Elder Powers

“The Roman scholar, Seneca, was incorrect. Unjust dominion can be eternal.” — Hardestadt the Elder

Elder vampires have vitae so thick and potent that it can support purer applications of vampiric disciplines. These mighty effects are known as elder powers, and vampires with less potent blood simply cannot learn or utilize them.

A character must possess the first 5 dots of a discipline before she can learn an elder power of that discipline; after that, the character can learn any number of elder powers (Generation permitting) within that discipline. Characters can learn in-clan elder powers without a teacher, but require a teacher to learn an out-of-clan elder power, as they would with any other out-of-clan power. The teacher must have that discipline in-clan and also possess the specific elder power that the student wishes to learn.

Mastering an elder power is a mark of distinction in vampiric society, both for the purposes of proving the potency of your blood and as a point of honor in your mastery of a discipline. Elders who have mastered more than one such power earn greater respect.

Common disciplines tend to offer more elder powers than uncommon or rare ones, due to the fact that clans with more members and longer histories tend to have developed more applications of their disciplines, especially when more than one clan possesses that discipline’s powers.

In-clan elder powers cost 18 experience points (XP) for Luminary, Master, and Pretender Elder vampires to purchase. It costs 24 XP for Master and Pretender Elders to purchase an out-of-clan elder power. It costs 30 XP for a Luminary to purchase an out-of-clan elder power. Neonate and Ancilla vampires cannot purchase elder powers at all.

Elder powers have no focuses and do not typically gain magnified results in the case of an exceptional success.

Elder Animalism

Crimson Fury

A vampire’s Beast often feels like a tangible thing, raging in the shadows of the soul and clawing at a vampire’s consciousness in a fury to find release. An elder with this power can allow the strength and rage of her Beast to be tasted in her blood, offering some protection against anyone who attempts to drain her vitae.

System: Anyone who tastes your vitae can sense the barely-contained fury of your Beast. Biting you or drinking 1 or more points of your Blood causes an individual to enter fear frenzy and flee in terror. This power does not require a challenge; the frenzy is automatic and cannot be resisted with Willpower.

Crimson Fury will affect any character who bites you or drinks your blood, even individuals who are normally immune to frenzy, such as mortals, ghouls, or vampires currently affected by Quell the Beast. Anyone who becomes blood bound to you after you purchase this power becomes immune to this effect and carries the mark of your Beast in her blood. Anyone who tastes the blood of someone who is bound to you, by biting or drinking from her, suffers from the effects of Crimson Fury as well, although she fears the individual’s mystical protector (you, though she cannot know who you are) instead of fearing your thrall.

If another character manages to diablerize you, your Beast lives on, tearing at her soul. The diablerist dies within three nights, as your Beast slowly and painfully tears her apart from the inside out. This effect is not passed on to characters who are blood bound to you.

Intimidate the Beast

The Beast is a predator and loves nothing more than exerting its influence over another member of its species. When you utilize this power, you unleash the full strength of the monster within you, driving another vampire to panic in fear before the overpowering might of your Beast.

System: You can only target vampires, or other supernatural creatures capable of frenzy, with this power.

When you are the focus of another character’s attention (as per Gaze and Focus), you can spend 2 Blood, expend your standard action, and make an opposed challenge against your victim using the Animalism test pool.

If you succeed, your Beast supernaturally assaults your target’s Beast, sending it into a panic. Any time this victim confronts you, her Beast claws at her psyche, trying to force her to back down from what it perceives as a more potent predator.

The victim must immediately look away from you or she will take 2 points of normal damage, which cannot be reduced or negated. For the next 10 minutes, each time your victim looks at you, attempts to speak with you, confronts you, or attacks you in any way, she takes 2 points of normal damage that cannot be reduced or negated, as her Beast erupts in horror. The victim of Intimidate the Beast can avoid taking damage by looking down or away from you and avoiding any kind of confrontation. A victim of this power instinctively knows what actions will cause her to take damage.

Intimidate the Beast cannot damage a character more than once per turn, and it has no effect on creatures that do not have a Beast.

Elder Auspex

Clairvoyance

Your mastery of supernatural sight allows you to cast your mind out and view faraway events, locations, or individuals as though you are standing in their presence. This power has inspired legends and myths, conveying the sense that no matter where you hide — you cannot escape a vampire.

System: To activate Clairvoyance, spend 1 Blood and expend a standard action. Your perceptions split, allowing you to focus on a familiar person, place, or object without losing the ability to perceive your current surroundings.

If you use Clairvoyance on a supernatural creature, or on an object in the possession of a supernatural creature, you must make an opposed challenge against your target, or the individual controlling the object, using the Auspex test pool. If successful, you can see, hear, and otherwise sense the area around your target as though you are in its presence. If you observe a location with which you are familiar, no challenge is required, and your Clairvoyance automatically succeeds.

Your Clairvoyance lasts for five minutes for each dot you possess of the Investigation skill. If you use Clairvoyance to spy on a character who is in multiple places at the same time, or a character whose physical form has been split into more than one piece, you must choose which location you would like to perceive when you activate Clairvoyance. Thereafter, if you choose to perceive the alternate location, you must activate Clairvoyance again. For example, if you use Clairvoyance to spy on a target using Possession or Psychic Projection, you may choose to spy on the target’s native body or on the location of her sentience. Similarly, if you choose to spy on a character whose heart has been removed, you may choose to perceive the body’s surroundings or the area where the target’s heart is located.

You can only utilize other Auspex powers, not elder powers or techniques, through Clairvoyance, so long as you can fulfill the other requirements of those powers. A character can use Heightened Senses to smell a candle through Clairvoyance, but cannot touch the wax to activate Spirit’s Touch. Because you are not physically present, your Heightened Senses cannot forewarn you about the proximity of Obfuscated individuals or illusions. You can still spend 1 Blood to sharpen your senses, in the hope of detecting such effects.

