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Merits and flaws are divided into four categories: physical, mental, social and supernatural. The physical category describes merits or flaws that deal with a character's physical makeup or abilities, while the mental category addresses intellectual abilities or patterns of behavior. The social category comprises relationships and individual status in Kindred or mortal society, while supernatural merits and flaws concern the paranormal abilities of vampires and the way they interact with the physical world.

Physical	Mental	Social	Super Natural
Short (1-pt) Smell of the Grave (1-pt) 13th Generation (2-pt) Ragged Bite (2-pt) Leper (2-3-pt) Addiction (3-pt) Lame (3-pt) Monstrous (3-pt) Permanent Wound (3-pt) Slow Healing (3-pt) Child (4-pt) Deaf (4-pt) Mute (4-pt) Flesh of the Corpse (5-pt) Blind (6-pt)	Deep Sleeper (1-pt) Nightmares (1-pt) Prey Erclusion (1-pt) Amnesia (2-pt) Deranged (2-pt) Territorial (2-pt) Vengeful (2-pt) Religious Prohibition (2/4-pt) Flesh Eater (4-pt)	Dark Secret (1-pt) Infamous Sire (1-pt) Mistaken Identity (1-pt) Sire's Resentment (1-pt) Enemy  (1-5-pt) Apostate (2-pt) Hunted (4-pt) Oathbreaker (4-pt) Outspoken Pagan Heretic (4-pt)	Initiate to the Road (1-pt) Repulsed by Garlic (1-pt) Touch of Frost (1-pt) Demon-Hounded (1-4-pt) Cursed (1-5-pt) Cannot Embrace (2-pt) Cast No Reflection (1-pt) Eerie Presence (2-pt) Repulsive to Animals (2-pt) Blood Madness (2/4-pt) Haunted (3-pt) Can't Cross Running Water (4-pt) Grip of the Damned (4-pt) Dark Fate (5-pt) Light-Sensitive (5-pt) Weak Blood (5-pt) Weak Aura  (2-pt) Potent Aura (3-pt)

Physical Back to Top
Short (1-pt Flaw)
You are well below average height – four and a half feet tall or less.  You have difficulty reaching or manipulating objects designed for normal adult size, and your running speed is one-half that of a normally proportioned human.

Smell of the Grave (1-pt Flaw)
You exude an odor of dampness and newly turned earth, which no amount of scents or perfumes will cover.  Mortals in your immediate presence become uncomfortable, so the difficulties of all Social rolls to affect mortals increase by one. Characters on the Road of Humanity with this Flaw subtract one from their aura rating (so a +1 becomes a 0, a -1 becomes a -2, etc.).

13th Generation (2-pt Flaw)
Your sire was of the 12th generation, long thought unable to sire. The fact that you rose from the dead may even have come as a shock to him, and it certainly concerns any elders who put stock in prophecy (in other words, most of them). You may be a clanless Caitiff or may carry your sire's clan, but you are likely seen as something less than proper among the High Clans. Thirteenth-generation vampires must at least take a Cannot Embrace Flaw, but almost all suffer from Weak Blood.

Ragged Bite (2-pt Flaw)
Unlike most other Cainites, you lack the ability to lick the wounds of your feeding closed. Instead, you leave raw puncture wounds in the flesh of your prey. These wounds also have a one-in-five chance of becoming diseased. The Storyteller determines the precise nature of the infection.

Leper (2-3-pt Flaw)
Before you were Embraced, you suffered from leprosy or a skin disease that might be easily confused with leprosy. Your Appearance may be no higher than 2, and your flesh is marred by rashes, pale patches, festering sores, scars and so on. Your skin disease, whatever it actually is, is obvious to any who look upon you. Mortal authorities rufuse your entry to any city, and you are treated with fear and revulsion. You may be compelled to dress in a specific manner and even carry castanets or other devices to announce your coming.
In the three-point version, your condition is still contagious. Although it cannot have any further effects on your unliving form, you may transmit it to those upon whom you feed. This Flaw is worth only one point to Nosferatu, and then only if their disease is contagious.

Addiction (3-pt Flaw)
You suffer from an addiction to a substance, which must now be present in the blood you drink. It can be alcohol, a plant extract or simply adrenaline. This substance always impairs you in some fashion.

