Hunters

Hunters are mortals who know vampires exist and have chosen to do something about it. They are not superhumanly capable. They die easily, heal slowly, and operate with incomplete information. Their advantage is that vampires consistently underestimate them — and some of them carry powers that don’t respond to Discipline-based defenses.

This page covers hunter organizations, the three Numina categories (Hedge Magic, Psychic Phenomena, True Faith) with full mechanics, hunter character creation differences, and new Backgrounds.

Organizations

Arcanum

Scholarly occultists who study the supernatural for knowledge rather than destruction. Highly selective in recruitment. The Arcanum hoards information — its members do not share broadly, even internally. They are not primarily fighters; their value is intelligence. A hunter cell with an Arcanum contact has access to historical records, occult scholarship, and identification assistance that no other organization matches. The cost is that the Arcanum rarely acts directly and will not sacrifice their operational security for another cell’s benefit.

Society of Leopold (“The Inquisition”)

Catholic militant hunters operating out of a 600-year tradition. They officially call themselves the “Society of Leonard” — the obscure self-naming is intentional misdirection. They hunt without hesitation and without boundaries. They will kill hunters who do not meet their standards. They regard all supernatural creatures as threats by definition and have the organizational depth to sustain multi-year campaigns against specific targets. A hunter who becomes too pragmatic — who bends rules, makes alliances, takes shortcuts — will find the Society evaluating whether they are still an asset or a liability.

Project Twilight

A government intelligence program, FBI-adjacent. Well-funded. Can make individuals disappear through institutional means. Project Twilight treats unaffiliated hunters as acceptable operational losses when their activities intersect with ongoing federal investigations. Some Project Twilight operatives believe vampires have compromised specific government institutions — which makes the program’s own chain of command an unknown threat vector. Access to government resources is the draw; the cost is unpredictable institutional behavior.

Independent Cells

Most hunters operate outside formal organizations: survivor cells formed after a vampire attack, militarized groups with prior law enforcement or military backgrounds, networking groups sharing intelligence across regions. These cells have no institutional backing but also no institutional obligations. They live and die on personal capability and local knowledge.

Hunter Character Creation

Hunters use the Storyteller System but are mortal. Key differences from vampire character creation:

Attributes

Standard spread: 6 / 4 / 3 (gritty competent mortals)

Optional expert spread: 7 / 5 / 3 (seasoned professionals)

Abilities

13 / 9 / 5 dots distributed across categories. No automatic starting dots. Maximum 3 dots in any Ability at character creation.

Backgrounds

5 dots to distribute. Vampire-specific Backgrounds are excluded: Black Hand Membership, Domain, Generation, Herd, Rituals.

New hunter Backgrounds available: Armory, Base of Operations, Guide (see below).

Virtues

7 additional dots distributed among the three Virtues (Conscience, Self-Control, Courage). Each starts at 1.

• Humanity = Conscience + Self-Control
• Willpower = Courage (starting score only; can be raised with freebie points)

Freebie Points

21 total.

Mortality

Hunters use full mortal Health with all lethal consequences. They do not have Fortitude, Resilience, or any supernatural damage resistance. They heal at human rates: one day per level of bashing, one week per level of lethal. Aggravated wounds require medical intervention and extended recovery. A single successful combat exchange can permanently disable or kill a hunter.

New Backgrounds

Armory (1–5 dots)

A weapon collection and maintenance capability. Points represent the quality, breadth, and legality of the hunter’s arsenal.

Armory can be pooled across a cell.

Base of Operations (variable)

Points are split among three sub-categories. Assign each independently.

Luxury (1–5): Quality of furnishings and operational amenities. 1 = functional. 5 = professional facility.

Size (1–5):

Security (1–5): Each dot adds either +1 to the difficulty of penetration rolls or +1 to the number of successes required to breach the location (Storyteller determines which based on security type). 5-dot Security includes unique protections: remote location, occult wards, hidden entrances, or equivalent.

Base of Operations can be pooled.

Guide (1–5 dots)

A mysterious spirit entity that aids the hunter. The nature and reliability of the Guide scales with dot rating.

Numina

Numina are supernatural abilities accessible to mortals. Three categories exist: Hedge Magic, Psychic Phenomena, and True Faith. A hunter may have paths from multiple categories but each path is purchased separately at character creation (7 freebie points per dot) or with experience.

