VtR: Advanced Disciplines 3

Protean

Earth Control
(Protean ••, Celerity ••, Vigor ••, Blood Potency 3)
A vampire employing Haven of Soil along with this power is no longer confined to the resting place she selected the night before. She can pass through the ground as if it were water, “swimming” through the earth itself. Some elder Gangrel use this as a means of unobstructed and unobtrusive travel, while others find it a highly effective means of maneuvering in combat.

Cost: -
Dice Pool: No roll is necessary. This power is in effect whenever a character is employing Haven of Soil (see p. 138, Vampire the Requiem). While in the ground, a vampire can propel herself at half of her normal walking speed. She cannot see, but gains a supernatural awareness of her underground surroundings out to a range of 50 yards. Water, rock, tree roots and cement all block her progress; she can only move through earth and substances of similar consistency, such as sand or fine gravel. With the expenditure of an additional three experience points, however, the vampire can select another natural substance from the following list: wood, water, natural stone or processed stone. Thus, if the character spends 12 experience points, the vampire can move through all five materials – virtually anywhere.
If two or more vampires attempt to interact underground, only direct physical contact is possible. All damage dice pools in this case are halved, and Defense suffers a – 2 penalty. If an underground chase takes place, it is resolved with an extended contested Stamina + Athletics roll (see p. 65, World of Darkness).
Action: Instant

Flesh of Marble
(Protean •••, Resilience •••, Blood Potency 3)
Tales have long spoken of the combat prowess of Gangrel elders and of their inhuman toughness. Poorly informed individuals believe the stories of swords shattering and bullets flattening against immortal skin to be exaggerated reports of the effects of Resilience. Those with more reliable information know that such tales result from encounters with Gangrel who have developed Flesh of Marble. The skin of an elder with Flesh of Marble becomes in essence a sort of flexible stone, although it appears no different than normal skin and muscle. Indeed, flesh transformed thus even feels normal to a casual touch.

Cost: 3 Vitae
Dice Pool: No roll is necessary. The effects of the power last for the remainder of the scene. While the power is functioning, the character receives an armor rating equal to half his Protean dots, rounded up, giving equal protection against both general and ballistic damage (p. 166, World of Darkness). That includes assaults made with fists, claws (such as the natural weaponry of Lupines, or Claws of the Wild), swords, firearms and explosions, but not fire, sunlight or magic (unless the magical effect in question is a direct physical attack, such as a rock hurled by a telekinetic).
Flesh of Marble also halves damage from electrocution and pressure extremes.
Action: Instant

Restore the Mortal Mind
(Protean ••••, Animalism ••, Celerity •, Blood Potency 4)
The Gangrel are of two opinions regarding this power. Those who are politically active, or associate in very academic company, view it as both necessary and acceptable. Those Kindred who embrace their more feral sides, however, see it as a disgusting defiance of the very nature of vampirism. The schism comes because the power allows the elder who possesses it to temporarily return his mind to what it was before the Embrace, removing the bestial instincts he has accumulated over the centuries. Restore the Mortal Mind has only been displayed by Gangrel; several Nosferatu elders have attempted to develop a power of their own, Restore the Mortal Visage, and it is whispered that they met spontaneous, grotesque Final Death when they attempted to take their mortal forms.

Cost: 3 Vitae + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Resolve + Composure + Protean
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The attempt fails. The character suffers a derangement as a consequence.
Failure: The attempt fails. The character can try again.
Success: The character can ignore his clan weakness for the rest of the scene. The power comes with a drawback, however: While this power is activated, he cannot spend or earn Willpower points.
Exceptional Success: The character succeeds so well at his attempt at appearing human, that he manages to counterfeit life (see p. 156, Vampire the Requiem) for the scene as well, without having to spend a point of Vitae.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier   Situation
- 1 to - 10   For each point of Blood Potency the character has

