Physical

Blush of Health (2 points)

You retain the coloration you had during your breathing days, and your skin only feels a little cool to the touch, making it far easier for you to blend in with human society.

Cannibal (1 point)

Most vampires can’t eat food at all. You, on the other hand, can … but only if the “food” in question is human flesh; anything else causes you to vomit it back up just like every other vampire. You can gain up to seven additional blood points from devouring a single human, whether in part or whole — at the cost of leaving someone dead or maimed when you do. Other vampires who find out about this particular predilection are likely to suspect you of much worse — after all, if this is what you reveal, how much worse is the stuff you don’t let people know about?

Controllable Night Sight (2 point)

When you wish to, you can see in the dark nearly as well as you can in bright light, at the cost of being blinded by anything weaker than a candle flame (invert the usual penalties for darkness). You may switch back and forth between normal and low-light vision as you wish, but it takes one complete turn to make each change, so be careful when you choose to do so. This Merit is most common among Lasombra, but it’s also regularly found among Nosferatu, and is useful to anyone who prowls Subterranean London.

Early Riser (1 point)

You wake up without difficulty every evening, much to the annoyance of Kindred who sleep more deeply. Your Humanity (or Path rating, if applicable) is considered to be 10 for purposes of when you awaken.

Eat Food (1 point)

Unlike most vampires, you can still eat and drink, and you may even enjoy the tastes. Maybe you never lost the habit, or maybe you’ve taken the time and effort to re-develop it. You still need to regurgitate at some point in the evening, since you can’t digest what you eat, but in the meantime you’ll have an easier time putting the kine at ease.

Efficient Digestion (3 points)

You make the most of every drop of blood you ingest. For every two points of blood you gain when feeding, you may add a third point to your blood pool, if doing so does not take you over your normal maximum.

Indelible (1 point)

Most vampires’ bodies return to the state they were Embraced in, when they wake up every evening, but not you. You can cut your hair, get a tattoo or a new piercing, and the change will remain until you spend a Willpower point to go back to looking exactly as you did when Embraced. This is entirely a cosmetic alteration, but it can be very helpful in keeping up with mortal fashion trends, helping you to blend in better with the kine. The 2-point version is not used here.

Lizard Limbs (1 point)

You can voluntarily shed your own limbs — fingers, toes, hands, feet, arms, legs — by spending a blood point, although it takes you several days to regrow hands and feet, and up to a week to regrow limbs. But it’s extremely difficult to keep you bound, and you can also pull some pretty killer pranks on local Kindred who aren’t familiar with your unique ability. When minus a hand, foot, or limb, you suffer a -3 dice penalty to any actions that would normally require the use of the missing appendages. You must be a Nosferatu to take this Merit.

Patagia (4 points)

You have flaps of skin between your arms and legs, much like a flying squirrel. While these aren’t enough to permit you to actually fly, and they make finding clothes an absolute nightmare, you can use them to glide safely to a landing from almost any height by making a successful Dexterity + Athletics roll, as long as you aren’t restrained or confined in some way. You can typically cover a horizontal distance of up to twice your altitude during the process of descent, if you so choose. You must be a Nosferatu to take this Merit.

Piscine (1 point)

Any rolls involving swimming or movement underwater (but not combat) have their difficulty reduced by 1. You must be a Nosferatu to take this Merit.

Promethean Clay (3 points)

Your difficulty for using any Vicissitude power on yourself is 2 less than normal, and you do not need to physically sculpt your body in order to use any of the first three levels of this Discipline — your flesh, tendons, bones, etc., molds itself to the desired shape. When making changes that are cosmetic only (that is, that have no game mechanical effects, do not change the character’s stats, etc.), you may invoke these powers as a reflexive action, although changes that require more than one turn will still require their standard time to complete.

Tough Hide (2 points)

You gain an extra die to your soak roll, although this does not apply to fire or sunlight — you’ll need Fortitude for that. You must be a Nosferatu or a Samedi to take this Merit.

Mental

Call of the Sea (2 points)

Whenever you’re on a boat on the ocean or on a river, you may add one to all your dice pools except for Disciplines (or Thaumaturgical Rituals, if you have any).

Calm Heart (2 points)

You have two extra dice to resist frenzy. Brujah cannot take this Merit.

