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Clash of Wills
Vampires with Auspex can see through supernatural deceptions, figments, and illusions. Most commonly it's used to look for vampires hidden using obfuscate. Clash of wills can only take place if the Kindred has the same amount of dots in Auspex that the supernatural creature has in dots of their respective power. If the kindred has less Auspex dots than the power in question, the attempt simply fails. If the kindred has more dots in Auspex than the power than the kindred simply pierces the illusion/figment/mental fog/whatever else simply.
Clash of Wills contests are compared in secret by the storyteller.
If the Clash of Wills succeeds the kindred pierces the false veil put in place and sees the reality beneath.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: Lower of Wits or Intelligence vs Lower of Wits or Resolve (Or potentially vs the lower of Intelligence or Resolve if a spell/magic illusion)
Action: Instant. No roll is made, through willpower can be applied.
Dodging Bullets
For every dot of Auspex a kindred has, she may apply 1 point of her base defense vs. firearm attacks. For example. If a Vampire has a defense of 3 and an Auspex of 1, her defense vs a firearm attack would be 1. This is cumulative with Celerity and is the reason why you can get toreador literally dodging bullets. (Like the matrix.)
Cost: —
Dice Pool: —
Action: — (always on)
• Heightened Senses
When this power is activated, all of the vampire’s senses sharpen to a razor’s edge, effectively doubling both the range and clarity of all stimuli received. Heightened eyesight allows the vampire to perceive the most minute details of objects at great distances, while a heightened sense of smell might alert a character to the presence of trace amounts of alcohol on a mortal’s breath. Kindred with Auspex also find their sense of smell magnified to a level far above what mortals consider normal, with the kindreds sense of smell becoming closer to that of some predatory mammal. Kindred with this power also have the option of magnifying a single sense, as opposed to all five, in order to better block out unwanted stimuli from other sources. Note, however, that the risk of sudden distraction remains, regardless of how many or how few senses are currently heightened.
When activated a vampire gains his Auspex dots towards mundane perception rolls, rolls to avoid surprise, and certain event specific skill rolls. Additionally a kindred ignores dice pool penalties to perception rolls equal to twice his auspex rating. And indeed on many such rolls a kindred with Auspex does not even need to roll, simply automatically succeeding, though such things are are dependent on the auspex rating of the kindred in question.
If a vampire gains the Blinded condition (see: Combat) in both eyes and has Heightened Senses active they ignore the penalty to defense and Brawl/Weaponry actions (but not the penalty to ranged attacks) as their other heightened senses pick up the slack.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: —
Action: Reflexive
For a blood a kindred can use her heightened senses reduce penalties to her ranged attacks imposed on her by factors other than a target's defense, such as from called shots, range, visibility, or weather conditions. The amount of dice penalty she can ignore is equal to her Auspex rating. This lasts for the scene.
Cost: 1 blood
Dice Pool: —
Action: Reflexive
•• Aura Perception
With this mystic power, a vampire can open his perceptions to the psychic auras that surround all sentient creatures. Numerous and often-shifting hues and patterns compose these auras, and it can take many years before a vampire becomes truly proficient at reading them correctly with any degree of regularity. Although the strongest emotions predominate, almost every individual has more than one color to his aura at any given time, and an observer can see any number of streaks or flashes of these other colors. “Psychic colors” change with the subject’s mental or emotional state, creating an ever-moving pattern that is as unique to each person as a fingerprint. As a rule, the more powerful the emotions, the more intense the colors, but even this guide line is betrayed by any number of mitigating factors, depending on circumstance. All the same, practice makes perfect; a true master aura-perceiver learns to understand the significance of each whorl and eddy.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Auspex – subject’s Resolve
Action: Instant (Note that though this is an instant action, it takes more than just a fleeting glance to see the detail in an aura. A character must scrutinize her subject’s aura for a full minuet to glean information from it, though only the single, immediate roll is necessary to determine if she can read it successfully.)
Dramatic Failure: The character gleans utterly misleading and wholly inaccurate information.
Failure: The character can distinguish no information at all.
Success: The character perceives a number of colors in the subject’s aura equal to the number of successes obtained on the roll.
Exceptional Success: As per a normal success, with one additional color or degree of emotional intensity discernible to the character.
Auspex is the power of supernatural perception. It begins simply by heightening the vampires mundane perception and if grown it allows the kindred to perceive things no normal mortal ever could. Indeed although the powers presented below are the more easily quantifiable and regimented abilities of Auspex, this discipline is also known to give kindred who possess it a certain kind of constantly active supernatural sensitivity to what is normally undetectable even to vampire. A sixth sense almost. This aspect of Auspex tends to vary in intensity from vampire to vampire, with to no one's surprise clans like Malkavian and Tremere seeming to be the most sensitive.
