To preserve the skin's condition, the Kindred must bathe it in a blood point's worth of vi-tae nightly. When the necromancer removes the skin (which causes one level of unsoakable lethal damage to the user and must be done with the same knife used to ﬂay the victim in the ﬁrst place), it is ruined in the process. Level Five Rituals Chill of Oblivion Performed over the course of 12 hours (reduced by one hour per success on the casting roll), this ritual infuses the necromancer or a willing subject with the chill of the grave. The ritual's material component is a one-foot (half-meter) cube of ice, which is slowly melt-ed on the subject's chest (inﬂicting three health levels of bashing damage on mortal subjects). The subject must lie naked on bare earth for the entire duration of the ritual. Once the ritual is completed, its effects remain for a number of nights equal to the caster's Oc-cult rating. An individual affected by Chill of Oblivion treats aggravated damage from ﬁre and high temperatures as if it were lethal damage. Furthermore, he may attempt to extinguish any ﬁre by rolling Willpower (difﬁculty 9); each success reduces the ﬁre's soak difﬁculty (see p. 297) by 1, and a ﬁre with a soak difﬁculty of 2 dwin-dles to glowing embers. However, this ritual has several drawbacks. First and foremost, the subject's aura is laced with writhing black veins that resemble those left by diablerie, and may well be mistaken for such by any observer who is not familiar with this ritual. The subject also radiates a palpable aura of cold that extends to about arm's length from him; this can be extremely disconcerting to mor-tals, though it causes no damage, and its game effects mirror those of the Flaws Touch of Frost (p. 494) and Eerie Presence (p. 495). Finally, the mystical nimbus of the ritual draws hostile ghosts to the subject, who may plague him with unwholesome acts. Dead Man's Hand The necromancer takes a rag stained in the blood, sweat, or tears of the intended victim. She takes a freshly severed human hand (which can come either from a corpse or a living “donor”) and closes it around the rag. As the hand decomposes, so does the victim. His ﬂesh bloats, turns gray and then green, then starts to slough off. The victim's brain remains fresh until the very end, so he can see the maggots writhe in the pu-trescent rack of meat that once was his healthy body. The necromancer makes the standard roll and spends two blood points for each point of Stamina (and Forti-tude) possessed by the victim. The victim loses health levels according to the timetable below. Only the re-moval of the rag from the hand can stop the process. If this happens, health levels return, also according to the chart below. Health Level Time Until Next Loss Bruised 12 hours Hurt 12 hours Injured Six hours Wounded Three hours Mauled One hour Crippled 30 minutes Incapacitated 12 hours Mortal characters who suffer more than 12 hours of incapacitation die, while Kindred who remain Inca-pacitated for more than 12 hours succumb to torpor. Esilio Like Tempesta Scudo, Esilio is a quick and dirty ritual. The necromancer simply speaks ﬁve syllables. No one can identify the casting language, but according to the ritual's oblique history, the language is what God gave humankind before the confusion of Babel. The legend further states that while the particular meaning of the words is lost, they are what Caine's father said to him while exiling him to Nod. Regardless of the truth of the matter, the Words of Exile are not spoken lightly. When the ritual is cast successfully, it opens a hole within reality itself — a rip between the lands of the living and the darkest depths of the Underworld. This tear is invisible to normal vi-sion, but to Witness of Death or Shroudsight it looks like a black vortex opening within the vampire's own body (the very few unfortunate enough to look into the gap with high levels of Auspex are generally unwill-ing or unable to discuss it). Any ghost clutched to the Kindred's chest is instantly torn to shreds. Grabbing a ghost in this fashion requires a Clinch or Tackle ma-neuver. Destroyed spirits don't come back for at least	disciplinas.pdf
184 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESa month, if ever. A wraith destroyed in this fashion tends to return as a Spectre, if it returns at all. The necromancer may clutch and destroy a number of spirits equal to the number of successes she rolled. After that, the vortex closes. It closes at the end of the scene if it hasn't already. Of course, using one's body as a portal between our world and what some people might call Hell is neither simple nor healthy. For starters, it costs a blood point and a point of Willpower (which does not give an au-tomatic success on the ritual roll). More importantly, each success rolled inﬂicts a level of unsoakable lethal damage on the necromancer. Most signiﬁcantly, every use of Esilio permanently reduces the necromancer's Humanity by one point if he follows that morality, and may impact other Paths at the Storyteller's discretion. Grasp the Ghostly Requiring a full six hours of chanting, this ritual al-lows a necromancer to bring an object from the Un-derworld into the real world. It's not simple, however — a wraith may object to having his possessions stolen and ﬁght back. Furthermore, the object taken must be replaced by a material item of roughly equal mass, oth-erwise the target of the ritual snaps back to its previous, ghostly existence. Objects taken from the Underworld tend to fade away after about a year. Only items recently destroyed in the real world (called “relics” by ghosts) may be recaptured in this manner. Artifacts created by wraiths themselves were never meant to exist outside the Underworld, and vanish on contact with the living world. Obfuscate Obfuscate is the uncanny ability for Kindred to con-ceal themselves from sight, sometimes even in full view of a crowd. An Obfuscated vampire doesn't actu-ally become invisible, however — rather, he is able to delude observers into believing that he has vanished. Obfuscate also allows Kindred to change their features and conceal other people or objects. Typically vam-pires using Obfuscate must be within a short range of their witnesses (approximately ﬁve yards or meters per dot of Wits + Stealth) for their power to be effective. Unless the Kindred chooses to make herself seen, she can remain obscured for as long as she wills it. At higher levels, the vampire can actually fade from sight so subtly that those nearby can't actually recall the mo-ment at which she left. Usually, few mortals or supernaturals (even those trained in Awareness) can pierce through the fog of Obfuscate. Animals, who rely more on their instincts than their normal senses, can sometime perceive (and be frightened by) the vampire's presence. Children and those to whom deception is foreign may also be able to pierce the illusion, at the Storyteller's discretion. Finally, the Auspex Discipline enables Kindred to see through Obfuscate. Even that is not guaranteed, how-ever; refer to “Seeing the Unseen,” p. 142, for more details. (Storytellers needing a die roll for animals or children can use this quick and dirty guideline: treat them as if they had Auspex 1 in terms of contesting Obfuscate. They do not have the Auspex 1 power, but are considered to have it when determining whether a vampire is noticed. ) Since Obfuscate clouds the mind of the viewer, vam-pires can't use it to hide their presence from electronic or mechanical devices. Video and photo cameras, for example, capture the vampire's image accurately. Even so, the person using, say, her cell phone to record an Obfuscated vampire will still have her mind impacted by the power, and she won't see the Kindred's im-age until she views the video at a later date (if even then). Several Clans cultivate this power — the Assa-mites, Followers of Set, and Malkavians, for example — but the Nosferatu are particularly known for this Discipline. Some elder Kindred believe that Caine, or perhaps Lilith, bestowed the Clan with this Discipline to compensate for the hideous physical deformities its members suffer. Most Obfuscate powers last for a scene, or until the vampire ceases maintaining them. Once evoked, they require very little mental effort to keep in place. Cloak of Shadows At this level, the vampire must rely on nearby shad-ows and cover to assist in hiding his presence. He steps into an out-of-the-way, shadowed place and eases him-self from normal sight. The vampire remains unnoticed as long as he stays silent, still, under some degree of cover (such as a curtain, bush, door frame, lamppost, or alley), and out of direct lighting. The immortal's concealment vanishes if he moves, attacks, or falls un-der direct light. Furthermore, the vampire's deception cannot stand up to concentrated observation without fading.	disciplinas.pdf
185 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONSystem: No roll is required as long as the character fulﬁlls the criteria described above. So long as he re-mains quiet and motionless, virtually no one but an-other Kindred with a high enough Auspex rating will see him. Unseen Presence With experience, the vampire can move around without being seen. Shadows seem to shift to cover him, and people automatically avert their gazes as he passes by. Others move unconsciously to avoid contact with the cloaked creature; those with weak wills may even scurry away from the area in unacknowledged fear. The vampire remains ignored indeﬁnitely unless someone deliberately seeks him out or he inadvertently reveals himself. Since the vampire fully retains his physical sub-stance, he must be careful to avoid contact with any-thing that may disclose his presence (knocking over a vase, bumping into someone). Even a whispered word or the scufﬁng of a shoe against the ﬂoor can be enough to disrupt the power. System: No roll is necessary to use this power unless the character speaks, attacks, or otherwise draws atten-tion to himself. The Storyteller should call for a Wits + Stealth roll under any circumstances that might cause the character to reveal himself. The difﬁculty of the roll depends on the situation; stepping on a squeaky ﬂoorboard might be a 5, while walking through a pool of water may require a 9. Other acts may require a cer-tain number of successes; speaking quietly without giv-ing away one's position, for instance, demands at least three successes. Upon success, the vampire, all her clothing, and objects that could ﬁt into a pocket are concealed. Some things are beyond the power of Unseen Pres-ence to conceal. Although the character is cloaked from view while he smashes through a window, yells out, or throws someone across the room, the vampire becomes visible to all in the aftermath. Bystanders snap out of the subtle fugue in which Obfuscate put them. Worse still, each viewer can make a Wits + Awareness roll (difﬁculty 7); if successful, the mental haze clears completely, so those individuals recall every move the character made up until then as if he had been visible the entire time. Mask of a Thousand Faces The vampire can inﬂuence the perception of others, causing them to see a face different from his. Although the Kindred's physical form does not change, any ob-server who cannot sense the truth sees whomever the vampire wishes her to see. The vampire must have a ﬁrm idea of the visage he wishes to project. The primary decision is whether to create an imaginary face or to superimpose the features of another person. Manufactured features are often more difﬁcult to compose in believable proportions, but such a disguise is easier to maintain than having to impersonate someone else. Of course, things get sim-pler if the Kindred borrows the face but doesn't bother with the personality. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Perfor-mance (difﬁculty 7) to determine how well the disguise works. If the character tries to impersonate someone, he must get a good look at the subject before putting on the mask. The Storyteller may raise the difﬁculty if the character catches only a glimpse. The chart below lists the degrees of success in manufacturing another appearance. Vampires wishing to mask themselves as a person more attractive than they are must pay ad-ditional blood points equal to the difference between the vampire's Appearance rating and the Appearance of the mask (which means that younger vampires may need to take longer in order to spend the blood neces-sary). Successes Result 1 success The vampire retains the same height and build, with a few slight alterations to his basic features. Nosferatu can appear as normal, albeit ugly, mortals. 2 successes He looks unlike himself; people don't easily recognize him or agree about his appearance. 3 successes He looks the way he wants to appear. 4 successes Complete transformation, including gestures, mannerisms, appearance, and voice. 5 successes Profound alteration (appear as the opposite sex, a vastly different age, or an extreme change of size). Actually posing as someone else carries its own prob-lems. The character should know at least basic infor-mation about the individual; especially difﬁcult decep-tions (fooling a lover or close friend) require at least some familiarity with the target in order to succeed.	disciplinas.pdf
186 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Vanish from the Mind's Eye This potent expression of Obfuscate enables the vampire to disappear from plain view. So profound is this vanishing that the immortal can fade away even if he stands directly in front of someone. While the disappearance itself is quietly subtle, its impact on those who see it is anything but. Most kine panic and ﬂee in the aftermath. Especially weak-willed individuals wipe the memory of the Kindred from their minds. Although vampires are not shaken so easily, even Kindred may be momentarily surprised by a sud-den vanishing. System: The player rolls Charisma + Stealth; the difﬁculty equals the target's Wits + Alertness (use the highest total in the group if the character disappears in front of a crowd). With three or fewer successes, the character fades but does not vanish, becoming an indistinct, ghostlike ﬁgure. With more than three, he disappears completely. If the player scores more suc-cesses than an observer's Willpower rating, that person forgets that the vampire was there in the ﬁrst place. Tracking the character accurately while he appears ghostlike requires a Perception + Alertness roll (dif-ﬁculty 8). A successful roll means the individual can interact normally with the vampire (although the Kindred looks like a profoundly disturbing ghostly shape). A failed roll results in a +2 difﬁculty modi-ﬁer (maximum 10) when attempting to act upon, or interact with, the vampire. The Storyteller may call for new observation checks if the vampire moves to an environment in which he's difﬁcult to see (heads into shadows, crosses behind an obstacle, proceeds through a crowd). When fully invisible, the vampire is handled as described under Unseen Presence, above. A person subject to the vanishing makes a Wits + Courage roll (mortals at difﬁculty 9, vampires at dif-ﬁculty 5). A successful roll means the individual reacts immediately (although after the vampire performs his action for that turn); failure means the person stands uncomprehending for two turns while her mind tries to make sense of what she just experienced. Cloak the Gathering At this degree of power, the vampire may extend his concealing abilities to cover an area. The immor-tal may use any Obfuscate power upon those nearby as well as upon himself, if he wishes. Any protected person who compromises the cloak exposes himself to view. Further, if the one who in-vokes the power gives himself away, the cloak falls from everyone. This power is particularly useful if the vampire needs to bring his retinue through a secure lo-cation without drawing the notice of others. System: The character may conceal one extra indi-vidual for each dot of Stealth he possesses. He may be-stow any single Obfuscate power at a given time to the group. While the power applies to everyone under the character's cloak, his player need only make a single roll. Each individual must follow the requirements de-scribed under the relevant Obfuscate power to remain under its effect; any person who fails to do so loses the cloak's protection, but doesn't expose the others. Only if the vampire himself errs does the power drop for ev-eryone. Conceal The vampire may mask an inanimate object up to the size of a house (Obfuscate cannot be used to dis-guise inanimate objects without the use of this power). If the object is hidden, so are all of its contents. While Conceal is in effect, passersby walk around the con-cealed object as if it were still visible, but refuse to ac-knowledge that they are making any kind of detour. System: In order to activate this power, a character must be within about 30 feet (approximately 10 me-ters) of the object to be concealed and the item must hold some personal signiﬁcance for him. The Conceal power functions as Unseen Presence for purposes of detection, as well as the duration and durability of the disguise. Conceal can be used on a vehicle in which the char-acter is traveling. In this instance, trafﬁc patterns seem to ﬂow around the vehicle, and accidents are actually less likely as other drivers subconsciously maneuver away from the concealed auto. A police radar gun still registers a speeding car masked in this fashion, but the ofﬁcer behind the gun is disinclined to make a trafﬁc stop of the phantom blip. Using Conceal on aircraft is problematic, as the power's range generally doesn't extend far enough to cover air trafﬁc controllers and the like. Mind Blank A vampire with this power is able to shrug off tele-pathic contact, easily withstanding invasive probes of her mind. System: Any attempt to read or probe the character's mind ﬁrst requires a successful Perception + Empathy roll (difﬁculty equal to the character's Wits + Stealth).	disciplinas.pdf
187 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONEven if a potential intruder does succeed, his dice pool for the attempt is then limited to the number of suc-cesses he scored on the initial roll. Soul Mask In addition to concealing her form, a vampire who has developed Soul Mask is able to conceal her aura. She may display whatever combination of colors and shades she wishes, or may appear to have no aura what-soever. This power is of particular use to those of elder Generation who have reached such heights of power through diablerie. System: The use of this power allows the projec-tion of only one aura (or lack thereof) — the vampire chooses the precise colors to be displayed when she ﬁrst develops Soul Mask. If the character has no experience with the use of Aura Perception, she may not choose an alternate aura, as she has no idea what one would look like, though she can still choose to display no aura whatsoever. Soul Mask can be bought multiple times, if desired, in order to give a vampire multiple alternate auras from which to choose. Unless the player states otherwise, Soul Mask is al-ways in effect. If the character has bought Soul Mask two or more times, her “default” aura displayed is the ﬁrst one she learned. Cache Most Obfuscate powers require the individual using them to be within a short distance of the subjects of the concealment. Cache extends this range consider-ably, allowing an elder with this power to leave people or objects safely hidden while he goes about his busi-ness elsewhere. System: A character must be within the normal re-quired distance to initiate an Obfuscate power. Once this is done, the player spends a Willpower point, which activates Cache on top of the already functioning use of the Discipline. The concealment will now remain in effect as long as the vampire is within a distance equal to his Wits + Stealth in miles (or one and half times that in kilometers) from the object or person he wishes to conceal. The enhanced concealment fades at the next sunrise, or breaks (as always) if the Obfuscate subject reveals himself. Veil of Blissful Ignorance This power's development is attributed to the Mal-kavians, but many Nosferatu have also found it to be highly useful. The Veil of Blissful Ignorance allows a vampire to Obfuscate an unwilling victim, removing him from the notice of others. Some Nosferatu use this power to teach a humbling lesson to individuals who take the presence and aid of others for granted, while others utilize it to remove an essential member of a group in the midst of a crisis. System: The character must touch the victim to ac-tivate this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Wits + Stealth (difﬁculty equals the victim's Ap-pearance + 3). If the roll is a success, the victim is sub-ject to the effects of Vanish From the Mind's Eye for a length of time determined by the number of successes the player rolls. Successes Result 1 success Three turns 2 successes One minute (20 turns) 3 successes 15 minutes 4 successes One hour 5 successes One night The victim of Veil of Blissful Ignorance does not nec-essarily know that he is under the effect of this power. He is only aware that everyone around him has sud-denly begun acting as if he were not there. The victim cannot break this effect, even with violence; if he at-tacks someone, the target ascribes the act to the visible individual nearest to him. More than one fatal brawl has been incited by this side-effect. The Veil persists even if the vampire who activated it leaves the area. Curiously enough, Veil of Blissful Ignorance can never be used on anyone who is ready and willing to accept its effects. Old Friend Many elder Nosferatu have made reputations for om-niscience with the secrets they learn through creative uses of this power. A variation of Mask of a Thousand Faces, Old Friend allows a vampire to probe a subject's subconscious and take the semblance of the individual whom that victim trusts over anyone else. Someone using this power does not appear as someone who the victim is frightened of or awed by, but rather someone to whom the victim feels comfortable revealing inti-mate secrets. Old Friend doesn't necessarily make its user appear as someone who is still among the living; a long-dead friend or relative is just as likely, and in such cases the subject remembers the encounter as a dream or a ghostly visitation.	disciplinas.pdf