Shape of the Beast's Wrath
(Protean ••••, Animalism •••, Blood Potency 4)
A Gangrel employing this power shifts into a huge, monstrous form, gaining half her height again and tripling her weight. Her overall shape flows into an unholy amalgamation of her own form and that of the animal she feels closest kinship to (wolves, rats and great cats are the most common manifestations, though ravens, serpents, bats and stranger beasts have been reported). The vampire's new shape does bear some vague resemblance to the war-forms of the werecreatures, but the difference quickly becomes apparent.
Cost: 3 Vitae
Dice Pool: No roll is necessary. The character's transformation takes three turns (the character may spend additional Vitae to reduce this time at a cost of one per turn of reduction). Once transformed, the character remains in this form until sunrise or until she shifts back voluntarily.
The precise Traits of this form are determined when the character first learns this power, as is the animal whose appearance the character takes on. The vampire's new form adds a total of six dots added to the character's Physical Attributes. At least one dot must go into each Physical Attribute, meaning no more than four can go into any one (so a character could have + 4 Strength, + 1 Dexterity, and + 1 Stamina, but not + 1 Strength and + 5 Dexterity). These bonuses are always the same once they have been selected; a different allocation required that the character buy this power a second time and thus purchase another alternate form. Additionally, the character inflicts Strength + 2 dice of Lethal Damage with bite attacks and + 1 die of Lethal Damage with claw attacks when in monstrous form, but can spend a Vitae and take an instant action to replace the claws with Claws of the Wild, which lasts for the remainder of the scene. She also gains two additional points of Size, and doubles her normal running speed. Finally, the character's perceptions are also heightened. She is assumed to have the Auspex power Heightened Senses after transformation, with all of the benefits and drawbacks of it.
This form does carry two drawbacks. The first is a lack of communication ability. The character's Presence and Manipulation drop to 1, or to 0 if they already were 1 (except when making Intimidation rolls) when the transformation occurs. The second problem that the character in this form encounters is the suddenly heightened power of her Beast. All rolls to resist frenzy receive a two die penalty for the duration of the power's effect, and the player may not spend Willpower points on such rolls.
Action: Instant

Spectral Body
(Protean •••••, Vigor ••, Blood Potency 4)
This powerful variation of Body of Spirit allows a Gangrel to take a shape with most of the advantages of the lesser power but fewer of the disadvantages. A vampire who assumes Spectral Form retains his normal appearance, but becomes completely insubstantial. He walks through walls and bullets with equal ease, and can pass through the floor on which he stands if he chooses to. Although his lungs are no longer solid, the vampire can still speak.

Cost: 3 Vitae
Dice Pool: No roll is necessary. The character's transformation takes one turn to complete, and lasts for the rest of the night unless the character decides to reverse it. When the power takes hold, the character becomes completely insubstantial, but remains fully visible. Henceforth, he is unaffected by any physical attacks, and he takes only half damage from fire and sunlight, rounded up. The vampire may even ignore gravity if he chooses to do so, rising and sinking through solid objects if he does not wish to stand on them (although he may move no faster than his normal walking speed while “flying” in this manner). While in this form, the character may also use any Disciplines that do not require physical contact or a physical body. On the down side, while in Spectral Form a vampire cannot physically manipulate his environment.
Action: Instant

Purify the Impaled Breast
(Protean •••, Resilience •••, Vigor ••, Blood Potency 5)
Camarilla records indicate that a disproportionately small number of Gangrel elders were killed by mortals and other Kindred during the fall of Rome. This power is one of the primary reasons for the survival of these Kindred. An elder Gangrel with this Protean power can expel foreign objects from her body with great force, even excising stakes that transfix her heart.

