Jahn's Guide to Cruac

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Contents

Disclaimer

The following guide is strictly opinion, covering what I consider to be the optimal practices around using Cruac. This is the second iteration of this guide, the first got eaten by the wiki changeover and needed an update to tabletop mechanics in any case. The original iteration of this page was pilfered by a foul fiend who has yet to provide his promised gift for doing so, though as he preserved the concept/template it is somewhat forgiven.

Note about Content

Please do not add to or delete content from this page. This is Jahn's guide to Cruac. Feel free to hit me up with ideas and feedback though, that's what the talk page is for :-)

Overview

What is Cruac?

Cruac is the Covenant advantage of the Circle of the Crone. It costs a vitae/blood to use, and requires an action or actions.

Bah, Theban is better than Cruac!

False. Theban is more direct and has more clear combat powers, but Cruac offers a superior toolbox and can be applied with greater creative thinking (More on this later).

In Particular:

• Theban costs Willpower. Willpower is far more limited and harder to replace than Vitae.
• Theban has specific item requirements for their ritual casting. Few things are more hilarious than a Theban sorcerer casting Prisoner of Denial (Offering is to burn an image of the target) and having to frenzy away.
• Cruac can help you a myriad ways outside of game, both before it and during downtime. Theban rarely does such.

Those interested in Theban more should visit Corey's Guide to Theban, and then be devoured for being Heretics.

What's this sodding casting thing?

Casting Cruac is an extended draw. That means you spend a point of blood to start casting. You keep casting until you:

A - Succeed (Yay!)

B - Stop casting (Um... ok...)

C - You get interrupted (Noooo!)

You need to get as many successes as the level of a ritual.

For instance, to cast Drops of Destiny, a level 1 ritual, you need a total of 1 success. For Maw of the Crone, a level 5 ritual, you need a total of 5 successes.

If you don't have enough successes on your first action, then next turn you can choose to continue casting and have another draw, until the above A, B or C occurs.

So... how many successes did I get?

Some rituals, not all, give a better bonus the more successes you get. The amount of successes is counted from your final draw, not the total of your extended action!!!

Examples are:

Boris attempts to cast Blood Blight, a level 5 ritual.

On his first turn, he rolls average, and gets 3 successes. As a level 5 ritual, that's not enough.

The next turn, he rolls again, and gets 2 success. Never the less, that adds up to 5, enough total successes for the ritual required.

The power goes off, but is treated as having two successes for how much damage it inflicts, a lot less impressive than Boris hoped.

Because of this it is best to have a high enough pull to succeed on your first roll.

The Ignored Modifiers

The majority of Disciplines have a list of situational modifiers, Cruac only has two but they can both be major if used.

1) A +4 if used on someone you have a blood tie. Most noteworthy with the Cheval Ritual. This is huge for the Mnemosyne Bloodline in particular.

2) A -1 to a -5 when rushed or distracted, such as by pursuit or combat.

In general both these modifiers are ignored and rolls are neutral. If the second point is an issue, it can be offset by Meditation rolls.

Cruac Optimisation

Each dot of Cruac gives you access to all the rituals at that level, ergo you want the levels with the most effective rituals. Like Theban, there are two main "exit points" for Cruac that optimise xp expenditure, and they both affect sheet creation or where you sink your in game xp.

The first exit point is at level two (2). I am of the view that every Crone should buy up to Cruac 2, as the cost is not exorbitant and this level has some of the best rituals.

The second point is sadly all the way up at five (5). Three (3) and four (4) aren't a waste, but the gains are limited, particularly if you don't aspire to get to the highest level. Be warned that Cruac five is very expensive.

Cruac rituals fall into two camps, the first only requires enough successes to pass the ritual or are cast when you are not in a hurry, the second is reliant on high successes for best effect. You can build to the former and have a modest Cruac pull, or you can go for the second which requires some stacking.

Which of the above two camps also affects your ideal casting pull. Dice obviously add a degree of random probability alas, but simulated rolls provide the following key points:

• The level 2 break generally implies you want that many successes most of the time. A pull of 6 should yield that about 75% of the time.
• At level 5, and desiring to maximise your successes, aim for as high a pull as possible. A pool of 16 should produce that many a touch of 60% of the time, but that is a difficult number to reach and requires shenanigans, you may have to deal with a smaller pool and just luck it out for a while.

Boosting Your Cruac Draw

A number of factors affect your ability to use Cruac, as covered below.

The Discipline - Cruac: Expensive and required. Either maximise it, or stop at the first break point, as covered above.