If your target is hidden by a power that grants invisibility, such as Unseen Presence, you must overcome the target’s Obfuscate in order to use Clairvoyance on that individual. Make a challenge using your Mental attribute + Investigation versus the target’s Mental attribute + Willpower, or Mental attribute + Stealth (the target’s choice).

A character cannot have multiple applications of Clairvoyance active at the same time.

Psychic Assault

Most uses of the Sight are subtle, gathering information or passing thoughts in a gentle and inconspicuous manner. Psychic Assault is none of these things. A vampire who masters this power has the capacity to attack another individual using the strength of her mental acuity, hammering on her unfortunate subject with an incomprehensible barrage of will and thought.

System: Spend 1 Blood and expend a standard action to attack your opponent’s mind with Psychic Assault. Make an opposed challenge against your opponent, using the Auspex test pool. If you succeed, your victim takes 4 points of normal damage. The damage dealt by Psychic Assault cannot be reduced or negated by armor or supernatural resistances, such as Fortitude.

A character attacked by a Psychic Assault immediately knows where the attack originated and from which individual in that location (if more than one person is in the area). You can repeatedly activate Psychic Assault against the same target; this is an exception to the rule that prohibits a character from using a power on the same target immediately after failing. If you fail a Psychic Assault against an opponent, you can try again against that same opponent (or someone else) on the next turn.

Exceptional Success: Your Psychic Assault deals 5 points of normal damage, instead of 4.

Elder Celerity

Quickness

With this level of heightened speed, you become a hazy, indistinct figure, so accelerated in your actions that it is difficult to perceive details. The world slows to a crawl around you, allowing you to batter your enemies repeatedly before they can react.

System: When you activate Celerity, you gain an extra round of actions, consisting of one simple action and one standard action. Resolve these actions during the third Celerity round within the turn.

Projectile

A vampire with this ability has mastered the skill of lending additional speed to hurled objects and thrown weapons. Even mundane implements, such as pencils or stones, can be murderous in the hands of such an accomplished elder.

System: When you make a Physical ranged attack, such as a thrown or firearms attack, spend 1 Blood to activate Projectile. This attack receives a +3 bonus to its attack test pool, and inflicts an additional point of damage.

Projectile can be used to augment a ranged attack that wouldn’t normally cause damage, such as hurling a coin. If Projectile boosts this type of attack, treat it like a normal firearms attack, which does 2 points of damage by default, 3 if you achieve an exceptional success. Such attacks do not receive the +3 bonus or an additional point of damage from use of Projectile.

The Blood expenditure for Projectile is added to any other Blood spent on Celerity this turn. You can utilize this power even if you do not choose to activate the rest of your Celerity for the turn. Projectile can be used during Celerity rounds, but you must pay the Blood cost each time you augment an attack with this power.

Elder Chimerstry

Shared Nightmare

Shared Nightmare is a terrifying power, capable of inflicting the effects of your imagination upon multiple targets at once. Your chimerical attacks are no longer constrained to a single individual per round.

System: Once purchased, this power is always active and enhances all uses of Horrid Reality. Attacks made by your Horrid Reality-augmented Apparitions can attack up to five characters simultaneously. Your illusion might throw a grenade, wounding several targets, or launch a gout of flame, burning a group of victims.

When targeting multiple enemies with this power, you must make a separate opposed challenge against each of the defenders. Should you spend a point of Willpower to retest any of these opposed challenges, you also gain that retest for the remainder of the opposed challenges, without spending further Willpower. If you spend the Willpower to retest after some challenges are already resolved, you cannot go back to previous challenges you’ve lost and apply that Willpower retest retroactively.

If you expend both your simple and standard actions to apply a combat maneuver, as per the Charisma attribute focus for Horrid Reality, that combat maneuver only applies to one individual.

Army of Apparitions

Where some can conjure an individual or item from nothingness, you have the capacity to fill a warehouse or populate a civil rights march entirely with illusion — in the blink of an eye.

System: Spend 1 point of Blood and use your standard action to create up to three Apparitions for each dot you possess of the Subterfuge skill, minimum three. When created, you can give each Apparition its own pattern. When you use a simple action to alter your Apparitions’ patterns, you may choose to affect one, some, or all Apparitions created with this power.

You can only have one application of Army of Apparitions active at any time.

Elder Daimoinon

Infernal Compact

Evil is not a solitary creature. It hunts in packs, sharing its benefits and damnations, and dragging as many souls as it can into the corridors of hell. With this power, you can induct others into the good graces of demons, initiating them into your infernal alliance, for the benefit of all.

System: By sharing the affections of your damned patron, you can grant infernal powers to others. To receive a benefit from this power, the target must accept the affection of your infernal patron of her own free will. Further, she must sacrifice something she cares deeply about (a lover’s memento, a loyal retainer, or so forth) to your patron, through you. Once presented with a suitable sacrifice, the Daimoinon user spends 3 Blood and invokes a mystic ritual of benediction for five full turns, during which the subject must be present. If the target has second thoughts before the end of the invocation, this power automatically fails. If the target remains willing through all five turns of the ritual, the supplicant’s sacrifice is consumed in green flame, and she receives an infernal blessing. The target gains the Infernal Power merit without paying any XP cost, and without this merit counting towards the maximum number of merits she can purchase. The target chooses which effect she receives from the application of the Infernal Power merit. You are considered to be the target’s infernal master for the purpose of this effect.

Infernal Compact’s effects last until either you or the target die. In either case, the target loses access to the Infernal Power merit, unless she chooses to purchase the merit normally, using the merit system.

