Post by Hematite on Apr 18, 2014 19:50:06 GMT
Vicissitude [V20 241]
Vicissitude has spread like wildfire through the Sabbat since the early nights of the Anarch Revolt. The widespread use of the Vaulderie and the sharing of blood it entails have provided an ideal vehicle for the spread of this blood borne discipline. Far from seeing it for the disease it is however, most Sabbat now consider Vicissitude to be a blessing when it manifests. The true nature of this disease has confounded Sabbat scholars for centuries, though the official doctrine from the Consistory is that it is a blessing from Caine to be used for the advancement of the Sabbat. Some have gone so far as to say that it is a sign of Caine’s favor for those who serve his cause, and that its scarcity among the Camarilla and Anarchs is a sure sign of the holiness of the Sabbat. Whatever the true causes, Vicissitude is so widespread within the Sword of Caine, that it is considered a Common discipline for the purposes of Rarity Points.
Basarab: Auspex, Dominate, Protean
Bratovitch: Animalism, Fortitude, Potence
Danislaws: Animalism, Auspex, Protean
Obertus: Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate
Oprichniki: Animalism, Auspex, Obfuscate
Zantosa: Auspex, Dominate, Presence
Emerald Coven Chronicles considers Vicissitude to be a supernatural disease and uses the Tainted Blood system presented on page 124 of Guide to the Sabbat. This system has been adapted and simplified for use in LARP according to the tables below. Each time a vampire drinks blood that is infected with Vicissitude, he must make a Stamina roll at difficulty 6 or contract the disease. A character may not be aware that he has contracted the disease, but the information will be recorded in Grapevine and tracked by the Storytellers. If a character becomes infected, he must make a single test to determine how deep the infection is rooted.
The same test determines all three results:
Test Result Initial Cost Cost per Level WP vs. New Derangement*
Up 2 5 xp Current x4 Difficulty 9
Up 1 7 xp Current x5 Difficulty 7
Even** 8 xp Current x6 Difficulty 6
Down 1 10 xp Current x7 Difficulty 5
Down 2 12 xp Current x8 Difficulty 4
* Whenever a new level of Vicissitude is gained, including the first, the character must roll Willpower at the difficulty listed. Failure on this roll causes the character to gain a new derangement related to detachment from humanity. Botching this roll also causes the character to automatically lose a dot of Path Rating, unless the user follows the Path of Metamorphosis. This roll must also be made whenever a new Discipline Technique involving Vicissitude is gained and whenever any significant body modification (3 or more modification points) is performed on oneself.
** Note: Tzimisce and others who would normally have Vicissitude as an In-Clan discipline begin automatically infected and set the baseline of the test 1 level higher than normal (so testing down once would produce the result normally given for testing even, and so on).
Becoming infected is the only way to learn Vicissitude. Once infected, the discipline may be raised without instruction as if it were an in-clan discipline. However, it differs in one important respect. The player may not voluntarily choose when to raise his Vicissitude rating. At random times at the Storyteller’s discretion, a character will simply manifest the next level of Vicissitude. This event will happen in game during some scene as dictated by the Storytellers. When this happens, the appropriate amount of experience points to purchase the next level of the discipline will be deducted from the player’s total, and if he does not have enough experience at the time, he will be permitted to go into experience debt for this purpose. No downtime actions must be spent to learn or increase one’s rating in Vicissitude. Discipline Mastery and Elder Discipline levels do not follow this rule and are learned normally as an In-Clan discipline.
Vicissitude cannot be used to heal damage.
Vicissitude modifications are permanent in mortals (hereby defined as those without any supernatural template, including minor templates). In all others, the changes may be healed as if they were aggravated damage, effectively healing a number of health levels equal to the blood points associated with the body part in question (1 for the head or arms, 2 for the legs or torso). Other uses of Vicissitude can always undo the changes made by Vicissitude as long as the user has equal or greater rating in Vicissitude to the one who originally made the modification. If not, the change may only be healed as aggravated damage and not further modified or removed with Vicissitude. This supersedes the system taking Generation into account in determining whether or not Vicissitude can be healed.
