The World Of Darkness - Merit's Compendium

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___________________________________________________________

Introduction 03

The World Of Darkness Merits 04

Vampire The Requiem Merits 127

Werewolf The Forsaken Merits 169

Mage The Awakening Merits 185

Promethean The Created Merits 222

Changeling The Lost Merits 233

Hunter The Vigil Merits 264

Geist

The

Sin-Eaters

Merits

275

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This list was compiled to help the players in the creation process of their characters. The

idea was to make a lot easier to choose Merits, putting them in just one book. However,

you’re going to need the World of Darkness core book, and all the others templates books

to make sense of the descriptions below. It’s really important to buy these books, so they

will keep releasing them for our entertainment. So, White Wolf staff, don’t sue us, we are

satisfied customers trying to help other players.

This is the second version of the list and we will keep updating with new merits as soon

as they are released. This project was started by a group of players in an internet WoD

group, we want to keep releasing merits on future versions of this ebook.

I hope you enjoy the list.

The autor

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First the White-Wolf’s staff for writing the games, second the people who compiled this

list (Leonardo, Paulo, Mateus, Aécio and myself) and the others from the WoD Group. In a

personal perspective I would like to thank all the players and storyteller’s who helped me to

love these games (André, Bandit, Berzins, Bu, Diana, Duda, Flávio, Igor, Jano, Judson,

Pantera, Pedro, Ricardo), with a special thanks to Diana and Leonardo who helped me in

these list with his thoughts, works and opinions.

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A Little Knowledge (•)

Book: Asylum, p. 50; Reliquary, p. 84 Prerequisite: Mortal (non-supernatural)

Effect:Your character has either had a brush with the supernatural or been in a field that has regular casual

contact with the supernatural (such as medicine or law enforcement) to know that something else is out there. While he doesn’t know anything specific (i.e., this Merit doesn’t give any bonus to Occult rolls or offer any frame of reference), your character doesn’t suffer negative penalties when trying to identify or diagnosis conditions for which there is no easy medical antecedent.

For instance, a doctor with this Merit sees a patient in the ER with long, vicious bite marks. The doctor knows that no animal short of a bear could have made those wounds, and he knows that there are no bears native to the area. Normally, this would negatively affect his treatment — he might waste valuable time trying to shoehorn the evidence into his own experience. With this Merit, though, he takes it as read that something made these bites and treats them, or, a scholar with this Merit finds an anachronism in a text supposedly from the 17th century. Rather than immediately dismissing the text as a fraud, the character digs deeper and discovers other references to future events, along with the author’s descriptions of his horrible visions of things to come.

This Merit also offers a +1 bonus to any roll made to recognize a strange or otherworldly situation. If the character ever becomes a supernatural being, including a ghoul or a Sleepwalker, he loses this Merit.

Area of Expertise (••)

Prerequisite: Resolve •• and a Specialty in the appropriate Mental Skill

Effect: Your character is uncommonly focused on a particular area of expertise. By purchasing this Merit,

your character essentially doubles his Specialty in a particular Mental Skill, so that he gains a +2 dice bonus from that Specialty rather than the usual +1. This Merit can only be applied to one of the character’s existing Specialties. This Merit can only be purchased once per character.

Drawback: A character with this Merit cannot have any other Specialties in the same Skill as Area of

Expertise. Thus, if this Merit is purchased for the Automobiles Specialty of Craft, the character can never have any other Specialties in that same Skill.

Combat Awareness (••)

Prerequisite: Military training or combat back ground.

Effect: Your character understands how to survive on a battlefield as a result of either intense military

training or personal experience. This includes knowledge of how to use terrain to your advantage and a general state of mental alertness sustainable even under heavy enemy fire. As a result of this aptitude, your character gains a +2 dice bonus to any situational awareness roll.

Common sense (••••)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 108

Effect: Your character is exceptionally grounded and pragmatic, and can usually be depended upon to

make sound, straightforward decisions after a few moments’ thought.

The Storyteller can make a reflexive Wits + Composure roll once per chapter for your character if he is about to embark on a disastrous course of action, or if you find yourself at a point in the story where you are completely stumped for ideas. If the roll succeeds, the Storyteller may point out the risks of a particular course, or suggest possible actions that your character can take that might get events back on track. Note: While you are free to ask the Storyteller for a Common Sense roll when you’re out of ideas, he is under no obligation to comply. It an aid, not a crutch. Available at character creation only.

Crafter’s Sense (•••)

Effect: Your character has an intuitive sense of her craft, born of experience. Good decision-making is

habitual for her when it comes to her work. This Merit grants all the benefits of the Common Sense Merit (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 108) but only regarding actions dealing with the character’s Craft Specialty. The dice pool for the reflexive action to check the character’s “common sense” is Wits + Crafts (instead of Composure). At the Storyteller’s discretion, this “gut check” roll can be used to gauge the target number of successes on an extended action using the subject Specialty, in addition to all the normal uses of the Common Sense Merit. If a character has both this Merit and the Common Sense Merit, each may be used once per chapter.

Danger Sense (••)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 108

Effect: You gain a +2 modifier on reflexive Wits + Composure rolls for your character to detect an

impending ambush. This kind of roll is typically made prior to the first turn of a surprise attack.

Your character has a well-developed survival instinct that warns him of impending danger. Perhaps he’s adept at reading subtle clues in his environment orhe possesses an uncanny “sixth sense” when it comes to avoiding trouble.

Difficult to Ride (••••)

Prerequisite: Composure and Resolve •••

Effect: Your character is remarkably resistant to being Urged, Ridden or Possessed by spirits or ghosts. The

character adds two dice to all contested rolls against spirits’ attempts to affect her in that way (or with other forms of mental control), or adds two to her Resistance traits (if subtracted from a spirit’s roll). Whether this is because of a hardening experience in her past or some hereditary predisposition depends on the story.

Drawback: Many spirits are angered by strong resistance and eager to get revenge. Others just want to

eliminate such people so they never spawn more. Either way, your character becomes a target once her resistance becomes clear.

