Discipline Designs (Patreon)

Senior Mod Developer Thaumaturge lays out some of his designs on disciplines and many of the new elder powers only available to vampires who have gained the advanced discipline trait and have sufficiently low generation. These designs cover the disciplines of Quietus, Obtenebration, Serpentis, Daimonion, Ogham, Celerity, Dominate, Protean and Fortitude.

Design guidelines:

1. Try to avoid more than 2 or 3 powers per discipline. Power bloat will come quickly otherwise.
2. It is best that at least some perks improve existing powers.
3. Every discipline needs a “shtick”. Something that makes it different and unique. Otherwise, there is no point to the discipline and it is just a few modifiers.
4. The vast majority of powers should only cost blood and stress.
5. It is impossible to completely avoid crossing other discs, but overlap is not a good thing and it connects to power bloat. If a power is too similar to another discipline, then it is not a good pick.
6. No more than 30 prowess in any tree, no matter what.
7. Names marked with underline are powers. Everything else is a modifier.

Quietus :

Design keywords - Blood, fighting, murder and poison.

Blood essence - aids with not losing soul in diablerie.

Dagon’s Call - If target has drank your blood ( IE - your ghoul, childe, you have bloodbond hook over them) , you can activate this power at any point to destroy their Vitae stores and wound them greatly, possibly killing them if you are really successful. Resisted by prowess and fortitude. Possible to make a scheme with the goal to make this power useable ( but doesn’t give blood bond hook).

Ravage the mind (Dagon’s Call) - Unlocks the option to ravage the targets mind as well as (or instead of) their bodies. When used, greatly increases stress and has a chance to put an enemy into torpor or lower their skills (or both).

Scorpion’s Touch -  After activation, in any battle you participate as a leader or knight, an enemy knight gets a -5 prowess modifier. This may not seem like much, but when you consider the AI can use it too…..

Baal’s Caress (Scorpions touch) - Increases the prowess malus to -10 and affects two knights instead of one.

Cleansed in Blood - Removes weak hooks from Dominate, Presence and Dementation, or other mind bending disciplines. Does not work on yourself. Costs stress to attempt, stewardship duel.

Wash the impurities (Cleansed in blood)  - Extends Cleansed in blood to strong hooks.

Quicken the Mortal’s Blood - Treat your blood potency as 2 lower when drinking from mortals.

Truth of Blood - bonus to investigate scheme

Dam the Heart’s River - diablerie Scheme defense and power bonus

Taste of Death - Murder scheme bonus

Some perks would make great Duel moves.

Elder Power : Weaken the Blood of Ancients - Gives an option to reduce the blood potency of prisoners to the minimum of their generation.

Elder Power : Blood of Destruction - Duel move. Injuring you immediately does 2 damage levels to the attacker.

Obtenebration :

Design keywords - shadow, abyss, fear, suffocation

Eyes of the abyss - allows the character to speak to wraiths (ie, use the command wraith interaction. Not bind though.) and allows to create the ritually kill scheme to turn characters into wraiths.

Shadow Play - bonus to hostile scheme power and a bit of natural dread.

Nocturne - After activation, any battle you enter as commander causes a cloud of stamina-draining darkness that reduces all enemy knights' prowess by 2 if they fail a duel. Resisted by fortitude and true faith. Costs piety anytime you enter a battle. Character interaction or something to turn this off.

Fill out the name later - summons shades through spawn army.

Arms of Ahriman - prowess boost, duel move

Nightshades - dread increase, personal scheme power

Tenebrous Avatar - Shapeshifting as already exists. Maybe can also be used to avoid death in duel.

The Darkness Within (Nocturne) - Improves Nocturne so that any individual affected must do a rouse check (or get a blood loss modifier) and the user gains the blood. Prowess modifier decreases to -3.

Oubliette - Bonus to abduct scheme and an option in imprisonment event.

Walk the Abyss - pursuit efficiency increase and higher movement speed.

Drain the life  -  Siege morale loss to enemies.

Dark Whispers - Vassal cowed, intimidated taxes increase.

God in Darkness (tenebrous avatar) - Further buffs  tenebrous avatar with increased bonuses.