188 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESSystem: The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difﬁculty equal to the victim's Perception + Alert-ness or Awareness, maximum 10). The more successes, the more convincing the impersonation. This power only affects one victim at a time; other observers see the vampire as she truly is, unless she also establishes a Mask of a Thousand Faces in addition to using Old Friend. Create Name Some Toreador call this power the ultimate develop-ment of method acting. Create Name allows a charac-ter to create a completely new identity; face, speech pattern, aura, even thought processes are constructed according to the vampire's desired identity. The power can be used to impersonate an existing individual, or it can project the semblance of a completely ﬁctional identity with perfect accuracy. System: A vampire working with Create Name must spend three hours a night in relatively uninterrupted quiet to establish a new personality by means of this power. The player makes an extended roll of Intelli-gence + Subterfuge (difﬁculty 8), one roll per night. A total of 20 successes are necessary to construct a new identity, while a botch removes ﬁve successes from the vampire's total. Once a new identity has been success-fully created, however, the character can step into it at any time without any sort of roll. Any outside observer without Auspex 9 or the equivalent sees the artiﬁcial identity. The character's face, aura, Nature, Demeanor, even thoughts and Psychological Merits and Flaws all appear to be those of the persona selected and crafted by the character. The only way to pierce this disguise, other than Aus-pex 9, is to notice any discrepancies between the as-sumed identity and the Abilities it logically ought to possess. A character with no dots in Medicine should have a hard time pulling off a created identity as a neu-rosurgeon, for example. The Storyteller should make a secret roll of Perception + Alertness (difﬁculty 9) for each character who should catch a slip made by the impostor. Obtenebration The signature power of the Lasombra, Obtenebra-tion grants the vampire power over darkness itself. The nature of the darkness invoked by Obtenebration is a matter of intense debate among Kindred. Some be-lieve it to be merely shadows, while others feel that the power gives control over the stuff of the vampire's soul, coaxing it tangibly outward. Regardless, the effects of Obtenebration are terrify-ing, as waves of darkness roil out from the Cainite, en-veloping those in their path like an infernal wave. As Obtenebration is mostly known as a Sabbat Discipline, any Camarilla vampire caught using the power had better have a damned good explanation. Note: Vampires using Obtenebration can see through the darkness they control, though other vampires (even those that also have Obtenebration) cannot. Dreadful tales of rival Lasombra struggling to blind and smother each other with the same wisps of darkness circulate among young members of the Clan, though no elders have come forth to substantiate these claims. Shadow Play This power grants the vampire limited control over shadows and other ambient darkness. Though the vam-pire cannot truly “create” darkness, she can overlap and stretch existing shadows, creating patches of gloom. This power also allows Kindred to separate shadows from their casting bodies and even shape darkness into the shadows of things that are not there. Once a Kindred takes control of darkness or shadow, it gains a mystical tangibility. By varying accounts cold or hellishly hot and cloying, the darkness may be used to aggravate or even smother victims. Certain callous Lasombra claim to have choked mortals to death with their own shadows. System: This power requires no roll, but a blood point must be spent to activate it. Shadow Play lasts for one scene and requires no active concentration. Kin-dred cloaking themselves in shadow gain an extra die in their Stealth dice pools and add one to the difﬁcul-ties of ranged weapon attacks against them. Vampires who use the darkness to make themselves more terrify-ing add one die to Intimidation dice pools. Opponents plagued by ﬂapping shadows and strangling darkness subtract one die from all Stamina dice pools (includ-ing soak). Mortals, ghouls, and other air-breathers re-duced to zero Stamina by strangling shadows begin to asphyxiate; vampires lose all appropriate dice but are otherwise unaffected. Only one target or subject may be affected by this power at any given time, though some modicum of concealment is offered to a relatively motionless group. The unnatural appearance of this power proves ex-tremely disconcerting to mortals and animals (and, at the Storyteller's discretion, Kindred who have never	disciplinas.pdf
189 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONseen it before). Whenever this power is invoked within a mortal's vicinity, that individual must make a Cour-age roll (difﬁculty 8) or suffer a one-die penalty to all dice pools for the remainder of the scene, due to fear of the monstrous shadows. Shroud of Night The vampire can create a cloud of inky blackness. The cloud completely obscures light and even sound to some extent. Those who have been trapped within it (and survived) describe the cloud as viscous and un-nerving. This physical manifestation lends credence to those Lasombra who claim that their darkness is some-thing other than mere shadow. The tenebrous cloud may even move, if the creating Kindred wishes, though this requires complete concen-tration. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difﬁculty 7). Success on the roll generates darkness roughly 10 feet (three meters) in diameter, though the amorphous cloud constantly shifts and undulates, sometimes even extending shadowy tendrils. Each additional success doubles the diameter of the cloud (though the vampire may voluntarily reduce the area she wishes to cover). The cloud may be invoked at a distance of up to 50 yards/meters, though creating darkness outside the vampire's line of sight adds two to the difﬁculty of the roll and requires a blood point's expenditure. The tarry mass actually extinguishes light sources it engulfs (with the exception of ﬁre), and mufﬂes sounds until they are indistinguishable. Those within the cloud lose all sense of sight and feel as though they've been immersed in pitch. Sound also warps and distorts within the cloud, making it nearly impossible to ac-complish anything (+2 difﬁculty, as per Blind Fight-ing on p. 274). Even those possessed of Heightened Senses, Eyes of the Beast, Tongue of the Asp, and simi-lar powers suffer the penalty for blindness due to the unnatural darkness. Additionally, being surrounded by the Shroud of Night reduces Stamina-based dice pools by two dice, as the murk smothers and agitates the vic-tims. This effect is not cumulative with Shadow Play, although targets asphyxiate as per Shadow Play if they reach 0 Stamina; more than one unfortunate mortal has “drowned” in darkness. Mortals and animals surrounded by the Shroud of Night must make Courage rolls per Shadow Play, above, or panic and ﬂee. Arms of the Abyss Reﬁning his control over darkness, the Kindred can create prehensile tentacles that emerge from patches of dim lighting. These tentacles may grasp, restrain, and constrict foes. System: The player spends a blood point and makes a simple (never extended) Manipulation + Occult roll (difﬁculty 7); each success enables the creation of a single tentacle. Each tentacle is six feet (two meters) long and possesses Strength and Dexterity ratings equal to the invoking vampire's Obtenebration Trait — Po-tence and Celerity dots are added to these Strength and Dexterity ratings, respectively. If the vampire chooses, she may spend a blood point either to increase a single tentacle's Strength or Dexterity by one or to extend its length by another six feet or two meters. Each tentacle has four health levels, is affected by ﬁre and sunlight as if it were a vampire, and soaks bashing and lethal damage using the vampire's Stamina + Fortitude. Ag-gravated damage may not be soaked. Tentacles may constrict foes, inﬂicting (Strength +1) lethal damage per turn. Breaking the grasp of a ten-tacle requires the victim to win a resisted Strength roll against the tentacle (difﬁculty 6 for each). However, tentacles cannot be used for any kind of manipulation, such as typing or driving. All tentacles need not emanate from the same source — so long as there are multiple patches of suitable darkness, there are sources for the Arms of the Abyss. Controlling the tentacles does not require complete concentration; if the Kindred is not incapacitated or in torpor, she may control tentacles while carrying out other actions. Black Metamorphosis The Cainite calls upon his inner darkness and in-fuses himself with it, becoming a monstrous hybrid of matter and shadow. His body becomes mottled with spots of tenebrous shade, and wispy tentacles extrude from his torso and abdomen. Though still humanoid, the vampire takes on an almost demonic appearance, as the darkness within him bubbles to the surface. System: The player spends two blood points and makes a Manipulation + Courage roll (difﬁculty 7) — vampires of lower Generation may have to take two turns to make the transition. Failure indicates the vam-pire cannot undergo the Black Metamorphosis (though he spends the blood points nonetheless). A botch in-ﬂicts two unsoakable health levels of lethal damage on the vampire as darkness ravages his undead body.	disciplinas.pdf
190 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESWhile under the effects of the Black Metamorphosis, the vampire possesses four tentacles similar to those evoked via Arms of the Abyss (though their Strength and Dexterity ratings are equal to the vampire's own Attributes, including dice from Celerity and Potence). These tentacles, combined with the bands of darkness all over the Kindred's body, subtract two dice from the Stamina and soak dice pools of opponents physically touched in combat, for as long as the vampire remains in contact with the victim. This is not cumulative with other powers in Obtenebration, although targets can asphyxiate at Stamina 0, as per Shadow Play. The vampire may make an additional attack without pen-alty by using the tentacles (for a total of two attacks, not one additional attack per tentacle). Additionally, the vampire can sense his surroundings fully even in pitch darkness. The vampire's head and extremities sometimes ap-pear to fade away into nothingness, while at other times they seem swathed in otherworldly darkness. This, combined with the wriggling tentacles writhing from his body, creates an unsettling sight. Mortals, ani-mals, and other creatures not accustomed to this sort of display must make Courage rolls (difﬁculty 8) or suc-cumb to a panic that amounts to Rötschreck (though it is inspired by the darkness rather than ﬁre). Many Kindred cultivate this devilish aspect, and the Black Metamorphosis adds three dice to the invoking Kin-dred's Intimidation dice pools. Tenebrous Form At this level, the Kindred's mastery of darkness is so extensive that she may physically become it. Upon ac-tivation of this power, the vampire becomes an inky, amoeboid patch of shadow. Vampires in this form are practically invulnerable and may slither through cracks and crevices. In addition, the shadow-vampire gains the ability to see in natural darkness. System: The transformation costs three blood points (which may need to occur over three turns, depend-ing on the vampire's Generation). The vampire is im-mune to physical attacks while in the tenebrous form (though she still takes aggravated damage from ﬁre and sunlight), but may not herself physically attack. She may, however, envelop and ooze over others, affect-ing them in the same manner as a Shroud of Night, in addition to using mental Disciplines. Vampires in Tenebrous Form may even slither up walls and across	disciplinas.pdf
191 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONceilings or “drip” darkness upward — they have no mass and are thus unaffected by gravity. Rötschreck difﬁculties from ﬁre and sunlight do increase by one for vampires in this form, as the light is even more painful to their shadowy bodies. Mortals (and others not used to such displays) who witness the vampire transform into unholy shadow re-quire Courage rolls (difﬁculty 8) in order to avoid the de-bilitating terror described under Black Metamorphosis. The Darkness Within This power allows the Cainite to call forth the dark-ness contained in her black soul. This enormous, turbu-lent shadow vomits from the vampire's mouth, though some vampires are said to cut themselves and let the blackness seep from their veins. The shadow-cloud en-gulfs a chosen target, burning it with a soul-scarring chill and siphoning its blood away in torrents. System: The player makes a Willpower roll (difﬁcul-ty 6) and spends a blood point. The resulting shadow envelops the target and, though it does not physically harm the victim, it may strike terror into him. Indi-viduals observing the Darkness Within, whether as tar-gets or onlookers, may suffer from the terror described under Black Metamorphosis, unless they are already familiar with the Kindred's power. Individuals touched by The Darkness Within lose one point of blood per turn, though targets may resist this ef-fect by succeeding on a Stamina roll (difﬁculty 6) each turn the target remains in contact with the cloud. The Cainite invoking The Darkness Within must devote all her attention to maintaining the cloud. If the vampire is attacked, the darkness immediately re-turns to her through whatever oriﬁce it originated. The Cainite can summon the darkness back at any time, gaining a number of blood points equal to one-half the number the shadow siphoned from its victims (round up). Taking blood from another in this fashion is sim-ilar to drinking from that vampire, and blood bonds may result. Additionally, the Darkness Within may take blood from only one individual per turn, though it may be in contact with many. Shadowstep The vampire has such ﬁne control over the darkness that he may become it brieﬂy and reform himself from other darkness close by. The vampire may Shadowstep through walls, ﬂoors, and even mystical barriers. The Cainite simply steps “into” a shadow and re-emerges from another shadow a short distance away (or next to the barrier, if there is no shadow on the other side). System: The player rolls Dexterity + Occult, and on a successful roll, the character may emerge from anoth-er shadow no more than 50 feet (or 15 meters) away. Failing the roll means simply that the character cannot step through the shadow-realm, while a botch signi-ﬁes the character has become trapped between shad-ows (which ﬁendish Storytellers should have a heyday with). Pulling another individual through the shadow requires a Strength + Occult roll, with consequences for failure similar to failing by oneself. Shadow Twin The vampire's control over darkness has progressed to such a degree that he may bestow upon it a lim-ited degree of sentience. By animating his own shadow or that of another, the Cainite can actually “free” the shadow cast by light. While this power is active, the subject casts no shadow, as it has left to pursue the vampire's commands. This power can unnerve mortals and even a few inex-perienced vampires. The Kindred wielding Obtenebra-tion commands the individual's shadow; some vampires report having seen mortals literally scared to death, as their shadows leapt away to taunt or menace them. System: The player spends a blood point and makes a Willpower roll (difﬁculty 8). If the roll succeeds, the shadow springs to unholy freedom for one hour per success (though it disappears at sunrise regardless of how many successes the vampire had). The Shadow Twin has Attribute and Ability ratings equal to half those of its parent body; they won't do much talking or thinking, so Mental and Social Traits don't matter much, though Wits may come into play. Additionally, the Shadow Twin has an Obtenebration score equal to one-half of that of the vampire who animated it (rounded down). Mortals and vampires unused to Ob-tenebration require a Courage roll upon witnessing this, as per Shadow Play. The twin may separate itself from the parent and travel up to 50 feet or 15 meters away, crawling through crevices or sliding up walls. It may attack and be attacked, though it takes and does only half dam-age (again, round down). Flame and supernatural at-tacks (such as vampire fangs, mystical powers, etc. ) do full damage. If the Shadow Twin is killed, its parent loses half her Willpower points and must roll to avoid Rötschreck (difﬁculty 9).	disciplinas.pdf
192 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Oubliette By creating a “chamber” of pure darkness, the Cain-ite may entrap or smother her enemies. No air exists in this shadow-trap, and mortals suffocate within its chilling void. Even vampires have little recourse once trapped — they may leave only at their captor's whim. The Oubliette appears as a dense patch of shadow, un-affected by ambient light around it. System: The vampire spends a blood point, but no roll is necessary to create the Oubliette. To actually create the Oubliette around someone requires a con-tested Wits + Larceny roll against the target's Dexterity + Occult (difﬁculty 7 for both rolls). Mortals suffocate within a number of minutes equal to their Stamina (though the Lasombra may choose to leave their heads exposed or trap a quantity of air inside as well), while vampires are simply suspended impotently in darkness and may not use Disciplines or take other actions. The Oubliette vanishes instantly when touched by sunlight — which has left more than one vampire exposed to the sun's unforgiving rays — or when the Kindred chooses to relax it. A vampire may maintain only one Oubliette at a time (which can only contain one target at a time), which leads some Cainite philosophers to argue that it is a prison created from the vampire's very soul. Ahriman's Demesne This power allows the vampire to summon a dark-ness so oppressive that it extinguishes the light of life — or unlife — of any victim trapped within it. Ahri-man's Demesne creates a 50-foot (or 15-meter) radius of void that issues from the Cainite's hand and takes away the bodies of those it claims when it vanishes. The overwhelming darkness destroys friend and foe alike, claiming anyone unfortunate enough to be with-in its circumference. System: The player spends two points of Willpower and concentrates for three turns. During this time, the blackness billows out of the character's hand, growing to ﬁll the area. At the end of the third turn, the player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difﬁculty 6). Everyone in the darkness' area suffers that many health levels of damage (aggravated, if the victims are vampires) out-right — six successes yield six levels of damage, not six dice of damage. After Ahriman's Demesne does its damage, it collapses, taking with it the bodies of any who died when they came in contact with the dreadful shadow. Potence Kindred endowed with Potence possess unnatu-ral strength. This Discipline enables vampire to leap massive distances, lift tremendous weights, and strike opponents with brutal force. Even low ranks of this power can give Kindred physical power beyond mor-tal bounds. More powerful Kindred can leap so far that they appear to be ﬂying, toss cars like soda cans, and punch through walls like cardboard. While the more subtle mental Disciplines can be awe-inspiring, the brutal effectiveness of Potence is formidable in its own right. The Brujah, Giovanni, Lasombra, and Nosferatu are naturally gifted with this Discipline, but members of other Clans often make a point to ﬁnd someone who can teach them the awesome power of Potence. System: Each dot that the vampire has in Potence adds one die to all Strength-related dice rolls. Further, the player can spend one blood point and change his Potence dice into an equal number of automatic suc-cesses to all Strength-related rolls for the turn. In me-lee and brawling combat, successes from Potence (ei-ther rolled or automatic) are applied to the damage roll results. Potence 6+ While ﬂesh and blood have their limits, undead sin-ews and vitae have a bit more latitude when it comes to feats of strength. Vampires who are close to Caine in descent are sometimes capable of strength-based ma-neuvers that awe even other vampires. A product of blood and will as much as of muscle and bone, mastery of Potence gives a vampire the ability to do far more than just lift progressively heavier objects — if the vampire himself is willing to learn an alternate way. Advanced Potence powers can be purchased in the same fashion as advanced Celerity or Fortitude powers: A character can choose to learn an alternate power in-stead of advancing along the Discipline's normal pro-gression, and can later go back and re-purchase what he's missed. Imprint A vampire with extensive knowledge of Potence can squeeze very, very hard. As a matter of fact, she can squeeze (or press, or push) so hard that she can leave an imprint of her ﬁngers or hand in any hard surface up to and including solid steel. A use of Imprint can	disciplinas.pdf
