Campaign of the Month: October 2017
Blood & Bourbon
Potence
“When my energies first surged through me I discovered […] how to borrow the strength of the earth."
The Book of Nod
“I’m not some thug.” Theo stood on a broken stage in Berlin, alongside Hesha Ruhadze of the Ministry and Rudi of Clan Gangrel. Three corners of the Anarch Movement, even though the 30-or-so strong audience was mainly comprised of Caitiff and thin-bloods. “And neither are you good guys and girls. The Camarilla says you’re garbage? I say, you were mortal, and now you’re not! You drink the same drink as those motherfuckers in the Ivory Tower!”
A small cry of support resounded throughout the old theatre, as Hesha slowly clapped his hands. Theo continued, walking over to a pillar running from the side of the stage to the ceiling. “We won’t take their shit any more! We will not be second class! We we will not be trash to be kicked into the path of the Inquisition!” Theo Bell threw a punch into the concrete pillar, his fist smashing through the stone and out the other side. With a roar, he pulled his arm free and held it up.
The supportive cry was now a cheer. Hesha raised an eyebrow. It was a theatrical gesture, but it confirmed his view: better to be on this side of Theo Bell’s fists than the other.
Clans: Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu
Nicknames: Blood’s might (common), hulking (vulgar), percutio (archaic), super-strength (vulgar)
Overview
Vampire the Masquerade (4th ed.)
Kindred endowed with Potence possess unnatural 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 mortal 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, Lasombra, Nosferatu, and Giovannini 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.
Vampire the Requiem (1st ed.)
Nearly every vampire legend across the globe expresses the preternatural strength possessed by the undead. In truth, not all Kindred possess such inhuman might, but the Discipline of Potence makes those who do far more powerful than any mortal could ever hope to be. Potence allows Kindred to strike opponents with the force of a falling boulder or speeding car; to lift enormous weights as though they were paper; to shatter concrete like glass; to leap distances so great that those elders with obscenely high levels of Potence may, in fact, be responsible for some of the legends of vampiric flight.
Vampire the Requiem (2nd ed.)
While all Kindred possess the power to bolster their might in short bursts, Potence allows some vampires to kick like a freight train or rend steel with their bare hands. The Beast tunes every bone, tendon and muscle fiber to its highest performance, allowing the night’s most fearsome predator to strut through the jungle of their choosing without fear of lesser, weaker creatures.
Vampire the Masquerade (5th ed.)
There is a popular saying among the members of Clan Brujah: “You only underestimate our strength once.” Potence is vitae-fueled strength above and beyond other vampires’ capabilities. More powerful than any performance-enhancing drug, more unnatural than the physique of any bulging bodybuilder, Potence is the Beast let loose through the fists, feet, limbs, and raw bodily power of a vampire. The Discipline is used for more than just hitting things, though it is cer- tainly good for this task. It is the vampire’s ability to force their body into actions impossible for mortals to replicate.
Potence trumps the other Disciplines in sheer incongruity an elderly-looking Nosferatu strikes harder than a mortal heavyweight boxer or a Brujah Embraced as a child can decapitate a target with one blow.
Characteristics
• Type: Physical
• Masquerade threat: Medium to high. Lesser exercises of the Discipline might be passed off as “hysterical strength,” but once pavement cracks and buildings start to crumble that explanation loses what little credibility it had.
• Blood Resonance: Choleric. The strong and healthy; athletes and young men and women in their prime, gym rats, wrestlers, construction workers and lumberjacks, longshoremen.
Potence • Devotions
Common Devotions
The vampire must take Vigor for their first one-dot Potence Devotion.
Aura of Menace
One look at the vampire, and people know better than to fuck with them. Take Advantage on Intimidation rolls against the people around them. People won’t backtalk or stand up to the vampire unless something they care about is threatened or the vampire seems impotent to threaten them right now (e.g., hunters who’ve just staked the vampire). Night-folk with higher Supernatural Tolerance than the vampire are unaffected by this Devotion.
Cost: Free
Duration: Scene.
PCs: If you have equal or lower Supernatural Tolerance than the vampire, you can spend (6 – Composure) Story Points to ignore this Devotion’s effects for one scene.
Boomerang
The vampire can make any object they drop or throw return to hand. The object travels at the same speed the vampire threw it. If someone tries to hold onto the object, make a Strength roll (DC = [1/2 opponent’s Strength] + 1) to see if the vampire can pull it back.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-1. Free at Blood Potency 2+.
Duration: Scene.
Hidden Strength
The vampire is stronger than they look and gains a +1 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 1. A “natural” Strength score is one excluding the bonus from Vigor. As with Vigor, the vampire’s true strength is not apparent to observers: a vampire with a natural Strength 1 and this Devotion has less muscle mass than a character with a natural Strength 2.
Cost: Free
|
GM’s Commentary: Rules-astute players will notice that the higher a character’s Strength score, the less benefit they get from the Hidden Strength line of Devotions. Characters with Strength 4 take Hidden Strength 4 just to get a +1 bonus, while Strength 1 characters get a +1 bonus at only Hidden Strength 1 (and a +4 bonus at Hidden Strength 4). Furthermore, the latter character pays more XP than a character with Strength 5. So why does this line of Devotions exist? |
Instant Stake
The vampire can snap off a nearby table leg, tree branch, or other piece of wood to crush in their hands and sharpen with their teeth until it’s a fully functional wooden stake. Note that characters don’t need this Devotion to make stakes: this Devotion just lets them instantaneously make stakes that don’t take Disadvantage for being improvised weapons.