Attribute - Manipulation: The second most expensive stat, but dependent on your clan can have great synergies (as expanded on below in “Clan / Bloodline Synergies with Cruac”)

Skill - Occult: The cheapest of the three required stats. It is the cheapest to buy if you need to hit the damage cap, but that is extremely rare for Cruac rituals.

Drugs: Checking

Derived Stat - Willpower: A strength of Cruac is that willpower can be spent freely. If you have a success required Cruac build, use the hell out of it.

Merit - Altar: Altar is a cheap merit from the Crone book. It boosts Cruac draws, but you essentially have to be at your haven. It is ideal for the dabbler Cruac user or someone willing to be inconvenienced to maximised their Cruac draw.

Merit - Necropolis - Sepulcher: Gain dots as a bonus to a particular skill roll. Pick Occult. Potential to be denied by the relevant ST, in which case go for Dark Temple.

Merit - Necropolis - Dark Temple: Straight boost to Cruac. Put your Altar here as well.

Merit - Undead Menses: Gangrel only, the special vitae produced gives a bonus to Cruac rolls.

Ritual - Sacrifice of Odin: Level 4 Ritual, boosts your Willpower spends.

Discipline - Taurobolium: The bloodline Discipline of the Galloi boosts Cruac draws, but a Galloi cannot use the discipline on themselves if there's two of you or you have a buddy, be their best buddy!

Clan / Bloodline Synergies with Cruac

Several Clans, and their Bloodlines, have great synergy with Cruac. Any such affiliation utilising a power that employs either Manipulation or Occult in its draws happily doubles up.

• Clan Nosferatu - Can benefit from the Necropolis merit mentioned above, can become Galloi (See below). Nightmare also has multiple powers that run off Manipulation.

• Clan Daeva - Free dot of Manipulation, Majesty synergy.

• Clan Gangrel - Can use Undead Menses as above and their clan weakness doesn't matter to Cruac, but they lag behind the two clans above.

• Bloodline Galloi - An odd case, in that their unique discipline is great on a Cruac user but cannot be employed on themselves.

• Bloodline Mnemosyne - Can use their bloodline discipline to boost a mental skill roll. Like Occult.

Feeding

While in general blood is more available than willpower, it is always better to have more. Unfortunately there isn't a clear cut answer here, as it all depends on the system utilised by the relevant ST for the game.

The book default system is a single D10 Blood draw + relevant merits. It can be painful, you want blood for Cruac but the supporting merits don't come cheap. Things to do/check:

• Do they allow downtime actions to produce extra blood? If they do then burn those action, two at least each month. If this option is available you can skip buying any feeding related merits.

• Haven Location. Combined with allies, Haven merits can be very cheap. If you can find five Crone all willing to throw 2xp into the shared haven merit then you all get +5 to your blood pool, you can conceivably get away with that.

• Herd. No sharing, so more expensive, but has the joy of not disappearing with PC/players that die/stop coming to game.

• Do they do feeding scenes at game? Storyteller reliant, and the success/worth of doing so is dependent on their views. If relatively risk free, may well replace the need for the above merits.

Rituals

Always check the Addenda in case update has changed a ritual or placed a limitation on it.

To find the source for a ritual for the full write up check the source at the Genre Directory

Fluff Disclaimer

When something is down as "Fluff" that doesn't necessarily make it pointless, but more than its uses are better employed in a roleplay capacity than a direct tangible benefit.

Level One

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
1	Abduction to the Underworld/The Appeasement of Demeter	Shortens the length of torpor, and makes it easier to recall slumber visions.	Fluff
1	Balancing the Four Humors	Caster doesn't suffer environmental penalties.	Situational, hilarious for countering the penalty inflicted by Rain (Below) or Rain of Blood (Theban)
1	Blood Witness	Smear an area with Vitae. May remotely observe the area from the spilled blood	Situational, Auspex and Cheval are superior.
1	Confidence in Adversity	Caster loses 10-Again on all rolls, but regains one Willpower at the end of the scene.	Awesome. Take it. Burn willpower as much as you want, cast this before social/travel scenes.
1	Drop's of Destiny	Generates a cryptic prophecy	ST dependent, practical limitations of not actually knowing the future.
1	Fires of Inspiration	For one night, add Cruac to all Craft or Expression rolls to create art, but penalizes rolls to create anything else.	Fluff (Exception: See A Child From The Stone expanded write up below)
1	Pangs of Prosperina	The target is overcome with hunger and must feed, be they kindred, mortal, or other.	Fluff
1	Pythian Renewal	The subject appears to grow twenty years younger for a number of hours.	Fluff
1	Rigor Mortis	Target Vampire suffers a penalty equal to the successes on their next physical action.	Limited use. Specifically if you'd otherwise be standing in the background of a combat doing nothing, then this is preferable.
1	Spring Sanctification	A rite of the vernal equinox, allowing for a cow's blood to be nourishing to any Kindred.	Extreme fluff.
1	Taste of Knowledge	Used during feeding, this ritual allows the caster to learn one secret of immediate importance to the victim.	Fluff
1	Visage of the Crone	The subject appears to age ten years for a number of hours.	Fluff