193 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONsimply serve as a threat, or it can be used, for example, to dig handholds into sheer surfaces for purposes of climbing. System: Imprint requires a point of blood to activate. The power remains active for the duration of a scene. The depth of the imprint the vampire creates with Im-print is up to the Storyteller — decisions should take into account how much force the vampire can bring to bear, the toughness of the material, and its thickness. If the object the vampire grasps is thin enough, at the Storyteller's discretion, the vampire might simply be able to push through it (in the case of a wall) or tear it off (in the case of a spear or pipe). Earthshock According to some pundits, Potence is merely the art of hitting something very hard. But what do you do when your target is too far away to hit directly? The answer is, if you're sufﬁciently talented with the Dis-cipline, to employ Earthshock. On its simplest level, Earthshock is the ability to hit the ground at point A, and subsequently have the force of the blow emerge from the ground at point B. System: The use of Earthshock requires the expendi-ture of two blood points, as well as a normal Dexterity + Brawl roll. The vampire punches or stamps on the ground, and, if the attack is a success, the force of the blow emerges from the ground as a geyser of stone and earth directly underneath the target. The attack can be dodged at a +2 difﬁculty. Earthshock's range is 10 feet or three meters for ev-ery level of Potence the vampire has, up to the limits of visibility. A failure on the attack roll means that the strike goes errant and is liable to explode anywhere within range; a botch means that the vampire pulver-izes the ground beneath him and may well bury himself in the process. Flick It is a truism that “the great ones always make it look easy. ” In the case of Flick, that saying stops being a truism and becomes literal truth. With this power, a master of Potence can make the slightest gesture — a wave, a snap of the ﬁngers, the toss of a ball — and have it unleash the full, devastating impact of a dead-on strike. The attack can come without warning, limit-ing the target's ability to dodge or anticipate; this makes Flick one of the most feared applications of Potence. System: Flick costs a point of blood, and requires a Dexterity + Brawl roll (difﬁculty 6). The vampire must also make some sort of gesture directing the blow. What the gesture is remains up to the player — any-thing from a snap of the ﬁngers to a blown kiss has worked in the past. Flick's range is equal to the limit of the Kindred's perception, and the blow struck does damage equal to a normal punch (including all bonuses). Presence Presence is the Discipline of emotional manipula-tion. Vampires with this power can inspire passionate fervor or unreasoning terror in mortals and Kindred alike. In addition, unlike most Disciplines, some of Presence's powers can be used on entire crowds at one time. Presence can transcend race, religion, gender, class, and (most importantly) supernatural nature. As such, this subtle power is one of the most useful Disci-plines a vampire can possess. Anyone can resist Presence for one scene by spend-ing a Willpower point and succeeding on a Willpower roll (difﬁculty 8), but the affected individual must keep spending points until he is no longer in the presence of the vampire (or, in the case of Summon, until the effect wears off). Vampires three or more Generations lower than the wielder need only spend a single Will-power to ignore the Presence for an entire night and need not roll Willpower to do so. The major drawback of Presence is that it controls only the emotions. It causes others to feel a certain way toward the vampire, but does not give her outright control over them. While people weigh strongly the orders that the vampire declares, their minds are still their own. Suicidal or ridiculous directives don't sound any more sensible just because the person giving them is unusually fascinating. Still, inspired eloquence or signiﬁcant wealth used in combination with this Dis-cipline can enable the vampire to urge others along a desired course. The Brujah, Followers of Set, Toreador, and Ventrue Clans are all adept in this Discipline. The Ventrue are arguably the most skilled with its application, however, due to their ability to use Presence and Dominate in efﬁcient combination. Awe Those near the vampire suddenly desire to be closer to her and become receptive to her point of view. Awe is extremely useful for mass communication. It matters	disciplinas.pdf
194 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESlittle what is said — the hearts of those affected lean toward the vampire's opinion. The weak want to agree with her; even if the strong-willed resist, they soon ﬁnd themselves outnumbered. Awe can turn a chancy deliberation into a certain resolution in the vampire's favor almost before her opponents know that the tide has turned. Despite the intensity of this attraction, those so smit-ten do not lose their sense of self-preservation. Danger breaks the spell of fascination, as does leaving the area. Those subject to Awe will remember how they felt in the vampire's presence, however. This will inﬂuence their reactions should they ever encounter her again. System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Charisma + Performance (difﬁculty 7). The number of successes rolled determines how many people are af-fected, as noted on the chart below. If there are more people present than the character can inﬂuence, Awe affects those with lower Willpower ratings ﬁrst. The power stays in effect for the remainder of the scene or until the character chooses to drop it. Successes Result 1 success One person 2 successes Two people 3 successes Six people 4 successes 20 people 5 successes Everyone in the vampire's immediate vicinity (an entire auditorium, a mob) Those affected can use Willpower points to overcome the effect, but must continue spending Willpower ev-ery scene for as long as they remain in the same area as the vampire. As soon as an individual spends a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled, he shakes off the Awe completely and remains unaffected for the rest of the night. Dread Gaze While all Kindred can frighten others by physically revealing their true vampiric natures — baring claws and fangs, glaring with malevolence, hissing loudly with malice — this power focuses these elements to insanely terrifying levels. Dread Gaze engenders unbearable ter-ror in its victim, stupefying him into madness, immobil-ity, or reckless ﬂight. Even the most stalwart individual will fall back from the vampire's horriﬁc visage. System: The player rolls Charisma + Intimidation (difﬁculty equal to the victim's Wits + Courage). Suc-	disciplinas.pdf
195 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONcess indicates the victim is cowed, while failure means the target is startled but not terriﬁed by the sight. Three or more successes means he runs away in abject fear; victims who have nowhere to run claw at the walls, hoping to dig a way out rather than face the vampire. Moreover, each success subtracts one from the target's action dice pools next turn. The character may attempt Dread Gaze once per turn against a single target, though she may also perform it as an extended action, adding her successes in order to subjugate the target completely. Once the target loses enough dice that he cannot perform any action, he's so shaken and terriﬁed that he curls up on the ground and weeps. Failure during the extended action means the attempt falters. The character loses all her collected successes and can start over next turn, while the victim may act normally again. A botch at any time indicates the target is not at all impressed — perhaps even ﬁnding the vampire's antics comical — and remains immune to any further uses of Presence by the character for the rest of the story. Entrancement This power bends others' emotions, making them the vampire's willing servants. Due to what these in-dividuals see as true and enduring devotion, they heed the vampire's every desire. Since this is done willingly, instead of having their wills sapped, these servants re-tain their creativity and individuality. While these obedient minions are more personable and spirited than the mind-slaves created by Domi-nate, they're also somewhat unpredictable. Further, since Entrancement is of a temporary duration, dealing with a lapsed servant can be troublesome. A wise Kin-dred either disposes of those she Entrances after they serve their usefulness, or binds them more securely by a blood bond (made much easier by the minion's willing-ness to serve). System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Appearance + Empathy (difﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points); the number of successes determines how long the subject is Entranced, as per the chart below. (Subjects can still spend Willpower to temporarily resist, like any other Presence power. ) The Storyteller may wish to make the roll instead, since the character is never certain of the strength of her hold on the victim. The vampire may try to keep the subject under her thrall, but can do so only after the initial Entrancement wears off. Attempting this power while Entrancement is already in operation has no effect. Successes Result Botch Subject cannot be entranced for the rest of the story. Failure Subject cannot be entranced for the rest of the night. 1 success One hour 2 successes One day 3 successes One week 4 successes One month 5 successes One year Summon This impressive power enables the vampire to call to herself any person whom she has ever met. This call can go to anyone, mortal or supernatural, across any distance within the physical world. The subject of the Summons comes as fast as he is able, possibly without even knowing why. He knows intuitively how to ﬁnd his Summoner — even if the vampire moves to a new location, the subject redirects his own course as soon as he can. After all, he's coming to the vampire herself, not to some predetermined site. Although this power allows the vampire to call some-one across a staggering distance, it is most useful when used locally. Even if the desired person books the next available ﬂight, getting to Kyoto from Milwaukee can still take far longer than the vampire needs. Obviously, the individual's ﬁnancial resources are a factor; if he doesn't have the money to travel quickly, it will take him a far greater time to get there. The subject thinks mainly of reaching the vampire, but does not neglect his own well-being. This is less of a consideration if he only has to cross a room, un-less he must get through a gang of gun-wielding punks to do so. The individual retains his survival instincts, and while he won't shirk physical violence to reach the vampire's side, he won't subject himself to suicidal situations. The Summoning dissipates at dawn. Unless the sub-ject is trained to continue toward the vampire after the ﬁrst call, the immortal must Summon each night until the target arrives. Still, as long as the vampire is will-ing and able, she is assured to greet her desired subject some night — as long as nothing happens to him along the way, of course. System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Charisma + Subterfuge. The base difﬁculty is 5; this in-	disciplinas.pdf
196 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINEScreases to difﬁculty 7 if the subject was met only brieﬂy. If the character used Presence successfully on the target in the past, this difﬁculty drops to 4, but if the attempt was unsuccessful, the difﬁculty rises to 8. The number of successes indicates the subject's speed and attitude in responding: Successes Result Botch Subject cannot be Summoned by that vampire for the rest of the story. Failure Subject cannot be Summoned by that vampire for the rest of the night. 1 success Subject approaches slowly and hesitantly. 2 successes Subject approaches reluctantly and is easily thwarted by obstacles. 3 successes Subject approaches with reasonable speed. 4 successes Subject comes with haste, overcoming any obstacles in his way. 5 successes Subject rushes to the vampire, doing anything to get to her. Majesty At this stage, the vampire can augment her super-natural mien a thousandfold. The attractive become paralyzingly beautiful; the homely become hideously twisted. Majesty inspires universal respect, devo-tion, fear — or all those emotions at once — in those around the vampire. The weak scramble to obey her every whim, and even the most dauntless ﬁnd it almost impossible to deny her. People affected ﬁnd the vampire so formidable that they dare not risk her displeasure. Raising their voices to her is difﬁcult; raising a hand against her is unthink-able. Those few who shake off the vampire's potent mystique enough to oppose her are shouted down by the many under her thrall, before the immortal need even respond. Under Majesty's inﬂuence, hearts break, power trem-bles, and the bold shake. Wise Kindred use this power with caution against mortal and immortal alike. While Majesty can cow inﬂuential politicians and venerable Pri-mogen, the vampire must be careful that doing so doesn't come back to haunt her. After all, a dignitary brought low before others loses his usefulness quickly, while a hu-miliated Kindred has centuries to plan revenge. System: No roll is required on the part of the vam-pire, but she must spend a Willpower point. A subject must make a Courage roll (difﬁculty equal to the vam-pire's Charisma + Intimidation, to a maximum of 10) if he wishes to be rude or simply contrary to the vampire. Success allows the individual to act normally for the moment, although he feels the weight of the vampire's displeasure crushing down on him. A subject who fails the roll aborts his intended action and even goes to absurd lengths to humble himself before the vampire, no matter who else is watching. The effects of Majesty last for one scene. Love The blood bond is one of the most powerful tools in an elder's inventory. However, more and more childer are aware of how to avoid being bound, so alterna-tives are needed. The Presence power called Love is one such alternative, as it simulates the effects of the bond without any of the messy side effects. While not as sure a method of control as a true blood bond, nor as long-lasting, Love is still an extremely potent means of command. System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points). Success on the roll indi-cates that the victim feels as attached to the character as if he were blood bound to her. Each success also re-duces the victim's dice pool by one die for any Social rolls to be made against the character. A botch makes the target immune to all of the character's Presence powers for the rest of the night. This power lasts for one scene and can be applied to the same victim over multiple scenes in the same night. Paralyzing Glance Some elders have honed their mastery of Dread Gaze to such a degree that they are said to be able to para-lyze with a look. The power's name is something of a misnomer, as victims of this power are not precisely paralyzed in a physical sense, but rather frozen with sheer terror. System: The character must make eye contact (p. 152) with her intended victim. The player then rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points). Success renders the victim so terriﬁed that he falls into a whimpering, catatonic state, unable to take any actions except curl-	disciplinas.pdf
197 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONing into a fetal position and gibbering incoherently. The condition lasts for a length of time determined by the number of successes rolled. If the victim's life is di-rectly threatened (by assault, impending sunrise, etc. ), the poor wretch may attempt to break out of his paraly-sis with a Courage roll (difﬁculty equal to the charac-ter's Intimidation + 3). One success ends the paralysis. A botch sends the victim into a continuous state of Rötschreck for the rest of the night. Successes Result 1 success Three turns 2 successes Five minutes 3 successes Remainder of the scene 4 successes One hour 5 successes Rest of the night 6+ successes A week (or more, at Storyteller discretion) Spark of Rage A vampire possessing this power can shorten tem-pers and bring old grudges and irritations to the boiling point with a minimum of effort. Spark of Rage causes disagreements and ﬁghts, and can even send other vampires into frenzy. System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difﬁculty 8). The num-ber of individuals affected is determined by how many successes are rolled. If this power is used in a crowd, those affected are the people in closest proximity to the character. A vampire affected by this power must spend a Willpower point or roll Self-Control/Instinct (difﬁculty equal to the character's Manipulation + Subterfuge); failure sends the target into a frenzy. A botch by the vampire using Spark of Rage sends the invoking character into immediate frenzy. Successes Result 1 success Two people 2 successes Four people 3 successes Eight people 4 successes 20 people 5 successes Everyone in the character's immediate vicinity	disciplinas.pdf
198 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Cooperation Any elder knows that Kindred are the most difﬁcult beings in existence to force to work together. Peaceful coexistence is not a common tenet of vampiric society. With that in mind, this power can be used to nudge those affected by it into a fragile spirit of camaraderie. Some cynical (or realistic) Ventrue claim that their Clan's mastery of this Presence effect is the sole reason that anything is ever accomplished in Camarilla con-claves. Ventrue who voice this opinion too loudly also tend to have numerous chances to test just how effec-tive Cooperation is. System: To invoke Cooperation, the player spends a blood point and rolls Charisma + Leadership (difﬁculty 8). The number of individuals affected is determined by how many successes the player rolls. Cooperation lasts for the remainder of the scene in which it is invoked, though particularly strong users of Presence may create longer-lasting feelings of non-aggression (at Storyteller discretion) by spending Willpower. While this power is in effect, all those under its inﬂuence are more favor-ably disposed toward one another and are more willing to extend trust or make cooperative plans. For the most part, players should simply roleplay Co-operation's effects, but there are some concrete ramiﬁ-cations to the power's use. For example, Self-Control/ Instinct difﬁculties to resist frenzy in response to insults from within the target group are decreased by three, and certain Social Flaws may be decreased in impact for the duration of Cooperation. Successes Result 1 success Two people 2 successes Four people 3 successes Eight people 4 successes 20 people 5 successes Everyone in the character's immediate vicinity Ironclad Command Any individual can normally resist the powers of Presence for a brief time through an effort of will. Some elder Toreador and Ventrue have developed such force of personality that their powers of Presence cannot be resisted without truly heroic efforts. System: This power is always in effect once it has been learned. A mortal may not spend Willpower to re-sist the character's Presence (for purposes of this power, the deﬁnition of “mortal” does not include supernatu-rally active humans such as ghouls or those who possess True Faith). A supernatural being must roll Willpower (difﬁculty of the character's Willpower + 2; difﬁculties over 10 mean that the roll cannot even be attempted) the ﬁrst time he attempts to spend a Willpower point to overcome the character's Presence. For the rest of the night, the maximum number of Willpower points he can spend to resist the vampire's Presence powers is equal to the number of successes he rolled. A botch doubles the character's Presence dice pools against the hapless victim for the remainder of the night. Pulse of the City A vampire who has developed her Presence to this terrifying degree can control the emotional climate of the entire region around her, up to the size of a large city. This power is always in effect on a low level, at-tuning those who dwell in the area to the Kindred's mood, but it can also be used to project a speciﬁc emo-tion into the minds of every being in the area. Pulse of the City affects residents much more strongly than tourists, and also has a signiﬁcant impact on those in-dividuals who might be elsewhere at the time but who still have strong ties to the affected city. System: The character must be present in the city in question, and have at least a casual, personal knowl-edge of its streets and makeup (maps won't help). The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Charisma + Streetwise (difﬁculty 9, though specializations or Sto-ryteller ﬁat may decrease this difﬁculty if the character is intimately familiar with a particular city). The num-ber of successes indicates how long mortal residents are affected by the particular emotion that the character broadcasts; visitors with no ties to the area and super-natural beings are affected for a duration one success step lower. The character can choose to terminate this effect at any time before it expires. Successes Result 1 success One minute 2 successes 10 minutes 3 successes One hour 4 successes One day 5 successes One week Pulse of the City can be used by a character in torpor.	disciplinas.pdf
199 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONProtean Protean allows the Kindred the mystical ability to manipulate his physical form. Some vampires believe the power stems from a heightened connection to the natural world, while others consider it to be a magni-ﬁcation of the mark of Caine. Whatever its basis may be, those that develop this Discipline can grow bestial claws, take on the forms of bats and wolves, turn them-selves into mist, and even meld into the very earth it-self. Transformed Kindred can generally use other Disci-plines — vampires in wolf form can still read auras and communicate with other animals, for example. How-ever, the Storyteller may rule that certain Disciplines may not be used in speciﬁc situations. The Kindred's clothes and personal possessions also change when he transforms (presumably absorbed within his very sub-stance), although armor and the like do not provide any beneﬁt while transformed. Vampires cannot change or transform large objects or other beings; Protean is a personal expression of power. A Kindred who has been staked (thereby trapping his soul within his body) cannot transform. Some vam-pires believe that those who have mastered the highest levels of Protean can deny this limitation, however. The Gangrel Clan is well known for their mastery of Protean, although other Kindred have learned some of this Discipline's secrets from these bestial Cainites. Eyes of the Beast The vampire sees perfectly well in pitch darkness, not requiring a light source to notice details in even the darkest basement or cave. The vampire's Beast is evident in his red glowing eyes, a sight sure to disturb most mortals. System: The character must declare his desire to call forth the Eyes. No roll is necessary, but the change re-quires a full turn to complete. While manifesting the Eyes, the character suffers a +1 difﬁculty to all Social rolls with mortals unless he takes steps to shield his eyes (sunglasses are the simplest solution). (A vampire without this power who is immersed in total darkness suffers blind-ﬁghting penalties as per p. 274. ) Feral Claws The vampire's nails transform into long, bestial claws. These talons are wickedly sharp, able to rend ﬂesh with ease and even carve stone and metal with little trouble. The Beast is prominent in the claws as well, making them fearsome weapons against other immortals. It's rumored that some Gangrel have modiﬁed this power to change their vampiric fangs into vicious tusks. System: The claws grow automatically in response to the character's desire, and can grow from both hands and feet. The transformation requires the expenditure of a blood point, takes a single turn to complete, and lasts for a scene. The character attacks normally in combat, but the claws inﬂict Strength + 1 aggravated damage. Other supernaturals cannot normally soak this damage, al-though a power such as Fortitude may be used. Addi-tionally, the difﬁculties of all climbing rolls are reduced by two. Earth Meld One of the most prized powers within Protean, Earth Meld enables the vampire to become one with the earth. The immortal literally sinks into the bare ground, transmuting his substance to bond with the earth. Though a vampire can immerse himself fully into the ground, he cannot move around within it. Further, it is impossible to meld into earth through another sub-stance. Wood slats, blacktop, even artiﬁcial turf blocks Earth Meld's effectiveness — then again, it's a rela-tively simple matter for a vampire at this level of power to grow claws and rip apart enough of the ﬂooring to expose the raw soil beneath. By interring himself in the ground, the vampire gains full protection from daylight when outdoors. It is also the method of choice for those Kindred who wish to sleep away the centuries; these vampires lock them-selves in the earth's embrace, gaining strength and power as they rest. Superstitious and paranoid Kindred whisper that thousands of Ancients sleep within the ground and will awaken when Gehenna arrives. While so interred, the vampire is in a transitional state between ﬂesh and earth. His physical presence exists between the physical world and the astral plane. As such, the vampire is difﬁcult to sense, even through supernatural means. However, a disruption to the soil that the immortal occupies, or to his presence on the astral realm, returns him immediately to the physical world (and to full wakefulness), showering dirt out-ward as his body displaces the soil. System: No roll is necessary, although the charac-ter must spend a blood point. Sinking into the earth is	disciplinas.pdf
