Blood Potency (VTM)

Blood Potency describes the degree of power vampiric Vitae bestows upon a character. Full-blooded vampires begin their unlife at a level of Blood Potency dependent on their Generation, and may (typically) increase it through age, experience, and diablerie. Their minimum and maximum level of Blood Potency is also limited by Generation.

As Blood Potency increases, so does the relative difficulty of a vampire's unlife. At two dots of Blood Potency, a vampire may only slake half a point of Hunger by drinking from animals or blood bags. At three dots, they will not slake any hunger, and the severity of their clan Bane becomes even more pronounced. At even further levels, it becomes increasingly difficult to slake Hunger from a human, and it will eventually become impossible to reduce their Hunger below a given point without draining and killing their human victims.

For every hundred years a vampire remains active, they gain a dot of Blood Potency. For every fifty years they spend in Torpor, the vampire loses a dot. As such, elders frequently fall into voluntary slumber in order to ease their feeding restrictions.

Thin-blooded vampires have no Blood Potency whatsoever, and must diablerize a 13th generation vampire or lower in order to gain it. They gain no other benefit from the Blood in this way, save for the slight ability to surge it. This is a particular point of prejudice against thin-bloods, and why many vampires—especially Elders—do not even consider them actual Kindred, since as it is, very conservative Elders barely consider those under 3 Blood Potency to be true Kindred.

Mechanics

Blood Potency by Generation

Generation	Minimum Blood Potency	Maximum Blood Potency
4th	5	10
5th	4	9
6th	3	8
7th	3	7
8th	2	6
9th	2	5
10th-11th	1	4
12th-13th	1	3
14th-16th (thin-blooded)	0	0

Effects of Blood Potency (V5 Companion, p. 63)

Blood Potency	Blood Surge	Damage Mended (per rouse check)	Discipline Power Bonus	Discipline Rouse Check Re-roll	Bane Severity	Feeding Penalty
0	Add 1 die	1 superficial	None	None	0	No effect
1	Add 2 dice	1 superficial	None	Level 1	2	No effect
2	Add 2 dice	2 superficial	Add 1 die	Level 1	2	Animal and bagged blood slake half Hunger
3	Add 3 dice	2 superficial	Add 1 die	Level 2 and below	3	Animal and bagged blood slake no Hunger
4	Add 3 dice	3 superficial	Add 2 dice	Level 2 and below	3	Animal and bagged blood slake no Hunger Slake 1 less Hunger per human
5	Add 4 dice	3 superficial	Add 2 dice	Level 3 and below	4	Animal and bagged blood slake no Hunger Slake 1 less Hunger per human Must drain and kill a human to reduce Hunger below 2
6	Add 4 dice	3 superficial	Add 3 dice	Level 3 and below	4	Animal and bagged blood slake no Hunger Slake 2 less Hunger per human Must drain and kill a human to reduce Hunger below 2
7	Add 5 dice	3 superficial	Add 3 dice	Level 4 and below	5
8	Add 5 dice	4 superficial	Add 4 dice	Level 4 and below	5	Animal and bagged blood slake no Hunger Slake 2 less Hunger per human Must drain and kill a human to reduce Hunger below 3
9	Add 6 dice	4 superficial	Add 4 dice	Level 5 and below	6
10	Add 6 dice	5 superficial	Add 5 dice	Level 5 and below	6	Animal and bagged blood slake no Hunger Slake 3 less Hunger per human Must drain and kill a human to reduce Hunger below 3

Trivia

• Originally developed for Vampire: The Requiem, Blood Potency was introduced to Vampire: The Masquerade in the Fifth Edition.

References

• VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook, p. 214-217
• VTM: Vampire: The Masquerade Companion, p. 61, 63