Prerequisite note — Hedge Magic: Practitioners must accept superstition as operational reality. Cynics who do not genuinely believe suffer +1 difficulty or more on all Hedge Magic rolls.

Prerequisite note — Psychic Phenomena: Requires the Awareness Ability as a focus skill. Mental training and discipline support development.

Hedge Magic

Path of Curses

Impose misfortune, difficulty, and impairment on a target.

Roll: Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 7) Cost: 1 Willpower Botch: Curse rebounds on the caster, threefold in effect

Duration by successes:

Effect by dot level:

Banishing a curse: Spend 1 Willpower; roll Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty 9). Each success reduces curse level by 1. Botch: suffer the curse yourself for its original duration.

Path of Divination

Perceive likely futures and receive guidance on decision chains.

Roll: Perception + Occult (difficulty 7; +1 difficulty when divining for others rather than self) Cost: Varies by level

Effect by dot level:

Success quality: 1 success = vague impression. 5 successes = clear indication of the optimal course. Botch = false and dangerous information provided as if true.

Path of Healing

Diagnose and accelerate recovery from injury and illness. Requires the Medicine Knowledge.

Roll: Manipulation + Medicine (difficulty 7) Modifiers: +1 to heal self; +1 if subject is unwilling; +2 in a stressful environment Botch: Healer contracts the ailment or takes sympathetic damage equal to what they attempted to heal

Effect by dot level:

Psychic Phenomena

Astral Projection

Project consciousness out of the body onto the astral plane.

Roll: Perception + Awareness (difficulty 8); Level 5 ability = Manipulation + Awareness (difficulty 8) Cost: 1 Willpower per activation

Astral combat rules: Physical Traits are replaced by Mental/Social equivalents. Wits substitutes for Dexterity, Manipulation for Strength, Intelligence for Stamina. The silver cord connecting astral form to the physical body has Willpower Health Levels.

Effect by dot level:

Cyberkinesis

Interface with and control electronic and mechanical devices through mental force.

Roll: Manipulation + Technology (difficulty 7) Cost: Varies Duration: Generally instantaneous unless otherwise noted

Effect by dot level:

Psychometry

Read the psychic impressions left on objects and places.

Roll: Perception + Empathy (difficulty 7; may be lower for highly significant items) Cost: 1 Willpower Botch: Lost in reverie or flooded with hostile emotional content; Psychic is incapacitated for the scene

Success clarity:

Effect by dot level:

Pyrokinesis

Generate and direct fire through mental force.

Roll: Manipulation + Awareness Cost: 1 Willpower Duration: Once released, fire burns normally and cannot be retracted; the Psychic is not immune to their own fire once released

Important: Botches on Pyrokinesis can result in self-immolation or uncontrolled fire spreading to the Psychic’s own position.

Difficulty modifiers: Wet target +1; asbestos surface or target doused in water +3.

Effect by dot level (fire size and damage):

Telekinesis

Move objects and apply force at a distance.

Roll: Wits + Awareness Cost: 1 Willpower Duration: 1 turn per success; 5+ successes = entire scene. Can extend with a new roll (no additional Willpower required). Botch = lose control for the remainder of the scene; cannot spend Willpower for the scene’s duration.

Against sentient targets: Contested Willpower roll each turn. The target may resist by winning the contest. If the Psychic has Level 4, they can fully immobilize a target if their opposed Willpower roll succeeds.

Wresting objects: Contested Telekinesis level vs. target’s Strength.

Thrown objects: Opposed Dexterity + Athletics (target) vs. activation successes. Damage is bashing or lethal up to the Psychic’s Telekinesis level.

Weight limits:

True Faith

True Faith is a single path, not rated 1–5 like other Numina. It represents genuine religious or devotional belief translated into supernatural force. It is not universal — it functions only for practitioners whose faith is sincere and whose behavior is consistent with that faith.

Maximum 1 level at character creation.

Gaining levels: Awarded by the Storyteller through acts of devotion, sacrifice, and demonstrated faith. Not purchasable freely with experience points.

Losing levels: If the character violates core tenets of their faith, make a Conscience roll (difficulty 9). Failure means they lose one level of True Faith. Faith lost through moral compromise is recovered only through extended penitence, not through normal experience expenditure.

