Other Backgrounds

### **Guide**

A mystical animal or minor spirit has chosen to help the character along their path. Generally such entities are very interested in the welfare (or at least foibles) of humans but have some motive to attempt to encourage certain types of behavior in their companions. Crafty, knowledgeable in magical concerns and possessed of inhuman senses, these beings have a lot to offer their patrons. Nothing is free, though, and this relationship is a two-way street. Guides expect special treatment, including food, shelter, friendship and even strange supernatural necessities. In return, guides can help a character learn mythic lore, gain new Paths of Numina or discover unseen things. Take the opportunity to create an interesting, unique creature who has reason to share your character's fate and influence her behavior.

• Weak guide – a talking, relatively non-combative animal with a few occult skills.

•• Minor guide – exceptionally bright small animal or spirit with detailed occult knowledge.

••• Apt guide – a large, intelligent animal or a smaller supernatural creature.

•••• Strong guide – an animal or spirit with a few magical abilities of its own.

••••• Powerful guide – a creature with magical talents, vast knowledge and probably a reputation.

### **Mana** - *Numinists Only*

Whether they call it chi, essence, ki, pneuma, psychic energy, ionized electrolytes or any number of other traditional names, sorcerers can tap into sources of energy that empower them in their performance of magic. Meditating or resting on ley lines, in holy places or even in supercharged chemical baths grants the magician who understands their nature a source of power. Other sorcerers ingest a diet of rare substances believed to invoke potency or engage themselves in strenuous rituals, exhausting daily regimens of practice or hypnotic empowerment. Whatever the individual’s methods, she exhibits an energy that helps her work her Art, a force described by some as being akin to breath or spirit, or, in Latin, “Mana.”

When performing Path (read: Numina) or ritual magic, a sorcerer may expend Mana to lower the difficulty target number. As usual, her difficulty cannot be lowered by more than three; however, Mana may reduce threshold instead, though never below one. Recovering Mana requires the sorcerer to perform her chosen method of recharging and succeed in a Perception + Meditation roll, difficulty 7, with each success restoring one point.

x You have to get by on your skill alone.

• May store a pool of/expend one Mana.

•• May store a pool of/expend two Mana.

••• May store a pool of/expend three Mana.

•••• May store a pool of/expend four Mana.

••••• May store a pool of/expend five Mana.

### **Familiar**

• The familiar is a small animal, such as a cat or a stray dog, which only provides companionship and perhaps some warning of danger.

•• The character either has an impressive pet, or a smaller pet that is preternaturally intelligent. The animal communicates with your character (and him alone) through posture and facial expression. It can understand him and perform simple tasks such as fetching or knocking something over.

••• The familiar is a powerful or dangerous pet or an impressive small animal that is as intelligent as a child of eight or nine years. It can etch items and do chores, but it has no book learning and is easily distracted. The familiar can communicate with you as well as if it were speaking by it's noises, postures and expressions. When it is touching your character, it makes an additional Willpower available. This Willpower is "stored" in the familiar but is otherwise treated as personal Willpower. It regenerates only after your character has regained all his own Willpower. The character can share one of the familiar's senses (at a time) when the familiar is within 100 yards.

•••• The familiar is a larger pet that also has the increased intelligence, near-perfect communication, sharing senses and Willpower store of a Familiar 3 animal.

••••• The familiar is a powerful or dangerous pet that has the properties of a Familiar 3 animal.

### **True Faith** (Limited)

• A character with Faith may attempt to ward off vampires by brandishing a holy symbol or uttering prayers. (This is the Hollywood cliche of the vampire being held back by a crucifix.) The person rolls Faith against a difficulty equal to the vampire's Willpower. The number of successes indicates the number of steps back the vampire is forced to take. If no successes are scored, the vampire need not step back, but may not advance. A botch indicates that the vampire may advance unhindered. Further, if the cross, Bible or other symbol is placed against the vampire's body, each success causes an aggravated health level of damage, burning into the flesh.

•• A person with a Faith of 2 or more may resist vampiric Dominate by spending Willpower (one point typically protects for a few turns).

••• A person with a Faith of 3 more may sense the presence of a vampire. She need not consciously try to sense a vampire's presence, but must be in peaceful, quiet surroundings — perhaps alone in thought, praying, reading Torah, meditating on the Bible, etc. The person will not sense the vampire's presence if she is preoccupied (ie. arguing) or in a crowded, noisy place (jostled by a mob, in the midst of a racous banquet, etc). This ability need not be infallible; the Storyteller should let the person sense the vampire only when it is dramatically convenient. Note that the person cannot know exactly what she senses thruogh her Faith; all that she will know inherently from sheer Faith is that something unclean or evil is nearby.

•••• The mortal may not be turned into a ghoul and is unaffetced by any mind-altering Disciplines like Presence and Obfuscate.

••••• The person is so pure, so holy, that she can fill a vampire with self-loathing, disgust, terror, even physical pain. Any vampire hearing the person pray, preach or recite psalms, or being touched by the person, may be forced to flee immediately by any available means. A vampire who is unable to flee is reduced to a gibbering wreck, flailing on the floor and screaming, sobbing or begging forgiveness. To avoid fleeing, the vampire must either expend one Willpower point per turn or must make a Stamina roll each turn (Difficulty of 5+ her own intelligence). That's right — the higher the vampire's Intelligence, the higher the difficulty.

## See Also

* Backgrounds
* General Backgrounds
* Hunter Backgrounds
* **Other Backgrounds**
* Vampire Backgrounds

 **Rules** | Backgrounds • Flaws • Merits