Protean (VTM)

Protean
Pronounce	PRŌ-tēən
Nicknames	Morphing, Shapeshifting, Mutatio, Serpentis
Clans	Gangrel, Ministry (V5), Tzimisce (V5)
Bloodlines	Ahrimanes, Anda, Noiad, Tlacique

Protean is a Discipline that gives vampires the ability to change form, from growing feral claws to evaporating into a cloud of mist.

Overview

Protean is part of God's curse upon Caine in the aspect that it peels away the facade of humanity every vampire has to uphold, revealing the Beast within his soul. Advanced users sometimes find their bodies shifting without their consent, reacting directly to their emotions, bringing them into embarrassing situations.

Protean is the signature Discipline of the Gangrel, and many of its powers are geared towards surviving in the wild or evoking the strengths of natural predators. It is also used by the Ministry to take on the shape or characteristics of snakes, as they once did using Serpentis; as well as the Tzimisce, which in concert with Dominate is used to enable their terrible art of fleshcrafting known as Vicissitude.

Official Abilities

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.

Standard Powers (Classic)

• ^[1]
  • Eyes of the Beast: See in the dark. Usage of the power turns the eyes into a glowing red
  • Dolphin's Unsight: Use sonar-like abilities to orientate yourself underwater
• ^[2]
  • Feral Claws: Turn one's hands into dangerous claws
  • Phocidaean Webbing: Create webbing between your fingers that allow for faster swimming
• ^[3]
  • Earth Meld: Melt into the earth to hide and rest
• ^[4]
  • Shape of the Beast: Transform into two types of animals
• ^[5]
  • Mist Form/Body of Spirit: Turn yourself into mist

Advanced Powers

• ^[6]
  • Adaptability: Attune oneself to survive in extreme environments
  • Adaptation: Adapt oneself to avoid harm from the vampire's environment
  • Blissful Slumber: Hibernate during the day as nearly indestructible mist
  • Earth Control: Travel beneath the earth
  • Flesh of Marble: Damage from physical attacks is halved
  • Loki's Gift: Change into the shape of a creature whose blood you have tasted
  • Shape Mastery: Cause shapeshifters to revert to their natural form
  • Smoke and Mirrors: When attacked, turn into mist instantly

• ^[7]
  • Animal Swarm: Transform into a swarm of small creatures
  • Death's Hidden Crawl: Slowly move while in torpor
  • Homunculus: Create a miniature version of yourself to act as a servant
  • Restore the Mortal Visage: Temporarily appear as one did while mortal
  • Shape of the Beast's Wrath: Transform into a powerful man-beast abomination
  • Spectral Body: Become incorporeal while retaining one's forms and nonphysical abilities
  • Turnabout: Quickly change positions by moving through the earth

• ^[8]
  • Movement of the Slowed Body: Very slowly move while in torpor
  • Mythic Form: Transform into a specific mythic creature
  • Purify the Impaled Breast: Violently expel foreign objects from your body, including stakes
  • Shape of the Inner Beast: Enter Frenzy and transform into a monstrous killing machine
• ^[9]
  • Adaptation: Your body instinctively shifts to provide maximum protection
  • Draught of Phoenix Blood: A number of days equal to the vampire's generation after Final Death, they will reincarnate in a new body, one generation higher, retaining this power but with an incomplete picture of who they were and losing any other Attributes, Abilities, Backgrounds, and Disciplines above the new generational trait cap.
  • Dual Form: Split into two weaker versions of oneself 
  • Inward Focus: Drastically improve one's combat abilities

• ^[10]
  • Body of the Sun: Transform your body into blazing indestructible fire
  • Plot Device

Standard Powers (V5)

