Editing Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition (section)

==Disciplines==
Your good old "clan powers" that have been in the game since the beginning, but with a change. In the old days of pre v5, there were far more disciplines, and all bar 4 clans had a unique discipline. Many of them also only had one power per level until you got to level 6 and above One of the biggest (or at least one of the most debated) changes was the devs scrapping unique disciplines and levels 6 and above in favour of turning a lot of signature discipline abilities into amalgrams (combo powers that need 2 disciplines at varying levels to use), shuffling some of the more interesting and thematic upper level powers into lower slots amd providing players with multiple powers to pick from at every level of the power (even in the physical disciplines, which until now were purely one power each that just got better with more dots). While this article is at the risk of overusing skub as a descriptor, there really is no other word for the ensuring reaction to the amalgram change, more so than probably any other changes.

On the one hand, amalgrams were meant as a way to reduce or eliminate the classic problem of people begging to play a specific clan purely for the clan unique discipline and in many cases, does help with that. There has been a shift in the internal logic of the discipline powers from making them a very rigid thing to more of an umbrella for a certain family of varied abilities (obfuscate as perception and sensory fuckery vs "this family of powers helps me hide") with some of the more unique disciplines explained as different ways of using the same toolkit or mutations of the powers by mixing their abilities with others (chimestry is obfuscate + presence to manipulate someones perceptions and then convince them its not fake, while vicissitude is protean + dominate to "command the flesh to obey the kindred's whims").

It also trimmed out a lot of powers that only existed to fill out a discipline spread (a few of dementations powers got axed this way), damn near scrapped others that arguably only existed to make an independent clan special (Serpentis) and prevented others from feeling like 5 different abilities that didn't act as a progression of the same family of powers (Serpentis again, or arguably Quietus). This, twinned with every level having several powers means that even with the exact same discipline sets and dots, no 2 characters will likely have the same abilities.

However with the limit of "only 5 dots in any power" and the fact that several more unique discipline abilities can take up a large chunk of the discipline its been rolled into, can leave some players feeling rather limited,  and if you wanted say, good amount of vicissitude but also wanted to purchase Earth Meld, you're gonna either lose out on a vicissitude power somewhere along the way or blow your level 5 slot on it. Plus the issue of several amalgram requirements being held by several clans at once (both the ministry and ravnos can use chimestry while Valeran is usable by the tremere) and some people citing that now there is no reason to pick certain clans over others or that the loss of the discipline as a unique discipline takes away from the identity of the clan. Plus as is typical for VTM, the balance is a complete mess with some powers broken and some total shit.

===Animalism===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Nosferatu, Ravnos, Tzimisce
As should be expected, Animalism is your bag of abilities that pertains to messing around with animals. As most animals can tell there's something off about kindred this can be very useful for not setting off alarm bells and helping a vampire go incognito. Has the usual mix of talking to animals, commanding them or even possessing them, as well as some powers that pertain to the beast.
===Auspex===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Malkavians, Salubri, Toreador, Tremere.
Your typical "ESP" toolkit. Takes the form of better senses, seeing unseen stuff (vampire disciplines that are normally hidden), moves onto auras and goes into psychometry, full telepathy and the like. Strangely, while most disciplines had several powers shuffled into lower levels, many of auspex' most signature abilities (aura reading and spirits touch) went up a level.
===Blood Sorcery===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Tremere.
Thaumaturgy mixed with Quietus. Even with amalgrams and the birth of multiple powers per discipline level, the days of the Thaumaturgy path whore tremere are over. Rituals still exist for a number of abilities, however the discipline as a whole is more focused on manipulating vitae for a variety of effects and less on being straight magic jury rigged to run on vitae.
===Celerity===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Brujah, Toreador.
Your vampiric super speed and dexterity based powers. No longer stupid broken after v5 realised finally that giving people a discipline that allowed you to attack extra times a turn is busted in combat. Focuses on a mix of extremely refined dexterity (deadshot accuracy or perfect balance) and maneuvering powers (your flash style super speed, up to and including running up surfaces or on water).
===Dominate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Phlegmatic
*'''Held by: ''' Lasombra, Malkavians, Salubri, Tremere, Tzimisce, Ventrue.
Still the same old "stare into their eyes and command them" mind control power. One of the most common disciplines now, and an amalgrim for a fair few disciplines. Fuck about with memories, give people commands they must follow or even implant a directive deep into their minds and build an army of sleeper agents. Makes people obedient but dumb robots, unlike presence which turns people into slavishly loyal devotees.
===Fortitude===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Hecata, Salubri, Ventrue.
Probably once one of the most underwhelming "basic" powers, fortitude has been revamped into an actual discipline tree instead of an expensive and medicore power that was often dismissed until you accidentally pissed off a gangrel. Ties into the vampires nature as an unchanging monster. Obviously deals with soaking damage, but also has abilities that adds resilience for mind control, prevents the user from being knocked down or even make weapons shatter against you. Also where the healing powers of the salubri went (amalgrimated with Auspex).
===Obfuscate===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Melancholic
*'''Held by: ''' Banu Haqim, Malkavians, Nosferatu, Ravnos, The Ministry.
Obfuscate, despite being expanded to include other trickery, is suprisingly still very focused on its regular powerset. Majority of powers have to do with things like hiding and decieving people into thinking you're either not there or you're someone else at higher levels, perfect for the Nosferatu, and also include things like obfuscating items or turning the interior of a place into a maze by warping the layout in their perceptions. V5 ended up slotting the chimestry abilities into this discipline, using presence as an amalgram.
===Oblivion===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Void (the lack of resonance)
*'''Held by: ''' Hecata, Lasombra.
The powers of Obtenebration plus Necromancy rolled into one discipline. In one of the more controversial changes to the lore junkies, the old obtenebration powers now deal almost entirely with the realm of the dead as opposed to the psuedo-alive shadow realm of previous editions. Like blood sorcery, Oblivion contained a plethora of rituals, mostly surrounding the more necromantic side of the disicipline. Really feels like 2 disciplines slapped into one set, with one side dealing with shadow manipulation and one dealing with affeceting the dead or channeling entropy itself, on the bright side it's still really easy to seperate them. Uniquely of all disciplines, it can cause stains the more you use it as the unnatural power taints the user.

