Mental Merits

Mental Merits

 * A Little Knowledge (•) Pre: Mortal
 * The character has had so much contact with the supernatural world that, despite being unambiguously mortal, can perceive it enough not to take penalties when approaching it.
 * Area of Expertise (••) Pre: Resolve (••), have a Specialty in a Mental Skill
 * Advanced training on a certain topic has made you even more of an expert, doubling the Specialty bonus for a certain Mental Skill.
 * Barrister (••••) Pre: Politics •••
 * Your character is so adept at navigating legal systems that the Underworld, which relies on Old Laws to maintain order, becomes significantly easier to navigate, with plenty of loopholes to keep you safe.
 * Combatant (••) Pre: Resolve ••, Brawl, Firearms, or Weaponry •
 * Your character has so much experience with combat that they are less likely to freeze up on the battlefield. May not have an effect, depending on which battle rules presented in Armory Reloaded are being used.
 * Combat Awareness (••) Pre: Military background and/or back-story and/or training.
 * Your character has years of experience in battle, giving them a greater than average awareness of the intricacies of combat.
 * Common Sense (••••)
 * Your character has an abundance of common sense and is generally noted as making level-headed decisions. Once per chapter the storyteller may make a Wits+Composure roll if your character is about to do something disastrous or is stumped at a particular point. Available at character creation only.
 * Danger Sense (••)
 * You gain a +2 modifier on reflexive Wits + Composure rolls for detecting an ambush or other such surprises that generally result in a less than healthy end.
 * Dead Reckoning (•)
 * Navigating the Underworld is, for some reason or another, a very easy thing to do. Unfortunately, this strange sense of navigation makes it difficult to find anything above ground.
 * Debate Style: Reason (• to •••••) Pre: Intelligence •••, Academics •
 * A series of maneuvers for engaging in Roman-style debate that are based on logic and learning.
 * • Reference: By tying statements to recent events, the audience sees them as more truthful and relevant than they really are.
 * •• Dilemma: An opponent is forced to make one of two choices, rather than choosing their own angle.
 * ••• Kairos: An innate understanding of the pacing of proper debate prevents the audience from picking up on a sudden change in tactics.
 * •••• Hyperbaton: A sharp, counterattack argument that can catch the opponent off-guard, and is difficult to reply to.
 * ••••• Elocutio: A single attack can be levied against multiple opponents, addressing them all adequately with the same words.
 * Debate Style: Rhetoric (• to •••••)
 * A series of maneuvers for engaging in Roman-style debate that are based on formality and politics.
 * • Ad Captandum: A simple, but effective statement that lingers in the audience's memory.
 * •• Ambiguous Statement:' 'A loaded statement that the enemy must say something somewhat undesirable to repute.
 * ••• Synonymia: Synonyms are exploited in order to ensure that any member of the audience will clearly understand what the speaker is saying.
 * •••• Apologue: The speaker's delivery is so naturally entertaining that even repeated statements retain their original effectiveness.
 * ••••• Innuendo: A personal attack can be nested within a statement that sounds innocent and pure to the audience.
 * Debate Style: Theology (• to •••••)
 * Eidetic Memory (••)
 * Your Character has a form of 'perfect memory' whether its photographic, analytical, or some other form. He does not need to roll to remember obscure facts he has learned and has a +2 dice pool to roll for remembering under duress. Available only at character creation.
 * Encyclopedic Knowledge (••••)
 * You can make an intelligence + wits roll in order to recall some sort of trivia or other factoid relevant to the situation. Available only at character creation.
 * Emotional Detachment (•) Pre: Resolve ••
 * The character can distance himself from his emotions, becoming cold and emotionless, but also less prone to stress and pressure.
 * EOD (••••) Pre.: Wits ••• or Dexterity •••, Crafts •••, Demolitions Specialty in Crafts
 * Good Time Management (••) Pre: Academics, Medicine, or Science ●●
 * Proper managing of time makes Extended actions into easier tasks, reducing the amount of time needed to take them by a significant fraction.
 * Holistic Awareness (•••)
 * You have quite a vast knowledge of remedies and home cures, to the point that you can deliver hospital quality care at home. Your character may make an Intelligence + Medicine roll once per day which represents an hour of home care for an injured or sick character, success means their healing times are halved. (WOD: Core Rulebook, p109)
 * Hypnosis (•••) Pre: Medicine ● or Occult ●
 * You can put another character into a hypnotic trance, making him or her more open to questions and suggestions. This Merit also gives you the Deep Hypnosis Specialty for Medicine or Occult. (VTR: VII, p149)
 * Language (• - •••)
 * Grants the ability to be fluent in a second language.
 * Note: Although the original book states that this trait requires three dots to achieve full fluency, a later errata corrects this, and bilinguality can be achieved with only one dot. This correction allows for the Multilingual Merit to exist.
 * Mythologist (••••) Pre: Occult ••, Specialty in Underworld Lore or equivalent
 * You have studied mythology for many years, giving you an unusually large body of information to draw off of when it comes to understanding the world of the dead.
 * Meditative Mind (••)
 * Meditation comes quite easily to your character, to the point that outside influences no longer matter.
 * Technophile (• to ••)
 * The character is exceptionally knowledgable regarding a specific type of equipment, granting bonuses to recall information about that equipment similar to the Encyclopedic Knowledge merit. One dot covers a narrow type, while two dots cover a broad class of equipment.
 * Trained Memory (••) Pre: Composure ••, Investigation •
 * The character can perfectly remember the events in a scene or a day's worth of study if he takes a turn to memorize the information.
 * Trained Observer (• or •••) Pre.: Wits ••• or Composure •••
 * Unseen Sense ••• Pre.: Mortal (non-supernatural); Wits ••
 * Whenever a supernatural phenomenon or creature happens across the character they get a tel-tale sign, whether its the hairs on the back of their neck standing up, or a chill down their spine, or something more obvious.