Discipline Powers

Star Magnetism (Presence ••••• •)
This power allows the Kindred’s Presence to carry over
onto photographs or video, whether digital, video tape,
or even film. It even carries over to paintings or
drawings, if the portrait is an accurate representation.
The vampire may consciously turn this power off,
but it will otherwise snap into effect whenever a
camera turns toward the Kindred.
System: The representation resembles Awe, and
the effects are permanent. Anyone who sees an
image may spend a Willpower point to resist the
effect until the next time he sees it again.


Combination Disciplines

Bliss (Dominate ••, Presence •••)
Many Toreador claim their Clan escaped the curses
that afflict their brethren, and that they alone were
blessed. Those who learn the secret of Bliss are the
loudest making this claim.
Any Toreador who regards a scene or work of
great beauty is prone to myopic obsession. This
trance is the antithesis of the ugly fury of the Beast.
Those familiar with the power of Bliss can recall
beauty almost as intimately as if it were before them
and use this as a reservoir of inner strength. The
recollection of past happiness serves as a bulwark
when threatened with the irrational desires, frenzies,
and fears of the Beast. Further, the Kindred may
project this sense of pleasure upon another, calming
them from the throes of rage or frenzy.
System: To use this power, a Toreador needs to
deliberately enter a trance while watching, listening
to, or looking at some work of art or embodiment of
beauty. The duration of this trance is determined by
the duration of the art: The Toreador sits enthralled
until the song ends, the dance is finished, or the
piece of art is covered. (Few choose to use this power
with paintings for that reason.)
Within one scene after the trance ends, the player
makes an Intelligence + Empathy roll. If the roll is
successful, the vampire may temporarily increase her
Self-Control, Conscience, or Courage by a single dot,
up to a maximum of five dots. This increase lasts
for the remainder of the night. The difficulty of the
roll is equal to double the Trait’s current rating, so a
vampire with Self-Control 4 has to roll an 8 to gain
another temporary point of Self-Control. Only one
Virtue can be increased at a time. Furthermore, the
source of the trance has to be appropriate for the
Virtue. Looking at David’s “Oath of the Horatii”
or listening to the first movement of Holst’s “The
Planets” could bolster one’s Courage, but not
Self-Control. Bliss is not lost on those who
follow Paths other than Humanity, though the
source of inspiration must take the Cainite’s
altered worldview into account.
When a Kindred uses Bliss to steel the resolve
of another, the Toreador must roll Wits +
Expression to activate the power. Additionally,
difficulties for using Bliss on someone other
than oneself increase by one. For example,
if the target’s Conscience is currently 3, the
Toreador’s target difficulty is 7. Botching any
Bliss roll results in the loss of a Willpower
point. The target must cooperate with the
Toreador, entering a kind of guided meditative
state of their own, often focusing on a work
of art created for the purpose by the Kindred
activating Bliss. If successful, the target gains
the benefit instead of the Toreador.
This power costs 15 experience points to
learn.

Devil’s Mark (Presence •, Vicissitude ••)
Among the Sabbat, a growing number of
Toreador antitribu who have learned the secrets
of Vicissitude have discovered a way to infuse
their own Presence into tattoos and body
modifications placed upon others, Cainite and
mortal alike. This is a relatively recent invention,
developed by a nomadic pair of Toreador
antitribu at the tail end of the twentieth century.
In the nights leading up to a war party, packs
get inked and pierced, covered in symbolic body
modifications invoking Awe, Dread Gaze, or
even Majesty. Raucous parties tend to coalesce
around the ritual, as each member gets marked,
and the pack gets more and more hyped and
psyched up for the raid. The artist must invest
her own blood into the process, whether that’s
by bathing her tools in it or mixing it into
her inks, so it’s considered good form for the
pack to provide sources of blood for the artist
during the revel, since she is investing so much
for their cause. The modifications themselves
are often elaborate and are themselves sources
of pride for the packs and artists alike. Each
piece of art is designed to unite the pack while
complementing the individual, and packs will
travel to find well-known artists just so they can sport an
Elektra tattoo, or a set of silver crown piercings by Mikhail.
System: To place the Devil’s Mark, the artist must make an
extended Dexterity + Expression roll every hour (difficulty
7), requiring a number of successes equal to twice the
level of the Presence power being imbued. For example,
marking a subject with Awe would require two successes,
while Dread Gaze would require four successes and Majesty
would need a total of 10 successes. The process of creating
the Devil’s Mark costs one blood point, plus one point
for every invocation she wants to imbue into the body
modification. If the subject is a vampire, the modification
heals as normal when the “charges” are expended. If the
subject is a mortal, the tattoo or piercing remains, but loses
its vampire puissance.
Alternately, a vampire subject can choose to spend a point
of permanent Willpower to make the modification relatively
permanent, giving him access to the specific Presence effect
as if he had learned the Discipline power itself. However,
another application of Vicissitude or severing of the body
part will remove the body modification and the power
from the vampire.
The artist applying the Devil’s Mark must know the level
of Presence being imbued, and may only grant access to
powers up to level five. The body modification itself is the
focal point of the Presence evocation, so must be visible to
the target of any use of the Presence powers imbued. Also,
the target can’t use anything that would dull or neutralize
the pain of the procedure.
This power costs 9 experience points to learn.