Cost: 3 Vitae
Dice Pool: Stamina + Medicine + Protean
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The attempt fails. The character cannot use this power for the rest of the scene. In case the character is staked, she may not retry this power until the stake is removed.
Failure: The attempt fails. The character can continue trying the next scene.
Success: The character succeeds. She removes all foreign objects
from her body. Dirt, bullets, even stakes through the heart are instantly and violently removed. The larger the object, the farther away it is hurled with this power. Objects expelled thus are considered to have an attack dice pool equal to its size and have a range of its size times the character's accumulated successes in yards.
If the character wishes to leave an object in his body (such as a prosthetic limb) or partially in (expelling a stake from his heart but leaving it sticking out of his breastbone as a ruse), the player must spend a Willpower point when this power is activated.
Exceptional Success: Objects expelled do an additional die of damage.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier   Situation
- 5      The character is paralyzed by a stake

Inward Focus
(Protean ••••, Resilience •••, Vigor ••, Blood Potency 6)
This power has no outwardly visible effects whatsoever. Indeed, its very existence is unknown outside those dozen or so Gangrel Methuselahs who have developed it. The internal effects of this razor-sharp honing of Protean, however, are in some ways more dramatic than any external manifestation. A vampire with this power can heighten the efficiency of his undead body's internal workings to levels undreamed of by lesser Kindred, withstanding inconceivable amounts of injury and moving with blinding speed and shattering strength.

Cost: 4 Vitae + 2 Vitae for every turn past the first that Inward Focus is maintained
Dice Pool: No roll is necessary. There are three effects of this power. First, the character gains a number of extra actions equal to half his unmodified (by alternate forms or eventual mundane or supernatural effects) Dexterity score, rounded up. Each extra action incurs a cumulative – 1 penalty (So the character's normal action would not be modified, his second action would receive a – 1 penalty, his third a – 2 penalty and so on). These actions can only be physical actions, so the vampire could not use Dominate several times in a turn for instance. Second, the damage from his physical attacks is increased by three per dice pool. Finally, all damage inflicted on the character his halved and rounded down after the attack roll is made (so an attack that inflicts five levels of damage is reduced to two health levels).
This power may be used in conjunction with other Protean powers that modify the character's combat abilities, such as Shape of the Beast's Wrath. It may also be used in conjunction with Celerity, Resilience and Vigor, turning a Gangrel who has mastered this power into a truly terrifying opponent.
Action: Instant

Resilience

Personal Armor
(Resilience •••, Protean •••, Blood Potency 3)
Nobody likes to get hit (or shot, or stabbed for that matter), not even Kindred. The easiest way to ensure that one is not hit (or shot, or stabbed) repeatedly is to take the weapon with which one is assaulted away from one's attacker and break it. That's where Personal Armor comes in. This application of Resilience, popular in olden days, causes anything that strikes a Kindred who employs Personal Armor to shatter on impact.

Cost: 2 Vitae
Dice Pool: Stamina + Resilience (The character uses his unaugmented Stamina score. Extra Stamina dots provided by normal Resilience do not count for the purposes of this roll)
Action: Instant and Reflexive

Activating Personal Armor takes 2 vitae and is an instant action. The effects of Personal Armor last the entire scene. The vampire adds a preternatural hardness to his flesh. Every time an attack is successfully made on the Kindred using Personal Armor, his player reflexively rolls Stamina + Resilience. The roll is penalized by the Damage rating of the weapon, or the Strength of the attack in case the attack delivered is hand-to-hand. If you are using World of Darkness: Armory, at the Storyteller's discretion, the roll can be penalized by the weapons' Durability instead.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The weapon does not shatter and character takes an additional level of Damage from the opponent's attack.
Failure: The weapon does not shatter and the opponent's attack does damage as normal.
Success: The weapon used to make the attack shatters against the vampire's flesh (Fetishes, klaives, “magical” sword and so on may be resistant to this effect, at Storyteller discretion). The vampire still takes normal damage from the attack, even if the weapon shatters in the process.
A hand-to-hand attack causes the attacker equal levels of damage to that suffered by the defender. The attacker receives this damage as Bashing wounds. If the hand-to-hand attack is made using natural weaponry, like a vampire's fangs, a werewolf's claws or Claws of the Wild, claws shatter, fangs break or a similarly painful effect occurs. The damage the attacker takes is Lethal instead of Bashing. The damaged claws or fangs cannot be used again, until the attacker heals the damage he suffered from this effect.
Exceptional Success: The character takes one less level of Damage from the attack. If the attack hand-to-hand, the attacker still suffers that point of Damage however.