Vicissitude modifications cost downtime actions equal to 5x the mod points, and if performing on another, BOTH parties must spend them. They are not quick and require surgery, and checks must be made to succeed.
Vicissitude cannot undo the curse of those cursed with a specific appearance (Nosferatu, Gangrel, Gargoyles, Samedi, Elder Assamites, Harbingers of Skulls, Kiasyd, etc.). For those who are only cursed with a specific visual defect but not a lowered or capped Appearance attribute, the attribute may still be raised as normal, only the specific feature cannot be permanently altered. For those cursed with an Appearance score of 0, the Appearance attribute cannot be permanently increased. In either case, the features can be altered as desired by the Vicissitude user, but revert back to their original appearance the next night.
If Vicissitude is used to cause damage through crude yank and tear use, the damage is considered lethal and may be healed as normal. This is an exception to the usual rule that Vicissitude modifications must be healed as aggravated damage. Such quick uses of Vicissitude lack the precision to set themselves permanently in the same way.
Vicissitude uses the Medicine Knowledge for nearly all of its rolls as per the change in V20. Any reference to the Body Crafts skill should be discounted and replaced with Medicine. Body Crafts is the Specialty of Medicine that would apply
All uses of Vicissitude are incredibly and acutely painful to the subject while they are being performed. A subject of Vicissitude must succeed on a Willpower roll at a difficulty determined by the Storyteller based on the degree of the change being made to avoid crying out in agony and score 3 successes to remain fully silent. With 1 or 2 successes, the cries can be muffled and suppressed somewhat but some sound will escape. On a botch, the character screams and will continue screaming in agony for the duration of the scene, haunted by the phantom of the pain and suffer a +2 difficulty to all actions for the remainder of the scene.
If the an infected person ever acquires more derangements from Vicissitude than her Permanent Willpower, her mind is completely lost to the disease and she becomes what is known as a Souleater, taken over utterly and completely. There is no outward sign of becoming a Souleater, and indeed the Sabbat clergy does not officially recognize the condition or the dangers, calling any talk of such to be heresy against the interests of the Sword of Caine.
Vicissitude Modification Points
All manner of bodily improvements or exaggerations are possible with Vicissitude. Telescoping arms, retractable claws, wings, bone armor, and many others are possible, limited only by the fiend's imagination or cruelty, and the limits of the victim's bodily form.
These modifications and their mechanics are assigned a point value, similar to a Merit or Flaw, measuring them against similar mechanics such as Nosferatu traits and Gangrel beast traits. These modifications are paid for in experience and time, costing experience equal to 4x mod points for modifications to the base body, and 2x mod points for the Horrid Form.
In order to create any permanent and purposeful modification, an extended challenge is necessary. This procedure requires an Intelligence + Medicine roll, difficulty equal to the subject's Stamina + Fortitude for each modification. Downtimes equal to 5x mod point must be spent on the modifications. A failure causes 2 levels of unsoakable Aggravated damage to the subject and allows another check to be made at a difficulty increase of 1, while a botch causes 5 levels of unsoakable aggravated damage and ruins the process, causing the modification points to be lost.
Mod points can also be spent to gain attributes at a level of mod points equal to current attribute, so to gain Strength 3, it costs 2 mod points, or 8xp.
You may reverse mod points and put them into new things at the same rate as applying them, so taking a modification off requires downtimes equal to 5x the mod points reversed, and then another 5x the mod points to put a new attribute on. Along with all the checks listed above to both remove old mods then add new Mods. points cannot be returned into experience, but can always be moved to a new modification.
All modifications that grant soak dice or automatic successes consist of tissue from the body of the subject and thus may only be used to soak damage that the subject could naturally soak with his or her Stamina (bashing and lethal for vampires, bashing for mortals). Unless the subject has a way of soaking aggravated damage with his stamina, these extra soak dice or automatic successes will not apply against aggravated damage.
Modification Caps
Vicissitude Modifications have a limit to how much usable tissue your body has, and can perform with.