Cost: Free
Shadowblade
(Blood Sorcery [Shadows] •• amagam)
The vampire can conjure a weapon made from congealed shadowstuff. The weapon is near-weightless and can take the form of a sword, knife, spear, or any other melee weapon the vampire cares to wield.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 2+.
Duration: Scene. The vampire can make the weapon dissolve back into shadow at any time, such as if they’re disarmed.
Size Up
The vampire can tell what someone’s Physical Attributes, combat Skills (Brawl, Firearms, and Melee), or Supernatural Tolerance score is at a glance.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-1. First use in a scene is free at Blood Potency 2+.
Dice Pool: (Intelligence or Wits) + (applicable Skill) + Potence
DC: 2. Every success reveals the target’s dot rating in one trait. If the target is trying to conceal their true strength, such as an elder pretending to be a neonate, the DC is (1/2 target’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1, and the GM will provide false answers if the player doesn’t roll high enough.
Timed Knockout
The vampire can choose how long someone stays unconscious after they knock them out. They can have the victim wake up anywhere between several seconds or (Potence dots) nights later. Other vampires can’t be affected by this Devotion, as they don’t ever fall unconscious. (Torpor is a distinct state.)
Cost: Free
Touch of Hypnos
The vampire can render mortals unconscious with a slight touch or pinch to pressure points along their head or neck. This causes no lasting physical injury to the victim, making it a bloodless means of quickly dealing with troublesome mortals. The vampire can pair this Devotion with other Devotions that activate upon incapacitating a victim, such as Lethian Blow or Timed Knockout.
Requirement: The vampire must succeed on a combat roll or Subterfuge roll against the target (to either physically defeat them or get close to them). The GM may waive rolls against sufficiently weak or unwary mortals.
Cost: Free
Duration: Scene
Vigor
• The vampire adds their Potence dots to their Strength dots. This can increase their Strength to 6 or more. The vampire doesn’t look any more muscular than they were before.
• The vampire never takes Disadvantage when they’re unarmed in fights against opponents with melee weapons. (In fact, many vampires with Potence prefer to fight bare-handed: swords are conspicuous in the modern era.) The vampire can use any object heavy enough for them to lift as a two-handed melee weapon at no penalty for being improvised.
• Finally, the vampire can jump a number of meters equal to three times their Potence dots vertically, and five times their Potence dots horizontally. The vampire needs no run-up to make these leaps.
Cost: Free
| Strength Dots | Possible Feats | Load |
| 1 | 50 lbs | |
| 2 | 100 lbs | |
| 3 | 200 lbs | |
| 4 | 350 lbs | |
| 5 | Pull apart a pair of handcuffs | 550 lbs |
| 6 | Snap someone’s neck Throw a motorcycle |
900 lbs |
| 7 | Crush a human skull between your hands Punch through a cement wall |
1,300 lbs |
| 8 | Be as strong as a gorilla Punch through solid steel (1 inch) Throw a small car |
1 ton |
| 9 | Snap a femur in half Smash a human skull with one hand Throw a mid-sized car |
2 tons |
| 10 | Throw a fat SUV | 4 tons |
| 11 | Be as strong as an elephant Throw an ambulance |
8 tons |
| 12 | Throw a school bus | 16 tons |
| 13 | Explode an average-sized human into gore by punching them Rip open a bank vault door |
32 tons |
| 14 | Throw an 18-wheeler | 64 tons |
| 15 | Throw a tank Throw a house |
128 tons |
| Every further +1 | x2 tons |
• Characters can throw or bench press up to their load.
• Characters can lift up to double their load, but can’t do much more than stagger around with it.
• Characters can flip over an object that weighs up to three times their load.
• Characters can push or drug up to five times their load (note that objects with wheels, like cars, make this far easier).
• Characters can do any of these things one-handed at half their normal load.
Uncommon Devotions
Enfeebling Aura
(Presence • amalgam)
Many Brujah masters of Celerity and Potence claim that Presence means nothing when you’re staring down a skull-crushing fist. This Devotion seeks to disprove that notion. It brings forth the vampire’s supernatural presence not to awe a crowd, but to cow and enfeeble a victim. While it won’t completely stop an assailant, it will even the playing field in a tussle.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-1. Free at Blood Potency 2+.
Dice Pool: (Charisma or Manipulation) + (applicable Skill) + (Potence or Presence)
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Every success removes one dot from the victim’s highest physical Discipline. The vampire can also specify a Discipline to remove dots from.
Duration: Scene
Virility
The ghoul is extremely virile. Anyone they have unprotected intercourse with who’s capable of childbirth automatically becomes pregnant. By making a Rouse check, the ghoul can impregnate their partner even if they or their partner is using protection. The pregnancy will be free of (natural) complications and the child born fit and healthy.
This Devotion is of limited utility to most ghouls (and Kindred), but domitors who regularly breed their thralls swear by it.
Requirement: The ghoul must have been born with male genitalia.
Cost: Free
Potence •• Devotions
Common Devotions
Brujah’s Roar
The vampire can amplify their voice to the same volume as a megaphone. They also take Advantage on Intimidation rolls against mortals and night-folk with lower Supernatural Tolerance than them, as well as other Social rolls that would be affected by the volume of their voice (e.g., talking straight over someone in an argument). This Devotion is considered crass to use in Elysium, but it’s quite popular at Brujah rants.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Duration: Scene
Brutal Feed
Known as the “savage kiss,” this Devotion allows the vampire to drain a victim with unholy strength. The vampire can swallow torrents of blood and perform a dangerous feeding or fatal feeding in mere seconds instead of minutes. This is an efficient, if messy, feeding method often employed in the heat of battle where the victim’s mangled remains can be disguised. The vampire may still need to make Brawl roll(s) to kill tough enough victims, but actually feeding from them takes no time at all.