200 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESautomatic and takes a turn to complete. The character falls into a state one step above torpor during this time, sensing his surroundings only distantly. The player must make a Humanity or Path roll (difﬁculty 6) for the character to rouse himself in response to danger prior to his desired time of emergence. Since the character is in an in-between state, any at-tempts to locate him (catching his scent, scanning for his aura, traveling astrally, and so on) are made at +2 difﬁculty. Astral individuals cannot affect the vampire directly, instead meeting with a kind of spongy resis-tance as their hands pass through him. Similarly, dig-ging in the material world encounters incredibly hard-packed earth, virtually as dense as stone. Attempts at violence upon the submerged vampire from either side return him to his physical nature, ex-pelling the soil with which he bonded in a blinding spray (all Perception-based rolls are at +2 difﬁculty for the turn). The character himself subtracts two from his initiative for the ﬁrst turn after his restoration, due to momentary disorientation. Once expelled from the earth, the vampire may act normally. Shape of the Beast This endows the vampire with the legendary ability to transform into a wolf or bat. A Kindred changed in this way is a particularly imposing representative of the animal kingdom. Indeed, he is far superior to normal animals, even ones possessed by Subsume the Spirit. He retains his own psyche and temperament, but can still call upon the abilities of the beast form — increased senses for the wolf and ﬂight for the bat. Gangrel are reputed to change to other animal forms better suited to their environment — jackals in Africa, dholes in Asia, and even enormous rats in urban envi-ronments — a feat that other Clans learning Protean cannot seem to duplicate. System: The character spends one blood point to as-sume the desired shape. The transformation requires three turns to complete (spending additional blood points reduces the time of transformation by one turn per point spent, to a minimum of one). The vampire remains in his beast form until the next dawn, unless he wishes to change back sooner. While in the animal's shape, the vampire can use any Discipline he possesses except Necromancy, Serpen-tis, Thaumaturgy, or Vicissitude (as well as any others the Storyteller deems unavailable). Furthermore, each form gives the character the abilities of that creature. In wolf form, the vampire's teeth and claws inﬂict Strength + 1 aggravated damage, he can run at double speed, and the difﬁculties of all Perception rolls are re-duced by two. In bat form, the vampire's Strength is re-duced to 1, but he can ﬂy at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour, difﬁculties for all hearing-based Perception rolls are reduced by three, and attacks made against him are at +2 difﬁculty due to his small size. The Storyteller may allow Gangrel to assume a dif-ferent animal shape, but should establish the natural abilities it grants the character. Mist Form This truly unsettling power enables the vampire to turn into mist. His physical shape disperses into a hazy cloud, but one still subject entirely to the immortal's will. He ﬂoats at a brisk pace and may slip under doors, through screens, down pipes, and through other tiny openings. Although strong winds can blow the vam-pire from his chosen course, even hurricane-force winds cannot disperse his mist shape. Some Kindred feel that this power is an expression of the vampire's ultimate control over the material world, while others believe that it is the immortal's soul made manifest (damned though it may be). System: No roll is required, although a blood point must be spent. The transformation takes three turns to complete, although the character may reduce this time by one turn for each additional blood point spent (to a minimum of one turn). Strong winds may buffet the character, although Disciplines such as Potence may be used to resist them. Vampires in Mist Form can per-ceive their surroundings normally, although they can-not use powers that require eye contact. The vampire is immune to all mundane physical at-tacks while in mist form, although supernatural attacks affect him normally. Also, the vampire takes one fewer die of damage from ﬁre and sunlight. The character may not attack others physically while in this state — this includes encountering another vampire in mist form. He may use Disciplines that do not require physical substance, however. Earth Control An Earth Melded character with this power is no longer conﬁned to the resting place she selected the night before. She can pass through the ground as if it were water, “swimming” through the earth itself. Some elders use this as a means of unobstructed and unobtru-sive travel, while others ﬁnd it a highly effective means of maneuvering in combat.	disciplinas.pdf
201 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONSystem: This power is in effect whenever a character is Earth Melded, with no additional roll or expenditure necessary. While in the ground, a vampire can propel herself at half of her normal walking speed. She cannot see, but gains a supernatural awareness of her under-ground surroundings out to a range of 50 yards or me-ters. Water, rock, tree roots, and cement all effectively block her progress; she can only move through earth and substances of similar consistency, such as sand or ﬁne gravel. If two or more vampires attempt to inter-act underground, only direct physical contact is pos-sible. All damage dice pools in this case are halved, and dodge and parry attempts are at-2 difﬁculty. If an underground chase takes place, it is resolved with an extended, contested Strength + Athletics roll (see p. 261). Flesh of Marble Tales have long spoken of the combat prowess of Gangrel elders and of their inhuman resilience. Poorly informed individuals believe the stories of swords shat-tering and bullets ﬂattening against immortal skin to be exaggerated reports of the effects of Fortitude. Those with more reliable information know that such tales result from encounters with vampires who have developed Flesh of Marble. The skin of an elder with Flesh of Marble becomes in essence a sort of ﬂexible stone, although it appears (and feels) no different than normal skin and muscle. System: The player spends three blood points to ac-tivate Flesh of Marble, which goes into effect instantly. The effects of the power last for the remainder of the scene. While the power is functioning, the damage dice pools of all physical attacks made against the character are halved (round down). That includes assaults made with ﬁsts, claws, swords, ﬁrearms, and explosions, but not ﬁre, sunlight, or supernatural powers (unless the effect in question is a direct physical attack, such as a rock hurled by means of Movement of the Mind). Ad-ditionally, while this power is in effect, a character can attempt to parry melee attacks with his bare hands as if he were holding some form of weapon. Restore the Mortal Visage Cainites are of two opinions regarding this power. Those who are politically active, or who associate ex-tensively with mortals, view it as both necessary and acceptable. Those Kindred who embrace their more fe-ral sides, however, see it as a disgusting deﬁance of the very nature of vampirism. The schism comes because the power allows the elder who possesses it to tempo-	disciplinas.pdf
202 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESrarily return his appearance to what it was before the Embrace, removing the bestial features he has accu-mulated over the centuries. Restore the Mortal Visage has only been displayed by Gangrel; several Nosferatu elders have attempted to develop it, and it is whispered that they met spontaneous, grotesque Final Deaths when they attempted to take their mortal forms. System: The player spends three blood points and a Willpower point and rolls Willpower (difﬁculty 8). Success restores the character's appearance to what it was just before he was ﬁrst Embraced, erasing all physi-cal or social animalistic features gained from frenzies (see p. 55). The power also affects any of the charac-ter's affected Traits relating to social interaction, re-turning them to their original values (for example, lost Appearance dots return, but Humanity points removed due to frenzy are not). A botched Willpower roll earns the character another feature, as per the Gangrel Clan weakness. Once activated, Restore the Mortal Visage lasts for the remainder of the scene. Shape of the Beast's Wrath Users of this power are often mistaken for Tzimisce employing the Vicissitude power Horrid Form. A vam-pire employing this power shifts into a huge, monstrous form, gaining half her height again and tripling her weight. Her overall shape ﬂows into an unholy amal-gamation of her own form and that of the animal she feels the closest kinship to (wolves, rats, and great cats are the most common manifestations, though ravens, serpents, bats, and stranger beasts have been reported). The vampire's new shape does bear some vague resem-blance to the war-forms of the werecreatures, but the difference quickly becomes apparent. System: The player spends three blood points, the expenditure of which triggers the change. The charac-ter's transformation takes three turns (the player may spend additional blood points to reduce this time at a cost of one point per turn of reduction). Once trans-formed, the character remains in this form until sunrise or until she shifts back voluntarily. The precise Traits of this form are determined when the character ﬁrst learns this power, as is the animal whose appearance the character takes on. The vam-pire's new form adds a total of seven dots to the char-acter's Physical Attributes. At least one dot must go into each Physical Attribute, meaning that no more than ﬁve can go into any one (so a character could have +5 Strength, +1 Dexterity, and +1 Stamina, but not +2 Strength and +5 Dexterity). These bonuses are always the same once they are selected; a different al-location requires that the character buy this power a second time and thus purchase another alternate form. Additionally, the character inﬂicts Strength + 2 dice of aggravated damage with both bite and claw attacks when in monstrous form. She also gains an extra Hurt health level, and doubles her normal running speed. Finally, the character's perceptions are also height-ened. She is assumed to have both the Auspex power Heightened Senses and the Protean power Eyes of the Beast after transformation, with all of the beneﬁts and drawbacks of each. This form does carry two additional drawbacks. The ﬁrst is a lack of communication ability. The character's Social Attributes all drop to 1, or to 0 if they already were 1 (except when making Intimidation rolls) when the transformation occurs. The second problem that a character in this form encounters is the suddenly heightened power of her Beast. All difﬁculties of rolls to resist frenzy are increased by two for the duration of the power's effect, and the player may not spend Will-power points on such rolls. Spectral Body This powerful variation on Mist Form allows a vam-pire to take a shape with most of the advantages of the lesser power but fewer of the disadvantages. A vampire who assumes Spectral Form retains his normal appear-ance, but becomes completely insubstantial. He walks through walls and bullets with equal ease, and can pass through the ﬂoor on which he stands if he chooses to. Although his lungs are no longer solid, the vampire can still speak, a fact in which some elders of the Daughters of Cacophony bloodline have expressed great interest. System: The player spends three blood points. The transformation takes one turn to complete, and lasts for the rest of the night unless the character decides to reverse it. When the power takes hold, the character becomes completely insubstantial, but remains fully visible. Henceforth, he is unaffected by any physical attacks, and he doubles his dice pool to soak damage from ﬁre and sunlight. The vampire may even ignore gravity if he chooses to do so, rising and sinking through solid objects if he does not wish to stand on them (al-though he may move no faster than his normal walk-ing speed while “ﬂying” in this manner). While in this form, the character may also use any Disciplines that do not require physical contact or a physical body. On the downside, while in Spectral Form, a vampire can physically manipulate his environment only through the use of powers such as Movement of the Mind.	disciplinas.pdf
203 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Purify the Impaled Beast Camarilla records indicate that a disproportionately small number of Gangrel elders were killed by mortals and Anarchs during the Inquisition and the Anarch Revolt. This power is one of the primary reasons for the survival of these Kindred. An elder with this Pro-tean power can expel foreign objects from her body with great force, even excising stakes that transﬁx her heart. System: The player spends three blood points and rolls Willpower (difﬁculty 6, or 8 if the vampire is para-lyzed by an object impaling her heart). One success is sufﬁcient to remove all foreign objects and substances from the character's body. Dirt, bullets, and even stakes through the heart are instantly and violently removed. The larger the object, the farther away it is hurled by this power. Objects expelled thus are considered to have an attack dice pool of three for any bystanders, and to have a dice pool of one to four (depending on size) for damage. If the character wishes to leave an ob-ject in his body (such as a prosthetic limb) or partially in (expelling a stake from his heart but leaving it stick-ing out of his breastbone as a ruse), the player must also spend a Willpower point when activating this power. Inward Focus This power has no outwardly visible effects what-soever. Indeed, its very existence is unknown outside those Gangrel Methuselahs who have developed it. The internal effects of this razor-sharp honing of Pro-tean, however, are in some ways more dramatic than any external manifestation. A vampire with this power can heighten the efﬁciency of his undead body's inter-nal workings to levels undreamed of by lesser Kindred, withstanding inconceivable amounts of injury and moving with blinding speed and shattering strength. System: The player spends four blood points to ac-tivate this power and an additional two blood points for every turn past the ﬁrst that Inward Focus is main-tained. There are three effects of this power: First, the character gains a number of extra actions during each turn equal to his unmodiﬁed Dexterity score. Second, the damage of his physical attacks is increased by three dice per dice pool. Finally, all damage inﬂicted on the character is halved and rounded down after the soak roll is made (so an attack that inﬂicts ﬁve health levels after soak is reduced to two health levels). This power may be used in conjunction with other Protean powers that modify the character's combat abilities, such as Shape of the Beast's Wrath (above). It may also be used in conjunction with Celerity, For-titude, and Potence, turning a vampire who has mas-tered this power into a truly terrifying opponent. Quietus The Discipline of silent death, Quietus is practiced by those of Clan Assamite. Based on elements of blood, poison, vitae control, and pestilence, Quietus focuses on the destruction of a target through a variety of means. This Discipline doesn't always cause a quick death, but the Assamites rely on its lethality to hide their involvement with their victims. Silence of Death Many Assamites claim never to have heard their targets' death screams. Silence of Death imbues the vampire with a mystical silence that radiates from her body, muting all noise within a certain vicinity. No sound occurs inside this zone, though sounds originat-ing outside the area of effect may be heard by anyone in it. Rumors abound of certain skilled Assamite viziers who have the ability to silence a location rather than a circumference that follows them, but no proof of this has been forthcoming. System: This power (which costs one blood point to activate) maintains a 20-foot (6-meter) radius of utter stillness around the Kindred for one hour. Scorpion's Touch By changing the properties of her blood, a vampire may create powerful venom that strips her prey of his re-silience. This power is greatly feared by other Kindred, and all manner of hideous tales concerning methods of delivery circulate among trembling coteries. Kindred with Quietus are known to deliver the poison by coat-ing their weapons with it, blighting their opponents with a touch, or spitting it like a cobra. An apocryphal account speaks of a proud Prince who discovered an Assamite plotting her exsanguination and began to diablerize her would-be assassin. Halfway through the act, she learned that she had ingested a dire quantity of tainted blood and was then unable to resist the weak-ened hashashiyyin's renewed attack. System: To convert a bit of her blood to poison, the Kindred's player spends at least one blood point and rolls Willpower (difﬁculty 6). If this roll is successful, and the vampire successfully hits (but not necessarily damages) her opponent, the target loses a number of Stamina points equal to the number of blood points	disciplinas.pdf
204 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESconverted into poison — vampires attempting to drink the blood of the Kindred with Scorpion's Touch are automatically considered to be “successfully hit. ” The victim may resist the poison with a Stamina + Fortitude roll (difﬁculty 6); successes achieved on the resistance roll subtract from the vampire's successes. The maximum number of blood points a Kindred may convert at any one time is equal to her Stamina. The number of successes scored indicates the duration of the Stamina loss. Successes Result 1 success One turn 2 successes One hour 3 successes One day 4 successes One month 5 successes Permanently (though Stamina may be bought back up with experience) If a mortal's Stamina falls to zero through use of Scor-pion's Touch, she becomes terminally ill and loses any immunity to diseases, her body succumbing to sickness within the year unless she somehow manages to in-crease her Stamina again. If a Kindred's Stamina falls to zero, the vampire enters torpor and remains that way until one of her Stamina points returns. If a Kindred is permanently reduced to zero Stamina, she may recover from torpor only through mystical means. To afﬂict someone with the poison, the Cainite must touch her target's ﬂesh or hit him with something that carries the venom. Many Assamites lubricate their weapons with the excretion, while others pool the tox-in in their hands (or ﬂeck their lips with the poison, for a “kiss of death”) and press it to their opponents. Weapons so envenomed must be of the melee variety — arrows, sling stones, bullets, thrown weapons, and the like cannot carry enough of the stuff to do damage, or it drips off in ﬂight. Players whose vampires wish to spit at their targets must make a Stamina + Athlet-ics roll (difﬁculty 6). No more than two blood points' worth of poison may be expectorated, and a Kindred may spit a distance of 10 feet (3 meters) for each point of Strength (and Potence) the character possesses. Vampires with Quietus are immune to their own poi-son, but not the blood-venom of other Kindred with this power. Dagon's Call This terrible power allows a vampire to drown her target in his own blood. By concentrating, the Kindred bursts her target's blood vessels and ﬁlls his lungs with vitae that strangles him from within. The blood actu-ally constricts the target's body from the inside as it ﬂoods through his system; thus, it works even on un-breathing Kindred. Until the target collapses in agony or death throes, this power has no visible effect, and many Kindred like it because it leaves no trace of their presence. System: The vampire must touch her target prior to using Dagon's Call. Within an hour thereafter, the vampire may issue the call, though she need not be in the presence or even in the line of sight of her target. Invoking the power costs one Willpower point. The Kindred's player makes a contested Stamina roll against the target's Stamina; the difﬁculty of each roll is equal to the opponent's permanent Willpower rat-ing. The number of successes the vampire using Da-gon's Call achieves is the amount of lethal damage, in health levels, the victim suffers. For an additional point of Willpower spent in the next turn, the vampire may continue using Dagon's Call by engaging in another contested Stamina roll. So long as the Kindred's player continues to spend Willpower, the character may con-tinue rending her opponent from within. Baal's Caress The penultimate use of blood as a weapon (short of diablerie itself), Baal's Caress allows the Kindred to transmute her blood into a virulent ichor that destroys any living or undead ﬂesh it touches. In nights of yore, when Assamites led the charges of Saracen legions, the Assassins were often seen licking their blades, slicing open their tongues and lubricating their weapons with this foul secretion. Baal's Caress may be used to augment any bladed weapon; everything from poisoned knives and swords to tainted ﬁngernails and claws has been reported. System: Baal's Caress does not increase the damage done by a given weapon, but that weapon inﬂicts ag-gravated damage rather than normal. No roll is nec-essary to activate this power, but one blood point is consumed per hit. For example, if a Cainite poisons his knife and strikes his opponent (even if he inﬂicts no damage), one blood point's worth of lubrication disap-pears. For this reason, many vampires choose to coat	disciplinas.pdf
