Vicissitude Rules

Protean
Level 2
vicissitude
Amalgam: Dominate 2
Rare outside clan Tzimisce, this power allows the vampire to demand obedience of their own flesh. Skin, muscles, and even bone can be sculpted or warped out of shape, the end result sometimes unnervingly beautiful but just as often monstrous. Skilled users can craft bizarre characteristics or re-shape their entire bodies, though larger transformations exact a heavy toll on their physique. Kindred who use Vicissitude create everything from useful body-tools to… expressive ornamentations.
 
Dice Pools: Resolve + Protean
Cost: One Rouse Check
System: Roll Resolve + Protean. Every success on the roll allows a single Vicissitude change to be made to the user, though the total number of changes cannot exceed the user’s Protean rating, no matter the number of applications or successes. Each change causes the loss of a single Physical Attribute dot of the user, as the body mass must come from somewhere. (No Attribute can be taken below 1.) Each use of the power takes one full turn to perform.
 
Potential Vicissitude changes are listed below:
Redistribution: Add a single dot to any of the user’s Physical Attributes. This cannot cause any Attribute to exceed 5 dots. These changes are visible, but not Masquerade-threatening. Weapons (Once per subject only): The user gains the equivalent of a light piercing or heavy impact weapon (+2 Damage) in the form of bone spurs or bludgeons of dense cartilage. (In contrast to Feral Weapons, the damage caused by these weapons is mundane, but Feral Weapons employed by a vampire proficient in Vicissitude often take the shape of similar osseous spikes and blades.)
 
Armor: One Attribute point can be turned into two points of armor value (p. 304), with an upper limit of six points of armor. This often takes the form of reinforced sub-dermal reinforced bone or layers of fat and cartilage, and appears increasingly inhuman as the points so allocated increase.
 
Appearance: The user can change their appearance, either for the sake of hiding their identity, enhancing their Looks Merit, or to mimic someone else. This is a time-consuming affair, taking an entire scene to perform, and requires a Dexterity + Craft test in order to succeed. Difficulty is 3 to hide one’s identity, 4 to increase Looks (each level of the Merit counts as one change) and 5 to mimic a specific person. A failure on the test yields no result (but the Attribute dot is still lost) while a total failure causes the Looks Merit to drop one level, potentially turning into a Flaw if at baseline. Nosferatu are unable to use this aspect of the power for anything but hiding their identity.
 
Other changes: More creative uses of this power, such as creating a secret pouch somewhere on the body or moving eyes around, are beyond the scope of these mechanics, and the Storyteller needs to decide on the number of changes (and Attribute points lost) required, and the Difficulty and time required for the operation. Dexterity + Craft and Intelligence + Medicine are the most important rolls in these cases. Changes can be mended as aggravated damage, with each change equivalent to a single level of damage (restoring lost Attribute points accordingly).
 
Duration: Permanent