Thin-Blood/Caitiff Merits and Flaws

Allowed Merits

Caitiff

Favored Blood •••• (Players Guide p.126)

Vampiric power unfettered by the curse of the Ancients flows through you. Your intuitive and legendary command of Kindred prowess likely inspires both awe and fear in other vampires.

You can buy dots in any Discipline even if you’ve never tasted the blood of another vampire with that Discipline. Cannot be taken with the Muddled Blood Flaw (see p. 127).

Mark of Caine •• (Players Guide p.126)

You bear a mark, either physical or spiritual, that gives other vampires pause. Camarilla and Ashirra vampires look on your mark with fear, while Anarchs claim to respect you for playing with elder superstition — but they don’t look at your mark too closely either. Even Sabbat Cainites hesitate to tangle with you, though particularly religious Noddists might target you for special attention.

You gain two bonus dice on any attempt to intimidate, bully, or cow other vampires who subscribe to the myth of Caine. Anyone attempting to commit diablerie on you cannot add their Blood Potency to the roll and any failure to their roll results in a bestial failure.

Mockingbird ••• (Players Guide p.126)

Orphans are often unfairly labeled thieves and diablerists, but some actually do have the power to mimic the powers of other vampires after tasting their blood.

For one night after drinking one Hunger die worth of blood from a vampire, you can choose and employ one Discipline power possessed by the Kindred from whom you fed. The power cannot be of a level higher than your highest Discipline, though you do not need to possess the same Discipline. Roll Rouse Checks as normal to activate this power. Any other rolls required to use the power use the donor’s Discipline level and your Attributes. During this time, you mimic the donor’s clan bane with the same severity level as the donor. Only one power can be “borrowed” in this way per night.

Sun-Scarred ••••• (Players Guide p.126)

While it’s a common myth among Kindred that Caitiff and thin-bloods can walk in the sunlight, only a rare few have anything resembling that ability. These few are sometimes called Daywalkers, and those Caitiff who have this power usually keep it a secret for fear of being hunted and cannibalized by others. Unsurprisingly, Outcasts who can walk in the day may find themselves sought out for their particular acumen and the advantage it grants them over those who must slumber by day.

The first turn you are exposed to Sunlight in a scene, take no Health damage, take 1 Aggravated Willpower damage, and automatically succeed on any rolls to resist Terror Frenzy. For the remainder of the scene all Aggravated Health damage you take from sunlight is instantly converted into Superficial damage.

Uncle Fangs ••• (Players Guide p.127)

The local thin-bloods know you as a mentor and guide. Whatever your true motivations, you can often find aid among the Duskborn without having to ask twice.

You have easy access to a local coterie of three to five thin-bloods. They often know what’s happening on the street before anyone else, and can sometimes provide you with Alchemical concoctions. Treat this group as an Ally group (Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 192), though contrary to regular Allies, this group is undead, if only just. Cannot be taken with Liquidator (p. 127).

Thin-Blood

Abhorrent Blood (Players Guide p.135)

Something in your Blood makes other vampires unable to stomach it. Whether it is the perverse mix of life and undeath or your history of questionable Thin-Blood Alchemy, other vampires gag and vomit when they try to drink from you. Other vampires abort any bite attempts after the initial damage and anyone who tries to keep drinking from you must spend two points of Willpower each turn that they do so. Mortals and Thin-Blood Alchemy are not affected by this anomaly.

Faith-Proof (Players Guide p.136)

Whether you consider yourself an atheist or devoutly religious, you remain too close to mortality for True Faith to affect you.

Low Appetite (Players Guide p.136)

When at Hunger 0 or 1, and when rising at sunset, roll two dice on your Rouse Check and take the highest of the two.

Lucid Dreamer (Players Guide p.136)

Most vampires don’t dream because they don’t sleep. You dream; you can recall and even sometimes control your dreams. Once per session, if you’re asleep by day you can ask the Storyteller to provide a clue from the previous night’s memories or a hint about the story suitable for dream revelation.

Mortality's Mien (Players Guide p.136)

Your mortal nature still outshines your Beast. Your aura does not appear vampiric or supernatural; instead it looks mortal to anyone able to detect supernatural creatures. You can also add two dice to any attempt to make yourself appear mortal in other regards, such as makeup.

Swift Feeder (Players Guide p.136)

Maybe you were a phlebotomist in life, or just didn’t like mess. You sip delicately and quickly, neatly slaking one Hunger in one turn, including licking the wound closed. This Merit can only be used once per scene.

Allowed Flaws

Caitiff

Clan Curse •• (Players Guide p.127)

A Caitiff by hair’s breadth, you still suffer the curse of your sire’s clan. While this can sometimes help you pass for a member of that clan, most often than not it just adds another pain to your tortured existence.

You suffer from a vampire clan bane of your choice, likely that of your sire (if you even know who they are). Its severity is halved (round down, minimum of 1).

Liquidator • (Players Guide p.127)

Thin-bloods call you a Pander and avoid you whenever possible. They even refuse to speak openly with your coterie mates or other associates. Perhaps you served as a scourge, or just displayed particular cruelty as a member of the Sheriff’s posse.

Take a two-dice penalty to all your Social skill dice pools against thin-bloods, other than Intimidation. Cannot be taken with Uncle Fangs (p. 127).

Muddled Blood • (Players Guide p.127)

Your Blood cannot recall its nature and must be reminded of its inherent power every time you want to strengthen it.

Even if you already possess a Discipline you must drink the Blood of someone who possesses it in order to buy dots in it. Cannot be taken with the Favored Blood Merit (see p. 126).

