Vampire perks

[Bicorn]

I've been thinking of possible perks to offer specifically for vampire characters. Comments/critique? Suggestions for new ones?

Analgesic Bite
Your bite dulls pain; if you're feeding stealthily, the victim will not notice the bite unless they succeed in a Per-2 roll. As an additional effect, if the victim has a Chronic Pain disadvantage or similar condition localised to the body part you bit the pain penalty from the condition is halved for one hour per hit point you consumed from them.

Blood Connoisseur (type)
Your vampiric ability is 50% more efficient when used on a specific sort of victim; i.e. each two points drained from the right kind of victim counts as three. The chosen type should be moderately uncommon among potential targets; e.g. "redheads", "adult female virgins" or "clinically insane people".
(This one might be too strong. Suggestions for toning it down?)

Clean Feeding
Your victims recover from your predations more easily than normal; after feeding they get +2 to rolls to recover the lost hit points and to avoid secondary bleeding, infection etc. from the bite. This bonus ends once all points lost have been recovered, by whatever means.

Corpse Feeder
You can feed on the dead, as long as they're fresh - either recently dead (within an hour or so) or somehow preserved (via freezing, etc; embalmed corpses have no blood.) This is less effective than feeding from a live victim; it takes 10 seconds to heal one hp/fp, and the most you can get from one corpse is equal to one-fifth the maximum hp it had before death.

Exotic Feeding Method
You have an alternate means of drawing blood from a victim; e.g. forming a second mouth in the palm of your hand, extruding hollow sucking needles from your fingertips, or extending out a proboscis. You can also use a normal bite instead, but cannot feed using both methods at the same time.
Each alternate feeding method is a separate perk.
(If you can only feed through the special method, and don't have a regular bite attack, it's just a special effect on the Vampiric Bite advantage and costs no points unless, by GM's judgement, it makes feeding more convenient.)

Pleasurable Bite
Being bitten by you feels good. After you bite someone, you get +2 to social influence skills made for the purpose of persuading them to let you bite them again, not report you to vampire hunters, etc. (Obviously, if you bit them without consent this'll only partially offset a large penalty.)

Subtle Bite
Your feeding leaves much less evidence than usual; perhaps your feeding apparatus makes a neater wound than the typical vampire fangs, or you are able to make the wound close quickly. Noticing the mark you leave on a victim requires a Per-5 roll. (Per-2 on close inspection, or unmodified Per if the examiner is specifically looking for bite marks.) Assuming normal healing rate, every day that passes after feeding gives a further cumulative -1 to the roll.

Vampiric Mimicry
After feeding from someone you gain +2 to Acting, Disguise, and Mimicry rolls made for the purpose of mimicking the victim for one hour per hit point consumed.

[Pursuivant]

These perks seem like lower level disciplines or basic abilities for vampires in the Vampire: The Masquerade RPG and its sequels, but look fine for vampires and similar blood suckers in other campaigns.

Obviously, they're useless to anyone who doesn't have the Vampiric Bite or Leech advantages.

Suggestions to tone down the Blood Connoisseur perk: extra benefits fade after a short period of time (e.g., 1 hour), extra benefits only apply to a specific vampiric power which must be stated when you buy the perk.

The Exotic Feeding Method perk might be a bit too powerful, particularly if you've got an extra mouth built into your hand or fingers, allowing a longer ranged, more efficient attack by grappling. It can be limited if the exotic feeding method only applies to helpless victims.

The rest of them look good as is.

[pawsplay]

Analgesic Bite seems strong, almost like an Affliction riding on the bite.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

Analgesic Bite seems strong, almost like an Affliction riding on the bite.

See Bio-tech p.149. You can get a -1 or 2 to Pain by taking aspirin. That's full body too of course an lasts for 4-6 hours by default.

True abuse of the beneficial effects of this Perk seems unlikely.

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

The Exotic Feeding Method perk might be a bit too powerful, particularly if you've got an extra mouth built into your hand or fingers, allowing a longer ranged, more efficient attack by grappling. It can be limited if the exotic feeding method only applies to helpless victims.

Hmm, not sure if it makes much difference since Vampiric Bite already specifies it can only be used on a helpless, grappled or consenting target; perhaps the perk could be reworded to make it clearer that it doesn't bypass those limitations.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

Hmm, not sure if it makes much difference since Vampiric Bite already specifies it can only be used on a helpless, grappled or consenting target

And that's what I get for not reading the Vampiric Bite description. I withdraw my criticism of the perk. It's cool and creepy.

[jason taylor]

Shapeshifting: Dracula could actually become a vapor.

Dreaded

Dream Communication: Simone could communicate in dreams

Contact: sorcerer

Patron: Satan (does not necessarily apply to a Refugee Vampire like Simone, definitely applies to you-know-who).

Appearance: Attractive

Sex Appeal

Some of these would be advantages or skills, but Dream Communication is a Perk as few have reason to use it.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

Blood Connoisseur Suggestions for toning it down?

Adds one point to the total points drained (regardless of total, but non-zero of course).

Connoisseurs don't typically gorge themselves, and this encourages many small feedings over one large one -- like the tasting room at a winery. That does, of course, generally take a lot more time to arrange. But connoisseurs often like to sample widely (cheese plates, charcuterie boards, drink flights...) And they don't generally fixate on one variety, best in all circumstances, but savor the distinctive subtle differences.

Each connoisseur can decide for themselves whether they want to optimize their feeding for minimal victims (and poorest ratio of bonus points) or highest efficiency (up to twice as effective, but requiring more victims).

If you want a trait to encourage specialization, then make that a Quirk, which penalizes feeding from the wrong types (2 for three, to invert the previous ratio, or a flat -1 to mirror this Perk). "Doesn't benefit as much from most sources" lands somewhere on the Disad scale, rather than being an Advantage. It's all in what you pick as a baseline and how you phrase the trait :)

Compare Increased/Reduced Consumption for scaling in full-bore traits.

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Adds one point to the total points drained (regardless of total, but non-zero of course).

Connoisseurs don't typically gorge themselves, and this encourages many small feedings over one large one -- like the tasting room at a winery. That does, of course, generally take a lot more time to arrange. But connoisseurs often like to sample widely (cheese plates, charcuterie boards, drink flights...) And they don't generally fixate on one variety, best in all circumstances, but savor the distinctive subtle differences.

That sounds workable. How do you determine when you're again eligible for the extra point, though? Once per day, once per day per victim, once per specific victim ever...?

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

How do you determine when you're again eligible for the extra point, though?

What, if anything, limits vampire feeding in the setting?

Just off the top of my head, I'll suggest having to wait until the victim has healed from previous vampire-inflicted injury. (That is, measured in days, depending on setting TL and medical skill. And I do mean to imply any other vampire, if for no other reason than to make the vamps a little territorial. But it would probably still work if it were just the one specific vampire.) If there's magical healing in the setting, you might decide that such simply can't heal vamp injuries -- natural healing only -- or maybe you're fine with the vamps recruiting a willing -- or unwilling -- healer to keep the process rolling.

If you like the "sample a variety" notion, add the constraint that the vamp must have fed from at least one other victim in the meantime. Just for color, really; nothing would stop one from arranging a sufficiently big party for the vamp to be satiated. But then, encouraging that sort of response would be the point of the constraint. The limit is largely "soft", extra time and trouble and effort in a narrative sense, rather than a hard mechanic.