Level Two

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
2	Barrier of Blood	Blood must be applied to doors and other portals, vampires with less blood potency than the caster cannot cross the barrier without suffering damage.	Good, but dependent on BP 4+, not liable to work on developed combat characters. Can be used to create a kill box on vulnerable characters, or breaking Obfuscate.
2	Cernunno's Horn	You can breed a horrible monster with a mortal.	Not Sanctioned
2	Cheval	The victim's senses may be shared by the caster at will for one night per success.	GOLD, use it on friends, enemies, minions, use it everywhere!
2	Heliolater's Warning, The	Helps the Caster wake up and react in the day.	FLUFF, unless your VST is down for Downtime attacks, even then still situational.
2	Hydra's Vitae	Transform's the caster's vitae into a poison, which inflicts lethal damage on mortals and vampires who attempt to consume it.	Situational. Hilarious against Husk using Carthian's.
2	Maiden Skin	Grants temporary armor against attacks that would break the skin	Situational. Difficulty is short duration and requiring a maximised casting pool.
2	Painted Fears	Creates a piece of artwork that makes viewers fear the subject matter.	Situational, potential gold. Expanded below.
2	Path of Thorns	Creates a field surrounding the caster, any entering it suffer damage from spiritual thorns, which lasts for several turns.	Gold, group combats
2	Prey's Blood	Gain significant bonuses to track a mortal, or penalized ones to track Kindred.	Gangrel Only, GOLD
2	Rex Sanguis Sacrorum	Uses a sacrifice to temporarily allow the ritualist to see the entirety of her past.	Fluff
2	Rite of the Bloody Crossroads	Allows the ritualist to predict when people with murderous intent are coming to the targeted location.	Potential, as can be used to set up the Haven Defence powers in time, or detect people intending to kill you at the game location. Mid Approval, City Specific.
2	Rite of the Circle Path	Reveals a fateful meeting between two people or objects.	Fluff, City Specific
2	Soul's Work	Invest Willpower points into a work of art, which may later be used to perform an action that corresponds to the art form.	If your Willpower pool is low, worthwhile. Otherwise just take Confidence in Adversity.
2	Succulent Buboes	Transfer Vitae from within the body into lymph nodes, potentially storing Vitae well above what Blood Potency would allow.	Gold or Rubbish, read the "feeding" system section. If blood is freely available, this is worth it.
2	Wisdom of the Soul	Enter a trance and create a prophetic work of art; may later re-roll any one roll that night.	UTTER GOLD. Every Crone should have it. See below.

Level Three

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
3	Beloved Deodand	Cast on a murder weapon, when it is used again steal blood from the victim.	Meh. With some painful set up can work, but generally not worth the effort.
3	Blood Portrait	Uses a person's blood to create a living portrait of themselves.	Reserved by the MST office.
3	Deflection of Wooden Doom	Caster becomes immune to staking for one night	Utter rubbish at present rules, when it is relatively simple to knock someone into torpor compared to trying to stake them.
3	Doorways of Eyes and Mind	Keeps the mind of a torpid vampire awake and active throughout the duration of torpor.	Fluff
3	Final Service of the Slave	Sacrifice a Retainer, gain temporary increase in skill or re-spend the lost experience on a skill the Retainer had.	Fluff. Funny if you want to sacrifice Retainers in front of people.
3	Fire the Cauldron	Permits a female Kindred to carry a Dhampir child.	Not Sanctioned.
3	Flower of Demeter	Grow a flower fed by mortal blood; grants a bonus to Craft and Expression. Swallowing the flower grants 24 hours of the blush of life.	Fluff. Can be great role playing wise.
3	Hag Mask	Allows the user to increase her Defence or Intimidation, at the cost of severe ugliness.	Situational, combat uses if you have an applicable build or if you have a power that functions off Intimidate. Can only improve Intimidation or Defence (Addenda)
3	Metamorphosis	Prepares a temple using the ritualist's blood, giving the user a number of benefits while in the temple.	Situational. If a hit is coming or that games at the temple, go nuts.
3	Rain	Cause it to rain, inflicting penalties to relevant rolls.	Fluff unless paired with Balancing the Four Humours.
3	Song of the Blood	Strengthens blood ties for one night, such that relatives can sense through them at any distance.	Fluff.
3	Taste of Destiny	Gain insight into a future event; when the prophesied event comes to pass, regain the first three Willpower spent on rolls that do not succeed	ST dependent.
3	Tiamat Offspring	Creates a homunculus servant.	Gold, see expanded points
3	Tickblood	Cause a mortal to generate an increased quantity of Vitae over the next few days.	Gangrel Only
3	Touch of the Morrigan	Charges the casters hands with a lethal damage attack, discharges on a touch attack.	Waste, you should have better methods of attack. Reason being you have to cast one turn, then use it a turn later.