Lame (3-pt Flaw)
Your legs are damaged, which prevents you from running or walking easily. You are forced to walk with a cane or possibly leg braces, and have a pronounced limp to your stride. Your walking speed is one-quarter that of a normal human, and running is impossible.

Monstrous (3-pt Flaw)
Your physical form was twisted during the Embrace, and now reflects the Beast that rages inside you. Characters with this Flaw appear to be savage monsters and have Appearance ratings of 0. Nosferatu may not take this Flaw as it is already in their clan weakness.

Permanent Wound (3-pt Flaw)
You suffered injuries during your Embrace which your transformation somehow failed to repair. At the beginning of each night, you rise from sleep at the Wounded health level, though this may be healed by spending blood points.

Slow Healing (3-pt Flaw)
You have difficulty healing wounds. It requires two blood points to heal one health level of normal damage, and you heal one health level of aggravated damage every five days (plus the usual five blood points and Willpower expenditure).

Child (4-pt Flaw)
You were a small child (between five and 10 years old) at the time of your Embrace, leaving your Physical Attributes underdeveloped and making it difficult to interact with some aspects of mortal society. You may not have more than two dots in Strength or Stamina, except when raising Physical Attributes with blood points, and the difficulties of all die rolls when attempting to direct or lead mortal adults are increased by two. This Flaw also includes the Short Flaw, so no character can have both.

Deaf (4-pt Flaw)
You cannot hear. While you may ignore some applications of Dominate, you may not hear warnings, and you have great difficulties in normal communication. The difficulties of any Alertness rolls that envolve hearing increase by three.

Mute (4-pt Flaw)
You cannot speak. You may communicate with the Storyteller and describe your actions but cannot talk to player or Storyteller characters unless everyone concerned uses Linguistics dots to purchase a commonly understood sign language or you write down what you wish to say.

Flesh of the Corpse (5-pt Flaw)
Your flesh does not fully regenerate itself once it is damaged. While you are able to heal yourself to the point of regaining full functionality, your skin still retains the cuts, tears, bullet holes, etc., which you have incurred. Depending on the nature of the damage, this Flaw will make social dealings exceedingly difficult.

Blind (6-pt Flaw)
You cannot see. Characters can compensate for the loss of vision by becoming more sensitive to other sensory input, but visual cues and images are lost to them. Actions involving hand-eye coordination are very difficult to perform, especially under stressful conditions. Difficulties of all Dexterity-based rolls are increased by two. Vampires with Auspex 2 (Soulsight) are still able to use this ability, though the information is interpreted via the other senses.



Mental Back to Top
Deep Sleeper (1-pt Flaw)
When you sleep, it is very difficult for you to awaken. The difficulty of any die roll to awaken during the day is increased by two.

Nightmares (1-pt Flaw)
You experience horrendous nightmares every time you sleep, and memories of them haunt you during your waking hours. Upon awakening, you must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) or lose a die on all actions for that night. A botched Willpower roll indicates that, even when awake, you still believe that you are locked in a nightmare.

Prey Erclusion (1-pt Flaw)
You refuse to hunt a certain class of prey. You might refuse to feed upon peasants, women, priests or poets. If you accidentally feed upon such an individual, you automatically frenzy and must make a roll to prevent Road loss (difficulty 7). Witnessing other Kindred feeding on the object of your exclusion might also provoke a frenzy, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Ventrue may take this Flaw to represent an additional, self-imposed prey limitation beyond that imposed by their clan weakness.

Amnesia (2-pt Flaw)
You are unable to remember anything about your past, yourself or your family, though your past might well come back to haunt you. Your origins and the circumstances behind your amnesia are for the Storyteller to determine, and she is encouraged to make it as interesting as possible.

Deranged (2-pt Flaw)
Either a pre-existing condition or the trauma of damnation has sown madness in you. You begin play with a serious derangement that dogs you in your undying existence. It is possible for you to get over this madness in play (a long and arduous task). Malkavians may take this Flaw to represent an additional derangement beyond the one endemic to their blood.

Territorial (2-pt Flaw)
You are extremely territorial, staking out a particular area as your hunting ground and reacting aggressively to trespassers. If another vampire enters your territory uninvited, you must make a frenzy roll. If you fail, you immediately attack the interloper and continue attacking until the intruder is dead or has left your hunting grounds. You are reluctant to leave your territory except in desperate circumstances. It is possible (but not common) to take this Flaw without the Domain Background, in which case your absolute claim to territory is not all recognized by other vampires.

Vengeful (2-pt Flaw)
You have a score to settle, incurred either during your mortal days or after the Embrace. You are obsessed with taking your revenge on an individual or group, and it is your overriding priority in any situation where you encounter the object of your revenge. You may temporarily resist your need for vengeance by spending a Willpower point.

Religious Prohibition (2/4-pt Flaw)
You have retained your faith through the Embrace, and you suffer because your beliefs prohibit drinking the blood you need to survive. You may have lived as a believer in Islam or Judaism (both of which explicitly ban blood-drinking) or even as one of the strictly vegetarian Cathar perfecti. As even animal blood is forbidden substance to you, your conscience pricks whenever you feed.
In the two-point version of this Flaw, you voluntarily restrict your feeding to animals or blood that has been drained by a ritual butcher. At four points, you refuse to feed unless it is an immediate necessity (blood pool is three or less), and even then, you may fall victim to depression and self-loathing for several nights after the forbidden act. Most vampires with this Flaw are on a version of the Road of Heaven, and they might also have the Outspoken Pagan/Heretic Flaw.

Flesh Eater (4-pt Flaw)
It is not enough for you to draw nourishment from the blood of mortals – you believe you must also consume your victim’s heart, liver and other blood-rich tissue. Of course, this will necessitate the deaths of all your victims (unless you are extremely creative), which might lead to numerous problems with the herd and with your own conscience (and road). Characters with this Flaw must additionally purchase the Eat Food Merit.



Social Back to Top
Dark Secret (1-pt Flaw)
You have some sort of secret that, if uncovered, would be of immense embarrassment to you and would make you a pariah in the local Cainite community. This could be anything from having murdered an elder to being a secret member of the Cainite Heresy.

Infamous Sire (1-pt Flaw)
Your sire was, and perhaps still is, distrusted and disliked by many of the local Cainites. As a result, you are distrusted and dislikes as well. The stigma follows you even if you repudiate your sire. One cannot escape one's blood.

Mistaken Identity (1-pt Flaw)
You look similar to descriptions of another vampire, which causes cases of mistaken identity. This can prompt numerous awkward or even dangerous situations, especially if your "twin" has a terrible reputation or is wanted for some crime.

Sire's Resentment (1-pt Flaw)
Your sire dislikes you and wishes you ill. Given the smallest opportunity, she will actively seek to do you harm. Your sire’s allies also work against you, and many elders may resent you.

Enemy  (1-5-pt Flaw)
You have an enemy, or perhaps a group of enemies, who seek to harm you. The power of the enemy depends upon how many points the player wishes to spend (five points indicates the wrath of a Methuselah, archmage or other potent supernatural foe).

Apostate (2-pt Flaw)
You have publicly recanted one of the vampiric roads in order to step onto your current one. Changing roads is not uncommon in the early years of unlife, but you have done so in a especially spectacular way - perhaps accusing your former faith of being false or ridiculing former teachers. You carry the stigma of a traitor among your former fellow-travelers, while your new co-religionists still wonder if you are truly comitted to their faith. You must work twice as hard to receive half the recognition of others.

Hunted (4-pt Flaw)
You are puseud by a fanatical witch-hunter who believes (perhaps correctly) that you are a danger to humanity. All those with whom you associate, be they mortal Cainite, may be hunted as well. The hunter may or may not be part of the shadowy Inquisition

Oathbreaker (4-pt Flaw)
You are a known defector. You turned traitor to your former liege and you still have much to prove before you are accepted by the Cainites you have defected to. Elders, ancillae and even neonates treat you with distrust and even hostility, and your reputation might even sully those whom you regularly associate with.

Outspoken Pagan Heretic (4-pt Flaw)
You are either not a Christian at all, or you are a follower of one of the heresies declared anathema by the Church, such as the Cathars or Bogomils. Although Jews, Muslims and pagans are no stranger to Europe, they are subject to various forms of oppression and social stigma in a culture that is unabashedly Christian. Many non-Christians carry on (and even thrive) by doing their very best not to antagonize the Christian community in any way. They practice their rites in private, find economic and social niches where they are tolerated or appreciated, and watch for signs of bubbling hate or resentment. Not so you. Either because of past "offenses" or current behaviour, you are permanently branded as heathen - somewhere between unsavory and evil in the eyes of the Christian majority. You regularly face discrimination, accusations and even outright persecution. Even among the undying, you carry a black mark, especially among Christian followers of the Road of Heaven.



Supernatural  Back to Top
Initiate to the Road (1-pt Flaw)
You are a newcomer to your chosen road of enlightment and have yet to face your first moment of truth upon it. Although you understand the road's tenets and teachings on an intellectual level, you haven't put them to the test against the Beast, so you cannot claim the mantle of a true adherent. This may be the result of having only recently been Embraced or having just changed roads, in which case the Apostate Flaw may be appropriate. You do not have the aura tied to your road, and you face a +1 difficulty penalty in resisting frenzy or Rötschreck, but you have an easier time changing roads if you wish to do so.

Repulsed by Garlic (1-pt Flaw)
You cannot abide the smell of garlic, and the smallest whiff of its scent will drive you from a room unless you make a successful Willpower roll (difficulty based on the strenght of the odor).

Touch of Frost (1-pt Flaw)
Plants wither as you approach and die at your touch. Your touch leaches heat from living beings, as though you are made of ice. As you walk through a forest or across a field, you do not leave a huge swath of death, however. Instead, you leave behind small patches of dead leaves and withered or rotting foliage. Someone tracking you through the wilderness gains a -2 difficulty bonus to do so because of these marks.

Demon-Hounded (1-4-pt Flaw)
A demon from below has taken a special interest in you. It appears to you occasionally using threats, bribes or honeyed words to win you to its cause. Sometimes it just asks you to perform innocous favors. Sometimes it asks you to become its eternal servant. Sometimes it offers favors or information without any apparent catch. In any case, it is not your interests it serves, but those of its diabolical masters. For some reason, the demon sees you as an especially useful tool for ensnaring the mortal souls it craves, and although it may occasionally provide you with a short-term benefit, you are disposable to it. At some point in the chronicle, it is likely to try to dispose of you in some decidly uncomfortable fashion.
The details of the demon and its personality are largely up to the Storyteller, but the point level determines some generalities. A minor demon (1-pt Flaw) may be an annoying imp, incapable of doing anything more than distracting you, thieving small items and pleading for souls. Its plans are unimpressive, but they can be frustrating. A greater creature (4-pt Flaw) is your physical equal, and it can concoct horribly devious plans to make you its slave.

Cursed (1-5-pt Flaw)

Cannot Embrace (2-pt Flaw)

Cast No Reflection (1-pt Flaw)

Eerie Presence (2-pt Flaw)

Repulsive to Animals (2-pt Flaw)

Blood Madness (2/4-pt Flaw)

Haunted (3-pt Flaw)

Can't Cross Running Water (4-pt Flaw)

Grip of the Damned (4-pt Flaw)

Dark Fate (5-pt Flaw)

Light-Sensitive (5-pt Flaw)

Weak Blood (5-pt Flaw)


Weak Aura  (2-pt Merit or Flaw)
Your personality and outlook have relatively little unintentional effect on the others. You may well be a master of Presence and other forms of manipulation, but that is all planned. Your road aura is very weak, manifesting only if you are a true exemplar or reprobate of your belief system. Your aura modifier is as follows:

Road Rating Aura Modifier

10-9	-1 difficulty
8-3	no modifier
2-1	+1 difficulty

This trait is a Merit if your starting Road trait is 4 or less, and a Flaw if it is 5 or more. The Storyteller may also rule that you do not cause unconsious Presence effects.

Potent Aura (3-pt Merit or Flaw)
The power of your own personality and outlook is such that it reaches out and affects others with disturbing ease. Others, be they mortals or vampires, get a powerful first impression of you that colors many of their interactions with you. Your road aura is significantly more powerful than that of other vampires of your outlook. Your aura modifier is as follows:

Road Rating Aura Modifier

10	-3 difficulty
9-8	-2 difficulty
7-6	-1 difficulty
5	no modifier
4-3	+1 difficulty
2	+2 difficulty
1	+3 difficulty

This trait is a Merit if your starting Road trait is 5 or more, and a Flaw if it is 4 or less.