Mental Merits

Area of Expertise (•)
Prerequisite: Resolve •• and one Skill Specialty

Effect: Your character is uncommonly specialized in one area. Choose a Specialty to assign to this Merit. Forgo the +1 bonus afforded by a Specialty in exchange for a +2.

Common Sense (•••)
Effect: Your character has an exceptionally sound and rational mind. With a moment’s thought, she can weigh potential courses of action and outcomes. Once per chapter as an instant action, you may ask the Storyteller one of the following questions about a task at hand or course of action. Roll Wits + Composure. If you succeed, the Storyteller must answer to the best of her ability. If you fail, you get no answer. With an exceptional success, you can ask an additional question.

•  What is the worst choice?

•  What do I stand to lose here?

•  What’s the safest choice?

• Am I chasing a worthless lead?

Direction Sense (•)
Effect: Your character has an innate sense of direction and is always aware of her location in space. She always knows which direction she faces and never suffers penalties to navigate or find her way.

Eidetic Memory (••)
Effect: Your character recalls events and details with pinpoint accuracy. You do not have to make rolls for your character to remember past experiences. When making Intelligence + Composure (or relevant Skill) rolls to recall minute facts from swaths of information, take a +2 bonus.

Encyclopedic Knowledge (••)
Effect: Choose a Skill. Due to an immersion in academia, pop culture, or obsession with a hobby, your character has collected limitless factoids about the topic, even if she has no dots in the Skill. You can make an Intelligence + Wits roll at any time your character is dealing with her area of interest.

On a successful roll, the Storyteller must give a relevant fact or detail about the issue at hand. Your character knows this fact, but you must explain within the scope of your character’s background why she knows it. For example, for Encyclopedic Knowledge: Medicine: “Do you remember that time on that show, when the doctor said it doesn’t manifest before puberty?”

Good Time Management (•)
Prerequisite: Academics •• or Science •• Effect: Your character has vast experience managing complex tasks, keeping schedules, and meeting deadlines. When taking an extended action, halve the time required between rolls.

Holistic Awareness (•)
Effect: Your character is skilled at non-traditional healing methods. While scientific minds might scoff, she can provide basic medical care with natural means. She knows what herbs can stem an infection and what minerals will stave off a minor sickness. Unless your patient suffers wound penalties from lethal or aggravated wounds, you do not need traditional medical equipment to stabilize and treat injuries. With access to woodlands, a greenhouse, or other source of diverse flora, a Wits + Survival roll allows your character to gather all necessary supplies.

Interdisciplinary Specialty (•)
Prerequisite: Skill at ••• or higher with a Specialty

Effect: Choose a Specialty that your character possesses when you purchase this Merit. You can apply the +1 from that Specialty on any Skill with at least one dot, provided it’s justifiable within the scope of the fiction. For example, a doctor with a Medicine Specialty in Anatomy may be able to use it when targeting a specific body part with Weaponry, but could not with a general strike.

Language (•)
Effect: Your character is skilled with an additional language beyond her native tongue. Choose a language each time you buy this Merit. Your character can speak, read, and write in that language.

Language: ConLang (•)
Effect: Used commonly in SWAT, Military or SCUBA where silent communication is a necessity, a small catalog of gestures can communicate limited concepts such as “stop,” “listen,” “proceed,” or “surface.” More complex expressions are seen in professional sports where entire playbooks are drilled down to a series of gestures and cadences allowing a team to make adjustments without tipping off their opponents.

No matter how deep in the Vigil a cell is, if it wants to survive they should endeavor to come up with ConLang (“constructed language”), a series of code words or hand signs allowing them to communicate in plain sight or hearing range without tipping their hand. This can come in especially handy versus seemingly omniscient vampire masters that can hear pins drop and seem able to smell lies.

A series of quick hand signals, similar to the aforementioned SWAT or SCUBA applications need not be very extensive to be incredibly useful to hunters in the field. Mechanically, this will allow each hunter that has the merit to communicate a simple (2-4 general words) message to others who can see them each round.

A closed fist means “stop,” fingers pointing to the eyes means “watch/be aware,” two fingers pointed down in front of the face means “vampire,” two fingers up means “demon,” and so on and so forth. This Merit grants a +1 to Tactic rolls for each member of the group possessing the same Merit.

Meditative Mind (•, ••, or ••••)
Effect: Your character’s meditation is far more fulfilling than for other characters. With the one-dot version of this Merit, the character does not suffer environment penalties to mediation, even from wound penalties. With the two-dot version, when the character has successfully meditated, she gains a +3 bonus on any Resolve + Composure rolls during the same day as she’s steeled herself against the things of the world that would shake her foundation. At the four-dot level, she only needs a single success to gain the benefits of meditation for the day, instead of the normal four.

Multilingual (•)
Effect: Your character has a strong affinity for language acquisition. Each time you purchase this Merit, choose two languages. Your character can speak conversationally in those languages. With an Intelligence + Academics roll, she may also read enough of the language to understand context. If you purchase the Language Merit for either of these languages, replace the Multilingual language. For example, if you have Multilingual (French, Italian), and purchase Language: Italian, you may choose to take Multilingual (French, Portuguese).

Patient (•)
Effect: Your character knows how to pace herself and take the time to do the job right the first time. When taking an extended action, you may make two additional rolls above what your Attribute + Skill would allow.

Professional Training (• to •••••)
• Breadth of Knowledge: When purchasing new specialties in Asset skills, the cost is reduced to 1xp each.

•• Continuing Education:  When raising an Asset Skills, the cost is reduced to (2 times the new level) experience.

••• Networking: The character gains a dot of Contacts for each level of the Professional Training merit they possess.

••••  On the Job Training: The character gains a Mentor merit. The level of this mentor is equal to the level of the Professional Training merit they possess.

•••••  The Routine:  For each level of the Professional Training merit (5), the character gains an Allies merit rated at 2 dots.

Taste (•)
Prerequisite: Crafts 2 and a Specialty in Crafts or Expression

Effect: Your character has refined tastes and can identify minor details in fashion, food, architecture, and other forms of artistry and craftsmanship. Not only does this give an eye for detail, it makes her a center of attention in critical circles.

She can appraise items within her area of expertise. With a Wits + Skill roll, depending on the creation in question (Expression for poetry, Crafts for architecture, for example), your character can pick out obscure details about the item that other, less discerning minds would not.

For each success, ask one of the following questions, or take a +1 bonus to any Social rolls pertaining to groups interested in the art assessed for the remainder of the scene.

•  What is the hidden meaning in this?

•  What was the creator feeling during its creation?

•  What’s its weakest point?

•  What other witness is most moved by this piece?

•  How should one best appreciate this piece?

Tolerance for Biology (•)
Prerequisite: Resolve •••

Effect: Most people turn away at the sight of blood, other bodily fluids, or exotic biology. Your character has seen enough that nothing turns her stomach. When other characters must resist shock or physical repulsion from the disgusting and morbid, your character stands her ground. You do not need to make Composure, Stamina, or Resolve rolls to withstand the biologically strange. This doesn’t mean she’s immune to fear; she’s just used to nature in all its nasty forms.

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

Effect: Your character has spent years in the field, catching tiny details and digging for secrets. She might not have a better chance of finding things, but she has a better chance of finding important things. Any time you make a Perception roll (usually Wits + Composure), you benefit from the 9-again quality. With the three-dot version, you get 8-again.