Originally posted by Charlaquin
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If you'd like help on that, I've been working on a version of Dementation modeled after the Masquerade version that revolves around the new Lash Out mechanics. I'll post it once I've done some finishing touches.
Edit: Since you were so kind as to offer yours:
Vicissitude
Note: Alterations resulting from Vicissitude are permanent for humans. Changes can be made permanent by losing a dot of Humanity. Uses of this power to inflict damage are healed normally. A Tzimisce can make Nosferatu look more human, but Vicissitude can never negate the Nosferatu weakness, which manifests in other, subtler ways on fleshcrafted Nosferatu.
● Malleable Visage
Cost: 1 Vitae per body part changed
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Vicissitude
Action: Instant
Duration: Scene
A vampire with this power may alter simple body parameters: height (plus or minus a foot), build, voice, facial features, scarification, and skin tone. Muscle and bone cannot be affected, though cartilage can. Such changes are cosmetic and minor in scope. This power changes the body at will. Further levels of Vicissitude require physical manipulation.
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: The character drastically disfigures herself, and suffers a –3 penalty to all Social rolls for the rest of the night. She cannot revert until the next sunset.
Failure: The power fails and all spent Vitae is wasted.
Success: The character may alter her form in minor ways. Characters can also grant themselves the Striking Looks Merit using this power. Doing so requires the expenditure of a Willpower point, and imposes a –1 or –2 penalty depending on which version of the Merit they are trying to gain. The character reverts at the end of the scene, unless she spends an additional point of Vitae per scene, or a Vitae and a Willpower for the night. As an instant action, the character can revert with no effort but a thought. To impersonate another person requires a Wits + Subterfuge roll.
Exceptional Success: As with a success, but the character may take a Social bonus in Expression or Intimidation equal to her Vicissitude. Impersonating another does not require a roll.
●● Fleshcraft
Cost: 1 Vitae per modification
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine + Vicissitude
Action: Extended
Duration: One Day
This power allows the vampire to perform more drastic alterations, or use Malleable Visage on others. Muscles and fats may be bulged and stretched beyond human limits.
Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: The character cripples herself, imposing a –2 penalty on all Physical rolls for the rest of the night.
Failure: The power fails and all spent Vitae is wasted.
System: The vampire can shift muscle and fat, rearranging a number of Physical Attribute dots equal to Blood Potency + 2, and make other, more drastic changes. The player must state how many modifications she wants to make before rolling. Attributes cannot be raised past Blood Potency limits. The character must spend a Vitae and a Willpower to revert. For an additional Vitae, this power can be used to alter other subjects using the rules for Malleable Visage, but the character is not yet skilled enough to alter the muscle of others. Unwilling victims may resist alterations with Stamina + Blood Potency.
Exceptional Success: As with Success, but the character may choose to move another Attribute dot, even if this would be more than the Blood Potency +2 limit.
Use the following table as a rough guide for capabilities and success thresholds at this level:
Modification | Modifiers | Successes |
Shift one Attribute dot | 0 | 2 |
Gender change (cosmetic) | 0 | 5 |
Add pocket for concealment (Size 1) | -1 | 5 |
Add pocket for concealment (Size 2) | -3 | 8 |
Add 1/0 scar armor | -2 | 10 |
●●● Bonecraft
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None (enhances Fleshcraft)
Action: None (enhances Fleshcraft)
Duration: None (enhances Fleshcraft)
System: In addition to the effects of Fleshcraft, the character can now alter her entire body structure. For example, she can bestow bony spikes on her knuckles, or quills from anywhere on the body. However, either application inflicts 1 point of lethal damage. Bone weapons cause the same level of damage as the closest emulated weapon. Bone accoutrements have Structure equal to the vampire's Stamina. All bone weapons inflict two points of lethal damage per turn during a grapple, or one point of lethal damage to anyone making a barehanded attack on the character.
The character may also now use Vicissitude directly as an attack. The character spends a Vitae and rolls Dexterity + Medicine + Vicissitude – Defense: success inflicts 3 lethal damage and imposes a physical combat Tilt of the vampire’s user’s choice. The character can also cause a target’s rib cage to move inward, piercing the heart. This imposes an additional –5 to the roll, but instantly kills a mortal target. Against vampires, it halves the target’s Vitae pool—as the seat of his vitae ruptures in a shower of gore—in addition to inflicting lethal damage normally.
For an additional Vitae, the character may use Fleshcraft and Bonecraft on others.