Elder Dementation

Lingering Malaise

Sharing madness is as natural to you as drinking blood…and as fulfilling. Those elders who master this power can inflict a much more substantive affliction upon others’ minds.

System: Characters affected by your Voice of Madness set their Derangement traits to 2; any time a victim experiences a psychotic break while under the effects of this power, the psychotic break does not reset her Derangement traits to 0 (or 1, if the character is a Malkavian). Instead, her Derangement traits reset to 2.

Deny

The world we see and experience is not a real world. The truths we know and trust are not real truths. These are only shadows, nothing more than reflections of something deeper, which lies beyond. With this power, you can prove the truth of Plato’s old adage, and deny the collective assumptions of the world.

System: Spend 3 Blood and use your simple action to Deny the existence of an inanimate object. This power cannot be used to deny the existence of living creatures, undead, or spirits; it works only on inanimate objects. You are consciously aware that, to the weak-minded, the object you’ve denied still exists, but for you, it is nothing more than a semi-transparent, obviously false reflection of reality. The object you’ve denied cannot obscure your sight, block your movement, touch, or harm you in any way.

A user of Deny can step through a locked door that she “doesn’t see,” as if it is an archway, and a sword that she refuses to acknowledge fails to cut her, passing right through her body. The Dementation wielder can Deny any object within her line of sight, but she can only extend her denial to objects she is touching. For example, the Dementation user can swing a fire ax through a door that she has denied and strike the opponent on the other side, but if she fires a pistol through the denied wall, the bullets hit the wall as usual.

You can Deny any object up to the size of a small house. It is possible to Deny multiple objects at the same time, but you must spend 3 Blood and a simple action for each object. Deny lasts for one hour, or until you spend a simple action to end its effects.

Elder Dominate

Mass Manipulation

All thought is one. All minds are one. Reach into the cosmos and feel the stir of sentience. With but a modicum of pressure you can sway the eternal mind, manipulating a group of individuals as though they shared a single consciousness. A vampire who uses the power of Mass Manipulation reaches into the universal consciousness, spreading her control wide and affecting multiple targets with a single application of Dominate.

System: Your Dominate powers can affect a number of additional targets equal to your current Willpower. All of your intended targets must be paying attention to you, as per the rules of Gaze and Focus.

Mass Manipulation cannot be used in conjunction with Possession (you cannot possess multiple people at the same time). Mass Manipulation can augment other elder Dominate powers, but it cannot be used in conjunction with Dominate-based techniques.

When extending a Dominate power to multiple characters, you must extend the exact same effect to each target. If the use of that Dominate power cannot apply to one of the targets, then that target is unaffected by the Dominate power. For example, if you use Tyrant’s Gaze to strip Telepathy from multiple targets, an individual who does not have Telepathy is unaffected by this use of the power.

When targeting multiple characters with this power, you must make a separate opposed challenge against each of the defenders. Should you spend a point of Willpower to retest any of these opposed challenges, you also gain that retest for the remainder of the opposed challenges without spending further Willpower. If you spend the Willpower to retest after some challenges have been resolved, you cannot go back to previous challenges you’ve lost and apply that Willpower retest retroactively.

Tyrant’s Gaze

By their nature, vampires are tyrants, eager to control power and authority — and wield it over others. You channel this urge into your Dominate, reinforcing your will over theirs even to the point of afflicting the powers inherent in another individual’s blood.

System: To utilize Tyrant’s Gaze, spend 1 Blood, expend your standard action, and make an opposed challenge against your target, using the Dominate test pool. If you succeed, you can select one of the target’s powers. This power becomes locked away in the victim’s blood and cannot be accessed or used for the next hour. If the power is already active, it immediately ends, even if that power would otherwise be automatic or always active. Tyrant’s Gaze can be used multiple times in order to rob a target of more than one power, so long as you pay this power’s cost separately for each use. If you choose to strip a power the victim does not possess, Tyrant’s Gaze has no effect.

When you declare that you are stripping a target’s supernatural speed, endurance, or strength (Celerity, Fortitude, or Potence) you remove the target’s highest-level power in the targeted discipline (including elder powers). If the target has more than one elder power, you choose which one is lost.

Tyrant’s Gaze can be used to lock down a discipline power, elder power, technique, or ritual. It can even strip a power native to another creature type, such as werewolves, fae, or mages. In order to strip a power in this fashion, you don’t need to know the power’s name, but you must be aware of the power or have personally seen it used. You do not need to speak to use Tyrant’s Gaze, but you must have your target’s focus. The victim of this power immediately identifies the individual who has affected her with Tyrant’s Gaze, and she is also aware which power she has lost.

Tyrant’s Gaze cannot reverse permanent physical alterations. For example, Tyrant’s Gaze may be used to rob a target of the ability to use Heart of Darkness or Fleshcraft, but it cannot undo existing instances of Fleshcraft or return a removed heart.

Elder Fortitude

Personal Armor

Your skin is as hard as iron, and your body as tough as nails. Weapons snap and break against you, shattering from the force with which they are wielded. Vampires who master this elder power are like titans, nearly unstoppable and difficult to harm.

System: To activate Personal Armor, you must spend 2 Blood and expend a simple action. For the next hour, any time you are hit with a melee weapon or any other inanimate object, the object breaks against your flesh and becomes useless. Weapons that are destroyed by Personal Armor inflict damage before they break, but cannot pierce your heart; thus, Personal Armor effectively prevents you from being staked.

