Merits for the World of Darkness.
General
Physical
Hardy (●● to ●●●●)
Prerequisites: Brawl ● and Stamina ●●●
You can not only take a hit, but you are very good at ignoring most sort of punishment. At ●● you have Hard Armor 1 against bashing and at ●●●●, you have an additional health level.
Iron Fist (●●●)
Prerequisites: Brawl ●● and Strength ●●● or Brawl ●●● and Dexterity ●●
Your fists are seemingly made of iron... your unnarmed attacks has a weapon damage of +1.
Tough (●●● or ●●●●●)
Prerequisites: Stamina ●●●, Resolve ●●●
You're so tough that its difficult to keep you down for long. This merit decreases the wound penalties for the last 3 health boxes by 1. Thus making the last three boxes -0, -1 and -2 respectivly. At three dots, this merit decreases the penalties by 2, making them -0, -0 and -1.
Mental
Mental Resistance (●●● or ●●●●●)
You have an exceptional ability to resist mental influences. You get a +1 bonus on all resistance checks against mind influencing things such as drugs, supernatural abilities and other strange things. At ●●●●●, this bonus becomes +2.
Mental Reserve (●● or ●●●●)
Prerequisites: Intelligence ●●● OR Wits ●●●
You have a hidden mental reserve that keeps you going a long time after other people have quit. At the start of every game session, you regain one extra point of willpower. The four dot version of this merit makes you regain two extra willpower at the start of every game session.
Perceptive (●● to ●●●)
Prerequisites: Wits ●●
You are very perceptive and are very seldom surprised. You get a +1 bonus on all Perception checks. At ●●●, this bonus becomes +2 instead.
Social
Calling in Favors (● or ●●●●●)
Prerequsite: Politics ● and Allies ●
Your character can throw his social weight around! For a number of times each chapter equal to the dots in this merit, he can give himself a +3 bonus to any Social Combat (nowod)|Social combat]] maneuver by calling upon the reputation and/or power of an ally.
Drawback: Favors need to be repaid. Every time the character uses this merit the ally gains a minor favor from the character.
Great Leader (●●● or ●●●●●)
Prerequisites: Leadership ●, Presence ●●●
Leading others comes as a second nature for those who possess this merit. In battle, they can give a +1 bonus to the initiative of a number of allies equal to their Leadership skill dots. The ●●●●● version of this merit makes this into a +2 bonus instead.
Savage (●●●)
Prerequisite: Empathy ●●
If you spend a Willpower point, your Social Combat maneuvers are treated as if they have Daze +1 for the rest of the scene.
Servants (●)
Prerequisites:
For some reason or another, you have several obedient and loyal servants that work for you. While not privy to your secrets, they have no problems with quirky waking hours or strange occurencies that doesn't completly overturn their image of self or worldview.
Servants offer a +1 bonus to one skill for each dot they have (2 dots means +1 to 2 different skills).
The servants are loyal and work to the best of their ability. While not very useful in a fight, they will defend their master if necessary. If forced to combat, the servants will act as a single actor that fights with the stats mentioned below. If wounded, each lethal wound reduces the effective dots by 1 until all damage is healed. If they fight again, they will need to heal all that new damage first before being restored.
●: 4 servants, 3 dice in combat, 2 defense, 4 health.
●●: 9 servants, 4 dice in combat, 2 defense, 6 health.
●●●: 16 servants
●●●●: 25 servants
●●●●●: 36 servants
Socially Composed (●● or ●●●●)
Prerequisite: Socialize ●● or Composure ●●●
Your Nerve increases by ●. At ●●●●, your Nerve increases by ●● instead.
Social Influence (● to ●●●●●)
Prerequisites: Politics ●● or Resources ●●
At the end of downtime, you may add this merits dots to any rolls for assets.
Takes one to Know One (●● or ●●●●)
Prerequisites: Willpower ●●●● or Manipulation ●●●●
Being aware of various persuasion tactics and ways to manipulate people, you are far more resistant to such techniques. You have 1 extra door. The 4 dot version of this merit gives +2 doors.
Mage
Mental
Ritualist (●●●●)
Prerequisites: Resolve ●●●, Stamina ●●●
Rituals are a deep part of what the character does and most of his powers stem from this kind of casting. Whenever the character performs a ritual, he may make 2 additional rolls.