It is impossible to use this Devotion for light feedings and deep feedings. It’s too traumatic for the victim.
Cost: Free
Hidden Strength
The vampire is stronger than they look.
• The vampire gains a +2 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 1.
• The vampire gains a +1 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 2.
A “natural” Strength score is one excluding the bonus from Vigor. This bonus overlaps (does not stuck) with the bonus from Hidden Strength •. As with Vigor, the vampire’s true strength is not apparent to observers: a vampire with a natural Strength 1 and this Devotion has less muscle mass than a character with a natural Strength 2.
Prerequisite: Hidden Strength •
Cost: Free
Lethian Blow
The vampire can cause anyone they knock unconscious or beat into torpor to forget the last scene’s worth of memories. The victim may know they were painfully knocked out if they aren’t moved and their wounds healed, and they’ll know there’s a gap in their memories, but they won’t remember the vampire or exactly what happened to them. Although this Devotion is best-known by its classical name, many younger licks sardonically term it “the Brujah’s Dominate.”
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Bood Poteny 0-2. First use in a scene is free at Blood Potency 3+.
Powerful Breath
The vampire can blow mighty winds with the same strength as their own bodily strength. Fine motor control is impossible with this Devotion, which blows away everything within a cone-shaped area, but it lets the vampire move things from a distance and without using their arms. In earlier eras, vampires with this Devotion would use it to propel ships, making it particularly popular among sea-faring Lasombra. Its use in putting out fires, though, remains timeless.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: Strength + (applicable Skill, often Athletics). Remember that Potence adds to Strength rolls.
DC: Varies by size and weight of the objects moved or size and heat of fire. You don’t need to roll against fires small enough to put out with a single bucket of water.
Shatter the Shroud
(Auspex •• amalgam)
With Auspex, Kindred can see through the shrouds of Obfuscate and other supernatural powers used to hide. This Devotion extends that ability with force, shattering those gifts and exposing their users for the world to see. Whenever the vampire wins a Clash of Wills roll to pierce a hiding power, the victim’s hiding power ends immediately. They can re-activate it normally, but for a moment, everyone sees them and knows where to look for them.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Size Up
The vampire can tell what someone’s Physical Attributes, combat Skills (Brawl, Firearms, and Melee), and Supernatural Tolerance score is at a glance.
Prerequisite: Size Up •
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. First use in a scene is free at Blood Potency 3+.
Dice Pool: Typically, none. If the target is trying to conceal their true strength (e.g., an elder pretending to be a neonate), the GM will roll (Intelligence or Wits) + (Empathy, Subterfuge, or applicalbe combat Skill) + Potence in secret, against a DC of (1/2 target’s [Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1, and provide false answers on a setback.
Touch of Hypnos
This Devotion functions as Touch of Hypnos •, except the vampire can use it against biologically alive night-folk such as ghouls, mages, fae, and so on. Undead night-folk, such as ghosts and vampires, remain immune. Night-folk with incredible recuperative powers, such as werewolves, are only disoriented for a moment—enough time for the vampire to take a single quick action without interference.
Touch of Hypnos •: The vampire can render mortals unconscious with a slight touch or pinch to pressure points along their head or neck. This causes no lasting physical injury to the victim, making it a bloodless means of quickly dealing with troublesome mortals. The vampire can pair this Devotion with other Devotions that activate upon incapacitating a victim, such as Lethian Blow or Timed Knockout.
Prerequisite: Touch of Hypnos •
Requirement: The vampire must succeed on a combat roll or Subterfuge roll against the target (to either physically defeat them or get close to them).
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Duration: Scene
Uncanny Grip
Focusing their unnatural strength into their toes and fingers, the vampire grips and burrows their extremities into any non-metallic surface, enabling them to climb and even hang otherwise unsupported from walls and ceilings. Close observation reveals telltale scarring or deformation on these surfaces afterward, however, as this is an application of brute force, not superhero-style adhesion. Thin surfaces like glass shatter under the stress.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Duration: Scene
Uncommon Devotions
Compact
The vampire can crush an inanimate object down to size between their hands. The object must be small or light enough for the vampire to carry or break with their own hands. The vampire can make the object any size between its normal size and around penny. The object isn’t damaged by this process and remains fully usable once it returns to normal size.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-2. Free at Blood Potency 3+.
Duration: One night or until the vampire “pulls” the object back to its normal size.
Potence ••• Devotions
Common Devotions
Annihilating Strike
The vampire can completely destroy an object they strike, reducing it to no more than a fine dust. The vampire can affect any object large or dense enough for them to already snap in half. The vampire can use this Devotion to instantly dispose of corpses and other evidence, or to rapidly collapse buildings by destroying their supports. It also has terrifying shock value.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Beat It Out
The vampire can cancel ongoing supernatural powers (anything with a duration listed) by beating them out of a subject. The vampire can beat vampires using Protean back into their normal forms, beat implanted commands out of a Dominated victim’s head, beat a vampire using Obfuscate into visibility, and so on. This takes a Clash of Wills and the subject can’t reactivate the power for the rest of the scene.
This Devotion can’t cancel “unbreakable” powers like blood bonds that don’t normally allow a Clash of Wills.
