Unhappy with B&S Assassination by Obfuscate

[Egarwaen]

Since finishing my read-through of Blood and Smoke, I've been puzzling over what feels like a very problematic Discipline: Obfuscate 3.

By spending a Vitae with Cloak of Night:

• I can make myself or a target completely vanish.
• Other people around (Ob'd thing) don't get the check to notice the commotion.
• People (Ob'd thing) attacks do still notice them.
• Trying to notice (Ob'd thing) takes an extended action at 1 minute / test.

I'm really not happy with the metagame this seems to establish. At low Experience levels, I can turn someone (or a small group) into an undetectable assassin. No-one can see them except their target without spending minutes searching even after they launch their attack, so they can pick off targets in the middle of a crowded room. Yes, in play, dealing with this is as simple as saying "don't do that", but at a certain point, this requires repeated, contorted explanations as to why the coterie of troublesome neonates hasn't been undetectably assassinated by / undetectably assassinated the slightly insane tradition-bound elder they keep crossing swords with, and why this kind of problem-solving isn't the norm for the All Night Society. Yes, it's possible that a sufficiently experienced Kindred can have a sufficiently comprehensive toolkit to fight off two or three determined assassins without help, but even then the assassins are still better off with Obfuscate than without.

Once Experience levels increase a bit, this gets worse. Cloak of Night is fundamentally a game-changer here, as it lets me turn the entire PC party into an undetectable death squad for relatively low vitae expenditures, and pull our target into the undetectable death squad bubble just by standing near him, at which point he can't even call for help. Yes, Shatter the Shroud helps, but I don't want a game where every notable figure in a Kindred domain must have a Mekhet bodyguard (or, probably, two, to avoid one whiffing on his Clash of Wills) or have learned two dots of Auspex and a specific Devotion. Not only is it kind of silly, it turns "Shatter the Shroud" from a neat, distinctive trick into a necessary night-to-night survival tool.

At the same time, this feels like a pretty important change to Obfuscate, something that makes it as interesting and useful as the other 3-dot Disciplines, so I don't want to totally undermine it. In particular, it makes it really awesome for dealing with mortals, an effect I'm quite fond of.

I see two possible changes to fix my problem with it:

1. Vampires still use Face in the Crowd rules to notice an Obfuscated commotion; the improved Cloak of Night rules only work on mortals. This works, but is kind of boring.
2. Vampires subjected to Touch of Shadow can Lash Out with their beasts, dispelling the Obfuscator's Discipline if they prevail. This is like Shatter the Shroud or the Lashing Out response to Awe, but only works if you're the one targeted by Touch of Shadow. It's not a proactive defense. I'm very fond of this solution; I think it's cool and evocative.

Do these feel like reasonable house-rules? Am I changing or breaking something I'm not intending to? What do others think about this - am I missing some subtle balance point or design factor?

[Drake]

All I can really say is that there is a reason that Auspex is valued at the same level as Dominate, Protean, Majesty, and Nightmare - it's powers are so potent that someone might be willing to submit to a partial blood bond to learn it, or risk the downsides associated with "stealing" the discipline through diablerie.

If you want to change it, go right ahead, but I really think it is currently working as intended.

[Rose Bailey]

So, here may be a point to talk some theory. A lot of Disciplines work by manipulating the predatory aura, the feeling vampires give off of being not right. Sometimes that's terrifying, others it's alluring. Dominate, Majesty, and Nightmare are all "pushing out," as Persephone Moore would put it. Obfuscate is about twisting it inward.

With that in mind, using Lashing Out instead of Clash of Wills makes a lot of sense metaphysically, as a house rule. The vampires are still clashing over the basic idea of territory and dominance, just one of them's being quiet about it.

[PenDragon]

It would be entirely reasonable to rule that a character who knows there is an obfuscated attacker gets expedited rolls to notice.

The vampire hunter in my game managed to evade, and defeat an obfsucated attacker by splatting the ground with blood and tracking her movements through the bloody footprints she left behind. He gauged whether hit shots were landing by whether or not there was blood splatter left behind.

That said, lashing out as an option is cool, one I'll probably include and not just for Obfuscate.

[Rose Bailey]

Reposted from RPGnet:

You know, I was puzzling over this a little, and I realized we're having a miscommunication, fueled by the rules text not repeating something where it should.

• You can make yourself completely vanish. Barring Clash of Wills, the way to pierce this is an extended action.
• You can make someone else disappear, using Touch of Shadow and its associated rules. Which means that observers may make a Wits + Composure - Obfuscate roll.