Elder power :Shadow Twin -  Create a character with some of your abilities and powers, totally loyal. Only one can exist at any time, and if they die you gain massive stress.

Elder power : Ahriman’s Demesne(Drain the life) Drain the life also ruins enemy levy reinforcement and supply limit.

Serpentis :

Design keywords - transformation, snakes, myths, summons

Enchanting gaze - duel move, general opinion mod

Typhonic Maw - duel option that restores blood

Serpent’s Flesh - adopt the skin of a serpent , getting a prowess bonus and slipping from any confinement (auto win on imprisonment events that rely on prowess)

Master of snakes - allows summoning snakes

Form of the snake - gives the small and large snake shape changing options

Typhonic Avatar - terrifying monster form. Dread bonus, prowess, hard casualties multiplier.

Snake eyes - Bonus to intrigue and a counter-penalty

Smooth Scales (Serpents Flesh) - Lets you escape existing confinement unless the imprisoner has blood sorcery (wards) or the oubliette perk (shadow prison)

Mother of Monsters - allows summoning monsters

Echidna’s Venom - Bonus to hostile vampiric schemes

Form of the Storm(Typhonic Avatar) - Improves your war form to deal a lot of damage to your environment. Improves sieges  and empowers your snakes and monsters.

The Heart of Darkness - Removes your heart. Immune to diablerie scheme , immunity to staking (will mean more in the future), frenzy resistance becomes easier , stress reduction . Diplomacy is reduced (can’t relate to others without emotions) and so is murder scheme defence (finding and destroying your heart is now an option)

Heart Thief (The heart of darkness) - Lets you use heart of darkness on others. Afterwards, you can kill them or force them into torpor with a simple character interaction. Can only be used on people in the same location, and is quite hard to do. Resisted by Fortitude.

Elder power: God-head - Transform into the form of a god. General opinion bonuses, 50 base dread, bonus for intimidated chars taxes, prowess (symbolic, not as much as war form) and a general +5 Attribute bonus across the board. Heightens your masquerade exposure, however.

Elder Power: Apophis (Typhonic Avatar) - Further buffs typhonic Avatar stats.

Daimonion:

Design keywords - Sin, Manifestations, manipulation, infernalism

Note: True faith acts as a resistant to all Daimonion powers, even the ones who act against it. Also, any use of this discipline cost piety unless you have the infernalist trait.

Sense the Sin: The power latches to the sins of the victim, accentuating them and encouraging the victim to indulge. Short Scheme ending with a intrigue vs stewardship duel, requires at least one sin. Gives a negative modifier based on  the sin in question - greed would give a minus to diplomacy and prestige, possibly taxes (being known as a greedy leech, taking away from realm taxes for your own ‘horde’) while laziness would prevent you from getting out of bed, thereby lowering all of your attributes a bit. This power immediately triggers the crisis of faith event for hunters.

Fear of the void - Dread bonus, taxes per intimidated level bonus.

Whispers from the dark - intrigue bonus, agent acceptance bonus.

Tormented Essence - Duel move. Fire or black lightning.

Blood of a demon - Can demand service ( weak hook ) from non-Baali infernalists and can call an infernalist to court. Can take up infernalism yourself.

Devilish charm - Bonus to diplomacy schemes, +1 diplomacy schemes at any time.

Psychomachia - Initiates a battle between the recipient and the darkest parts of their subconscious. The entity manifests as a look-alike of the character, with all traits except disciplines. The entity gains disciplines based on the sins the Baali exploited with Sense the Sin - if the target has the exploited wrath modifier, for example, the entity would gain potence advanced. Then a duel commences. If the entity wins, the target is either sent to torpor or gains a few more sinful traits and their exploited modifier. If the target wins, she can choose to either remove a sin from herself or amplify a sin in a positive manner - like harnessing wrath to decimate her enemies. Infernalists will always choose the second option, making this a possible buff power to those who can withstand their darker self.

As below, so above - bonus to mind bending disciplines like dominate and presence schemes.

Poisoned virtue (sense the sin): Now, the baali can stretch virtues so far they become unto like weakness themselves - A diligent man could never stop working while a chaste woman would lock herself in her room to avoid temptations entirely.