Requirement: The must inflict the Injured Condition on the target at a penalty equal to the dot rating of whatever power the vampire is trying to nullify (maximum -5).
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Brujah’s Roar
This Devotion functions as Brujah’s Roar ••, except the vampire is so loud that their scream can shatter glass and similar materials. No sound quieter than a jet engine is audible over the vampire’s cry. Victims are also deafened and can’t make dice rolls dependent on hearing.
Brujah’s Roar ••: The vampire can amplify their voice to the same volume as a megaphone. They also take Advantage on Intimidation rolls against mortals and night-folk with lower Supernatural Tolerance than them, as well as other Social rolls that would be affected by the volume of their voice (e.g., talking straight over someone in an argument). This Devotion is considered crass to use in Elysium, but it’s quite popular at Brujah rants.
Prerequisite: Brujah’s Roar ••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Dice Pool: Strength + (applicable Skill). Remember that Potence adds to Strength rolls.
DC: (1/2 victims’ [Resolve + Stamina + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1. Roll once and compare the result against every victim’s DC: some may succumb and some may resist. You don’t need to roll against non-agitated mortals.
Duration: Scene.
Fling
The vampire can throw objects across long distances—anywhere within the same city− or county-sized area. Thrown objects travel at the speed of terminal velocity and are likely to arrive damaged if they aren’t made of durable materials or stored inside a padded container. Objects thrown from indoors smash through any roofs or windows in their way. The vampire can throw people as well as objects, though mortals are likely to arrive at their destinations injured or dead from the impact. Thrown ghouls are likely to survive as long as they have blood in their systems, and the worst that can happen to a throw vampire is torpor. People who don’t want to be thrown take a Strength + Brawl roll.
Many Brujah (often Anarchs) get a kick out of using this Devotion to throw rivals into inconvenient or humiliating locations, such as a city garbage heap. More ruthless vampires use it for intimidation value, such as to send a ghoul’s severed head smashing through the window of a rival’s haven. More practical-minded vampires use this Devotion to quickly move useful objects between allies and subordinates—or as a last-ditch effort to keep objects out of enemy hands.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Hidden Strength
The vampire is stronger than they look.
• The vampire gains a +3 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 1.
• The vampire gains a +2 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 2.
• The vampire gains a +1 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 3.
A “natural” Strength score is one excluding the bonus from Vigor. This bonus overlaps (does not stuck) with the bonus from Hidden Strength • and ••. As with Vigor, the vampire’s true strength is not apparent to observers: a vampire with a natural Strength 1 and this Devotion has less muscle mass than a character with a natural Strength 2.
Prerequisite: Hidden Strength •, Hidden Strength ••
Cost: Free
Lethian Blow
This Devotion functions like Lethian Blow ••, except it can affect up to a night’s worth of the victim’s memories.
Lethian Blow ••: The vampire can cause anyone they knock unconscious or beat into torpor to forget the last scene’s worth of memories. The victim may know they were painfully knocked out if they aren’t moved and their wounds healed, and they’ll know there’s a gap in their memories, but they won’t remember the vampire or exactly what happened to them. Although this Devotion is best-known by its classical name, many younger licks sardonically term it “the Brujah’s Dominate.”
Prerequisite: Lethian Blow ••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Bood Poteny 0-3. First use in a scene is free at Blood Potency 4+.
Shatter the Shroud
(Auspex ••• amalgam)
This Devotion functions like Shatter the Shroud ••, except the victim can’t reactivate their hiding power after the vampire pierces it. The power stays down for the rest of the scene.
Shatter the Shroud ••: With Auspex, Kindred can see through the shrouds of Obfuscate and other supernatural powers used to hide. This Devotion extends that ability with force, shattering those gifts and exposing their users for the world to see. Whenever the vampire wins a Clash of Wills roll to pierce a hiding power, the victim’s hiding power ends immediately. They can re-activate it normally, but for a moment, everyone sees them and knows where to look for them.
Prerequisite: Shatter the Shroud ••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Spectral Strike
The vampire can physically interact with ghosts, spirits, and other incorporeal entities as if they were fully solid. This Devotion does not grant the vampire power to see these entities, only to physically interact with them.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Duration: Scene
Touch of Hypnos
This Devotion functions as Touch of Hypnos •, except the vampire can have its effects last up to one night. The vampire can also use it against all biologically dead night-folk such as other vampires. Ghosts can only be affected if the vampire can physically interact with them. Vampires incapacitated with this Devotion are considered to be daysleeping (and can be woken by stimuli that would rouse a sleeping vampire).
Touch of Hypnos ••: This Devotion functions as Touch of Hypnos •, except the vampire can use it against biologically alive night-folk such as ghouls, mages, fae, and so on. Undead night-folk, such as ghosts and vampires, remain immune. Night-folk with incredible recuperative powers, such as werewolves, are only disoriented for a moment—enough time for the vampire to take a single quick action without interference.
Touch of Hypnos •: The vampire can render mortals unconscious with a slight touch or pinch to pressure points along their head or neck. This causes no lasting physical injury to the victim, making it a bloodless means of quickly dealing with troublesome mortals. The vampire can pair this Devotion with other Devotions that activate upon incapacitating a victim, such as Lethian Blow or Timed Knockout.
Prerequisite: Touch of Hypnos •, Touch of Hypnos ••
Requirement: The vampire must succeed on a combat roll or Subterfuge roll against the target (to either physically defeat them or get close to them).
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Duration: One scene or one night.
Uncanny Grip
This Devotion functions like Uncanny Grip ••, except it’s always active and doesn’t cost the vampire any Rouse checks, even if their Blood Potency is below 3.