Level Four

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
4	Bleeding the Tarantula	Creates a mystical spider which watches over and protects the caster while they sleep.	FLUFF, unless your VST is down for Downtime attacks, even then still situational.
4	Blood Price	For the rest of the night a third of all vitae consumed by the Victim goes to the Caster.	Fluff, or get a Husk using Carthian buddy
4	Eye of the Norn	Reveal who the caster most needs to confront at this time, gain bonus against revealed person.	ST dependent, practical limitations of not always knowing who is gunning for your character.
4	Fount of Wisdom	Acquire temporary skills from a feed target.	Fluff for the most part. Skills limited by User's Blood Potency
4	Mask of Blood	The caster may steal the form of a feeding victim, which last until sunrise.	Good, some ST variance. See below.
4	Sacrifice of Odin	Cut off a part of the body, inflicting aggravated damage; until the caster regenerates this damage, they gain significantly increased benefits from using Willpower.	Gold. Spend that Willpower. See below.
4	Thinning the Skin	Opens a gateway to the Spirit world.	So fluffy it only lasts 30 seconds per year.
4	Willful Vitae	Caster becomes immune to increased Viniculum or blood addiction for one night.	Situational on how often your drinking Vampire blood, which usually is a bad idea.

Level Five

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
5	A Child from the Stones	Create a gargoyle, or deactivates another caster's creation.	Gold, but requires a little to a massive amount of investment. See below.
5	As One	Sacrifice creatures to outline an area, gain bonuses in said area.	Good, but is actually about ten rituals disguised as one, not all are equal. See below.
5	Blood Blight	Mortal takes lethal damage, vampire targets lose blood.	Good, but not always ideal. If you've maximised your pool can rock the house. Note that as it does not inflict damage but instead burns blood, it is not affected by the damage cap rules.
5	Crone's Revival	Embrace a childe, they start with Blood Potency two, Caster loses a Blood Potency.	SO FLUFFY YOU'RE GONNA DIE
5	Curse of Ahasverus	Target has Predator's taint to everyone for the rest of the night.	GOLD or USELESS. See below. Serious OOC complications possible.
5	Feeding the Crone	The caster's teeth begin to inflict aggravated damage, grappling is no longer necessary to bite, and activation successes are added to bite rolls. Feeding is impossible.	GOLD, but must be right build (Have Strength and Brawl Backup).
5	Ianus' Blessing	Temporarily changes the user's Blood Potency, either up or down	Not Sanctioned.
5	Roving Hut	May add Cruac dots to the Haven merit for one scene, warping the location in supernatural ways.	Situational. With feeding issues +5 Haven Location is good.

Miscellaneous

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
Miscellaneous	Love-Lies-Bleeding	Reduces the visibility of Diablerie marks in the caster's aura.	Not Sanctioned. That's a good thing.

Restricted Rituals

The Rituals detailed below require a particular group membership in order to learn them.

Spirit Cruac

Sufficiently unique it merits its own addenda/setting page, found over here.

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
2	Imperious Call	Summon and manifest a particular spirit.	Fluff
3	Servant From the Hidden Realms	Creates Essence, for the purpose of compelling a spirit to comply with commands.	Gold but ST dependent
3	Veiled Curse	Curses a mortal, they get screwed around by Spirits.	Fluff
4	Eternal Guardian of the Dark Moon	Links the caster and a spirit, with the latter protecting the former.	Gold but ST dependent

Crone Factions

These rituals can only be bought by Crone aligned with a specific group.

Regarding the Cheval versions: They are rubbish because they work exactly the same as Cheval, but add requirements or weaknesses that if you really want, you can just make up and still have the superior, normal version.

Ritual Level	Faction Name	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
2	Sipan	Dreaming the Other	Worse version of Cheval.	Rubbish.
2	Amanotsukai	Harai	Blesses a mortal subject whom the caster has recently drunk from, healing them or potentially reversing a morality loss	FLUFF
2	Disciples of Silence	Maya	Worse version of Cheval.	Rubbish.
2	Amanotsukai	Mononoke	Worse version of Cheval.	Rubbish.
3	People of the Land	Mother's Mark, The	Burns a mark into Kindred that, if desired, can be permanent and irremovable.	Fluff.
5	Sipan	Heart's Curse	Inflict a lethal damage roll on a target, no matter where they are.	Only once per night (addenda), lots of attached fluff.
5	Disciples of Silence	Regression	Blood Blight with unlimited range.	Flavour text limits it a lot.

Sethite Only

The following rituals can be purchased by members of the Seth Shadow Cult. Note that members of the Cult who are not Crone are limited to these Rituals:

• Level One: Pangs of Proserpina
• Level Two: Cheval, Hydra's Vitae
• Level Three: Touch of the Morrigan
• Level Four: None.
• Level Five: Blood Blight

As well as the following Rites Unique to the Cult:

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
1	Genius Loci	Curse an area, penalizing all social rolls except Intimidate.	Sethite Only, Fluff
2	Amemet's Pursuit	The next time the victim attempts to flee from the caster they instead approach.	Sethite Only, GOLD. Every Setite should take it.
3	Hand of Seth, The	Drives a possessing spirit out of a body.	Sethites Only, Fluff
4	Blade of Tu'at	Imbues a blade to really mess up Ghosts and Spirits	Sethite Only, Reserved by the MST office
4	Thrashing of Apep's Coils, The	Conjures sudden extreme weather.	Sethite Only, Fluff? Problematic in that it's mechanics are poorly defined. Possible to argue for being a superior version of "Rain"
5	Rite of Going Forth by Day	After eating the heart of a mortal, caster may project themselves in broad daylight, walking as a spirit.	Sethite Only, Stroke that fluffy wall

Bloodline Restricted

These Rituals are limited to specific Bloodlines, in general they are flufftastic.

Ritual Level	Bloodline	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
1	Mara	Mother's Touch, The	The ritual cuts her own eye and heals it in water, giving supernatural vision.
1		Boyar's Caul	Grants an image of a subject of interest, which helps with locating or identifying them in the future.
1		Tapas, Rituals of Penance	Rituals of Penance, multiple versions for different skills.
2		Gora Mukhi	Turns the caster into a terrifying monster that is exceptionally intimidating.	Not Sanctioned
2		Hawthorn Barrier	Creates an invisible barrier through which no vampire with lower blood potency may pass, lasting for several minutes.
2	Mara	Mother's Eye, The	The ritual cuts her own eye and heals it in the water, giving supernatural vision.
3	Yagnatia	Mother's Blessing, The	A special ritual of the Yagnatia bloodline, this ritual is the only method through which they may Embrace another.	Worse than fluff, as you need to take it for normal character tie options. Lame.

Rituals Requiring More Detail

Some rituals aren't so simple as cause/effect and bear further examination.

Painted Fears

Make a work of art, it can cause a Phobia in anyone that looks at it, the difficulty of the roll can be increased by investing more blood into it. You are not immune to the art's effects unless it depicts yourself.

Derangement's are awful for vampires in particular, because there default behaviour for such things usually becomes a fear frenzy. It's hard to fight effectively when fending off a Frenzy test.

Best Uses

• To create a statue of your God and sit it in front of the Lance Cathedral, or similar iterations
• Your picture painted on a shield with a covering. Unveil covering before the combat. Laugh at any foes that mess it up.
• A picture of your Haven....in your Haven. An addition to the other Haven Defence rituals.

Other Power Synergies

• Ritual - Tiamat Offspring/A Child From The Stones. Can create an artwork of your Creations and they can use it similar to the Shield fashion above. Or they can be smaller forms of your strategically placed Statue from earlier, so they in fact have a phobia of your Retainers.
• Nightmare Four - When used on someone denies them a turn, and can upgrade a derangement on the target, stepping up the Phobia to a Paranoia, which is harder to deal with.

Wisdom of the Soul

Re-roll. Any. Roll.

There is one Caveat here: You need to know when to use it and when to save it. If you make it through games without needing to use, it's still gold.

