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Astral Vigor (3pt.) ====
Your mage's astral body is especially well connected to her physical form. She does not suffer any of the psychological side effects normally associated with protracted ral travel (such as the loss of REM sleep), though her body continues to atrophy and starve at the normal rate. Her astral body, fortified by a powerful psychic presence, has two dice of inherent armor. Also, the character's strong tie between body and spirit allows her to ascertain her body's state of being (dehydrated, damaged, etc.) at any time, with a moment of quiet concentration.

Avatar Companion (7pt.) ====
Your mage is in a cycle of reincarnation. However, the strange thing about your mage's passages through the life-death-rebirth cycle comes from the fact that his Avatar has another lesser Avatar connected to it. This fragment also enters the reincarnation cycle, follows your mage's Avatar through each incarnation, and often retains memories of its previous incarnation. In game terms, you have a living companion who has an Avatar linked to your own. You may have little memory of your past lives and your companion may not be Awakened, but she retains much of the knowledge and experience from your previous incarnations. Thus, your mage's companion can remind him of things or teach him about lessons that he's already learned previously. Think Corum and Jhary-a-Conel. The Storyteller creates this companion. Unless you also take the Allies Background, your companion has no special capabilities besides being tied to your character's cycle and remembering the past.

Berserker (2pt.) ====
The ancient Celts called this state the "Battle Fury," and when it takes over your mage, everything is tinted with a red haze as he kills. And kills. And kills some more. Your character feels no pain, and he ignores all wound penalties when berserk. Whenever your character is injured in combat, make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6 + the number of wound levels suffered so far that scene). Add two to that difficulty if you have the Short Fuse Flaw (up to a maximum difficulty 10). If you fail, your character enters the battle fury, and he may ignore all wound penalties. Unfortunately, he won't know friend from foe, and he will kill until there's nothing left standing.

To end the battle fury, you must make a Willpower roll at the same difficulty. Subtract one from the difficulty if the person on the receiving end is your True Love or someone similarly important. Otherwise, everyone just has to run and hide until you come down.

Celestial Affinity (3pt.) ====
Your mage has an exceptional instinct when it comes to dealing with High Umbrood. While certain shamans excel at interactions with their totemic spirits, and necromancers find truck with the dead a simple matter, your mage's talents make converse with the noblest and most refined of ephemeral entities easier. You receive a difficulty bonus of two to all rolls to summon, compel, coax, bargain with and otherwise influence such beings. This bonus applies as much to Social rolls as it does to Spheres, since trafficking with High Umbrood is often as much a matter of finesse and force of personality as it is one of sorcerous might.

Circumspect Avatar (2pt.) ====
What Avatar? Your mage has never seen her Avatar. In fact, no one's ever seen her Avatar, unless it was her reflection in the mirror, or her shadow, or something that everyone and their dog has. Your mage does have an Avatar, but it isn't inclined to put on a show. At most, her Avatar is simply her subconscious, and it's just nudged and pushed her into finding her own Awakening.
Having a circumspect Avatar doesn't mean that your mage doesn't have Seekings and Epiphanies. Such events just tend to be rooted in reality. The mage may well find that a series of unusual events in the physical world leads her to greater enlightenment, without ever entering a dreamscape. Who needs to go rooting around in dreams and bizarre mindscapes to find out who they are?

Claws/Fangs/etc (3+pt.) ====
Witches have always been known for their beautiful fingernails and iron teeth, and your character lives up to this reputation, since coming from her, "I'll scratch your eyes out!" is not an idle threat. Or perhaps she has the horns of the devil or the hooves of a centaur, or something more mundane yet cooler -like a surgical steel plate in the skull with bolts to screw spikes on.

For three points, you may buy one type of attack; for five points, two. Seven points allows you to buy three, and nine points allows you to buy four. For eleven points, you can go for the full devil package and have claws, fangs, horns, hooves, and a barb at the end of your tail (though it costs an additional three points for your tail to be prehensile).