Each body has 2x its health levels in excess tissue that can be used for "modifications". Graft Life to Life allows you to put an additional amount on from the living body of another person, but even this can only manage to force a body to sustain 3x its health levels in excess tissue. Modifications to physical stats do not count against this limit, as they are usually just an adjustment of the way the muscle tissue is tied rather than actually a change in mass, but keep in mind that modified stats do not count when resisting things like a stone of true form.
Horrid form has a different cap, as it stores the excess mass in your blood, converting it to unspendable blood points until you transform. It naturally condenses it to its most efficient level, so most Vampires of less potent blood never see its limits.
Horrid form has a cap of 50 mod points, but it will cap the blood in your system to 50-modification points in its form. A vampire of the 4th generation will feel this weight immediately, while a vampire of the 15th won't see this as a problem until they are 40 modification points in.
This means that, in total, on a normal sized human body, Vicissitude may attach 64 blood points. Of course, the vampire would always be hunger frenzying, so I don't suggest it.
Modification Examples
Some of these modifications may be performed with Vicissitude 2: Fleshcraft, though most require Vicissitude 3: Bonecraft. Those marked with an asterisk may be performed with Fleshcraft alone. Additional unlisted modifications will be at the Storyteller’s discretion whether or not they require Bonecraft or may be done with Fleshcraft alone.
Modification examples:
Heart Bone Cage: Encase the heart in a cage of bone that is concealed within the chest, adding 3 Armor rating for attacks that are specifically targeting the heart. This modification stacks with the Subdermal Armor modification. 2 Points.
Misplaced Heart*: Move the heart to a more secure place in the body, away from where most attacks would hit, up to a foot away. It requires 5 damage successes instead of 3 to stake you, unless they know the exact location of the heart. 2 Points.
Bone Claws: Long, hooked bone nails extend from the fingers or as claws from the knuckles, able to slash and tear. These are a permanent version of the ones described under Bonecraft that do not cause damage to the user when used. 1 Point.
Retractable Claws: Clever channels and strong muscles guide the claws back into the hands and wrists when not in use, able to spring them out again as a reflexive action. The subject must already have the Bone Claws modification before gaining this modification. 1 point.
Giant claws: Huge sword-like blades of bone dominate most of the hand, supported by a huge network of bone and muscle extending from the wrist. The claws are nearly useless for fine manipulation, and incapable of delicate movement – they are only good for one thing. These claws deal Strength + 4 Lethal damage. he subject must already have the Bone Claws modification before gaining this modification. Giant Claws cannot be used in conjunction with Retractable Claws. 2 Points.
Spinal Plating: At once pushing the vulnerable points back into the body, and widening and thickening the vertebra to become a thick lattice of interlocking plates across the spine, up to the back of the skull, spinal plating goes a long way to stop some of the more predictable ambush attacks, providing 2 soak successes for attacks that come from behind. This modification stacks with Subdermal Armor. 3 points.
Subdermal Armor: The user creates a layer of thick muscle and cartilage over all of his body under the skin. This increases his general durability to most attacks (see the above restriction on modifications that increase the subject’s soak). These additional soak dice apply to all attacks, even those targeted at specific locations. 2 points per soak die to a maximum of 5 dice. This armor becomes bulkier and more difficult to conceal the higher value used. At a value of 1 or 2, this is easily concealable, obvious only without any concealing clothing. At a value of 3, this armor is concealable under a jacket, the bulges becoming too obvious for simple clothing to conceal. At a value of 4, this armor is pronounced enough to require a thick trench coat to fully conceal. At a rating of 5, no amount of clothing can fully conceal the odd lumps and bulges of this modification.
Retractable Limbs: Collapsible telescoping channels of bone and powerful muscles to control their extension allow the user to shoot their appendage out from its normal position and attack a target up to 8 feet away. The arms retain most of their flexibility in this form and can make additional Strike and Hold maneuvers, but any attempt to attack the arms while they are extended are made at -2 difficulty. Extending a telescoping limb takes no action, but it requires a physical action to return a telescoped limb to its original state. 1 point.
Wings: Huge, muscled and leathery wings extend from the back and shoulders. Each wing is 15 feet long when fully extended and requires the support of an entire range of new muscles, taken from elsewhere or else requiring significant lightening of the bone structure. These wings are powerful enough to allow the user to glide as if using a hang glider, but cannot support full flight. Unlike more magical forms of flight, the wings are not easily dismissed or hidden and provide an obvious breach of the masquerade for anyone seeing them, which tends to be many people in a crowded city. For an additional Modification point, the wings can unhinge to fold across the user’s back and chest and attach at the chest like a cloak – otherwise, they fold at the user’s back and cannot be hidden except perhaps as a giant hunchback in a trench coat. When rolling is necessary, flight attempts are made with Strength + Athletics, or a secondary of Athletics called Flying. 6 Points.
Tentacles*: Muscled and flexible tentacles extend from various parts of the body, able to whip or grapple opponents nearby. The prehensile tentacles act like crude arms, and can provide an additional attack in combat at no penalty (for a total of 2 attacks, not one for each tentacle.) This attack can be a Hold, Strike or Sweep Maneuver, and can perform a Constrict attack similar to Arms of the Abyss on subsequent turns after a Hold. 2 Points.
Suckers*: Suckers can be added to the hands or other parts of the body, or appended to the Tentacles modification, treated as a separate modification. The powerful muscles attached to the suckers allow for a powerful hold that is difficult to break, granting 1 automatic success on any Hold or Clinch attempt. These suckers can also be fashioned with tiny serrations, blades and valves, allowing them to drink a collective amount of 1 blood point per round while they are in contact with a victim, though these suckers do not deliver the Kiss. 1 point for suckers, 1 additional point for Blood Drinking.
Fins*: A series of fins, scales and webbing are added in key places throughout the body, allowing increased movement in water, or less wholesome fluids. All physical rolls are made at -2 Difficulty with this modification, and swimming speed is doubled. 2 points.
Split jaws: The vampire splits his jaw down the center to be able to open and close over a wider area, inserting new teeth and muscles all throughout the interior of the mouth. This new jaw structure can fit more surface area over exposed flesh and close like a vice. The vampire deals an additional die of bite damage, and any attempt to forcefully remove him once he has bitten down allows him an extra bite attack as he tears his way off of, and through, his victim as he departs. 1 point.
Retractable Quills: Defensive quills are built into discrete tubes of bone and rest within the body above an array of muscles to control their position. These quills work as the ones described under Bonecraft, but can be activated and deactivated without causing serious harm to the creator as a Reflexive Action. 3 points.
Catapult legs: The legs are folded into an accordion-like configuration and powered by a powerful pneumatic gas sack in the knee and ankle, allowing for jumping capability more akin to a grasshopper or a tick than a man. All jumping heights are quadrupled, though falling damage is no less an issue than it was before. 3 points.
This list is not exhaustive, and players may feel free to create their own modifications to add to this list.
Vicissitude 1: Malleable Visage [V20 241]
This ability may change things such as height, build, voice, facial features, hair color and length, skin tone, and eye color. All of these have a limit on how much they may change, especially things seem to change mass, such as height, build and hair length.
This power requires a blood point for each body part to be changed. "Body parts" for this purpose are considered to be the head, both arms, both legs, and the torso, thus a change that affected the entire body would cost 4 blood.
Malleable Visage takes a minimum of one turn per body part or per successes required to create the change, whichever is higher.
Copying another's face is Perception + Medicine, difficulty 8. It takes 3 successes to fool casual observers, 5 to fool those who know her intimately.
A character's Appearance trait can be raised permanently with this ability for no exp. This requires an Intelligence + Medicine roll, difficulty 9. The new Appearance trait is equal to the amount of successes scored. A botch leaves you hideous, and sets your Appearance to 0, with a similar affliction to a Nosferatu in terms of the Masquerade. The Appearance value from the use of Vicissitude may increase to a total of 6, regardless of Generational maximum. An Appearance rating of 6 is defined as the look of an impossibly beautiful airbrushed model in a magazine spread or other such altered beauty beyond natural possibility and threatens the Masquerade as well, in a less direct sense, and may attract extremely persistent mortals to you.
Malleable Visage may only be used on one's self.
Vicissitude 2: Fleshcraft: [V20 241]
Once this power is gained, the user may use any of the powers of Malleable Visage upon another for the same blood costs. The user may substitute Dexterity + Medicine for any of the rolls used in Malleable Visage if working on another subject.
In order to use this power on another, they must be either restrained or willing. It is impossible to simply reach out and Fleshcraft someone.
Vicissitude 3: Bonecraft [V20 241]
Like Fleshcraft, Bonecraft requires the subject be either willing or restrained.
Bonecraft may be used to crudely warp the bones in the victim’s body without the added use of Fleshcraft with the purpose of simply causing damage. This attack deals lethal damage equal to the successes scored on a Strength + Medicine roll at difficulty 7. If such an attack scores 5 or more successes, before soak, the ribs have pierced the heart and the victim loses half his blood pool as a result.
Crude and temporary versions of some of the more basic modifications that involve only a small amount of change (notably claws, quills, or spikes) may be performed quickly (in a single action) with the Storyteller’s discretion and a minimum of 3 successes on a Dexterity + Medicine roll. Doing so inflicts one level of unsoakable lethal damage as the Fleshcrafter must rip and tear tissue in his haste where normally he would carefully cut and mold. Such modifications are flimsy at best, easy to bend or break and will not last beyond the scene in which they are created, though creating them in this way requires no modification points.
All other functions listed in this power are now covered under the Modification system.
Vicissitude 4: Horrid Form [V20 242]
This power is considered a Complete and Compatible Transformation (see Transformation Disciplines clarification).
A Horrid Form may be modified as well, allowing for a Tzimisce to fully customize his Horrid Form as desired. To do this, the Fiend must spend Modification Points as normal, but modification points drawn from his Horrid Form alone. To do this, he must convert his attributes (figured before Horrid Form bonuses) into modification points and purchase modifications as normal. However the attribute loss, as well as the modifications, will only be applicable when in Horrid Form. These phantom attributes may be repurchased for a cost of 2x current rating, also requiring Downtime Actions equal to one half of the usual requirements for raising Attributes.
This power requires 2 blood points, but unlike other transformation powers has no minimum time. The Horrid Form is assumed on the user’s Initiative of the round following the expenditure of the second blood point.
All Horrid Form modifications must be recorded by staff in our records or carried on a stamped card or they are assumed not to exist.
Vicissitude 5: Bloodform [V20 242]
The user has some cosmetic control over the blood form, able to form the image of a crude face or vestigial limbs in the blood. Such changes are purely cosmetic however, and offer no mechanical effect.
This power is considered a Complete and Incompatible Transformation (see Transformation Disciplines clarification).
This power costs no blood to assume and takes no actions. However the transformation, like all transformation disciplines, completes on the user’s Initiative of the round following the declaration of its activation.
Despite a persistent misinterpretation, there is no basis in the statement that once this power is gained, the vampire “becomes” in truth a pool of sentient blood given shape. This is a transformation power like any other and has no impact on whether or not the wielder can be staked or beheaded unless the user is already transformed.
A vampire in Bloodform may flow along surfaces as well as drip up walls and along ceilings at a walking pace, though he may not truly float or fly.
A vampire who fully assumes Bloodform is composed of approximately 10 pints of blood, corresponding to the 10 blood points he transforms into. The physical amount of blood is unchanged by either the vampire’s generation or the amount of actual vitae in his system at the time of transformation, nor by any subsequent blood expenditures.
Drinking a vampire in Bloodform inflicts the Blood Bond as normal. Another vampire who drinks a Bloodform Fiend completely has diablerized her without the usual need for Strength rolls.
Only mortals and animals must make Courage rolls if washed over in this form.