General Mechanics

Willpower bonus: Each level of True Faith grants +1 permanent Willpower point.

Divine protection: Spend 1 Willpower and roll True Faith rating (difficulty 7). Each success subtracts from the successes of a hostile supernatural power targeting the character. This protection applies only to directly targeted powers that use a dice roll — it does not block passive supernatural effects like Fortitude, Aura Perception, or powers that don’t require targeting the character specifically.

True Faith by Level

Level 1 — Repel supernatural creatures

Spend 1 Willpower; roll True Faith vs. the target’s permanent Willpower. Each success = turns the creature must flee. If the character is physically holding or wearing a holy symbol, contact with that symbol against a vampire’s body deals aggravated damage (1 level per success in the roll).

Level 2 — Sense vampires

Passive ability. When the character is in a quiet, peaceful state, they become aware of vampires in the immediate area without any roll required.

Level 3 — Immunity to mental subversion

The character becomes immune to Chimerstry, Dementation, Dominate, Obfuscate (when used to deceive), and other mind-confounding supernatural effects. Powers that confuse, control, or deceive simply fail against them.

Level 4 — Immunity to emotional manipulation

The character cannot be made a ghoul; their blood does not bond in the usual manner. They are also immune to Presence and all emotion-manipulation effects from supernatural sources.

Level 5 — Cause Rotschreck

Any vampire within earshot of the Faithful while they are praying or preaching — or any vampire who is physically touched by the Faithful in this state — must make a Rotschreck roll at difficulty 9. Failure means the vampire flees immediately and cannot control themselves for the remainder of the scene. A botched Rotschreck roll leaves the vampire a gibbering, incapacitated wreck.

Miracles

True Faith can produce genuine miracles. These are rare — maximum once per story — and entirely Storyteller-adjudicated. Selfless prayers on behalf of others work more reliably than prayers for personal benefit. There is no mechanical system for miracles. They are dramatic and narrative interventions, not a purchasable effect. A character who has demonstrated consistent faith and genuine selflessness is more likely to receive one than a character who treats True Faith as a combat tool.

Selected Merits and Flaws

Merits

Toxic Blood — Any vampire who feeds from the hunter takes 1 level of bashing damage per blood point imbibed. The hunter’s blood is toxic to vampiric physiology without being harmful to mortals.

Sanctuary (5 points) — The hunter’s home has supernatural protection. Any supernatural creature wishing to enter must succeed at a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). Failure means they cannot cross the threshold without invitation.

Flaws

Psychic Feedback (1, 2, or 6 points) — Using Numina causes physical headaches (1 pt), migraines (2 pts), or actual bashing damage (6 pts) equal to the levels of the power used.

Unsettling Effect (1 or 3 points) — Numina use is perceptible to observers (1 pt) or creates disturbing physical manifestations visible to anyone present (3 pts).

Psi Focus (3 or 5 points) — Using Psychic Numina requires a specific gesture and spoken phrase (3 pts) or a physical focus object (5 pts) that must be held during activation. Powers fail without the focus.

Detached (4 points, Mental Merit) — The hunter has cultivated emotional distance from the horror of what they do. Once per scene, when confronted with a fear-triggering stimulus that would require a Courage roll (not Rötschreck, which requires vampires), the hunter may spend 1 Willpower and forgo the roll entirely. This does not apply to supernatural fear effects.

Black and White (1 point, Mental Flaw) — The hunter cannot tolerate moral ambiguity. Anytime a decision involves compromise — working with a lesser evil, allowing a vampire to escape to catch a larger target — the hunter must succeed at a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) to act against their absolute convictions. Failure means they pursue the morally clean option regardless of tactical consequence.

Combat Novice (2 points, Flaw) — When the hunter first enters genuine physical combat in a scene (not sparring, not threats — actual violence), make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). Failure: the hunter freezes or flees this turn and cannot take offensive actions. They may defend normally. This resets each scene; the hunter can overcome it within a scene once they have successfully acted.

Addicted to Vampire Blood (3 points, Flaw) — The hunter has tasted Kindred vitae and cannot fully stop. Each week without access, make a Self-Control roll (difficulty 6); failure means the hunter actively seeks a vampire contact to feed from. The difficulty of this roll increases by 1 per additional week of deprivation (max 10). This creates obvious operational security risks and may result in ghoulification if the source is maintained.