If you are struck with a Brawl attack, some of the force of that attack reflects back on your attacker. The individual who hits you in such a manner assigns her normal damage to you, and then takes damage equal to half of the damage she assigns (round up). Thereafter, you may choose to reduce the damage you took from the blow by using powers such as Fortitude. Reducing your damage in this manner does not in any way reduce the damage your attacker takes; her total is determined by the amount assigned by her attack before you reduce it. Ranged attacks and attacks that do not actually strike your flesh, such as the Potence power, Flick, are unaffected by Personal Armor, except for wooden projectiles, which will still shatter before they can pierce your heart.

Repair the Undead Flesh

A character with this power has mastery over the blood, bone, and flesh of her physical form, and she can command them to perform great feats of healing beyond the ability of normal vampires. She can summon forth her blood with an incredible effectiveness, sealing even the most grievous of wounds.

System: You can spend 2 Blood to instantly heal 1 point of aggravated damage. This power functions like normal healing and doesn’t require the expenditure of an action to perform.

Elder Melpominee

Shattering Crescendo

Your song is part of the mystical music of the spheres, echoing through the cosmos with incredible intensity.

System: When you invoke the power Death of the Drum, you may choose to inflict an additional point of damage to a single target, or instead, to affect up to three targets of your choice. When targeting multiple enemies with this power, you must make a separate opposed challenge against each of the defenders. Should you spend a point of Willpower to retest any of these opposed challenges, you also gain that retest for the remainder of the opposed challenges, without spending further Willpower. If you spend Willpower to retest after some challenges have been resolved, you cannot go back to previous challenges you’ve lost and apply that Willpower retest retroactively.

Persistent Echo

Adept performers know that the lingering echoes of a song can be as powerful as the music itself, softly repeating in a listener’s mind. With the power of a persistent echo, you can leave your song in absentia, waiting to be brought to life once more.

System: When you activate Phantom Speaker, Madrigal, or Death of the Drum, you may choose to have the effects of that power delayed, hanging silently in the air at your current location, until triggered at a later time. You must be physically present in the location in which you wish to place your Persistent Echo at the time you activate this power, but you do not need to be present when the Persistent Echo triggers.

First, you must meet all requirements of the power you wish to invoke. Then, inform the Storyteller of the specifics that will cause this power to activate at the location where you are currently present. Examples of triggers might include, “When someone other than myself comes through this door,” or “When the sun sets three days from today.” This power remains suspended via Persistent Echo for a number of nights equal to your dots in Performance: Singing or until it is triggered. You cannot have more than one application of Persistent Echo in effect at any time. Creating a second Persistent Echo erases the first.

Elder Mytherceria

Steal the Mind

Steal the Mind is an invasive power, plumbing the depths of a subject’s psyche to plunder her very sentience for your own benefit. This theft is temporary, but while you have possession of your subject’s mind, she is little more than a husk.

System: To steal a victim’s mind, spend 2 Blood, expend a standard action, and initiate an opposed challenge with your target, using the Mytherceria test pool. If you succeed, your target’s mental acuity is transferred to you. She becomes dull and slow-witted, and may even fall into a coma (if mortal). While you are in possession of your victim’s mind, you gain a +3 to your Mental attribute, and your target suffers a -3 to her Mental attribute. If this penalty places your subject at 0 points in her Mental attribute, she falls into torpor (or a coma, if mortal). When used on a Stock NPC, this power always drops the NPC into torpor (or a coma), and provides a bonus to your Mental attribute equal to +3 or the Stock NPC’s level, whichever is lower.

An individual cannot be under the effects of more than one use of Steal the Mind at any time. The bonuses gained from Steal the Mind do not stack. You cannot use this power on two different characters in order to gain a +6 bonus to your Mental attribute.

The effects of Steal the Mind fade after five minutes, although you can extend the duration for an additional five minutes by spending 2 additional Blood while the power is active. Extending the duration in this manner doesn’t require another test. After the effects of this power fade, torpid or comatose characters quickly awaken.

Creatures that are not sentient, such as zombies, or are not human, such as animals, constructs, or elementals, are immune Steal the Mind.

Elder Obeah

Unburden the Bestial Soul

Legend says that vampires are cursed by Caine’s sins, their souls blackened by the very nature of the Embrace. With this power, elders can alleviate the urges and ravages of the Beast, offering a vampire’s soul an evening of rare and blessed peace. However, such forgiveness comes at the cost of a certain amount of free will.

System: Spend 3 Blood, touch a willing target, and concentrate for one minute to remove all of that target’s Beast traits. After being consecrated in this manner, your target is incapable of taking any action that would cause her to gain Beast traits for the remainder of the evening. If your target attempts an activity that the Storyteller believes might lead to a Beast trait, the character loses her action without performing the activity.

Elder Obfuscate

Cache

Shielding objects and individuals from the attention of others is one thing, but maintaining such control from afar requires the mastery of an elder. With this power, your ability reaches far beyond your immediate location, offering even greater protection to those you conceal.

System: When you use Cloak the Gathering to hide another individual, the power lasts until dawn, regardless of how far away the target travels from your location. When you use Conceal to hide an object, you can hide anything smaller than a large car. Again, this invisibility persists until dawn, even if the object is not on your person.

The invisibility granted by this power will still fail if your target takes an action that would ordinarily break Obfuscate.

Phantom Hunter

Legends tell of hunters who stalk the night, striking from nowhere and remaining unseen, like an invisible wind. These tales only serve to remind vampires that they are never safe; their every move is watched, and silence often precedes the storm.

System: When an event happens that would normally end your Unseen Presence, you can spend 3 Blood to activate Phantom Hunter. For the next three seconds, you can continue to take actions that would ordinarily break your Unseen Presence, without becoming visible.

If you utilize Phantom Hunter during combat, the protection it grants continues only for the duration of one everyman round. For the remainder of that everyman round, you can attack, be attacked, speak out loud, and interact with your environment without becoming visible. However, if you are still interacting with your environment or with another character at the end of the everyman round, you then become visible. If you are no longer engaged in an action that would break your Unseen Presence at the end of the everyman round, your Unseen Presence remains active.