Determined Ritualist (●●●●)
Prerequisites: Resolve ●●●●, Composure ●●●●
The starting amount of successes required for an exceptional success is 3 instead of 5 for rituals
Physical
Second Wind (●●●)
Requirements: Stamina ●●●, Resolve ●●●
When scoring an exceptional success during a ritual, the awakened may regain a willpower point instead of any other effect.
Resilient Pattern (●●)
Requirements: Stamina ●●
Your mage's pattern is far more resistant than most. The mage suffers Pattern Bleed once every 48 hours instead of once every 24 hours.
Paradigm
Channeling (●● or ●●●●)
Requirements: Gnosis ●● OR Resolve ●●●
By channeling extra power into a spell, the mage can make the spell far more powerful than usual. Each mana spent to empower a spell adds a +1 bonus to his spellcasting roll. The four dot version of this merit increases this bonus to +2 per point of mana. The maximum amount of mana that can be spent on each spell is equal to the lowest of the characters Resolve or Gnosis.
Drawback: Any spell cast when using this merit has its Paradox increased by +1 (Covert spells will not trigger paradox rolls). Also Dramatic failures have their multiplier increased to x3 (so the total becomes (Base + 1) x3)
Deliberating (● to ●●●●●)
When your character uses magic, it's often through the use of a deliberating method. Pain or drugs are at the top of this list, but other things could also fit into this merit. Your spellcasting rolls get a permanent +2 bonus. Each dot of this merit makes it possible to apply the merit to another Arcana.
Drawback: Whenever you cast a spell, you take a cumulative -1 penalty to all other actions in the scene (except any further spellcasting rolls) until the end of the scene. The character may use his arcanum without the deliberating effect, but doing so costs a point of willpower and it has a -2 penalty, also forfeiting the bonus from Deliberating.
High Ritual (●●●)
Prerequisites: Resolve ●●●, Intelligence ●●●, Academics ●●, Occult ●●
Either your character is extremely well planned or simply possess far more resolve and strength than his peers. Before making an extended spellcasting roll, he can spend 1 Willpower point to make that single roll into a rote-action and thus reroll all failed dice. He can do this only once per ritual.
Technological Focus (●●●)
Requirements:' Technological Paradigm
Your character has a technological paradigm that is soundly grounded in "Science". This has the benefit of increasing all covert procedures by +3 dice as there are "sound" scientific theories to why it works. This merit is very common for technocratic characters.
Drawback: Sadly, having such a technological focus, the character is not so good at performing vulgar procedures. Vulgar procedures cast by your character suffers a -3 penalty. The character also can't use any procedures without equipment. If stripped of his equipment and methods, he can't use any procedures at all. Any jury-rigged tools also suffers a -1 penalty to put together.
Supernatural
Avatar (● to ●●●●●)
Your characters gnosis is far more active and potent that most. Such active magic is usually called having an avatar. This has the effect that the Avatar can actually talk to the character and that it has a willpower equal to twice its rating. The mage can also store +1 points of mana for each level of Avatar. The Avatar has its own Virtue and Vice and acts as its own character, usually around a number of times each story equal to its rating. The Avatar sometimes helps the character by using its willpower to power the characters actions.
Drawback: The Avatar is not always aligned with the character. Whenever an avatar wants the character to do something that the character won't do, the Avatar draws back its power from the character. if the Avatar beats the character on a willpower roll, the character loses the ability to use magic for the rest of the scene as the avatar refuses to co-operate.
The avatar also doesn't recover willpower during a chronicle but is fully refilled every chronicle.
Mysticism (● to ●●●●●)
The character has mastered strange arts that are unique to the character and can't really be taught. Each session, the character has a number of Mystic dice equal to your rating in this merit. Whenever you roll a gnosis based roll, you can add dice from this pool to the roll. These dice refresh at the beginning of each story.
Bane (●●●)
Prerequisites: Composure ●●●, Resolve ●●●, the Chosen Arcana at ●●
The mage is the bane of a particular Arcana. Whenever an opponent attempts to affect the mage with a hostile spell from that arcana, reduce the dice pool by 2 dice.
