Rank the banes from most exhausting to least exhausting

[CajunKhan]

By exhausting I mean just making a vampire weary having to endure it every night.

My ranking.
(1)Brujah
It just seems like always having that rage bubbling under the surface would leave you in a perpetual state of emotional exhaustion.

(2)Ventrue
Hunting is hard enough, constantly being on the lookout for blonde virgins would be exhausting. To be a Ventrue is to constantly be hungry, and constantly paranoid about your herd.

(3)Nosferatu
Being hideous would weigh on you directly, and indirectly via the isolation it creates.

(4)Toreador
Their weakness doesn't sound like much, until you realize how much of vampire existence has to be done away from beauty. You'll often be down dice when hunting, when performing detective work, when fighting. Basically you are tied to Elysium and similar surroundings harder than Tzims are to their soil. It would be exhausting knowing that setting foot in ugly areas puts you at a severe disadvantage against your enemies. Not to mention the amplified sense of disgust implied by the weakness.

(5)Malkavians
Would have been higher back in the day, but they only suffer boughts of madness under rare circumstances now. Still, it has to weigh on you.

(6)Hecata
This one was very hard to place. Six just sounds about right, though if someone made a case for higher or lower, I couldn't really argue back.

(7)Lasombra
Would just be perpetually irritating rather than exhausting. If "aw goddamit not again!" was a clan.

(8)Assamite
Rather isolating. If were one, I'd be sorely tempting to live like a Gangrel. Comes up too rarely to really be called exhausting. This is really where you start to get into the annoying rather than exhausing banes.

(9)Setite
Oh no's I have to wear sun glasses at night! More annoying than exhausting.

(10)Tzimisce
Oh no's I have to sleep in my own gold like Scrooge McDuck or my dirt or whatever it is I care about. More annoying that ehausting.

(11)Ravnos
Oh no's, I have to sleep a two minute drive from where I slept yesterday! Whatever.

(12)Tremere
A bane so mild a Tremere could go years without even noticing it.

(13)Gangrel
Only happens after frenzies, which are rare, and generally takes the form of something that could be hidden under the right clothes, Even if you fail to hide it, you are more likely to be mistaken for a furry than a vampire. Not really something that would weigh on the mind and lead to emotional exhaustion.

[Vilenecromancer]

Arguments for the following to be ranked higher:

• Hecata. Having a bite that is akin to agonizing murder, is awful when attempting to hunt. In 5th edition's setting, most kindred can't just drink cold blood whenever they want, and even than they really don't want to. This may put them close to Venture in ranking. While they aren't as restricted in who they can feed from, they are restricted in the how. Maintaining any kind of masquerade when you have feed indirectly is going to be much harder than normal. Or you could take the stains from torturing and almost killing everyone you feed from.

• Ravnos. This is effectively forced homelessness. Getting house in the modern age in already near impossible, and constantly going from hotel room to hotel room is going to drain the average person's wallet faster than you can say "Fire Fight". So, the Ravnos is effectively stuck on streets, which is awful! Under normal conditions you have to move constantly while homeless and finding a place to stay for the day is going to be insane difficulty! Yes, an RV negates this a bit, but good luck finding parking and paying for gas! All that combined, the Ravnos is going to burn one way or the other, and the stress of that would drive any sane person to a dark depression. Typing this out I'm starting to see why Ravnos are dying, Ravnos suicide has to be through the fucking roof.

• Gangrel. This one is more sever then the Tremere bane I'm sorry to say. The animal feature has negative side effects while active, most commonly affecting Intelligence or Manipulation. Also frenzy provocation is extremely common, with the most common being anger and annoyance! Even the slightest insult, by RAW, calls for a fury frenzy check. Combine that with the fact you're probably going to get dumb, makes this at least 2 ranks higher. I'd argue it's close to, but still under, the Nosferatu bane due to the isolation it will cause.

• Assamite. Vampires, kindred and Cainite alike, live in a blood-centric society. In a world where any politic enemy can slip a drop of kindred blood into the Elysium drink just to prove that the "Savage Assamites" should be banned from the city, is an actual possibility. Especially since a good lot of them are in the most politically charred sect ever, the Camarilla.

Otherwise, agree with the list more or less. Good post.

