Is it possible to make a character who's a mixture of character types from the differnet World of Darkness games?

Question

In the setting of the Classic World of Darkness, is it possible to make a character who's a mixture of character types from the different WoD games?

I mean, make a Werewolf that can use the Mage Spheres, using a Vampire that have learned some way to obtain Garou gifts, or maybe let the low generation vampires (14th and 15th) to use magic.

It could be awesome to use a werewolf that can use magic or a vampire using demon lores!

If this is possible, are there some rulesets for this or no?

I know that there's one character that fits this, called Samuel Haight, also known as "The Skinner", but I don't want such a monster; I prefer to have common characters with some special abilities.

Answer 1

There are several crossovers, but note...

As it is, yes, there are ways to mix "templates", but these are very restricted. (Please note that I am mostly interred in the 20th Anniversary editions)

For Garou, there are very few options. One is an Abomination. If a vampire is sick (or insane) enough to try to Embrace a werewolf, the Garou must roll their Gnosis, diff. 6. If they succeed, they die a quick and painless death, courtesy of Gaia's grace. If they fail, they die a long, painful death. If they botch, they rise as an undead monstrosity. They gain all the powers and weaknesses appropriate to their clan, generation, etc.

However, they lose access to all Gifts and Rites that are not related to the Wyrm, and they can never raise their Gnosis trait any higher. Instead of using Humanity/Path, they use their Gnosis to calculate the same things, but if they fall below 7, they enter permanent Harano, and if they lose all their Gnosis, they basically enter wassail.

Other Fera have different effects, like the Kitsune who greet their prospective sire with an intense pillar of flame as soon as vitae touches their lips, the Ratkin who simply keep rotting until they can't move, Rokea lose all their Gnosis instantly and the Corax simply burst into flames at the next sunrise (even if they were theoretically a mile underground).

Referring to your question about Awakened Garou, no. White Wolf has made it clear that since a Garou are half flesh, half beast spirit, the Avatar of a Mage could not awaken in a Garou. Kinfolk can, however they are a minority within a minority.

Awakened Mages simply become normal vampires, as the Embrace shatters a Mage's Avatar. Sorcerers are the same, except that the ST may rule that your hedge sorcery paths or Numina become certain dots of Disciplines or Thaumaturgy/Necromancy, etc.

Wraiths have no bodies and therefore cannot be Embraced, and since they are not living, they cannot Awaken either.

Demons are very different from all the other splats. They are the primordial, spiritual beings who aided in the creation of all of Existence. They can possess a body like that of a Mage or Imbued, but this is the only way one of those beings could ever use Demon Lores, and in that situation they aren't themselves, the Demon has complete control of them. The Lores are powers inherent to these former servants of God, and as such are wholly exclusive to them.

Kindred are likewise very exclusive, HOWEVER. In V:TDA: Wolves of the Sea supplement, there is a new Knowledge called Rune-Lore and a new Merit called "Rune-Wise". With Rune-Wise, a character may, through their mastery of runic knowledge, buy hedge sorcery paths from the WoD: Sorcerer supplement at their normal cost, but only up to your number of dots in Rune-Lore.

Other instances are the thin-bloods. In Times of Thin Blood, it is stated that some thin-bloods and generally all dhampir can do the same, except they don't have to use a runic methodology to their magic, but rather use the limited power inherent in their weak vitae to use it.

As for Garou Gifts, kind of. Through the use of Fomor from W:TA: Freak Legion - Player's Guide to Fomori, a Kindred could achieve the power to use Garou Gifts.

Answer 2

Outside of particularly proscribed limits, no.

The drive to mix-and-match has always been pretty strong, so many of the signature abilities are restricted to a given character type. (To use Spheres, you need an Awakened avatar, for example.) In cases where crossover is possible — the abomination, which is an Embraced Garou, or the Ghoul Mage — there's a strong social stigma in play. You may not want to play the pariah, but you may end up that way.

If you're looking to make something on your own, my recommendation would be to start with a Mage, then take (or make custom) one of the 7-dot merits that can utterly redefine a character. Consider True Faith, which offers a suite of powers disconnected from the Awakening; that works as a good model.

Answer 3

Yes. In addition to the options that other posters have mentioned (e.g. abominations, ghoul mages, fomor vampires, etc), there’s also one possibility that hasn’t been mentioned: Mages can use their Sphere magic to emulate the powers of other splats.

For instance, if the ritual that House Tremere used hadn’t been sabotaged, they would have likely gained a number of vampiric powers without actually turning into vampires. Similarly, the Technocratic Union makes use of xenotransplantation technology to grant its members extra abilities by transplanting a vampire’s muscles or a werewolf’s heart into them.

However, doing this results in you gaining a number of points of Permanent Paradox or Paradox flaws equal to the dot rating of the Enhancement background that the implant or magic augmentation represents.

Answer 4

Well, if you don't want to go as far as Sam Haight, but still want some cheese...

• Abominations, as laid out in @David Kane's answer, are a thing.
• In 1st edition, a Kinfolk mage could use the Skin Dancer ritual to become a full-fledged werewolf (at the cost of some Corruption) while remaining a mage. That loophole was later closed.
• Mages and werewolves both can drink blood and become ghouls, thus gaining access to Disciplines. Changelings can as well, though there's a banality cost. There may be some sort of long-term damage to the Mage's avatar as well - not sure on that point.

Answer 5

Rafastio and Ducheski Revenants have access to both Hedge Magic and Thaumaturgy. Their splats are in Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy. The Rafastio always interested me because they just die if you try to Embrace them, so they seem built for crossover. Several other books besides Time of Thin Blood and Wolves of the Sea mention vampires keeping hedge magic after the Embrace or even learning it later, including Kindred of the Ebony Kingdom.

To be honest, Hedge Magic and Thaumaturgy are so similar to each other that when building a character, I will sometimes convert a Thaumaturgy path from blood to Willpower or Mana if there's no hedge magic path that does what I want. It's usually easy, and and there are way more different paths of thaum than hedge magic. Thaum can be slightly higher powered, but you can adjust that with difficulty numbers if you want to. The best books to look in for Thaum paths to convert to Hedge Magic are probably Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy, Blood Sacrifice: the Thaumaturgy Companion, and the Dark Ages: Vampire core book and companion.