In other words, the character using Cloak of Night is much harder to detect than anyone else she makes vanish.

[Griautis]

Thank you for clearing that up. It was really confusing and by the strict read of the rules it allowed for an obfuscate user to completely hide others (for example the PC party). Guess we'll have to follow RAI over RAW here..

[Rose Bailey]

Thank you for clearing that up. It was really confusing and by the strict read of the rules it allowed for an obfuscate user to completely hide others (for example the PC party). Guess we'll have to follow RAI over RAW here..

Well, it's rules-as-confusingly-written, which I apologize for. It should say "For perceiving victims affected by Touch of Shadow, normal Touch of Shadow rules apply." I'll see if I can get that inserted, but the physical proof may have already been ordered, which would mean things are absolutely locked.

EDIT: I will also add this to the FAQ.

[Charlaquin]

Reposted from RPGnet: You know, I was puzzling over this a little, and I realized we're having a miscommunication, fueled by the rules text not repeating something where it should.

• You can make yourself completely vanish. Barring Clash of Wills, the way to pierce this is an extended action.
• You can make someone else disappear, using Touch of Shadow and its associated rules. Which means that observers may make a Wits + Composure - Obfuscate roll.

In other words, the character using Cloak of Night is much harder to detect than anyone else she makes vanish.

So, to clarify: when you use cloak of night to enhance the effects of face in the crowd on yourself, you become totally "invisible". When you use cloak of night to apply the effects of touch of shadow on a person, they are only affected as an object would be as written in touch of shadow. In other words, they are not "invisible" as cloak of night describes it's enhancement to face in the crowd, just easily overlooked as described in touch of shadow. Is that correct?

[Rose Bailey]

So, to clarify: when you use cloak of night to enhance the effects of face in the crowd on yourself, you become totally "invisible". When you use cloak of night to apply the effects of touch of shadow on a person, they are only affected as an object would be as written in touch of shadow. In other words, they are not "invisible" as cloak of night describes it's enhancement to face in the crowd, just easily overlooked as described in touch of shadow. Is that correct?

Right.

Now, keep in mind you can disappear a group of consenting people with Cloak the Gathering, a five dot Obfuscate Devotion. So it's possible to create a group ambush of very hard to find people using Obfuscate. It's a high-level power, not a mid-level one.

[Charlaquin]

Right. Now, keep in mind you can disappear a group of consenting people with Cloak the Gathering, a five dot Obfuscate Devotion. So it's possible to create a group ambush of very hard to find people using Obfuscate. It's a high-level power, not a mid-level one.

Makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up!

[Egarwaen]

Right.

Now, keep in mind you can disappear a group of consenting people with Cloak the Gathering, a five dot Obfuscate Devotion. So it's possible to create a group ambush of very hard to find people using Obfuscate. It's a high-level power, not a mid-level one.

Hm. I think you need to do more rules rewriting if this is the case.

Right now, Cloak of Night says you can spend an additional vitae when activating Face in the Crowd or Touch of Shadow to vanish completely. If this isn't meant to let me make someone else (one person) vanish completely with Touch of Shadow, then I'm confused about why it's mentioned here. And Cloak the Gathering reads as if all it's doing is making the existing abilities of Cloak of Night + Touch of Shadow cheaper - I save on vitae by not having to spend for every person I'm Obfuscating. (Yeah, this is my assumptions at work, I admit to that; the text supports your intention as well, but I find it exceeds my tolerance of ambiguity)

Even taking the above as a given, though, if Cloak the Gathering lets me apply all the benefits of Cloak of Night to everyone I've covered with it, we're still right back where we started, with every vampire who wants to protect themselves from being tracelessly assassinated 8 XP in to a game needing a bodyguard with / to develop Shatter the Shroud.

If there's no way to improve the "detect in a commotion" benefit of Touch of Shadow - if the best I can get from other people is a single success on a Wits + Composure - Obfuscate, even using Cloak the Gathering - then my problem goes away.

I might even go so far as to say you can Lash Out to dispel the Obfuscate of anyone you're aware of, with Shatter the Shroud just removing the risk of this extra check and dispelling it as soon as you succeed on a Clash of Wills. This makes using Obfuscate to attack other vampires / supernaturals risky, unless you're sure your Beast is stronger than their defenses, but means mortals are still totally helpless, and if you're not causing a commotion or otherwise exposing yourself, you're still only vulnerable to Clash of Wills.