Merits
Contents
Mental Merits
Area of Expertise - 1 dot - Pre-req: Resolve 2 and one Skill Specialty. Effect: Gain +2 for the named specialty instead of +1/ Pg 44 CoD
Common Sense - 3 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: Once per week (per HR:Durations) roll Wits+Composure and ask the ST a question. Exceptional success allows two questions to be asked. Pg 44 CoD
Danger Sense - 2 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: +2 on Wits+Composure to spot an ambush. Pg 44 CoD
Direction Sense - 1 dot - Pr-req: None. Effect: Never suffer penalties to navigate or find their way. Pg 44 CoD
Eidetic Memory - 2 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: +2 when making Intelligence+Composure rolls to remember something. Pg 44 CoD
Encyclopedic Knowledge - 2 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: Pick a skill to know a lot about, even if there are not dots in the skill. Roll Intelligence+Wits to gain a bit of information relevant to the skill from an ST. Pg 44 CoD
Eyes for the Strange - 2 dots - Pre-req: Resolve 2, Occult 1. Effect: Roll Intelligence+Composure to determine if there was a supernatural hand in a scene. Am exceptional gives a clue, via folklore, to the type of supernatural being it may have been. If there is not supernatural influence, gain +2 to all rolls to investigate the event. Pg 44 CoD
Fast Reflexes - 1 to 3 dots - Pre-req: Wits 3 or Dexterity 3. Effect: +1 Initiative per dot. Pg 44 CoD
Good Time Management - 1 dot - Pre-req: Academics 2 or Science 2. Effect: Halve time between rolls on extended actions. Pg 44 CoD
Holistic Awareness - 1 dot - Pre-req: None. Effect: Roll Wits+Survival to collect holistic medical supplies. Pg 44 CoD
Indomitable - 2 dots - Pre-req: Resolve 3. Effect: +2 dice to resist supernatural influence, or -2 dice to their pool for a contested roll. Does not work on mundane methods of persuasion or manipulation. Pg 45 CoD
Interdisciplinary Specialty - 1 dot - Pre-req: Skill at 3 or higher with a specialty. Effect: Pick a specialty and gain the ability to apply it to any roll that it makes sense to do so. Pg 45 CoD
Investigative Aide - 1 dot - Pre-req: Chosen skill at 3+. Effect: Exceptional success on 3 instead of 5 for the purpose of uncovering Clues. Gain +1 element to Clues when using the chosen skill. Pg 45 CoD
Investigative Prodigy - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: Wits 3 and Investigation 3. Effect: Uncover Clues equal to successes or dots, whichever is lower, as an instant action. Only the first Clue benefits from the extra elements. Other Clues only receive a single element. Pg 45 CoD.
Language - 1 dot - Pre-req:None. Effect: Speak, read, and write another language. Pg 45 CoD
Library - 1 to 3 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: Pick a Mental Skill. Add dots of Library to extended rolls involving that skill. Pg 46 CoD
Meditative Mind - 1, 2, or 4 dots. - Pre-req: None. Effect: 1-dot: No environmental or wound penalties to meditate. 2-dot: Gain +3 dice for any Resolve+Composure checks for that day. Needs 4 successes. 4-dot: Single success instead of four to benefit from the +3. Pg 46 CoD
Multilingual - 1 dot - Pre-req: None. Effect: Pick 2 languages to speak conversationally in. Intelligence+Academics to try and read the language. May be taken multiple times. Pg 46 CoD
Patient - 1 dot - Pre-req: None. Effect: Two additional rolls when doing an extended test. Pg 46 CoD