[Lysander]

By exhausting I mean just making a vampire weary having to endure it every night.

My ranking.
(1)Brujah
It just seems like always having that rage bubbling under the surface would leave you in a perpetual state of emotional exhaustion.

I would agree with the placing of Brujah. The rages would also be isolating for a clan that wants to stay close to humanity and loved ones.

(2)Ventrue
Hunting is hard enough, constantly being on the lookout for blonde virgins would be exhausting. To be a Ventrue is to constantly be hungry, and constantly paranoid about yout herd.

I can't disagree here.

(3)Nosferatu
Being hideous would weigh on you directly, and indirectly via the isolation it creates.

Likewise here.

(4)Toreador
Their weakness doesn't sound like much, until you realize how much of vampire existence has to be done away from beauty. You'll often be down dice when hunting, when performing detective work, when fighting. Basically you are tied to Elysium and similar surroundings harder than Tzims are to their soil. It would be exhausting knowing that setting foot in ugly areas puts you at a severe disadvantage against your enemies. Not to mention the amplified sense of disgust implied by the weakness.

I would put the Tzismce here as like the Ventrue they got to take immense care to travel and be worried if they brought enough soil to rest comfortably or if I heard correctly now that this bane can extend to certain groups of people.

(5)Malkavians
Would have been higher back in the day, but they only suffer boughts of madness under rare circumstances now. Still, it has to weigh on you.

I would put the Toreador here and you gave a good write up on the weakness.

(6)Hecata

This one was very hard to place. Six just sounds about right, though if someone made a case for higher or lower, I couldn't really argue back.

(7)Lasombra
Would just be perpetually irritating rather than exhausting. If "aw goddamit not again!" was a clan.

(8)Assamite
Rather isolating. If were one, I'd be sorely tempting to live like a Gangrel. Comes up too rarely to really be called exhausting. This is really where you start to get into the annoying rather than exhausing banes.

(9)Setite
Oh no's I have to wear sun glasses at night! More annoying than exhausting.

(10)Tzimisce
Oh no's I have to sleep in my own gold like Scrooge McDuck or my dirt or whatever it is I care about. More annoying that ehausting.

(11)Ravnos
Oh no's, I have to sleep a two minute drive from where I slept yesterday! Whatever.

Being unable to stay in one spot can be exhausting on one sanity and wallet. So I would put this at six.

(12)Tremere
A bane so mild a Tremere could go years without even noticing it.

(13)Gangrel
Only happens after frenzies, which are rare, and generally takes the form of something that could be hidden under the right clothes, Even if you fail to hide it, you are more likely to be mistaken for a furry than a vampire. Not really something that would weigh on the mind and lead to emotional exhaustion.

All in all this is a pretty good list of what banes can be really troublesome and lethal.

[Ragged Robin]

I think the lasombra one would be very contextual depending on how well you deal with frustration.

As a side I can imagine their origional clan flaw would drive you slowly mad.

[Shadeprowler]

Personally I would rank the Salubri bane to the top! Worse than a Brujah, worse than anything
To be the collation gourmande of the Cainite world is one thing
That torrent of blood pouring from your third eye?
Oy vey

[MyWifeIsScary]

I thought you were a pre-5 player. Interesting.

IMO Clan weaknesses are made for members to get around. Can only feed from blond Virgins? Well guess who's rich and powerful and running a racist cult that encourages IVF. Vice? Bro I'm on the Samsara path of Paradox: my vice is my reason for existence and it staves the Beast away. Can't be seen in mirrors? Well I was going to control absolutely every aspect of my surroundings anyway. Ugly? You can't even see me. Skin is grey and turns to black as my clan ages? Black makes you look more authoritive and lets everyone know you're the boss. Need to sleep with special Dirt? Oh I'm sorry I can't leave my haven to help you fight off 12 werewolves and the Tremere, it's difficult for me to move from home, I'm sure you understand.

The difficult ones are the Malkavians (it's good for the group as a whole but really sucks for the individual) and the Settites (how am I supposed to take centre stage in my cult if the stagelighting causes me so much grief? )

[CajunKhan]

I thought you were a pre-5 player. Interesting.

