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My character is a two century year old vampire that has a vampire blood addiction, but being a vampire blood addicted, former weapon of vampires hunters isn't savage and fierce enough – I'm looking for something that would make my character seem exceptionally fierce in the eyes of other vampires.

He is a beast that thirsts for his fellow vampires' blood; a beast that has been brought into relatively polite vampire society. I want him to be intimidating and frightening, a presence that demands attention and stands out as being beyond the limits of even vampires' sense of what is acceptable. I'm looking for character creation options to support this concept. It's extreme enough that my options are probably fairly limited, if any exist at all, but I'm new to nWoD so I'm having a hard time finding anything suitable.

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    \$\begingroup\$ @Jackskel21 I am not so familiar with the nWoD setting but is there any mention to diableries (eg a vampire drinking another vampires blood and soul to increase his own power)? If so that is what you need, the most hideous act known in the vampire society, far worse than any murder or rape. \$\endgroup\$
    – Eldebryn
    Commented Apr 22, 2013 at 18:50
  • \$\begingroup\$ These questions have prompted a Meta discussion about how we tag WoD questions. Regular users interested in tagging issues, please chime in! \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented Apr 22, 2013 at 18:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ I played oWoD not nWoD, but I would focus on the roleplaying and descriptions more than the stats here. Someone who is ragged, dishelved, staring at everyone intensely, even salivating slightly and talking about the way vampires taste will get attention and horror even if he can't actually fight at all. An elite martial artists with a small arsenal hidden on him will be deadly, but won't attract the slightest attention if sitting quietly while wearing a suit and tie. \$\endgroup\$
    – TimothyAWiseman
    Commented Apr 23, 2013 at 16:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm unsure as to why this question was closed; there are mechanical provisions in nWoD for supporting this concept and for measuring it (see: the Intimidate skill, various Disciplines, and the Predator's Taint rules) with regards to vampiric society in general as well as specific interactions with vampires and/or mortals. I feel it's objectively answerable. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lord_Gareth
    Commented May 4, 2013 at 15:54
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    \$\begingroup\$ There were a lot of votes to close this in its original form, so it took very little for it to close later after editing. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Commented May 4, 2013 at 19:27

1 Answer 1

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There's lots of options!

Some of them are only good for your fellow vampires and some of them are good for both vampires and mortals. Let's discuss the latter first:

Vampires and Mortals

The Intimidate skill is an obvious buy, but so is the Presence ability score - Presence measure's your character's effect on a room or group of people based on a loose combination of appearance, personal magnetism, and attitude. Presence is about your impression; a high-Presence character might be charming, terrifying, or both. Both of these are pretty obvious buys. Talk to your storyteller about the Striking Looks merit; it affects presence-based rolls (including most forms of Intimidation) and you can use it to represent exceptionally intimidating looks or mannerisms.

Just Vampires

To start with you can think about the Fame merit as applied to local vampires, though it might not be the most appropriate. How has your character become part of vampiric society? If he was recruited as a weapon you could think about City Status - 3 or so is a Scourge or Hound, and it applies bonuses to your intimidation as well as being a literal fearsome reputation. Covenant status could be similar but for your specific covenant (if you have one).

Moving beyond that, there's some Discipline options. Protean 2 makes it so you always look at least as strong as anyone else as far as Predator's Taint is concerned (and buying up your Blood Potency to appear more fearsome is also worth looking into). Majesty 1 (Awe) helps on those intimidation rolls; Nightmare is the discipline of fear, terror, and dread. If your character is more subtle than their savage facade suggests, you can use Auspex to read emotions and eventually minds to discover what will scare your enemies the most, and the Dominate discipline (but especially the first two ranks) can be used to force terror - or an approximation thereof - in your enemies.

The downfall of all of these is that they require bucketloads of experience points; you can only buy a few with character creation points. It's very economic to buy into disciplines you're going to use up front (I'd suggest Protean 2 Majesty 1) and get those Presence and Intimidate ranks up. Past that, Blood Potency and Disciplines are the most expensive; you can buy merits with XP on the (relative) cheap but BP and Disciplines cost tens or dozens of experience points. Look for ways to save resources on that if you want things by character creation.

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