Phantom Hunter can be activated at any time, even before your turn in the initiative order. For example, if you are struck before your initiative, you can activate Phantom Hunter at that moment.

If you attack someone while you are under the effects of Phantom Hunter, the victim catches a brief glimpse of you during the attack and can retaliate on her next initiative. Other characters do not see you and cannot target you with an attack, unless they have the ability to pierce your Unseen Presence, such as by using Auspex or similar powers.

Example:

Bolviar has concealed himself with Unseen Presence and sees his rival, Theodoro. He approaches Theodoro and uses a standard action to punch him, saving his simple action for use later in the round. When he attacks, Bolviar spends 3 Blood to activate Phantom Hunter, so that the attack will not break his Unseen Presence.

Theodoro catches a brief glimpse of Bolviar during the attack, but to other observers, it appears as though Theodoro was struck by an invisible force. When Theodoro’s initiative comes up in that first everyman round, Theodoro exercises his option to attack Bolivar, and succeeds in grappling him. Because the everyman round has not yet ended, Phantom Hunter is still active. The Grapple does not break Bolviar’s Unseen Presence. After being grappled, Bolivar expends the simple action he’s been saving, attempting to escape Theodoro’s Grapple. If Bolivar succeeds in breaking out of the Grapple, he will remain invisible.

If he fails to escape the Grapple, he will still be interacting with another character when the everyman round ends. If this happens, Phantom Hunter’s effects will end, and Bolivar’s Unseen Presence will then fail.

Elder Obtenebration

Shadowstep

Your attunement with shadows is so great that you can do more than draw the Abyss into this world; you can actually travel in the other direction, into the Abyss. This power allows you to travel short distances, stepping into one shadow and emerging from another.

System: Spend 1 Blood and expend your standard action to step into one shadow and exit from another, teleporting up to 50 steps in any direction.

To use Shadowstep, you must step into a patch of natural darkness, one not created by Shroud of Night or currently affected by Obtenebration powers. You immediately exit from another natural shadow within your line of sight, as though it were your next step. Shadowstep cannot be used in brightly lit areas and cannot be used if you are grappled.

You can bring another individual with you, so long as you hold her in a firm grip. To do so, you must spend 2 additional Blood, 3 Blood total, to Shadowstep and bring the subject along. If the subject is unwilling, you must Grapple the target before using Shadowstep in this manner.

It is not possible to take more than one additional character with you when using Shadowstep; you also cannot bring items that you cannot carry easily.

Shadow Twin

You summon a sliver of the primal sentience of the Abyss into your own shadow. Forever after, it is your dark servitor, capable of obeying your commands and performing complex tasks. When you require its assistance, the shadow always answers and comes to your aid.

System: When you learn Shadow Twin, your shadow becomes infused with the power of the Abyss and gains a semblance of life. Your shadow is attuned to your will and can follow your mental commands. You do not need to speak aloud to issue commands, although you must be within line of sight to do so. Your shadow moves, performs simple actions, or attacks as you direct.

Your shadow possesses all of your skills and has a Physical, Mental, and Social attribute equal to one-half of each of your attribute ratings (round up). It can manipulate physical objects, lifting items or carrying objects weighing up to one pound for each dot of the Occult skill you possess. Note that your Shadow Twin cannot wield a weapon in combat unless you are wielding a melee weapon, in which case it holds a shadowy version of that same melee weapon, which provides all the same bonuses and drawbacks as the original. Weapons held by your Shadow Twin cannot have the Flaming quality; the shadow simply refuses to use such weapons.

Your shadow is immune to Physical harm, but can be affected by Mental and Social powers. It can detach itself from you, in which case you have no shadow until it returns.

A Shadow Twin can seep through cracks, move along solid surfaces, and ooze through small holes in a manner exactly like that described by Tenebrous Form. It can use each of the first 2 dots of Obtenebration once per hour, without cost, and you can see through your shadow’s Obtenebration effects as though you had created them. Your shadow does not have access to any other powers.

A Shadow Twin is dispelled if exposed to bright light, fire, or sunlight. If exposed to bright light, your shadow returns one minute after the light fades, or you leave the brightly lit area. If damaged by fire or exposed to sunlight, your Shadow Twin cannot return until 10 minutes have passed.

If you and your shadow are separated, you can summon it by spending 1 Blood and expending a simple action, which causes your shadow to dissipate in its current location and return to your side as a normal shadow. You can then choose to reawaken it with another activation of this power.

When your Shadow Twin is not active, it behaves like a normal shadow and cannot be attacked or dispelled. If you command your shadow into action, it can be attacked or dispelled as described above.

Elder Potence

Force

Your strength is near-miraculous, and you can shake the foundations of buildings or topple barricades with the application of your physical power. You strike with incredible gravity, causing shock waves that can shatter a target’s bones or burst her organs.

System: When you succeed making a Brawl attack, your character automatically inflicts 4 points of damage. This includes the extra damage granted by Intensity and Puissance. Note that Vigor still adds an additional point of damage, but when you achieve an exceptional success. Force cannot be used in conjunction with weapons. Any weapon wielded with the power of Force shatters before it can inflict damage. When wielding weapons, characters who possess Force may hold back, inflicting 3 points of damage instead of 4, in order to avoid breaking their weapons.

If you strike a mortal or partially supernatural creature with Force, the target dies instantly. Her body suffers too much trauma; her internal organs burst and her bones twist and splinter like toothpicks from a single blow.

