Mental Skills

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Mental Skills

Mental Skills depend almost entirely on specialized knowledge, as well as on the character’s core intellectual gifts.

Academics

Academics reflects understanding, higher education, and ability to research fields within the humanities and the liberal arts. Historical study, for instance, is hardly “just academic” if your immortal enemies lived – and left traces – in that period. When you take this Skill, you get a free specialty. For foreign languages, use the Linguistics Merit (p. 179).

• Basic primary and secondary education; a night class at community college
•• Basic university education or tutelage from a mediocre mentor; a four-year degree.
••• Advanced university education or dedicated personal tuition; an excellent four-year degree, a doctorate.
•••• Advanced specialized study beyond university, learning into subjects few understand.
••••• Refined and advanced scholarship, likely to be sought out for advice and tutelage.

Specialties: Architecture, English Literature, History of Art, History (specific Field or Period), Journalism, Philosophy, Research, Teaching, Theology

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Awareness

Awareness handles your perceptions. You may spot a Child of Haqim before a strike occurs, spy a key dropped in the trash, or sense a lingering perfume.

• You have a history of knowing when something is out of place.
•• You can spot erratic or pattern behavior in an individual.
••• You can see through most disguises and sense concealed dangers or hidden clues.
•••• Even when you are distracted, few things are beyond your notice.
••••• Your senses are those of a wild animal.

Specialties: Ambushes, Camouflage, Concealed Objects, Hearing, Instincts, Smell, Sight, Traps, Wilderness

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Finance

Finance allows you to identify trends in the market, invest well, manipulate stock, and know when a fall is coming. It also allows you to assess – and trace – the wealth of others and broker financial deals. You can generally appraise art, property, or any other noncriminal good. Ventrue value this Skill more than some Disciplines.

• You can run a business and keep books.
•• You can manage a corporate division or bank branch; you file impeccably plausible tax returns.
••• Thanks to international trading, you make a fine broker on foreign stock exchanges.
•••• Investment banks follow your financial lead. You have no trouble concealing fraud.
••••• You can make money do anything, including stick to your pockets – or crash countries.

Specialties: Appraisal, Banking, Black Markets, Corporate Finance, Currency Manipulation, Fine Art, Forensic Accounting, Money Laundering, Stock Market

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Investigation

Investigation allows you to unravel cases of mundane and mysterious means, spot clues, interpret them, and trace missing persons. Vampires find this Skill especially useful when a vessel escapes.

• You love a good mystery novel and fancy yourself an amateur sleuth.
•• You have a firm knowledge of criminology and the signature acts of local rogues.
••• You are, or could be, a detective by trade. Nothing in a crime scene escapes you.
•••• The Sheriff comes to you when unknown parties sabotage the domain’s safety.
••••• You set riddles for others and live an enigmatic existence few can penetrate.

Specialties: Criminology, Deduction, Forensics, Missing Persons, Murder, Paranormal Mysteries, Traffic Analysis

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Medicine

Medicine allows you to fix people who are broken and diagnose causes of death or sickness in a victim. It also allows you to use medical equipment, prescribe drugs, and stanch (or encourage) rapid blood flow.Characters use Medicine to heal Aggravated Health damage in mortals (see p. 127).

• You know basic anatomy and the difference in blood flow from a vein and an artery. You can perform CPR and other first aid. You may have been a medical student in life.
•• You can comfortably treat minor traumas and illnesses and narrow down a diagnosis. You may have been a nurse or EMT in life.
••• Your training allows you to perform major operations and treat serious injuries. You may have been an internist, pediatrician, or general practitioner in life.
•••• You can diagnose and treat all but the rarest of illnesses. You may have been a surgeon or specialist in life.
••••• You are a noted medical expert, sought out by mortals and immortals alike.

Specialties: First Aid, Haematology, Pathology, Pharmacy, Phlebotomy, Surgery, Trauma Care, Veterinary

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Occult

Occult represents knowledge of the mystical world, extending from the rites and practices of Freemasons and Rosicrucians, all the way to Noddist scholars and real mages. You can recognize occult sigils and folk-magic practices, effective or not.

• You know the legends of Caine and the Antediluvians, and you may have read the Book of Nod.
•• You can sift the truth from pop occult nonsense.
••• You have firsthand experience of something inexplicable, even by Kindred standards.
•••• You could name most of the Antediluvians and even comprehend a Tremere ritual.
••••• Tremere and Children of Haqim consult with you on obscure lore.

Specialties: Alchemy, Blood Magic, Faeries, Ghosts, Grimoires, Infernalism, Magi, Necromancy, Noddism, Parapsychology, Voudun, Werewolves

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Politics

Politics covers diplomacy and bureaucracy: both human and Kindred. You can work with, and possibly put pressure on, city government and perhaps higher levels. Among Kindred, you know the inside scoop on which sects are dominant where, who is at war with whom, and where the bodies are buried. Literally.

• You follow mortal political affairs in your regnum, and you know at least what the elders reveal about Kindred politics.
•• You can apply influence at a local level, or you know who can.
••• You could run political campaigns or political machines, or make waves in your sect as an up-and-comer.
•••• You know the true personalities of the real movers and shakers, live and undead, in your area.
••••• You could guess at the unknown members of the Camarilla’s Inner Circle.

Specialties: Anarchs, Camarilla, City Government, Clan (specific), Diplomacy, Media, National Politics, State/Provincial Politics

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Science

Science is a broad church, covering everything from basic principles of life to the understanding of universal entropy. The laws of science govern the mortal world, and vampires who wish to rule that world study them.

Levels of the Science Skill roughly match those in Academics, from “some college” to “world-famous scholar.” Also like Academics, characters with a rating in Science get a free specialty..

• You dabble in the sciences and understand the principles behind the building blocks of life.
•• You can accurately explain the competing scientific theories of the Embrace to another vampire.
••• You make an excellent scientific manager; you can run a laboratory, interpret scientific findings, and get up to speed on scientific research in most fields. You can repair scientific equipment.
•••• You are an expert in your field and in those allied to it.
••••• Few peers match your understanding, and others come to you for guidance.

Specialties: Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Demolitions, Engineering, Genetics, Geology, Mathematics, Physics

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Technology

As a Skill, Technology acts as something of a moving target; it governs the operation and understanding of “technical developments most vampires find mystifying.” In 1870, it might have governed steam engines and electricity; these nights, it governs computers and computer systems. Of course, now computers govern almost everything – including steam turbines in power plants and electrical systems in office buildings.

• You know how to upgrade a home PC and keep it protected from viruses.
•• You can conceal your IP, operate drones, and fake a digital photograph.
••• You can create and unleash your own viruses without fear of detection.
•••• The Prince might call you personally to manage cybersecurity for their domain.
••••• On the internet, nobody knows you’re a vampire – or that you’re there at all.

Specialties: Artillery, Coding, Computer Building, Data Mining, Hacking, Networks, Phones, Surveillance Systems

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Attributes
Attributes:	Physical Attributes ♦ Social Attributes ♦ Mental Attributes
Skills:	Physical Skills ♦ Social Skills ♦ Mental Skills