* Sense Quickening: Some immortals gain this ability even before they suffer their first death, since they still are considered to have a Quickening of 1. This ability is similar to the level 1 Prime spell Sense Quintessence (see Mage): using this ability, an immortal will sense another immortal nearby. No specific information on the immortal's identity is given, nor is the location of the immortal known, merely that the immortal is near.
Sense Quickening also allows the immortal to sense when they are standing on holy ground. Likewise, an immortal can sometimes sense other beings with free quintessence in them (such as Mages and Kindred), although a perception roll may be necessary for this. Usually, no roll is needed for sensing holy ground, and sensing other immortals is usually left to Storyteller's discretion (to pick a dramatic moment.)
Same Room : 0-1
Same Building : 1-3
Same Block : 2-5
1 Mile : 3-7
Small City : 5-10
Medium City : 10-17
Larger : Impossible
* Breathe Water: With this ability, immortals may survive indefinitely underwater, drawing oxygen from the water. This is not the same as not breathing: it has been shown that immortals do breathe, and that poison gas will affect them (although it cannot kill them). Total absence of air will reduce the immortal to incapacitated after a certain length of time, and he won't recover until he can, once more, breath.
** Empower Weapon: Often in both movie and series, the clash of swords during a battle between two immortals is accompanied by electrical discharge. Using their Quickening, immortals can enfuse their weapon with raw power, causing them to do more damage, and also causing the discharges shown. An immortal can empower any edged melee weapon in this way (axe, sword, knife). One additional damage success is scored per success rolled (see Quickening Dice above for details).
Note: The extra damage done by Empower Weapon is aggravated, although the normal damage done by the weapon is not.
Example: Duncan swings his trusty katana (difficulty 6, Strength + 5 damage), and hits. He rolls Str 3 + 5 = 8 dice for damage, difficulty 6 (using the Vampire 2nd edition rules), to determine damage. Since his katana is empowered, however, he rolls an additional 5 dice for his 5 Quickening, also against difficulty 6. Any successes scored on this roll count as aggravated damage. The defender gets one soak roll against both damages, and soaks aggravated first.
** Heal Self: In Chapter Four, the "normal" healing chart for immortals is given. Using their Quickening, however, an immortal may choose to heal even faster from wounds received. By taking a round and rolling Quickening, an immortal may heal a number of wound levels equal to the successes rolled. Note that this is done once per wound only, the rest must heal normally. Note also that if an immortal is taken to incapacitated (or beyond) before he has a chance to heal, he must first heal to crippled, then roll his dice in Heal Self. Also, aggravated wounds may not be healed in this manner, and must heal according to the chart.
Example: Richie the new immortal gets in a fight with an unsuspecting group of gang toughs, and after finishing them off he begins to recover from his wounds. Three wounds (3/1/2 levels) for a total of six wound levels (crippled). He rolls his Quickening of 2, healing 1 from the first, healing the second, and getting no successes on the third wound, over a period of three rounds. The remaining four wound levels must heal normally (which means he'll be fully healed in little over a half hour).
** Know Languages : With this ability, an Immortal may tap the mind of a mortal and learn language of the particular area. The knowledge imparted will last one full day. The ability can not be used to learn anything about the culture, history, or written language, it only imparts the spoken language. This ability seems to be a small effect of The Last.
** Heightened Senses: With this ability, all five of the Immortals senses are sharpened to an extraordinary degree. (As Auspex power)
*** Empower Self: Using his Quickening, an immortal may increase his physical attributes, by one for every success rolled. The effect lasts for an entire scene, and is usually done only during challenges. After using Empower Self, an immortal will feel weak (-1 to dice pool) for an hour or more.
Example: Connor squares off with Fasil, and the battle begins. Connor rolls his Quickening of 7, gaining four successes, and puts two points into Stamina and two in Dexterity. Fasil is in trouble.
**** Strength of Ages : The Immortal possess a degree of strength that outstrips any humans. The Immortal can use this ability, to recover any strength related physical traits lost during the session.
**** Speed of the Stag: Like Empower Self, an immortal may use his Quickening to increase his actions in a turn (much like the vampiric discipline of Celerity). One extra action may be gained per success rolled, and the extra actions last for an entire scene. As with Empower Self, the immortal will feel weak for some time after using this power.
**** Thoughts of the Beast : Another ability tied to The Last is the ability to sense the thoughts and feelings of an animal. The Immortal must be in direct line of sight of the animal. A static challenge of one mental trait is tested to determine if the Immortal can 'connect' with the beast.
****True Sight: At level four an Immortal gains the ability to use his quickening as almost a radar. Within the range of his quickening zone an Immortal can use the quickening for several sensory capabilities. The most basic is to use it to "see" when blinded or in the dark. This capability is automatic and is based on the Immortal’s ability to perceive free quintessence so nothing hampering visual sight will hamper this ability. An Immortal’s quickening can also be used to examine people or items. True sight grants an Immortal the ability of to use his zone of quickening feel things with much more precision than the level one ability (Sense Quickening) which can sense quintessence, blood, rage, etc. The higher level ability allows the Immortal to gain incite into the nature of the creature by how their power source reacts with the quickening. When it is used this way the Immortal rolls his quickening dice and is able to discern certain things about the subject based upon his or her number of successes..
1 success: Nature of the creature/Item (vampire, werewolf, magi, bound spirit, etc.)
2 successes: The creature or items aura (as per level 2 auspex)
3 successes: Current amount of quintessence, blood, rage, quickening, sepkum, etc.
4 successes: Disciplines, gifts, spheres, etc.
5 successes: Subclass (clan, breed, type of spirit, etc.)
If the Immortal has never seen something before he may be unable to recognize it.