A character with Force can break any inanimate object by focusing her strength on it. Most objects shatter with a single blow, but your Storyteller may require multiple actions for a character to bend or batter exceptionally tough or thick substances. It may take a while to pound through a 10-foot-thick concrete wall, but with Force, destruction is only a matter of time.

Normal Success: Your character inflicts 4 points of damage at this level.

Exceptional Success: Your character inflicts 6 points of damage, rather than 4 points of damage. This reflects the bonus from Vigor.

Flick

Your strength surpasses the physical barrier, radiating from your spirit in a wave of tangible energy. You can target the pure kinetic force of your blows outside of your corporeal reach.

System: Spend 1 Blood and a standard action to make a ranged Flick attack against your target. This attack receives a +3 bonus and is considered to be a Brawl attack despite any distance between your character and her target. Other Potence powers, including both elder powers and Potence-based techniques, can be used to modify a Flick attack, just like a standard Brawl attack. You cannot use other powers with Flick; it can only be augmented by Potence powers. You cannot use weapons of any sort while using Flick.

To use Flick, you must be able to see your target, and you must make a noticeable physical gesture in her direction, such as a pantomimed martial-arts blow, a backhanded swipe, or boxer’s punch.

You can use Flick during Celerity rounds, so long as you pay the 1-point Blood cost for each Flick attack. Damage from Flick is always normal damage and cannot be converted to aggravated damage by any means.

Elder Presence

Paralyzing Glance

Although your stare cannot kill, it can certainly shake a foe to her core. You can summon the unrelenting predatory nature of your Beast, focusing it into a single fleeting look. Those targeted by this stare become prey before you, too terrified even to run away.

System: To activate Paralyzing Glance, you must spend 2 Blood, expend your standard action to stare intently at your target, and make an opposed challenge against your opponent, using the Presence test pool. If you succeed, your target becomes utterly frozen and abjectly terrified. She is unable to move, speak, flee, or take any other actions.

Your target remains paralyzed so long as you continue to expend a simple action each round to maintain your focus, although you do not need to continue looking at your target. This paralysis continues until you leave the target’s presence, until she is the target of an attack, or until she takes damage. If the paralysis breaks for any reason, the victim suffers the effects of Dread Gaze, and must flee your presence immediately. For the rest of the evening, the target will avoid you, acting as if you’d achieved an exceptional success with Dread Gaze.

Love

Vampiric blood holds many powers, from the command of mental facilities to the might of pure strength or speed. But many elders argue that the ability to sway emotions through the chains of the blood bond are the most effective and insidious power of all.

Certainly, those who can evoke the obsession of blood-bound love without actually forcing another to drink their blood have an advantage in vampiric culture — a terrible, frightening advantage. Those who fall under the effects of such a creature’s power will move heaven and earth, betray friend and ally, and even sacrifice themselves, all on behalf of their beloved. Love is a dangerous thing, as it completely alters its subject’s emotions and personality toward the enthralling vampire. Such a victim is suddenly affected by a stage three blood bond for the next hour.

Once Love wears off, the subject attempts to rationalize the actions she took while under the sway of this discipline. However, unlike Entrancement, a user of this power can persuade her target to do dangerous and atypical things. If, while affected by Love, the target engaged in particularly abnormal activities or acted against her ethics or beliefs, she will almost certainly realize her emotions were forcibly manipulated.

System: To activate Love, spend 3 Blood, expend your standard action, and make an opposed Social challenge against your opponent, using the Presence test pool. If you succeed, your target is suddenly affected by a stage three blood bond toward you for the next hour.

If you use this power on the same target twice in one evening, reduce the duration of the second application of Love in half, so that it lasts for 30 minutes. This penalty is cumulative. The second time you use Love on one target, the duration is a half hour; the third time you use Love on that target in the same evening, the duration becomes 15 minutes; and so forth.

Elder Protean

Earth Control

By using this power, an elder is no longer constrained to merely slumber beneath the ground. Once melded with the soil, she can move through the earth, changing her location as easily as walking down a windy street.

System: While using the power of Earth Meld, you can move underground at normal speeds. You cannot pass through any substance with which you cannot meld, such as rock, water, concrete, or a thick tangle of roots, but you can physically interact with and even attack anything you find underground — including other individuals using Earth Meld. Earth-melded characters cannot fight back unless they also possess Earth Control.

Characters using Earth Control are aware of the underground landscape within 10 steps of their location, but cannot normally perceive the surface. For this reason, long distance navigation with Earth Control is problematic for most users, but Perception-focused characters can perceive their surroundings while within the earth and generally have no trouble navigating while underground.

You cannot dig or otherwise physically force an individual using Earth Control to leave the shelter of the ground, unless you have some method of determining her current location.

Shape Mastery

The Beast within your blood is so fierce that it cows others, forcing their inner rage to retreat from the onslaught of your primitive dominance. With but a gesture, roar, or other primal show of superiority, you can cause someone else’s Beast to draw back and her physical form to revert to its normal state.

System: Spend 3 Blood, expend your standard action, roleplay a show of dominance (a roar, a vicious glare, or other predatory gesture) toward your target, and make an opposed challenge using your Social attribute + Survival versus the target’s Social attribute + Willpower. If successful, you force your target to immediately return to her natural form. Further, she cannot change shape for the next hour.

Shape Mastery reverses the effects of a transformative power, such as Shape of the Beast, Black Metamorphosis, or Horrid Form. It cannot effect powers that alter only a small portion of the body, such as Feral Claws, or powers that alter the body but are not transformative, such as Earth Meld.

Elder Quietus

Blood Sweat

By concentrating on a victim, this power’s user causes the blood in that individual’s body to suffer a transmutation, becoming poisonous to her own internal systems. The victim’s body rejects such bile, swiftly expelling it through her sweat glands and pores.