Blood Ties: Close blood relations strengthen the use of many vampiric abilities. This counts for Auspex as well.
Modifiers
— Kindred is looking for the shade (such as pale, bright or weak), but not the color of the aura.
-1 Kindred is looking for the primary shade and color.
-2 Kindred is looking for the primary shade and color as well as color patterns, including information revealing the nature of the creature.
-3 Kindred is looking for the primary shade and color, color patterns, including information revealing the nature of the creature, and subtle shifts in the mixtures of color and pattern.
Thus, if a reader wants to study the subtle shifts in the mixtures of color and pattern in a subject’s aura, the player suffers a -3 penalty. Each success rolled thereafter offers one piece of information in that regard. Two successes might indicate that a ghoul swings from love to hate toward his mistress (bright blue to black), and is envious of a fellow ghoul (dark green).
••• Spirits Touch
The Kindred’s powers of perception have progressed to the point that he can pick up psychic impressions from objects simply by handling them for a moment or two. Such impressions can tell the vampire who last held the object, when it was last held and even what was done with it in the past. These psychic impressions typically come in the form of quick and cryptic images, and as with other Auspex powers, learning how to decipher the information gleaned can be a task all its own. Most impressions (and therefore, most visuals stemming from them) pertain to the last person who handled the object in question, but two circumstances usually preclude such a reading. First, a long-time owner or handler of the object leaves stronger impressions than someone who handled it briefly, if more recently. Second, experiences associated with great emotion — be it hate, passion or fear — often linger in the form of intense psychic impressions on objects. It is these impressions that likely come to the fore over anything more recent or, in all likelihood, far less emotionally significant.
All that is required in order to glean information from an object by using this power is that the vampire turn the item over in his hands (or otherwise handle it) for a few moments, during which he enters a shallow trance. This trance is the gateway through which psychic snapshots arrive, and anything that prematurely disrupts the trance likely prevents any useful information from being received.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult + Auspex
Action: Instant
Dramatic Failure: A dramatic failure indicates the psychic equivalent of a “mixed message” or a very believable but entirely false impression.
Failure: Failure indicates that no impressions come through.
Success: Success yields a sense of the previous handler or owner’s identity, as well as a reliable vision or sense of the memory in question.
Exceptional Success: An exceptional success provides a comprehensive or extended chronological understanding of the event and its participants, such as an entire slideshow of images pertaining to the object and its past.
This power can also be used to glimpse the past of another. The subject must be touched, which could require a roll if the subject is resistant. A contested roll of Wits + Occult +Auspex versus the subject’s Resolve + Composure + Supernatural Tolerance is made. The subject’s roll is reflexive, and he does not know that past events in his existence are perceived. If the reader gets the most successes, a vision is received of the subject’s past, all from the subject’s perspective. With no time frame or criteria for the event witness, the last dramatic, tense or passionate act performed or experienced by the subject is glimpsed. If a specific time frame or event is focused on, the Auspex user’s roll suffers a -1 penalty for each night that has passed since the event. Therefore, witnessing a feeding that the subject performed three nights before imposes a -3 penalty to the contested roll made for the reading vampire.
Dramatic Failure: Events witnessed from the subject’s eyes are misinterpreted. He seems to have been attacked rather than to have initiated an attack, for example.
Failure: The contested roll is lost or tied. No impressions come through.
Success: The most successes are rolled for the reading character. A distorted and blurred glimpse of the event or situation in question passes through his mind. He is left with an intuitive, general understanding of what transpired.
Exceptional Success: The reading character wins the contested roll with five or more successes. An instantaneous glimpse of the event or situation in question passes through his mind. He implicitly understands every aspect of what happened, essentially as if he were there in the subject’s stead. The reader doesn’t acquire any new traits or capabilities — say, if the subject committed diablerie. The reader simply knows what transpired.
Modifiers
+1 The character has drawn a psychic impression from the object or person before.
— Recent and intense (a murder weapon used four hours ago, or a murder was committed).
-1 Recent but mild, or old and intense (a dusty family heirloom in a chest).
-2 Emotionally shallow or long forgotten (a leisure suit found at a secondhand clothing store).
-3 Disconnected or spiritually muted (a set of keys found several weeks ago).
-3 Object or person read amid a fight or other stressful circumstance.