Occult Library (2 or 4 points, Asset Merit) — The hunter has access to a significant collection of occult reference material. At 2 points, reduce the difficulty of Investigation and Occult rolls related to identifying supernatural creatures, rituals, or artifacts by 1. At 4 points, the library also includes laboratory space — reduce difficulty on relevant Occult and Investigation extended rolls by 2, and the hunter may attempt research rolls that would otherwise require institutional access.

Science Laboratory (2 points, Asset Merit) — The hunter has access to a working scientific laboratory (chemistry, biology, forensic analysis, or electronics — specify at creation). Reduce the difficulty of Investigation and Science rolls performed using that facility by 2. Reduce the difficulty of relevant adjacent rolls (Medicine for a biology lab, Technology for an electronics lab) by 1.

Pale Aura (2 points, Supernatural Merit) — The hunter’s aura reads as Kindred to casual supernatural examination. Standard Aura Perception reads the hunter as a vampire. Only a roll with 5 or more successes reveals mortal humanity beneath. This has no physical cause — the hunter simply registers wrongly.

Clear-Sighted (3 points, Supernatural Merit) — The hunter has an innate resistance to illusion-based supernatural powers (Chimerstry, Obfuscate visual components, Dementation-induced hallucinations). When targeted by such powers, roll Perception + Alertness against a difficulty of the power’s dot rating + 3. Success means the hunter perceives the effect for what it is, even if they cannot prevent it from affecting others present.

Poisonous Blood (5 points, Supernatural Merit) — The hunter’s blood is toxic to vampiric metabolism at a supernatural level beyond Toxic Blood. Any vampire who ingests the hunter’s blood takes 1 level of bashing damage per blood point consumed, and must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 7) or spend the turn retching and lose that blood point without benefit. Stacking with Toxic Blood is not permitted — this replaces it.

Combat Tactics Against Vampires

Hunters operate at a fundamental disadvantage in direct combat. The tactical literature that circulates among experienced hunter cells addresses this asymmetry directly. These are not rules that neutralize vampires — they are methods for making the fight slightly less catastrophic.

Fire

Fire is the cheapest, most available, and most psychologically effective weapon against vampires. Rötschreck is the mechanism. A vampire who fails a Rötschreck roll triggered by fire will flee, removing them from the fight entirely without requiring the hunter to survive a direct exchange.

Tactical use: Long weapons (pole torches, fire extinguisher conversions, napalm dispensers) let a hunter threaten fire from beyond hand-to-hand range. A vampire who charges a hunter holding fire must either succeed at the Rötschreck check or spend Willpower to act through it. Burning objects in the environment (cars, furniture, buildings) creates ambient Rötschreck pressure that stacks with direct fire threats.

Limitations: Fire is indiscriminate. It burns the location, alerts emergency services, and creates a crime scene. Hunters who use fire regularly in populated areas will exhaust their operational cover faster than their ability to regenerate it.

Sunlight

Daytime attacks avoid almost every advantage a vampire possesses. Disciplines do not protect against sunlight. Generation does not help. The vampire is sleeping, has reduced dice pools for any waking resistance, and takes aggravated damage from exposure. This is not a combat situation — it is an execution.

Finding the haven: The work is in locating where the vampire sleeps. Once that is established, the actual operation is straightforward. Hunters who fail to exploit daytime access in favor of nighttime confrontation are making a tactical mistake that cannot be justified.

Practical constraint: Staking a sleeping vampire (to prevent escape) and then exposing them to sunlight is the cleanest solution available. See Staking below.

Silver and Holy Symbols

Silver has no universal effect on vampires (it affects certain other supernatural creatures). Holy symbols work only against vampires when wielded by someone with genuine True Faith — the symbol has no power on its own.

Counter-Discipline Tactics

Experienced hunters develop specific responses to supernatural powers:

Against Animalism (animal control): Dogs and other animals are frequently used as vampire familiars or early-warning systems. High-pitched noise (dog whistles, ultrasonic emitters) disrupts canine-targeted Animalism. Separating a vampire from their animal network degrades their information gathering and early warning.

