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Supernatural Enhancements: New Discipline Combinations

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by: Reno Camilani for Sanguinus Curae

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The Kindred body, through the use of Vicissitude, Protean, and other Disciplines, may form many enhancements. Poison sacs, toughened hide, wings, acidic blood, and other such modifications are all possible through the Blood. Most of them do not even have to be taught, as they are relatively simple and may be researched independently by a vampire that feels so inclined. The following are some of the combination Discipline powers that are known.

Note: These powers are permanent. Some of them may be hidden and some may not be. If you want temporary enhancements, use Vicissitude only.

Acid Blood

Requirements: Protean 5, Vicissitude 3

Cost: 22 experience points

The Kindred's blood becomes acidic and virulent. Anything the blood touches takes four levels of lethal damage per turn of exposure (difficulty 7 to soak). Blood may be spit or sprayed on others for four levels of damage per blood point that successfully hits on a Dexterity + Firearms roll (difficulty 8, spitting one point's worth of blood is considered one action). The acid can melt through plastic, wood, and even metal, given enough blood and time. This is useful in melee combat, like when the character is struck by a sword, which subsequently starts melting. While this power makes diablerie nearly impossible, it's also difficult to Blood Bond another or share blood.

Poison Sacs

Requirements: Vicissitude 4, Protean 2

Cost: 24 experience points

With this power, poison sacs are grown underneath foot and hand claws. For an additional eight experience points (and a bit more research/practice), poison sacs may be grown above the fangs, stinger, wing talons, etc. (the points must be paid for each different set of poison sacs). The poison is a powerful degenerative nerve toxin potent enough to cause damage even to dead tissue. On a successful attack, the vampire may choose to inject poison into the target. This causes five levels of lethal damage (difficulty 7 to soak, this is separate from the attack damage roll) to supernatural creatures. Living creatures exposed to the poison die a painful, bloody death in ten turns.

There is no known antidote, but some mages have been known to neutralize the poison with Life Magick. A Kindred with Poison Sacs has a starting Poison Pool of five. If the number of poison points is reduced below the maximum, one point of blood may be converted into one poison point (this takes one turn and is considered an automatic feat). To raise the poison pool maximum above five, five experience points and ten days of unhindered growth is required for each point. Each separate set of Poison Sacs has its own temporary and maximum numbers for its poison pool. If the character raises her maximum poison pool in her claw poison sacs, the number doesn't change in her fang poison sacs.

(Ed. Note: You may also consider adapting this for Serpentis. - Benedira)

Toothy Maw

Requirements: Protean 4, Vicissitude 3

Cost: 22 experience points

All of the front teeth in the Kindred's mouth grow to canine size with the use of this power. That means that the vampire has effectively 10 fangs he can utilize in a bite. The difficulty to bite is reduced by one, and damage becomes Strength +3 aggravated. This is an extremely potent power if used in conjunction with Poison Sacs, not to mention intimidating.

Dragon Tail

Requirements: Vicissitude 4, Protean 4, Potence 1

Cost: 25 experience points

With this manifestation, the vampire grows a five-foot long, semi-prehensile tail from the last vertebrae in her back. The last 14 inches of the tail is an almond-shaped appendage. The tail is capable of knocking people down using the Sweep maneuver. If the tail is used to hit something, the character rolls Dexterity + Brawl (difficulty 5 due to the increased musculature of the tail), damage is Strength +2 bashing. If the character opts to open the end of her tail, four prongs open, which may be snapped shut quickly. If the character strikes an opponent with the opened tail, damage turns to lethal.

The character may also choose to Hold her opponent (no damage) or Clinch using lethal damage. If a target is Held or Clinched, they can be thrown on a subsequent turn by using Strength + Brawl, difficulty 8. The opponent is thrown two feet for every success gained (Potence counts). Use of the tail does incur a multiple-action penalty, but the penalty is reduced by one for any maneuvers made by the tail (i.e., if the character takes two actions and the first one is the tail, she has only a one-die penalty. If the second action is not the tail, she takes the full three-die penalty).

Wings

Requirements: Vicissitude 4, Protean 3, Animalism 1

Cost: 24 experience points

The character grows wings on her back. They can be more or less any kind of wing, from an iridescent dragonfly wing to a brown leathery bat wing. The wings may be used to glide (negating falling damage), or fly for short distances. She may generally fly 30 feet at a time per dot of Potence (i.e., a character with Potence 3 could fly for 90 feet without losing momentum). A wing may be used in combat, inflicting Strength +1 bashing damage on a successful Brawl roll (difficulty 7). For an additional eight experience points, barbs may be grown on the ends of the wings, increasing the damage to Strength + 2 lethal. Poison sacs may be bought for the wing talons, but the attacker must gain four or more successes on the attack roll to inject the poison, or else the talons simply don't cut deep enough. Remember that the wings are always present and usually difficult to hide.