Kneel before my throne ( Blood of a demon) - Gain the ability to scheme to turn other vampires into infernalists. Become able to gain the amplified sin (see Psychomachia) in herself only. And only for one sin. If she wants more, she has to go through Psychomachia like the rest.

Dark lure - Attraction opinion increase, bonus to seduce.

Face the Abyss ( Psychomachia ) - The Baali learns to manipulate the outcome of the duel by adjusting the power of the entity - he can give two discipline per sin, or turn advanced disciplines into regular ones. Now when the entity wins, the vampire gets to choose the outcome - torpor or greater sin. If they choose the latter, the target feels liberated and thankful to the vampire - getting an opinion bonus and losing resistance against the “turn into infernalist” Scheme.

Elder Power:  Adramelech’s Wrath - A duel move that could immediately end a fight against a vampire, but could just as easily kill the user, or both.

Elder Power: Investiture (Blood of a Demon) - Allows you to give infernalists the boons of amplified sins at the cost of piety. Your newly embraced childer get this benefit freely and permanently.

Elder Power: Bring the Plague: Create a horrible plague, lethal to kindred and kine alike.

Ogham:

Design keywords - Sacrifice. The land. Pagan. Nature.

Note: All Ogham powers require human sacrifice. That is to say, you need to sacrifice a living human (or ghoul) prisoner to activate any of the powers. Unless mentioned otherwise, all bonuses are a part of the same power. This discipline has no passive modifiers - you sacrifice a human a year, or you don’t reap the benefits. In addition, this discipline is limited to Lihinnan and those who they inducted (using split the shard) only.

Consecration of Esus - controlled territory bonus, attrition reduction.

The earth’s gifts - supply days increase, advantage bonus.

Woad of Teutates - Prowess, martial and hard casualty modifiers

Blessing of rain - county tax modifier , development increase. Your ghouls gain fertility.

Builder of mountains - build speed increased, cost lowered.

Mallacht of the Cyoeraeth - Not part of the main power. Require the sacrifice of a friend , lover or soulmate of the victim. Sacrifice can be kindred in this case. When done, initiates a learning vs 8 duel, resisted by Fortitude and true faith. On success , gives a horrible modifier to the target for 100 years or until your death. Has a chance of knocking the target into torpor.

Woad of Taranis - Prowess and movement speed modifier. Max roll modifier. Gives a duel move when active to use fire or even sunlight without dying.

Berserker - prowess and martial per stress level.

Poultice of blood  - Heals all wounds upon making the sacrifice.

Beasts of the grove - Empowers animal regiments

Thirst of Donn - Reduces stress and restores blood on sacrifice, as if you had drunk a lot.

Split the Shard - Not part of the main power. allows you to split the spirit shard inside of you and give it to another kindred. They gain the ability to use ogham while you become one generation higher, as if you just embraced the target.

Elder Power: Give that which is not yours - allows you to sacrifice things other than humans , such as vampires.

Elder Power: Gain what is theirs - When you sacrifice a vampire or a ghoul, you get a temporary bonus based on their disciplines.

Celerity:

Between the ticks of a clock: active power, intrigue duel to progress in a scheme.

Speed of a thousand workers (between the ticks of a clock) - can also do stewardship duel to increase building speed.

Elder perk : Physical defiance - you can walk on water. Disembarking to sea has no cost.

Elder perk : Quickness - you can duel two opponents in one battle 

Elder power: Time out of Time - when you should be murdered, you get a chance to escape and immediately enter a duel with the killer instead.

Elder perk : Blood of lighting (draught) - your Celerity draughts are twice as effective and have a shorter cooldown

Elder perk : March of the Swift - movement speed increase

Elder power : God of Speed - can use two duel moves in one duel turn.

Dominate:

Dominate should be expanded a bit to include a few ways to use dominate hooks - start murder schemes, wars and give gold. With a weak hook they can resist, with a strong one they cannot. Note that we should make Dominate harder vs stronger vampires, to avoid abuse. Probably a cooldown as well. Declaring wars through commands should wait until I finish AI war considerations.