Uncanny Grip ••: Focusing their unnatural strength into their toes and fingers, the vampire grips and burrows their extremities into any non-metallic surface, enabling them to climb and even hang otherwise unsupported from walls and ceilings. Close observation reveals telltale scarring or deformation on these surfaces afterward, however, as this is an application of brute force, not superhero-style adhesion. Thin surfaces like glass shatter under the stress.
Prerequisite: Uncanny Grip ••
Cost: Free
Uncommon Devotions
Beat It In
The vampire can affect a victim with any Devotion they know by beating it into them. The vampire must inflict the Injured Condition at a penalty equal to the power’s dot rating. The vampire can beat hypnotic commands into someone’s head (Dominate), beat their secrets out of their head (Auspex), beat them into loving the vampire (Presence), and so on. The vampire doesn’t need to pay a Rouse cost, deliver verbal commands, or succeed at the normal dice roll for these Devotions.
Requirement: The vampire must succeed on a combat roll against the victim. The vampire can’t affect victims with Devotions that can only target the vampire themselves.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Deep Draught
The vampire can draw extra strength from a victim’s blood by consuming part of their soul. Whenever the vampire feeds from someone, they can slake 1 extra Hunger for every Corruption they inflict on the victim. Victims still can’t have more than 6 Corruption.
Cost: Free
Material Projection
(Auspex •••• amalgam)
The vampire can physically interact with the world around them when they use the Twilight Projection line of Devotions. The vampire’s astral form becomes visible and semi-solid to people they touch or attack: anyone they try to hurt can hurt them back. If the vampire’s astral form is slain, they enter torpor as normal.
The vampire still can’t use Disciplines besides Auspex and Obfuscate at Twilight Projection ••••. They need Twilight Projection ••••• to use their full range of powers.
Prerequisite: Twilight Projection ••, Twilight Projection •••, Twilight Projection ••••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Duration: Scene.
Shatter Loyalty
The vampire can shatter a ghoul’s blood bond towards their regnant. They simply beat the affection out of them. This Devotion can’t be used to break blood bonds between other vampires or any night-folk besides ghouls.
Requirement: The vampire must inflict Injured -5 to break a third stage bond, Injured -4 to break a second stage bond, and Injured -3 to break a first stage bond.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-3. Free at Blood Potency 4+.
Dice Pool: Strength + (applicable Skill). Remember Potence adds to Strength rolls.
DC: 2 + Blood Potency of the ghoul’s domitor.
Timed Torpor
The vampire can choose whenever someone they beat into torpor or unconsciousness will wake back up. The vampire can also make the victim’s revival contingent on certain conditions, such as saying a particular phrase or when a specific event comes to pass.
Prerequisite: Timed Knockout •
Cost: Free
Potence •••• Devotions
Common Devotions
Aftershock
The mightiest practitioners of Potence can delay the physical devastation of their blows. Instead of killing an opponent, breaking an object, or performing any other feat of strength immediately, the vampire can specify any time in the next 24 hours. At that point, the effects of their physical action kick in. The vampire can cause people to drop dead, doors to burst open, machinery to rupture, and all manner of devastation to happen without apparent cause.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Draught of Might
The vampire can saturate their blood with the power of Potence, conveying a portion of that strength to anyone who drinks of it. Drinking a Rouse check’s worth of blood lets the drinker temporarily use the vampire’s Potence dots in place of their own. The drinker gains no additional Devotions besides Vigor.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+. This is in addition to the requirement that the drinker consume a Rouse check’s worth of the vampire’s blood.
Duration: One night for mortals and ghouls; for other vampires, until the next feeding or the other vampire reaches Hunger 6.
Earthshock
The vampire can slam their fist or foot into the ground, creating a shockwave that throws opponents prone and causes them to lose their next action that would take a dice roll. One of the more dramatic applications of Potence, this Devotion causes significant collateral damage. It cracks the earth, breaks furniture, and shatters glass. On any floor but a building’s ground floor, it causes everyone to plummet to the floor below. If used carelessly, the vampire can literally bring the house down upon themselves.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-4. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: Strength + (applicable Skill). Remember Potence adds to Strength rolls. You don’t need to roll against non-agitated mortals or if you’re not trying to knock opponents prone.
DC: (1/2 opponents’ [Wits + Dexterity or Stamina]) + 1. Roll once and compare the result against every victim’s DC: some may succumb and some may resist.
Fist of Irad
The vampire’s bare hands can inflict grievous wounds. Other vampires treat injuries inflicted by the vampire as sunlight or fire (5 Rouse checks per Injured level to heal, must wait until daysleep, and cannot heal more than one Injured level per day without spending 1 SP per extra wound healed). Mortals and ghouls take one week to heal for every day they would normally take. Ghouls can’t use Mending to heal injuries inflicted by the vampire at all.
This Devotion works differently when PCs use it on NPCs, since the GM doesn’t bother to track Hunger levels for the latter. Instead, something bad happens to the NPC as a consequence of slaking their increased Hunger. The scale of what happens is relative to how large an Injured penalty the PC inflicts: Injured -1, for example, could cause the NPC to lose one dot of Herd (which they kill to slake their Hunger, enabling them to support fewer ghouls), while Injured -5 would make them lose five Herd dots. Other possibilities might include causing a Masquerade breach, taking out Debts to other vampires, and so on. PCs can make Declarations to determine what happens if they don’t want to leave it up to the GM.
