Celerity
Celerity is speed refined to an art form. Where mortals train for years to shave fractions of seconds, Kindred with Celerity move at a pace that makes the very concept of reaction time irrelevant. The Discipline encompasses far more than raw velocity; it sharpens reflexes, accelerates perception, and enables feats of movement that brush past the laws of physics with polite indifference.
Most Celerity Powers are self-targeted, which means there's no "victim" to resist, but being spotted moving at such dizzying speeds could be cause for serious alarm. Whether a given use constitutes a Masquerade breach depends on context and is at the Storyteller's discretion: Cat's Grace on a balance beam looks like talent, Traversal up a fire escape could maybe pass for impressive parkour, but Blink across a parking lot looks like a glitch in reality.
Celerity Counter: When a vampire uses a Celerity Power offensively against another vampire who also has Celerity access, the target may make a Hunger Check to negate or ignore the effects of that Power, provided their Blood Potency is equal to or greater than the user's. This works both ways. Be careful!
Cat's Grace (Discipline Perk)¶
Your balance and spatial awareness operate at a level that would make a world-class gymnast weep with envy. You can walk across power lines, sprint along ledges, vault over fences, land on railings, pirouette from fire escapes, and keep your footing on the slimmest of supports. No roll is required for any feat of balance, agility, or acrobatics, no matter how absurd, as long as the surface can physically support your weight.
This extends to landings, catches, and recoveries. You always land on your feet, you never fumble something due to clumsy hands, and you can catch thrown objects without thinking about it. Cat's Grace doesn't let you balance on a cobweb, but it will let you cartwheel over a moving bicycle and ring the bell.
Level 1¶
Rapid Reflexes (Passive)¶
Your perception has caught up with your body. Projectiles look lazy. Fists look telegraphed. In combat, you may take 2 Free Actions per turn instead of the usual 1.
Additionally, you have always-active Armor equal to your Blood Potency against ranged projectiles (bullets, arrows, thrown weapons or objects, and similar). Your body simply reacts to the trajectory before your conscious mind fully registers the threat. To onlookers, it looks like uncanny luck or paranoid flinching. To you, it looks like everybody else is moving through syrup.
Traversal¶
When you trust your superior form and throw yourself at a surface that shouldn't support lateral movement, make a Hunger Check. For a number of turns equal to your Blood Potency, you can run or climb along any surface: walls, ceilings, the sides of buildings, across water (with a running start), up sheer glass, along stretches of rope — whatever the situation demands. The surface must be physically intact enough to push off of; crumbling walls and loose sand won't cooperate.
When the Power ends, gravity remembers you exist. Plan your route accordingly! If you're vertical or over water when the effect ends, you fall. Cat's Grace ensures you land on your feet, but it can't repeal physics entirely.
Level 2¶
Fleetness (Passive)¶
You move faster than everyone else, all the time. Whenever you move (through Reposition, Slip Away, normal Movement, or any other non-Celerity means) you travel 1 additional Range band beyond what the Move would normally allow.
This does not stack with Celerity Powers that already modify your movement distance (such as Blink). It stacks with everything else, though!
Rush Job¶
When you burn Vitae to move at impossible speed for the purposes of multitasking, make a Hunger Check and roll +Blood.
On a 10+, for the rest of the scene, you can handle two physically demanding tasks simultaneously; a Discipline Power and a Basic Move, or any other combination the fiction supports. You choose which task suffers from the split attention (−2 Forward).
On a 7–9, you manage it as above, but the Storyteller chooses which task suffers each time.
On a 6-, your body awkwardly stutters between the two tasks and completes neither. You freeze for a visible, unnatural moment as your limbs blur in contradictory directions. Any mortal who saw that has questions you don't want to answer. If your Coterie was watching, they may never let you unlive it down.
Level 3¶
A Thousand Cuts¶
When you unleash a flurry of strikes against a single target with your claws or an edged weapon, make a Hunger Check and roll +Blood.
On a 12+, roll a number of d6s equal to your Blood Potency. The target takes the total as Superficial Harm. What's left looks less like a fight and more like a disagreement with industrial machinery.
On a 10+, the target takes Superficial Harm equal to 3 + your Blood stat.
On a 7–9, the target takes Superficial Harm equal to your Blood stat. The Storyteller chooses 1 complication:
- Your follow-through carried you past the target; you're out of position and they have Advantage on their next roll against you
- Some of their blood got in your mouth; make another Hunger Check (with Disadvantage if you're at 3 Hunger or higher)
- If mortals are present, the Masquerade Clock advances; the aftermath looks like a crime scene because it absolutely is one
Regardless of the result, the carnage triggers the Beast in anyone watching. Every vampire within Close Range with 3 or more Hunger must Stay Chill or Frenzy from the blood spray with the injured creature as their focal point. On any result except a 6-, allies who know you well have Advantage on this roll.