Connoisseur (2 points)

You can tell quite a bit about someone from tasting a drop of their blood. Roll Perception + Empathy (difficulty 6 for mortals, 8 for Kindred). Each success allows you to learn one item from the following list: their Nature, their Demeanor, their Derangements (if any), whether they’re blood bonded, whether they have any blood-borne diseases, and, if Kindred, how recently they’ve fed, their approximate Generation (‘neonate’ if 11-13, ‘ancilla’ if 9-10, ‘elder’ if 8 or less), and how much vitae is currently in their system. For three successes, you can determine whether or not they have ever committed diablerie. Note that tasting another vampire’s blood may potentially subject you to a blood bond. You must at least two dots of Auspex to purchase this Merit.

Impressive Restraint (2 points)

All Self-Control rolls to resist hunger are made at -2 difficulty. Only vampires who follow Humanity can take this Merit.

Light Sleeper (2 points)

You can awaken instantly without sleepiness or hesitation. The number of dice you have available during the day is not reduced as a result of your Humanity or Path rating.

Skald (2 points)

You’re particularly interested in vampiric history. Any time you make a roll dealing with that subject — usually Occult — you may add 1 to your dice pool. You also have an exceptional, though not truly eidetic, memory for sagas, epic poems, oral histories, and so forth, and can memorize large portions of them given a few hours to study.

Slowed Degeneration (5 points)

You gain two additional dice on any Conscience roll. Only vampires who follow Humanity can take this Merit.

Social

Master of the Masquerade (1 point)

You’re very good at pretending to be human — remembering to breathe, to move naturally, and to do all those other small but important things that vampires often forget to do. (You’ll still need the Blush of Health and Eat Food Merits to seem completely human, but this Merit will help you pretend to have recently been ill, or to have eaten just before you arrived, even if you lack the other two.) Any rolls you make that are specifically in order to appear human, or in order to convince others that you are human, are made at -1 difficulty. This Merit has been rewritten and repriced from its original appearance in Lore of the Clans, where it costs 2 points and conveys a -1 difficulty to any Social rolls involving mortals.

Personal Masquerade (3 points)

Please read the complete text of this Merit carefully. Through some means or other, you’ve convinced a clan you don’t belong to that you’re one of them. This is most common with Caitiff who’ve managed to fake it somehow, but it has also been known to happen with particularly cautious Salubri; Lasombra and Tzimisce outside the Sabbat; and some of the other independent clans and bloodlines. Your character will need to be built in such a way that this is plausible (i.e., have at least some dots in the Disciplines of whatever clan you’re mimicking, have appropriate Abilities and Backgrounds to fit in with that clan, etc.), and will need to have a convincing story for how they managed this feat in the first place and why it is they haven’t been uncovered.

This Merit is not intended for characters who are hiding within another clan in order to subvert or damage it. Rather, it is meant for characters who, while they may be concealing the truth about their lineage for their own safety and/or comfort, are nonetheless either sincerely devoted to, or at minimum not inclined to oppose, the interests of the clan in which they reside. A degree of OOC trust between players is needed in a cooperative environment like this; please respect that. Applications for characters who appear to be infiltrating, rather than hiding, will be rejected or asked to rewrite. Characters who do so after they have been approved will forfeit the standard protections against PvP if (when) they’re discovered.

Rugged Bad Looks (5 points)

While you still have an Appearance of 0, you’re not quite so hideous that being seen by mortals is an immediate and automatic Masquerade breach. If you’re covered up with clothes and not in bright light, you can pass for human as long as no one looks too closely. Just don’t expect the facade to hold up if you get up on stage. You must be a Nosferatu to take this Merit, and other Nosferatu may well resent you for it.

Sabbat Survivor (1 point)

You’ve fought against or uncovered dealings with the Sabbat before, and you know a little more than most when it comes to recognizing signs of their presence. Perception rolls on Sabbat-related matters are made at -1 difficulty.

Supernatural

10th Generation (2 points)

Your character is of the 10th Generation — a bit stronger than most vampires in modern nights. You must have three dots in the Generation Background to purchase this Merit, and its purchase is mandatory if you have three dots. This Merit does not count against the normal limit of 10 Merit dots.

9th Generation (5 points)

Your character is of the 9th Generation — remarkably powerful blood even for London in the 21st century. You must have four dots in the Generation Background to purchase this Merit, and its purchase is mandatory if you have four dots. This Merit does not count against the normal limit of 10 Merit dots.