Use the following table as a rough guide to capabilities and success thresholds at this level:
Modification | Modifiers | Successes |
Bone spur (Size 1) | 0 | 2 |
Bone blade (Size 2) | -1 | 3 |
Size change (1 level; limit of 2) | -2 | 5 |
Add 3/2 bone armor (stacks with scar armor) | -4 | 10 |
Gender change (actual) | -5 | 15 |
●●●● Symbiotic Genesis
Cost: 2 Vitae
Dice Pool: None (enhances Fleshcraft)
Action: None (enhances Fleshcraft)
Duration: See below
A vampire with Symbiotic Genesis can invest a bit of vitae and Willpower into a piece of a mortal as it leaves the body, in order to prevent its death and freeze it in a sort of pseudo-stasis between ghouldom and vampirism. The body part, be it limb, bone, or even just a sample of flesh, will try its best to fuse itself to a Kindred as it instinctively knows that it won't last long detached.
System: The vampire uses Fleshcraft on a mortal, and removes a body part. The vampire must spend 1 Willpower point and one Vitae in order to prevent the death of the tissues. This must be done within the first hour of removal, or else the limb simply withers. If the act is done correctly, the body part can remain living for one night per dot of Blood Potency possessed by the creator. By the end of that time, the part must be re-infused or it dies rapidly.
When the detached part comes in contact with flesh, it will immediately attempt to fuse with the subject. The body part attacks with a dice pool equal to its Size, effectively a grapple. In all relevant grapple rolls, it uses its Size + the vampire's Blood Potency as a dice pool. If the subject is knowledgeable of the process, they can apply Defense as appropriate. The subject can also willingly allow the part to fuse.
If the grapple is successful, the limb begins to fuse with the subject. Each turn, the part comes closer to a full bond. Once a number of turns have passed equal to the subject's Stamina, the two are fused. Removal of the part then requires the subject to suffer lethal damage equal to the part's Size.
Once bound, the part drains from the subject a number of vitae equal to its Size every week. If this removes the final vitae from a sleeping Kindred, the Kindred slips into torpor and further feeding comes directly from the vampire's health in lethal damage. This can cause Final Death if left unmolested. Against mortals, a dot of Stamina is removed every day until a time when it reaches zero, then the mortal simply dies. Removal of such a part causes lethal damage equal to the part's Size. If the Kindred first harms himself, the attachment can be used to fill the space. The wound is effectively healed so long as the attachment remains. While attached, the part uses all relevant traits of the host body. Damage done to the attachment is done to the host, and can be healed with the host's vitae, just as any other part of the body.
Use the following table as a guideline for possible bonuses for additional appendages:
Modification | Possible Modifiers |
Arms | 9-again on Grappling or Dodge actions; +2 damage per arm on Brawl or Weaponry rolls |
Eyes | +1 on Perception checks per eye (limit of +5) |
Fingers or hands | 9-again on Dexterity rolls involving fine motor control |
Tails | Add Size of tail to Defense |
●●●●● Bloodform
Cost: Varies
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Duration: Indefinite
The character can liquefy his physical form, turning part or all of it into a pool of sentient Vitae.
System: If the character changes part of her body into a pool of blood, the Storyteller determines how many Vitae points that part is “worth”. The blood can move on its own, and the vampire can see through the blood, manipulate objects as though the blood had Strength equal to half the character’s Blood Potency (rounding up), and slip into the mouths of sleeping individuals to create a Vinculum. If the vampire liquefies his entire body, he can slither up walls and across ceilings, and can slip into any crack, no matter how small . He is likewise immune to physical damage, except for damage caused by fire or sunlight. If the pool is destroyed, the vampire can regrow the missing part by expending Vitae equal to the amount that the part was “worth”.
Fiendish Devotions
Verisimilitude (Vicissitude ●●●, Auspex ●)
As users of Vicissitude gain mastery over their bodies, they often cultivate favored identities and forms. However, replicating the results of Vicissitude is an exact science, and can even be risky if the vampire is attempting to impersonate someone. Using Auspex to forge a deep seated awareness of their own bodies, Fiends with this Devotion may force different forms into her muscle memory. This negates the need to painstakingly recreate desired forms when other uses of Vicissitude (or a day’s rest) overlap.
Cost: 1 Willpower or 2 Vitae (see below)
Dice Pool: None or Intelligence + Medicine + Vicissitude
Action: Instant
System: Upon successful use of Malleable Visage, Fleshcraft, Bonecraft, or some combination thereof, the vampire simply spends a point of Willpower to memorize the results so she call upon them for future use. To assume the memorised form, the Vampire spends 2 Vitae and rolls the above dice pool. Characters may memorise as many forms as they have Blood Potency +1.
This Devotion costs 3 Experiences to purchase.
As you can see, Symbiotic Genesis was a big influence, indeed, even replacing Horrid Form (you get much more out of Protean in B&S). I think it might still be a bit too vague and/or too complicated in some places, but I'll refine it as I go along.
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