On a 6-, your speed outruns your aim. You tear through everything except your target; the Storyteller decides what you hit instead. The walls are redecorated in arterial red, but it's yours. Take 2 Superficial Harm, and every vampire nearby still has to Stay Chill from the scent of your spilled Vitae, with no ally Advantage. If you're a Salubri, everybody has Disadvantage instead because you smell like a snack.
Blink¶
When you swoop across the space to a point up to 2 Range bands away, make a Hunger Check and roll +Blood. In combat, Blink replaces your Movement; you can still act before or after you arrive.
On a 10+, you end up exactly where you intended, perfectly positioned. Take +1 Forward on whatever you do next.
On a 7–9, you still make it, but the Storyteller chooses 1 complication:
- The terrain catches you off guard mid-transit; Disadvantage on your next roll
- Your passage is anything but subtle; displaced air, a visible blur, shattered glass in your wake, or even the Masquerade Clock advancing because someone just happened to get that on video
- You overshoot or land slightly off-target; the Storyteller adjusts your final position
On a 6-, you stumble, stall, or slam into something mid-transit. You end up somewhere between where you started and where you were going (Storyteller's choice), and you've lost your window to act. Whatever you were rushing toward gets Advantage on whatever they do to you next. Your friends are allowed to laugh.
Weaving¶
(Requires: Rapid Reflexes)
When you overclock your reflexes to perceive incoming projectiles in slow motion, make a Hunger Check with Disadvantage. For the rest of the scene or until something knocks you on your ass and ends the Power, you are immune to ranged projectiles entirely. You sidestep each one with casual, contemptuous ease, watching it drift past you with a comical lack of urgency.
Weaving reads physics, not magic. Supernatural ranged attacks are not affected and still hurt pretty bad.
Level 4¶
Blurred Momentum¶
When you commit to sustaining maximum speed, make a Hunger Check. While Blurred Momentum is active, any offensive Move taken against you requires a 10+ to connect; anything less simply misses.
Maintaining Blurred Momentum costs 1 additional Hunger Check at the start of each of your turns. The effect lasts until you choose to end it or you can no longer pay the cost.
If the Hunger cost pushes you to 5 Hunger and you Frenzy, Blurred Momentum doesn't end, it gets worse. The Beast inherits your speed. You become a nigh-untouchable, hyper-violent whirlwind of claws and teeth with its own agenda. Your Coterie should strongly consider being somewhere else until you calm down.
Draught of Elegance¶
When you open a vein and let someone drink directly from you, make a Hunger Check with Disadvantage. The drinker gains temporary access to all of Level 1 Celerity until the next dawn. For vampires, the gift fades when they next Feed or reach 5 Hunger, whichever comes first.
Drinking directly from a Kindred is an intimate and dangerous act. This counts as 1 exchange of Vitae toward a Blood Bond.
Faster Than Light (Passive)¶
(Requires: Blink)
Your Blink can now carry you through any barrier that light could pass through: windows, thin curtains, fences, chain-link, latticed gates, glass doors, wrought-iron bars. If light gets through, so do you.
When your Blink path crosses through fire or direct sunlight, you pass through unharmed on a 10+ result. The exposure is simply too brief to catch.
On a 7–9 Blink result, the Storyteller may choose from two additional complications when this Power is relevant:
- You passed through fire or sunlight and weren't quite fast enough; take Aggravated Harm at the Storyteller's discretion (brief flashes = 1, sustained patches = worse)
- You burst through a physical barrier on exit; take 2 Superficial Harm from the shrapnel, and the explosion draws every eye in the vicinity
Unerring Aim (Passive)¶
Your preternatural speed governs your aim as thoroughly as it governs your mobility. When you Dirty Your Claws with a ranged weapon (firearms, thrown weapons, bows, or anything shot, hurled, or fired), treat a roll of 6- as 7–9. Your target may find cover or dodge, but you don't miss. That would be silly.
Unseen Strike (Passive)¶
(Requires: Blink)
When you Blink to close directly on an enemy, your arrival is an Ambush; you strike before they can react. After you act, you may immediately Slip Away as part of the same burst of motion.
If you also have Obfuscate: witnesses cannot track your movement or identify you as the attacker. Their eyes register a blur at most and their memory of the event is fog. Only those with Sense the Unseen (Auspex) can piece together what happened.
Level 5¶
Lightning Strike¶
When you commit your full supernatural speed to a single devastating blow, make a Hunger Check. Double the Harm you would deal and add 5. This applies to any damaging melee attack or offensive Discipline Power used within Hand Range.
The general Celerity Counter applies: a target with Celerity access and Blood Potency equal to or greater than yours can make a Hunger Check to negate the bonus Harm, but the base attack still lands.
Split Second¶
When the Storyteller begins describing an incoming threat, unfolding disaster, or enemy Ambush, you may make a Hunger Check to act first. You take a full turn before the threat resolves or the enemies act. If the situation is an Ambush, you act before the enemies; your Coterie is still Ambushed as normal.
The Storyteller is not obligated to pause the action for you. Using this Power requires you to respectfully interrupt them. If the narration moves on and you didn't call it, the moment has passed. Being attentive pays dividends.