Jahn's Guide to Cruac

Under Construction

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 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 frenzying 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 Sacrifice of Odin, a level 4 ritual.

On his first turn, he rolls average, and gets 2 successes. As a level 4 ritual, that's not enough.

The next turn, he rolls again, and gets 2 success. Never the less, that adds up to 4, enough total successes for the ritual required.

Note that it is best to have a high enough pull to succeed on your first roll.

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 ingame 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 exhorbiatant 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.

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 cna build to the former and have a modest Cruac pull, or you can go for the second which requires some stacking.

Boosting Your Cruac Draw

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

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

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”)

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.

That damn Chicago ritual: Check book for name of Cruac boosting rite

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:

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 Necroplis 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.

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

Appropriate Rituals for you!

This does not cover all rituals.

I've mentioned in the notes column if you should "pre-cast" rituals at game start.

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 dissapearing 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 dependen on their views. If relatively risk free, may well replace the need for the above merits.

Level One

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
1	Abduction to the Underworld/The Appeasement of Demeter
1	Balancing the Four Humors	Renders the caster immune to dice penalties from environmental hazards for one night.
1	Blood Witness	Smear an area with Vitae. May remotely observe the area from the spilled blood
1	Boyar's Caul	Grants an image of a subject of interest, which helps with locating or identifying them in the future.
1	Confidence in Adversity	Caster loses 10-Again on all rolls, but regains one Willpower at the end of the scene.
1	Drop's of Destiny	Generates a cryptic prophecy
1	Fires of Inspiration	For one night, add Crúac to all Craft or Expression rolls to create art, but penalizes rolls to create anything else.
1	Genius Loci	Curse an area, penalizing all social rolls except Intimidate.
1	Mother's Touch, The
1	Pangs of Prosperina	The target is overcome with hunger and must feed, be they kindred, mortal, or other.
1	Pythian Renewal	The subject appears to grow twenty years younger for a number of hours.
1	Rigor Mortis	Target Vampire suffers a penalty equal to the successes on their next physical action.
1	Spring Sanctification
1	Tapas, Rituals of Penance
1	Taste of Knowledge	Used during feeding, this ritual allows the caster to learn one secret of immediate importance to the victim.
1	Visage of the Crone	the subject appears to age ten years for a number of hours.

Level Two

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
2	Amemet's Pursuit	the next time the subject attempts to flee from the caster they instead approach.
2	Barrier of Blood	Blood must be applied to doors and other portals; for 24 hours, vampires with less blood potency than the caster cannot voluntarily cross the barrier without suffering damage.
2	Cernunno's Horn
2	Cheval	the victim's senses may be shared by the caster at will for one night per success.
2	Dreaming the Other
2	Gora Mukhi
2	Harai	Blesses a mortal subject whom the caster has recently drunk from, healing them or potentially reversing a morality loss
2	Hawthorn Barrier	Creates an invisible barrier through which no vampire with lower blood potency may pass, lasting for several minutes.
2	Heliolater's Warning, The	Adds to all Wits pools to wake up in response to sunlight, and to the humanity roll to how long to stay awake, for one night.
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.
2	Imperious Call	Summon and manifest a particular spirit.
2	Maiden Skin	Grants armor against attacks that would break the skin equal to activation successes
2	Maya
2	Mononoke
2	Mother's Eye, The
2	Painted Fears
2	Path of Thorns	Creates a field surrounding the caster, any entering it suffer damage from spiritual thorns, which lasts for several turns. The caster is not able to pass this barrier unaffected.
2	Prey's Blood	Gain significant bonuses to track a mortal, or penalized ones to track Kindred.
2	Rex Sanguis Sacrorum
2	Rite of the Bloody Crossroads
2	Rite of the Circle Path
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.
2	Succulent Buboes	Transfer Vitae from within the body into lymph nodes, potentially storing Vitae well above what Blood Potency would allow.
2	Wisdom of the Soul	Enter a trance and create a prophetic work of art; may later re-roll any one roll that night.

Level Three

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
3	Beloved Deodand
3	Blood Portrait
3	Deflection of Wooden Doom
3	Doorways of Eyes and Mind
3	Final Service of the Slave
3	Fire the Cauldron
3	Flower od Demeter
3	Hag Mask
3	Hand of Seth, The
3	Metamorphosis
3	Mother's Blessing, The
3	Mother's Mark, The
3	Rain
3	Servant From the Hidden Realms
3	Song of the Blood
3	Taste of Destiny
3	Tiamat Offspring
3	Tickblood
3	Touch of the Morrigan
3	Veiled Curse

Level Four

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
4	Blade of Tu'at
4	Bleeding the Tarantula
4	Blood Price
4	Eternal Guardian of the Dark Moon
4	Eye of the Norn
4	Fount of Wisdom
4	Mask of Blood
4	Sacrifice of Odin
4	Thrashing of Apep's Coils, The
4	Willful Vitae

Level Five

Ritual Level	Ritual Name	Rough Synopsis	Notes
5	A Child from the Stones
5	As One
5	Blood Blight
5	Crone's Revival
5	Curse of Ahasverus
5	Feeding the Crone
5	Heart's Curse
5	Ianus' Blessing
5	Regression
5	Rite of Going Forth by Day
5	Roving Hut

To be checked: Love-Lies-Bleeding

Rituals with Extra Details

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

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: Wisdom of the Soul, Cheval

The Spy

For any information gatherer:

• Level One: Blood Witness
• Level Two: Cheval