Cost: Free
Flick
It’s 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. An advanced user of Potence can make the slightest gesture—a wave, a poke, a snap of the fingers, the toss of a ball—and have it unleash the full, devastating impact of a dead-on strike, or any other feat of strength (e.g., throwing a car) that would normally cause visible exertion. Attacks made with this Devotion can come without warning, limiting the victim’s ability to dodge or anticipate (take Advantage on rolls to ambush them in a fight); this makes Flick one of the most feared applications of Potence. It’s also better for the Masquerade.
Cost: 1 Rouse check per attack or feat of strength. Reduce this Rouse cost by 1 at Blood Potency 5+.
Fling
This Devotion functions as Fling •••, except the vampire can throw objects and people beyond their city. The further the throw, the less precise the point of arrival. Some vampires have been known to embed tracking devices in objects they’ve thrown to keep better track of them. One common use for this Devotion is to throw enemies to inhospitable locations, such as the middle of an ocean.
Fling •••: The vampire can throw objects across long distances—anywhere within the same city− or county-sized area. Thrown objects travel at the speed of terminal velocity and are likely to arrive damaged if they aren’t made of durable materials or stored inside a padded container. Objects thrown from indoors smash through any roofs or windows in their way. The vampire can throw people as well as objects, though mortals are likely to arrive at their destinations injured or dead from the impact. Thrown ghouls are likely to survive as long as they have blood in their systems, and the worst that can happen to a throw vampire is torpor. People who don’t want to be thrown take a Strength + Brawl roll.
Prerequisite: Fling •••
Cost: 1 Rouse check per 500 miles the vampire throws the person or object beyond their city. Reduce this Rouse cost by 1 at Blood Potency 5+.
Herculean Leap
The vampire can make a single enormous jump. However far or high the vampire leaps, they eventually get there, even if they have to cross oceans to do it. The vampire travels at the speed of terminal velocity (roughly 120 mph).
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-4. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 5+. Additionally, the vampire suffers no harm from falling, so long as they can land feet-first. This benefit is always active.
Hidden Strength
The vampire is stronger than they look.
• The vampire gains a +4 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 1.
• The vampire gains a +3 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 2.
• The vampire gains a +2 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 3.
• The vampire gains a +1 bonus to their Strength score if they have a natural Strength score of 4.
A “natural” Strength score is one excluding the bonus from Vigor. This bonus overlaps (does not stuck) with the bonus from Hidden Strength •, ••, and •••. As with Vigor, the vampire’s true strength is not apparent to observers: a vampire with a natural Strength 1 and this Devotion has less muscle mass than a character with a natural Strength 2.
Prerequisite: Hidden Strength •, Hidden Strength ••, Hidden Strength •••
Cost: Free
Killing Look
The vampire can inflict physical harm on people and objects just by looking at them. Anything the vampire could do with their bare hands, they can do to whatever they’re looking at. Fine manipulation is impossible with this Devotion. All the vampire can do is destroy.
Requirement: The vampire must make eye contact with the victim or object. They must be able to see each other with the naked eye—this Devotion doesn’t work over video feeds or through binoculars.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Dice Pool: None, but if the vampire tries to kill someone, it still takes a combat roll as normal.
Spectral Strike
This Devotion functions like Spectral Strike •••, except it’s always on and the vampire never has to pay a Rouse cost to use it.
Spectral Strike •••: The vampire can physically interact with ghosts, spirits, and other incorporeal entities as if they were fully solid. This Devotion does not grant the vampire power to see these entities, only to physically interact with them.
Prerequisite: Spectral Strike •••
Cost: Free
Touch of Thanatos
This Devotion functions as Touch of Hypnos •, except the vampire can instantly slay anyone they touch. Medical examination shows the cause of death to be a stroke, blood clot, or similar cause, though any witnesses are likely to be suspicious after seeing the vampire touch the victim. Vampires affected by this Devotion succumb to torpor. Werewolves are too hardy to be slain outright, but fall unconscious for the rest of the scene.
Touch of Hypnos •••: This Devotion functions as Touch of Hypnos •, except the vampire can have its effects last up to one night. The vampire can also use it against all biologically dead night-folk such as other vampires. Ghosts can only be affected if the vampire can physically interact with them. Vampires incapacitated with this Devotion are considered to be daysleeping (and can be woken by stimuli that would rouse a sleeping vampire).
Touch of Hypnos ••: This Devotion functions as Touch of Hypnos •, except the vampire can use it against biologically alive night-folk such as ghouls, mages, fae, and so on. Undead night-folk, such as ghosts and vampires, remain immune. Night-folk with incredible recuperative powers, such as werewolves, are only disoriented for a moment—enough time for the vampire to take a single quick action without interference.
Touch of Hypnos •: The vampire can render mortals unconscious with a slight touch or pinch to pressure points along their head or neck. This causes no lasting physical injury to the victim, making it a bloodless means of quickly dealing with troublesome mortals. The vampire can pair this Devotion with other Devotions that activate upon incapacitating a victim, such as Lethian Blow or Timed Knockout.
Prerequisite: Touch of Hypnos •, Touch of Hypnos ••, Touch of Hypnos •••
Requirement: The vampire must succeed on a combat roll or Subterfuge roll against the target (to either physically defeat them or get close to them).
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Uncommon Devotions
Espirit de Corps
(Presence •••• amalgam)
The vampire can stir the hearts of their allies, granting them courage and strength in the cause for which they fight. For as long as the vampire’s allies can see and hear them, allies can use the vampire’s Potence dots in place of their own (they gain no Devotions besides Vigor) and are immune to fear. Supernaturally induced fear only affects the vampire’s allies if the vampire fails a Clash of Wills. The Brujah are credited with developing this Devotion, and have historically used it to lead followers into battle against even the most overwhelming odds.