Walking Omen •• (Players Guide pp.127-128)

Many vampires rely on prescience or read omens on a nightly basis, and you happen to act as a magnet, skewing these supernatural compasses.

Any scrying, premonitions, or other forms of future-or fortune telling in your domain regularly points to you as a source of disaster and misfortune. While your close allies have learned to tune it out, other oracles single you out, screeching, when you are not being hunted by those who want to redirect a future that they believe will come to pass at your hands.

The effects of this Flaw are ultimately up to the Storyteller, but it should at the very least cause one serious altercation per story.

Word-Scarred • (Players Guide p.128)

Your body or a portion of it is covered in ancient texts of vampiric lore. Perhaps your sire inscribed them upon you, or they appeared on their own after the Embrace. Either way, shadowy forces conspire to use or destroy this lore.

The major occult foe or force in the chronicle often interferes in your life, seeking to imprison, flense, mind-wipe, Blood Bond, or otherwise neutralize you. (They would never lower themselves to recruit a Caitiff, don’t be silly. You’re just a lost, disobedient book to them.) Maybe two such forces fight over the right to edit you! Any other character who “reads” the full text on your skin learns a terrible secret regarding Gehenna, Noddist prophecy, Bahari mysteries, or the like. You and the Storyteller may decide this together, or it may be a mystery to you!

Thin-Blood

Heliophobia (Players Guide p.135)

An overly cautious Sire hammered the reminder to avoid sunlight into you a little too hard, or you saw someone catch fire in a sunrise early after your Embrace. Either way, you fear sunlight as though you were a full vampire. You are susceptible to Terror Frenzy from sunlight.

Night Terrors (Players Guide p.135)

You sleep as usual, with no memory of any of the dreams you may have had during the day. However, at night those dreams come flooding in at the most inopportune times. During times of stress, or when your Beast is strongest, nightmares pull through and feel excruciatingly real. They may be disjointed hallucinations, or they may be a way for the Storyteller to feed theme or foreshadow events. Once per session, your night terrors onset and you take a one-die penalty to all actions for the rest of the scene.

Plague Bearer (Players Guide p.135)

You are still susceptible to mortal sickness: colds, flu, and other more severe infections. Every time you feed you must roll a die for each Hunger slaked, and if any come up a “1,” you’ve caught something nasty. (Effect is up to the Storyteller, but could range from die penalties to slow Health degradation.) Mortal medicine doesn’t cure you; only drinking a functioning immune system by slaking your Hunger to 0 does so. And of course, you run the risk of infecting anyone you feed on, using the same die roll as above.

Sloppy Drinker (Players Guide p.135)

Your bite is careless, or your fangs are ill suited to puncture skin cleanly. When feeding, make a Dexterity + Medicine test against a Difficulty equal to Hunger slaked to cover your feed marks before too much blood is spilled. On a failure, the wound is too ragged to close: the mortal may bleed out with Masquerade-threatening neck wounds.

Sun-Faded (Players Guide p.135)

You cannot use Discipline powers – including Thin-Blood Alchemy – in sunlight, and active powers cease when you enter sunlight. You can use them indoors by day, with a two-dice penalty, as long as you avoid any hint of sunlight.

Supernatural Tell (Players Guide p.135)

Whether it’s your smell, your aura, or something even subtler, other supernatural entities can sense your presence. They may be curious, hungry, or irritated, but they definitely clock you. Lose two dice from Stealth pools and similar against supernatural opponents including other vampires.

Twilight Presence (Players Guide p.135)

You make others uncomfortable around you. Most mortals don’t want to be around you at all, and other Kindred dislike you even more than they do regular thin-bloods. Only thin-bloods can adjust to your weird demeanor. Lose a die from Social pools involving anyone except thin-bloods.

Unending Hunger (Players Guide p.135)

Your Beast always hungers for more, never finding sustenance with smaller sips. When feeding in a scene you sate one less Hunger than other thin-bloods. This applies only once per scene.

Banned Merits

Caitiff

Unending Hunger (Players Guide p.135)

Your Beast always hungers for more, never finding sustenance with smaller sips. When feeding in a scene you sate one less Hunger than other thin-bloods. This applies only once per scene.

Banned Flaws

Caitiff

Befouling Vitae •• (Players Guide p.127)

When you Embrace mortals or leave them for dead from feeding, the Blood twists them into maniacal corpses with an unquenchable hunger.

Any mortal you Embrace or kill by feeding returns as a desperate wight within a few nights. While these unfortunates are often too weak to be much of a threat (treat as a Ghoul; see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 372), sometimes a trick of the Blood sees a real monster arise (treat as a Wight; see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 375). Your unlife is a steady stream of clean-up jobs, for as soon as the local Prince or Baron gets wind of your condition you are likely to receive a personal (and terminal) visit from the powers that be.

Debt Peon •• (Players Guide p.127)

Orphans often have to sell their proverbial souls to Princes and Barons to find their place in the night. These debts add up and few Caitiff ever climb out of the pocket of those in power, because the prestation system breaks down when Kindred society refuses to recognize the political existence, much less the rights, of the debtor.

You owe several minor boons, or even a few major boons, to a high-Status vampire, possibly originally incurred by your Sire. Tracking these debts proves pointless, as the creditor extracts new boons whenever they have leverage over you and only considers any boon settled when forced to by their peers. They have a two-dice bonus to Social combat against you in front of other Kindred. Refusal to honor your debt adds the Shunned (••) Flaw, and may even result in a Blood Hunt against you.