Attributes

Attributes measure your character’s innate capacities — what they’re capable of before training or study. Every vampire has at least 1 dot in every attribute. Attributes are divided into three categories of three.

Rating scale: 1 = Poor, 2 = Average, 3 = Good, 4 = Exceptional, 5 = Outstanding. Vampires may exceed 5 dots through blood expenditure (temporarily) up to Generation maximum.

Physical

Physical attributes govern the body — raw capability in the world of flesh and force.

Strength

Raw muscular power. Determines how hard you hit, how much you lift, how far you jump, how effectively you break things.

Used for: Melee damage rolls, Brawl damage, lifting/carrying/breaking, leaping. Boosted by Potence; can be raised with blood expenditure.

Dexterity

Speed, agility, reflexes, coordination, and grace of movement. Covers both gross motor (running, dodging) and fine motor (lockpicking, surgery).

Used for: Attack rolls (all weapons and Brawl), Stealth, Drive, Firearms, most physical action. Boosted by Celerity.

Stamina

Physical endurance, toughness, and resilience. Determines how much punishment you absorb and how long you can sustain exertion.

Used for: Soak rolls (with or without Fortitude), resistance to diseases and poisons, sustained effort over time. Boosted by Fortitude.

Social

Social attributes govern interpersonal capability — how you affect others and how they perceive you.

Charisma

The ability to influence through personality. Warmth, force of presence, natural leadership. This is the pull you exert without manipulation — people like you, trust you, follow you.

Used for: Leadership rolls, Oration, Presence Discipline, Entrancement, performance situations. Differs from Manipulation: Charisma wins hearts; Manipulation steers them.

Manipulation

Getting others to do what you want through indirect means — guile, implication, flattery, misdirection, subtext. Manipulation doesn’t require honesty or even goodwill toward the target.

Used for: Deception, fast-talk, Dominate Discipline, Subterfuge-based rolls, most social attacks. High Manipulation + low Charisma = calculating operator. High Charisma + low Manipulation = genuine leader.

Appearance

Physical attractiveness, personal style, and the impression you make before you speak. High Appearance opens doors. Low Appearance closes them. For Nosferatu, this attribute is permanently 0.

Used for: Seduction Approach rolls (Step 1), first-impression social situations, some Presence powers. Also a social weapon that cuts both ways — being unforgettable serves and endangers.

Mental

Mental attributes govern cognitive ability — how you process information, reason, and respond to the unexpected.

Perception

The ability to notice and interpret what’s happening around you — both consciously (active observation) and intuitively (something’s wrong before you know what). Not just eyesight; all senses plus pattern recognition.

Used for: Alertness rolls, detecting deception, noticing hidden threats, Auspex Discipline base rolls, Investigation. Enhanced by Auspex’s Heightened Senses.

Intelligence

Reasoning, memory, problem-solving, and the ability to work with abstract concepts. Does not determine how much you know — that’s Knowledges. Determines what you can do with what you know.

Used for: Research, puzzles, planning, Academics, Medicine, Science. High Intelligence with low Knowledges = brilliant but ignorant. The reverse = well-read but uncreative.

Wits

Thinking on your feet. Reacting quickly and cleverly to unexpected situations. Less about reasoning than about reflexes of mind — the ability to respond without having time to think.

Used for: Initiative modifier, fast responses, recognizing traps, quick social recoveries, Street-level reads. The difference between Wits and Intelligence: Intelligence answers “what’s the plan?” Wits answers “what now?”