205 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONtheir weapons with a signiﬁcant quantity of blood. If the vampire misses, no tainted blood is consumed. Taste of Death A reﬁnement of Baal's Caress, Taste of Death allows the Cainite to spit caustic blood at her target. The blood coughed forth with this power burns ﬂesh and corrodes bone; some vampires have been reported to vomit voluminous streams of vitae that reduce their targets to heaps of sludge. System: The vampire may spit up to 10 feet (3 me-ters) for each dot of Strength and Potence he possesses. Hitting the target requires a Stamina + Athletics roll (difﬁculty 6). Each blood point spewed at the target inﬂicts two dice of aggravated damage, and there is no limit (other than the vampire's capacity and per-turn expenditure maximum) to the quantity of blood with which a target may be deluged. Blood Sweat Although vampires do not have functioning se-baceous glands, they are still capable of sweating at times of extreme stress. This “sweat” is actually a thin sheen of blood on the Cainite's forehead and palms. Most Kindred see blood sweat as an admission of fear or guilt. The vampire who has mastered Blood Sweat is capable of inducing these feelings in a subject to a pre-ternatural degree. The victim experiences a torrential outpouring of vitae if he harbors the tiniest shred of remorse for any action he has ever undertaken. System: The character must be within line of sight of the subject and spend three turns concentrating. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manip-ulation + Intimidation (difﬁculty equal to the target's current Willpower points). The target loses one blood point per success. Mortals sustain injury as if they had lost blood from being fed upon. The target actually “sweats out” the lost blood in a sudden rush of sangui-nary perspiration that soaks his clothes. Large amounts may even form puddles at his feet. Blood lost through this process is considered dead, inert mortal blood, and provides minimal nutrition (half normal) for Cainites desperate enough to lick it up from the ﬂoor or wring it out of towels. It provides no sustenance for the indi-vidual from whom it emerged. In addition to the blood loss, the victim is overcome by a sense of remorse and guilt for his past transgres-sions (if he has a strong conscience) or an overwhelm-ing compulsion to brag (if he is of sufﬁciently coarse moral character). The severity of this impulse depends	disciplinas.pdf
206 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESon the number of successes rolled: One success could cause a slight twinge of conscience, while ﬁve successes may result in the subject breaking down and pouring out a full confession of his crimes. This effect is more story-oriented than mechanical, and the Storyteller is the ﬁnal authority on what the victim feels compelled to confess or boast. Note that this power's existence is not widely known. Vampires and mortals alike tend to shrink away from someone who begins spontaneously sweating blood, and experiencing such an afﬂiction may panic even the staunchest individual. Selective Silence Although Silence of Death is an effective tool for the battleﬁeld and the court alike, it is indiscriminate in its effects. The assassin who uses it in preparation for ﬁring a shotgun also silences the radio over which her comrades might warn her of an oncoming guard. The courtier who suppresses a room full of dissenting voices is likewise unable to speak her own mind. Se-lective Silence allows the skilled Cainite to overcome these limitations by silencing only those individuals or objects that she wants to silence. When using this power, most individuals exhale a thin mist of blood that clings to the selected subjects, gradually evaporating as Selective Silence's effects fade. Some vampires also use a similar technique when invoking Silence of Death, in which case the mist sur-rounds them and moves with them. System: The player spends two blood points and rolls Stamina + Stealth (difﬁculty 7). Each success al-lows for one individual or object that the character can silence with this use of the power. Each subject must be within 20 yards or meters of the character. Objects larger than a man count as more than one subject: a heavy machine gun counts as two, a car as three, and a small aircraft as ﬁve. Objects larger than a private jet or creatures larger than an elephant cannot be silenced through the use of this power. Each subject is completely silenced for a number of minutes equal to the character's permanent Willpower. Nothing it does generates sound, though the secondary effects of its actions will do so normally. For example, a gun silenced with this power will not produce an audi-ble explosion when ﬁred, but its bullets still make noise as they break the sound barrier. A silenced victim can scream all he likes and not make a sound, but may be able to summon help by smashing a window. Ripples of the Heart According to Assamite lore, this technique origi-nated with a Byzantine scholar who wanted to protect his herd from the thirst of other Cainites. Ripples of the Heart allows a Cainite to leave emotions within the bloodstream of any mortal from whom he feeds. Any other vampire who subsequently drinks from that mortal experiences those emotions as if they were his own. System: The character drinks at least one blood point from the subject mortal then spends a minute in physical contact with the subject while concentrating on the emotion he wishes to leave in her blood. The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Charisma + Empathy (difﬁculty 7 under normal circumstances, 5 if the subject is currently experiencing the intended emotion, 9 if he is currently experiencing a strong op-posite emotion). The subject's blood carries the weight of the intended emotion for one lunar month per suc-cess rolled. A mortal's blood can only carry one emo-tion at a time. Subsequent attempts to use Ripples of the Heart on the same individual have no effect until the previous application has worn off. Any vampire who drinks from a vessel under the ef-fects of Ripples of the Heart must succeed in a Self-Control/Instinct roll (difﬁculty of the mortal's current Willpower points) as soon as she swallows the ﬁrst blood point. If she fails this roll, the vitae-borne emo-tion immediately overtakes her. The strength of the emotion depends on how many blood points she drinks. One blood point results in a momentary mood swing, two causes a signiﬁcant shift in demeanor, and three or more generates a complete change in emotional state. Depending on the circumstances and the precise emotion, the effects of this may be spectacular or cata-strophic. A vampire overtaken by romantic passion may temporarily believe she is in love with the mortal (or any other convenient bystander). One who drinks from a hate-infused vessel may rend her prey to shreds, and one who takes a draught of a mortal touched with fear may run away screaming. The vampire remains subject to the emotion for a number of hours equal to the mortal's permanent Willpower, though she is still subject to other feelings after the initial rush of sensa-tion. The mortal who is under the effects of Ripples of the Heart is unaware of the power's effects on him, though he is slightly predisposed toward the emotion in ques-tion while the power is in effect. The vampire who	disciplinas.pdf
207 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONused Ripples of the Heart on a mortal is immune to any effects from that use. Purification Although most mortal cultures afﬁx negative con-notations to the spilling of blood, most Assamites — indeed, most vampires — have quite the opposite reaction to it. For them, blood is an unlife-afﬁrming and reinvigorating substance. Puriﬁcation works on this principle, using the power of vitae to cleanse and restore. Rather than purging foreign taints from the body, Puriﬁcation allows its wielder to cleanse other individuals' minds and souls of stains, including those left by the mind control of other Kindred. The vampire using this power expels his own blood through his skin and allows it to soak through his subject, slowly dissi-pating. As it does so, it carries away spiritual impurities and outside inﬂuences. System: The character touches the forehead of her intended subject, and both parties spend a minimum of ﬁve minutes in deep concentration. The player spends a number of blood points equal to the subject's perma-nent Willpower. The subject rolls Willpower once for every external supernatural inﬂuence (a vampiric Dis-cipline, usually) to which his mind has been subjected. The difﬁculty equals the level of the power in question +4 (or a difﬁculty of 7 if the power level is unknown, such as one used by a different kind of supernatural creature). A success nulliﬁes that effect. Puriﬁcation has its limits. It can remove directly in-trusive inﬂuences such as Dominate-implanted com-mands, Dementation-generated derangements, or the imperatives caused by elder vampires' Presence. It can-not dispel inﬂuences that are transmitted by blood, in-cluding a blood bond or the dispositions imparted by one's Clan or bloodline, nor can it erase those caused by purely mundane techniques such as persuasion, hypnosis, or brainwashing, or genuine emotional states such as love and hate. It can remove mind-altering blood magic effects, but either the character wield-ing Puriﬁcation or the power's beneﬁciary must have a level of Thaumaturgy equal to or greater than that with which the effect was placed. A character cannot use Puriﬁcation on herself. Baal's Bloody Talons The toxin generated by Baal's Caress is not enough to signiﬁcantly harm some truly fearsome foes. This pro-gressive development of that lesser technique allows its user to envenom his weapon with a blood-based poison so potent that it corrodes the very weapon that bears it, eating away at the strongest metal in a minute or less. However, its effects on its victims are spectacular enough to make the loss of even the most treasured blades worthwhile. This power's effects are of very lim-ited duration, as the substance it creates will quickly evaporate away. System: The character coats an edged weapon with her own blood, as per Baal's Caress. The player spends one or more blood points and rolls Willpower (difﬁcul-ty 7). The weapon now does aggravated damage. It also gains a number of additional damage dice equal to the number of successes rolled plus the number of blood points spent. These extra dice fade at a rate of one per turn as the poison dissipates, drips off, and reacts with the weapon's material. Once the extra damage dice are all gone, the weapon's base damage dice begin to fade at the same rate. The weapon breaks if used when its base damage is reduced to the wielder's Strength or less. The only weapons that can resist this corrosion are those created with a supernatural power of a level equal to or greater than the character's Quietus rating, though even this is subject to the Storyteller's discre-tion. Baal's Bloody Talons is subject to the same limita-tions as Baal's Caress, except the limit on the num-ber of successful strikes that do aggravated damage. A weapon affected by Baal's Bloody Talons does aggra-vated damage with every successful attack until it is destroyed. At the Storyteller's discretion, the character may use the venom this power produces for other purposes, such as burning through a padlock or destroying an incrimi-nating tape. He may not, however, store this poison for later use — even if a container proves resistant to it, the substance becomes inert within a few minutes of leaving its creator's body. Poison the Well of Life Beyond leaving emotional traces in a subject's blood, the master of this Quietus power can now taint that same vitae, making it into a deadly poison for any other Cainite who drinks from that mortal. Some vampires use Poison the Well of Life to guard their own herds against “poachers” or to ward speciﬁc vessels against indiscriminate feeding. Others have been known to employ it as a subtle trap for other vampires, turning herds against their owners. System: The character touches the mortal he wishes to taint and smears a streak of his own vitae on the victim's skin. The player spends three blood points	disciplinas.pdf
208 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESand rolls Stamina + Occult (difﬁculty 7). For a num-ber of months equal to the number of successes, any other vampire who drinks that mortal's blood sustains two health levels of aggravated damage for every blood point imbibed. This damage manifests as a combina-tion of acid burns and something akin to toxic shock. While a mortal is poisonous to vampires, his body's alchemical balance is slightly altered toward toxicity. He gains two extra points of Stamina for the purposes of resisting the effects and damage of poisons and acids. However, his bodily excretions, especially his sweat, are slightly more noxious than normal. He suffers a one-die penalty to all Social dice pools if whomever he chooses to interact with has a particularly sensitive nose and is close enough to smell him. Songs of Distant Vitae Blood magic practitioners and individuals skilled at Auspex have long known that vitae can carry residual impressions of emotion and personality. This power invokes those impressions to overwhelm its victim with “remembered” images and sensations drawn from the vessels who held that blood before the vampire fed from them. Particularly strong-willed or hardened subjects may shrug off these visions as daydreams, but those who are less self-possessed can be permanently changed by the experience. A side effect of the use of this power is the partial destruction of the vitae from which the images are drawn. Some viziers theorize that this is the result of motes of the vessels' consciousness making an effort to escape their usurper. System: The character touches his target and spends a turn in concentration. The player spends four blood points and rolls Wits + Intimidation in a contested roll against the victim's permanent Willpower (difﬁ-culty 7). If the target has committed diablerie within a number of nights equal to the character's Perception, the attacker gains one automatic success. The result depends on the number of net successes the attacker rolls. Note that in all invocations of this power, the sensations that the subject relives are expressly nega-tive and terrifying — for example, he experiences none of the pleasure that would normally accompany the Kiss when he ﬂashes back to such an event. In addition to the effects listed below, the subject of a successful attack loses a number of blood points equal to the number of successes rolled. This vitae oozes from his body in warm red trickles that do no damage but are certain to terrify onlookers. Successes Result Botch The attacker enters a ﬂashback sequence in which he relives his last feeding from the vessel's point of view. If the player rolled three or more “1”s, the character acquires a permanent derangement related to feeding. Failure The target is unharmed and immune to this power for a number of nights equal to his Willpower. 1 success The target experiences a brief (10- second/3-turn) ﬂashback sequence in which he relives his last feeding from the vessel's point of view. During this time, he is at +2 difﬁculty to all rolls. 2 successes The target experiences a brief montage (15 seconds/5 turns) of ﬂashbacks during which his viewpoint ﬂashes between various feedings from the vessels' points of view. During this time, he is at +3 difﬁculty to all rolls. Once the initial rush of sensation passes, he is unsettled and at +1 difﬁculty to all rolls until he succeeds on a Self-Control/Instinct roll (difﬁculty 8), which he may attempt once per scene. 3 successes The target experiences a composite memory, assembled by his own subconscious, of the terror that various vessels felt while being stalked and fed upon. He must succeed in a Courage roll (difﬁculty 8) or instantly enter Rötschreck. If he succeeds in this roll, he is still at +3 difﬁculty on all actions for the rest of the scene due to the distraction that his visions impose. 4 successes The target is stunned and completely unable to act for a number of turns equal to 8-his Self-Control/ Instinct as he is bombarded by a sequence of the most terrifying memories of his various vessels. Once this initial onslaught subsides, he must roll Courage (difﬁculty 9) or enter Rötschreck. If he fails this roll, he must roll Self-Control/	disciplinas.pdf
209 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Instinct (difﬁculty 8) or gain the Sanguinary Animism derangement. 5 successes The target is thrown into a nightmarish reenactment of the greatest fears of every individual upon whom he has ever fed. He must make a successful Self-Control/ Instinct roll (difﬁculty 9) or fall into torpor for (10-the target's Stamina) nights, at the end of which he loses half his permanent Willpower and gains the derangement Sanguinary Animism. If he succeeds on the Self-Control/Instinct roll, he enters Rötschreck for the rest of the night, during which time his greatest fear is of his own image. At the end of the night, he must succeed at a Willpower roll (difﬁculty 9) or lose a permanent Willpower point and gain the derangement Sanguinary Animism. Condemn the Sins of the Father Although the Second City's judges recognized that heritage does not equal guilt, they also encountered many situations in which a vampire's entire brood had committed the same crime. In such cases, the judges often decreed the same punishment for all transgres-sors. This technique, which modern viziers believe to have originated at that time, allows its wielder to ad-minister such judgments. Through Condemn the Sins of the Father, a Cainite can apply lesser Quietus pow-ers to an entire lineage. System: After successfully using any lesser Quietus power on another vampire, the player spends a perma-nent Willpower point and 10 blood points and rolls Stamina + Occult. The difﬁculty of this roll is equal to four plus the number of Generations of the original target's descendants that the player wants to affect, up to a maximum difﬁculty of 10. If the roll succeeds, ev-ery descendant of the original target within the speci-ﬁed range of Generations suffers the same effects that the original target experienced, resisting with his own relevant Traits. The player may exempt a number of potential subjects from this effect equal to twice the character's Wits, but the character must know their faces or have tasted their vitae. Serpentis Serpentis is believed to be the legacy of Set himself, a gift to his children. The Followers of Set are very care-ful to guard this Discipline's secrets, only teaching the art to those who they deem worthy. Most vampires fear the Setites because of the powers of Serpentis and its connection to snakes and reptiles; this Discipline can evoke a primordial fear in others, particularly those who recall the tale of Eden. The Eyes of the Serpent This power grants the vampire the legendary hyp-notic gaze of the serpent. The Kindred's eyes become gold with large black irises, and mortals in the char-acter's vicinity ﬁnd themselves strangely attracted to him. A mortal who meets the vampire's beguiling gaze is immobilized. Until the character takes his eyes off his victim, the person is frozen in place. System: No roll is required, but this power can be avoided if the mortal takes care not to look into the vampire's eyes. Vampires and other supernatural crea-tures can also be affected by this power if the Cainite's player succeeds on a Willpower roll (difﬁculty 9). If at-tacked or otherwise harmed, supernatural creatures can spend a point of Willpower to break the spell. Note: This is different than normal eye contact de-tailed on p. 152. The target must be able to see the vampire's eyes for Eyes of the Serpent to work. The Tongue of the Asp The vampire may lengthen her tongue at will, split-ting it into a fork like that of a serpent. The tongue may reach 18 inches or half a meter, and makes a ter-rifyingly effective weapon in close combat. System: The lash of the tongue's razor fork causes ag-gravated wounds (difﬁculty 6, Strength damage). If the Kindred wounds her enemy, she may drink blood from the target on the next turn as though she had sunk her fangs into the victim's neck. Horrifying though it is, the tongue's caress is very like the Kiss, and strikes mortal victims helpless with fear and ecstasy. Additionally, the tongue is highly sensitive to vibrations, enabling the vampire to function effectively in the darkness the Clan prefers. By ﬂicking his tongue in and out of his mouth, the vampire can halve any penalties relating to darkness (p. 274).	disciplinas.pdf
210 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES The Skin of the Adder By calling upon her Blood, the vampire may trans-form her skin into a mottled, scaly hide. A vampire in this form becomes more supple and ﬂexible. System: The vampire spends one blood point and one Willpower point. Her skin becomes scaly and mottled; this, combined with the character's increased ﬂexibility, reduces soak difﬁculties to 5. The vampire may use her Stamina to soak aggravated damage from claws and fangs, but not from ﬁre, sunlight, or other su-pernatural energies. The vampire's mouth widens and fangs lengthen, enabling her bite to inﬂict an extra die of damage. Finally, the vampire may slip through any opening wide enough to ﬁt her head through. The vampire's Appearance drops to 1, and she is ob-viously inhuman if observed with any degree of care, though casual passersby might not notice, if the vam-pire is in darkness or wearing heavy clothing. The Form of the Cobra The Cainite may change his form into that of a huge black cobra. The serpent weighs as much as the vam-pire's human form, stretches over 10 feet or three me-ters long, and is about 20 inches (50 cm) around. The Form of the Cobra grants several advantages, including a venomous bite, the ability to slither through small spaces, and a greatly enhanced sense of smell. The character may use any Disciplines while in this form save those that require hands (such as Feral Claws). System: The vampire spends one blood point; the change is automatic, but takes three turns. Clothing and small personal possessions transform with the vam-pire. The vampire remains in serpent form until the next dawn, unless he desires to change back sooner. The Storyteller may allow the Setite bonus dice on all Perception rolls related to smell, but the difﬁculties for all hearing rolls are increased by two. The cobra's bite inﬂicts damage equal to the vampire's, but the vampire does not need to grapple his victim; furthermore, the poison delivered is fatal to mortals. The Heart of Darkness A Kindred with mastery of Serpentis may pull her heart from her body. She can even use this ability on other Cainites, although this requires several hours of gruesome surgery. This power can only be invoked dur-ing a new moon. If performed under any other moon, the rite fails. Upon removing her heart, the vampire places it in a small clay urn, and then carefully hides or	disciplinas.pdf