The things to hold it for:

1) Your escape power. You die, that's your story over. Live and wreak vengeance instead. Best clan powers to use it for in order: Majesty 5, Obfuscate 3/5, Dominate 2 (Used on most powerful attacker, either "Save me" or "Kill your allies")

2) Initiative roll to escape or get the first blow in a hit squad. If you have an escape power that is not draw reliant (Gangrel Mist form, Celerity speed) then you need to go first before you are attacked/Grappled. Case for desperation though. In a Hit Squad the target needs to be put down/grappled as quickly as possible before they activate their escape powers.

3) A buff power with successes dependent. If your build is reliant on getting numerous successes on a single roll and you botch it, then you may consider doing so. Keep the above points in mind as a higher priority, but sometimes you need those successes. Particularly applicable with Maw of the Crone.

Mask of Blood

Note that this ritual explicitly allows animal transformations. Whether or not you can use the animal particular unique abilities (i.e. flight) is up to the relevant ST.

If the above is worked out as a yes, then get a menagerie of animals and laugh at the limited forms of all the Gangrel (You have to burn 3xp for each form? You poor thing).

The key document for this Ritual is the Bestiary, which is the approved listing of all animals. Note that your attributes don't change, so alas you can't become a dog and have instant reasonable combat on hand.

Below are some of the better forms to pick after glancing at said Bestiary, it is by no means exhaustive.

Be wary of the Temporary Health rules.

Animal Abilities to Gain

If your ST is down for your bird form being able to fly and such, then the following forms are good:

• Bull - Gets Knockdown, Size 7 for some extra health.
• Condor - Flight with size 5, so you don't lose any health levels
• Shark - Swim and Bite capability with size 6

Additional Caveat if using the animal as your warrior mode: The biggest weapon bonus available to animals caps at 3L (i.e. Crocodile/Bear bite), if your after straight high numbers then a big sword (4L) is marginally better, though definitely less cool looking.

Animal Sizes That Rule

If your ST rules against you gaining the animal abilities, which probably isn't per the rules but is conceivably more balanced, you have the following:

• Elephant. Know you're going into your last fight? Elephant it up, go to Size 15, gain those TEN health levels, cast Maw of the Crone for further hilarity, then unleash yourself on the unsuspecting.
• Killer Whale. Water version of the Elephant.
• Anything small to slither/scrabble away with, such as a Snake or lizard

Other Power Synergies

• Willful Vitae - Use a Gangrel buddy to drink a blood while they are an animal, assume their form and ignore the blood addiction rules (Which are bad).
• A Child From the Stones - Construct your Gargoyles with a length of PVC or similar pipe in them. Keep a pet snake in your sleeve at all times. When things go bad, turn into a snake, slither into the pipe, they have to go through a ten health level Retainer that fights back to get to you.
• Obfuscate - Similar to above, have a dozen snakes on you. Assume snake form when danger happens. Let all the snakes slither away, while you Obfuscate, hidden in your clothes, or slither away with them. Can be done at Ob 2 at lowest, as you need to hide your beast from other Vampires.

Sacrifice of Odin

Definitely the best level four Ritual, Sacrifice comes with a few teething problems.

Specifically, you have to hack off an otherwise completely fine and useful bit of yourself.

This inflicts an Aggravated damage and a penalty on tasks related to the body part.

A key point of this unfortunate disadvantage is that as long as you don't heal the injury you keep the benefit of the Ritual. That means you could buy this ritual, cast it once and leave it at that.

First issue to deal with: An aggravated Damage level. Particularly for a combat build this is a bad thing. You can adjust for it either by building an exceptionally survivable build, or there is a cheesier option, though your ST may very well say no and throw a book at you. If you cast the ritual and have a single level of Resilience active, then it only does a Lethal damage, which is a lot less problematic. By the rules it works, don't be surprised if the ST says no.

Second issue is what your lopping off. The options are limited, and very much depend on what your character is good at. Note that the Ritual write up specifically puts a -3 penalty on related actions, arguably you could buy some manner of prosthetic to counter this somewhat as an equipment bonus, once more that is up to your ST. Your options of item-to-lose are:

1. An eye - A possible prospect for the combat characters or those whose investigation/notice rolls suck anyway. You are one potential hit from being blinded, which sucks, so be wary of it.
2. A foot - Probably the best one to take away, it affects your running speed and such
3. A hand - Not that bad for a number of builds, particularly if you've elected for a ranged or Maw of the Crone focused combat capability.