Elemental Mastery (●● or ●●●●)
Prerequisites: Forces ●●●, Presence ●●
The mage's mastery of a single element is such that in his hands, it becomes a weapon of unequal destruction. When using his favored element, the spells of the mage has a +1 weapon damage bonus. At ●●●●, this bonus instead becomes +2. The mage can also use his elements for flashy tricks and impressive displays.
Vessel (● to ●●●●●)
Prerequisites: Stamina ●●●
Your pattern can contain more mana than patterns of an equal gnosis. Each dot in this merit increases the amount of mana your pattern can hold by +2.
Ritualist (●●●●)
Prerequisites: Intelligence ●●●, Occult ●●● OR Science ●●● OR Athletics ●●●
Your character is at his best during rituals. These rituals are always powerful and impressive. Add +2 dice for each roll when casting a ritual.
Kindred
Physical
Hunter (● to ●●●●●) [Kindred]
Prerequisites: Streewise ● or Survival ●, Kindred
When selecting this merit, pick either city or country. It only applies to the given area. Some kindred are excellent hunters far beyond the keen of their peers. For each dot in this merit, the kindred gets a +1 to hunting rolls in his favored environment (which depends on which version of this merit the kindred took).
Mental
Discipline Sensation (●●●●) [Kindred]
Prerequisites: Composure ●●●, Wits ●●●
You have an excellent knowledge of how the use of Majesty affects you and have thus learned to notice the tell-tale signs that someone is influencing your mind. You gain a +2 bonus to any resistance rolls vs. Majesty and may spend willpower point even if you didn't know (or suspect) that the user had Majesty as a discipline.
Madness Network Connection (●●●) [Kindred]
Prerequisites: Wits ●●●, Auspex ●●, Malkavian or suffering from Malkavia
Through your delusions or disease you have glimpsed something beyond the ordinary. Something that stretches into the Astral Plane and links all Malkavians (or Malkavia) togheter into one big family of prophets and seers. Whenever you use the Auspex discipline for any other purpose than enhancing your senses, you gain a +2 bonus to the roll, including Clash of Wills. You can also not only receive messages from the network, but you may also send messages throughout the network. See the Network for more info.
Drawback: The Network takes its toll on any being who attempts to view into it. You have another permanent derangement that manifests whenever you use Auspex in any form or function. Instead of another one, you may instead opt to increase the severity of one other derangement by one step. If this derangement would become inactive through increasing humanity it manifests itself as its normal severity whenever you use the discipline.
Social
Ancient (●● or ●●●●) [Kindred]
Prerequisites: at least 300 years old for ●● and at least 500 years old for ●●●●
The kindred is noticeably ancient and has a mannerism and knowledge that makes it hard to miss. This grants a certain respect among favorable circles that knows the power fo the ancients. A kindred with this merit gets a +1 bonus to all social rolls when dealing with kindred of lesser or equal age. At ●●●●, this bonus becomes +2 instead. This stacks with other social merits such as Striking Looks unless the other merit says otherwise.
Empowered Childe (● to ●●●●●) [Kindred]
Prerequisites: A childe, Manipulation ●●
Normaly, a childe gains 1/2 of the experience that the player earns, but with this merit, that trickle increases by +1/5. Thus each dot in this merit increases the experience points that childer earns.
Prestigious Bloodline (●● to ●●●●) [Kindred]
Prerequisites: None
You hail from a very prestigious bloodline and have the means to prove it! This might be through papers provided by your sire, the common knowledge of kindred or any other means, but your claim is legit and true.
At two dots, you come from a prestigious bloodline of renown who have done great deeds in the past and/or present. You gain a +1 Bonus to social rolls in any situation when your bloodline matters (such as trying to explain a mistake to the Ventrue Prince). This bonus might become negative if you face the wrong sort of kindred (Carthian princes can make your life harder...).
At four dots, your bloodline can be traced hundreds (if not thousands) of years back. Perhaps even to the mythological Caine, Set or even Mithras? Your bloodline is so legendary that even those who dislike bloodlines must admit your pedigree. The bonus increases to +2 and whenever your bonus would become negative, it becomes a +1 instead.