Celerity (VTM)

Celerity
Pronounce	sə-LER-ə-dē
Nicknames	Bolting, Slipping, Velocitas.
Clans	Brujah, Toreador, Banu Haqim
Bloodlines	Assamite Viziers, Assamite Warriors, City Gangrel, Ishtarri, Nictuku, Osebo, Shango

Celerity is a Discipline that grants vampires supernatural quickness and reflexes.

Overview

For some Cainites, the mortal world moves in slow motion. In times of stress, vampires with Celerity can move with amazing speed, becoming blurs of motion to anyone, mortal or immortal, who does not possess the Discipline. Celerity is common to the Banu Haqim, Brujah, and Toreador clans. The Banu Haqim utilize the Discipline to strike down their foes before they can mount a counterattack. Toreador are more likely to use the Discipline to lend supernatural grace to live performances such as a dance, but can be as terrifying as the Children of Haqim if they are angered.

Normally each dot provides either bonus dice for any action linked to Dexterity (fighting, lock-picking, driving ...) or an additional action that can be used for movement, attacking, or other physical feats in a single round without penalties for multiple actions (The pool can be split as needed). This extraordinary speed violates the laws of physics in that the Cainite does not experience any change in momentum, friction, etc. A knife thrown by someone using Celerity is not any faster, and a vampire moving at incredible speeds will never catch fire no matter how fast they move.

Although Celerity is a common discipline, its similarity to Temporis seems to place its origin with Clan Brujah. Any vampire who learns Temporis (and any True Brujah, who have an affiliation in the blood for it) may never learn or use Celerity.

As part of the Curse upon Caine, heavy reliance on Celerity can lead to impatience with the slow pace of nightly life, leaving the vampire hungry and exhausted after each use. Becoming too accustomed to the slow world that a vampire sees when Celerity is active can lead to disorientation when the world "speeds up" as the Discipline ends.

Official Abilities

Prior to the fifth edition the tabletop game generally had no individual powers for Celerity until level 6. At that point, characters may choose to gain additional Celerity actions or gain a unique power. Included below are the official powers described in supplements for Vampire: The Masquerade and Dark Ages: Vampire. Sources are described below in the order they were printed.

Advanced Powers

• ^[1]
  • Flawless Parry: Make perfect defensive motions at the expense of taking no other action
  • Momentum: Focus your Celerity into one instant, increasing your strength
  • Precision: Enter a trance where you can operate with exceptionally fine manipulation
  • Projectile: Throw objects with the speed of your Celerity
  • Tireless Tread: Run at 50 miles per hour for at least eight hours
  • Quickness: Expend a blood and gain yet another additional turn. All previous celerity levels are activated

• ^[2]
  • Celerity Refinement: Choose to spend vitae for Celerity as you need them, rather than declaring them beforehand
  • Flower of Death: Use your Celerity to gain bonuses to attacking
  • Quickness: Expend extra blood points to gain extra actions, at the cost of an unsoakable lethal damage level per action
  • Stutter-Step: Use your Celerity to gain bonuses to defense

• ^[3]
  • Physical Defiance: Move so fast you defy gravity and kill mortals instantly as you pass through them
  • The Unseen Storm: Move so fast you are truly invisible
  • Time out of Time: React instantly to anything and move before anyone realizes what you have done
  • Zephyr: Move so fast that you seem to defy gravity
• ^[4]
  • Paragon of Motion: Perform most physical acts without fail
  • Between the Ticks: Expend a blood and a Willpower, you gain an automatic success on all attacks delivered to an opponent with less than advanced Celerity. You have an extra action against those with advanced Celerity. All attacks delivered by those with less than advanced Celerity are considered to be automatic failures. You can declare fair escape at any time
• ^[5]
  • Plot Device

Standard Powers (V5)

• ​ ​
  • Cat's Grace: The vampire can automatically pass checks to keep their balance.
  • Rapid Reflexes: The vampire suffers no penalty to dodging gunfire without cover.
• ​ ​
  • Fleetness: The vampire can add their Celerity to non-combat Dexterity checks.
• ​ ​
  • Blink: The vampire can cross large distances and still take additional actions such as make an attack.
  • Traversal: The vampire can run up walls or across water with a successful check.
• ​
  • Draught of Elegance: The vampire can bestow their Celerity powers on those that drink her blood.
  • Unerring Aim: The vampire can prevent their target from dodging or defending against the vampire's ranged attacks. Amalgam: Auspex 2.
• ​ ​
  • Lightning Strike: The vampire can prevent their target from dodging or defending against the vampire's melee attacks.
  • Split Second: The vampire can supercede the Storyteller's narration and perform an action that only requires a few seconds like get through a door before it closes, roll out of the way of an explosion etc.

Version differences

Celerity underwent several mechanical revisions between edition, making some changes in how the discipline is viewed. While all versions have Celerity give extra actions, they differ heavily in reaction time before it may be used, the amount of blood required for levels higher than one, and whenever it grants increased Dexterity or not.

In Second Edition one blood point is spent to gain one extra action per dot in the discipline in the same turn. In Revised the blood point must be spent in the turn before taking the extra actions.

In Vampire: the Dark Ages and Dark Ages: Vampire instead one blood point per extra action must be spent (up to the number of dots in the discipline), in the same turn.

In the 20th Anniversary Edition, each dot in the discipline gives one bonus die to Dexterity, but each such bonus die may be transformed into one extra action in the turn at the cost of one blood point.

In Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition, each dot of Celerity gives one bonus die to Dexterity and the character can add their Celerity rating to the number of yards/meters moved per turn. Additionally, a blood point can be spent to ignore penalties for multiple actions up to the characters Celerity rating. Lastly the character can spend a blood point to multiply her movement speed by 1 plus her Celerity rating.

References

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^  Level 1

Alacrity	Laws of the Night Revised Edition	Pg. 141
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 142

^  Level 2

Swiftness	Laws of the Night Revised Edition	Pg. 141
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 142

^  Level 3

Rapidity	Laws of the Night Revised Edition	Pg. 141
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 142

^  Level 4

Legerity	Laws of the Night Revised Edition	Pg. 141
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 142

^  Level 5

Fleetness	Laws of the Night Revised Edition	Pg. 141
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Celerity	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 142

^  Level 6

Mercury's Arrow	Dark Ages Companion	Pg. 80
Projectile	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 87
Projectile	Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide	Pg. 46
Quickness	Faith and Fire	Pg. 161
Quickness	Laws of Elysium	Pg. 62
Precision	Clanbook: Assamite Revised	Pg. 64
Tireless Tread	Guide to the Anarchs	Pg. 164
Flawless Parry	Players Guide to High Clans	Pg. 152
Projectile	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 143
Momentum	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 202
Velocity	Laws of Elysium	Pg. 62

^  Level 7

Sanguinary Wind	Dark Ages Companion	Pg. 80
Flower of Death	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 87
Flower of Death	Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide	Pg. 47
Stutter-Step	Clanbook: Brujah Revised	Pg. 68
Celerity Refinement	Players Guide to High Clans	Pg. 152
Flower of Death	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 143
Quickness	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 203

^  Level 8

Resist Earth's Grasp	Dark Ages Companion	Pg. 80
Zephyr	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 88
Zephyr	Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide	Pg. 47
The Unseen Storm	Players Guide to High Clans	Pg. 153
Zephyr	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 144
Physical Defiance	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 203
Time out of Time	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 203

^  Level 9

Paragon of Motion	Players Guide to High Clans	Pg. 153
Between the Ticks	Laws of the Night: Camarilla Guide	Pg. 48

^  Level 10

Plot Device

Gehenna

Pg. 182