Driver’s Charm (• to •••••)

Effect: Some drivers have good luck charms for their vehicles. A hula girl on the dashboard, a Saint

Christopher medal on one’s keychain, a pair of beloved fuzzy dice, a cup holder full of the knucklebones of a vanquished enemy. Sometimes, such items are just icons of luck that doesn’t really manifest. Other times, the driver imparts a tiny portion of his own soul and will into the artifact, and it genuinely grants him some measure of luck when driving. For every dot purchased, the charm can increase by +1 the following statistics of a chosen vehicle: Durability, Structure, Acceleration, Handling. Drawback: The driver’s charm works for only a single scene once per day, and requires one Willpower point from the driver to become active. Also, the charm is “attuned” only to one vehicle. If that vehicle wrecks, the charm (if it survived) can be re-attuned to a new vehicle, but doing so costs the driver a dot of Willpower. (Remember that recouping a dot of lost or spent Willpower costs eight experience points.)

Easy Ride (••)

Effect: Your character knows how to relax and let a spirit or ghost possess her. She forgoes any contesting

roll or Resistance trait, and the possession takes place as long as the spirit rolls a single success. Possessing spirits gain full, penalty-free control over the character’s faculties immediately, without any muss or fuss. She remains aware of what is going on during the possession and has a couple of extra options.

She may allow the spirit to continue controlling her body for longer than a scene, if she likes. Or, if displeased as the possession progresses, she may try to eject the spirit. She and the spirit make the normal contested roll they would normally have made during the original possession. Success on the spirit’s part allows it to remain for the rest of the scene, and ties must be rerolled the next turn. The character may only try this once per scene.

Drawback: As a well-trod soul, the character suffers a –2 dice penalty to any contesting rolls or Resistance

traits applied to prevent (or end, as above) a possession. She also earns a reputation as “easy” among local spirits, who may seek her out when they need a quick body for something, even if she’s not likely to go willingly.

Eidetic Memory (••)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 108

Effect: Your character has a near-photographic memory, being able to recall vast amounts of observed

detail with astonishing accuracy. You do not normally need to make a roll for your character to remember an obscure fact or past experience, unless he is under stress (such as in combat). Under stress, there is a +2 modifier on any Intelligence + Composure or other Skill based roll (say, Academics, to remember a fact) for memory recall. Available at character creation only.

Emotional Detachment (•)

Prerequisite: Resolve ••

Effect: Your character can distance himself from the pain, grief and suffering of his fellow human beings

long enough to help them. This might make him seem somewhat aloof, but it also means that he doesn’t second-guess himself when performing delicate surgery. The character ignores penalties stemming from stress equal to his Resolve rating. For instance, if an EMT is trying to perform an emergency tracheostomy while in a moving car with a werewolf on the roof, the EMT might normally suffer a –2 penalty from sheer emotional pressure. If he had this Merit and his Resolve were 2 or higher, he would take no penalty at all.

Encyclopedic Knowledge (••••)

Effect: Your character is a veritable font of useful (and sometimes useless) information on a wide variety

of topics. Chances are he can come up with an anecdote pertaining to any situation based on something he’s read, witnessed or seen on TV.

You can make an Intelligence + Wits roll any time your character is confronted with a situation or phenomenon outside his normal realm of experience. If the roll is successful, he may recall a “factoid” that he’s heard at some point that may shed light on matters.

Available at character creation only. Your character has either been soaking up trivia all his life or he

hasn’t.

Dramatic Failure: Your character ”remembers” something about the situation that is completely

inaccurate. “Wait! Wait! I saw something like this in a movie once!” The Storyteller might make Intelligence + Wits rolls on your behalf when a dramatic failure is possible.

Failure: Your character wracks his brain but comes up empty.

Success: Your character remembers a detail or fact that sheds some light on the situation. “You said there

was an almond odor? Seems to me I read somewhere that’s a sign of cyanide poisoning.”

Exceptional Success: Your character recalls a number of useful details that provide extensive insight.

"Hey, cool - a little candy skull. They make these in Mexico for the Day of the Dead. It's an offering for a loved one who's died. And they say you can't learn anything on TV."

Entheogenic Synesthesia (•)

Effect: While under the effects of a psychoactive drug, the character experiences synesthesia, where her

senses blur together (she can “taste” music, perhaps, or “hear” colors). This grants her an added level of awareness, as her perceptions are bolstered by more than one sense. While on the drug, she not only experiences no dice penalties to her Perception rolls, but also gains +1 to any Perception rolls.

EOD (••)

Book: Armory, p. 208 (errata correction)

Prerequisite: Wits ••• or Dexterity •••, Crafts •••, Demolitions Specialty in Crafts

Effect: Your character is well versed in handling all types of explosives. She is familiar with all kinds of

techniques used in bomb making, from creating her own explosives to identifying and arming manufactured ones. She has also been trained in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and is comfortable disarming

unfamiliar devices. Your character does not suffer the –2 penalty for disarming an explosive she did not build (see p. 114).

Good Time Management (••)

Prerequisite: Academics, Medicine or Science ••

Effect: Years of working with demanding corporations have served your character well. She can make

effective use of her time, provided that she’s not relying on anyone else who might slow her down. Each roll in an extended action has the time requirement reduced by one quarter. For instance, if the character is translating a text and each roll would normally require one hour, a character with this Merit only requires 45 minutes for each roll. Characters using Teamwork (see p. 134 of the World of Darkness Rulebook) cannot benefit from this Merit, or characters relying on machines (such as lab equipment).

Good Time Management applies only to mundane actions. It does not apply to magical rituals of any kind, though it does apply to researching such rituals.

Higher Calling (••)

Book: Tome Of The Watchtowers, p. 125 Prerequisite: Resolve •••

Effect: Your character is especially devoted to a particular cause or purpose, gaining +1 die for Resolve

rolls to resist coercion that runs counter to his calling. This only affects Resolve rolls, not Willpower or other Traits, and does not affect coercion that doesn’t involve the character’s Higher Calling.

Drawbacks: If your character ever acts in a way contrary to his calling or abandons his dedication to it, the

Storyteller may even remove this Merit.

Holistic Awareness (•••)

Effect: Your character is skilled in the arts of whole body healing, promoting health and recovery by

keeping a person’s entire physiology balanced and strong. The resultis that he is able to treat sickness and some injuries (those not requiring surgery, and ones suffered to bashing or lethal damage but not aggravated) with a collection of natural remedies rather than resorting to a doctor or hospital.

Make an Intelligence + Medicine roll once per day when your character spends an hour treating a patient. If the roll is successful, the patient’s healing times that day are halved. The worst of a patient’s injuries must be treated first. So, if he has suffered a lethal wound and a successful roll is made, the wound heals that day rather than in two days. If the patient has suffered nothing but bashing damage, all wounds are healed in mere minutes (about eight each). See Chapter 7, p. 175, for healing times.

