Mental

Celestial Attunement

Cost: 1pt.
You innately know what time of day it is and are able to accurately guess the hour of sunrise and sunset within a few minutes. With a moment’s concentration, you may also estimate the position of the stars, even without the aid of a star chart.

Coldly Logical

Cost: 1pt.
While some might refer to you as a “cold fish,” you have a knack for separating factual reporting from emotional or hysterical coloration. You may or may not be emotional yourself, but you can see clearly when others are clouding the facts with their feelings (-1 difficulty on all related rolls).

Common Sense

Cost: 1pt.
You have a significant amount of practical, everyday wisdom. Whenever you are about to act in a way contrary to common sense, the Storyteller can make suggestions or warnings about the implications of said action. This is a very useful Merit for beginning players unfamiliar with the game.

Concentration

Cost: 1pt.
You have the ability to focus your mind and shut out any distractions or annoyances. Characters with this Merit are unaffected by any penalties stemming from distracting circumstances (e.g., loud noises, strobe lights, or hanging upside down).

Introspection

Cost: 1pt.
You have keen insight into the ulterior motives of all your actions. Through this nightly exercise, you also have incredible insight into the underlying motives of others’ actions. Add two dice to your Perception dice pool when you must take an action against someone with the same Nature or Demeanor as you.

Kashaph

Cost: 1pt.
The term kashaph is of ambiguous meaning, based on a Hebrew root word for “mutter,” and implying spoken sorcery and incantations. The term is used in the Old Testament to condemn the practitioners of witchcraft. True kashaph has long been extinct — save among the Inconnu. Kashaph is an enchanted language, and cannot be “decoded” by modern linguistics or cryptography. The Inconnu use kashaph to communicate secretly, and also as a method of identifying one another.

New members of the Inconnu are not taught kashaph by normal means. It cannot be studied, nor learned like a conventional language. Instead, members are indoctrinated into the society through an elaborate ritual during which the language of kashaph is inscribed upon their soul. Once “learned” in this way, the language may be spoken, not written (there is no written form, and the sounds cannot be accurately captured by phonetic scribblings), and only another individual with this merit has the capacity to understand the words said in the language of kashaph.

Language

Cost: 1pt.
You know a language in addition to your native one. You can take this Merit multiple times, each reflecting a different language.

House Rule: Reasonably explainable language merits can be taken without a cost (cost 0). If your character would reasonably know a second or third language (e.g. a character from Quebec, Canada would likely know both French and English), then you can mark this as a merit with no cost. Other languages (e.g. ancient languages, something not learned as a child, etc) these would still cost 1pt.

Time Sense

Cost: 1pt.
You have an innate sense of time and are able to estimate the passage of time accurately without using a watch or other mechanical device.

Useful Knowledge

Cost: 1pt.
You have expertise in a specific field that makes your conversation intriguing to an older Kindred. So long as your knowledge holds the other vampire’s attention, he has a vested interest in keeping you around. Then again, once he’s pumped you for every iota of information you possess, that patronage may suddenly vanish.

Note: This Merit should be played like a 1-dot Mentor with a specific interest. However, unlike a Mentor, Useful Knowledge does not imply a permanent relationship.

Code of Honor

Cost: 2pt.
You have a personal code of ethics to which you adhere. The specifics of this code must be worked out with the Storyteller prior to play, and the character must follow it strictly. Characters with this Merit gain two additional dice to all Willpower or Virtue rolls when acting in accordance with their code (e.g., defending the helpless) or when attempting to avoid situations that might force them to violate their code.

Computer Aptitude

Cost: 2pt.
You are familiar with and talented in the uses of computer equipment. Other Kindred may not understand computers, but to you they are intuitive. All rolls involving computers are at -2 difficulty for you.

Eidetic Memory

Cost: 2pt.
You remember, with perfect detail, things you see and hear. Documents, photographs, conversations, etc., can be committed to memory with only minor concentration. Under stressful conditions involving numerous distractions, you must make a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6) to summon enough concentration to absorb what your senses detect.

Incantation

Cost: 2pt.
Your character learns a single Incantation. This Merit may be purchased during play several times, each for a new Incantation. This costs six experience points.

Light Sleeper

Cost: 2pt.
You can awaken instantly at any sign of trouble or danger, and do so without any sleepiness or hesitation. You may ignore rules regarding how Humanity or your morality Path restricts the number of dice available during the day.

Natural Linguist

Cost: 2pt.
You have a flair for languages. You may add three dice to any dice pool involving written or spoken languages, and each purchase of the Language Merit (previous page) gives you two languages instead of just one.

Berserker

Cost: 3pt.
You possess the ability to willingly enter a berserker state for a scene. While berserking, you ignore wound penalties and reduce the difficulty of all combat rolls except for dodges by -3. You also can take no complex actions other than combat, dodging, or running.

Calm Heart

Cost: 3pt.
You are naturally calm and do not easily fly off the handle. You receive two extra dice when attempting to resist a frenzy. Brujah may not take this Merit.

Iron Will

Cost: 3pt.
When you are determined and your mind is set, nothing can thwart you from your goals. Characters using Dementation, Dominate, or any other mind-altering magic, spell, or Thaumaturgy path against your character are at +3 difficulty.

Elder levels of powers like Dementation and Dominate may overwhelm even this resistance. Against Level Six powers, the expenditure of a Willpower point through Iron Will only raises the difficulty of the Discipline roll by two. Against Level Seven powers, the difficulty is increased by only one. Level Eight and higher powers cannot be resisted with Iron Will.

This Merit does not affect Presence or other powers dealing with the emotions. Characters will Willpower scores below 8 cannot take this Merit.

Precocious

Cost: 3pt.
You learn quickly. The time for you to pick up a particular Ability (or Abilities, at Storyteller discretion) is cut in half, as is the experience cost.

Grand Library

Cost: 2, 4, 6, or 7 pt.
Throughout the years, you’ve managed to amass an exquisite collection of books, both common and rare. Choose 3 Knowledge dots for every 2 points taken in this Merit, or 10 Knowledge dots for 7 points. While working in your library, the difficulty rating for any rolls involving those Knowledges is reduced by 2.