^Maneuver ^ Accuracy ^ Damage ^ | Bite | +1 | Strength + 1| | Claw | 0 | Strength + 2 | | Kick | -1 | Strength + 3 | | Gore | -1 | Strength + 2 (Strength +4 after a charge, if you've just moved 10 yards or more) | | Tail Strike | 0 | Strength + 1 |

Claws, fangs, horns, hooves, and tail barbs come in varying sizes. The above list assumes you've got the smallest gauge. For an additional point, you can get a somewhat larger size, and another point beyond that gets you el grande, each size larger doing an additional + 1 point of damage. However, this is not necessarily a great idea. Wolf claws can be painted and passed off as an expensive manicure, but vulture talons are a bit harder to hide, and a set of giant bear claws are not only incredibly conspicuous but will prevent you from doing things like typing or driving. Likewise a nice pair of goat horns can be hidden under a top hat, but a set of oryx horns will need a sombrero, and there's no hiding a full rack of stag antlers, especially if you've got two points for every year of your age.

At Storyteller option, claws and so forth can be made retractable for an additional + 1 per unit of size, like vampire fangs can be pulled back in for one point; for two points, jumbo fangs (the type that stick down over your lip) can be pulled back into line with regular teeth, and for three points, even boar or walrus tusks can be made to disappear- though there will have to be a good explanation given for why this works.

Communicate with Animals (2pt.) ====
Through your deep and profound understanding of the spirits within all life, you can communicate with any normal animal. This communication is not as detailed or exact as ordinary speech, nor does it necessary involve you actually speaking. Instead, the animal you are communicating with understands you through a combination of posture, facial expressions, smell and speech, while you can understand it on an equally primal level.

Even if the animal noticed such things, you cannot use this ability to ask an animal the license plate number of a car, or the cut of someone's suit. However, most mammals and birds can tell you basic information like how many people passed by, as well as possibly odd details like what these people had eaten recently or if they smelled afraid. To determine the actual degree of communication, roll Charisma+ Intuition. Finding out extremely simple information has a difficulty of 4 or 5. However, anything more complex than vague information about recent events, or questions about the animal's own activities, will have a higher difficulty.

Since so few people bother to really attempt to communicate with animals, even wild animals that are not normally interested in humans will usually wish to respond to a mage with this ability. This Merit is largely limited to Dreamspeakers and Verbena, although a few Akashics also know it.

Clear Sighted (3pt.) ====
Illusions do not fool you. This vision may be a supernatural gift, an inborn insight or a practiced skill. In any case, vampiric Obfuscation, Chimerstry and other Disciplines or Gifts that deceive most observers don't work as well as they should against you. Confronted with such deception, you get a Perception+ Alertness roll (difficulty = opposing power's level + 3) to see right through it.

Conditional Magic (1-6pt.) ====
There is one thing in the world that is a great boon, or bane, to your character's magic. Perhaps her spells work particularly well against men, or on Tuesdays, or just after a storm, or on people dressed all in black. Maybe she's powerless to affect those who are or who bear that certain thing, such as her magic being unable to affect Christians or those who carry a piece of rowan and red thread. It may be that a certain individual gave her power over them, or perhaps it is utterly proof against her magic due to an oath she swore or spells that were placed on her.

The conditions that affect your magic may be common, uncommon or rare, and the value of this Merit or Flaw depends on the rarity of the condition. The base costs listed here assume that you have a difficulty modifier of three on all Arete rolls under the given conditions. You may adjust the difficulty by one for every point more or less you devote to the Trait.