Shared Strength
(Resilience ••••, Protean •••, Blood Potency 4)
It's one thing to laugh off bullets, rather another to watch the crossfire mow down everyone around you. Many Kindred have wished, at one time or another, that they could lend their monstrous vitality to those around them. Those few vampires who have mastered Shared Strength can – if only for a little while.

Cost: 1 Vitae per level of Resilience transferred + 1 Willpower for the activation roll.
Dice Pool: Stamina + Survival + Resilience (The character uses his unaugmented Stamina score. Extra Stamina dots provided by normal Resilience do not count for the purposes of this roll) versus Stamina + Blood Potency (if the target is unwilling)
Action: Instant

Shared Strength transfers a portion of a vampire's Resilience (one dot of normal Resilience for every point of blood the vampire spends) to another being. The vampire must mark his target by pressing a drop of his vitae onto the target's forehead. If the target does not wish to receive the benefits of Shared Strength for whatever reason, the character will have to touch his target (see Touching an opponent, page 157, World of Darkness) with a -4 penalty for targeting the forehead. This stain remains visible as long as the power is in effect, which is in turn determined by the activation roll.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character does not transfer the Resilience dots, but he cannot himself benefit from the dots he would otherwise have transferred. For instance, Roderick the Ventrue possesses 7 dots of normal Resilience in addition to Shared Strength. He decides to transfer three of those dots to his ghoul. He suffers a dramatic failure and his ghoul does not receive the benefits of the dots. Roderick however now only receives four levels of Resilience whenever he activates it for the rest of the evening. The Vitae and Willpower is wasted.
Failure: The character does not transfer the Resilience dots, but he may attempt the transfer again by spending another point of  Willpower.
Success: The character successfully transfers a number of Resilience dots equal to the vitae spent for the activation of this power. Duration is determined by the penalty on the activation roll.
During this time the character does not benefit from the dots of Resilience transferred. As in the above example, were Roderick the Ventrue to successfully transfer three dots of Resilience to his subject, Roderick would only benefit from four dots of normal Resilience for the duration of the period Shared Strength is active.
The recipient of the Resilience dots enjoy all the benefits of the Discipline as explained on page 140 of Vampire the Requiem. If the recipient does not possess Vitae he can use the corresponding supernatural “fuel” to activate the Discipline (Essence for werewolves, Mana for mages and so on). If the recipient is not a supernatural, he can activate the Discipline by spending a point of Willpower instead.
A character can bestow Resilience dots on multiple recipients, but he must roll separately for each recipient and expend one point of Willpower per subject. A vampire can never bestow more levels of normal Resilience than he himself possesses on another. Furthermore, he cannot bestow alternate Resilience powers like Personal Armor or Shared Strength on another. Only normal Resilience dots can be transferred with this Discipline.
If the character wishes to end the effects of Shared Strength prematurely, she must wipe away the blood she smeared on the target's forehead. Only she can do so. Others trying to clear the stain away find that the mark does not disappear, no matter the treatment.
The target of this power need not be willing to accept the benefit to receive it. Particularly sadistic Kindred have come up with any number of ways in which a target's “devil's mark” and supernatural endurance can be used to land him in a great deal of trouble.
Exceptional Success: The character gets his Willpower point back.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier   Situation
-      Two turns
- 1      Five turns
- 2      One scene
- 3      One hour
- 4      One night
- 5      One week

Adamantine
(Resilience •••••, Protean •••, Blood Potency 5)
Adamantine functions as a more potent version of Personal Armor.

