Thaumaturgy Paths
Command over the weather has long been a staple power of wisards both mortal and immortal, and this path is said by many to predate the Tremere by millennia. The proliferation of usage of this path outside the clan tends to confirm this theory; Weather Control is quite common outside the Tremere, and even outside the Camarilla. Lower levels of this path allow subtle manipulations, while higher stages of mastery allow a vampire to call up raging storms. The area affected by this power is usually rather small, no more than three or four miles in diameter, and the changes the wreaks are not always immediate.
System: The number of successes rolled indicates how long it takes the weather magic to take effect. One success indicates an entire day may pass before the weather changes to the thaumaturge's liking, while a roll with five successes brings an almost instant effect.
The difficulty of the Willpower roll necessary to invoke this power may change depending on the current local weather conditions and the weather the character is attempting to create. The Storyteller should impose a bonus (-1 or -2 difficulty) for relatively minor shifts, such as clearing away a light drizzle or calling lightning when a severe thunderstorm is already raging. Conversely, a penalty (+1 or +2 difficulty) should be applied when the desired change is at odds with the current conditions, such as summoning the same light drizzle in the middle of the Sahara Desert or calling down lightning from a cloudless sky.
If the character tries to strike a specific target with lightning, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 6 if the target is standing in open terrain, 8 if he is under shelter, or 10 if he inside but near a window) in addition to the base roll to use Thaumaturgy. Otherwise the bolt goes astray, with the relative degree of failure of the roll determining where exactly the lightning strikes.
Effects of the power should be default to the maximum area avaliable unless the thaumaturge states that he's attempting to affect a smaller area. At Storytellers discretion, as additional Willpower roll (difficulty 6) may be required to keep the change in the weather under control.
Individual power descriptions are not provided for this path, as the general principle is fairly consistent. Instead, the strongest weather phenomenon possible at each level is listed.
● Fog: Vision is slightly impaired and sounds are muffled; a +1 difficulty is imposed on all Perception rolls that involve sight and hearing, and the effective ranges of all attacks are halved.
● Light breeze: A +1 dificulty on all Perception rolls that involve smell.
● Minor temperature change: It is possible to raise or lower the local temperature by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
●● Rain or snow: Precipitation has the same effect as Fog, but Perception rolls are impaired to a much greater extent; the difficulty modifyer for all such rolls rises to +2. In addition, the difficulty on all Drive rolls increases by two.
●●● High Winds: The wind speed rises to around 30 miles per hour, with gusts of up to twice that. Ranged attacks are much more difficult: +1 to firearm attacks, +2 to thrown weapons and archery. In addition, during fierce gusts, Dexterity rolls (difficulty 6) may be required to keep characters from being knocked over by the winds. Needless to say, when gale-force winds are in effect, papers go flying, objects get picked up by the winds and hurled with abandon, and other suitably cinematic effects are likely.
●●● Moderate temperature change: The local temperature can be raised or lowered by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
●●●● Storm: This has the effects of both Rain and High Winds.
●●●●● Lightning Strike: This attack inflicts 10 dice of lethal damage. Body armor does not add to the target's dice pool to soak this attack.
Playing Indoors
Weather Control is not the sort of power that lends itself well to indoor application. While certain of the path's uses (changes of temperature, high winds and possibly even fog) do make a certain amount of sense in interior settings, others (precipitation of any sort, lightning) don't. The difficulty for all rolls to use Weather Control indoors is at +2, and the Storyteller should feel free to disallow any proposed usues that don't make sense.