I've been playing since about a year or two after the game came out three decades ago. I prefer the meta from pre-v5, but I'm all-in on v5 mechanics, albeit with substantial homebrew(mainly modified "Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" stuff) to make Sabbat playable. Regardless, this thread is about v5 banes.

[Garygeneric]

Ventrue are better geared toward Herd management than any other clan. I think their Bane would only be difficult when first starting the Long Night and maybe occasionally later if some rare occurrence threatened their entire preference pool.

Mechanically speaking, Nosferatu might always have to work harder in social situations with mortals but I have to assume the hedonic treadmill applies even to the undead. Unless they are an outright Masquerade breach, they should be a lot less self-conscious or socially debilitated as time goes on.

I think Toreador works out to being only down one die to use Disciplines, at most, since you lose [Bane Severity] in dice but also gain bonus dice from Blood Potency, which dictates your Bane Severity, to use Disciplines. It’s a manageable thorn in the side, I think. (I could be wrong about the system…?)
Edit: I was wrong about the system. With the revised bane severity rating in the companion, Toreador will be down 1-2 dice, which really sucks for odd numbered Potency ratings

I’m curious what the Player’s Guide will offer for alternate clan Banes.

[SetiteFriend]

• Ravnos: Very situational. With enough money or influence you can avoid it without much trouble. Not like acquiring money would be hard for a Clan with Presence, Obfuscate or Animalism either. Theft, Blackmail, or simply ghouling someone rich and having them pay your bills isn't the most complicated things to do.
• Hecata: I share Vilenecromancer thoughts here. The Hecata bane is one of the most underrated in terms of how awful it is. Aside from being awful for your humanity, as it is harder to rationalize stealing people's blood when they scream in agony and have a chance to die every time. It is also awful for the masquerade, be it directly or indirect. Plus, if you reach Blood Potency 3, even dead blood won't sate you anymore.
• Toreador: A slight mechanics correction, you only lose dice from pools to use disciplines, so not that bad, you'll just not be able to use your supernatural gifts as well.

[adambeyoncelowe]

The Tremere one is weak. But I've never found a version I liked. I've recently begun thinking they should get some sort of 'witch's nipple' -- as a legacy of having Vicissitude in their blood, this could be spontaneous mutations that emerge when they first begin learning blood magic.

It needs to be more than just fluff, though. It should cause them some problems. So it should be visible or else something they need to use to activate their magic.

As a visible flaw, it could range from a single, tentacled hand to a forked tongue to a strange, burning bright third eye in the middle of their foreheads...

If it's something they have to use in their magic, it could be a literal nipple, from which they milk the blood they use to power Thaumaturgy.

Or heck, make it like the Gangrel flaw, keyed off botched magic rolls. So they gain a new witch's mark whenever the botch a Thaumaturgy roll.

[monteparnas]

If the parameter is which Bane would be more emotionally taxing/exhausting, I disagree on some.

Ventrue depends a lot on your personal standing over your select group, but generally you should be able to prepare to have easier access to your preferred prey, and in most cases it isn't more taxing than feeding overall. While the prospect of a harder time feeding is certainly a thing, I don't think it would be all that taxing in a regular basis.

Hecata is harsh unless you appreciated screams, pain and death in life. While every feeding is harmful to the prey, other vampires can pretend, have a calm, quiet meal, spice it with sexual innuendo or anything to make the experience as comfortable as possible. Even most Sabbat can appreciate a quiet and smiling victim just for the sake of having a nice dinner. You're cursed to have all your meals turned into Death Metal singers for the rest of eternity. Even for a Death Metal enthusiast there is such a thing as too much.

Gangrel isn't so easy. While making it temporary certainly helped a fucking lot, how I hated its permanence before, this is still a lingering deformity to your own body outside your control, that affects the sense of self a lot, even more when it is a reminder of failure and emotional stress. Not the worst, but still up some notches.

Ravnos would be consistently taxing. Moving about may not be so hard on the basis of logistics (depending on the chronicle), but never being able to settle on a place and call it home isn't a small thing at all. We naturally form attachments with the place we feel safe enough to sleep, and vampires seem to do so even more. Sleeping at different places and returning home only once in a while is one thing, but not having a home at all is another. Certainly there is a lot of variations on how people deal with it and several arrangements a vampire can make about it, but you can't expect for the average case to be a perfect match of Bane and lifestyle.