Doubletalk (Auspex ••, Celerity •, Obfuscate •)
The Toreador are talented diplomats and politicians, but
the Kindred who uses this power may literally hide an entirely
different message within their speech. When a Toreador uses
Doubletalk, she conveys an entirely different message between
and underneath another sentence spoken normally. To most
listeners, it looks and sounds like normal conversational
placeholders and body language. But for those who know
what to look and listen for, it is possible to hold a secret
conversation in plain sight, behind an innocuous interaction.
System: When a character speaks in Doubletalk, the
player rolls Intelligence + Expression (difficulty 6). If the
roll succeeds, the character may seamlessly insert a phrase
into her conversation. A failure means the character can’t
be understood. A botch means the character accidentally
spoke her phrase aloud.
The listener then rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty
6). If the roll succeeds, the character may understand the
intended message. At the Storyteller’s discretion, this
difficulty may be modified for circumstances — it’s more
difficult over the phone or in a noisy area, and impossible in
text messages. A failure means the character heard nothing,
while a botch indicates that he completely misinterpreted
what the character said.
This power costs 12 experience points to learn.

Haunting Seduction (Dementation ••, Presence •)
The Toreador are seductive, impressive creatures. When
they’re around, they can be the only thing that matters
in the world. But when they leave, their Presence fades,
and that’s just not acceptable to some of the Degenerates.
Dementation may merely unlock the door to the mind’s
inner hallways and free what’s inside, but enterprising
Toreador have discovered how to ensure that they are the
whisper that haunts their target’s thoughts.
In many ways, the Haunting Seduction is similar to
the Dementation power The Haunting (V20, p. 148). Its
effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly
at night. However, the effects take on the tone of an almost
maddening, seductive obsession. The subject may feel the
light brush of a hand that he knows belongs to the vampire,
or hear the vampire’s sibilant whisper just behind him.
The Storyteller should let her imagination run wild when
describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well
feel as if he is going mad.
System: After the vampire speaks to the victim, the
player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation
+ Subterfuge (difficulty of her victim’s Perception +
Self-Control or Instinct). The number of successes
determines the length of the sensory “visitations.” The
precise effects are up to the Storyteller, though it is
highly likely that the visions will affect the difficulties
of any social interactions between the vampire and her
target the next time they meet.
Successes - Result
1 Success - One night
2 Successes - Two nights
3 Successes - One week
4 Successes - One month
5 Successes - Three months
6+ Successes - One year
This power costs 9 experience points to learn.

Scalpel Tongue (Presence •, Celerity •)
Catty repartee is both an art and a vice among the Kindred
of Clan Toreador. Those who cannot compete effectively
in the arena of cruel wit are unlikely to earn the respect of
their Clan members. Toreador higher up the ladder, then,
must have the ability to scathe others with words if they
are to maintain their positions. Scalpel Tongue mixes the
same quick thinking that guides the body as it moves at
accelerated speeds with the Toreador’s prodigious social
aptitudes, allowing the Kindred to immediately generate
a barbed quip so stinging (due to the emotion-enhancing
effects of Presence) that it shames the target into silence.
Of course, the Toreador themselves are so constantly
surrounded by the vicious wit of their own Clan that they
inevitably develop a thicker skin. They may play up the
melodrama of insult and offense, but even the sharpest
barbs come to wash over them like water off a duck’s back.
This power has a subtle downside: if another Toreador
detects that she had to use a Discipline to come up with
such a stinging retort (such as the user of Scalpel Tongue
botching her roll), it could have a negative impact on how
others in the Clan perceive her. Why would she need to use
powers if she didn’t have an inferior wit? In such a case, the
user will have a +1 difficulty on Social rolls against other
Toreadors for the rest of the night, including future uses
of Scalpel Tongue.
System: Roll Wits + Empathy against a difficulty of 7.
If the user of this power does not know his target well,
difficulty is increased by one, due to not knowing what
buttons to push to achieve the greatest verbal impact. The
barbed comment stings the target into silence for one turn
per success, or double that if the target is not a member of
Clan Toreador. Spending one Willpower negates this effect.
This power costs 6 experience points to learn.