Professional Training - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: None. See '+help Professional' for HR. Effect: Choose two starting asset skills. 1-dot: Gain two free contacts. 2-dot: 9-again for asset skills. 3-dot: Gain 3rd asset skill, and two specialties in asset skills. 4-dot: Gain a dot in an asset skill. 5-dot: Spend a willpower to gain rote. Removes defense for the turn. Pg 46 CoD
Tolerance for Biology - 1 dot - Pre-req: Resolve 3. Effect: Don't roll to avoid vomiting when things are extra gross. Pg 46 Cod
Trained Observer - 1 or 3 dots - Pre-req: Wits 3 or Composure 3. Effect: 1-dot: Gain 9-again on perception checks. 3-dot: Gain 8-again. Pg 46 CoD
Vice-Ridden - 2 dot - Pre-req: None. Effect: Two vices. Only gain willpower once per scene. Pg 46 CoD
Virtuous - 2 dot- Pre-req: None. Effect: Two virtues. Only gain willpower once per scene. Pg 46 CoD
Physical Merits
Ambidextrous - 3 dot - Pre-req: Character generation only. Effect: No negative modifier for using the off-hand. Pg 47 CoD
Automotive Genius - 1 dot - Pre-req: Crafts 3, Drive 1, Science 1. Effect: Triple crafts, instead of doubling, when determining how many mods a vehicle can handle. Specs add an additional +1 mod per spec that applies. Pg 47 CoD
Crack Driver - 2 or 3 dots - Pre-req: Drive 3. Effect: 2-dots: Add composure to drive rolls when doing nothing but driving. Any rolls to disable the vehicle take a -driver's composure to the roll. 3-dot: Once per turn take a driving action reflexively. Pg 47 CoD
Demolisher - 1 to 3 dots - Pre-req: Strength 3 or Intelligence 3. Effect: Ignor one point of an object's durability per dot of this merit. Pg 47 CoD
Double Jointed - 2 dots - Pre-req: Dexterity 3. Effect: Automatically escape bonds and subtract Dexterity from attempts to overpower the character when in a grapple. Pg 47 CoD
Fleet of Foot - 1 to 3 dots - Pre-req: Athletics 2. Effect: +1 Speed per dot. Pursuers suffer -1 per dot when chasing. Pg 47 CoD
Giant - 3 dots - Pre-req: Character generation only. Effect: Size 6 and gains +1 health box. Very tall. Pg 47 CoD
Hardy - 1 to 3 dots - Pre-req: Stamina 3. Effect: Add dots of merit to rolls for resisting disease, poison, loss of consciousness, suffocation, and deprivation. Pg 47 CoD
Greyhound - 1 dot - Pre-req: Athletics 3, Wits 3, Stamina 3. Effect: When in a chase, get an exceptional success on three successes instead of five. Pg 48 CoD
Iron Stamina - 1 to 3 dots - Pre-req: Stamina 3 or Resolve 3. Effect: Counteracts negative modifiers from fatigue and damage. Pg 48 CoD
Parkour (Style) - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: Dexterity 3 and Athletics 2. 1-dot: Ignore environmental penalties up to dots in Parkour. Subtract Parkour from successes needed to evade in a foot chase. 2-dots: 1 Autosuccess when using Dex+Ath to mitigate falling damage. Add Parkour rating to the number of damage that can be removed this way. Cannot be used on a terminal velocity fall. 3-dots: Without rolling, can run and jump to gain 10 feet+5 feet per dot of athletics as an instant action. 4-dot: Spend a willpower to gain rote on one athletics roll to jump, run, or climb. Lose defense for the turn. 5-dot: Meditate (per page 75 CoD), Athletics actions become reflexive. Spend a willpower and gain 3 autosuccesses instead of 3 dice. Pg 48 CoD
Quick Draw - 1 dot - Pre-req: Wits 3, Specialty in Weaponry or Firearms. Effect: Drawing or holstering a weapon becomes a reflexive action anytime defense applies. Pg 49 CoD
Relentless - 1 dot - Pre-req: Athletics 2, Stamina 3. Effect: Opponent's need two additional successes to catch or evade your character. Pg 49 CoD.
