Fortitude

Fortitude grants supernatural endurance — the ability to shrug off damage that would destroy lesser beings. Unlike most Disciplines, Fortitude is always active once possessed; it requires no activation roll. The vampire simply soaks damage with their Fortitude rating added to their Stamina.

Core mechanic: Each dot of Fortitude adds one automatic soak die for all damage types, including fire, sunlight, and other aggravated sources that vampires cannot normally soak. This is the critical advantage — most vampires cannot soak aggravated damage at all.

Passive activation: Fortitude is always on. No blood expenditure, no roll required. It simply applies whenever the vampire takes damage.

Powers

● Fortitude 1

Cost: None | Pool: Add 1 die to all soak rolls | Duration: Permanent

+1 soak die for all damage including aggravated. A vampire with Stamina 3 and Fortitude 1 soaks with 4 dice.

●● Fortitude 2

Cost: None | Pool: Add 2 dice to all soak rolls | Duration: Permanent

+2 soak dice for all damage including aggravated.

●●● Fortitude 3

Cost: None | Pool: Add 3 dice to all soak rolls | Duration: Permanent

+3 soak dice. At this level, the vampire can reliably endure brief sunlight exposure and survive fires that would reduce others to ash.

●●●● Fortitude 4

Cost: None | Pool: Add 4 dice to all soak rolls | Duration: Permanent

+4 soak dice. Bullets become an inconvenience. Stakes require exceptional force to penetrate.

●●●●● Fortitude 5

Cost: None | Pool: Add 5 dice to all soak rolls | Duration: Permanent

+5 soak dice. Elders with this level of Fortitude have walked through burning buildings and emerged charred but functional.

Soak Reference

Aggravated sources: Fire, sunlight, claws/fangs of supernatural creatures, some ritual magic.

Stake: A vampire staked through the heart is paralyzed (not destroyed). Fortitude applies to resisting the stake damage but not the paralysis effect — if enough damage penetrates to reach the heart, paralysis still occurs regardless of soak.

Elder Powers

Personal Armor (●●●●● ●)

Cost: 1 Blood Point per turn | Pool: Automatic

Skin temporarily hardens to the consistency of stone or iron. For one turn per blood spent, add an additional 2 soak dice against all physical damage. Visible as a faint golden or iron-grey shimmer. Does not stack with armor — use whichever is higher.

Indomitable (●●●●● ●)

Passive.

The vampire can spend Willpower to completely ignore wound penalties for one turn. Each WP spent negates all wound penalties regardless of current health level. The vampire fights at full dice pools even when on their last health box.

Resist the Undying Flame (●●●●● ●●)

Cost: 1 Willpower | Pool: Stamina + Fortitude, difficulty 8 | Duration: Scene

Extend Fortitude soak against fire and sunlight to soak the damage completely on a success — not just reduce it. Each success on the activation roll adds 2 additional soak dice against fire and sunlight only for the remainder of the scene.

Curse the Laurel (●●●●● ●)

Cost: 1 Willpower | Pool: Stamina + Survival, difficulty 9 | Duration: Variable by successes (see table)

Ventrue elder power.

A Ventrue who has been successfully staked can slowly restructure her heart around the offending stake, causing it to cease paralyzing her.

The number of successes determines how quickly the stake is neutralized. Each use of this power affects a single stake. A failed roll allows another attempt by spending another Willpower, but successes cannot be accumulated across rolls — only the roll with the most successes applies. On a botch, the vampire cannot attempt to neutralize this stake again.

Once neutralized, the stake no longer paralyzes the vampire but remains lodged in the flesh. Removing it causes 2 Health Levels of aggravated damage.