Soul Painting (Auspex ••••, Presence ••)
The ancient Toreador art of “painting souls” flourished
briefly in the early 1300s, but with the loss (and presumed
Final Death) of Katherine of Montpellier, the technique
was thought to be gone forever. In recent nights, Katherine
has returned. Roused from an ages-long torpor, she has
agreed to teach a few worthy students the knack of painting
a portrait of a being’s inner nature. A few enterprising
Toreador have attempted to adapt her principles to other
expressive media, including music, song, and even acting.
Art has long been held to be a doorway into the soul.
Usually it’s the soul of the artist. In this case, the painting
can expose the nature of the person portrayed. The message
conveyed is powerful, subtle, and — when successful —
undeniable. Falsehood cannot be portrayed through Soul
Painting, for even the artist does not initially know what
the image will reveal.
To create this type of portrait, the artist needs to study the
subject for a full, uninterrupted hour. This can be done in
a sitting, of course, but (due to the sensitive nature of the
portrait) it’s more often done from recalled observation.
Looking not only at the minute details of appearance and
carriage, but also at the subject’s aura, the painter forms a
conscious insight. This alone is not sufficient, however: the
painter must give himself over to a kind of creative fugue,
setting aside his preconceptions completely, in order to
make a soul portrait.
The portrait must be painted in a single setting, and
interrupting a soul painter while she works is as difficult
as rousing a Toreador from a more mundane fit of artistic
absorption. It generally takes 10-12 hours to create the
picture, though more complex efforts may take longer —
Katherine’s portrait of the Archbishop Monçada reputedly
took over one thousand hours — but if successfully
completed, it reveals a great deal indeed.
System: The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy
(difficulty 6). If the roll yields even a single success, the
painting (or other work) captures the subject’s Nature
in the work itself. For each additional success, the player
may opt to illustrate any one of the following: a rough
gauge of Humanity (or Path, which usually won’t create
a traditionally flattering work), Willpower, Self-Control,
Conscience, Conviction, Instinct, or Courage.
Anyone with the Soul Painting power can immediately
recognize every insight portrayed in a portrait. Those who
lack the power may (at the Storyteller’s discretion) be
required to make Perception + Awareness, Empathy, or
Crafts rolls to “decode” the portrait. The difficulty for such
attempts should be low, however; the whole point of the
power is the exposure of these hidden, abstract concepts.
Note that Soul Painting does not necessarily make the
artist a skilled artist — it is quite possible to have a crudely
executed portrait that nonetheless communicates the
subject’s personality. Such a ham-handed painter is unlikely
to have learned this power from the mistress herself, though.
This power costs 18 experience points to learn.

Under the Skin (Auspex •••, Presence •••)
The Kindred of Clan Toreador are natural critics. With
insight and zeal they analyze and deconstruct art, culture,
and politics. Some studied Toreador possess the ability to
do the same with their peers, reading them like texts and
making obvious their failings of personality. The Cainite
using this power analyzes the personality of another, finds
its weaknesses, and then uses the force of his presence to
make light of those weaknesses and hammer on them like
a battering ram. The results can be quite dramatic.
While this power is similar to Scalpel Tongue, it’s much
more devastating. That one stings; this one draws blood
(and possibly a lot of it).
System: The Toreador must interact socially with his
target for a number of consecutive turns (2-5 turns is a
good rule of thumb, at the Storyteller’s discretion) before
this power can be activated. After that warm-up, roll Wits
+ Perception against a difficulty of 6 as the character begins
his systematic analysis of the target’s psyche and self-esteem.
The results of this assault are listed below.
Successes - Result
1-2 Successes - Target is rendered utterly speechless with
embarrassment and rage, and broods for the
remainder of the scene. (One die penalty to all
Social rolls)
3-4 Successes - Target storms out in a rage. (Two dice penalty
to all Social rolls)
5 Successes - Target becomes violent, either toward the
Toreador using this power (jumping over the
table to attack, for example) or toward herself
in a fit of self-loathing. (+1 difficulty to rolls to
resist frenzy)
6+ Successes - Target enters frenzy. (+3 difficulty to resist
frenzy)
The target may spend a Willpower point to lessen the
effect by one category (e.g., from 6+ to 5 or from 3-4 to 1-2).
This power costs 18 experience to learn.