^Points^ Condition^ |1 point| Unique: The Sword of Roland, the Matriarch of the MECHA construct, Leap Year| |2 points| Scarce as hen's teeth: Current or former members of the Council of Nine, your former Mentors, once in a blue moon.| |3 points| Rare, but not unheard of: loadstones, Swedish royalty, werewolves, rowan and red thread, the holy days of the archangels| |4 points| Special order: virgins, middle eastern eye-bead charms, any member of Iteration X, during a thunderstorm| |5 points| Available without much trouble: cold iron, silver, Christians, any member of the Traditions, a windy day, holy ground| |6 points| Common as dirt: men, anyone who's ever been baptized, the color purple, under cloud cover, Tuesdays|

Cyclic Magic (3pt.) ====
Your character's magic is tied to some regular and repeating cycle — night and day, the moon, the sun, the tides, the wheel of the year, or even such things as the stock market or the price of tea in China (very important for a Syndicate commodities broker). As such, your difficulties with magic fluctuate from the standard by a maximum of three, depending on what part of the cycle you set as your personal high point. You may be tied to the dark of the moon, the full moon, the Bull cycle or the Bear cycle. Regardless, while the cyclic nature of your magic is problematic, it is quite useful in some circumstances, allowing your character to schedule rituals for their times of greatest power.

Detached (4pt.) ====
Your psychic has the rareabilitytoview his psychic abilities as separate from his physical existence and can maintain this distance even under adverse conditions. Wound penalties don't affect your use of psyckic powers until your character reaches Incapacitated. If he's Incapacitated, then you may spend a Willpower point to use a psychic power at half the normal dice pool (rounded down). This action may be performed only once per scene, after which the character falls unconscious, so choose last-ditch efforts carefully.

Driven (2pt.) ====
The world is falling to Hell, and the Order is crumbling. Few mages have the spiritual resilience to endure the punishment being heaped on the Traditions in these End Times and keep on going. Your mage is one of them. Once per game session, when the survival of your character's Tradition is at stake, you gain an additional free point of temporary Willpower to spend on any one roll in defense of your mage's Tradition.

Dual Perception (2pt.) ====
Using you status as an intermediary between the spirit world and the mortal world, you can easily switch your awareness back and forth between these two realms. When using any spirit magic that involves perceiving the spirit world, you can cease using this ability and observe the mortal world at any time. Then, if the duration of the duration of the magic is not yet up, you can continue using it without additional rolls. Also, when you are in the Umbra, you can choose to observe the mortal world instead of the spirit world without needing to make additional rolls. Since this ability is innate, you suffer no disorientation or other penalty associated with switching your perceptions.

Transvestites and contraries often possess Dual Perception due to their own dual natures. If you take this Merit in addition to the Medium or Spirit Sight Merit (or similar), you can effectively turn the appropriate Merit on or off at will.

Dual Traditions (7pt.) ====
Your mage has been educated by two traditions. Most likely, he was a Hollow One who studied a bit of this and that, and found a couple things that made sense to him. Or, perhaps, he was Awakened by a teacher of one Tradition, but then studied under a different Master and experienced a second Epiphany through this new knowledge. For purposes of spending experience, the specialty Spheres of both Traditions come with the bonus (cheap) multiplier. Your character is more open-minded about foci as well, and he may use those of either Tradition. (The penalties for unique foci still apply.) If your mage loses his Hermetic showstone, for example, he has to go either about getting another one or rely solely on the props of his other Tradition.

Faction Favorite (2pt.) ====
Awakened mages may be the visionaries who help the Traditions and Conventions build the future, but it is the linear mages who provide the bedrock foundation upon which new recruits, culrural identity, stable Chantries and hopes for the future are actually built. Whether due to a special distinction for conserving the past glories of a Tradition or a solid reputationas one of the backbones of organizational power, you command respect in your Tradition or Convention. This is important because the worldwide influences of the mighty keystone associations of magicians transeend most of the smaller societies that manage to survive the ages. Modify all social rolls connected to Tradition or Convention Status or decision-making by two points of difficulty in your favor.

Force of Spirit (2pt.) ====
The raw inner force of your soul grants you a certain character that others may ftnd irresistible. Perhaps you glow with an inner light; maybe your beauty seems virtually divine. You may spend Mana points to reduce the difficulty target number of a social roll. No difficulty may be lower than two, and none may be lowered by more than three. Obviously, you must possess Mana points to be able to spend them.

Gift of Tongues (3pt.) ====
All spirits that can communicate with mortals naturally possess the ability to communicate in any language. Like these spirits, you also have the natural ability to transcend language. When speaking with any sentient being (from Earth), you can understand its language as if it were your own.