Dramatic Failure: Your character misdiagnoses or mistreats the problem, making it worse. The patient

does not heal more quickly (he maintains normal healing times). He does, however, suffer an additional point of bashing damage. Your character cannot try to heal the patient again for his current injuries.

Failure: The treatment has no effect and normal healing times apply to any bashing wounds or to a single

lethal wound. If the Storyteller allows, your character can make a successive attempt to try again that day (see p. 132). If still no successes are gained to heal a single lethal wound or one or more bashing wounds, those must be allowed to heal naturally before another effort can be made. Thus, if no successes are rolled to heal one of a patient’s lethal wounds, that wound must heal naturally over two days before your character can try to heal another lethal wound.

Success: Your character’s treatment is rewarding and the patient’s healing time that day is halved.

Exceptional Success: The patient responds remarkably well to treatment. You can skip tomorrow’s roll

altogether. It’s automatically assumed to succeed. In that case, two lethal wounds can be healed in two days.

Suggested Equipment: Holistic medicines (+1), healing- touch manuals (+1), body-purifying foods and

liquids (+1)

Possible Penalties: Lack of remedies (-1 to -4), noisy environment (-1), imminent danger (-3), improvised

facilities (-1)

Hollow Soul (••)

Effect: Your character can be possessed even by spirits that cannot normally use the Possession Numen.

Power + Finesse versus Resolve + Composure roll. The character can serve as a mouthpiece for spirits too weak to normally interact with the material world on a meaningful level, but also gets sought out by more powerful spirits who would prefer to abuse the character’s ability.

Hypnosis (•••)

Book: Mekhet - Shadown In The Dark, p. 120; Mage Chronicler's Guide, p. 115 Prerequisite: Medicine • or Occult •

Effect: A character with this Merit can hypnotize others (or herself) using the Occult or Medicine Skills.

The character must choose which of the two Skills the Merit is tied to, and write the Merit down on the character sheet as either Hypnosis (Medicine) or Hypnosis (Occult). The character can only use the chosen Skill to perform hypnosis. If the player wants the character to be able to use either Skills, he has to buy the Merit twice, once for each Skill.

Many hypnotists use equipment such as pendulums, pocket watches, simple machines that project revolving spiral patterns and the like. A subject placed in a trance becomes easily manipulated and likely to respond positively to questioning or suggestion.

This Merit is not limited to vampires or mages; it can be bought by any character.

Hypnotizing a Subject

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult or Medicine + equipment (hypnotist) - subject’s Resolve (if target

resists)

Action: Extended

The hypnotist requires a number of successes equal to twice the target’s Willpower. Each roll represents one minute of work. If the hypnotist succeeds, the target falls into a trance and becomes malleable to suggestion.

A hypnotist can hypnotize himself.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The hypnotist fails even to calm the subject down, or makes a basic error in the process.

The subject cannot be hypnotized again for a number of days equal to his Resolve.

Failure: The hypnotist fails to induce trance in the time allowed, or gains no successes towards hypnotizing

the subject.

Success: The hypnotist makes progress, or gathers enough successes to place the subject in a trance.

As long as the trance persists, any rolls the hypnotist’s player makes to influence the subject (eg. to induce the subject to impart information or to implant a posthypnotic suggestion which will make the subject behave in a certain way after the trance has ended) gain a bonus equal to the hypnotist’s dots in Manipulation.

Exceptional Success: The hypnotist makes speedy headway towards hypnotizing the subject.

Equipment: Pendulum or pocketwatch on chain (+1); audio visual stimulation (+1 to +3); white and

featureless room (+1).

Possible Penalties: Unfamiliar with subject (-2); language barrier (-3); distractions nearby (-2).

Informative (•• or ••••)

Book: The Free Council, p. 131

Prerequisites: Wits •• and •• in the appropriate Skill

Effect: Your character may not be much of a writer or public speaker, but get him talking about his work

and he becomes downright erudite. Your character can use the dots in one of his Mental Skills, up to a maximum of the dots in this Merit, in place of Expression to lecture, write papers or otherwise inform an audience. Your character’s performance may be dry or routine, but it will at least be clear and absorbing.

You must specify the Mental Skill to which this Merit applies when you purchase it. You can purchase this Merit multiple times, selecting a different Mental Skill each time.

Interdisciplinary Specialty (•)

Prerequisites: ••• in two Skills and a Specialty

Effect: Your character makes sense of the world through interdisciplinary thought. She sees metaphorical

connections between different fields of study and, through those connections, achieves greater comfort and success more easily in both.

This Merit lets a character duplicate her Specialty in one Skill with another Skill. For example, a Medicine Specialty in Anatomy could be duplicated under Weaponry to describe a character’s deadly precision. Or a Craft Specialty in Motorcycles could be duplicated under Drive to reflect a character’s honed experience. The character must have three dots in both Skills used by this Merit.

Note: Because the Storyteller judges access to any Merit on a case-by-case basis, the application of this

Merit is left deliberately vague — it essentially saves a player an experience point in exchange for adding cohesion to her Specialties. Individual Storytellers must decide what Skills are suitable to be paired through this Merit based on the background and nature of the character involved. Some combinations (Anatomy as a Specialty for Weaponry, for example) will seem appropriate in some cases and inappropriate in others.

Language (•)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 109 (Errata Version)

Effect: Your character knows an additional language besides his own, one that he can read, write and speak

with fluency. If he wishes to convince others that he is a native speaker, however, the Storyteller might call for an Intelligence + Expression draw, contested by a reflexive Intelligence + Academics draw by anyone who is suspicious.

You must specify which language your character is familiar with when purchasing this Merit. There is no limit to the number of languages that a character may learn, though each language must be purchased as a separate Merit.

Locus-Drinker (•••)

Prerequisites: Mortal (non-supernatural)

Effect: Your character can draw Essence from a locus, an ability normally reserved for spirits, werewolves

and some mages. This requires a Morality roll that the character can only attempt once per day.

Each success allows the character to draw out one point of Essence, and each point requires one minute of meditative effort. The character still has no ability to store that Essence within himself or use it for any means, but he can channel it to objects or creatures that can (such as spirits or the Cup of Life fetish, see p. 120). If the character somehow has the ability to use Essence, he may bend this Essence to that use immediately (but still cannot store it).