21 1 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONburies the urn. While her heart is hidden, she cannot be staked by any wood that pierces her breast. More-over, because the heart is the seat of emotion, the dif-ﬁculties of all her rolls to resist frenzy are two lower while this power is in effect. Cainites are careful to keep their hearts safe from danger. If someone seizes her heart, the vampire is completely at that person's mercy. The heart can be destroyed only by casting it into a ﬁre or exposing it to sunlight. If this happens, the Kindred dies where she stands, boiling away into a blistering heap of ash and blackened bone. Plunging a wooden stake into an ex-posed heart drives the vampire into instant torpor. A vampire may carry her heart with her, or have several false hearts buried in different places. A smart Kindred often avoids her heart's hiding place, to deter discovery. Those wise in Setite lore whisper that the corrupt elders of the Clan often hold their underlings' hearts as yet another method of control. System: This power requires no roll. Those who wit-ness a vampire pull his heart from his breast (or cut the heart from another vampire) must make Courage rolls. Failure indicates anything from strong uneasiness to complete revulsion, possibly even Rötschreck. Cobra Fangs A character using Form of the Cobra gains a venom-ous bite along with his serpentine form. Unfortunately, huge black cobras tend to make people run away as fast as they can. This Serpentis power enables a vampire to gain the deadly bite without the full-body transfor-mation, making it more useful for taking victims by surprise. The police do ask questions when someone dies from a cobra bite under unlikely circumstances, so Cobra Fangs still requires some discretion in its use. System: The Kindred expends one blood point, and in one turn his fangs become hollow, more slender and venomous. The vampire injects venom when he bites. He must still grapple with the victim to deliver a bite attack, and the bite does the usual amount of damage; the venom, however, kills mortals within one minute. Bitten vampires or other supernaturally resilient crea-tures suffer (10-victim's Stamina and Fortitude) levels of aggravated damage over the course of ﬁve minutes. Divine Image Many of the low-Generation Setite elders no lon-ger need the illusions of Obfuscate to appear as a god. Through this Serpentis power, a vampire can physical-ly metamorphose into the form of a god. Male Kindred generally take the form of Set himself: a muscular man with the head of the “Typhonic Beast,” an animal with a long, narrow snout and upstanding, square-topped ears. Less often, they take the form of the crocodile-headed god Sobek, whom the Egyptians often linked to Set, or the wolf-headed war-god Wepwawet, often identiﬁed with Set's son Anubis. Female vampires gen-erally assume the form of the cobra-headed goddess Renenet, wife of Sobek, or the hippopotamus-goddess Taweret, sometimes considered a consort of Set. Both were goddesses of pregnancy and childbirth. Setite doctrine labels all four deities as Set's eldest childer. While assuming the Divine Image, the vampire be-comes stronger, tougher, and more impressive. More importantly, perhaps, the vampire's will becomes more powerful as he identiﬁes with a divine forebear. System: The character expends three blood points and transforms into the Divine Image in one turn. In the Divine Image, the vampire gains two dots each of Strength and Stamina and a dot each of Charisma and Manipulation, but her Appearance drops to 1. These enhancements can push the vampire over his genera-tional limit. The character also gains two full dots of Willpower (to a maximum of 10). The Cainite can stay in the Divine Image for a full scene. A vampire has only one Divine Image form (unless the player buys this power twice). The character does not know what Divine Image he will manifest until he invokes the power the ﬁrst time, although the player can freely choose the preferred form. Heart Thief The Serpentis power Heart of Darkness normally takes hours to perform upon other vampires, and only works at the dark of the moon. Some elders, however, can pull the heart from another vampire's chest with a quick snatch. This does not destroy the victim, un-less the attacker then destroys the stolen heart. Heart Thief is not an easy power to use despite its speed, but few Discipline effects can place one vampire in anoth-er's power so suddenly and completely. System: The character must expend one Willpower point. Removing the heart of a reluctant vampire is a difﬁcult feat, comparable to staking: the attacker must garner at least three successes on a Dexterity + Brawl attack (difﬁculty 9). The victim may use Fortitude to “soak” the attacker's successes, but mundane Stamina has no effect against this magical attack. A vampire who loses his heart this way takes one unsoakable level of aggravated damage, and receives	disciplinas.pdf
212 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESall the beneﬁts and drawbacks of the Heart of Darkness power. Resisting frenzy becomes easier (-2 difﬁculty) and he cannot be staked by wood that impales his breast. On the other hand, thrusting a stake through the removed heart will instantly force the vampire into torpor and exposing the heart to ﬁre or sunlight will bum the vampire to ash; even biting into the heart will cause aggravated wounds to the vampire in question. Shadow of Apep Only Set and Set's own childer can perform this terri-fying power. These ancient monsters can take the form of Set's defeated enemy, Apep. The vampire becomes a giant serpent of ﬂuid, glittering Darkness — not mere shadow, but anti-light, like the black force commanded by Obtenebration. In this form, physical force cannot harm the vampire: not claws or fangs, not bullets, not explosions, nothing but ﬁre, sunlight, or mystical pow-ers. Physical barriers cannot easily stop the vampire, whose shadowy form can seep through even the tiniest crack. The vampire, however, can still exert physical and supernatural force quite freely. System: Taking the form of Apep costs a Willpower point. The transformation takes three turns to com-plete; once the vampire has transformed, her body re-mains changed for one scene. In this form, the vampire takes no damage from any physical attack: ﬁsts, weap-ons, or falling buildings pass through the vampire as if she were a shadow. Fire and sunlight inﬂict the nor-mal aggravated damage, however, and mystical pow-ers (such as Thaumaturgy) still affect the transformed vampire. The vampire's new body gains three dots in each Physical Attribute. Ignore generational limits for this purpose. The transformed vampire can use her Strength to make normal close combat attacks and can bite for Strength + 2 dice of damage. The vampire can also employ any Discipline that does not require hands. Thaumaturgy Thaumaturgy encompasses blood magic and other sorcerous arts available to Kindred. The Tremere Clan is best known for their possession (and jealous hoard-ing) of this Discipline. The Tremere created Thauma-turgy by combining mortal wizardry with the power of vampiric vitae, and as a result it is a versatile and powerful Discipline. Although there are whispers of the existence of Tremere antitribu in the Sabbat, other Clans in the Sword of Caine have also researched and developed access to such mystical might. Nevertheless, the Tremere of the Camarilla remain this Discipline's masters. Like Necromancy, the practice of Thaumaturgy is divided into paths and rituals. Thaumaturgical paths are applications of the vampire's knowledge of blood magic, allowing her to create effects on a whim. Ritu-als are more formulaic in nature, most akin to ancient magical “spells. ” Because so many different paths and rituals are available to the arcane Tremere, one never knows what to expect when confronted with a practi-tioner of this Discipline. When a character ﬁrst learns Thaumaturgy, the play-er selects a path for the character. That path is consid-ered the character's primary path, and she automati-cally receives one dot in it, as well as one Level One ritual. Thereafter, whenever the character increases her level in Thaumaturgy, her rating in the primary path increases by one as well. Additional rituals are learned separately, as part of a story; players need not pay experience points for their characters to learn ritu-als up to the level equal to their overall rating in Thau-maturgy, though they must ﬁnd someone to teach the rituals in question. Path ratings never exceed 5, though the overall Thaumaturgy score may. If a character reaches a rating of 5 in her primary path and increases her Thaumaturgy score afterward, she may allocate her “free” path dot to a different path. (Experience costs are covered on p. 124. ) Many Kindred fear crossing the practitioners of Thaumaturgy. It is a very potent and mutable Disci-pline, and almost anything the Kindred wishes may be accomplished through its magic. Thaumaturgical Paths Paths deﬁne the types of magic a vampire can per-form. A vampire typically learns his primary path from his sire, though it is not unknown for some vampires to study under many different tutors. As mentioned before, the ﬁrst path a character learns is considered her primary path and increases automati-cally as the character advances in the Discipline itself. Secondary paths may be learned once the character has acquired two or more dots in her primary path, and they must be raised separately with experience points. Furthermore, a character's rating in her primary path must always be at least one dot higher than any of her secondary paths until she has mastered her primary path. Once the character has achieved the ﬁfth level	disciplinas.pdf
213 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONof her primary path, secondary paths may be increased to that level. Each time the character invokes one of the powers of a Thaumaturgical path, the thaumaturge's player must spend a blood point and make a Willpower roll against a difﬁculty equal to the power's level +3. Only one success is required to invoke a path's effect — path levels, not successes, govern the power of blood magic. Failure on this roll indicates that the magic fails. A botch causes some kind of loss or catastrophic backﬁre, such as losing a Willpower point (or dot!), spontane-ous combustion, or accidentally letting a living statue run rampant. Thaumaturgy is an unforgiving art. Various Sects and Clans have different access to each path, but unless the Storyteller decides otherwise, it is assumed the Tremere have some access to all of them. (“Having access” does not mean the same thing as “eas-ily gained,” especially within the Tremere power struc-ture. ) The paths start with one of the most common (The Path of Blood), and thereafter are presented in al-phabetical order. (The unusual “path” of Thaumaturgi-cal Countermagic is also presented, although it is con-sidered a separate Discipline-see p. 228 for details. ) The Path of Blood Almost every Tremere studies the Path of Blood as her primary path. It encompasses some of the most fun-damental principles of Thaumaturgy, based as it is on the manipulation of Kindred vitae. If a player wishes to select another path as her character's primary path, the Storyteller may require additional reasoning (though choosing a different path is by no means unheard of). A Taste for Blood This power was developed as a means of testing a foe's might — an extremely important ability in the tumultuous early nights of Clan Tremere. By merely touching the blood of his subject, the caster may de-termine how much vitae remains in the subject and, if the subject is a vampire, how recently he has fed, his approximate Generation and, with three or more suc-cesses, whether he has ever committed diablerie. System: The number of successes achieved on the roll determines how much information the thauma-turge gleans and how accurate it is. Blood Rage This power allows a vampire to force another Kin-dred to expend blood against his will. The caster must touch her subject for this power to work, though only the lightest contact is necessary. A vampire affected by this power might feel a physical rush as the thau-maturge heightens his Physical Attributes, might ﬁnd himself suddenly looking more human, or may even ﬁnd himself on the brink of frenzy as his stores of vitae are mystically depleted. System: Each success forces the subject to spend one blood point immediately in the way the caster desires (which must go towards some logical expenditure the target vampire could make, such as increasing Physical Attributes or powering Disciplines). Note that blood points forcibly spent in this manner may exceed the normal “per turn” maximum indicated by the victim's Generation. Each success gained also increases the subject's difﬁculty to resist frenzy by one. The thauma-turge may not use Blood Rage on herself to circumvent generational limits. Blood of Potency The thaumaturge gains such control over his own blood that he may effectively “concentrate” it, mak-ing it more powerful for a short time. In effect, he may temporarily lower his own Generation with this power. This power may be used only once per night. System: One success on the Willpower roll allows the character to lower his Generation by one step for one hour. Each additional success grants the Kindred either one step down in Generation or one hour of ef-fect. Successes earned must be spent both to decrease the vampire's Generation and to maintain the change (this power cannot be activated again until the origi-nal application wears off). If the vampire is diablerized while this power is in effect, it wears off immediately and the diablerist gains power appropriate to the cast-er's actual Generation. Furthermore, any mortals Em-braced by the thaumaturge are born to the Generation appropriate to their sire's original Generation (e. g., a Tenth-Generation Tremere who has reduced his ef-fective Generation to Eighth still produces Eleventh-Generation childer). Once the effect wears off, any blood over the char-acter's blood pool maximum dilutes, leaving the char-acter at his regular blood pool maximum. Thus, if a Twelfth-Generation Tremere (maximum blood pool of 11) decreased his Generation to Ninth (maximum blood pool 14), ingested 14 blood points, and had this much vitae in his system when the power wore off, his blood pool would immediately drop to 11.	disciplinas.pdf
214 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Theft of Vitae A thaumaturge using this power siphons vitae from her subject. She need never come in contact with the subject — blood literally streams out in a physical tor-rent from the subject to the Kindred (though it is often mystically absorbed and need not enter through the mouth). System: The number of successes determines how many blood points the caster transfers from the sub-ject. The subject must be visible to the thaumaturge and within 50 feet (15 meters). Using this power pre-vents the caster from being blood-bound, but other-wise counts as if the vampire ingested the blood her-self. This power is spectacularly obvious, and Camarilla princes justiﬁably consider its public use a breach of the Masquerade. Cauldron of Blood A thaumaturge using this power boils her subject's blood in his veins like water on a stove. The Kindred must touch her subject, and it is this contact that sim-mers the subject's blood. This power is always fatal to mortals, and causes great damage to even the mightiest vampires. System: The number of successes gained determines how many blood points are brought to boil. The sub-ject suffers one health level of aggravated damage for each point boiled (individuals with Fortitude may soak this damage using only their Fortitude dice). A single success kills any mortal, though some ghouls with ac-cess to Fortitude are said to have survived after soaking all of the aggravated damage. Elemental Mastery This path allows a vampire limited control over and communion with inanimate objects. Elemental Mas-tery can only be used to affect the unliving — a vam-pire could not cause a tree to walk by using Animate the Unmoving, for instance. Thaumaturges who seek mastery over living things generally study paths such as The Green Path (p. 215). Elemental Strength The vampire can draw upon the strength and resil-ience of the earth, or of the objects around him, to in-crease his physical prowess without the need for large amounts of blood. System: The player allocates a total of three tem-porary bonus dots between the character's Strength and Stamina. The number of successes on the roll to activate the power is the number of turns these dots remain. The player may spend a Willpower point to increase this duration by one turn. This power cannot be “stacked” — one application must expire before the next can be made. Wooden Tongues A vampire may speak, albeit in limited fashion, with the spirit of any inanimate object. The conversation may not be incredibly interesting, as most rocks and chairs have limited concern for what occurs around them, but the vampire can get at least a general im-pression of what the subject has “experienced. ” Note that events which are signiﬁcant to a vampire may not be the same events that interest a lawn gnome. System: The number of successes dictates the amount and relevance of the information that the character re-ceives. One success may yield a boulder's memory of a forest ﬁre, while three may indicate that it remembers a shadowy ﬁgure running past, and ﬁve will cause the rock to relate a precise description of a local Gangrel. Animate the Unmoving Objects affected by this power move as the vampire using it dictates. An object cannot take an action that would be completely inconceivable for something with its form — for instance, a door could not leap from its hinges and carry someone across a street. However, seemingly solid objects can become ﬂexible within rea-son: Barstools can run with their legs, guns can twist out of their owners' hands or ﬁre while holstered, and humanoid statues can move like normal humans. System: This power requires the expenditure of a Willpower point with less than four successes on the roll. Each use of this power animates one object no larger than human-sized; the caster may simultaneous-ly control a number of animate objects equal to his In-telligence rating. Objects animated by this power stay animated as long as they are within the caster's line of sight or up to an hour, although the thaumaturge can take other actions during that time. Elemental Form The vampire can take the shape of any inanimate object of a mass roughly equal to her own. A desk, a statue, or a bicycle would be feasible, but a house or a pen would be beyond this power's capacity. System: The number of successes determines how completely the character takes the shape she wishes to counterfeit. At least three successes are required for	disciplinas.pdf
215 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONthe character to use her senses or Disciplines while in her altered form. This power lasts for the remainder of the night, although the character may return to her normal form at will. Summon Elemental A vampire may summon one of the traditional spir-its of the elements: a salamander (ﬁre), a sylph (air), a gnome (earth), or an undine (water). Some thau-maturges claim to have contacted elemental spirits of glass, electricity, blood, and even atomic energy, but such reports remain unconﬁrmed (even as their au-thors are summoned to Vienna for questioning). The caster may choose what type of elemental he wishes to summon and command. System: The character must be near some quantity of the classical element corresponding to the spirit he wishes to invoke. The spirit invoked may or may not actually follow the caster's instructions once sum-moned, but generally will at least pay rough attention to what it's being told to do. The number of successes gained on the Willpower roll determines the power level of the elemental. The elemental has three dots in all Physical and Mental Attributes. One dot may be added to one of the elemental's Physical Attributes for each success gained by the caster on the initial roll. The Storyteller should determine the elemental's Abilities, attacks, and damage, and any special powers it has related to its element. Once the elemental has been summoned, the thau-maturge must exert control over it. The more power-ful the elemental, the more difﬁcult a task this is. The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difﬁculty of the number of successes scored on the casting roll + 4), and the number of successes determines the degree of control: Successes Result Botch The elemental immediately attacks the thaumaturge. Failure The elemental goes free and may attack anyone or leave the scene at the Storyteller's discretion. 1 success The elemental does not attack its summoner. 2 successes The elemental behaves favorably toward the summoner and may perform a service in exchange for payment (determined by the Storyteller). 3 successes The elemental performs one service, within reason. 4 successes The elemental performs any one task for the caster that does not jeopardize its own existence. 5 successes The elemental performs any task that the caster sets for it, even one that may take several nights to complete or that places its existence at risk. The Green Path The Green Path deals with the manipulation of plant matter of all sorts. Anything more complex than an algae bloom can theoretically be controlled through the appropriate application of this path. Ferns, roses, dandelions, and even ancient redwoods are all valid targets for this path's powers, and living and dead plant matter are equally affected. While not as immediately impressive as some other more widely practiced paths, the Green Path (sometimes disparagingly referred to as “Botanical Mastery”) is as subtle and powerful as the natural world which it affects. Herbal Wisdom With a touch, a vampire can commune with the spirit of a plant. Conversations held in this manner are often cryptic but rewarding — the wisdom and experi-ence of the spirits of some trees surpasses that of the oracles of legend. Crabgrass, on the other hand, rarely has much insight to offer, but might reveal the appear-ance of the last person who trod upon it. System: The number of successes rolled determines the amount of information that can be gained from the contact. Depending on the precise information that the vampire seeks, the Storyteller might require the player to roll Intelligence + Occult in order to inter-pret the results of the communication. Successes Result 1 success Fleeting cryptic impressions 2 successes One or two clear images 3 successes A concise answer to a simple query 4 successes A detailed response to one or more complex questions 5 successes The sum total of the plant-spirit's knowledge on a given subject	disciplinas.pdf
