By Tony Grenander (domtempriall@hotmail.com)
The antitribu of the Sabbat live very different lives from their Camarilla counterparts and when lifestyles change so do traditions. Exactly when the two disciplines grew apart is not known, but Sabbat scholars believe that younger more irresponsible Sabbat, possibly Caitiffs/Panders unguided by elders, developed their own strain of Animalism. Nosferatu antitribu, Panders, Ravnos antitribu, and Gangrel antitribu have all made contributions to its development and use it instead of the "old" discipline. The Antitribu Animalism is the dominant Animalism used by Sabbat vampires (and ghoul-families), but some still use the traditional way. The Tzimisce have strong roots and only the "young" among them have adopted it as a clan discipline.
System: Roll Manipulation + Occult, diff 7. The target will have one higher difficulty level for all Perception, hide, and movement-based rolls.
| Successes | Duration |
| 1 | 10 minutes |
| 2 | 1 hour |
| 3 | 1 night |
System: The difficulty of summoning is equal to the local Gauntlet, and the number of successes determines how complex questions the vampire may ask and how well he understands the answers. Five successes allow the vampire to have a full conversation with the animal(s). Roll Intelligence + Animal Ken. If employed during animal training sessions, the numbers of successes gained from this power are added to the successes gained on the "normal" animal training roll. Thus "hellhounds" tend to be extremely obedient to their vampiric masters. Simple suggestions as: "go away!", "silent!", "stay", "go west/south/north/east" can be made but the vampire must succeed in a roll (see above) and spend one willpower point to force the animal to do so, otherwise it can refuse.
System: The vampire activates this power by spending one Willpower and rolling Stamina + Animal Ken. The difficulty depends on the search object's nature. A big mansion or a lake would be diff 5. Locating a large group of people or a small hut, diff 6. One or two people would be diff 7 (raise one per every other success/hide roll). A hidden underground complex would be diff 9, and a hidden escape routE to it, diff 10+. The pulse/echo will travel at (approximately) 10 miles an hour. Remember that persons can move, therefore they might not be at their original location when the vampire gets there. The ST can restrict the vampire only to search after things he knows is there. Some things might be impossible to find due to their nature (i.e., a person sought turns himself into a bat or uses Obfuscate). Other things might be shrouded by magic. A botch means that the "echo" will spread but the vampire will never get it.
| Successes | Area of Effect |
| 1 | 1 mile or a small village |
| 2 | 5 miles or a small town |
| 3 | 10 miles or a small city |
| 4 | 100 miles or a large city |
| 5 | 1000 miles, including all cities and towns within |
System: By spending 3 blood and making a Manipulation + Animal Ken roll against a difficulty of 6, the vampire can make all animals of a specific type to come and attack any chosen targets. The animals will be in a frenzied state and will try to devour the victims. They do not respond to any type of intimidation (fire, water, etc.) and will not respond to any more "animalistic" suggestions unless they're made with five successes. The creatures he summons will never attack the vampire, but his allies might be attacked if they get in the way.
The force of all enraged animal's combined strength inflicts one damage die/success on the summoning roll (see above) per turn, to each target. This extra damage is soaked separately and only applies if the target is attacked in that round. For example, Shadrian calls fifty big rats to attack his enemies. The enemies realizes how powerful Shadrian is, and decide to run. After 3 rounds the rats caught up with one of the targets and attack him. Three of the rats bite the target, but fail to cause any damage. However their combined number (including the other rats) gives them an extra combined attack action; If any rat managed to hit the target it is also hit by an automatic attack in the end of the round. This attack has the same strength pool as the number of successes rolled to activate this power. The ST must have common sense regarding special situations, like if only one animal is left. If the vampire calling the assault is killed, the assault instantly ends.
| Successes | Maximum # of Responding Animals |
| 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 20 |
| 3 | 50 |
| 4 | Half of all the animals (this could mean 300+ crows/rats) |
| 5 | All the animals |
System: The vampire "spends" 5 blood (just the way he did in Frenzied Assault, see above), one Willpower and rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken diff 6. All animals summoned drink from the vampiric blood spilt and receive one dot of Potence (lasts until dawn). The vampire forms a mental connection with all the animals and can use his tracking skills through them, or rely on their tracking abilities (this score depends on what type of animals are used). The animals will act in the same way as in Frenzied Assault, but will remain in a cold-blooded calm before the target is found and attacked. The vampire must participate in the hunt and if he is killed, the hunt ends.
System: The vampire must break one of his fingers (one automatic Aggravated health level of damage, which can't be soaked), spend one Willpower, and roll Manipulation + Occult against a difficulty equal to the target's path/humanity +3. If any successes are scored, the target instantly goes into a rabid frenzy without any possibility to halt it, even with Willpower points. He must at least use one blood every turn to increase his physical stats and if these already are at the maximum (a rule my troupe uses, max +10 to a stat) the blood is lost. Not even Sabbat vampires can control the frenzy, and are not allowed to make the normal roll to ride the "wave". At the end of every turn, the frenzied vampire suffers one automatic unsoakable health level of damage (not aggravated). The frenzy lasts two turns for every success.
System: The vampire must touch a target to activate this power. Roll Wits + Animal Ken against a difficulty of 13 minus the Path/Humanity rating of the target. If this is successful the target is unable to frenzy (if already frenzied, he will instantly calm down), and are robbed of the ability to spend blood. All Courage/Morale rolls will fail automatically, but instead of entering frenzy the target will run away. When forced to fight, the target will fight with one higher difficulty and be unable to split the dice pool. The target automatically frenzies when the Beast returns. The effect lasts one turn per success.