Drawback: Possession of this Merit makes the character a threat to some (endangering their supplies of

Essence) and a resource to others (potentially doubling their daily Essence acquisition). If the character isn’t careful with his ability, others may try to eliminate him or use him as a tool.

Make Do (• to •••)

Prerequisites: Wits ••• and • in the appropriate Skill

Effect: Your character has some experience working under sub-optimal conditions. With poor tools or the

wrong tools, she can change a tire, repair a roof or perform an emergency tracheotomy. When you purchase this Merit, assign it to a particular Skill (e.g., Make Do: Crafts). Reduce all penalties stemming from poor or inappropriate tools by the number of dots you have in this Merit. You still must need and have some kind of tools to attempt the action (you can’t patch a tire or perform a tracheotomy with your bare hands), but you can scrape by with poor substitutes using this Merit. Note that this Merit does not add dice to your pool; this Merit negates penalties.

This Merit can be purchased multiple times to apply to multiple Skills.

Meditative Mind (•)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 109

Effect: Your character can effortlessly enter a meditative state when she chooses, and can remain in it for

as long as she wishes. All environmental penalties imposed to Wits + Composure draws to meditate are ignored. Not even wound penalties apply to your character’s efforts to focus. See the Meditation Attribute task in Chapter 2, p. 51

Multi-Lingual (• to •••••)

Effect: The character either has knack for languages or grew up in a culture that teaches several different

tongues. In addition to the character’s native language, the player may choose two languages for every dot in this Merit that the character speaks conversationally.

Note that the character cannot speak effortlessly in these languages. Communicating quickly or over the telephone requires an Intelligence + Wits roll, and talking about anything esoteric (including humor, politics and certainly occult matters) imposes a penalty of –1 to –3 dice. Reading the language requires an Intelligence

+ Academics or Wits roll (depending on how the character learned the language; study or immersion, respectively), and writing something coherent in the language requires a roll of Wits + Academics or Intelligence (again, study or immersion). Even if these rolls succeed, the character’s utterances or writings obviously come from a non-native, unless the player rolls an exceptional success, in which case the character manages to sound like a native-born speaker of the language for a few moments.

The player can spend one experience point for the character to become fluent in one of languages covered by this Merit.

Rational Explanation (••••)

Prerequisites: Resolve •• and Science or Academics ••••

Effect: Your character relies on rational thought, reason and his education to make sense of a frightening

and irrational world. When required to make a Resolve + Composure roll to resist fear, panic or some other mental breakdown in the face of the supernatural, the character may gain an edge from the reliability of reason. When spending a Willpower point to augment such a Resolve + Composure roll, the character may substitute his Science or Academics dots for the +3 dice bonus he would typically gain. If the Willpower point is spent to increase Resolve or Composure for the purpose of subtracting from an aggressor’s dice pool, this Merit increases the +2 dice bonus to +3 for a •••• Skill or +4 for a ••••• Skill. Specialties do not alter these effects.

This Merit can only be purchased once for any character. It must be linked to one Skill — either Science or Academics — when it is purchased and cannot be changed thereafter.

Residual Spirit Energy (••)

Prerequisites: Mortal (non-supernatural)

Effect: Your character releases spirit energy — Essence — into the world when her blood spills. And

spirits can sense it. No one has ever been able to explain why to the character’s satisfaction, but it’s true. Because Essence is such a valuable resource to spirits, the character has some measure of influence over them. She can bribe them for information or favors, and all it takes is a splash of blood. Each point of lethal damage the character suffers frees one point of Essence into the air, as long as the injury actually causes blood loss. For the next several turns before the Essence dissipates, any spirit nearby may take an action to consume the Essence.

Drawback: While most spirits would rather preserve a renewable source of Essence, not all are so careful.

Some might try to slaughter her all at once when they really, really need the Essence. Others notice her as a resource of their enemies and might decide to make a surgical strike against them (but at her). In short, the character becomes a target or potential possession to those spirits who don’t want to barter with her.

Scientist’s Sense (•••)

Prerequisite: Science ••• and a Specialty

Effect: Your character has an intuitive sense of her scientific discipline, born of experience. Good

decision-making is habitual for her when it comes to her work.

This Merit grants all the benefits of the Common Sense Merit (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 108) but only regarding actions dealing with the character’s Science Specialty. The dice pool for the reflexive action to check the character’s “common sense” is Wits + Science (instead of Composure). At the Storyteller’s discretion, this “gut check” roll can be used to gauge the target number of successes on an extended action using the subject Specialty, in addition to all the normal uses of the Common Sense Merit.

If a character has both this Merit and the Common Sense Merit, each may be used once per chapter.

Spirit Tongue (•••)

Effect: No human can speak the language of the spirits (called “Babel” by some, or the “First Tongue” by

others) perfectly. A human’s mouth and tongue are literally incapable of capturing the nuances of this otherworldly language.

This Merit, however, at least allows a human to make a go at it. The character with this Merit can express very simple ideas (one to three-word phrases) without any roll. More complex communication requires a Manipulation + Expression roll. This roll may suffer negative dice modifiers (maximum of –5 dice) if the

circumstances are tense or if the ideas communicated are based solely in human experience (i.e., spirits would have a difficult time comprehending the idea much less the language involved).

Steady Driver (•)

Effects: Sometimes, effective driving is about achieving calmness, about driving with your head more than

your hands. A character who possesses this Merit does just that: when driving, the character always makes Resolve + Drive rolls instead of using Dexterity, whether or not it’s a high-traffic scenario (see above, “High-traffic Driving”).

Technophile (• to ••)

Effect: Through professional experience or a hobbyist’s fanaticism, your character is exceptionally

knowledgeable with regard to one specific type of equipment, chosen upon purchase of this Merit. With one point in this Merit, its focus is relatively narrow: Edged Weapons, Handguns, Consumer Vehicles, 20th-Century French Military Equipment and so forth. With two points, the Merit’s focus may be broader: for example, Melee Weapons, Firearms, Vehicles, 20th-Century Military Equipment.

With regard to items that fall within the chosen focus only, this Merit functions as the Encyclopedic Knowledge Merit (see p. 109, the World of Darkness Rulebook). With a successful roll, your character is fully versed in the performance, history and trivia of any specific item he encounters. In addition to identifying an item, he can recite the likely metallic composition of an ancient sword, the ballistic characteristics of an enemy’s sidearm, the top speed of a sports car or the explosive yield of a nuclear warhead.