216 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Speed the Season's Passing This power allows a thaumaturge to accelerate a plant's growth, causing roses to bloom in a matter of minutes or trees to shoot up from saplings overnight. Alternately, she can speed a plant's death and decay, withering grass and crumbling wooden stakes with but a touch. System: The character touches the target plant. The player rolls normally, and the number of successes de-termines the amount of growth or decay. One success gives the plant a brief growth spurt or simulates the ef-fects of harsh weather, while three noticeably enlarge or wither it. With ﬁve successes, a full-grown plant springs from a seed or crumbles to dust in a few min-utes, and a tree sprouts fruit or begins decaying almost instantaneously. If this power is used in combat, three successes are needed to render a wooden weapon com-pletely useless. Two successes sufﬁce to weaken it, while ﬁve cause it to disintegrate in the wielder's hand. Dance of Vines The thaumaturge can animate a mass of vegetation up to his own size, using it for utilitarian or combat pur-poses with equal ease. Leaves can walk along a desktop, ivy can act as a scribe, and jungle creepers can strangle opponents. Intruders should beware of Tremere work-shops that harbor potted rowan saplings. System: Any total amount of vegetation with a mass less than or equal to the character's own may be animat-ed through this power. The plants stay active for one turn per success scored on the roll, and are under the complete control of the character. If used for combat purposes, the plants have Strength and Dexterity ratings each equal to half the character's Willpower (rounded down) and Brawl ratings one lower than that of the character. Dance of Vines cannot make plants uproot them-selves and go stomping about. Even the most energetic vegetation is incapable of pulling out of the soil and walking under the effect of this power. However, 200 pounds (100 kilograms) of kudzu can cover a consider-able area all by itself.... Verdant Haven This power weaves a temporary shelter out of a sufﬁcient amount of plant matter. In addition to providing physical protection from the elements (and even sunlight), the Verdant Haven also establishes a mystical barrier which is nearly impassable to anyone the caster wishes to ex-clude. A Verdant Haven appears as a six-foot-tall (two-meter-tall) hemisphere of interlocked branches, leaves,	disciplinas.pdf
217 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONand vines with no discernible opening, and even to the casual observer it appears to be an unnatural construc-tion. Verdant Havens are rumored to have supernatural healing properties, hut no Kindred have reported experi-encing such beneﬁts from a stay in one. System: A character must be standing in a heavily vegetated area to use this power. The Verdant Haven springs up around the character over the course of three turns. Once the haven is established, anyone wishing to enter the haven without the caster's permission must achieve more than the caster's original number of successes on a single roll of Wits + Survival (difﬁculty equal to the caster's Willpower). The haven lasts until the next sunset, or until the caster dispels or leaves it. If the caster scored four or more successes, the haven is impenetrable to sunlight unless physically breached. Awaken the Forest Giants Entire trees can be animated by a master of the Green Path. Ancient oaks can be temporarily given the gift of movement, pulling their roots from the soil and shaking the ground with their steps. While not as versatile as elementals or other summoned spirits, trees brought to ponderous life via this power display awe-some strength and resilience. System: The character touches the tree to be ani-mated. The player spends a blood point and rolls nor-mally. If the roll succeeds, the player must spend a blood point for every success. The tree stays animated for one turn per success rolled; once this time expires, the tree puts its roots down wherever it stands and cannot be animated again until the next night. While animated, the tree follows the character's verbal commands to the best of its ability. An animated tree has Strength and Stamina equal to the caster's Thaumaturgy rating, Dexterity 2, and a Brawl rating equal to the caster's own. It is immune to bashing damage, and all lethal damage dice pools are halved due to its size. Once the animating energy leaves a tree, it puts down roots immediately, regardless of what it is cur-rently standing on. A tree re-establishing itself in the soil can punch through concrete and asphalt to ﬁnd nourishing dirt and water underneath, meaning that it is entirely possible for a sycamore to root itself in the middle of a road without any warning. Hands of Destruction This Path is practiced most commonly by the various thaumaturges of the Sabbat. Though it is not widely seen outside that Sect, a few Camarilla Tremere have managed to learn the secrets of this path over the cen-turies. The Hands of Destruction has an infamous his-tory, and some Tremere refuse to practice it due to ru-mors that it is demonic in origin. Decay This power accelerates the decrepitude of its target, causing it to wither, rot, or otherwise break down. The target must be inanimate, though dead organic matter can be affected. System: If the roll is successful, the inanimate ob-ject touched by the thaumaturge ages 10 years for every minute the Kindred touches it. If the vampire breaks physical contact and wishes to age the object again, another blood point must be spent and another roll must be made. This power does not affect vampires. Gnarl Wood This power warps and bends wooden objects. Though the wood is otherwise undamaged, this power often leaves the objects completely useless. This power may also be used to swell or contract wood, in addi-tion to bending it into unwholesome shapes. Unlike other powers of this path, Gnarl Wood requires merely a glance rather than physical contact. System: Fifty pounds or twenty-ﬁve kilograms of vis-ible wood may be gnarled for each blood point spent on this power (the thaumaturge may expend as much blood as she likes on this power, up to her per-turn generational maximum). It is also possible to warp multiple visible objects — like all the stakes a team of vampire-hunters wields. Acidic Touch The vampire secretes a bilious, acidic ﬂuid from any portion of his body. The viscous acid corrodes metal, destroys wood, and causes horrendous chemical burns to living tissue. System: The player spends one blood point to create the acid — the blood literally transmutes into the vola-tile secretion. One blood point creates enough acid to burn through a quarter-inch or half a centimeter of steel plate or three inches (seven centimeters) of wood. The damage from an acid-augmented hand-to-hand attack is aggravated and costs one blood point per turn to use. A thaumaturge is immune to her own acidic touch. Atrophy This power withers a victim's limb, leaving only a desic-cated, almost mummiﬁed husk of bone and skin. The effects are instantaneous; in mortals, they are also irreversible.	disciplinas.pdf
218 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESSystem: The victim may resist the effects of Atrophy by scoring three or more successes on a Stamina + Ath-letics roll (difﬁculty 8). Failure means the limb is per-manently and completely crippled. Partial resistance is possible: One success indicates that the difﬁculty of any roll involving the use of the arm increases by two, though these effects are still permanent with regard to mortals. Two successes signify that difﬁculties increase by one. Vampires afﬂicted by this power may spend ﬁve blood points to rejuvenate atrophied limbs. Mortals are permanently crippled. This power affects only limbs or parts of limbs (arms, legs, hands); it does not work on victims' heads, torsos, etc. Turn to Dust This fearsome power accelerates decrepitude in its victims. Mortals literally age at the mere touch of a skilled thaumaturge, gaining decades in moments. System: Each success on the roll ages the victim by 10 years. A potential victim may resist with a Stami-na + Courage roll (difﬁculty 8), but must accumulate more successes than the caster's activation roll — it's an all-or-nothing affair. If the victim succeeds, he does not age at all. If he does not acquire more successes than the thaumaturge, he ages the full amount. Obvi-ously, this power, while it affects vampires, has no det-rimental effect on them (they're immortal). At most, a Kindred victim grows paler and withers slightly (-1 to Appearance) for one night. The Lure of Flames This path grants the thaumaturge the ability to con-jure forth mystical ﬂames — small ﬁres at ﬁrst, but skilled magicians may create great conﬂagrations. Fire created by this path is not “natural. ” In fact, many vam-pires believe the ﬂames to be conjured from Hell itself. The Lure of Flames is greatly feared, as ﬁre is one of the surest ways to bring Final Death upon a vampire. See “Fire” (p. 297) for more information on how vampires suffer from ﬂame. Fire conjured by The Lure of Flames must be released for it to have any effect. Thus, a “palm of ﬂame” does not burn the vampire's hand and cause an aggravated wound (nor does it cause the caster to frenzy) — it merely produces light. Once the ﬂame has been re-leased, however, it burns normally and the character has no control over it. System: The number of successes determines how accurately the vampire places the ﬂame in his desired location (declared before the roll is made). One suc-cess is all that is necessary to conjure a ﬂame in one's hand, while ﬁve successes place a ﬂame anywhere in the Kindred's line of sight. Less successes mean that the ﬂame appears somewhere at the Storyteller's dis-cretion — as a rough rule of thumb, the thaumaturge can accurately place a ﬂame within 10 yards or meters of themselves per success. Individual descriptions are not provided for each level of this path — ﬁre is ﬁre, after all (including po-tentially causing frenzy in other vampires witnessing it). The chart below describes the path level required to generate a speciﬁc amount of ﬂame. To soak the damage at all, a vampire must have the Fortitude Dis-cipline. Fire under the caster's control does not harm the vampire or cause him to frenzy, but ﬁres started as a result of the unnatural ﬂame affect the thaumaturge normally. Candle (difficulty 3 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/ turn) Palm of flame (difficulty 4 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn) Campfire (difficulty 5 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn) Bonfire (difficulty 7 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/ turn) Inferno (difﬁculty 9 to soak, three health levels of aggravated damage/ turn) Neptune's Might Vampires are rarely associated with the ocean in most mythologies, and most Kindred have nothing to do with water in large quantities simply because they have no reason to do so. Nevertheless, Neptune's Might has enjoyed a small, but devoted, following for centuries among Camarilla thaumaturges. This path is based primarily around the manipulation of standing water, although some of its more disturbing effects de-part from this principle. Once a character reaches the third level of Neptune's Might, the player may choose to specialize in either fresh water or salt water. Such specialization lowers all Neptune's Might difﬁculties by one when dealing with the chosen medium but raises them by one when deal-	disciplinas.pdf
219 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONing with the opposite. Blood is considered neither fresh nor salty for this purpose, and difﬁculties in manipulat-ing it are unaffected. Eyes of the Sea The thaumaturge may peer into a body of water and view events that have transpired on, in, or around it from the water's perspective. Some older practitioners of this art claim that the vampire communes with the spirits of the waters when using this power; younger Kindred scoff at such claims. System: The number of successes rolled determines how far into the past the character can look. Successes Result 1 success One day 2 successes One week 3 successes One month 4 successes One year 5 successes 10 years The Storyteller may require a Perception + Occult roll for the character to discern very small details in the transmitted images. This power can only he used on standing water; lakes and puddles qualify, but oceans, rivers, sewers, and wine glasses do not. Prison of Water The thaumaturge can command a sufﬁciently large quantity of water to animate itself and imprison a sub-ject. This power requires a signiﬁcant amount of ﬂuid to be fully effective, although even a few gallons can be used to shape chains of animated water. System: The number of successes scored on the roll is the number of successes the victim must score on a Strength roll (difﬁculty 8; Potence can add to this roll) to break free. A subject may be held in only one prison at a time, although the caster is free to invoke multiple uses of this power upon separate victims and may dis-solve these prisons at will. If a sufﬁcient quantity of water (at least a bathtub's worth) is not present, the difﬁculty of the Willpower roll to activate this power is raised by one. Blood to Water The thaumaturge has now attained enough power over water that she can transmute other liquids to this basic element. The most commonly seen use of this power is as an assault; with but a touch, the victim's blood transforms to water, weakening vampires and killing mortals in moments. System: The character must touch her intended vic-tim. The player rolls Willpower normally. Each success converts one of the victim's blood points to water. One success kills a mortal within minutes. Vampires who lose blood points to this power also suffer dice pool penalties as if they had received an equivalent number of health levels of injury. The water left in the target's system by this attack evaporates out at a rate of one blood point's worth per hour, but the lost blood does not return. At the Storyteller's discretion, other liquids may be turned to water with this power (the difﬁculty for such an action is reduced by one unless the substance is par-ticularly dangerous or magical in nature). The charac-ter must still touch the substance or its container to use this power. Flowing Wall Tales of vampires' inability to cross running water may have derived in part from garbled accounts of this power in action. The thaumaturge can animate water to an even greater degree than is possible with the use of Prison of Water, commanding it to rise up to form a barrier impassable to almost any being. System: The character touches the surface of a standing body of water; the player spends three Will-power points and the normal required blood point and rolls normally. Successes are applied to both width and height of the wall; each success “buys” 10 feet/three meters in one dimension. The wall may be placed any-where within the character's line of sight, and must be formed in a straight line. The wall lasts until the next sunrise. It cannot be climbed, though it can be ﬂown over. To pass through the barrier, any supernatural be-ing (including beings trying to pass the wall on other levels of existence, such as ghosts) must score at least three successes on a single Willpower roll (difﬁculty 9). Dehydrate At this level of mastery, the thaumaturge can direct-ly attack living and unliving targets by removing the water from their bodies. Victims killed by this power leave behind hideous mummiﬁed corpses. This power can also be used for less aggressive purposes, such as drying out wet clothes — or evaporating puddles to keep other practitioners of this path from using them.	disciplinas.pdf
220 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESSystem: This power can be used on any target in the character's line of sight. The player rolls normally; the victim resists with a roll of Stamina + Fortitude (dif-ﬁculty 9). Each success gained by the caster translates into one health level of lethal damage inﬂicted on the victim. This injury cannot be soaked (the resistance roll replaces soak for this attack) but can be healed normally. Vampires lose blood points instead of health levels, though if a vampire has no blood points this at-tack inﬂicts health level loss as it would against a mor-tal. The victim of this attack must also roll Courage (difﬁculty equal to the number of successes scored by the caster + 3) to be able to act on the turn following the attack; failure means he is overcome with agony and can do nothing. Movement of the Mind This path gives the thaumaturge the ability to move objects telekinetically through the mystic power of blood. At higher levels, even ﬂight is possible (but be careful who sees you... ). Objects under the character's control may be manipulated as if she held them — they may be lifted, spun, juggled, or even “thrown,” though creating enough force to inﬂict actual damage requires mastery of at least the fourth level of this path. Some casters skilled in this path even use it to guard their havens, animating swords, axes, and ﬁrearms to ward off intruders. This path may frighten and disconcert onlookers. System: The number of successes indicates the dura-tion of the caster's control over the object (or subject). Each success allows one turn of manipulation, though the Kindred may attempt to maintain control after this time by making a new roll (she need not spend additional blood to maintain control). If the roll is suc-cessful, control is maintained. If a thaumaturge loses or relaxes control over an object and later manipulates it again, her player must spend another blood point, as a new attempt is being made. Five or more successes on the initial roll means the vampire can control the object for duration of the scene. If this power is used to manipulate a living being, the subject may attempt to resist. In this case, the caster and the subject make opposed Willpower rolls each turn the control is exercised. Like The Lure of Flames, individual power levels are not provided for this path — consult the chart below to see how much weight a thaumaturge may control. Once a Kindred reaches a rating of 3, she may levi-tate herself and “ﬂy” at approximately running speed, no matter how much she weighs, though the weight restrictions apply if she manipulates other objects or subjects. Once a Kindred achieves 4, she may “throw” objects at a Strength equal to her level of mastery of this path. One pound/one-half kilogram 20 pounds/10 kilograms 200 pounds/100 kilograms 500 pounds/250 kilograms 1000 pounds/500 kilograms The Path of Conjuring Invoking objects “out of thin air” has been a staple of occult and supernatural legend since long before the rise of the Tremere. This Thaumaturgical path enables powerful conjurations limited only by the mind of the practitioner. Objects summoned via this path bear two distinct characteristics. They are uniformly “generic” in that each object summoned, if summoned again, would look exactly as it did at ﬁrst. For example, a knife would be precisely the same knife if created twice; the two would be indistinguishable. Even a speciﬁc knife — the one a character's father used to threaten her — would appear identical every time it was conjured. A rat would have repeated “tiled” patterns over its fur, and a garbage can would have a completely uniform ﬂuted texture over its surface. Additionally, conjured objects bear no ﬂaws: Weapons have no dents or scratches, tools have no distinguishing marks, and cellphones all look like they just came out of their packaging. The limit on the size of conjured objects appears to be that of the conjurer: nothing larger than the thau-maturge can be created. The conjurer must also have some degree of familiarity with the object he wishes to call forth. Simply working from a picture or imagi-nation calls for a higher difﬁculty, while objects with which the character is intimately familiar (such as the knife described above) may actually lower the difﬁcul-ty, at the Storyteller's discretion. When a player rolls to conjure something, the suc-cesses gained on the roll indicate the quality of the summoned object. One success yields a shoddy, imper-fect creation, while ﬁve successes garner the caster a nearly perfect replica.	disciplinas.pdf