Other Power Synergies

The point of this Rite is to boost any power or roll in a superior fashion. If you have the ritual and the four dots of Cruac, this ritual should be coming up. The thing this Rite needs is Willpower renewal, gained from:

• Confidence in Adversity - See the Ritual ratings above. Don't forget to mock Thebanites when you get the WP point back
• Inspiring - Requires a group action and a high Presence stat. Group actions are easy, as the Circle is a Church, and a sermon can be done as an action by a group. Simple.
• Vice/Virtue - Not so simple or easy, ST dependent.

Tiamat Offspring/A Child From The Stones

These Rituals are unique, as there actual affect due to the addenda is the ability to buy the unique Homunculi/Gargoyle Retainers.

Important distinctions between regular retainers and these guys:

• They ignore the stat limits for standard retainers in the Universal addenda
• Their base stats are not changeable, they automatically have there stats given in the book
  • These stats are pretty good
• They are not typically worth spending experience to increase them above one dot
• You craft Gargoyles rather than finding/training/teaching people

These distinctions create a number of topics, the first of which is...

Crafting

A bloody guide in a guide....

In addition to that expensive as hell Cruac, those combat stats for your Maw of the Crone rocking on, the blood gaining mechanics you need to deal and the retainer dots you have to purchase, you may also have to contend with crafting rolls to get your Gargoyles (Note that a portion of the Homunculi ritual is birthing your new creature. As per the Addenda, not necessarily the case here, as all the ritual does is allow you to buy the dots, but bear the following in mind in case).

The important things to deal with here:

• Each crafting roll takes ONE hour. It is not one roll for a downtime action, it is multiple.
• Crafting rolls are extended actions. The successes you've accumulated for it do not go away if your character has to do something else (The statue your half way through carving does not morph back into a marble block....)
• There is a set amount of successes needed to create a Gargoyle (40, which is not a small amount)

Boosting Your Crafting Draw

Attribute - Dexterity: Given the options below, your need to craft Gargoyles should not affect your level of Dexterity, either you need it for other things or you have a low level of it.

Skill - Craft: The cheaper option, a good place to throw spare creation dots after buying up Occult.

Equipment - Workshop: Like armour is to combat, Workshops/Tools and such are the free (Experience wise) bonuses to your crafting stuff. The cost is entirely fluff. Throw a boon to the rich Invictus, it'll be worth it. Equipment bonuses to cap out at +5 however (Potential equipment: Plans, drawings, quality materials, Chisels, etc.)

Derived Stat - Willpower: In the TT system you get Willpower quite frequently, burn as you can.

Ritual - Confidence of Adversity: For the event willpower costs are problematic, craft, burn willpower, then do an action that matters less to do so without 10 again.

Ritual - Fires of Inspiration: Straight boost to your craft roll equal to your Cruac, which if you are crafting Gargoyles should be nice and high.

Ritual - Painted Fears, see the expanded write up for Painted Fears above.

Crafting Alternate Shapes

One of the key points of the versatility of these retainers is there is a degree of malleability in their appearance and shape. Note that their size is a static amount, so a Gargoyle cannot be made the size of Godzilla.

Humonculi: Less versatile than the Gargoyles due to their defined parameters, their options are limited to an animal form or a same size alien shape, which carries a slight penalty to some stats for it. Good options to craft on: Hooked/rough hands/feet/tentacles for climbing, pouch/slot for knives (See Combat Uses)

Gargoyles: This is where it is at. Size 5 is human, to get to size 6 you have to be damn sight bigger. Consider how much you can stretch out a human in volumetric terms. You can also use alternate materials to create them, as they have a Stamina mechanic for their health it doesn't matter (If they gained durability it would, but that would also be monstrous).

Using Your Minions

Combat Uses

Humonculi: High Dex, small athletics and few health levels mean that these things are best crafted in an Octopus/Chimp form (Or small many armed abomination if you want), given thrown knives, told to clamber up the roof (Or hang around on you if your strong enough to do it without penalty) and throw away. Their attack pool isn't massive, but they do have to be dealt with, and retainers are there to be expended. Attacks on Retainers are attacks not done on you. Experience can be earned again, the same is not true of your character. Also look into using Glass knives in Armory, better to not hand a weapon over and have one that shatters on impact.

Gargoyles: Gargoyles don't need much changed, they are statted to stand around until they can stab something. The only thing worth doing is decking them out with the best armour and weapons you can (I recommend the Halberd and Riot Armour). Train them to surround a target and attack away, remembering that all out attack is a thing and usually worth doing, given that Gargoyle Defence is rubbish and they cost 2xp each.

Non-Combat Uses

Humonculi: Perfect Cheval targets. Tell them to climb in the ducts, or better yet craft them into being parts of the room and cast your rite before the gathering.