A vampire in Bloodform may feed by washing over a supply of blood and adding it to his total. He may consume 3 points of blood per round in this fashion. This has no impact on the size of the user’s Bloodform body.
Unlike most transformations, Blood Form does not end at sunrise, it lasts until the vampire wishes to change back, so long as there is at least one blood point remaining. If blood from the form were expended in use, the vampire is restored to his normal form, albeit hungrier, but if the blood was expended through damage or the vampire transformed with limbs missing and not spent to regrow the limbs, they return to their shape missing those appendages. Transforming back to a wracked and limbless torso isn't particularly conducive to activity, and the vampire may need to remain in Blood Form until it can find enough blood to reconstitute its body enough for ambulation.
The vampire in this form may use any mental or social discipline he wishes so long as it does not require eye contact or speech.
If a vampire expends (or loses for any reason) his last blood point while in this form he immediately meets final death, losing all animating energy to the pool of blood.
Vicissitude 6: Blood of Acid [V20 243]
Aggravated damage from this power, while it stems from a physical source, is not impact damage. Therefore armor does not apply against it, nor do other powers that only work on impact damage.
If a vampire with this power washes over an enemy in Bloodform, the victim will suffer damage as if fully consumed in fire (3 automatic levels of aggravated damage at difficulty 9 to soak).
If the vampire with this power is damaged in combat, his attacker is assumed to be splattered with Acid Blood, inflicting 5 dice of aggravated damage. The wielder’s weapon is likewise assumed to be drenched in the acid, likely taking great damage and becoming useless unless somehow protected from the acid.
Once this power is gained, the vampire may no longer create or maintain ghouls, nor may he embrace childer. His blood is no longer truly vitae, but acid in every respect.
Vicissitude 6: Body Arsenal [PGttS 113]
This power is identical to the Combination Discipline Body Armory and treated in exactly the same manner.
Vicissitude 6: Chiropteran Marauder [V20 242]
A Fiend’s Chiropteran Marauder form is considered completely separate from his Horrid Form. It may be customized just as his Horrid Form, but as a separate form with its own set of modifications independent to those of his Horrid Form.
This form is activated in the same manner as Horrid Form, save that it costs 3 blood points rather than 2.
This power is considered a Complete and Compatible Transformation (see Transformation Disciplines clarification).
Growing claws from this form is considered to be a separate transformation action and not activated automatically with the form.
Vicissitude 6: Corrupt Construction [DAC 96]
While normally splicing dead flesh to living conveys no control or ability to use the dead additions, this power allows the dead additions to be used to their full efficacy by the living subject.
The final creation from this power is created via the modification system as normal. Each additional creature harvested for parts is assumed to have a number of modification points equal to their Health Levels x2 + Whatever can be harvested from buying their Attributes down to 1. The user of this power may add these modification points directly to the subject of this power to create whatever modifications he desires.
This power does not prevent the dead flesh added from rotting, and indeed the addition inevitably poisons the subject from toxic shock which will eventually kill it. The successes on the activation roll show the care with which the creation is made and how long its death can be avoided.
The duration scale of this power is adjusted for LARP time to the following scale.
1 success - One Hour
2 successes - One Night
3 successes - One Week
4 successes - Two Weeks
5 successes - One month
As vampires are not living creatures, they cannot serve as the living pillar upon which this power is built (though their dead flesh may be used in the construction if desired, though as soon as the damage from the wound is healed, the creature will immediately lose all modification points gained from that flesh as it turns to ash, and the creature will immediately seize and die from the sudden shock).
This power cannot truly create a Vozhd.
Vicissitude 6: Ecstatic Agony [CbR-Tz 68]
Trying to judge which actions apply with this power is needlessly complex. While this power is active, ALL wound penalties become bonuses instead (up to but not including Incapacitated). This applies to all non-reflexive actions that would ordinarily suffer from a Wound Penalty as well as to Initiative.