8th Generation (10 points)

Your character is of the 8th Generation, making them one of the strongest-blooded vampires in the city outside of the elders and the primogen. You must have five dots in the Generation Background to purchase this Merit, and its purchase is mandatory if you have five dots. This Merit does not count against the normal limit of 10 Merit dots.

Additional Discipline (5 points)

One additional Discipline of your choice is treated as an in-clan Discipline for purposes of XP costs and difficulty of learning. Your three initial Discipline dots must still be in your Clan’s usual Disciplines, though the XP rebate from this Merit does apply to starting XP spends. This Merit cannot be taken more than once, and cannot be taken at all by Caitiff. The additional Discipline should be a common or uncommon one (c.f. Discipline Rarity); taking this Merit for a rare Discipline will not be approved.

Consanguineous Resistance (1 point)

You can’t be Blood Bound by anyone who shares your mortal bloodline (although other vampires of your clan who don’t happen to share that bloodline can bind you just as normal). You must be a Giovanni to take this Merit.

Deceptive Aura (1 point)

Attempts to read your aura, if successful, show the bright colors of a mortal, rather than those of a vampire.

Distracting Aura (2 points)

Your aura is harder to read than most. Any attempts to use Aura Perception, or similar abilities, against you suffer a +2 to their difficulty.

False Reflection (3 points)

Your use of Obfuscate affects not only living creatures, but also cameras or video recorders.

Haven Affinity (3 points)

Designate one of your havens (if you have more than one) as primary. Within this haven, you gain one extra die to all dice pools other than Disciplines. Additionally, you can find your way there with a Perception + Survival roll (difficulty 6 if within England, 7 if within Europe, 8 otherwise). If you choose to, or are forced to, move to a new primary haven, it takes one month for these benefits to become active.

Healing Touch (1 point)

You can heal the wounds inflicted by feeding (and only those wounds) by mere touch, rather than by licking them, as most vampires are required to do.

Hive-Minded (1 or 2 points)

Your Animalism works on insects, arachnids, and other bugs as well as on the usual selection of creatures. For 2 points, you may select an insect swarm as one of your Protean 4 forms as well; it must still be the approximate size of a bat or wolf, as appropriate. Any clan can take the 1-point version of this Merit, but the 2-point version is restricted to Gangrel.

Inoffensive to Animals (1 point)

Unlike most Kindred, you don’t garner an immediately negative reaction from animals, and can be in their presence without causing them to flee (or attack you). Most will still be at least somewhat suspicious of you, but at least you have a chance to improve their attitude.

Lesser Mark of the Beast (4 points)

Any time you would normally gain an animalistic feature (see the V20 Core Rulebook, p. 55), you may instead roll Willpower, with a difficulty of 12 minus your Humanity rating (maximum 9). If you succeed, you do not gain a new feature, but you are at a +2 difficulty to any rolls involving Animalism or Protean for the remainder of the night. You must be a Gangrel to take this Merit.

Magic Resistance (2 points)

You have an innate resistance to the Discipline of Thaumaturgy (and its equivalents in other clans). The difficulty of such effects, whether paths or rituals, is increased by 2 when they are directed at you. You may never learn Thaumaturgy or Necromancy, and, needless to say, the Tremere are likely to be very interested in your activities, not to mention eager to investigate how exactly it is that you’re so resistant to their spells.

Sleep Unseen (2 points)

You can “lock” an Obfuscate power on during sleep at the cost of 1 blood point, although this does not necessarily prevent you from being detected by supernatural means. Auspex or other such abilities roll against you as if you were awake and actively employing the Obfuscate power in question.

Totemic Change (5 points)

You may opt to take a different animal shape every time you use Protean 4. (If you don’t have Protean 4, this Merit does nothing unless and until you do.) You must still select forms using the guidelines in Lore of the Clans, p. 91, but you are not restricted to only two forms.

Without a Trace (2 points)

Mundane attempts to track you fail automatically; supernatural attempts suffer a +2 difficulty penalty. These effects are specific to attempts to track you, meaning, follow the physical traces left by your passage — you don’t gain a bonus when hiding from someone (although if they were trying to follow your footprints to find your hiding place, the Merit would apply), and it is of no help when you’re already in plain sight (for that, you need Obfuscate) or are being tailed.

Ghoul Only

Pale Aura (2 points)

Your aura has the same characteristic pallor as that of the Kindred, which may fool vampiric observers into believing you’re one of them. Someone who’s deceived in this way may well be very angry when they find out the truth …