Physical Merits

Ambidextrous (1pt. Merit) You have a high degree of off-hand dexterity, and you can perform tasks with the "wrong" hand at no penalty. You must use the rules for taking multiple actions, but you do not suffer a difficulty penalty if, say, you use two weapons or are forced to use your off hand.

Biscine (1pt. Merit) You are unusually comfortable underwater and vastly prefer swimming to walking. You receive a -1 difficulty to all Physical dice pools related to underwater movement. This Merit is a particularly common among canal or harbor-dwelling broods of Nosferatu and the occasional aquatic Gangrel.

Bloat (1 to 5pt. Merit) You can store more blood than your generation should allow. Every point invested in this Merit increases your maximum blood pool by one, although it does not increase the rate at which you can process or expend vitae. When you exceed your normal limits, your skin blushes red as though burned, or visibly bulges, giving you a grotesque visage (lose one die from all Appearance-based pools while in this state). Other Cainites (and beings with heightened senses) can smell the blood trying to squeeze past your pores with a successful Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 7). This can incite frenzy in hungry vampires.

Blood Connoisseur (3pt. Merit) With a single whiff or tasted drop, you can learn much about a given sample of blood. Your refined palette can even detect the presence of foreign substances or taint. Whenever you analyze a sample, roll Perception + Alertness (difficulty 6). Each success allows you to glean one fact about the blood, such as its potency, freshness, species or whethr it has been poisoned or contaminated with disease. If multiple successes are spent learning a single fact, additional details may be unveiled at Storyteller discretion. Note that this Merit does not confer preternatural awareness like the Rego Vitae power A Taste for Blood. Characters who have never tasted arsenic or Lupine blood cannot recognize either - although they may discern such samples as poisoned or non-human. In no case may characters discern supernatural properties like clan or generation. As always, the Storyteller determines what information a character may learn.

Blush of Health (2pt. Merit) You look more hale and healthy in appearance than other vampires, allowing you to blend with human society much more easily. You still retain the color of a living mortal, and your skin feels only slightly cool tot he touch. This Merit is unavailable to Cappadocians and Nosferatu.

Controlled Thirst (1pt. Merit) Regular time spent among mortals has dulled the hungers of your palette. You reduce the difficulty of any frenzy roll involving the sight, scent or taste of blood by one. You cannot frenzy from sensing blood if your blood pool is full; conversely, you lose your normal difficulty reduction if your blood pool is less than a quarter full (rounded down).

Drunken Fighting (4pt Merit) (Shadow Crusades Custom) The penalties which apply to characters under the effects of alcohol do not apply to you. On the contrary, you fight better when you've had a few. For every two "drinks" consumed by the character, add a shadow point to your Dexterity and Stamina for a maximum of +2. You may also add an additional Bruised Health Level to your chart and ignore wound penalties -1 or less severe. These beneficiary effects dissipate at the rate of one dot per hour. However, when your character is sober, he suffers the penalties drunk characters usually do (and more); With under two drinks in your system lower your Dexterity, Wits, Strength and Stamina by 1.

Eat Food (1pt. Merit) You have the capacity to eat food and even savor its taste. While you cannot derive any nourishment from eating regular foods, this ability is useful for passing as mortal. Of course, you can't digest what you eat, and there will be some point during the evening when you must force yourself to heave it back up.

Efficient Digestion (3pt. Merit) You are able to draw more than the usual amount of nourishment from blood. When feeding, you gain an additional point to your blood pool for every two points of blood you consume. This Merit does not allow you to exceed your blood pool maximum.

Feeding Tongue (1 to 6pt. Merit) Your tongue extends to inhuman lengths as a bizarre instrument of feeding. It may be delicate and forked like a serpent's or a monstrous cartilaginous sipke, but the effect is the same. You can extend your tongue six inches per point invested in this Merit, and may drain blood or inflict aggravated damage without clinching your prey (as long as you are within range). Unlike traditional feeding, your tongue does not engender the pleasure of the Kiss. Such feeding is more like a giant mosquito pluging a dagger-sized needle into flesh and siphoning blood fast enough to collapse veins.

Foul Humors (3pt. Merit) Your flesh and blood tastes bilious or outright putrescent. Anyone who bites or feeds from you must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 5 plus the number of health levels inflicted or blood points consumed). Those who fail spend the next turn choking, retching or gagging. Any fool who actually attempts to drink you dry (such as in preparation for diablerie) must make three consecutive Willpower rolls at difficulty 9 to succeed. If any of these checks fail, the feeding vampire spends the rest of the scene vomiting his entire blood pool in a fountain of tainted gore.

Hale (2pt. Merit) - Inquisitor Only God has granted you a strong constitution, so you may better serve his cause. You are rarely in less than robust health and take ill infrequently. Subtract two from all difficulties to resist disease, whether natural or supernatural in nature.

