Mental Merits

A Little Knowledge (•)
Prerequisite: Mortal (non-supernatural)

Your character has either had a brush with the supernatural or been in a fi eld that has regular casual contact with the supernatural (such as medicine or law enforcement) to know that something else is out there. While he doesn’t know anything specifi c (i.e., this Merit doesn’t give any bonus to Occult rolls or offer any frame of reference), your character doesn’t suffer negative penalties when trying to identify or diagnosis conditions for which there is no easy medical antecedent. For instance, a doctor with this Merit sees a patient in the ER with long, vicious bite marks. The doctor knows that no animal short of a bear could have made those wounds, and he knows that there are no bears native to the area. Normally, this would negatively affect his treatment — he might waste valuable time trying to shoehorn the evidence into his own experience. With this Merit, though, he takes it as read that something made these bites and treats them. This Merit also offers a +1 bonus to any roll made to recognize a strange or otherworldly situation. If the character ever becomes a supernatural being, including a ghoul or a Sleepwalker, he loses this Merit.

Atavism (•)
Prerequisite: Dexterity ••• or Wits •••, Intelligence•• or below.

You’re a throwback to a time when men were closer to beasts. Whether your mental state matches a warped and twisted body, or you look out of a normal face with the eyes of an ancient predator, you’re not normal. You run on instinct more than intellect, your body moving in response to signals that your brain never consciously registers. Like an animal, you use the higher of your Dexterity and Wits to determine your Defense. Available at character creation only. Drawback: Other people can see that look in your eyes and know that something’s wrong. You suffer a -2 modifier on non-confrontational Social rolls. If you raise your Intelligence above •• then you no longer benefit from this Merit.

Combat Awareness( •• )
'''Prerequisite: Military training or combat background. '''

Your character understands how to survive on a battlefi eld as a result of either intense military training or personal experience. This includes knowledge of how to use terrain to your advantage and a general state of mental alertness sustainable even under heavy enemy fire. As a result of this aptitude, your character gains a +2 dice bonus to any situational awareness roll.

Danger Sense (••)
Your character has a well-developed survival instinct that warns him of impending danger. Perhaps he's adept at reading subtle clues in his environment or he possesses an uncanny sixth sense when it comes to avoiding trouble.

You gain a +2 modifier on a Wits + Composure rolls for your character to detect an impending ambush. This kind of roll is typically made prior to the first turn of a surprise attack.

Damnable Certainty (••••)
Prerequisite: A Code of Morality

You know that what you’re doing is right. That passion burns within you; the fire of certainty scours all doubt from your soul. When you kill, you are whole again. When you kill a person in a fashion that is not a violation of your Code, you regain a point of Willpower. You can use this ability once per session.

Emotional Detachment (•)
Prerequisite: Resolve •• Your character can distance himself from the pain, grief and suffering of his fellow human beings long enough to help them. This might make him seem somewhat aloof, but it also means that he doesn’t second-guess himself when performing delicate surgery. The character ignores penalties stemming from stress equal to his Resolve rating. For instance, if an EMT is trying to perform an emergency tracheostomy while in a moving car with a werewolf on the roof, the EMT might normally suffer a –2 penalty from sheer emotional pressure. If he had this Merit and his Resolve were 2 or higher, he would take no penalty at all.

EOD (••••)
Prerequisite: Wits ••• or Dexterity •••, Crafts •••, DemolitionsSpecialty in Crafts Your character is well versed in handling all types of explosives. She is familiar with all kinds of techniques used in bomb making, from creating her own explosives to identifying and arming manufactured ones. She has also been trained in explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) and is comfortable disarming unfamiliar devices. Your character does not suffer the –2 penalty for disarming an explosive she did not build (see p. 114).

Good Time Management (••)
Prerequisite: Academics, Medicine or Science ••

Years of working with demanding corporations have served your character well. She can make effective use of her time, provided that she’s not relying on anyone else who might slow her down. Each roll in an extended action has the time requirement reduced by one quarter. For instance, if the character is translating a text and each roll would normally require one hour, a character with this Merit only requires 45 minutes for each roll. Characters using Teamwork (see p. 134 of the World of Darkness Rulebook) cannot benefit from this Merit, or characters relying on machines (such as lab equipment). Good Time Management applies only to mundane actions. It does not apply to magical rituals of any kind, though it does apply to researching such rituals.

Holistic Awareness (•••)
Your character is skilled in the arts of wholebody healing, promoting health and recovery by keeping a person's entire physiology balanced and strong. The result is that he is able to treat sickness and some injuries (those not requiring surgery, and ones suffered to bashing or lethal damage but not aggravated) with a collection of natural remedies rather than resorting to a doctor or hospital.

Make an Intelligence + Medicine roll once per day when your character spends an hour treating a patient. See Chapter 7, p. 175, for healing times.

Dramatic Failure: Your character misdiagnoses or mistreats the problem, making it worse. The patient does not heal more quickly (he maintains normal healing times). He does, however, suffer an additional point of bashing damage. Your character cannot try to heal the patient again for his current injuries.

Failure: The treatment has no effect and normal healing times apply to any bashing wounds or to a single lethal wound. If the Storyteller allows, your character can make a successive attempt to try again that day (see p. 132). If still no successes are gained to heal a single lethal wound or one or more bashing wounds, those must be allowed to heal naturally before another effort can be made. Thus, if no successes are rolled to heal one of a patient's lethal wounds, that wound must heal naturally over two days before your character can try to heal another lethal wound.