Vicissitude 6: Entrail Saraband [LS1 65]
This power grants a single additional action per turn as per the Tentacles modification. The Entrails are assumed to have a Strength and Dexterity score equal to the user’s Stamina + Fortitude and use the Brawl score of the user for all maneuvers.
For all other purposes, treat this power as the Tentacles modification, though it stacks with that modification for a total of 2 additional actions per round.
Vicissitude 6: Graft Life to Life [PGttHC 162]
This power may be used to grant modification points to one subject by taking them from another, living subject.
To make this power work with the modification point system, it has been altered in the following ways. The difficulty is as listed to remove and attach limbs wholesale. However, to fully cannibalize a living subject into effective modification points to apply to another individual is done at difficulty 10, still requiring 10 successes on an extended roll to extract, and another 10 successes on an extended roll to insert. This roll is simply to add the extra mass to the subject in such a way that it may be utilized to create modifications. It does not create the modification itself.
The roll to use this power is Intelligence + Medicine.
Most uses of Vicissitude still follow the law of Conservation of Mass. This power is no exception. The extra mass added by this power will begin to show before too long, noticeably increasing the size of the subject, no matter how well it is hidden. As most of the mass of a person is really worthless chaff not of any real use by a fleshcrafting savant for this power, it is not as simple as adding the full mass of the subject cannibalized for this power. To generalize more efficiently, each additional modification point added effectively adds approximately 5 pounds to the mass of the subject. This can be disguised and well distributed to a point, but the more that is added, the more physical changes the subject will need to undergo. After all, a previously slight woman weighing only approximately 120 pounds who suddenly gains half again her weight in extra features will certainly look different than she did before the procedure, however well it is disguised.
If the extra modification points are applied to the subject’s Horrid Form or Chiropteran Marauder form, they are assumed to be spaced and spread through the body for maximum efficiency, waiting to be called on in that form. If applied to an alternate form, the extra modification points are assumed to be worth only 2 additional pounds of noticeable mass per point added and applied as such due to their efficient use.
Each additional creature harvested for parts is assumed to have a number of modification points equal to their Health Levels x2 + Whatever can be harvested from buying their Attributes down to 1. The user of this power may add these modification points directly to the subject of this power to create whatever modifications he desires.
Extra limbs added wholesale via this power do not grant additional actions, though if a minimum of two arms are added, they impose a -2 difficulty on Clinch and Hold Maneuvers as well as all checks to climb. Extra legs (if properly arranged in a quadrupedal array) will double running speed.
Vicissitude 6: Living Testudo [LS1 65]
This horrific power requires only a single physical action to use, creating and hoisting the shield in one swift action.
Supernatural victims of this power are treated as under a Hold maneuver and may attempt to escape as normal, though at +2 difficulty. Mortal victims are stunned and helpless once this power is used on them.
The Dexterity + Medicine roll to activate this power may be dodged, blocked or parried as normal.
The health level lost by the victim of this power cannot be soaked by any means.
The victim, once wielded as a shield, is considered a large shield and thus imposes a +1 difficulty to all rolls made to attack the wielder. The shield may also be used to parry attacks as normal. Any attack successfully parried by the wielder inflicts its full base damage (but no carryover) to the shield. A partially parried attack inflicts a number of dice of damage to the shield equal to the successes scored on the parry roll. The damage suffered is the same type as the attack made (bashing, lethal or aggravated).
Making crude weapons from the victim functions normally as if using Bonecraft, but may be done in only a single action as no care is made for the health of the victim.
Vicissitude 6: Plasmic Form [PGttS 113]
This power is invalidated by the V20 and Revised editions of Bloodform, which wrap this power into the earlier version of Vicissitude 5. Emerald Coven Chronicles as such does not use this power.
Vicissitude 6: Skin Trap [Cb-Tz 45]
Using this power to slough off a skin layer and fling it at a victim is a single physical action.
The roll to activate this power is a Stamina + Athletics roll, not Stamina + Firearms. This attack may be dodged, but not blocked or parried.
Attempting to free oneself from the enveloping skin is a physical action, just as freeing oneself from a Hold Maneuver.