Seizing the Edge - 2 dots - Pre-req: Wits 3, Composure 3. Effect: Always have the Edge in the first turn of a chase (pg 84, CoD). Additionally, the other person must make a Wits+Composure test as if being ambushed, or your pc does not have to count Speed or Initiative when determining the needed successes for the first turn. Pg 49 CoD
Sleight of Hand - 2 dots - Pre-req: Larceny 3. Effect: Take one instant,larceny based action per turn. Unless someone is specifically looking for it, the action goes unnoticed. Pg 49 CoD
Small-Framed - 2 dots - Pre-req: Character generation only. Effect: Very short. Size 4. -1 Health. +2 to rolls for hiding or going unnoticed. Also applies when being small is an advantage. Drawback: Also may not be taken seriously by people. Pg 49 CoD
Stunt Driver (Style) - 1 to 4 dots - Pre-req: Dexterity 3, Drive 3, Wits 3. Effect: 1-dot: Subtract pc's drive skill from opponent's pool when trying to hit or ram the pc's car. 2-dot: Double speed gains from 5 mph to 10 mph per success when accelerating. 3-dot: Never make maneuvering checks when turning at high-speed. 4-dot: Ignore damage equal to pc's Wits before applying Durability when intentionally hitting something with a vehicle. Pg 49 CoD
Social Merits
Allies - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: Complex system in which you can ask an Ally for a favor, the intensity of the favor determined by how many dots the character has of the Ally. Pg 49 CoD
Alternate Identity - 1, 2, or 3 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: 1-dot: Basic fake ID, get into bars. Won't withstand inspection. 2-dot: Some paperwork has been filed to back up the identity, it will stand up to minor examination. 3-dot: A full identity that will pass a deeper inspection. At 1 and 2 dots, gain +1 subterfuge to defend it. At 3 dots, gain +2 subterfuge to defend that ID. Pg 50 CoD
Anonymity - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: Cannot have Fame. Effect: A ghost in the system, the pc uses cash or prepaid or falsified cards to make purchases. Attempts to find them by paper trail are done at -1 per dot of this merit. Drawback: Cannot take the Fame merit. Also may limit some spends of Status if they cannot provide the kind of ID needed. Pg 50 CoD
Barfly - 1 dot - Pre-req: Socialize 2. Effect: Rolls to identify the pc as an outsider at a venue are reduced by the character's socialize skill. Pg 50 CoD
Closed Book - 1 to 5 - Pre-req: Manipulation 3, Resolve 3. Effect: Add dots as extra Doors in social maneuvers and to contested rolls to detect true feeling, motives, and position. This can apply to some supernatural powers at the ST's discretion. Pg 50 CoD
Contacts - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: Complex system that interacts with Allies. Contacts provide information, but do not do favors. Pg 50 CoD
Fame - 1 to 3 dots - Pre-req: Cannot have Anonymity merit. Effect: Add +1 die per dot when interacting with someone that is impressed by the pc's celebrity status. Drawbacks: Any rolls to find or identify the character are at +1 die per dot of the merit. Alternate identity may be used to mitigate this. Pg 50 CoD
Fast-Talking (Style) - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: Manipulation 3, Subterfuge 2. Effect: 1-dot: -1 to an opponent's Resolve or Composure roll when resisting a social interaction. 2-dot: Use fancy words to confuse the opponent. Apply one relevant specialty to any social roll made, even if it isn't tied to the skill being used. 3-dot: Keep an opponent from advancing a discussion. Reroll one failed Subterfuge roll per scene. 4-dot: When your pc opens a Door using conversation (Persuasion, Empathy, Subterfuge, etc), they can spend a point of Willpower to immediately open another Door. 5-dot: If a mark gains willpower from their Vice while your pc is present, you can roll Manipulation+Subterfuge to open a Door, regardless of the interval or Impression level. Pg 50 CoD
Fixer - 2 dots - Pre-req: Contacts 2, Wits 2. Effect: When hiring a service reduce the Availability rating of the service by 1 dot. Pg 51 CoD
Hobbyist Clique - 2 dots - Pre-req: Membership in a clique, all members must have the chosen skill at 2+. Effect: When the group's support is available, gain 9-again on rolls involving the chosen skill of the group, as well as +2 dice on extended rolls. Drawback: Mandatory monthly meetings or lose the benefits. Logs or it didn't happen. Pg 51 CoD
Inspiring - 3 dots - Pre-req: Presence 3. Effect: Presence+Expression test. -1 for small group, -2 for small crowd, -3 for large crowd. Listeners gain the Inspired Condition. User may not gain the benefit. Pg 51 CoD
Iron Will - 2 dots - Pre-req: Resolve 4. Effect: When using willpower for extra dice when resisting or contesting a social interaction, you may use your Resolve for the number of dice, instead of what you normally get. If the roll is contested, gain 8-again on the roll. Pg 51 CoD
Mentor - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: Mentors need goals and extract a payment based on the level of the merit. Choose 3 skills, or Resources. Once per day ('session' as per +help Durations), you may ask your Mentor for a favor (often asking a favor of like size/value in return). If a roll is required, they gain automatic successes equal to their dot-rating. Pg 51 CoD
Mystery Cult Initiation - 1 to 5 - Pre-req: None. Effect: Complicated system with which a Mystery Cult can be built and give bonuses for being part of, at the cost of obligations and favors. Pg 51 CoD
Pusher - 1 dot - Pre-req: Persuasion 2. Effect: Any time someone accepts Soft Leverage, improve your Impression as if you satisfied their Vice as well as moving their impression up on the chart. Pg 53 CoD
Resources - 1 to 5 dots - Pre-req: None. Effect: