Mental Skills
From Vampire V5
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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
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
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
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
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
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
Politics
Use Persuasion when trying to convince others that you know what’s best for them, and that one bite won’t hurt at all. Skilled persuaders can play on victims’ emotions and appeal to peers’ reason. Persuasion applies in law courts and princely courts, in boardrooms, barrooms, and bedrooms.
• You can sell to a motivated buyer.
•• You can always swing a discount or get on the inside track of the latest gossip.
••• You can always figure out a compromise in a given conflict.
•••• The other side starts looking for a settlement when they see you in court, human or Kindred.
••••• You may be the original silver-tongued devil.
Specialties: Bargaining, Fast Talk, Interrogation, Legal Argument, Negotiation, Rhetoric
Science
Streetwise enables characters to talk the language and negotiate the societies of the streets and the underworld. You can understand code words and slang, interpret graffiti tags, and emulate gang signs.
• You know where to score drugs and sex in your domain.
•• You know which gangs operate in the area, including their colors and rivalries. You may have your own graffiti tag.
••• You can tell the good shit from bad, score guns, and blend in seamlessly with street people or gangbangers.
•••• When gangsters say “I know a guy,†you’re who they know.
••••• You can hire, orchestrate, or arrange almost any criminal activity anywhere in your city.
Specialties: Arms Dealing, Black Market, Bribery, Drugs, Fence Stolen Goods, Gangs, Graffiti, Personal Rep, Sex Trade, Urban Survival
Technology
Subterfuge is the art of lying convincingly, spinning a yarn, and making good excuses for bad actions. This Skill defines your talent for intrigue, secrets, and double-dealing. Subterfuge can also used for seduction and imitating mortal behavior.
• You can tell believable, simple lies.
•• You can hustle naive people, old and young, into giving you their things.
••• You can operate on multiple levels, telling lies intended to be uncovered to bolster other lies.
•••• You can operate endlessly in deep cover: a perfect double agent. Perhaps you are!
••••• Nobody believes you have even a single dot in Subterfuge.
Specialties: Bluff, Feign Mortality, Impeccable Lies, Innocence, The Long Con, Seduction
| Attributes | |
|---|---|
| Attributes: | Physical Attributes ♦ Social Attributes ♦ Mental Attributes |
| Skills: | Physical Skills ♦ Social Skills ♦ Mental Skills |