Fortitude
“He stood alone in the center of the road. When that 18-wheeler hit him, you could hear the impact for miles. I’ll never know how the Gangrel stayed in one piece. The truck sure didn’t.” — Jezebel, Malkavian Neonate
Vampires are supernaturally resilient. Their bodies change with the Embrace and can survive blows, slashes, bullet wounds, and falls much more readily than mortal physiology. Vampiric blood has healing properties, knitting together flesh and bone with the merest effort of conscious thought.
However, some vampires are true juggernauts, shrugging off even agonizing physical trauma and brutal injury. Their bodies have become resistant to wounds, ignoring pain that would send a normal mortal into fatal shock.
Each dot of Fortitude represents an additional increase to a character’s physical resilience, and each dot stacks with all other mechanical bonuses granted by other dots of this discipline. If your character has Resilience (Fortitude •••), she also has the bonuses granted by Endurance (Fortitude •) and Mettle (Fortitude ••), which she must possess to reach Resilience.
Fortitude powers are always active, and do not normally cost Blood to activate unless specifically stated in the description of that power. Some techniques and elder powers may require Blood (or an action) to activate; refer to each power for specifics.
There is no standardized Fortitude test pool.
Focus [Stamina]: Stamina-focused characters gain 1 additional health level in each wound category when they first purchase Fortitude. Such a character has 4 Healthy wound levels, 4 Injured wound levels, and 4 Incapacitated wound levels.
• Endurance
You are beyond pain or fatigue, ignoring such hardships. Your body simply does not feel such minor inconveniences.
System: You can easily ignore pain. Your character is immune to torture and doesn’t suffer wound penalties.
•• Mettle
Your body can take more damage than others, suffering only light injuries even under circumstances that should do serious harm.
System: Each time your character takes aggravated damage, you may convert 1 point of aggravated damage to normal damage.
••• Resilience
Wounds that would slow or maim other vampires mean nothing to you. You can shrug off such detrimental injuries.
System: Each time your character takes damage, you may ignore 1 point of normal damage. You can use this power in conjunction with other powers that convert aggravated wounds into normal wounds.
You can use Mettle to downgrade a point of aggravated damage into normal damage, then you can use Resilience to ignore that point of normal damage.
•••• Resistance
You can endure horrific punishment, resisting even the most serious wounds and continue fighting. This is an impressive feat of endurance, clearly above and beyond mortal ability.
System: Each time your character takes aggravated damage, you may convert 1 point of that aggravated damage into normal damage. You can use this power in conjunction with other powers that convert wounds.
This power stacks with Mettle, allowing you to convert 2 points of aggravated damage from each attack into normal damage. It further stacks with Resilience, allowing you to then ignore 1 of those points of normal damage.
••••• Aegis
Your body seems as hard as iron and as resistant to pain as steel itself. Only persistent and monumental force can truly cause you harm.
System: Each time your character takes damage, you may ignore 1 point of normal damage. You can combine this effect with Resilience in order to ignore 2 points of normal damage per attack. You can also use this power in conjunction with powers that turn aggravated wounds into normal wounds.
