Passion
The vampire may stir his victim's emotions, either heightening them to a fevered pitch or blunting them until the target is completely desensitized. The Cainite may not choose which emotion is affected; she may only amplify or dull emotions already present in the target. In this way, a vampire can turn mild irritation into frothing rage or dull true love into casual interest.
System: The player rolls Charisma + Empathy (difficulty of the victim's Humanity score). The number of successes determines the duration of the altered state of feeling. Effects of this power might include one- or two-point additions or subtractions to difficulties of frenzy rolls, Virtue rolls, rolls to resist Presence powers, etc.
1 Success One turn
2 Successes One hour
3 Successes One night
4 Successes One week
5 Successes One month
6+ Successes Three months
The Haunting (Plågoandar)
The vampire may stir the sensory centers of his victim's brain, flooding the victim 5 senses with visions, sounds, scents or feelings that aren't really there. The images, regardless of the sense to which they appeal, are only fleeting "glimpses," barely perceptible to the victim. The vampire using Dementation cannot control what the victim perceives, but may choose which sense is affected.
The "haunting" effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly at night. They may take the form of the subject's repressed fears, guilty memories, or anything else that the Storyteller finds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtrusive, however. The Storyteller should let her imagination run wild when describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well feel as if she is going mad, or as if the world is.
System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of his victim's Perception + Self-Control). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory "visitations." The precise effects are up to the Storyteller, though particularly eerie or harrowing apparitions can certainly reduce dice pools for a turn or two after the manifestation.
1 Success One night
2 Successes Two nights
3 Successes One week
4 Successes One month
5 Successes Three months
6+ Successes One year
Eyes of Chaos (Kaosblick)
This peculiar power allows the vampire to take advantage of the fractured wisdom hidden in insanity. She may scrutinize the "patterns" of a person's soul, the convolutions of a vampire's innei nature, or even random events in nature itself. The Kindred with this power can discern the most well-hidden psychoses, or gain insight into a person's true self. Malkavians with this power often have (or claim to have) knowledge of the moves and countermoves of the great Jyhad.
System: This power allows a vampire to determine a person's true Nature, among other things. The vampire concentrates for a turn, then her player rolls Perception + Occult. The difficulty depends on the intricacy of the pattern. Discerning the Nature of a stranger would be difficulty 9; a casual acquaintance would be an 8, an old ftiend a 6. The Malkavian could also read the message locked in a coded missive (difficulty 7), or even see the doings of an invisible hand in such events as the pattern of falling leaves (difficulty 6). Almost anything might contain some hidden insight, no matter how trivial or meaningless. The patterns are present in most things, but are often so intricate they can keep a vampire spellbound for hours while she tries to understand their "message."
Voice of Madness (Dårens röst)
By merely addressing his victims aloud, the Malkavian can drive targets into fits of blind rage or fear, forcing them to abandon reason and higher thought. Victims are plagued by hallucinations of their subconscious demons, and try to flee or destroy their hidden shames. Tragedy almost always follows in the wake of this power's use, although offending Malkavians often claim that they were merely encouraging people to act "according to their natures." Unfortunately for the vampire concerned, he runs a very real risk of falling prey to his own voice's power.
System: The player spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Empathy roll (difficulty 7). One target is affected per success, although all potential victims must be listening to the vampire's voice.
Affected victims fly immediately into frenzy or a blind fear like Rötschreck. Kindred or other creatures capable of frenzy, such asLupines, may make a frenry check or Rötschreck test (Storyteller's choice as to how they are affected) at +2 difficulty to resist the power. Mortals are automatically affected and don't remember their actions while berserk. The frenzy or fear lasts for a scene, although vampires and Lupines may test as usual to snap out of it.
The vampire using Voice of Madness must also test for frenzy or Rötschreck upon invoking this power, although his difficulty to resist is one lower than normal.
Total Insanity (Komplett vansinne)
The vampire pulls the madness from the deepest recesses of her target's mind, focusing it into an overwhelming wave of insanity. This power has driven countless victims, vampire and mortal alike, to unfortunate ends. System: The Malkavian must gain her target's undivided attention for at least one full turn to enact this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of her victim's Willpower). If successful, the victim is afflicted with five derangements of the Storyteller's choice. The number of successes determines the duration.