Heart of Bone (1 to 5pt. Merit) Your heart is protected by a sheath of leather cartilage or warped bone. For every point invested in this Merit, you gain one extra soak die to resist staking attempts or other attacks intended to pierce the heart. These soak dice do not protect against other forms of damage.

Huge Size (4pt. Merit) You are abnormally large in size, at least six-foot-ten and 300 pounds in weight. Aside from making you extremely noticeable in public, this extra mass bestows an additional Bruised health level. Characters with this Merit may also gain bonuses to push objects, open barred doors, avoid being knocked down and so on.

Immune to Disease (2pt. Merit) You are preternaturally resistant to disease and may freely gorge on infected blood without risk of becoming a carrier. Only magical diseases can afflict you, and you gain an extra die to resist these unnatural maladies. Few Cainites with such resistance are aware of their gift.

Long Fingers (1pt. Merit) Your fingers are hideously long and spidery, perhaps with extra joints, or rubbery like the tentacles of a squid. You gain one extra die on all rolls involving fine coordination or grappling.

Mark of Pure Blood (2pt. Merit) You have a physical mark that emerged during your Embrace, akin to a birthmark. This mark is part of your lineage and helps establish credibility as an heir to power and reputation of your sire's line. Players should work with the Storyteller to define the mark, whether it is a particular tint of the eyes, an actual discolor of the skin or something more exotic. All such marks are within the bounds of natural possibility and/or easily conceald, ensuring that mortals do not automatically suspect your undead nature. While this Merit has no system per se, you are more difficult to impersonate and your mark may carry status with vampires who know its significance.

Maw (2pt. Merit) Unlike other vampires, you have a distended maw filled with jagged, knifelike fangs. Your bite inflicts an extra die of damage, and you may drain one extra blood point each turn when feeding. Unfortunately, your teeth are obviously inhuman and cannot retract. Unless you keep your mouth closed, you suffer +2 difficulty on all Social rolls not involving Intimidation.

Pain Resistant (2pt. Merit) - Inquisitor Only The disciplines of faith, self-denial and mortification have granted you an unusual resistance to pain. Let Satan's spawn do their worst: The flesh matters not. All wound penalties are reduced by one (so at the Wounded health level your character loses one die, not two).

Patagia (4 or 7pt. Merit) Leathery wings fold into your body like a bat or flying squirrel, hanging flaccidly like a tattered cloak when not in use unless hidden beneath bulky clothes. Although you cannot actually fly, you may glide for short distances at your normal walking speed with the aid of updrafts or strong winds. Characters with this Merit cannot have an Appearance rating greater than 2, and most suffer from the Monstrous Flaw. A few dedicated infernalists and seriously misshapen Gangrel occasionally manifest a more potent version of this Merit, conferring strong bat-like wings extending more than five yards from tip to tip. Characters with the seven-point version can fly at speeds of 20 miles per hour and perform aerial maneuvers with their Athletics, although they cannot carry objects heavier than half their own weight. Wings of this size can fold back like an elaborate cape, but they cannot be concealed without supernatural methods. Gargoyles cannot purchase any form of this Merit.

Retractable Wings (2pt. Merit) A vampire with this Merit may take an action to extent or retract her wings. Retracted wings collapse and fold tightly against the body, allowing the character to move through tighter spaces and maneuver unencumbered. Only Gargoyles and other vampires with wings may purchase this Merit.

Supple Joints (1 or 3pt. Merit) You are unusually lithe. For one point, you reduce the difficulty of all Dexterity rolls involving body flexibility by two (such as escaping restraints or contorting through tight spaces). For three points, you can bend most joints backward, dislocate others at will and perform feats of contortion impossible for a human body (such as turning your head to look straight back). You can escape most restraints and slither through small spaces automatically, although the Storyteller may require a roll for extreme feats.

Trained Scent (2pt. Merit) You have an uncanny ability to smell blood that appeals to you or repulses you, even when it flows in the veins of your unsuspecting prey. This Merit only benefits Ventrue and other vampires with discerning hunger, such as through the Flaws Prey Exclusion or Selective Thirst. Sensing blood you feel strongly about requires a reflexive Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6), and you must actually be close enough to breathe the target's scent - usually within three yards. Picking a single target out of a crowd may require a second Wits + Alertness roll at a difficulty determined by a Storyteller.

Unmarred Face (2 to 6pt. Merit) Even if your body is a leprous husk of pustules or a monstrous chimera of fused animals, your face remains eerily pristine. So long as your face is the only part of you that is visible, your effective Appearance rating is one dot for every two points invested in the Merit. Nosferatu characters with this Merit suffer worsened deformities in other parts of their bodies, gaining at least one physical Flaw for which they gain no points (as well as the undying scorn of their clanmates). Obviously, this Merit is useless (and not permissible) to characters without serious full-body deformity of some kind.

Bloodsuckle (3pt. Merit)

You find yourself able to suck blood from extremities without piercing the skin, reducing the difficulty of self control rolls made to control the feeding. Additionally you get 1 extra blood point on a successful feed, which is usually lost through messiness and healing the wound.