System: The vampire must make eye contact to use this discipline. Merits or abilities granting protection against Domination do not protect against this power. A Manipulation + Animal Ken roll against a difficulty equal to the target's Path/Humanity + 4 is required. The target will not be conscious of what suggestions the vampire implanted and won't even know he's been hexed. The target will feel an urge and follow it, unless he spends one Willpower point per hour/scene. The urge will lead the target towards his objective and when the goal is within reach not even Willpower points can hold him back. If he is supposed to kill someone he will frenzy if reasoned with; the same goes if he is caught when trying to steal. The urge will die when the urge is satisfied or the total Willpower expenditure exceeds the severity of the hex (see below). No Willpower can be regained as long the target is hexed. Depression and disturbed concentration follows the target and all actions not intended to satisfy the urge will have one higher difficulty. The target will not remember the urge afterwards. This power can only be employed against vampires of a higher generation than the user.
If the target's Willpower reaches zero he will develop an obsession (yes, that is a Derangement) of completing his "sacred" mission, but will not be under the power of the hex anymore (little comfort) and will regain one Willpower as his consciousness becomes aware of the truth. However the target will not suffer of the depression (see above), or the inability to regain Willpower. This insanity functions just like any Derangement and can be very hard to get rid of.
| Successes | Severity of the Hex |
| 1 | Will humiliate and even spread lies. |
| 2 | Will steal or destroy property. |
| 3 | Will hurt and might accidentally kill someone. |
| 4 | Will kill and make sure the victim is dead by destroying its corpse. |
| 5 | Will kidnap, torture, and kill, or try his best to destroy whole bloodlines. |
System: The vampire blood "bounds" an animal (weighing no less than 10 pounds) or a human with Humanity 0. No roll is necessary but the vampire must spend two permanent Willpower points to complete the bound. The animal protector will gain semi-intelligence (a human will degenerate) and be able to understand one chosen language, and utter simple words. The protector will be spiritually linked to the vampire (it actually "is" the vampire), and will instinctually know what the vampire wants. It is as loyal to the vampire as the vampire is to himself. Moreover, it possesses the same level in Potence, Celerity, Fortitude, and Auspex as the vampire. Its blood pool triples (to a maximum of 20). The protector will always know where the vampire is, and how he is doing. If it needs to locate the vampire, it counts as having 10 automatic successes to any tracking roll. The protector also has the same Willpower as the vampire and counts as having Iron Will when it comes to resist Domination/Animalism. The protector can use its vampiric vitae to heal itself.
System: Two permanent Willpower points must be used to activate this power and the vampire must have spent at least one year in the area. The vampire rolls Perception + Empathy diff 7. All animals in the area will view the vampire as their friend and ally. Difficulties for all future use of Animalism is lowered two steps (inside the domain). Aspects of the vampire's personality will be reflected in the environment; a twisted vampire will have a twisted domain. Sewers/catacombs inhabited by an evil and corrupt Nosferatu might slowly turn into a nightmarish place; the concrete tunnels might change to resemble the inside of a rib cage, with strange blackened tissue. Even animals in the area will take on the vampire's traits. The vampire can double his land speed when inside her/his domain and by concentrating for three turns and burning one blood, he can transfer his/her sight and hearing anywhere within the domain. The extended senses can "fly" at 100 mph and lasts so long the vampire concentrates and keeps her/his eyes shut. The dark domain revert back to normal if the vampire is killed or absent for more than one year. Intruders have a two higher difficulty to hide from the vampire, but Obfuscate and other disciplines work as normal.
| Area of Effect | ||
| Successes | Populated | Wilderness (radius) |
| 1 | A small house or one sewer tunnel. | 250 yards |
| 2 | A large house or a couple of sewer tunnels. | 500 yards |
| 3 | A mansion or a tenths of a city's sewer system. | 1 mile |
| 4 | A castle or a fourth of a city's sewer system. | 5 miles |
| 5+ | Large castle or half of a city's sewer system. | 10 miles |
Experience Cost: 25
Description: When the vampire utilizes this power he can escape the searing rays of the sun by hiding inside of an animal. Long distances can be covered by the animal while the vampire sleeps inside of it. Vampires high on drugs can stay awake all day and control the animal's action directly.
System: This power allows a vampire to both physically and mentally merge with an animal. The merge takes three turnss and costs one blood. The vampire must hold the animal tight, and then rolls Strength + Medicine against a difficulty of 7. If the roll is successful the vampire merges with the animal and is considered to be hidden inside it. In this form the vampire is immune to all the negative effects of sunlight (damage/fear). The animal keeps all attributes it had before the merge and its appearance remains the same. It is possible to sense the vampire's presence with gifts like Sense the Unnatural or Sense True Form, but Sense Wyrm only works if the vampire has a Path/Humanity below 7. The vampire can control the animal directly if awake, but must use animalistic suggestions (Antitribu Animalism level 2) if asleep. A sleeping vampire is only vaguely aware of his surrounding and all difficulties for Animalism are raised two steps. The vampire can heal damage done to the animal as if it was done to himself, however, he cannot heal damage that normally would be aggravated to the vampire (e.g.,fire, Garou claws, Assamite blood-bullets). All fire damage also damages the vampire. The vampire can use some of his disciplines in this form, but all blood costs are double. If the animal should die the vampire must leave the body or take one Aggravated unsoakable health level of damage every other hour. When the vampire is awake and in control he can drink blood from a vessel via the animal, i.e. a vampire in a wolf could have the wolf to drain people, and get the blood for himself. Extended use of this power leaves animalistic features and traits. Fortitude is the only discipline the animal can use when the vampire sleeps.
| Successes | Available Disciplines (cumulative) |
| 1 | None |
| 2 | Antitribue Animalism and Auspex |
| 3 | Presence and Obfuscate |
| 4 | Dominate, Dementation and Obtenebration |
| 5 | Fortitude, Potence and Celerity |
| 6+ | All disciplines |