•••• Telepathy
At this level of advancement of one's extrasensory perceptions, a vampire may project his consciousness into a nearby individual's mind. Doing so creates a mental link whereby the Kindred can communicate silently or even scan the surface of the target's subconscious. The user senses any thought picked up as a voice inside his own mind, and the data can hardly be considered unobtrusive. Nevertheless, this power has the potential to be one of the most potent of the abilities in any vampire's mystical arsenal. With enough practice, a vampiric telepath can uncover nearly any secret from any sentient being around him. Telepathy is most effective on the mortal mind. When used on ordinary people, the character can maintain a link as long as he keeps concentrating, and as long as the mortal target does not leave his line of sight for more than moment or two. Trying to breach the supernatural mind, however, is a more difficult prospect. A given link is good only for the moment and must be reestablished each time the character wishes to send or dig for thoughts.
Cost: None for a mortal; 1 Vitae for a supernatural subject, unless the supernatural subject is willing.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Socialize + Auspex - subject's Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance
Action: Instant
Dramatic Failure: Dramatic failure on a Telepathy attempt can be disastrous, as the user instantly adopts any derangements present in the target for the rest of the night.
Failure: Failure results in no link being established, and the character cannot try again for the remainder of the scene.
Success: Success allows a character to read from or add a thought to the subject's mind. See the suggested modifiers list that follows for specific applications of the Telepathy power.
Exceptional Success: Exceptional success at Telepathy allows the character to gain an additional piece of information (or an additional aspect to the original insight).
Each time the telepath sends a message, the subject rolls Wits + Supernatural Tolerance to become intrinsically aware that the thought didn't originate from his own mind; a mortal who becomes aware of this however isn't going to instantly think "vampire" but might rather believe he's hearing voices (real or imagined), on the other hand, if a vampire familiar with Auspex suddenly gets messages in her mind, she might be able to realize that someone is projecting into her head without even a roll. Each time the telepath digs out a piece of data, Composure + Supernatural Tolerance is rolled for the subject to detect the intruder, mortals who succeed this be extremely disconcerted with no frame of reference to help them understand what's going on, but unless they know something they shouldn't they won't instantly assume "vampire."
Note that the player of any subject who is aware that he is being probed or "ridden" may spend a Willpower point to eject the telepath for the remainder of the scene.
Modifiers:
Each derangement the subject possesses -1
Digging for one piece of data about which the subject isn't currently thinking -2
Searching for a specific memory or event buried deep in the subconscious -3
••••• Twilight Projection
Commonly seen as the pinnacle of Auspex achievement, this power allows a vampire to project her perceptions out of her physical body. Her senses take on an existence their own, traveling the material world like a spectre. Such a form, called a "ghost body," is immune to fatigue and physical harm, and it can fly at great speeds. Ghost bodies can even go underground at will -- anywhere within and below the limit of the lunar sphere.
Cost: 1 Vitae + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Auspex
Action: Instant
Dramatic Failure: Dramatic failures can be disastrous. They usually result in the character projecting successfully but being flung to an undesired destination (around the world or deep into an unknown place, for example).
Failure: The character cannot separate her consciousness from her body, but may try again at her next opportunity.
Success: The Kindred separates her ghost body from her physical body and may venture throughout the world.
Exceptional Success: As with a normal success, but the separation occurs with ease and doesn't cost a Willpower.
Interacting with the physical world or spirit world while using Twilight Projection is impossible. The character has no substance at all, not even spiritual substance -- she is merely a projected consciousness. This state can be both a benefit and a drawback, in that the character is unimpeded by obstacles, but is also unable to affect any threats she encounters.
It might come to pass that two vampires' ghost bodies or a projected vampire and a genuine ghost encounter one another. They can communicate as if they were in the real world, but no sorts of physical or mystical exchanges can occur between them. A projected vampire's psyche is invisible to most physical beings. A child or animal might intuitively sense the vampire's presence, or even see him.
A projecting vampire's other Disciplines do not work. Her spirit can certainly observe things, but its temporal connection to the body that serves as the conduit for the Kindred's mystic curse is too tenuous for other mystical powers to manifest. While her consciousness roams, a vampire's body lies in a torpor-like state on the spot where she left it. As long as her ghost body is active, the character remains ignorant of what goes on around her physical body. If the body is subjected to either torpor or Final Death, the projected psyche is pulled back immediately.
A vampire's body continues to expend Vitae nightly for the purposes of sustaining itself. The player must succeed on a standard Humanity roll for the ghost body to remain awake during the daytime. The consciousness of a vampire who falls asleep returns to her body and she rises the next night as normal, entirely within the physical world. A ghost body appears naked and with no possessions.
Artifacts that are composed entirely of spirit matter might be employed in this form, but no physical objects transfer over. Likewise, any objects found during the wraithly endeavor cannot be manipulated or return with the character when she finally rejoins her physical body. A projecting vampire can potentially be barred mystically from returning to her body, or she might become lost and incapable of finding her body again. Rumors also speak of other spirits that can enter a vampire's vacant body, stranding the Kindred as a ghost body.
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