Dominate hook options :

Give Gold (up to 50 initially)

Stop Scheme

Do something stupid (reduces their prestige), 50% chance to gain an injury level.

Release a prisoner or move them into your custody.

Reveal known secret.

Invite someone to court.

Break the masquerade.

Compel/Mesmerize - let's you commence a scheme at the end of which you enter a duel with the target (Stewardship for both). If you win , you can issue a dominate command (you have a couple days).

Forgetful Mind [change] - You can change a personality trait of ghouls or herd (great for resonance). You can also erase opinions or known secrets your target has on you.

Submerged Directive - Add the following options to the hook option list:

Start a scheme (murder, kidnap. Not supernatural powers)

Stop war (white peace).

Give up to 100 gold.

It also allows you to give dominate commands using a hook at a later date , rather than when you win the power duel.

Deep memories - You can change all personality traits of your ghouls or herd

Conditioning - Dominate hooks last longer

Elder perk: Will Conquers - dominate powers become harder to resist

Elder perk: Terminal Decree - adds the following options to dominate commands:

Attempt Suicide (between 2 to 4 levels of damage (4 kills someone ))

Attack target - your puppet will attack another character in a duel to the death. Cool down.

Elder Power: Rewrite personality - you can turn a vampire into an exact copy of you mentally. Each time you cast the power (with a long cooldown and a cost, mind you - ) the target becomes a bit like you, from skills changing to personality traits and even some traits. When The transformation is complete, they can replace you should you die or otherwise leave the throne.

Elder perk : Command of Your God - Dominate hook are now strong.

Elder perk: Far Mastery - Can use dominate powers from any distance

Elder Power: Speak through the blood - Can issue a dominate command to all of your childer (and their childer) at once. Should have huge cost and a long cooldown. We are talking about possibly 40 vampires starting murder schemes or declaring war vs a person….. This is considered a weak hook in strength.

Protean :

Adaptation -

Whenever the Gangrel is successfully targeted with a hostile power, they adapt to it. The next time someone tries to use that power (or duel move if it is originated in a discipline) against them , they find it much more difficult or even outright impossible! You can adapt to disciplines, duel moves , blood sorcery paths (individually) and holy arts that deal with the vampire. Unfortunately , you can only maintain a single adaptation at any time, and need to forget the one you have to get a new one.

Perfected form(adaptation) - you can maintain two adaptations at once.

Elder perk: Loki's gift - attraction opinion increase

Elder Perk: Claws of the Predator king - your feral weapons get a big upgrade.

Elder power: Reversion to the True Form -  Reverses any shapeshifter to their original form. Removes any shapeshifting modifiers from a character in the same location.

Elder perk: My flesh remembers (adaptation) - You can maintain adaptations to up to five things at any time.

Elder perk: Purify the Impaled Breast - Cannot be staked.

Elder Power : Draught of Phoenix Blood - Resurrection ! Whenever the vampire should die, they instead just go up one generation, losing any newly invalid elder powers. Except Draught of Phoenix Blood.

Fortitude:

Toughness - Gives a 50% chance to soak injuries. Triggerable and consumes blood whenever you are hurt. Only works for non-magical sources of damage.

Defy Bane - makes the vampire immune to battlefield maiming while toughness is active

Flesh of Marble (Toughness) - Once a year, Toughness stops damage completely rather than giving a 50% chance.

Prowess from Pain - Active power usable when the character is wounded. Removes the prowess penalties of wounds, and gives 4 extra prowess per wound level.

Elder Perk: The Blessing of Vitality(Draught of Endurance) - Your draught of endurance now confers the blessing of Toughness for the duration.

Elder Perk: The Knight’s bane - Grants a duel move to destroy your opponent's weapon with your bare flesh, dealing them damage in the process.

Elder Power: Curse the Laurel - Move a stake away from your heart, eventually removing it.

Elder Perk: Wrath of the Martyr( Prowess from Pain) - The bonus per health level increases to 6

Elder Perk: Armoured Flesh - Nothing short of a lethal strike will kill you. No amount of wounds will ever end your life, but only complete destruction or decapitation.

Elder Power: Resilient Mind - Fortify your mind and cleanse yourself of insanity, mental afflictions and addictions.