Claw Gauntlet

Requirements: Protean 5, Vicissitude 4

Cost: 25 experience points

Learning this technique grows four nine-inch talons on each wrist, equally spaced around the fingers so that one juts out the top, another elongates on the bottom parallel to the top one, and one grows off each side, curling around the thumb and percussion. The claws are retractable, but must be forced through the skin every time they are pulled out, causing one level of unsoakable lethal damage (if it could be soaked, no holes would be made in the skin for the claws). They make a wet tearing sound and blood drips off them for a while after they've been forced out. If an individual succeeds on a normal brawl attack with the hands, three additional dice are applied for damage. If the damage is normally bashing, it becomes lethal.

For instance, a successful punch with the talons inflicts Strength+3 lethal damage. A hold, which normally causes no damage, now gets three dice of lethal damage. The claws may be left out of their sockets for as long as the character desires, but they automatically retract when he falls asleep, gets knocked unconscious, or enters torpor. Poison sacs may not be bought for the gauntlets, as the point of origin is too far away from the point of contact for the poison to be effective.

Scorpion Stinger

Requirements: Vicissitude 4, Protean 3, Potence 1

Cost: 24 experience points

The largest top vertebrae in the spinal column twists and grows, forming a nine-foot-long stinger-like appendage that curls over the character's head. The stinger has a full range of motion from straight up vertical to stretching down to about a character's knees. Using the stinger in combat requires a successful Dexterity + Brawl roll (difficulty 7). If three or more successes are gained on the attack roll, poison may be injected into the victim if the character has bought Poison Sacs (see above) for his stinger.

Armor

Requirements: Protean 3, Vicissitude 3, Fortitude 1

Cost: 15 experience points per layer

Learning this technique allows the character to grow layers of natural armor. This protection takes the form of insect chitin, tough animal hide, scaly lizard-skin, or whatever else the character desires. Each layer of armor provides one extra die in the character's soak rolls against bashing, lethal, and physical aggravated attacks (Lupine claws, vampire bites, etc., but not fire, sunlight, etc.). Every three layers of armor that is bought permanently reduces a vampire's Appearance by one.

Antennae

Requirements: Animalism 3, Protean 2

Cost: 20 experience points

This power allows the character to grow a pair of insect-like antennae from the top of her head. The feelers are about a foot in length and have small circles at the top. They generally match the character's skin tone in color. Having the feelers reduces all Perception difficulties by two, and the character gets no penalty in total darkness. Darkness created by Obtenebration still has the normal effect, however.

Harpoon Fleshcords

Requirements: Vicissitude 4, Protean 4, Celerity 1

Cost: 30 experience points

The harpoon fleshcords are a vicious addition to a vampire's arsenal. Each one is twelve feet long and about two inches wide, and is an extension of the forearm, made of cartilage and bone. They grow above the hand, so the fingers may still be used if necessary when the fleshcords are out. Due to some quirk in the structural anatomy, the fleshcords always look black. They are very flexible and may even be tied in knots, without pain to the character. There are two sets of new nerves for the cords; one moves them, and the other flips the harpoon barbs.

Slapping someone with a fleshcord does Strength +1 bashing damage on a successful Dexterity + Brawl roll, difficulty 6. If the character wants to "embed" the harpoon into an object (like an opponent), damage is Strength +2 lethal but the difficulty is 8. If the character gets three or more successes on this attack roll, he or she may effectively use the barbs. A dozen of these pop out of the base of the harpoon and embed into the skin, making it impossible to pull the harpoon out without losing a lot of flesh. Using the barbs on a living (or unliving) creature inflicts three levels of soakable lethal damage.

Removing a barbed harpoon requires a successful Strength roll (difficulty 8, Potence counts), each success causes an additional level of soakable lethal damage as the harpoon rips its way out. Pulling a barbed harpoon out of oneself requires the expenditure of a Willpower point to be able to inflict that much pain on oneself. Poison sacs may be bought for the fleshcords, and poison is ejected from the end of the harpoon (not the barbs) when it is used.

This is by no means a complete list of the possibilities of enhancements.

An enterprising fleshcrafter should feel free to research and/or create her own new powers at the Storyteller's approval.

 

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