The quickening radar also gives the Immortal the ability to see through illusions (chimery, obfuscate, illusion (mental and physical) magic, etc.). The Immortal gets his quickening dice as counter magic or contested roll vs. any attempt to magically or pseudo magically alter the appearance or existence of an object or person. Once an Immortal as pierced an illusion he or she may spend a willpower point to attempt to have reality reassert itself. This is an Immortals first inkling of access to the prize. The Immortal can enlist the aid of other to help him disbelieve the illusion on a grand scale. However this is not easy the target number for the roll is (sources willpower - quickening +6) or 7 whichever is higher.
***** Ignore Wounds: At this level, the immortal's recuperative powers have become so potent that they no longer need spend time to heal. One wound level is healed each round, with no roll required (although an immortal may still take a round to heal more, using the level 2 power Heal Self). Also at this level, an immortal may heal aggravated wounds as if they were normal wounds, using Heal Self above.
Example: The Kurgan, after ending the pitiful Ramirez's life and taking his Quickening, stops to rest. Ramirez had one lucky swing that nearly took the Kurgan's head, doing four normal wounds and one aggravated. The four normal wound levels healed over the next four rounds, and the Kurgan takes a round to heal the aggravated wound after the battle is over. A scar is left on his throat, however, to remind him of how close Ramirez's blade came...
***** Steel Mind : With this ability the mind of the Immortal becomes impenetrable. By spending a Quickening Trait, the Immortal gains four mental traits which to use against any psychic attacks (Domination, Presence, etc). Further more, the Immortal wins any ties in these challenges.
***** Resilience : With this level of ability, an Immortal can attempt to reduce an aggravated wound level to a regular wound level. The Immortal can only attempt to reduce each individual aggravated wound once.
***** Calming the Beast : Once an Immortal attains this level of ability, he can calm an enraged animal (not supernatural). The Immortal must spend one Quickening Trait and then enters a static challenge (bidding one mental trait). If successful, the animal will no longer be enraged and will become docile (though the Immortal can not control the animal)
****** Illusions: At this point, the Immortal gains power similar to that of the discipline Chimestry. He may use one quickening point to attain the next level in chimestry.
****** Read the World: At level six an Immortal has begun to reach for the prize. The thoughts feelings and emotions of the world are just outside of his reach. At this level an Immortal can spend a willpower point and reach out to the world seeking the best and brightest and borrow a single ability (skill, talent, or knowledge). The Immortal rolls his quickening dice to determine the skill level he has temporarily acquired. The ability lasts for the entire scene an Immortal can’t borrow more than one ability at a time.
The Immortal can also try and read the individual thoughts of people within the range of his quickening. The Immortal expends a willpower point and rolls his quickening against the subjects willpower. And can read the thoughts depending upon how successful his read is. The Immortal can ask one question for each level of successes about things no deeper than the number of successes scored. The questions are fairly broad (not "Have you heard of Father Ernest?" but "What have you heard about Father Ernest?")
Botch: Target is aware of something.
No Successes: Nothing
1 Success: The Immortal gets a sense of the targets emotional state and where the emotions are focused.
2 Successes: The Immortal can read the surface thoughts of the target.
3 Successes: The Immortal can read memory.
4+ Successes: The Immortal can read deep unconscience thoughts.
James the Immortal wants some information from Harry the crime boss. As it happens James doesn’t have time to coax the information out of Harry so he extends his quickening into Harry’s mind. He spends a willpower and rolls his quickening dice against a target number of Harry’s willpower. Since Harry has a 7 willpower the target number is a 7. James rolls gets 3 successes. Allowing James to ask 3 questions about Harry’s emotions, surface thoughts or things Harry has witnessed.
****** Calling of the Blade : By the time the Immortal has gained this level of experience, they are so in tune with their weapon that it can be called forth in a moment of need.
****** Puissance : An Immortal who has obtained this degree of strength is dangerous indeed. The Immortal using this can cut through steel beams, concrete girders, and stone. The Immortal inflicts an extra level of damage and wins all ties regarding Physical tests.
****** Animal Friendship : With this ability, the Immortal has reached a level of experience where he can command an animal to perform simple tasks (sit, fetch, attack). An additional power is that an Immortal can use Calming the Beast to bring a Garou out of Rage and Kindred out of Frenzy.
*******Teleportation : With this ability, an Immortal can instantly transport himself over any distance with no chance of error. The Immortal need not actually know of the place, just minimal information on the area (a particular Immortal is there, etc). The more information the more precise the teleportation will be. An Immortal can only teleport once an hour, due to the stresses incurred by the teleportation.
******** Shadows : This is not an Ancient ability, per se, but a rare one indeed. The ability allows an Immortal to project thought images and feelings to another person, perhaps as a short message or as an attack. If used as an attack (to disorientate or confuse), the two characters must enter a simple test. If the target attacked fails the test, he/she loses 1 Mental, 1 Social, and 1 Physical trait, for the rest of the game. The ability can be used any number of times during a game, as long as the Immortal has the Quickening traits to bid. The cost of this ability is 1-3 Quickening Traits, depending on the complexity, duration, etc. The range of the ability can extend beyond the range of automatic detection of an Immortal, but must be within line of sight.
******** Shape shifting : Another ability that the legendary Immortal Wizard possessed was shape shifting. By expending three Quickening Traits, the Immortal can shift his shape into any animal form. Through this form of magic any animal shape can be attained (conservation of mass does not apply) and the abilities of the animal can be used (birds flying, venom sacks of a snake). Anything carried by the Immortal shifts briefly from this world to some level of the Umbra. Once the Immortal shifts back to his human form the items return to him. Shifting back to human form costs nothing. The entire process of shifting into an animal form takes less than four seconds.