System: Spend 1 Blood, use your standard action, and make an opposed challenge using the Quietus test pool. If you succeed, the target begins sweating blood. Mortals affected by Blood Sweat lose 2 Blood each turn for the next three turns, and they take 2 points of normal damage for each point of Blood lost.

Vampires affected by Blood Sweat lose 2 Blood each turn for the next three turns, but do not suffer damage from this blood loss. Multiple applications of Blood Sweat do not stack.

Baal’s Bloody Talons

Those who truly master the alchemical proficiency of their blood can grant it incredible capacity to cause harm. Their blood becomes a potent ichor, poisoning flesh with the lightest touch and causing the victim incredible, boiling pain.

System: In addition to the standard effects of Baal’s Caress, your applications of this power give a weapon a +2 bonus to Melee test pools. Further, this weapon inflicts an additional point of aggravated damage when it hits successfully. Baal’s Bloody Talons cannot be combined with Taste of Death.

Elder Serpentis

Seed of Corruption

With only a few moments of discussion, you can plant subtle ideas of defiance and vice within a target’s subconscious, tempting someone into committing evil actions. If left unchecked, this inner turmoil can corrode the victim’s morals and bring suppressed impulses to the surface, causing her to act on her darkest desires.

System: Spend 2 Blood, speak with your target for at least three full turns, and make an opposed challenge using your Serpentis test pool. If successful, you cause your target’s darker nature to surface. Seed of Corruption brings out the victim’s hidden desires, repressed fears, bottled anger, and suppressed temptations. The individual should roleplay a darker, more flexible moral attitude, taking advantage of any opportunity to play out her character’s wicked impulses.

For the rest of the evening, the target gains Beast traits any time she restrains this darker nature. If the target voluntarily ignores an opportunity to take advantage of another person’s suffering or to indulge in wickedness or vice, she gains 1 Beast trait. A character also gains Beast traits as normal if she sins against her standard Morality, which remains in effect during Seed of Corruption’s duration. In cases where this causes internal conflicts, Seed of Corruption overcomes a character’s moral stance.

Divine Image

Egyptian gods possessed great beauty, appearing human when they wished to impress or be adored by their worshippers, and transforming into beast-headed forms when they wanted to invoke fear or show their immortal heritage. So, too, can an elder with this power invoke love or terror by allowing the glory of divine inspiration to reflect upon her countenance.

System: By spending 3 Blood and using your standard action, you invoke a change in your appearance that is visible to all. When you activate Divine Image, you must choose to personify a benevolent or a malevolent countenance, and you receive benefits according to that choice:

• Benevolent: A benevolent countenance is extraordinarily beautiful, lending unnatural grace and poise as well as raw physical attractiveness. This form may appear utterly human, or it may show signs of divine manifestation, such as wings, feathered hair, small, opalescent scales, or some other appropriate physical manifestation of mythological “good,” but it always has a faint, golden glow. Mortals react with awe and reverence when dealing with a character using this countenance, and even supernatural creatures feel a desire to please this individual. A character displaying this countenance receives a +2 bonus to all Social test pools used for mundane challenges, or Social test pools involving powers, such as Entrancement or Eyes of the Serpent, which rely on emotions like sexual attraction, affection, or persuasion.

• Malevolent: Typically, when an elder Setite invokes a malevolent countenance, her head transforms into that of an appropriate beast – a jackal, hawk, or other such totem – and her body radiates a dark, golden aura. Characters with other beliefs may show alternate signs of this countenance, such as demonic horns, red skin, an oni’s fangs, or some other appropriate physical manifestation of mythological “evil,” but it always has a dark, flame-like radiance. Mortals react with abject terror and submission when dealing with a character using this countenance, and even supernatural creatures feel afraid of incurring the character’s wrath. A character displaying this countenance receives a +2 bonus to Social test pools used for mundane challenges, or Social test pools involving powers, such as Dread Gaze or Majesty, which rely emotions like intimidation, fear, or subservience.

Once a character invokes Divine Image and chooses her form, she must invoke the power again and meet all of its requirements a second time in order to alter her countenance to the opposing manifestation.

Divine Image is a transformative power and cannot be combined with other transformative powers. Divine Image’s transformation is close enough to human to allow you to use weapons. Divine Image lasts for 10 minutes.

Elder Temporis

Kiss of Lachesis

At this level of Temporis mastery, you have the ability to affect the passage of time on physical objects and individuals, causing such things to wither and decay. The effects of age ravage the subject as though decades had passed within a single breath.

System: Spend 2 Blood and expend your standard action to cause a target to age (or become younger) in the blink of an eye. If you target an individual, or an object controlled by another individual, you must also defeat your target in an opposed challenge using the Temporis test pool.

A successful use of Kiss of Lachesis allows you to increase or reduce your target’s age by any amount up to 100 years. Causing a living target to age the full 100 years will kill a mortal instantly and deals 2 points of normal damage, which cannot be reduced or negated, to supernatural targets, through withering and general decay. Kiss of Lachesis deals no significant damage to objects unless you wish to do so; if you choose to deal damage to an object, any normal item will crumble to dust.

Objects decreased in age in this manner cannot return to an earlier or incomplete state. A silver coin may lose its tarnish and seem newly minted, but it will not revert to an unformed block of metal. Likewise, while an adult’s body may revert to the age of a child, her mental faculties, memories, and experiences are not affected. An amputee reverted to an age prior to the injury will not regenerate her missing arm, nor will a broken sword become anything but newer-looking shards. Sentient beings retain all memories and any derangements. A vampire’s earliest regression point is her Embrace; a vampire regressed to the point of her Embrace remains a vampire, not an inanimate corpse — the regressed vampire retains all disciplines and keeps any changes in Generation due to diablerie.