Due to the limits of the human mind, you can only understand and speak one language at a time. If two people who speak different languages are talking to you at once you can only understand one of them. Using a coincidental Mind 1 Effect can allow you to understand multiple languages at once. Magically augmenting this gift to allow speech in multiple different tongues simultaneously is, of course, vulgar.

The Gift of Tongues Merit works only for conversation held in person, where you and the person you are speaking to can actually hear each other's unaltered voices. You cannot use this ability to read another language or to communicate by telephone, microphone or any other electronic or mechanical medium.

Green Thumb (1pt.) ====
Flowers spring up in your footsteps and trees burst into bloom at your touch. Your hands are as warm as sunlight or stones from a cheery hearth. A common Merit among Verbena.

Immunity (Variable pt.) ====
There is one peril to which your character is completely immune, even to the magical versions. Perhaps, like Mithridates, your mage slowly built up an immunity to all poisons, even those concocted by the Euthanatos. Perhaps he had an accident in the lab and now all metal phases harmlessly through his body, even magic swords and comic-book alloys-or it bounces off his chest. Perhaps it still cuts, but the wounds don't bleed and they seal up immediately.

However, this invulnerability is only to the particular thing, not to any secondary or tertiary effects- Fenris may have blessed your character so that he is unscathed by the teeth and claws of wolves, even werewolves, but that does nothing to stop the werewolf's silver sword or even the damage when the werewolf pounds your mage's head into a wall. (Fenris, after all, said you'd be unharmed by wolves, not by architecture.) Likewise, even if metal doesn't exist for your mage, it does for his lab coat, and a bullet's going to pack quite a wallop before it shreds the cloth. And even if the faeries at your christening said that no mortal man could ever harm you, that proviso doesn't apply to vampires, or the magics that mortal man might command, or even- for that matter- to his 1957 Chevy BelAire.

Your mage might be immune to all physical harm, save one thing, like beheading, incineration or being stabbed through the heart with a dagger thrice blessed by three separate Popes; or he might be immune to all things save in one spot, like Achilles' heel or Siegfried's shoulder. However, this will not prevent him from being turned into a rutabaga, having his soul stolen, being sealed in Lucite or sent into orbit, though his body (if not his sanity) will withstand all these things. He'll merely be an invulnerable soulless rutabaga orbiting the earth in a Lucite block while his enemies look for a third Pope to bless a dagger.

Immunities vary in price, depending on their lethality and their frequency, much as Vulnerabilities do. You must buy each Immunity separately, although the Storyteller may allow a number of similar Immunities (basilisks, snakes, toadstools, iocaine powder) to be packaged as one more common Immunity. Total immunity continues to go up in price depending on the size of the chink in your armor.

Alternately, for half the price of any given Immunity, your character may be Resistant to a particular bane -taking only half damage, rounded down, or reducing your soak roll difficulties by 3 ... your choice. Anything doing only one die of damage, you ignore.