This Merit confers no actual bonuses or abilities when the character attempts to use an item that falls within his field of study. Unlike Encyclopedic Knowledge, this Merit is available after character creation, though the character’s actions and interests over an extended period of time should justify the purchase.

Trained Memory (•)

Effect: Your character can remember the events of a single scene or a day’s worth of study perfectly as

long as she has a turn to concentrate. During this turn (in which she cannot engage in combat or other stressful situations), the character uses a special technique to commit what she has learned to memory. (You should write a brief note about this on the character sheet.) After that, during peaceful times, you no longer need to make dice rolls to remember details about that event or piece of knowledge, and you can ask the Storyteller to fill in details that you might have forgotten.

Drawback: Just as for any other character, you must make an Intelligence + Composure roll for the character to remember any additional details about a subject during stressful situations (such as combat). You gain no bonus to this roll; your enhanced memory is a matter of training and organized thinking, not off-the-cuff recall.

Trained Observer (• or •••)

Prerequisites: Wits ••• or Composure •••

Effect: A Trained Observer can spot the smallest anomaly. No detail escapes his notice. With the one-dot

version, the TO ignores penalties of up to -3 on Perception rolls. The three dot version gives Perception rolls the Rote Action quality (see “Rote Actions”, the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 134).

Trip Sitter (•••)

Effect: Your character has some skill when it comes to guiding others through intense psychoactive head

trips. Perhaps it’s a soothing voice or calming presence, or maybe you’ve just been through enough entheogenic experiences to know what effects are going to hit the user, and when. In your presence, a user can ignore up to two dice of penalties while undergoing her trip. If you’re present at the end of the experience, as

well, the user gains +3 dice to the Resolve + Composure roll made to resist Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder.

Vision (• to •••••)

Prerequisites: Intelligence, Wits, Resolve or Composure ••••

Effect: Your character has vision. He is capable of visualizing his wants with great clarity and knows how

to use that vision to guide his work. A character with two or three dots in this Merit has vision on a smaller scale — he sees his sculptures, inventions or performances with unusual clarity. A character with four or five dots in this Merit has a uniquely vivid vision of whole worlds. Whether he uses his vision to paint, to govern or to achieve some other aim is up to him.

The character’s vision helps him accomplish his goals. Essentially, this Merit gives a skilled character a chance to gain more than the usual +3 dice when he spends Willpower. By spending a Willpower point, your character can reflexively rely on his vision to “assist himself” on any extended action he performs, whether it’s drawing the plans for a building, sculpting a statue or speaking in front of an audience (see “Teamwork,” p. 134 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). The character rolls Vision + an appropriate Skill, and each success is added as bonus dice to the next roll on the extended action.

Your character may substitute his dots in Vision for either an Attribute or a Skill when rolling to assist another character on an extended action. The Storyteller has final say on whether a given trait can be replaced, however. Vision may be no substitute for Strength when lifting a boulder.

Willpower points spent to activate this Merit don’t grant any of the usual effects of Willpower points; they simply allow the character to use the Merit. This Merit does not enable a character to spend more than one Willpower point per turn.

Though a character may be said to have gained this Merit through supernatural means, Vision is not in itself a supernatural power. A character’s vision for the future may be the result of some supernatural experience or may simply the product of a profound imagination.

Unseen Sense

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Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 109 Prerequisite: Mortal (non-supernatural); Wits ••

Effect: Your character has a “sixth sense” when it comes to the supernatural. Perhaps his hair stands on

end, goose bumps race along his arms, or a shiver runs up his spine. Regardless of the manner, his body reacts to the presence of unseen forces. He can’t see or hear anything, and in fact he might not know at first what causes this reaction. It might be a response to a specific type of supernatural phenomenon such as ghosts or vampires, or it might be a general sense that something isn’t right. Over time and with a little trial and error, he might be able to qualify what his body tries to tell him.

The specific type of supernatural phenomenon to which your character is sensitive must be determined when this Merit is purchased. It can be something as vague as a creepy feeling when in the presence of ghosts, or something as specific as a sudden chill when a vampire is nearby. The Storyteller has final say on the exact nature and trigger of your character’s sixth sense, and can keep its nature secret if desired, leaving you to figure it out during play.

Only mortal, mundane characters can possess this Merit. The pivotal moment of becoming or being changed into a being with supernatural capabilities eliminates it.

Unseen Sense (Spirits) (• to ••••)

Prerequisites: Mortal (non-supernatural); Wits ••

This is an optional Merit, expanded from the World of Darkness Rulebook to focus on spirits and spiritual phenomena.

Effect: Your character has a sixth sense about spirits and the strange phenomena that surround them and

their world. Regardless of how much the character knows about the occult or the Shadow Realm (she may know absolutely nothing), she has some instinctual understandings and can often sense when spiritual events are going on around her.

Each dot in this Merit adds a category of phenomenon to those that the character can sense. The character reacts when phenomena of the included sort are present. How the character reacts varies from one to the next. The hairs on her neck may stand up, a chill may run down her spine or anything appropriate.

• The character may sense verges and loci, feeling the emotional weight of the area around her. With an extended Wits + Composure roll, the character may be able to feel what sort of resonance the area has. The number of required successes is equal to 10 minus the locus’s rating, and each roll represents one turn.

•• The character may sense when spiritual Numina or Aspects are used in her vicinity (within 20 feet). This kicks in when the acting spirit or the Numen’s target is in that range, not otherwise. When a Numen or Aspect targets her, she may roll a reflexive Wits + Composure roll at a penalty of the offending spirit’s Finesse rating to get a rough idea of the Numen’s effect. Even on a success, her knowledge is very vague. Only exceptional successes are at all clear.

••• The character may sense when a spirit in Twilight passes within 20 feet of her. She may roll a reflexive Wits + Composure roll to determine the rough direction the spirit is moving and whether it is hurrying. If the spirit is attempting stealth, roll its Finesse as a contested roll.

•••• The character may sense when spirits riding humans or animals pass within 20 feet of her. She may roll a reflexive Wits + Composure roll, contested reflexively by the spirit’s Finesse, to pick out which creature is ridden.

Unseen Sense (Spirits) has a drawback, but only in that characters who act on their subtle impulses can attract unwanted attention from spirits who don’t like to be noticed.

Well-Traveled (•)

Effect: The character has either made a study of customs and practices in cultures other than his own or, as

the name suggests, traveled extensively enough to know such customs. The character receives the 9-again benefit on any Social roll involving dealing with a foreign culture, or Mental roll for remembering the practices and mores of such a culture. This knowledge is purely practical; the character might remember that it’s rude to show one’s bare head in a given country, but not why.