Cost: 2 vitae + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Stamina + Resilience (The character uses his unaugmented Stamina score. Extra Stamina dots provided by normal Resilience do not count for the purposes of this roll)
Action: Instant and Reflexive

Activating Adamantine takes 2 vitae and is an instant action. The effects of Adamantine last the entire scene. Every time an attack is successfully made on the Kindred using Adamantine, his player reflexively rolls Stamina + Resilience. The roll is penalized by the Damage rating of the weapon, or the Strength of the attack in case the attack delivered is hand-to-hand. If you are using World of Darkness: Armory, at the Storyteller's discretion, the roll can be penalized by the weapons' Durability instead.
However, unlike Personal Armor, a Kindred using Adamantine may spend a point of Willpower when making the reflexive roll. Each success on the roll cancels out one point of Damage on a one-for-one basis. Note that the attack is still considered a hit, even if it deals no damage. This is for the sake of determining whether or not the weapon shatters.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The weapon does not shatter and character takes an additional level of Damage from the opponent's attack.
Failure: The weapon does not shatter and the opponent's attack does damage as normal.
Success: The weapon used to make the attack shatters against the vampire's flesh (Fetishes, klaives, “magical” sword and so on may be resistant to this effect, at Storyteller discretion). The vampire  takes any damage from the attack that his own successes did not cancel, even if the weapon shatters in the process.
A hand-to-hand attack causes the attacker equal levels of damage to that the defender would have suffered before reducing the damage. The attacker receives this damage as Bashing wounds. For example, Grey, the Daeva, scores 5 levels of
Bashing damage on his initial attack roll. Roderick, the Ventrue, scores three successes on his Adamantine roll and thus only takes 2 levels of Bashing damage. Grey, however, suffers the 5 levels of Bashing damage he would have inflicted on Roderick.
If the hand-to-hand attack is made using natural weaponry, like a vampire's fangs, a werewolf's claws or Claws of the Wild, claws shatter, fangs break or a similarly painful effect occurs. The damage the attacker takes is Lethal instead of Bashing. The damaged claws or fangs cannot be used again, until the attacker heals the damage he suffered from this effect.
Exceptional Success: Additional successes are their own reward

Vigor

Imprint
(Vigor ••••, Protean ••, Blood Potency 3)
A vampire with extensive knowledge of Vigor can squeeze very, very hard. As a matter of fact, she can squeeze (or press, or push) so hard that she can leave an imprint of her fingers or hand in any hard surface up to and including solid steel. A use of Imprint can simply serve as a threat, or it can be used, for example, to dig handholds into sheer surfaces for the purposes of climbing, or sink her fingers into an reinforced steel door before ripping it off its hinges.

Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: -
Action: Instant

Once activated, Imprint lasts for the duration of a scene. The vampire ignores a number of points of Durability equal to half his Vigor rating, rounded up. The depth of the imprint the vampire creates with imprint is up to the Storyteller – decisions should take into account how much force the vampire can bring to bear, the toughness of the material and its thickness. If the object the vampire grasps is thin enough, at Storyteller option the vampire might simply be able to push through it (in the case of a wall) or tear it off (in the case of a spear or pipe).
If using Imprint for the purpose of climbing, the character enjoys a +2 modifier to all climbing-related rolls.
Imprint can be turned against weapons and armor as well. A vampire could squeeze and bend a blade for instance, or squeeze the muzzle of a gun shut. The character makes a Strength + Brawl roll, but targets the weapon. The attack works per the rules of Targeting items (p. 138, World of Darkness), with the exception that the character uses his bare hands and subtracts half his Vigor, rounded up, from the item's Durability.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character fails to grab the weapon and loses his Defense for the next turn of combat.
Failure: The character fails to grab the weapon.
Success: The character grabs the weapon. Each success means the item suffers a point of Structure damage. If the weapon has no Structure points left, it is destroyed. If the character is using Imprint on an edged weapon, the character also takes as many levels of Lethal damage as he rolled successes on this roll, unless he is wearing armored gloves, or possesses the Protean power Flesh of Marble, or the Resilience powers Personal Armor or Adamantine.
Exceptional Success: The character also harms the person wielding the weapon as he proceeds to squeeze it. The wielder takes one Lethal wound.