  * 2 points - A minor nuisance (poison oak, common cold) or a very rare threat (basilisks, the Ebola virus)
  * 4 points - A major threat (disease, hunger, supernatural evil gook), or a moderately rare threat (poisons, extreme heat or cold, raw magic bolts, death spells)
  * 6 points - A terminal threat (asphyxiation, drowning), or a common threat (fire, metals)
  * 8 points - Invulnerable to all physical threats, but with one large weak spot (the head, the neck, the chest) or one common bane (fire, edged weapons, drowning)
  * 10 points - Invulnerable to all physical threats, but with one tiny weak spot (Siegfried's shoulder, Achilles' heel, the spot where the third eye would go) or one rare bane (silver bullets, mistletoe, deadly nightshade); one common bane in one large spot (edged weapons vs. the neck, i.e. beheading), or one common bane in a specific circumstance (a gun fired by a woman). Or immune to all physical threats save those which inflict aggravated damage, or immune to all physical threats save oneself - can be strangled with a rope made of own hair, mentally commanded to gnaw own arm off or destroyed with own Phylactery. Alternately, mage is invulnerable until Phylactery is destroyed or Phylactery is invulnerable until mage is destroyed.
  * 12 points - Invulnerable to all physical threats, but with one very rare bane (the bite of an Egyptian asp, nuclear radiation, a specific ritual cast by a master mage), one rare bane in a tiny spot (a stake of twisted rose briars through the heart), or one rare bane in a very specific set of circumstances (poisoned with belladonna by a beautiful woman).
  * 14 points - Invulnerable to all physical threats, but with the bane being an extreme rarity (a dagger thrice blessed by three Popes, the elixir of eighty evil essences), or one very rare bane in a highly specific set of circumstances (dragged through the streets of Baghdad by wild horses during the month of Ramadan).
  * 16 points - Invulnerable to all physical threats except one unique bane (the Holy Lance of Longinus, the Sword of Roland) or invulnerable until Phylactery destroyed, requiring an equally unique bane.
This Merit may also be taken in conjunction with the Vulnerability Flaw, especially if the Vulnerability is something common and not usually deadly, such as water. Thus, it costs only three points total to be the Wicked Witch of the West, Immune to every variety of harm except being doused with a cleaning bucket. ("I'm melting! I'm melting! Oh who would have thought a good little girl like you could destroy all my beautiful wickedness!")

Objects, especially Phylacteries, may also have Immunity to physical perils, but Storytellers should impose some limit on size so min-maxers will not use this Merit to create invulnerable dreadnoughts and impenetrable fortresses. The larger the object, the less of it can be invulnerable. You can have an indestructible moped, but your '57 Chevy won't have puncture-proof tires, and your Winnebago of Doom can have the tires blow out and the windows smashed even while the rest of it remains unscathed. Likewise, your cozy witch's cottage will just need to be rehatched after the dragon attack, but your mansion will be gutted with nothing left but smoke-blackened walls. However, you can have the last laugh by making your Phylactery your castle, and making the one way to defeat your castle's Immunity being your own death. That way, if your enemies ever sneak into your inner sanctum and kill you, they get to deal with the castle collapsing on their heads - a common staple of sorcerous fiction.

This merit can be very abusive, so generally should be discussed with the ST ahead of time, especially if over the normal merit limit.

Legendary Attribute (5pt.) ====
Your mage has a superhuman Attribute, something in which he has the potential to be greater than human. Although this Attribute is not necessarily automatically better, t he mage could potentially exceed the bounds of human ability. Such a gift is rare and precious, and many people with this capacity never even manage to fulfill their true potential.

In your character's legendary Attribute, your character has the potential for a rating of six dots. Thus, your mage might have the Strength of Hercules or the Intelligence of Occam. This Merit does not confer such a rating automatically; it must still be purchased with Attribute points, freebie points or experience.

In addition to the potential for inhuman power, your character has some miraculous capability tied to that Attribute. A mage with legendary Stamina might have the ability to roll a soak against any form of damage, for instance, while a mage with legendary Wits might be able to shift his initiative category by one place in any given turn automatically. This power is generally automatic, and it is subject to the Storyteller's approval. Its potency varies with the character's actual Attribute rating, so a character with a legendary Stamina of 1 has a weak legendary power that might grow with time and experience.

This Merit obviously has the potential for abuse, and it is not appropriate for all characters.

Mastery of Fire (2pt.) ====
Having control over fire and flame is one of the powers traditionally associated with shamans. Many cultures consider fire to be a natural force with a strong connection to the spirit world. As a shaman, you have a closer connection to the powers of fire than most. You are considerably more resistant to damage from fire than most people, and you receive three extra dice to all Stamina rolls to resist damage caused by fire, and you can soak fire damage normally. In addition, you also receive a -1 difficult bonus on all rolls to create, destroy, or manipulate fire.

