New and Updated Discipline Rules: Obfuscate

Rampart of the Mind

Obfuscate OOOOO OO

Usually, vampires who master Obfuscate are the personification of “out of sight, out of mind”; however, in modern nights one must keep appearances up at Court functions or Esbats. Just because you have to be seen does not mean you have to be vulnerable. Through practiced skill, you have the ability to selectively focus the fogging powers of Obfuscate to cloud your mind from others.

System

You have learned to shield your mind from hostile powers, wrapping your psyche in protective concealment. Provided you are conscious, this power is always active. Anyone who wishes to target you with a Mental or Social power that involves an opposed challenge must first defeat you in an opposed challenge, using her Mental attribute + her Willpower or Investigation skill versus your Mental attribute + Stealth. If the aggressor fails the challenge, for the next 10 minutes she may not attempt to target you with another Mental or Social power that involves an opposed challenge.

Rampart of the Mind is an exception to the requirement necessitating the 5th dot of Auspex to breach your Obfuscate powers once you have purchased Vanish from the Mind’s Eye. If you are targeted by a friendly power, such as Telepathy from an ally, you may choose to relent to that power without penalty even if you were not forewarned of the power’s use.

Create Name

Obfuscate OOOOO OO

Like a great novelist inventing a featured protagonist for her next great novel, you have the power to create an entirely new identity that you can conceal yourself in like a trusty cloak. No longer limited to visual trickery, your powers of Obfuscate come with a false familiarity, vague memories, and shared experiences that your observers fall prey to.

System

The pinnacle power of Obfuscate, Create Name allows you to create a completely new persona. You must spend a total of three downtime actions in focused concentration to create an identity complete with a new face, speech pattern, aura, thought processes and memories. Once created you gain a special 5 dot Alternate Identity Background.

This power can be used to impersonate another individual; however, doing so requires you to spend six downtimes and for you to have Familiarity with the individual you seek to impersonate. This most likely necessitates continued contact with your target; otherwise the familiarity may fade (see MET: VTM, page 114). Once the downtimes are spent, you gain a special 5 dot Alternate Identity Background as the person you are impersonating.

Finally, this power can be used on others at an extremely high cost. You and your target must each spend nine downtimes as you systematically train your target to be their new identity. A user of Create Name can maintain a number of Alternate Identities up to their dots in Stealth. If you chose to deactivate the power, or if you are killed or placed in torpor, the effects of the power end and any Alternate Identities that you have created are lost.

Creating an Alternate Identity in this way does not cost XP. An Alternate Identity created by this power behaves just like the background with the following exceptions:

In order to pierce an Alternate Identity created by this power the Auspex user must possess an Elder Auspex power;

Any methods of investigation utilized to test an Alternate Identity created by this power do not work unless the user does so in conjunction with Elder Auspex, as this power clouds the perceptions of the investigator.

In all cases, should an Alternate Identity created by this power be compromised, it only reveals that the identity is false and not the character’s true identity.

Soul Mask

Obfuscate OOOOO O

Like a sleight of hand magician, you can distract someone from your true aura with that of another. While not foolproof, you can paint your aura any way you desire, even removing it by closing your mind from intruders.

System

Once purchased this power is always active. Your mind is a fortress hidden behind your Obfuscate. Any attempt to read your mind through Telepathy or other means automatically fails unless you decide otherwise. In addition, you may alter your aura in any way you choose. For example, you can appear to be mortal, you can hide diablerie streaks, or you can appear to be another supernatural creature. To alter your aura, you must spend 1 Blood and a simple action. Once altered, your aura remains that way unless changed again. This power can be extended to other willing targets through Cloak the Gathering but its effects on others end when Cloak the Gathering ends.

If others suspect deception in your aura, they may attempt to pierce it using the powers of Auspex (see MET: VTM, page 118, Auspex and Obfuscate/Chimeristry).

Mental Maze

Obfuscate OOOOO O

Your abilities can aggressively cloud a victim’s sense of direction, tricking them into seeing things that are not there or ignoring things that are. You effectively trap your opponents in an area by preventing them from correctly perceiving their environment. Hopelessly lost, your victims are doomed in an ever-shifting prison until you free them.

System

This power alters and confuses a victim’s sense of direction, leaving her mind unable to perceive an exit or the path to her destination. By spending 2 Blood and a simple action, you may designate a number of individuals equal to your dots in the Stealth Skill. Affected individuals who seek to navigate out of the affected area or find a specific location within the area (such as the Prince’s room) must first defeat you in an opposed challenge using their Mental Attributes + Willpower versus your Obfuscate test pool. An affected area is one structure or an outdoor area up to the size of 4 square blocks. Those who lose become hopelessly lost and they cannot attempt to leave or find another location for 10 minutes or until the power ends. No matter what efforts they make to change location, their mind creates obstacles that keep them trapped in the structure they are currently in. Mental Maze prevents a target from declaring fair escape from a combat scenario while under the effects of this power. The effects of this power last one night and end five minutes after you leave the area of effect. In addition, the effects of this power shall end no later than thirty minutes before dawn regardless of whether you are still within the area of effect.