Cost: 3 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-4. 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 5+.
Duration: Scene.
Expel Soul
(Auspex •• amalgam)
The vampire can punch someone’s soul out of their body after defeating them in combat. This functions like Twilight Projection ••. The bodies of mortal and ghoul victims fall into an apparent coma-like state. The vampire can see and hear the victim’s expelled soul normally. If the victim leaves the area, the vampire can effortlessly find them by following the silver cord linking their soul to their body. Powers to possess or take over the victim’s body succeed without a roll.
Prerequisite: Twilight Projection ••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Duration: Permanent. The bodies of vampiric victims continue to make daily Rouse checks and eventually fall into torpor. The bodies of mortals and ghouls eventually die of deprivation and release the victim’s soul to its final destination. The vampire can rejoin the victim’s soul with their body at any time. Other night-folk with soul-manipulative powers can also do so with a Clash of Wills.
Extract Heart
The vampire can rip someone’s heart out of their chest. The victim doesn’t die, but remains paralyzed and aware as if they’d been staked. The vampire can choose for the victim to fall unconscious or enter torpor if they don’t want the victim to remain aware. The vampire can slay the victim at any time by crushing their heart, or un-paralyze them by inserting their heart back into their chest.
Only a vampire with this Devotion can reunite a victim’s heart with their body. At the GM’s discretion, surgery and other body-altering powers (like Flreshcraft) may be able to do so with a Medicine roll and/or Clash of Wills.
This Devotion is believed to have been developed by an unknown Lasombra who fought the Setites during the Sea Peoples’ invasion of Egypt, and as a counter to the Snake Clan’s own heart-removing powers. While this Potence-based version is somewhat cruder, there’s no denying that it works. Among other uses, it leaves its victims unaware of their surroundings (unlike staked victims), and makes it much harder to wake them up (since the vampire can store the heart at another location). It’s also usable on entities besides vampires.
Requirement: The vampire must defeat the victim in combat.
Cost: 1 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Psychic Assault
(Auspex •••• amalgam)
The vampire can psychically attack a victim without raising a hand. The vampire’s attacking dice pool is (Intelligence or Wits) + (Brawl, Medicine, or Occult) + (Auspex or Potence). This Devotion causes immense internal injury to the victim, who looks to onlookers as if they are experiencing an agonizing seizure. Medical examination shows the cause of death to be a heart attack, aneurysm, or similar cause.
Requirement: The vampire must touch or make eye contact with the victim.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-4. Free at Blood Potency 5+.
Potence ••••• Devotions
Common Devotions
Break Beast
The vampire can “break” anyone they defeat in combat by snapping their back, castrating them, or performing some other brutal display of dominance that reduces the victim’s Beast to a state of fearful submission. Thereafter, the victim can no longer make Rouse checks, use Disciplines, or add their Blood Potency to dice rolls. Whenever the victim frenzies, they flee rather than fight. Other vampires can instinctively sense the victim’s weakness and take Advantage on rolls to bully, exploit, or attack them.
Requirement: The vampire must defeat the victim in combat.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-5. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 6+.
Duration: Permanent until the victim achieves a significant physical victory over another vampire with equal or higher Blood Potency than theirs: this should usually take at least a story arc, and may not even happen at all. Diablerie always counts as a significant victory.
Draught of Might
This Devotion functions like Draught of Might ••••, except the drinkers gain one additional Devotion for every new Potence level they gain. These Devotions must be known by the vampire.
The drinker must gain Devotions at the corresponding Potence levels; for example, a drinker who gains Potence ••••• must gain Vigor, a Potence •• Devotion, a Potence ••• Devotion, a Potence •••• Devotion, and a Potence •••• Devotion, rather than Vigor and four Potence ••••• Devotions.
If the drinker already knows Potence, they still gain new Devotions at levels the drinker already knows.
Draught of Might ••••: The vampire can saturate their blood with the power of Potence, conveying a portion of that strength to anyone who drinks of it. Drinking a Rouse check’s worth of blood lets the drinker temporarily use the vampire’s Potence dots in place of their own. The drinker gains no additional Devotions besides Vigor.
Prerequisite: Draught of Might ••••
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-5. Free at Blood Potency 6+. This is in addition to the requirement that the drinker consume a Rouse check’s worth of the vampire’s blood.
Duration: One night for mortals and ghouls; for other vampires, until the next feeding or the other vampire reaches Hunger 6.
Fist of Caine
The vampire’s bare hands can inflict truly ruinous wounds. Other characters cannot heal physical injuries inflicted by the vampire for the rest of the story arc unless they succeed on a Clash of Wills. They can only make this roll once. Even then, such wounds are costlier to heal, and carry all the effects of Fist of Irad.
When PCs use this Devotion on NPCs, it effectively gives them a story-long bonus on dice rolls against opponents they win a Clash of Wills against, since those opponents can’t naturally heal the Injured Condition. Even if opponents manage to heal Injured, this Devotion still carries all the effects of Fist of Irad.
Prerequisite: Fist of Irad ••••
Cost: Free
Imprisonment
The vampire rips open a gaping pit in the earth and throws the victim inside. The pit immediately closes after them, leaving the victim trapped in a cave-like prison miles below the surface. The vampire can make the prison as small or as large as they want (within reason). Left on their own, the victim will eventually die of deprivation (if mortal) or enter torpor (if Kindred). The vampire can excavate the pit and free the victim at any time. Vampires with Earth Meld or similar Devotions can try to escape with a Clash of Wills, but only once.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-5. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 6+.