• ^[11]
  • Eyes of the Beast: The vampire can will a supernatural red gleam into their eyes, giving them sight even in the total absence of light.
  • Weight of the Feather: The vampire can reduce their effective mass and density, making themselves almost weightless. This allows them to avoid triggering pressure sensors as well as avoiding major damage from falls, collisions, or being thrown. The power cannot be used for longer leaps, as the vampire’s strength is proportionally reduced.
• ^[12]
  • Feral Weapons: The vampire can extend their natural weapons to monstrous proportions. This usually takes the form of fingernails extending into wicked talons but can also come in other forms such as fangs elongating into veritable daggers, as from a gigantic serpent.
  • Vicissitude: The vampire reshapes one's own skin, muscles, and bone at will. Amalgam: Dominate 2.
• ^[13]
  • Earth Meld: Becoming one with the soil, the vampire sinks into the earth. Unless in torpor, the vampire rises again the following night.
  • Shapechange: The vampire can assume the shape of an animal roughly the same size as their original mass. The vampire can only change into one type of animal (usually a wolf, sometimes a large feline or a giant snake), usually one associated with their clan or the type of prey they most commonly feed on. The animal, while usually a spectacular example of their species, shows no signs to a mundane observer of being supernatural.
  • Fleshcrafting: Reshape the physical form of others. Amalgam: Dominate 2. Requires Vicissitude.
  • Visceral Absorption: The vampire's body turns into a semi-permeable vacuum that can absorb inert blood and viscera in the environment. Amalgam: Blood Sorcery 2.
• ^[14]
  • Metamorphosis: This power grants an additional animal form to the user, this time also enabling them to change their size. Vampires most commonly metamorphose into bats, rats, unusually large insects, or snakes. Requires Shapechange.
  • Horrid Form: The vampires takes on a truly monstrous form. Amalgam: Dominate 2. Requires Vicissitude.
• ^[15]
  • Mist Form: The vampire gains the legendary power to turn into a cloud of mist, perceivable to the eye but untouchable by anything save fire, sunlight, and supernatural aggression. They can fit through pipes, crevices, and cracks. While strong winds might buffet them, no natural force can disperse the cloud.
  • The Unfettered Heart: Having mastered the power of Protean, the very insides of the user become malleable, almost viscous. The heart, seat of the vitae and unlife of the vampire, detaches and moves freely, if sluggishly, within the chest. This makes the vampire exceedingly hard to stake as the position of their heart changes nightly, and can even allow the user to free themselves from paralysis.
  • One with the Land: While melded to the earth, the vampire takes on a preternatural awareness of people, creatures, things, and events across the domain. Amalgam: Animalism 2. Requires Earth Meld.
  • The Heart of Darkness: this power enables a vampire to remove their own heart and store it outside their body. For as long as it is removed, the vampire is immune to staking attempts, unless a stake is driven through the removed heart. Amalgam: Fortitude 2

Gallery

Earth Meld

Visceral Absorption

VTES cards

6 Dots

Adaptability. Art by Hannibal King

Shape Mastery. Art by Mike Chaney

Smoke and Mirrors. Art by Andrew Trabbold

References

----

^  Level 1

Gleam of Red Eyes	Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook	Pg. 102
Gleam of Red Eyes	Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition	Pg. 167
Witness of Darkness	Vampire: The Dark Ages	Pg. 160
Eyes of the Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition	Pg. 173
Dolphin's Unsight	Blood-Dimmed Tides	Pg. 36
Witness of Darkness	Dark Ages: Vampire Rulebook	Pg. 205
Gleam of Red Eyes	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Eyes of the Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 199
Eyes of the Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 269
Weight of the Feather	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 269-270

^  Level 2

Wolf's Claws	Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook	Pg. 102
Wolf Claws	Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition	Pg. 167
Talons of the Beast	Vampire: The Dark Ages	Pg. 160
Feral Claws	Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition	Pg. 173
Phocidaean Webbing	Blood-Dimmed Tides	Pg. 36
Talons of the Beast	Dark Ages: Vampire Rulebook	Pg. 205
Feral Claws	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Feral Claws	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 199
Feral Weapons	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 270
Vicissitude	Vampire: The Masquerade Companion	Pg. 27

^  Level 3

Earth Meld	Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook	Pg. 102
Earth Meld	Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition	Pg. 167
Interred in the Earth	Vampire: The Dark Ages	Pg. 160
Earth Meld	Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition	Pg. 173
Interred in the Earth	Dark Ages: Vampire Rulebook	Pg. 206
Will of the Wolf	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Earth Meld	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 199
Earth Meld	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 270
Shapechange	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 270-271
Fleshcrafting	Vampire: The Masquerade Companion	Pg. 27-28
Visceral Absorption	Sabbat: The Black Hand

^  Level 4

Shadow of the Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook	Pg. 102
Shadow of the Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition	Pg. 168
Form of the Beast	Vampire: The Dark Ages	Pg. 160
Shape of the Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition	Pg. 174
Shape of the Beast	Clanbook: Gangrel Revised	Pg. 67
Form of the Beast	Dark Ages: Vampire Rulebook	Pg. 206
Hunter of Night	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Shape of the Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 200
Metamorphosis	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 271
Horrid Form	Vampire: The Masquerade Companion	Pg. 28