221 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Summon the Simple Form At this level of mastery, the conjurer may create simple, inanimate objects. The object cannot have any moving parts and may not be made of multiple mate-rials. For example, the conjurer may summon a steel baton, a lead pipe, a wooden stake, or a chunk of gran-ite. System: Each turn the conjurer wishes to keep the object in existence, another Willpower point must be spent or the object vanishes. Permanency At this level, the conjurer no longer needs to pay Willpower costs to keep an object in existence. The object is permanent, though simple objects are still all that may be created. System: The player must invest three blood points in an object to make it real. Magic of the Smith The Kindred may now conjure complex objects of multiple components and with moving parts. For ex-ample, the thaumaturge can create guns, bicycles, chainsaws, or cellphones. System: Objects created via Magic of the Smith are automatically permanent and cost ﬁve blood points to conjure. Particularly complex items often require a Knowledge roll (Crafts, Science, Technology, etc. ) in addition to the basic roll. Reverse Conjuration This power allows the conjurer to “banish” into non-existence any object previously called forth via this path. System: This is an extended success roll. The con-jurer must accumulate as many successes as the original caster received when creating the object in question. This can also be used by the thaumaturge to banish object she created herself with this Path. Power Over Life This power cannot create true life, though it can summon forth impressive simulacra. Creatures (and people) summoned with this power lack the free will to act on their own, mindlessly following the simple instructions of their conjurer instead. People created in this way can be subject to the use of the Dominate power Possession (p. 155), if desired. System: The player spends 10 blood points. Imper-fect and impermanent, creatures summoned via this path are too complex to exist for long. Within a week after their conjuration, the simulacra vanish into in-substantiality. The Path of Corruption The origins of this path are hotly debated among those who are familiar with its intricacies. One theory holds that its secrets were taught to the Tremere by de-mons and that use of it brings the practitioner danger-ously close to the infernal powers. A second opinion has been advanced that the Path of Corruption is a holdover from the days when Clan Tremere was still mortal. The third theory, and the most disturbing to the Tremere, is that the path originated with the Fol-lowers of Set, and that knowledge of its workings was sold to the Tremere for an unspeciﬁed price. This last rumor is vehemently denied by the Tremere, which au-tomatically makes it a favorite topic of discussion when the matter comes up. The Path of Corruption is primarily a mentally and spiritually oriented path centered on inﬂuencing the psyches of other individuals. It can be used neither to issue commands like Dominate nor to change emo-tions in the moment like Presence. Rather, it produces a gradual and subtle twisting of the subject's actions, morals, and thought processes. This path deals inti-mately with deception and dark desires, and those who work through it must understand the hidden places of the heart. Accordingly, no character may have a higher rating in the Path of Corruption than he has in Subterfuge. Contradict The vampire can interrupt a subject's thought pro-cesses, forcing the victim to reverse his current course of action. An Archon may be caused to execute a pris-oner she was about to exonerate and release; a mortal lover might switch from gentle and caring to sadistic and demanding in the middle of an encounter. The re-sults of Contradict are never precisely known to the thaumaturge in advance, but they always take the form of a more negative action than the subject had origi-nally intended to perform. System: This power may be used on any subject within the character's line of sight. The player rolls as per normal. The target rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difﬁculty equal to the number of successes scored by the caster + 2). Two successes allow the subject to real-	disciplinas.pdf
222 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESize that she is being inﬂuenced by some outside source. Three successes let her pinpoint the source of the ef-fect. Four successes give her a moment of hesitation, neither performing her original action nor its inverse, while ﬁve allow her to carry through with the original action. The Storyteller dictates what the subject's precise reaction to this power is. Contradict cannot be used in combat or to affect other actions (at the Storyteller's discretion) that are mainly physical and reﬂexive. Subvert This power follows the same principle as does Con-tradict, the release of a subject's dark, self-destructive side. However, Subvert's effects are longer-lasting than the momentary ﬂare of Contradiction. Under the in-ﬂuence of this power, victims act on their own sup-pressed temptations, pursuing agendas that their mor-als or self-control would forbid them to follow under normal circumstances. System: This power requires the character to make eye contact (see p. 152) with the intended victim. The player rolls normally. The target resists with a roll of Perception + Subterfuge (difﬁculty equal to the target's Manipulation + Subterfuge). If the thaumaturge scores more successes, the victim becomes inclined to follow a repressed, shameful desire for the length of time de-scribed below. Successes Result 1 success Five minutes 2 successes One hour 3 successes One night 4 successes Three nights 5 successes One week The Storyteller determines the precise desire or agenda that the victim follows. It should be in keep-ing with the Psychological Flaws that she possesses or with the negative aspects of her Nature (for example, a Loner desiring isolation to such an extent that she becomes violent if forced to attend a social function). The subject should not become ﬁxated on following this new agenda at all times, but should occasionally be forced to spend a Willpower point if the opportunity to succumb arises and she wishes to resist the impulse.	disciplinas.pdf
223 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Dissociate “Divide and conquer” is a maxim that is well-under-stood by the Tremere, and Dissociate is a powerful tool with which to divide the Clan's enemies. This power is used to break the social ties of interpersonal rela-tionships. Even the most passionate affair or the oldest friendship can be cooled through use of Dissociate, and weaker personal ties can be destroyed altogether. System: The character must touch the target. The player rolls normally. The target resists with a Will-power roll (difﬁculty of the thaumaturge's Manipula-tion + Empathy). The victim loses three dice from all Social rolls for a period of time determined by the number of successes gained by the caster: Successes Result 1 success Five minutes 2 successes One hour 3 successes One night 4 successes Three nights 5 successes One week This penalty applies to all rolls that rely on Social Attributes, even those required for the use of Disci-plines. If this power is used on a character who has participated in the Vaulderie or a similar ritual, that character's Vinculum ratings are reduced by three for the duration of Dissociate's effect. Dissociate's primary effect falls under roleplaying rather than game mechanics. Victims of this power should be played as withdrawn, suspicious, and emo-tionally distant. The Storyteller should feel free to re-quire a Willpower point expenditure for a player who does not follow these guidelines. Addiction This power is a much stronger and more potentially damaging form of Subvert. Addiction creates just that in the victim. By simply exposing the target to a par-ticular sensation, substance, or action, the caster cre-ates a powerful psychological dependence. Many thau-maturges ensure that their victims become addicted to substances or thrills that only the mystic can provide, thus creating both a source of income and potential blackmail material. System: The subject must encounter or be exposed to the sensation, substance, or action to which the character wants to addict him. The thaumaturge then touches his target. The player rolls normally; the vic-tim resists with a Self-Control/Instinct roll (difﬁculty equal to the number of successes scored by the caster + 3). Failure gives the subject an instant addiction to that object. An addicted character must get his ﬁx at least once a night. Every night that he goes without satisfying his desire imposes a cumulative penalty of one die on all of his dice pools (to a minimum pool of one die). The vic-tim must roll Self-Control/Instinct (difﬁculty 8) every time he is confronted with the object of his addiction and wishes to keep from indulging. Addiction lasts for a number of weeks equal to the thaumaturge's Manipu-lation score. An individual may try to break the effects of Addic-tion. This requires an extended Self-Control/Instinct roll (difﬁculty of the caster's Manipulation + Subter-fuge), with one roll made per night. The addict must accumulate a number of successes equal to three times the number of successes scored by the caster. The vic-tim may not indulge in his addiction over the time needed to accumulate these successes. If he does so, all accumulated successes are lost and he must begin anew on the next night. Note that the Self-Control/Instinct dice pool is reduced every night that the victim goes without feeding his addiction. Dependence Many former pawns of Clan Tremere claim to have felt a strange sensation similar to depression when not in the presence of their masters. This is usually attrib-uted to the blood bond, but is sometimes the result of the vampire's mastery of Dependence. The ﬁnal power of the Path of Corruption enables the vampire to tie her victim's soul to her own, engendering feelings of lethargy and helplessness when the victim is not in her presence or acting to further her desires. System: The character engages the target in con-versation. The player rolls normally. The victim rolls Self-Control/Instinct (difﬁculty equals the number of successes scored by the caster + 3). Failure means that the victim's psyche has been subtly bonded to that of the thaumaturge for one night per success rolled by the caster. A bonded victim is no less likely to attack his con-troller, and feels no particular positive emotions to-ward her. However, he is psychologically addicted to her presence, and suffers a one-die penalty to all rolls when he is not around her or performing tasks for her.	disciplinas.pdf
224 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESAdditionally, he is much less resistant to her com-mands, and his dice pools are halved when he attempts to resist her Dominate, Presence (or other mental or emotional control powers), or mundane Social rolls. Finally, he is unable to regain Willpower when he is not in the thaumaturge's presence. The Path of Mars Those rare Sabbat who have retained Thaumaturgical talents have turned their focus to the assistance of the Sect in times of war. This path has proven useful, turn-ing the tides of several confrontations with elder vam-pires. The path adopts a very martial stance, whereas other blood magics tend to have subtler, less violent ef-fects. It is rumored that some Camarilla Tremere have learned this path, but very few of them have the right temperament to wield this path effectively. War Cry A vampire on the attack can focus his will, making him less susceptible to battle fear or the powers of the undead. The vampire shouts a primal scream to start the effect, though some thaumaturges have been known to paint their faces or cut themselves open instead. System: For the duration of one scene, the vampire adds one to his Courage Trait. Additionally, for the purposes of hostile effects, his Willpower is considered to be one higher (though this bonus applies only to the Trait itself, not the Willpower pool). A character may only gain the beneﬁts of War Cry once per scene. Strike True The vampire makes a single attack, guided by the unholy power of her Blood. This attack strikes its foe infallibly. System: By invoking this power, the player need not roll to see if the vampire's attack hits — it does, automatically. Only Melee or Brawl attacks may be made in this manner. These attacks are considered to be one-success attacks; they offer no additional dam-age dice. Also, they may be dodged, blocked, or parried normally, and the defender needs only one success (as the attacks' number of success is assumed to be one). Strike True has no effect if attempted on multiple at-tacks (dice pool splits) in a single turn from one char-acter. Wind Dance The thaumaturge invokes the power of the winds, moving in a blur. She gains a preternatural edge in avoiding her enemies' blows, moving out of their way before the enemy has a chance to throw them. System: The player can dodge any number of attacks with her full dice pool in a single turn. This advantage applies only to dodges — if the character wishes to at-tack and dodge, the player must still split her dice pool. This power lasts for one scene. Fearless Heart The vampire temporarily augments his abilities as a warrior. Through the mystical powers of blood magic, the character becomes a potent ﬁghting force. System: Fearless Heart grants the vampire an extra point in each of the Physical Attributes (Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina). These Traits may not exceed their generational maximums, though the player may use blood points to push the character's Traits even higher. The effects last for one scene, and a character may gain its beneﬁts only once per scene. The vampire must spend two hours in a calm and restful state fol-lowing the use of Fearless Heart, or lose a blood point every 15 minutes until he rests. Comrades at Arms This ability extends the power of the previous abili-ties in the path. It allows any of the earlier effects to be applied to a group such as a pack or War Party. System: The player chooses one of the lower-level powers in the path, invoking it as normal. Afterward, he touches another character and (if the roll for Com-rades at Arms is successful) bestows the beneﬁt on her as well. The same power may be delivered to any num-ber of packmates, as long as the rolls for Comrades at Arms are successful and the thaumaturge pays the ap-propriate blood costs. The Path of Technomancy The newest path to be accepted by the Tremere hierarchy as part of the Clan's ofﬁcial body of knowl-edge, the Path of Technomancy is a relatively recent innovation, developed in the latter half of the 20th century. The path focuses on the control of electronic devices, from cellphones to laptops, and its proponents maintain that it is a prime example of the versatility of Thaumaturgy with regards to a changing world. More conservative Tremere, however, state that mixing Tremere magic with mortal science borders on treason or even blasphemy, and some European Regents have gone so far as to declare knowledge of Technomancy	disciplinas.pdf
225 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONgrounds for expulsion from their chantries. The Inner Council did approve the introduction of the path into the Clan's grimoires, but has yet to voice any opinion on the conservative opposition to Technomancy. Analyze Mortals are constantly developing new innovations, and any vampire who would work Technomancy must be able to understand that upon which he practices his magic. The most basic power of this path allows the thaumaturge to project his perceptions into a device, granting him a temporary understanding of its purpose, the principles of its functioning, and its means of op-eration. This does not grant permanent knowledge, only a momentary ﬂash of insight which fades within minutes. System: A character must touch the device in order to apply this power. The number of successes rolled de-termines how well the character understands this par-ticular piece of equipment. One success allows a basic knowledge (on/off and simple functions), while three successes grant competence in operating the device, and ﬁve successes show the character the full range of the device's potential. The knowledge lasts for a num-ber of minutes equal to the character's Intelligence. This power can also be used to understand a non-physical technological innovation — generally a piece of software — at +2 difﬁculty. The character must touch the computer on which the software is installed — simply holding the ﬂash drive or CD-ROM is not enough. Software applied remotely to a device (such as through an app store) also cannot be analyzed until it is installed. Burnout It is usually easier to destroy than to create, and sen-sitive electronics are no exception to this rule. Burnout is used to cause a device's power supply (either inter-nal or external) to surge, damaging or destroying the target. Burnout cannot be used to directly injure an-other individual, although the sudden destruction of a pacemaker or a car's fuel injection control chip can certainly create a health hazard. System: A character can use this power at a range of up to 10 times her Willpower in yards or meters, although a +1 difﬁculty is applied if she is not touching the target item. The number of successes determines the extent of the damage: Successes Result 1 success Momentary interruption of operation (one turn), but no permanent damage. 2 successes Signiﬁcant loss of function; +1 difﬁculty to use using the device for the rest of the scene. 3 successes The device breaks and is inoperable until repaired. 4 successes Even after repairs, the device's capabilities are diminished (permanent +1 difﬁculty to use). 5 successes The equipment is a total write-off; completely unsalvageable. Large enough systems, such as a server cluster or a passenger aircraft, impose a +2 to +4 difﬁculty (at Storyteller discretion) to affect with this power. Ad-ditionally, some systems, such as military and banking networks, may be protected against power surges and spikes, and thus possess one to ﬁve dice (Storyteller discretion again) to roll to resist this power. Each suc-cess on this roll (difﬁculty 6) takes away one success from the Thaumaturgy roll. Burnout may be used to destroy electronic data stor-age, in which case three successes destroy all informa-tion on the target item, and ﬁve erase it beyond any hope of non-magical recovery. Encrypt/Decrypt Electronic security is a paramount concern of gov-ernments and corporations alike. Those thaumaturges who are techno-savvy enough to understand the issues at stake have become quite enamored of this power, which allows them to scramble a device's controls mys-tically, making it inaccessible to anyone else. Encrypt/ Decrypt also works on electronic media; a DVD under the inﬂuence of this power displays just snow and static if played back without the owner's approval. Some ne-onates have taken to calling this power “DRM. ” System: The character touches the device or data container that he wishes to encrypt. The player rolls normally. The number of successes scored is applied as a difﬁculty modiﬁer for anyone who attempts to use the protected equipment or access the scrambled informa-tion without the assistance of the character. The caster can dispel the effect at any time by touching the target item and spending a point of Willpower.	disciplinas.pdf
226 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESThis power may also be used to counter another thaumaturge's use of Encrypt/Decrypt. The player rolls at +1 difﬁculty; each success negates one of the “own-er's. ” The effects of Encrypt/Decrypt last for a number of weeks equal to the character's permanent Willpower rating. Remote Access With this power, a skilled thaumaturge can bypass the need for physical contact to operate a device. This is not a form of telekinesis; the vampire does not ma-nipulate the item's controls, but rather touches it di-rectly with the power of his mind. System: This power may be used on any electronic device within the character's line of sight. The num-ber of successes rolled is the maximum number of dice from any relevant Ability that the character may use while remotely controlling the device. (For instance, if Fritz has Technology 5 and scores three successes while using Remote Access on a keypad lock, he can only apply three dots of his Technology rating to any rolls that he makes through any use of the power. ) Remote Access lasts for a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, and can only be used on one item at a time. If an item is destroyed while under the effects of Re-mote Access, the character takes ﬁve dice of bashing damage due to the shock of having his perceptions rudely shunted back into his own body. Telecommute A progressive derivation of Remote Access, Tele-commute allows a thaumaturge to project her con-sciousness into the Internet, sending her mind through network connections as fast as they can transfer her. While immersed in the network, she can use any other Technomancy power on the devices with which she makes contact. System: The character touches any form of commu-nications device: a cellphone, 3G-equipped netbook, Wi-Fi tablet, or anything else that is connected directly or indirectly to the Internet. The player rolls normally and spends a Willpower point. Telecommute lasts for ﬁve minutes per success rolled, and may be extended by 10 minutes with the expenditure of another Willpower point. The number of successes indicates the maximum range that the character can project her consciousness away from her body: Successes Result 1 success 25 miles/40 kilometers 2 successes 250 miles/400 kilometers 3 successes 1000 miles/1500 kilometers 4 successes 5000 miles/8000 kilometers 5 successes Anywhere in the world While in the network, the character can apply any other Path of Technomancy power to any device or data with which she comes in contact. A loss of con-nection, either through the destruction of a part of the network or simply a loss of cell signal, hurls her con-sciousness back to her body and inﬂicts eight dice of bashing damage. A character traveling through the Internet by means of this power can use her Path of Technomancy powers at a normal difﬁculty. Using any other abilities or pow-ers while engaged thus is done at a +2 difﬁculty. The Path of the Father's Vengeance This path, based loosely on a powerful thaumaturge's interpretations of the Book of Nod, devotes itself to de-livering justice to the race of Cainites. Each power sup-posedly has some precedent in the parables of the an-cient book, and focuses on teaching the lessons of Caine via the power of blood magic. Use of this path is hotly debated in the Sabbat, as some consider it tantamount to claiming to hold Caine's right over all vampires one-self. Camarilla vampires don't have the same knowledge of the Book of Nod that the Sabbat do, but the path is not entirely unheard of in Tremere chantries. The power of this path comes not only from the magic of blood, but also incantation of verses from the Book of Nod. For any of these powers to take effect, the caster must speak the actual condemnation. For ex-ample, to invoke the third-level power, the caster must state plainly to his target that she may eat only ashes. The subject must generally be able to hear the caster for these powers to take effect, though writing them and showing them to the subject will do. These powers apply to vampires only. They do not af-fect mortals, ghouls, or any other supernatural creatures. Zillah's Litany Zillah, the wife of Caine, unknowingly drank from her husband and sire three times, thus becoming bond-	disciplinas.pdf

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