Elder Thanatosis

Corrupt the Flesh

You have become a true master of the powers of rot and decay. Through the use of Corrupt the Flesh, you can infect a subject with a wasting disease that dissolves her internal organs.

System: Spend 3 Blood, use your standard action, and make an opposed challenge using the Thanatosis test pool. If you succeed, you infect your target with a corrupting disease. Mortal targets infected with Corrupt the Flesh die instantly as their skin erupts into boils and their internal organs liquefy. A supernatural creature suffers a -3 penalty to her Physical attribute for the next hour, and she loses her Physical attribute focus. The effects of Corrupt the Flesh last for an hour.

Elder Valeren

Fiery Agony

A Valeren user’s spiritual weaponry is powerful and incredibly intense when used by those who have mastered its elder powers. Through the use of Fiery Agony, you can expend the power of your chi to inflict pain upon anyone you can see, so long as you have touched your victim within the last hour.

System: Use your simple action, and spend 1 Blood to activate this power. If you have touched your target within the last hour, you do not need physical contact to use Burning Touch, so long as the target is within line of sight. Any sort of touch allows the use of Fiery Agony, including the use of a Brawl attack, being hit by an opponent’s Brawl attack, a handshake, or brushing up against someone in a crowded room. If you lose sight of your target at any point, you must touch her again before using Fiery Agony.

A victim of Fiery Agony instinctively knows who is responsible for her torment.

Elder Vicissitude

Breath of the Dragon

With this power, you shape your inner organs into an organic, supernatural furnace. Like the dragons of ancient tales, you roar a gout of flame upon your enemies, incinerating everything in a small radius.

System: Spend 2 Blood and expend your standard action to breathe fire on your opponents. Breath of the Dragon can target up to three characters standing within three steps of each other.

All targets must be within six steps of you. To attack with Breath of the Dragon, use your Physical attribute + Athletics versus the target’s Physical attribute + Dodge. If you succeed, this power inflicts 4 points of fire damage. Fire causes aggravated damage to vampires. Breath of the Dragon can be used during Celerity rounds, but you must pay the cost for each attack.

When targeting multiple enemies with this power, you must make a separate opposed challenge against each of the defenders. Should you spend a point of Willpower to retest any of these opposed challenges, you also gain that retest for the remainder of the opposed challenges, without spending further Willpower. If you spend Willpower to retest after some challenges are resolved, you cannot go back to previous challenges you’ve lost and apply that Willpower retest retroactively.

Exceptional Success: Breath of the Dragon does 5 points of fire damage to your targets, rather than 4.

Acid Blood

Those who master the powers of Vicissitude can transform their bodies beyond human capacity, shaping their own flesh and blood into a thing of supernatural beauty or cruel mockery. With this power, the vampire’s skill with Vicissitude has become so adept that her very blood can defend against those who would defile her.

System: Once you purchase this power, your character’s blood permanently becomes a potent acid. This condition does not harm your character, but will injure others who come into contact with her vitae.

Anyone who drinks your blood immediately takes 3 points of aggravated damage per point of Blood ingested. This damage cannot be reduced or negated. Anyone who attempts to diablerize you, even if you have no points of Blood left in your Blood pool, must make a challenge using her Physical attribute + Survival versus your Physical attribute + Occult. If the diablerist succeeds in this challenge, she takes 5 points of aggravated damage and successfully diablerizes you. If the diablerist fails this challenge, she is immediately destroyed as your heart’s blood dissolves her from the inside out. You remain intact.

Because anyone drinking your blood takes damage, Acid Blood can make it difficult (but not impossible) to Embrace new childer or maintain ghouls.

If a character with Acid Blood is using the Blood Form power, she can spend 1 Blood per turn to do 3 points of aggravated damage to anything or anyone touching her. This includes anyone she has grappled; the Grapple does not cause damage, but anyone you touch is continually burned by your Acid Blood. If multiple people are touching you when you activate this effect, a single use of this power will burn up to four individuals, causing each of them 3 aggravated damage. Note that characters who run out of Blood while in Blood Form immediately meet their Final Death.

Elder Visceratika

Bulwark

By grasping another and holding her close, you can shelter her within the stone bulk of your embrace. In this manner, ancient Gargoyle slaves once protected their Tremere masters; today, this power is more often used against the warlocks rather than on their behalf.

System: To use Bulwark, you must first succeed in using the Grapple combat maneuver on your target. Remember that willing targets may relent, obviating the need to spend Willpower to perform a combat maneuver. Once you have established a Grapple, you can spend 1 Blood and use your simple action to activate Bulwark.

While within your embrace, your target is protected from all Physical attacks, and cannot physically attack others. Any Physical attacks directed at the individual protected by Bulwark target you instead. Protected individuals can be targeted by Mental and Social attacks that do not require touch. A protected individual can utilize Mental and Social attacks herself, so long as those attacks do not require her to touch her opponent or utilize gestures. Bulwark ends if the target escapes your Grapple or if you let her go. Additionally, Bulwark ends if you have one or more points marked off in your Incapacitated wound track.

Furnace of Steel

Your capacity to twist stone and shape metal has reached a point where you can do so without using direct physical touch. With a gesture or a roar, you can cause guns to melt, car axles to bend, or any other metal in your presence to lose cohesion.

System: Spend 1 Blood and use your standard action to target a single metal or stone object within your line of sight that is no larger than 10 cubic feet in size. The target object warps and permanently loses its integrity, as if exposed to extreme heat. Weapons melt and become useless when targeted by this power, and you can easily destroy vehicles and buildings. Even if the item is within someone else’s control, so long as you can see the item, you can target it with Furnace of Steel, without making a test.

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Disciplines

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