Praestantia

Within every Akhud’s veins runs the taint of diablerie, even if he himself has never committed it, strong enough for an Auspex practitioner to sense it. In exchange for this minor inconvenience, the vampire benefits from the predatory intuition and survival instincts of all who came before him. He turns every fight into a dance for which only he knows the choreography.

Effect

Like other physical Disciplines, Praestantia has two kinds of effects: persistent and active. Persistent effects are always on, and have no cost. Active effects are Reflexive, and cost one Vitae per effect.

Persistent

Gain a bonus equal to the vampire’s dots in Praestantia to her Dexterity when making Attribute or Skill rolls, and to her Initiative modifier. This can raise her Dexterity above the normal limits imposed by her Blood Potency.

Active

By spending Vitae a vampire can call upon millennia of stolen Kindred experience, pre-empting disaster and making violence look easy. For each point of Vitae spent, choose one effect from the following list. A vampire may spend additional Vitae to invoke multiple effects simultaneously, but no effect of Praestantia may be used more than once per turn.

Add her dots in Praestantia as a weapon bonus to all Firearms, Athletics, and Weaponry attacks made with Dexterity this turn. This puts enormous strain on weapons, especially those not designed for moving at high speeds. Improvised weapons take one point of damage for every dot of Praestantia over that tool’s durability whenever they are used in this manner.

Replace a failed action to inflict violence with another, different kind of action as though the first one never happened; the vampire instantaneously imagined the first scenario and foresaw how it would fail, then acted differently. He can’t just try his original action again; something fundamental must change, whether it’s the Skill he rolls, the weapon he uses, or the victim he targets. Simply enhancing the original action with new powers doesn’t cut it either. He can’t replace a dramatically failed action.

Material Components

Cost: None or 1 Vitae per active effect

Gestures & Ritual

Dice Pool: None; Neither the Persistent nor Active Effects require any skill to use, the power is inherent in the Blood.

Effect Duration

Permanent (for persistent effects) or one turn (for active effects)

Effect Casting Time

None (for persistent effects) or Reflexive (for active effects)