Dice Pool: Strength + (applicable Skill). Remember that Potence adds to Strength rolls.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Strength, Dexterity or Stamina]) + 1. Remember that physical Disciplines add to physical Attributes.
Duration: Permanent.
Inescapable Strike
The vampire can physically attack anyone who is observing or communicating with them in real time. This can include phone calls, video feeds, text messages, IM clients, hidden bugs, viewing the vampire from a distance (e.g., with binoculars or a sniper rifle’s scope), or viewing the vampire through solid barriers. This also includes Disciplines that don’t require the vampire or their victim to be physically present to observe one another (e.g., Share Senses, Possession, Animal Dominion, Twilight Projection, etc.). The vampire only needs to be aware someone is observing them in order to lash out. This Devotion is highly disturbing for mortals to witness and can manifest in such forms as the vampire’s hands bursting from a TV screen, laptops crushing the victim’s head under their top cover, possessed thralls swallowing the victim into their mouths, etc. The victim can still fight back and neither the vampire nor the victim actually leave their current location. Resolve any fights with a combat roll as normal.
Cost: 2 Rouse checks. 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 6+.
Sins of the Father
Whenever the vampire inflicts the Injured Condition on a Kindred victim, they can cause any number of Kindred relatives within range of the victim’s blood sympathy to suffer equal harm. If the vampire destroys the victim, their Kindred relatives can be made to enter torpor, but not suffer final death. Any Kindred relatives who take the Injured Condition instinctively sense the vampire’s face and current location.
Cost: 1 Rouse check per harmed relative. Reduce this Rouse cost by 1 at Blood Potency 6+.
Dice Pool: Strength + (applicable Skill). Remember that Potence adds to Strength rolls. Roll separately against every relative affected.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Resolve + Stamina + Blood Potency]) + 1. Remember that Fortitude adds to Stamina rolls.
Duration: Scene.
Strike Weakness
Touchstones are a chink in any vampire’s armor. A master of Potence makes that literal. Any physical pain or injury the vampire inflicts on the victim’s Touchstones automatically befalls them too. Killing the Touchstone drives the victim into torpor. The victim instinctively senses the vampire’s face and current location when one of their Touchstones gets hurt.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-5. Free at Blood Potency 6+.
Duration: Scene.
Uncommon Devotions
Espirit de Corps
(Presence ••••• amalgam)
This Devotion functions as Espirit de Corps ••••, except it lasts for an entire night and continues to affect allies even when they’re no longer able to see or hear the vampire. While this Devotion’s applicability is more limited in the modern era, its longer duration and ability to function throughout a battlefield’s chaos (where individual followers could easily get separated from the vampire) still makes it invaluable in turning the tides of battles—the larger and longer, the better.
Espirit de Corps ••••: The vampire can stir the hearts of their allies, granting them courage and strength in the cause for which they fight. For as long as the vampire’s allies can see and hear them, allies can use the vampire’s Potence dots in place of their own (they gain no Devotions besides Vigor) and are immune to fear. Supernaturally induced fear only affects the vampire’s allies if the vampire fails a Clash of Wills. The Brujah are credited with developing this Devotion, and have historically used it to lead followers into battle against even the most overwhelming odds.
Prerequisite: Espirit de Corps ••••
Cost: 3 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 0-5. 2 Rouse checks at Blood Potency 6+.
Duration: One night
My Name is My Name
Whenever someone in the same city as the vampire shit-talks them, the vampire immediately knows. As soon as the victim leaves the room or rounds a corner, they find the vampire there, ready to kick their ass. The vampire instantaneously traverses the distance between them. Walls and solid barriers are no obstacle. It usually only takes several instances for word of the vampire’s prowess to spread, but that’s the point.
If the vampire is in trouble when this Devotion would be invoked, the vampire appears before the victim once they’re no longer in trouble. People who shit-talk the vampire expressly to summon them with this Devotion also don’t cause it to trigger. Finally, this Devotion only works at night.
Cost: 1 Rouse check at Blood Potency 0-5. Free at Blood Potency 6+. This Devotion is free to use if the victim shit-talks the vampire in the vampire’s claimed domain.
Dice Pool: Wits + Composure + Potence if the victim insults the vampire without using their name.
DC: (1/2 victim’s [Wits + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance]) + 1.
Penumbral Rent
The vampire can use their bare hands to tear open rents to extradimensional realms that overlap with mundane reality, such as the Shadowlands, the Spirit World, or the nearest regions of the Hedge. Entities between the Penumbral realm and the material world can freely cross over for as long as the rent remains open. This Devotion can only be used to access a single extradimensional realm, determined when the Devotion is first taught to the vampire. The vampire can learn this Devotion more than once to access additional realms, but such is rare.
Requirement: The vampire must succeed on a (Strength or Dexterity) + Brawl roll (variable DC) if they try to force someone through the rent involuntarily.
Cost: 1 Rouse check per local Gauntlet rating, Shroud rating, or other applicable rating to determine how thick the barrier between worlds is. Every additional person or object they transport through the rift costs another Rouse check. Reduce this cost by 1 at Blood Potency 6+.
Duration: For as long as the vampire holds the rent open, during which time they can take no other physical actions. If the vampire walks through or throws people through, the rift snaps shut immediately afterwards.
Disciplines Portal
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by:
False_Epiphany