Whispers (•)

Book: The Mysterium, p. 179

Your character’s mind has ripped open, allowing tendrils of underlying primordial truths to reach into his psyche. He can purchase the Dream Merit (see Mage: The Awakened, p. 82) even if he is not a mage, and may attempt to gain insights through that Merit as an instant action while conscious rather than requiring the usual hour of meditation or sleep. However, each time he accesses Dream in this accelerated manner further erodes his sanity, requiring a character with a Wisdom (or Morality) higher than five dots to make a degeneration roll.

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Ambidextrous (•••)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 110

Effect: Your character does not suffer the -2 penalty for using his off-hand in combat or to perform other

actions. Available at character creation only.

Armored Fighting (•• or ••••)

Prerequisites: Strength •••, Stamina •••

Effect: Langschwert groups that emphasize historical techniques learn to fight in full armor. They know

how to move and conserve energy in heavy chain mail or even full plate. These skills aren’t exclusive to European martial artists. They’re also found in Japanese koryu and modern military combatives. Your character knows how to fight in heavy armor. Every two dots in this Merit (at •• or ••••) reduce her Brawl, Melee Defense and Speed penalties for heavy armor by 1.

Athletics Dodge (•)

Prerequisites: Dexterity •• and Athletics •

Effect: Whenever your character performs a dodge (see “Dodge”, the World of Darkness Rulebook, page

156) you can add his Athletics Skill dots to his Defense instead of doubling his Defense. He essentially draws on his knowledge of how his body moves to parry and evade attacks rather than rely on his raw ability alone.

Athletics Dodge applies against incoming Brawl-and Weaponry-based attacks, against thrown-weapon attacks, and against firearms attacks made within close-combat range. Your character can move up to his Speed and perform an Athletics Dodge maneuver in a turn.

A character can possess this Merit and also the Brawling Dodge and Weaponry Dodge Merits, but only one can be used per turn.

Berserker (• to •••••)

Prerequisites: Resolve •••, Stamina •••, and Supplemented Skill or Style •

Effect: The character supplements his chosen style or Skill with his own maddened fury. Berserk characters

work themselves into a violent rage, sometimes aided through the use of drugs, which have the usual effect on their physiology (see p. 176, World of Darkness Rulebook). Working oneself into this fury requires an intense exercise of will, costing the character one Willpower point and an instant action. Once the character has entered the berserkergang, she may use any of the maneuvers listed below. These benefits can be combined with one another or with an associated Fighting Style Merit during the same turn, so long as the drawbacks or necessary expenditures do not contradict (for example, a character cannot benefit from Strength in the Fury when using a Fighting Style maneuver that otherwise costs the character her Defense).

A character in a berserker haze occasionally has difficulty telling friend from foe, and must make a reflexive Resolve + Composure roll to avoid assaulting allies during any turn in which those allies present a more tempting target than an enemy. Characters who are already prone to a form of supernatural rage (such as vampires and werewolves) must roll Resolve + Composure during every turn in which they take advantage of this style. If they fail, they fall into their maddened state (frenzy, Kuruth, etc.) and lose the benefits of being berserk.

The character remains in a berserk state until she either spends a second Willpower to calm herself, she is rendered unconscious, or the combat comes to an end.

Characters who fight in a berserk haze often purchase Iron Stamina to represent their ability to ignore pain. The Brawl and Weaponry Skills are equally appropriate for use with this style, as are the Two-Weapon (usually axes), Shield, Knife, Stick and Staff Fighting Styles. Styles that require careful precision such as Evasive Striking or Light Sword are not appropriate. Defensive styles are explicitly incompatible with the aggressiveness required of berserkers.

Dots purchased in this Merit provide access to special combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next.

Strength in the Fury (•): A berserker goes all-out, all the time, and her body rewards her heedless actions

with increased power and speed. The berserker gains an additional die (for a total of three) when taking all-out attacks (page 157, World of Darkness Rulebook).

Adrenaline Rush (••): The berserker ignores pain and her foes’ attacks only drive her madness, pushing

her to brutally defeat them. The character gains a point of armor against bashing and lethal attacks as she casually shrugs off weak attacks.

Inhuman Alacrity (•••): A berserker’s opponents are shocked and frightened by the speed and ferocity that

manifests in her actions, making her far more difficult to hit. The character gains an additional 2 dice (for a total of four dice) when using Willpower to avoid suffering an attack.

Ignorant in the Face of Death (••••): The berserker’s rage overrides her physical limitations, pushing her

to greater feats even when others would fall in pain. In a mad, violently fit, the character can ignore some or all wound penalties for a turn. Drawback: The character sacrifices part of her Defense in any turn during which she ignores wound penalties on a one-for-one basis (for example, by ignoring two dice of wound penalties, she suffers a –2 to her Defense trait). If she has already applied her full Defense against an incoming attack during the turn, she may not use this maneuver. The character may still use Willpower to enhance her attack or Defense, if she so chooses, but may not utilize any other maneuver or supernatural ability that necessitates the loss of Defense (such as an all-out attack).

Bloody-Handed Bastard (•••••): The berserker gouges at eyes, bites at ears, and tears at genitals. Her

behavior is so violent that she inflicts lasting damage on her foes, regardless of weapon. The character’s attacks inflict lethal damage. Drawback: The character sacrifices her Defense during a turn in which she uses this maneuver. If she has already applied her Defense against an incoming attack during the turn, she may not use this maneuver.

Brawling Dodge (•)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 110 Prerequisite: Strength •• and Brawl •

Effect: Whenever your character performs a dodge (see “Dodge”, p. 156), you can choose to add his Brawl

Skill dots to his Defense instead of doubling his Defense. He essentially draws on his training in blocking and evading attacks rather than relying on his raw ability alone. While this might provide little benefit to a brawling novice, it can give the advanced fighter an edge.

Brawling Dodge applies against incoming Brawl- and Weaponry-based attacks, against thrown-weapon attacks, and against Firearms attacks made within close-combat range. Your character can move up to his Speed and perform a Brawling Dodge maneuver in a turn.

A character can possess both the Brawling Dodge and Weaponry Dodge Merits, but only one can be used per turn.

