Psychic Assault
Discipline Power · Vampire · Level 8
Psychic Assault is nothing less than a direct mind-to-mind attack which uses the sheer force of an elder’s will to overpower his target. Victims of Psychic Assault show little outward sign of the attack, save for nose-bleeds and expressions of intense agony; all injuries by means of this psychic pressure inflicted are internal. A medical examination of a mortal victim of a Psychic Assault invariably shows the cause of death to be a heart attack or aneurysm, while vampires killed with this power decay to dust instantly, regardless of age.
System: The character must touch or make eye contact with his target. The player spends three blood points (and a Willpower point, if assaulting a vampire or other supernatural being) and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation in a contested roll against the victim’s Willpower. The result depends on the number of net successes the attacker rolls.
Successes Result
Botch The target becomes immune to the attacker’s Psychic Assault for one night per each “1” rolled.
Failure The target is unharmed and may determine that a psychic assault is taking place by succeeding on a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 6).
1 success The target is shaken but unharmed. He loses a temporary Willpower point.
2 successes The target is badly frightened. He loses three temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage (difficulty of the attacker‘s Auspex rating) to avoid Rötschreck.
3 successes The target loses six temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage as above. If this causes him to lose his last temporary Willpower point, he loses a permanent Willpower point and receives three health levels of bashing damage (soaked normally).
4 successes The target loses all temporary Willpower points and half of his permanent Willpower points (round down) and suffers three health levels of lethal damage (soaked normally).
5 successes The target must roll his permanent Willpower (difficulty 7). If he succeeds, apply the effect of four successes, and is also rendered unconscious for the rest of the night. If he fails, the Psychic Assault kills him instantly.
Part of Auspex
See also 5
Abilities & Attributes
- Awareness shared/trait/ability/awareness
- Manipulation shared/trait/attribute/manipulation
- Perception shared/trait/attribute/perception
Disciplines
- Auspex vampire/power/discipline/auspex
Rules
- Intimidation shared/rule/system/intimidation
Referenced by 2
Rotes & Procedures
- Spotting the Afterglow mage/power/rote/spotting-the-afterglow
- Suggestion of Unease mage/power/rote/suggestion-of-unease