Against Auspex (heightened senses): An Auspex-using vampire tracking by smell can be confused by strong competing scents (bleach, ammonia, rotting meat, perfume saturation). Auspex users with Psychic Projection can be hurt through their silver cord if the cell has any way to locate and attack the physical body. Overloading Auspex — extremely loud noise, brilliant lights — causes sensory disruption penalties on high-level Auspex users.

Against Dominate (mental control): Avoid direct eye contact. Sunglasses, peripheral engagement, communicating by text or writing, operating from behind the subject — any technique that denies the required gaze contact disrupts Dominate’s primary delivery mechanism. Hunters with Clear-Sighted or True Faith Level 3 are immune.

Against Obfuscate (invisibility): Vampires under Obfuscate still displace physical material. Loose flour, sand, or dust scattered across a room will show tracks and footprints from a moving invisible form. Dogs and animals with strong scent can often detect Obfuscated vampires (their mundane senses bypass Obfuscate). Psychics with Aura Perception at Level 1 see auras — an Obfuscated vampire’s aura may still be faintly visible. Hunters with Clear-Sighted can pierce Obfuscate.

Against Presence (emotional manipulation): Presence works through emotional channels. Hunters who can recognize the unnatural pull of Presence can spend Willpower to resist. A cell standing physically together can remind each other of the manipulation, grounding resistance collectively. Presence cannot override pre-existing intense hatred — a hunter who genuinely loathes the vampire being interrogated is partially buffered.

The Plan (Plan Dice System)

Improvised attacks on vampires fail at high rates. Preparation is the hunter’s primary force multiplier. The Plan Dice system converts pre-mission preparation into a concrete mechanical resource.

Building Plan Dice

Before an operation, the cell works through preparation steps. Each completed step contributes to the Plan Dice pool. The final pool is the sum of all preparation steps divided by the number of hunters in the cell (round down, minimum 1).

Preparation Steps:

Using Plan Dice

During the operation, a hunter may spend Plan Dice from the pool to:

• Add dice to a resistance roll (resisting a Discipline, avoiding detection, recovering from a botch)
• Reduce the difficulty of a roll by 1 per die spent (minimum difficulty 4)
• Retroactively establish that the cell anticipated a specific complication (Storyteller must judge this as plausible given the prep steps taken)

Plan Dice are a shared pool — any hunter may spend from it, but each die spent is gone from the pool. The pool does not carry over between operations.

Unknown complications: If the cell encounters something their preparation could not have anticipated (a power they have never seen, an extra vampire, a structural change to the location), the Storyteller may increase the difficulty of relevant rolls by 1 and deny the use of Plan Dice for that specific complication.

Hunter Cell Formation

Ideal Size

Three to six hunters. Smaller cells lack redundancy — one casualty breaks capability. Larger cells develop communication problems, divergent agendas, and infiltration risk. The cell is not an army; it is a precision instrument.

Ground Rules

A cell that has not established operating procedures before its first operation will create them under pressure, which produces worse rules and worse outcomes. The following questions should be resolved before any mission:

Function: What does this cell actually do? Observe-and-report only? Active operations? Intelligence aggregation? A cell without a defined function will drift toward whatever the most aggressive member wants.

Leadership: Who makes final calls when consensus fails? This must be designated in advance. Leadership-by-committee fails at high-stakes moments.

Decision-making: What requires full consensus vs. individual discretion? Escalating an operation to lethal force, bringing in a new member, burning a safehouse — these should have pre-agreed thresholds.

Labor division: Who handles which functions? Intelligence, logistics, combat, medical, communications. Informal coverage of all functions is better than formal coverage of none.

Meeting places: Two or three pre-arranged fallback locations. Primary, secondary, tertiary. If the primary is compromised, everyone knows where to go. These locations should not require communication to coordinate — if the cell has gone silent, everyone knows the sequence.

Alibi: Every operation needs cover. What does each hunter tell their mortal contacts about their whereabouts? Consistent cover stories among all cell members. Gaps in alibi coverage become police problems become vampiric intelligence problems.

Compromise protocol: If a hunter is taken or turned — what is the cell’s response? Who makes the call? How long does the cell wait before assuming compromise? These decisions cannot be made while it is happening.

Cell Types

Observe-and-Report: The cell gathers intelligence on vampiric activity and passes it to other cells or organizations. They do not engage directly. This maximizes operational security and cell survival. The limitation is that actionable intelligence they generate may be used in ways they cannot control.

Militarized: The cell conducts direct operations against vampires. Higher casualty rate, higher impact. Requires physical capability, weapons access, and significant operational discipline to avoid exposure.

Networking: The cell aggregates intelligence across multiple other hunter cells, coordinates non-overlapping operations, and identifies patterns larger than any single cell can perceive. They are force-multipliers for other cells. Their vulnerability is that their network map, if exposed, compromises everyone in it.

Group Combat Tactics

Individual hunters lose to vampires in direct combat almost universally. Group tactics shift the calculus enough to make certain operations viable.

Same Damn Spot

Coordinate all cell members to target the same location on the vampire’s body each turn. The first hit lands normally. Each subsequent hit by a different attacker targeting the same location on the same turn increases the effective soak difficulty by 1 per hit. Five hunters all landing blows in the same spot in the same turn forces a soak roll at difficulty +4 beyond the vampire’s natural soak — which creates lethal outcomes even against high-Stamina targets.

Mechanical note: The Storyteller tracks cumulative hits per location per turn. The difficulty bonus applies to the soak rolls for those hits after the first.

Limitation: Requires coordinated targeting declarations before the turn. In chaos and close quarters, hunters who haven’t trained together will not maintain target discipline.

Light ’em Up

Use fire sources at reach weapon length to herd a vampire into a kill zone rather than attempting to burn them directly. A hunter with a lit torch, a chemical fire extinguisher converted to spray accelerant, or a fire-tipped lance creates a Rötschreck trigger at range.

The vampire must either check for Rötschreck (difficulty 3 for a small flame, up to difficulty 9 for a serious fire source), spend Willpower to resist and act, or retreat. Multiple hunters with fire weapons create overlapping threat zones that force multiple Rötschreck checks in sequence. A vampire who spends Willpower to resist one check takes cumulative penalties on subsequent ones within the same scene.

Goal: Force the vampire out of a controlled space, through a prepared area, into a position where the cell’s most effective assets are waiting.

Staking

A staked vampire is paralyzed but not destroyed. A stake through the heart is a restraint and a setup for what comes next — sunlight, decapitation, or relocation to a more controlled environment.

Placing the stake:

1. The hunter must grapple the vampire or pin them. Roll Strength + Athletics against the vampire’s Strength + Brawl. The vampire may dodge rather than resist. The grapple succeeds if the hunter wins the opposed roll.
2. Once grappled, the hunter must hold position while a second hunter places the stake. The holding hunter re-rolls Strength + Brawl each turn against the vampire’s Strength to maintain the pin.
3. The second hunter rolls Dexterity + Melee (difficulty 7, +1 for each turn the vampire has successfully resisted the grapple). Three successes are required to place the stake. The stake does normal weapon damage but must reach the heart — if the vampire has armor or supernatural protection, this factors into difficulty.

A botch on the staking roll does not place the stake and may damage the hunter attempting it.

Once staked: The vampire is conscious but paralyzed until the stake is removed. They can still perceive their surroundings, and any Discipline with a passive component or activated mental effect may still function — Storyteller discretion. They cannot take physical actions. Another vampire removing the stake is possible if the hunter does not control the environment.

Beast Baiting

One hunter acts as visible bait, taking or displaying enough injury to trigger the vampire’s predatory instincts. The Beast responds to blood, injury, and vulnerability; a hunter who exposes themselves convincingly forces a Self-Control roll from any vampire within visual range (difficulty 5 for minor display, up to 8 for an obviously mortal victim in distress).

A vampire who fails the Self-Control roll enters frenzy and charges the bait, losing tactical awareness and the ability to use Disciplines requiring concentration. The remaining hunters attack from positions the vampire is no longer covering.

Mechanical note: All hunters attacking a frenzied vampire reduce their attack difficulty by 2. The frenzied vampire cannot selectively use non-automatic Disciplines (Celerity and Potence still function; Dominate and Presence do not).

Cost: The bait hunter is in genuine danger. A frenzied vampire in full attack mode will kill a mortal target in one or two turns without supernatural intervention. This tactic requires either the bait hunter having an extraction route or the cell being fast enough to incapacitate the vampire before it reaches the bait.