{"id":"vampire/power/discipline_power/witness-of-death","type":"power","system":"discipline_power","line":"vampire","name":"Witness of Death","sources":[{"source":"V20","page":168,"folio":160}],"entries":["Before it is possible to control the dead, one must perceive them. This power allows just that, attuning a vampire’s unliving senses to the presence of the incorporeal.","Under its effects, a necromancer sees ghosts as translucent phantoms gliding among the living and hears their whispers and moans. She feels the spectral cold of their touch and smells their musty hint of decay. Yet one cannot mistake the dead for the living, as they lack true substance, and appear dimmer and less real than creatures of flesh and blood. When a vampire uses this power, her eyes flicker with pale blue fire that only the dead can see.","Ghosts resent being spied upon, and more powerful shades may use their own powers to inflict their displeasure on the incautious.","System: The player rolls {@attribute Perception|V20} + {@ability Awareness|V20} (difficulty 5). Success allows the vampire to perceive ghosts as described for the rest of the scene (in the mortal world — seeing ghosts in the land of the dead requires {@discipline_power Shroudsight|V20}, on p. 163). Failure has no special effect, but a botch means the vampire can see only the dead for the scene; everything else appears as shapeless, dim shadows. While the vampire’s other senses remain attuned to the living, he is all but blind in this state and suffers a +3 difficulty to most vision-based {@attribute Perception|V20} rolls and attacks. Ghosts notice the glowing eyes of a vampire using this power only with a successful {@attribute Perception|V20} + {@ability Alertness|V20} roll (difficulty 7)."],"parent":"vampire/power/discipline/the-sepulchre-path","level":1,"_qa":{"flags":[],"parser":"section_entries","confidence":0.9,"extracted":"2026-10-15","job":"v20-disciplines"},"_links":{"self":"/api/v1/records/vampire/power/discipline_power/witness-of-death","html":"/records/vampire/power/discipline_power/witness-of-death","parent":"/api/v1/records/vampire/power/discipline/the-sepulchre-path","children":"/api/v1/records/vampire/power/discipline_power/witness-of-death/children","sources":[{"abbr":"V20","page":168,"folio":168,"title":"Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition"}]},"_db":{"title":"Witness of Death","props":[["Discipline","The Sepulchre Path"],["Roll","Perception + Awareness (difficulty 5)"]],"parent_id":"vampire/power/discipline/the-sepulchre-path","level":1,"category":null,"summary":"Before it is possible to control the dead, one must perceive them. This power allows just that, attuning a vampire’s unliving senses to the presence of the incorporeal. Under its effects, a necromancer sees ghosts as","tags":[],"children":[]}}