Success: Your character's treatment is rewarding and the patient's healing time that day is halved.

Exceptional Success: The patient responds remarkably well to treatment. You can skip tomorrow's roll altogether. It's automatically assumed to succeed. In that case, two lethal wounds can be healed in two days.

Suggested Equipment: Holistic medicines (+1), healing- touch manuals (+1), body-purifying foods and liquids (+1).

Possible Penalties: Lack of remedies (-1 to -4), noisy environment (-1), imminent danger (-3), improvised facilities (-1).

Language (•••)
Your character knows an additional language besides his own. One dot in this Merit means that he can read, write and speak an extra language with minimal fluency. Two dots indicate that he is literate and conversationally fluent. Three dots indicate that he can speak the language like a native and is well-read in it. You must specify which language your character is familiar with when purchasing this Merit.

Medative Mind (•)
Your character can effortlessly enter a meditative state when she chooses, and can remain in it for as long as she wishes. All environmental penalties imposed to Wits + Composure rolls to meditate are ignored. Not even wound penalties apply to your character's efforts to focus.

Murder Expert (•••)
Prerequisite: Intelligence ••, Stealth •••

You may not be any good in a fight, but it doesn’t matter. You understand the language of murder in a way that few others do. You’re a connoisseur of death, skilled at bringing other people to their ends. When you attempt a surprise attack in combat, if your target doesn’t detect your attack (and would normally not apply Defense), you instead strike a killing blow (World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 168). Drawback: You must name your target on the turn before you attack — you can’t choose to slaughter whoever is slowest that turn.

Technophile (• to ••)
Through professional experience or a hobbyist’s fanaticism, your character is exceptionally knowledgeable with regard to one specific type of equipment, chosen upon purchase of this Merit. With one point in this Merit, its focus is relatively narrow: Edged Weapons, Handguns, Consumer Vehicles, 20th-Century French Military Equipment and so forth. With two points, the Merit’s focus may be broader: for example, Melee Weapons, Firearms, Vehicles, 20th-Century Military Equipment. With regard to items that fall within the chosen focus only, this Merit functions as the Encyclopedic Knowledge Merit (see p. 109, the World of Darkness Rulebook). With a successful roll, your character is fully versed in the performance, history and trivia of any specific item he encounters. In addition to identifying an item, he can recite the likely metallic composition of an ancient sword, the ballistic characteristics of an enemy’s sidearm, the top speed of a sports car or the explosive yield of a nuclear warhead. This Merit confers no actual bonuses or abilities when the character attempts to use an item that falls within his field of study. Unlike Encyclopedic Knowledge, this Merit is available after character creation, though the character’s actions and interests over an extended period of time should justify the purchase.

Trained Observer (• or •••)
Prerequisites: Wits ••• or Composure •••

A Trained Observer can spot the smallest anomaly. No detail escapes his notice. With the one-dot version, the TO ignores penalties of up to -3 on Perception rolls. The three dot version gives Perception rolls the Rote Action quality (see “Rote Actions”, the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 134).

Unseen Sense (•••)
Prerequisite: Human or Mage; Wits (••)

Your character has a 'sixth sense' when it comes to the supernatural. Perhaps his hair stands on end, goose bumps race along his arms, or a shiver runs up his spine. Regardless of the manner, his body reacts to the presence of unseen forces. He can't see or hear anything, and in fact he might not know at first what causes this reaction. It might be a response to a specific type of supernatural phenomenon such as ghosts or vampires, or it might be a general sense that something isn't right. Over time and with a little trial and error, he might be able to qualify what his body tries to tell him. The specific type of supernatural phenomenon to which your character is sensitive must be determined when this Merit is purchased. It can be something as vague as a creepy feeling when in the presence of ghosts, or something as specific as a sudden chill when a vampire is nearby. The Storyteller has final say on the exact nature and trigger of your character's sixth sense, and can keep its nature secret if desired, leaving you to figure it out during play. Only mortal, mundane characters can possess this Merit. The pivotal moment of becoming or being changed into a being with supernatural capabilities eliminates it.

Telltale Murder (•• or •••)
Prerequisite: Intelligence ••••, Medicine ••

With the two-dot version of this Merit, you know how to disguise a murder as a suicide, or use the means by which your victims die to taunt your attackers. Roll Intelligence + Medicine before the character ends a victim’s life. Each success allows you to make one brief statement: “The murder symbolizes Pride,” or “The victim is not innocent.” An investigator will pick up on these statements with one success on a Wits + Investigation roll. You can use this capability to taunt the officers investigating your crimes, or to foil their attempts to build a profile. The three-dot version of this Merit enhances understanding of murder. You can stage a killing so that it sends a message that isn’t true: “This death was a suicide,” for example. Anyone studying the body must gain more successes on an Intelligence + Medicine roll than you rolled when using this Merit, or believe your lie. Note that use of this Merit isn’t supernatural: the character isn’t psychically willing a message into the corpse or the murder scene. No, this necessitates work on the part of the slasher: arranging a series of bodies in some grisly display out of Milton’s Paradise Lost, for instance, carving a scarlet letter (“A”) in a dead adulterer’s chest, or some other kind of murderous theatrics. Drawback: Once you start leaving messages, it’s very hard to stop. If you don’t make use of this Merit when you strike a killing blow, the Storyteller may decide on a single statement that investigators will pick up.