Combat Art (• to ••••)

Prerequisites: Dexterity •••, Stamina ••, Composure ••, Supplemented Skill or Style •

Effect: The character supplements her chosen style or Skill with a carefully-trained showmanship. Her

movements are graceful yet expedient, her blades or fists flashing through the air as she steps lightly upon the balls of her feet. Combat artists often learn their skills in professions that are not traditionally associated with violence, namely the theatre and film, but many also train to showcase their own skills during martial arts demos or non-combative martial arts competitions. These maneuvers represent those who value style over substance.

As such, this supplemental style may be purchased for the Expression Skill, representing those whose combat training is wholly theatrical. If used to supplement Expression, the style cannot be used effectively in combat, and the fourth tier of the Merit cannot be purchased.

Disarm, Fast Reflexes, Fighting Finesse, Quick Draw and Student of the Blade are all popular Merits for those whose primary combat training is primarily for show. Those combat artists who reside in Hollywood often possess the Stunt Driver Merit, as well. Trick shooters and show marksmen often possess Gunslinger. The Expression and Weaponry Skills are equally appropriate for use with this style, though Athletics, Brawl and Firearms versions are widely learned, as well. Fighting Styles typically supplemented by Combat Art include Aggressive and Evasive Striking, Control, Knives, Light Sword, Throwing and Two-Weapon, while Combat Marksmanship, Sniping and even Archery find occasional crossover with this style. The combination of Combat Art with the Flexible Weapons Fighting Style can be stunning in martial arts competitions.

Combat Art is rarely combined with the teaching of those schools that teachings are overwhelmingly pragmatic, such as Krav Maga. Exceptions do exist, however; Krav Maga’s popularity in entertainment demands stunt persons capable of convincingly performing the vicious style, for example. Particularly

traditional schools may frown upon Combat Art, as well, though many perform careful rituals and katas that can be considered powerful performance in its own right.

Dots purchased in this Merit provide access to special combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next.

Flourish (•): The character performs an example of her style in order to threaten rather than entertain

(though audiences often experience a thrill when witnessing such a feat) as an instant action. She gains a bonus to Intimidation rolls equal to her rating in the supplemented Skill or Fighting Style. This bonus lasts until the end of the scene or the character suffers a successful attack from an opponent (whichever comes first). Characters who enter the scene after the flourish is performed are not affected by it. Drawback: The flourishing character’s bonus is penalized by others who know her supplemented Skill or Fighting Style, as they might see through the emptiness of her action. For each dot the target of the character’s intimidation possesses in the same Skill or Fighting Style as that being supplemented, subtract one die from the flourishing character’s roll. Against sufficiently skilled opponents, this can completely cancel the bonus granted by the maneuver and even remove dice from the base Intimidation pool. A master sees through such petty posturing and thinks less of the student as a result.

Staged Combat (••): The character has trained to make perfectly safe and choreographed combat seem

exceedingly real. The character gains a bonus to Expression or Subterfuge rolls to falsify combat equal to her rating in the supplemented Skill or Fighting Style. Drawback: This maneuver can only be used with another individual who is working to fake the fight (and typically functions as a teamwork action).

Dancing for Mars (•••): The character gains a bonus equal to her rating in her supplemented Skill or

Fighting Style to Expression rolls when utilizing her combat prowess as a performance piece (those using Combat Art to supplement Expression may double their Expression rating). This may be used to win competitions, secure a job teaching martial arts, or even intimidate one’s enemies. The bonus does not, however, ever apply to attacks made with the Skill, and use of this maneuver usually constitutes an extended action.

Function Follows Form (••••): The character has learned how to marry life and art, and her extensive

training allows her to utilize the grace she exemplifies on the stage or gym mat to out-maneuver her enemies on the mean streets of the World of Darkness. The character gains one half of her rating in the supplemented Skill or Fighting Style, rounded up, as bonus dice to her attack roll and as a bonus to her Defense (which is not doubled in the case of a Dodge maneuver). Drawback: The character must spend one Willpower point during any turn in which she benefits from this maneuver.

Combatant (••)

Prerequisite: Resolve ••, Brawl, Firearms or Weaponry •

Effect: Your character either has training in how to handle himself in a fight, or has been in enough crisis

situations that he doesn’t lose his head when people start getting hurt. A number of combat hacks involving the effects of pain and stress do not apply to this character. These hacks are: Freezing Under Fire, Lethal Stun and Unable to Attack.

Direction Sense (•)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 110

Effect: Your character has an innate sense of direction that instinctively allows him to remain oriented. He

can enter unfamiliar territory and always retrace his steps back to his starting point, and can orient himself to any of the compass points (i.e., face north, face south) without references.

Disarm (••)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 110 Prerequisite: Dexterity ••• and Weaponry ••

Effect: Your character has refined his Weaponry Skill to the extent that he can use a weapon to disarm

opponents in close combat. When making a normal attack, compare your successes to the opponent’s Dexterity. If you get a number of successes equal to or greater than the opponent’s Dexterity, you can choose to have your character disarm him instead of doing damage. A weapon lands a number of yards away from the opponent equal to your successes rolled.

Disarming is a different activity than specifically attacking or breaking weapons or items carried by opponents. See “Equipment” (p. 139) for rules on doing that.

Driving Style: High Performance Driving (• to ••••)

Prerequisites: Dexterity •••, Resolve ••, Drive ••

Effect: Your character is trained in advanced driving techniques. Maybe he’s a cop or a federal agent.

Maybe he’s a stuntman for film and TV or the wheelman in a heist gang.

Dots purchases in this Merit allow access to special driving maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. Your character cannot possess “Smuggler’s Turn” until he has “Speed Demon.” Maneuvers and effects are described below.

Speed Demon (•): For this character, a vehicle’s Maximum Speed is now the same as the vehicle’s Safe

Speed. The character is very comfortable with driving fast, and thus does not suffer penalties for driving in excess of a vehicle’s Safe Speed (see p.143, the World of Darkness Rulebook).

Smuggler’s Turn (••): Also known as a J-Turn, this is essentially a radical U-turn used at high speed: the

driver puts the car into a controlled skid, the car turns around, and as it’s turning, he puts it into gear and keeps driving — except now, in the other direction. Used by bootleggers during Prohibition, it’s a great way to escape a pursuing vehicle, if it works. The character must succeed on a Dexterity + Drive + Handling roll to make this turn. In doing so, any pursuing vehicles lose the Handling bonus when trying to follow, unless the pursuing driver also possesses this Merit.

