When Blood Potency decreases (through torpor, for example), any traits that exceed the character’s new capacity disappear. Such Kindred tend to have short but violent bouts of activity between long periods of torpid idleness.
It is rumored that the older a vampire is, the more slowly his blood potency drops while in torpor, and truly ancient vampires might slumber for aeons before being able to rise.Ĭharacters who diablerize several vampires in a short span of years can remain active through seven to nine diableries before the potency of their blood causes them to succumb to torpor. While in torpor, a thinning of the blood occurs, and the vampire's blood potency slowly drops. Only those with the fewest dots of Blood Potency can feed from animals.Įventually, a vampire’s blood becomes so potent that he is unable to find regular prey and falls into torpor, the duration of which is based on his current Blood Potency and Humanity. In fact, some elders’ blood is so potent that they can’t feed on mortals at all, requiring the Vitae of other vampires to nourish them. Only blood of potency a certain degree lower than a character’s can provide sustenance (see the accompanying chart). As Blood Potency increases, feeding requirements become more stringent. Blood Potency can be increased only by experience, diablerie, or age. In short, the higher a character’s Blood Potency, the greater her potential.Īll newly Embraced vampires start at Blood Potency 1, regardless of their sire’s potency, with nowhere to go but up. Further, vampires with more dots in this advantage can hold more Vitae within their bodies, as it is more potent and therefore more concentrated. Having more dots of Blood Potency allows characters to learn more advanced Disciplines and to develop their traits to superhuman levels. Blood Potency determines the degree of power the Blood bestows upon a vampire. Even if the actions that doing so enable might not always be reflexive themselves (such as with certain Disciplines), the act of spending the Vitae is.Īlthough the Kindred each call upon the Blood in different ways, not all wield the same levels of power. Spending a Vitae is always a reflexive action.
Feeding enables her to restore her lifelike appearance - as lifelike as the character can manage, anyway.Ī player may spend Vitae in the same turn in which he spends a point of Willpower.
As a character uses up her Vitae, her skin tightens and blanches and her body shrinks slightly. As a vampire calls upon the occult power in her stolen blood, the actual mass and volume of Vitae in her body decreases.
Kindred employ their Vitae for many purposes. Some of the Tremere have found ways to preserve the supernatural power of Vitae outside a vampire’s body, and blood that came from a vampire always retains a mystical connection that ritualists can exploit. A scientist who examines a sample of former Vitae would find a mixture of blood from many sources, with some of the cells broken down. Vitae retains its supernatural properties for a few minutes after it leaves a vampire’s body and is exposed to air, and then reverts to ordinary blood.