Gargoyles: Also Cheval targets, though they can also be built into a lot of fluffy/useful items. Things that have come up before:

• Gargoyle Throne. It carries itself around!
• As a door, crafting one eye/ear either side. Cheval it. Use it as the door to whatever meeting room is around. Spy at your leisure. Also doors that can eat people are gold.
• Make it primarily be arms, and hang it from a corridor. Anyone walking through has to clamber through the arms. Hilarity can ensue.

As One

This is not one ritual, it is eight, disguised as one. You can buy it multiple times for the different uses. All the below require at least three sacrifices to be used

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
5	As One - Eyes of the Wise	When you meet someone in the area, you immediately learn something about them	Fluff
5	As One - Make Straight the Royal Highway	While walking/running, ignore penalties. Can ignore one impassable barrier.	Fluff unless there is an impassable barrier
5	As One - Immortal Viands	Instead of paying a blood to awaken, something is damaged/destroyed in the area	Fluff
5	As One - The Very Stones Defend Me	Once per night, the land attacks someone in the area at the Casters wish	Situational, can be used for multiple damage source stacking
5	As One - Cowan's Mark	Inflict someone in the area with the Nosferatu Clan Weakness	Fluff
5	As One - The Trees Give Voice	Once per night interrogate a Spirit about what happened in the area	Good for Investigation
5	As One - Taste the Blood of the Spirit	Caster knows when Discipline/Magic is happening in the area	Good for warning situations, can be used as a find power in certain circumstances
5	As One - Sanctuary	Declare an area safe	Potential as escape power.

Curse of Ahasverus

Predator's Taint. All night long. Every time the target interacts with someone.

Think about that for a minute.

Realise how devastating that is in the context of a social game, where each occasion is a group of twenty plus mobile characters.

Consider that Predators Taint causes Frenzy rolls, and sooner or later you will fail a roll if made enough times. The Victim will be making a lot of rolls.

Finally, work out that this ritual is too devastating to be used on a PC.

There may be circumstances where it is okay to use this power, but they should be rare. If the ST is happy for you to have it then put it in the arsenal, but consider this before every casting:

Would you still think it was worth going to game if it happened to you.

Sample Builds

The Rituals in italics are the best of that level for what you want to do.

The Default Package

This is what I consider each Crone should have:

• Level One: Confidence in Adversity
• Level Two: Cheval, Prey's Blood (Gangrel only), Succulent Buboes (Feeding dependent), Wisdom of the Soul

The Prophet

This build can be stopped at any level, though the higher it goes the better it gets.

Note that prophecy powers are limited by a lot of realistic issues, such VST planning, inclination to give you plot info and the fact they can't know exactly what's going to happen.

This build can probably be stopped at any level, but the higher the better.

• Level One: Drops of Destiny, Taste of Knowledge
• Level Two: Wisdom of the Soul
• Level Three: Rain, Taste of Destiny
• Level Four: Eye of Norn
• Level Five: As One

Note: Rain is there for weather predicting shenanigans.

The Cruac Warrior

For warriors of the Crone.

• Level One: Balancing the Four Humours, Confidence in Adversity
• Level Two: Maiden Skin, Succulent Buboes
• Level Three: Hag Mask

The Boris Build

Expensive as all hell to get going. If you can afford it though it can wreck face.

• Level One: Balancing the Four Humours, Confidence in Adversity
• Level Two: Cheval, Maiden Skin, Succulent Buboes
• Level Three: Deodand, Hag Mask
• Level Four: Sacrifice of Odin
• Level Five: A Child From the Stone, Blood Blight, Maw of the Crone,

Ramp up your Maw of the Crone with a +5 willpower point via Sacrifice of Odin, preferably using an Altar and Necropolis merits if you have them. Maiden and Hags mask for Defence, use Blood Blight for Celerity Defence Monkeys you can't hit, use Succulent Buboes and Gargoyles with Deodand weapons to regain Vitae.

Bonus stuff to have: Heaviest armour possible, Celerity, Health.

Footnotes

Killbox: A situation that is inescapable by the victim.

Temporary Health: Sucks hard. When the source of your temporary health goes away, the damage sustained by those health levels don't go away, they double up on you. This means temporary health is a short delusion whose best aspect is allowing you additional time to burn blood to heal. If your into Aggravated damage with your temporary health, outside of some rare powers your a walking corpse, doomed to ash soon.

Meditation Rolls: A mechanic utilising two attributes and best combined with the Meditative mind merit. An annoyance to deal with.