Safe Passage (•••): Driving through strange or unsafe conditions — icy road, debris-littered highway,

grid-locked highway — invokes penalties for most drivers, but not this character. He’s able to zip past wreckage and control his car even when in a fishtailing hydroplane. Doing so still requires a Dexterity + Drive + Handling roll, but the character can ignore up to three dice of penalty caused by bad or unsafe conditions.

Offensive Driving (••••): When locked in vehicle pursuit (see pp. 69–71, the World of Darkness Rulebook), it’s good to drive in a way that distracts and disrupts the other driver. Whether the character is the

pursuer or the pursued, he can perform a number of distracting and disrupting techniques to hamper the other car. The quarry might drive over the median, clip trashcans with his bumper to knock them over or even careen through a busy intersection. The pursuer can perform maneuvers such as bumping the back end of the fleeing car or distracting the fleeing driver by weaving in and out of traffic behind him (even disappearing momentarily behind, say, an 18-wheeler) inan effort to draw the driver’s attention away from what he should be paying attention to: the road. The effect is the same for whether the character is the pursuer or the pursued: the tricky driving hampers an opponent’s driving. The opponent’s Acceleration and Handling scores are

halved (round up) as he is distracted. Drawback: The character must expend a Willpower point at the

beginning of vehicle pursuit to achieve this effect. Moreover, by the end of it, the vehicle the character was driving assumes an automatic loss of two Structure from the highly offensive driving.

Entering Strike (••)

Effect: Your character knows how to strike an opponent to upset his balance, making it easy for you to take

him down. If you inflict damage with a Brawl-based strike, you gain a dice bonus equal to the damage you inflicted to a subsequent grappling hold (or shihonage, if you know the Aikido Fighting Style) attempt. This must be your next attack. Drawback: Your Defense does not apply during the turn in which you attempt an entering strike.

Equipped Grappling (••)

Prerequisite: Dexterity •••, Brawl ••, Weaponry ••

Effect: Your character knows how to use a blunt weapon to enhance her holds and locks. She presses the

weapon against joints and muscle groups, or forces compliance with a few short blows. If she has a blunt weapon in hand, add the weapon’s Size to her Strength + Brawl pool whenever she attempts overpowering maneuvers. Drawbacks: This benefit doesn’t apply to initial attempts to establish a grapple. It only works with weapons that have a maximum Size of 3.

Fast Reflexes (• or ••)

Effect: +1 Initiative per dot Your character’s mix of sharp reflexes and steady nerves helps him get the

Fighting Finesse (••)

Book: The World Of Darkness Core, p. 110 Prerequisite: Dexterity ••• and Weaponry ••

Effect: Your character prefers to fight with a chosen weapon in a manner that favors agility over power.

With that one weapon (a rapier or katana, for example), you may substitute your character’s Dexterity for Strength when making attack rolls.

This Merit may be purchased multiple times to gain agility with more weapons, one for each purchase.

Fighting Style: Aikido (Throwing; • to •••••)

Prerequisites: Dexterity ••, Wits •• and Brawl ••

Effect: Your character is a skilled practitioner of aikido, or another martial art that emphasizes throwing the

opponent. She knows how to blend with the force of an attack and amplify it to send her enemy sprawling. Dots purchased in this Merit provide access to special combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. Aikido maneuvers are based on the Brawl Skill and work in conjunction with unarmed combat. (Some aspects of traditional aikido involve a weapon, but they are beyond the specific purview of this Merit).

Ukemi (“Receiving;” •): Your character knows how to fall properly and get up quickly. He may stand up

from a prone position (but not both) once per turn as a reflexive action, and is considered to have one point of armor against bashing damage caused by falls – but not other sources.

Aiki (“Harmonious Energy;” ••): Your character is skilled enough to defend with a throw by avoiding the

attack and seizing his opponent’s balance. If he forgoes his standard Defense, roll Dexterity + Brawl; if the result exceeds the opponent’s damage roll the character suffers no damage and immediately applies a grappling hold or (once he attains the third maneuver) shihonage. He may employ this maneuver against Brawl, Weaponry or close-range Firearms attacks. Drawback: This maneuver constitutes your character’s action for the turn.

Shihonage (“Four Directions Throw;” •••): The character can throw an opponent quickly and forcefully,

without getting tangled up in a clinch. Treat a shihonage throw like a standard Brawl strike attack, except that it also knocks the opponent prone up to as many feet away as your Size + Brawl successes in any direction the character prefers.

Renzoku-waza (“Combination Techniques;” ••••): The character can attempt multiple grappling or

shihonage attacks per turn, or he can defend with multiple throws using the Aiki maneuver. He may make one

additional grapple or shihonage for each point of Dexterity that he has above 2. Each extra action is rolled at a cumulative –1 modifier. Thus, he can attempt two grapples or shihonage at Dexterity 3 (with the second at a – 1 modifier), three at Dexterity 4 (at a 0, –1 then –2 modifier to dice rolls) and four at Dexterity 5 (at 0, –1, –2 and –3 to each dice roll, in turn). Drawback: If the character’s first action is anything but a grapple or

shihonage attempt he cannot use this benefit.

Kokyu-ho (“Breath Power;” •••••): Your character’s throws are so strong that he can either throw

someone double the usual distance with his shihonage, or inflict lethal damage with it. Drawback: Spend one Willpower point per attack. Note that this Willpower expenditure does not add three dice to the attack.

Fighting Style: Archery (• to ••••)

Prerequisites: Strength ••, Dexterity ••, Athletics ••

Effect: Your character has devoted years of practice to the bow. She may be a competitive archer, a

low-tech hunter or a medieval history enthusiast.

Dots purchased in this Merit allow access to special combat maneuvers. Each maneuver is a prerequisite for the next. So, your character can’t have “Rapid Nock” until she has “Draw and Loose.” The maneuvers and their effects are described below. All of the following maneuvers work only with bows.

Draw and Loose (•): Your character’s arm muscles are well-toned for the demanding task of repeatedly

drawing a heavy bow. She gains +1 Strength for the purposes of a bow’s minimum Strength, Damage and Range.

Rapid Nock (••): Your character can maintain a withering rate of fire. Once per turn, she may “reload” a

bow as a reflexive action.

Arcing Fire (•••): Arrows, like all other projectiles, travel in ballistic arcs. Your character is a master of

estimating range, wind and other factors to arc shots much farther than they would travel if fired directly. Double the Ranges of any bow your character uses.

Plunging Fire (••••): Your character can eschew direct attacks in favor of launching arrows high into the