Page 110 - World of Darkness

normally need to make a roll for your character to remem- times). He does, however, suffer an additional point of
ber an obscure fact or past experience, unless he is under bashing damage. Your character cannot try to heal the
stress (such as in combat). Under stress, there is a +2 patient again for his current injuries.
modifier on any Intelligence + Composure or other Skill- Failure: The treatment has no effect and normal heal-
based roll (say, Academics, to remember a fact) for memory ing times apply to any bashing wounds or to a single le-
recall. Available at character creation only. thal wound. If the Storyteller allows, your character can
make a successive attempt to try again that day (see
Encyclopedic Knowledge (••••) p. 132). If still no successes are gained to heal a single
Effect: Your character is a veritable font of useful (and lethal wound or one or more bashing wounds, those must
sometimes useless) information on a wide variety of top- be allowed to heal naturally before another effort can be
ics. Chances are he can come up with an anecdote per- made. Thus, if no successes are rolled to heal one of a
taining to any situation based on something he’s read, patient’s lethal wounds, that wound must heal naturally
witnessed or seen on TV. over two days before your character can try to heal an-
You can make an Intelligence + Wits roll any time other lethal wound.
your character is confronted with a situation or phenom- Success: Your character’s treatment is rewarding and
enon outside his normal realm of experience. If the roll is the patient’s healing time that day is halved.
successful, he may recall a “factoid” that he’s heard at some Exceptional Success: The patient responds remark-
point that may shed light on matters. ably well to treatment. You can skip tomorrow’s roll alto-
Available at character creation only. Your character has gether. It’s automatically assumed to succeed. In that case,
either been soaking up trivia all his life or he hasn’t. two lethal wounds can be healed in two days.
Dramatic Failure: Your character “remembers” some- Suggested Equipment: Holistic medicines (+1), heal-
thing about the situation that is completely inaccurate. ing-touch manuals (+1), body-purifying foods and liquids
“Wait! Wait! I saw something like this in a movie once!” (+1)
The Storyteller might make Intelligence + Wits rolls on Possible Penalties: Lack of remedies (-1 to -4), noisy
your behalf when a dramatic failure is possible. environment (-1), imminent danger (-3), improvised fa-
Failure: Your character wracks his brain but comes cilities (-1)
up empty.
Success: Your character remembers a detail or fact Language (• to •••)
that sheds some light on the situation. “You said there Effect: Your character knows an additional language
was an almond odor? Seems to me I read somewhere that’s besides his own. One dot in this Merit means that he can
a sign of cyanide poisoning.” read, write and speak an extra language with minimal flu-
Exceptional Success: Your character recalls a num- ency. Two dots indicate that he is literate and conversa-
ber of useful details that provide extensive insight. “Hey, tionally fluent. Three dots indicate that he can speak the
cool — a little candy skull. They make these in Mexico language like a native and is well-read in it.
for the Day of the Dead. It’s an offering for a loved one You must specify which language your character is
who’s died. And they say you can’t learn anything on TV.” familiar with when purchasing this Merit.

Holistic Awareness (•••) Meditative Mind (•)
Effect: Your character is skilled in the arts of whole- Effect: Your character can effortlessly enter a medi-
body healing, promoting health and recovery by keeping tative state when she chooses, and can remain in it for as
a person’s entire physiology balanced and strong. The re- long as she wishes. All environmental penalties imposed
sult is that he is able to treat sickness and some injuries to Wits + Composure rolls to meditate are ignored. Not
(those not requiring surgery, and ones suffered to bashing even wound penalties apply to your character’s efforts to
or lethal damage but not aggravated) with a collection of focus. See the Meditation Attribute task in Chapter 2,
natural remedies rather than resorting to a doctor or hos- p. 51.
pital.
Make an Intelligence + Medicine roll once per day Unseen Sense (•••)
when your character spends an hour treating a patient. If Prerequisite: Mortal (non-supernatural); Wits ••
the roll is successful, the patient’s healing times that day Effect: Your character has a “sixth sense” when it
are halved. The worst of a patient’s injuries must be treated comes to the supernatural. Perhaps his hair stands on end,
first. So, if he has suffered a lethal wound and a successful goose bumps race along his arms, or a shiver runs up his
roll is made, the wound heals that day rather than in two spine. Regardless of the manner, his body reacts to the
days. If the patient has suffered nothing but bashing dam- presence of unseen forces. He can’t see or hear anything,
age, all wounds are healed in mere minutes (about eight and in fact he might not know at first what causes this
each). See Chapter 7, p. 175, for healing times. reaction. It might be a response to a specific type of super-
Dramatic Failure: Your character misdiagnoses or natural phenomenon such as ghosts or vampires, or it
mistreats the problem, making it worse. The patient does might be a general sense that something isn’t right. Over
not heal more quickly (he maintains normal healing

109
MENTAL MERITS