1 Success One turn
2 Successes One night
3 Successes One week
4 Successes One month
5+ Successes One year
Lingering Malaise
While lesser Dementation powers allow a Malkavian to inflict temporary (though often long-lasting) madness upon a victim, elders of the clan have developed the ability to infect the minds of their victims with permanent dementia. Lingering Malaise causes permanent psychological shifts within the victim, making him, as one Gangrel elder remarked, "an honorary Lunatic."
System: The character speaks to his victim for at least a minute, describing the derangement that Lingering Malaise will inflict. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty of the victim's Willpower); the victim resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If the user of Lingering Malaise scores more net successes, the victim gains a permanent derangement chosen by the individual who inflicts it. Lingering Malaise may only be used to inflict one derangement per night on any given victim, though multiple attempts may be made until the derangement takes hold.
Shattered Mirror
Although Dementation's low-level effects are primarily to initiate or promote insanity rather than to create it spontaneously, some of its more potent manifestations are not as subtle. The wielder of this fearsome power can transfer her own deranged mindset into the psyche of a hapless victim, spreading her own brand of insanity like a virus.
System: The vampire must establish eye contact with her intended victim to apply this power. The player then rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target's Willpower) resisted by the target's Wits + Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty of the Malkavian's Willpower). If the aggressor wins, the target gains alt of her derangements and Mental Flaws for a period of time determined by the number of net successes the aggressor scored:
1 Success One hour
2 Successes One night
3 Successes One week
4 Successes One month
5 Successes Six months
6+ Successes One year per success over 5
Babble
[CB:Ma]
The Call
[CB:Ma]
Enigmatic Text
[LotH]
Restructure
The elder with this fearsome power has the ability to twist his victims' psyches at their most basic levels, warping their very beings. The subject of Restructure retains her memories in toto, but her outlook on life changes completely, as if she has undergone a sudden epiphany or religious conversion. This effect goes much deeper than the implantation of a derangement; it actually pefforms a complete rewriting of the victim's very personality.
System: As the description says, this power allows the Malkavian to change his target's Nature to one more suitable to his ends. To accomplish this, the character must make eye contact with his intended victim. The player rolls Manipulation + Subteffuge (difficulty of the victim's Wits + Subterfuge). If he rolls a number of successes equal to or greater than the target 5 Self-Control/Instinct, the target's Nature changes to whatever the player desires. This effect is permanent and can be undone only by another application of Restructure (though subtle differences from the character's original Nature may still remain, as it is impossible for such a grave change to occur flawlessly). A botch on this roll changes the character's own Nature to that of his intended victim.
Childmind
[CB:Ma]
Sleep of Reason
[CB:Ma]
Personal Scourge
Similar to the Auspex power of Psychic Assault, this fearsome ability allows the elder to turn the very strength of her victim's mind against him, inflicting physical harm with the power of his own will. Victims of this self-powered attack spontaneously erupt in lacerations and bruises, spraying blood in every direction and howling in agony. Those who have observed such an attack with Auspex note that the victim's aura swirls with violent psychosis and erupts outward in writhing appendages - a sight that can make even the most hardened Tzimisce quail. Some callous vampires call the victims of this power Blairs, apparently some sort of pop-culture reference.
System: The vampire must touch or establish eye contact with her target. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty of the target's Stamina + Self-Control/Instinct) and spends two Willpower points. For a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, the victim rolls his own permanent Willpower as lethal damage against himself (soaked with his own Humanity or Path of Enlightenment [difficulty 6]. Fortitude does not add to this soak dice pool, nor does body armor). He may take no other actions during this time other than thrashing and gibbering; this includes spending blood to heal.
Deny
[CB:Ma]
Lunatic Eruption
This fearsome ability is only known to have been applied a few times in recorded Kindred history, most spectacularly during the final nights of the last battle of Carthage. It is effectively a psychic nuclear bomb, used to incite every intelligent being within several miles into an orgy of bloodlust and rage. It is suspected that the Malkavians have used the threat of this power as a bargaining chip in several key negotiations with Camarilla elders.
System: The player spends four Willpower points and rolls Stamina + Intimidation (difficulty 8). The radius of effect is determined by the number of successes scored:
1 Success One city block or 500 feet
2 Successes An entire neighborhood or one mile
3 Successes A large downtown area or three miles
4 Successes Several neighborhoods or 10 miles
5 Successes An entire metropolitan area or 30 miles
6+ Successes An additional 10 miles for every success past 5