===Potence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Choleric
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Lasombra, Nosferatu.
Like Celerity and Fortitude, Potence now has powers at each level, creating a mix of powers that pertain to combat prowess and some that are more traversal or utility based (the power to jump higher and further or climb walls by punching handholds). This is also now one of the more important combat disciplines again, with the 5 dot power (fist of caine) the only way to do unarmed aggravated damage with the nerf to protean's "Feral Claws".
===Presence===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Sanguine
*'''Held by: ''' Brujah, Ravnos, The Ministry, Toreador, Ventrue.
The velvet glove to Dominate's iron fist, presence allows the vampire to turn people into their slavish devotees and uber fans. Unlike Dominate, it doesn't strip the free will from the target, allowing for the thrall to use their own initative when doing your bidding. It also tends to affect crowds vs dominate's single target focus (but is more about pulling on emotions than it is crushing down someones free will). This does come with the double edged sword that overuse on subjects can turn them into obsessive stalkers who can and will murder each other for your attention.
===Protean===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Animal Blood
*'''Held by: ''' Gangrel, Ministry, Tzimisce.
Vampire transformation powers of various different stripes. Transform your eyes to see in the dark, fuse with the earth to escape the sun, become an animal or turn into a cloud of mist to sneak into places that arent completely air tight. Notably, feral claws, a power that has been a staple of combat vampires forever, has had the aggravated damage dealing to kindred element stripped out, making it less of an auto include. This is also where Serpentis and Visissitude ended up going.
===Thin Blood Alchemy===
*'''Blood resonance: ''' Varies (depending on the recipe).
*'''Held by: ''' Thin Bloods
Cooking by the book. Thin bloods can't learn disciplines due to the curse being too weak to allow for these changes, however what they do have is thin blood alchemy, more akin to a list of rituals and potion brewing to allow for the user to produce and counterfeit a number of effects. Most of it is recipes to mimic other discipline powers, however some basic abilities (change someones body, minor displays of telekinesis or flying) are thrown in too. As its not a native power of "the vitae" it doesn't progress like a regular discipline, and requires the thin blood to research, experiment or get the recipe from another source (and can become plot points for long spanning chronicles on and of themselves), albeit it does require set up beforehand (you generally cant just say "I brewed the levitation potion" just because you need to escape to another building from the roof). There are 3 ways to run the power, mixing the ingredients yourself in a cauldron, drinks mixer or whatever else the user wants to use, drinking all the ingredients yourself to mix them in your own body or force feeding someone the ingredients and feeding on them. Not usable by vampires, making it the closest thing to a "clan unique discipline" in V5.