^  Level 5

Mist	Vampire: The Masquerade Rulebook	Pg. 102
Form of Mist	Vampire: The Masquerade Second Edition	Pg. 168
Body of Spirit	Vampire: The Dark Ages	Pg. 161
Mist Form	Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Edition	Pg. 174
Body of Spirit	Dark Ages: Vampire Rulebook	Pg. 206
War Form	Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Mist Form	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 200
Mist Form	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 271
The Unfettered Heart	Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition Corebook	Pg. 271
One with the Land	Vampire: The Masquerade Companion	Pg. 28
The Heart of Darkness	Cults of the Blood Gods	Pg. 85

^  Level 6

Earth Control	VTM: The Players Guide	Pg. 84
Flesh of Marble	VTM: The Players Guide	Pg. 84
Fleash of Marble	Laws of Elysium	Pg. 70
Earth Control	The Players Guide Second Edition	Pg. 80
Flesh of Marble	The Players Guide Second Edition	Pg. 80
Adaptability	Clanbook: Gangrel	Pg. 37
Blissful Slumber	Vampire: The Dark Ages	Pg. 161
Mastery of the Earth	Dark Ages Companion	Pg. 90
Loki's Gift	Libellus Sanguinis 3: Wolves at the Door	Pg. 28
Earth Control	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 96
Flesh of Marble	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 97
Shape Mastery	Clanbook: Gangrel Revised	Pg. 69
Blissful Slumber	Dark Ages: Vampire Rulebook	Pg. 207
Proteus' Bane	Players Guide to Low Clans	Pg. 152
Earth Control	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 200
Flesh of Marble	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 201
Adaptation	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 242
Ephemeral Slumber	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 242
Lok's Gift	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 242
Reversion to the True Form	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 243
Blissful Slumber	Lore of the Clans	Pg. 87
Shape Mastery	Lore of the Clans	Pg. 87
Smoke and Mirrors	Lore of the Clans	Pg. 88

^  Level 7

Form of the Ghost	VTM: The Players Guide	Pg. 84
Form of the Ghost	Laws of Elysium	Pg. 70
Homunculus	VTM: The Players Guide	Pg. 84
Form of the Ghost	The Players Guide Second Edition	Pg. 80
Homunculus	The Players Guide Second Edition	Pg. 80
The Mantle of Bestial Majesty	Dark Ages Companion	Pg. 90
Revert the Beast	Libellus Sanguinis 3: Wolves at the Door	Pg. 28
Restore the Mortal Visage	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 97
Shape of the Beast's Wrath	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 98
Spectral Body	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 98
Animal Swarm	Clanbook: Gangrel Revised	Pg. 70
Turnabout	Guide to the Anarchs	Pg. 164
Form of the Bloodswarm	Players Guide to Low Clans	Pg. 152
Restore the Mortal Visage	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 201
Shape of the Beast's Wrath	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 202
Spectral Body	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 202
Death's Hidden Crawl	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 243
Animal Swarm	Lore of the Clans	Pg. 88

^  Level 8

Movement of the Slowed Body	VTM: The Players Guide	Pg. 84
Movement of the Slowed Body	The Players Guide Second Edition	Pg. 80
Purify the Body	Dark Ages Companion	Pg. 90
Purify the Impaled Breast	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 98
Mythic Form	Clanbook: Gangrel Revised	Pg. 71
Shape of the Inner Beast	Players Guide to Low Clans	Pg. 153
Purify the Impaled Beast	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 203
Mythic Form	Lore of the Clans	Pg. 88

^  Level 9

Dual Form	VTM: The Players Guide	Pg. 84
Dual Form	The Players Guide Second Edition	Pg. 80
Inward Focus	Guide to the Camarilla	Pg. 98
Adaptation	Players Guide to Low Clans	Pg. 154
Inward Focus	Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 203
Draught of Phoenix Blood	Vampire: The Dark Ages 20th Anniversary Edition	Pg. 243

^  Level 10

Body of the Sun	VTM: The Players Guide	Pg. 84
Body of the Sun	The Players Guide Second Edition	Pg. 81
Plot Device	Gehenna	Pg. 182