Manifest Avatar (3pt.) ====
Most people see their Avatars only during Seekings, if at all. Your mage's drops by every day for tea, if it doesn't hang out 'round the clock. This Avatar is completely invisible to everyone but your character (and those who can read her mind), unless you take this Merit in combination with the Allies Background, creating the body of a person or familiar for your Avatar. In this case, your Avatar becomes your bamfling buddy, popping in and out of existence when it feels like it. If it's killed, only the mortal shell dies, not your Avatar — unless you also have the Phylactery Flaw, in which case your Avatar's form is immune to all physical harm, but it is manifested permanently. If such is the case, it is able to be kidnapped, transformed and so on.

Storytellers should note that an Avatar doesn't have to say it's an Avatar, and just because an Avatar is invested into a phylactery doesn't mean that everything that phylactery tells you is a pronouncement from your Avatar. A V-A may have his laptop as a phylactery, but unless he's also taken Manifest Avatar as a Merit, his laptop's warnings to update his virus software are nothing more significant than that. Likewise you may have invested your Avatar into your best friend, but that doesn't mean that everything (or anything) he says are pronouncements from your personal spirit guide. Such only happens to be the case if you take Manifest Avatar. Even then, why should your Avatar tell you he's anyone except your best friend?

A manifest Avatar can chat with you and other people like the intelligences that show up on the Web to guide Virtual Adepts and converse with their contemporaries. With the right tricks, it can even materialize to harangue you, to fight, to push you around or just make for a hot date.

Natural Channel (3pt.) ====
Your mage is a natural weak point in the Gauntlet between worlds. The difficulty to use magic to pierce it is one less, and spirits react a bit more favorably to the mage. If your mage finds an especially weak spot in the Gauntlet (with Awareness or Spirit 1), he can step between worlds without magic.

Natural Shallowing (5pt.) ====
A rare few souls draw the spirit worlds to them like moths to flame, calling out silently through the Gauntlet. Your mage is one such. The Gauntlet is always one less in the immediate vicinity of the mage (which, in some of the last remaining places of power, can reduce the Gauntlet rating to zero). Further, by expending a point of Willpower, the mage may cause the Gauntlet to reduce by an additional one, though this is as far as she can go. Note that multiple mages with this power cannot "stack" its effects. Dreamspeakers often see those who possess this Merit as being especially blessed by the spirits and are inclined to be friendly to them (- 1 to social difficulties).

Nephilim (7pt.) ====
This Merit is exactly what it sounds like. Your mage is the direct progeny of a native of the High Umbra and a human being. Perhaps your character's conception secured a pact, or possibly the reasons were somewhat less pragmatic. In any case, the mage is the intersection of Heaven (or Hell, or the Vulgate, etc.) and Earth. Like the Biblical Nephilim, your character's body cannot fully contain the massive spiritual energies coursing through it, so she has one or a small handful of deformities (at least 3 points worth of Physical Flaws, for which you receive no additional points). Also, she tends to embody certain characteristics of your High Umbral parent (almost certainly her father). An angelic parent whose domain is Fury will result in a short temper and a desire to solve problems with one's fists, whereas an incubus' child will have... darker appetites. Reflect this tendency by starting with two extra dots of Resonance. This heritage does, however, bestow certain advantages upon your character. Mind and Spirit Sphere difficulties pertaining directly to the High Umbra decrease by one, and she is capable of entering the High Umbra physically with a conjunctional Spirit 3, Mind 4 Effect. Also, the entities of the High Umbra fear their bastard half-breeds, and so you receive two bonus dice in all rolls to intimidate, command or make demands of such creatures. (Unless you are very powerful, however, or the creature you are dealing with is very weak, doing so is nigh suicidal.) This Merit cannot be taken with Celestial Affinity; the Nephilim are neither well-loved nor well-received by the Angelic Hierarchies and their like.

Nightsight (3pt.) ====
You can see in near-total darkness. This odd gift may come from an arcane power, an affinity to darkness or some faint relation to the catfolk. So long as some light source exists, your vision remains acute. Really bad conditions (smoke, fog, total darkness) might demand a Perception + Alertness roll, but under most circumstances, you can see as well by night as you can by cloudy daylight. Bright lights, especially sudden ones, dazzle you for a turn or so, perhaps longer if the light is really blinding; otherwise, your sight is fairly normal, not enhanced.

