Generation

Higher levels of Generation have an additional cost beyond the Background dots. Please see Generation for details.

Discipline Rarity

We’ve chosen to divide Disciplines into three categories: common, uncommon, and rare.

• Common Disciplines are those that a large number of clans have access to. Their lower levels can be learned without a tutor, and they are generally easier to learn than the other sorts of Discipline. In-clan Disciplines are always considered common, even if they would otherwise be in one of the other categories.
• Uncommon Disciplines are those restricted to a smaller subset of clans, and are significantly more difficult to learn than Common Disciplines. They generally, but not always, require a tutor.
• Rare Disciplines are those that are known only to one of the thirteen clans, or to specific bloodlines. Rare Disciplines always require a tutor (unless they are an in-clan Discipline, and are therefore treated as common).

Celerity, Fortitude and Potence are Common Disciplines.

Animalism, Auspex, Dominate, Presence, and Obfuscate are Uncommon Disciplines.

Chimerstry, Dementation, Necromancy, Obtenebration, Protean, Quietus, Serpentis, Thaumaturgy and Vicissitude are Rare Disciplines.

Any Discipline not listed above (e.g., specific to a single bloodline) is considered a Rare Discipline.

Necromancy Rituals

For information on our attitude toward ritual magic in general, please see Ritual Magic.

Limit on Number of Dots In Paths

The rules listed below for Thaumaturgy also apply to Necromancy (that is, any combination of dots in Necromancy Paths equal to the character’s dots in Necromancy, times three).

Modified Rituals

• Ritual of Xipe Totec: An individual character may only have one flayed skin available at a time — tracking the required blood expenditure would be onerous with any more than this.

Disallowed Rituals

Some rituals have been left out of the game on purpose, whether for balance reasons, because their drawbacks are difficult to enforce without constant ST presence, or because they encourage types of play we don’t want to encourage. These rituals (and the reason each has been disallowed) are listed here.

• Knowing Stone: This ritual has a very long duration, does not require any item from the victim, and is very likely to start arguments over what constitutes “the target’s current whereabouts”.
• Occhio d’Uomo Morto: This ritual conveys a permanent benefit and relies on a Storyteller to ensure that the drawback is meaningful.
• The Ritual of Pochtli: This allows multiple characters to pool successes when using supernatural powers, which we generally do not support.
• Divine Sign: This requires Storyteller adjudication every time it’s used in order to avoid arguments over what constitutes a “course of action”.
• Dead Man’s Hand: This causes inevitable death with no opportunity for the victim to resist the effects, which is something we generally do not support.

Thaumaturgical Paths

Limit on Number of Dots In Paths

A single character may have a number of dots invested into Thaumaturgical Paths equal to their number of dots in Thaumaturgy (or clan-specific equivalent), times three. Characters still cannot have more dots in a single Path than their Thaumaturgy (or equivalent) dots. Thus, a character with Thaumaturgy 3 could have up to three Paths at 3 dots, or four Paths at 2 dots and one Path at 1, or any combination of paths that add up to 9 total.

For characters who somehow manage to learn more than one type of Thaumaturgy — something which will draw very close scrutiny from staff — this restriction is applied separately for each type (if you have Koldunic Sorcery 3 and Setite Sorcery 1, you can have up to 9 dots in Paths for the former, and one dot in a Path for the latter).

This may seem harsh, but remember: Paths are effectively additional in-clan Disciplines. This isn’t such a big deal in a tabletop game with tabletop rates of XP gain, where characters are unlikely to ever max out even one of their in-clan Disciplines, let alone all three; but in an online game, where the expectation is that characters will eventually reach very high levels of XP, some sort of balancing restriction is necessary. Even with this restriction, no other clan has nearly as many in-clan Disciplines as a moderately skilled Thaumaturgist!

Available Paths

We’ve opted to include all the Paths of Thaumaturgy from the Core Rulebook — with the exception of the Path of the Father’s Vengeance, which is noted as being a primarily Sabbat path. Each clan that has a version of Thaumaturgy (Assamites, Followers of Set, Tremere, and Tzimisce) has access to a different subset of those paths, as follows:

• Assamites: Have access to Path of Blood, Lure of Flames, Movement of the Mind, Path of Conjuring, Hands of Destruction, and Awakening of the Steel.
• Followers of Set: Have access to Path of Corruption, Path of Conjuring, Ushabti, Path of Mars, and Weather Control.
• Tremere: Have access to Movement of the Mind, Path of Blood, Lure of Flames, Elemental Mastery, Green Path, Hands of Destruction, Neptune’s Might, Path of Conjuring, Path of Corruption, Path of Technomancy, and Weather Control.
• Tzimisce: Have access to Way of Earth, Way of Wind, Way of Water, Way of Fire, and Weather Control.

“When are you going to add <Path>?”

Probably never. To be perfectly frank, we’re already a little uncomfortable about having this many. Thaumaturgy is a very cool Discipline, yes, but we don’t want to allow so many different Paths that it becomes something that can solve any problem. If what you want is to explore magic with that kind of breadth and depth, you may want to consider the Mage sphere rather than (or in addition to) Vampire.

“When are you going to add Dark Thaumaturgy?”

We aren’t. As far as the game we want to run is concerned, taking Dark Thaumaturgy makes you an NPC antagonist, not a PC. If you want that to be your character’s fate, staff can arrange it, but that isn’t something that one returns to PC status from.

Thaumaturgical Rituals

For information on our attitude toward ritual magic in general, please see Ritual Magic.

We’ve opted to include a small number of rituals for Assamite Sorcery, Koldunic Sorcery, and the Akhu variant of Setite Sorcery, all from Chapter Seven of Rites of the Blood. It’s possible, but not likely, that some additional rituals from this chapter may be added over time.

Modified Rituals

Blood Magic

• Devil’s Touch: This ritual does not function on characters who have a supernatural template.
• Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion: This ritual may be cast once per night, and any given thaumaturgist may have at most a number of foci equal to half their blood pool (rounded down).
• Ward versus <thing>: The victim must voluntarily contact the warded object, meaning these rituals will not normally be useful when applied to weapons. We don’t want Thaumaturgy to become a substitute for Disciplines that already cover the same ground (in this case, Potence).
• Warding Circle versus <thing>: These rituals may have a list of specific, named individuals who are not affected by it. This list must be set at the time of the circle’s creation and cannot be modified without recasting the ritual entirely.
• Flesh of Fiery Touch: Striking the subject with bare hands (or feet) does count as voluntary contact.
• Shaft of Belated Quiescence: The tip’s progress through the body causes severe pain to the victim. They gain no special insight into the cause of this pain or how to stop it, but it is obvious to the victim that something is wrong.

Assamite Sorcery

• Horoscope: This ritual works as described when used to gain information. It cannot provide a difficulty reduction on other Thaumaturgical abilities used against the target.

Disallowed Rituals

As with Necromancy, we have intentionally left some Thaumaturgical Rituals out of the game. These rituals (and the reason each has been disallowed) are listed here.

Blood Magic

• Engaging the Vessel of Transference: The primary use for this ritual is to covertly blood bond someone. If that’s what you want to do, talk to the other character’s player, and work out with them a way to make it happen. Covertly bonding other characters against their players’ will is not a can of worms we want to open.
• Donning the Mask of Shadows: We don’t want Thaumaturgy to become a substitute for Disciplines that already cover the same ground (in this case, Obfuscate).
• Eyes of the Night Hawk: We don’t want Thaumaturgy to become a substitute for Disciplines that already cover the same ground (in this case, Animalism).
• Incorporeal Passage: Abilities that provide complete immunity, rather than resistance, to other characters’ abilities are generally not supported.
• Mirror of Second Sight: We don’t want Thaumaturgy to become a substitute for Disciplines that already cover the same ground (in this case, Auspex).
• Enchant Talisman: This ritual is very unlikely to succeed (the average successes rolling the maximum number of dice possible is only 2.7, and 20 successes on four rolls are required), and we generally do not support adding more dice to rolls for supernatural abilities (if it did succeed).

Abyss Mysticism

• Maw of Ahriman: It’s just not practical to track and enforce the one-month Willpower reduction for this ritual.

Assamite Sorcery

• Infusion of Kalif: Difficulty reductions for supernatural abilities are generally not supported when not a core part of the game mechanic (as they are in Changeling, for example).
• Bull of Heaven: We don’t want Thaumaturgy to become a substitute for Disciplines that already cover the same ground (in this case, Animalism).
• Passage of the Ghul: See notes for Incorporeal Passage.
• Directing Ahriman’s Lance: This is difficult to adjudicate, and the benefit is far too broad.
• Seeing with the Sky’s Eyes: This ritual requires a Storyteller to adjudicate its effects.

Koldunic Sorcery

• Ties that Bind: Difficulty reductions for supernatural abilities are generally not supported when not a core part of the game mechanic (as they are in Changeling, for example).

Setite Sorcery

• Scorpion Sending: This ritual requires a Storyteller to adjudicate.
• Shackles of Blood: See notes for Engaging the Vessel of Transference.

Vicissitude

• Permanent improvements made with Vicissitude (in particular, increases to Appearance) must be paid for with XP. “Getting resculpted by someone Vicissitude” is a great justification for this, but there is still an XP cost. It’s up to the players involved to come up with a rationale for why the changes don’t persist, if they can’t or won’t afford the cost that would be required.