Suggested Modifiers
Modifier   Situation
- 1      Weapon is size 3
- 2      Weapon is size 2
- 3      Weapon is size 1

If the character wants to destroy the armor an enemy is wearing, the character makes a Strength + Brawl roll, but targets the armor. The character can only attack one part of the body that the armor covers at a time. Attacking the specified body part means the attacker will suffer a negative attack modifier depending on the body part in question. See Specific Targets, page 165 of World of Darkness. Take the victim's Defense in mind when performing this attack, but not his armor, as that is the item being targeted.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character fails to grab the armor and loses his Defense for the next turn of combat.
Failure: The character fails to grab the armor.
Success: The character grabs the armor. Each success reduces one point from both the armor's general and ballistic ratings. If the armor has no points of general and ballistic protection left, it is destroyed.
Exceptional Success: The character also harms the person wearing the armor as he proceeds to squeeze it. The wielder takes one Lethal wound.

Earthshock
(Vigor •••••, Protean ••, Blood Potency 4)
According to some pundits, Vigor is merely the art of hitting something very, very hard. But what do you do when your target is too far away to hit directly? The answer is, if you're sufficiently talented with the Discipline, to employ Earthshock. On its simplest level, Earthshock is the ability to hit the ground at point A, and subsequently have the force of the blow emerge from the ground at point B, some distance away.

Cost: 2 Vitae
Dice Pool: -
Action: Instant

The vampire makes an ordinary Strength + Brawl roll. The vampire punches (or stamps on, depending on personal style) the ground, and, if the attack is a success, the force of the blow emerges from the ground as a geyser of rock, stone and whatnot directly underneath the target. The target of the attack suffers a – 2 Defense, as it's a great deal more difficult to time a move away from an underground pulse than it is to duck a punch.
The range on Earthshock is 10 feet for every level of Vigor the vampire has, up to the limits of visibility. A failure on the attack roll means that the strike goes errant and is liable to explode anywhere within range; a dramatic failure means that the vampire pulverizes the ground beneath him and may well dig himself into a hole in the process.

Flick
(Vigor ••••, Obfuscate ••, Protean ••, Blood Potency 5)
It is a truism that “the great ones always make it look easy.” In the case of Flick, that saying stops being a truism and becomes a literal truth. With this power, a master of Vigor can make the slightest gesture – a wave, a snap of the fingers, the toss of a ball – and have it unleash the full, devastating impact of a dead-on strike. The attack can come without warning, limiting the target's ability to dodge or anticipate, and thus making Flick one of the most feared applications of Vigor known.

Cost: 3 Vitae + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: -
Action: Instant

Flick mandates an ordinary Strength + Brawl roll. It also requires that the vampire make some sort of gesture directing the blow. What the gesture is remains up to the character – anything from a snap of the fingers to a blown kiss has worked in the past.
Flick's range is equal to the limit of the Kindred's perception, and the blow struck does damage equal to a normal Brawl attack (including all modifiers). Note that it is the Kindred's natural perception we are talking about. A vampire employing Flick couldn't extend the range by using binoculars for instance.
A character who has never been subjected to the powers of Flick before is taken by surprise. His Defense trait is not subtracted from the attacker's dice pools. He must make a successful Wits + Composure roll to understand that the attacks are coming from the attacker employing Flick. After successfully rolling Wits + Composure, that character will never be taken by surprise by the attacker's Flick ever again (unless of course the attacker ambushes the character at a later date). From then on he can employ his Defense trait as usual against attacks made with Flick, but at a -2 penalty (he is expecting the attack, but anticipating a wave of the hand is harder than dodging a punch).
In the unlikely event that the character is attacked by another vampire employing Flick (hey, it could happen) he does not employ his Defense trait against the first attack. He doesn't need to roll Wits + Composure after suffering the first attack however however. He recognizes that the attacker is employing Flick, having been on the receiving end before. His Defense trait will still suffer a -2 penalty however against all other attacks made with Flick.