Nine Lives (6pt.) ====
Dame Fortune has favored your mage with the ability to come as close as possible to mortal peril and still to survive. When a roll occurs that would result in your character's death, the roll is made again. If the next roll succeeds, then your mage lives - and one of your nine lives is used up. If that subsequent roll fails, then another re-roll is made, until either a successful roll occurs or your nine lives are used up. The Storyteller should keep careful count of how many lives the character has remaining.

Parlor Trick (1pt.) ====
Your character has a natural ability to perform some small, pretty or useful bit of magic at will. This trick is nothing that can cause much damage, or even serious annoyance; it's just enough to perform some small basic task or give your mage a little flair. Your mage might be adept at the old wizard's trick of conjuring an orb of witchlight to hand or a flame to her finger. She might be a cyborg who had the bright idea of installing a light bulb or pilot light in her head for the same purpose. If your mage uses a magical sense like night-vision often, you might have the added perk that he can make his eyes glow like a vampire's, allowing him to see even in total darkness. If your character is of the scientific bent, he may be able to emit enough x-rays to use with his x-ray vision, or he could have a laser pointer installed in his index finger just for fun. You don't have to roll or spend anything to make this parlor trick work.

Storytellers should note that this Merit is provided to add color and reason to the game, not to give min -maxers a loophole to create engines of death. With this Merit, mages can light pipes without a lighter, conjure roses or martinis, have mood music play in the background or pop a penknife or a single claw out of a fingertip. Yes, you could put an eye out with one of those things, but the combat difference between a penknife, a single tiger claw, and a press-on fingernail is inconsequential.

Path Natural (5pt.) ====
Your sorcerer is especially talented in the exploration of a single Path of power. He may have a natural inclination toward expressing its nature due to incredible related mundane skills, spiritual might deriving from past lives or a supernatural heritage. He may even have struck holy or unholy bargains for power. During character creation, you should choose one magical Path. ln this Path, you pay only three-quarters experience to advance to higher levels or to obtain rituals for the Path chosen.

Psychic Ritual (2pt.) ====
Your psychic is a true rarity amongst the pure practitioners of the Arts of mental magic. Some realization of the importance of the universe has crept into his consciousness sufficiently that he has even managed to create a ritual that allows him to perform some extended psychic effect. You need to create a ritual, approved of by your Storyteller, for one of the levels of one of your character's psychic Paths. When your character performs this ritual, you may use the normal rules for rituals and extended magic rules, wtth minor necessary changes. Obviously, as your psychic does not gain Paradox, the penalty for a botch falls to the Storyteller, greatly increasing the horrific effects of the catastrophic failure. Your roll is limited to no more dice than your psychic's Stamina + Parapsychology. (In this case, you may roll simply your Stamina dice, even if you don't have the Parapsychology Knowledge.)

Shattered Avatar (5pt.) ====
Although not necessarily weak, your character's Avatar has been broken to pieces. Your mage has one splinter — your Avatar rating, if you have one, purchased at the normal cost for that Background — and the other pieces are scattered elsewhere. However, what has been broken can be put back together, at least in this case. If you can find the other pieces of your mage's Avatar through questing and roleplaying, you may increase your Avatar rating after character creation.

The other pieces of your character's Avatar may be scattered about the cosmos, secreted in extradimensional hidey-holes with sphinxes and other creatures guarding them, or they may be part of a phylactery, of which you have one or more pieces. For instance, perhaps your mage's Avatar is invested in 10 mighty rings, three of which she has (and a corresponding Avatar rating of 3), but she must go and retrieve the others from those who have them. Or perhaps there are other mages who share your character's Avatar, and whenever your mage kills one, her Avatar rating grows by their Avatar rating. Unfortunately, the other mages who have this Avatar are out to kill her as well....

Design the nature of your shattering with your Storyteller and decide beforehand what your character must do to regain a piece of his broken spirit.

Sphere Natural (5pt.) ====
Your character is able to use one of the Spheres of magic with a greater degree of ease than other mages. For whatever reason (inborn talent, powerful heritage, past life, supernatural bargain, etc.), she's got an affinit y for a certain kind of magic. She picked it up quickly, and she now progresses through it at an unusual rate.

During character creation, select one Sphere. From this point on, you only pay three-quarters of the normal cost (rounded down) when buying levels, rituals and similar improvements for magic of that Sphere alone. The favored Sphere must be declared at character creation, and it may be purchased only once.

Sterile ( 1pt.) ====
Put simply, your character cannot have children. For those who practice Tantric rituals or require sex as a focus, but do not desire pregnancy or unwanted children, this is a Merit. For those who belong to cultures, strong families or marriages that expect them to have children, this is a Flaw.
Mage Merits

Strength of Psyche (2pt.) ====
Your character has trained her mind to tap into the deep reserves of mystical energy she possesses. Flooded with increased power of thought or perception, her mental faculties are temporarily increased gready, and she finds whatever task she undertakes much easier to accompUsh. Your sorcerer may channel her mystical energy into mental activities other than magic. You may spend Mana points to reduce the difficulty target number of any die pool for a mental action. The difficulty may not be reduced below Z, nor be reduced by more than three points. Depending upon the use in question, her psyche empowers her perceptive nature, grants her insight into the strange tongue or plunges toward a solution to her puzzle.

Style Sleeper (2pt.) ====
Magic only works one way, and your character knows it. When other people try to pull stupid tricks, your sorcerer sees them for what they are, or at least tries. Anytime you witness magic that firs Ill to your character's style, everything is fine; your sorcerer is treated as an Awakened being. Any time she witnesses any magic that fa lls outside of her style, she counts as a Sleeper. Because this specifically targets your character's enemies while allowing you to merrily continue with your magic as normal, this disbelief in other magic is considered a Merit. There may be times it harrrtS your character, such as when another mage is trying to heal her and she just thinks he cannot do so. More ofcen, however, her incredulity serves as a partial defense against the Arts of others.

The Flow of Ki (3pt.) ====
Most advanced practitioners of the martial arts spend a lot of time trying to explain that their prowess is not simply a result of skill. Desperately, they seek to explain that their might comes from an understanding of the energy we all possess, the breath of the inner spirit. You understand that lesson in a way that allows you to apply it to physical feats. You may spend Mana (chi, ki, whatever your style calls it) points to reduce the difficulty target number of any die pool for a physical action. The difficulty number may not be reduced lower than two, nor may you reduce it by more than three. Obviously, you must already have the Mana to spend or this Merit is useless.

Unaging (2pt.) ====
Your mage does not age, ever. Perhaps she drank an elixir in the Mythic Ages, or she tasted the Peach of Immortality, or she ate the Apples of the Hesperides, or she dined on the forbidden savor of mermaid's flesh. Perhaps she was injected with the perfect Iterator nanotech or Progenitor symbiote. Perhaps her body is composed of timeless stone or metal. Perhaps the cause is a complete mystery. Regardless, she remains unchanged as the years pass by, save for scars and accumulated knowledge.

Wild Talent (1-4pt.) ====
Though many psychics lack formal training of their gifts, some lack even the most basic control of their powers. These "wild" psychics tend to have powerful gifts, though the lack of control makes up for the extra power they might have. To determine the level of the Flaw, use the following table. The total Merit or Flaw cannot exceed 4 points.

^ +1 | For every extra die the character has when using the power. | ^ -1 | The character must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to use the power. | ^ -2 | The character can only consciously use the power defensively. (i.e., A precognitive character can activate her Danger Sense, or a telekinetic can use the power to deflect attacks.) | ^ -3 | The character has no conscious control of the power, but it works more often to the character's benefit that not. (A clairvoyant who has useful clairvoyant dreams.) | ^ -4 | The character's power activates randomly (at least once per game session) and often at inopportune or embarrassing moments. (The channeler contacts the spirit of an ancient warrior during a fancy dinner party.) |
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