Summary
World of Darknesssired the legendary vampire IPVampire: The Masquerade, bringing a new and unique take on the mythos of the nocturnal fanged beasts. Here, they pull the strings of the mortal worlds from the shadows, striving to keep their existence a secret lest vampire hunters sever their heads.
Instead of all vampires being more or less the same, vampires exist in clans, each boasting unique powers known as disciplines as well as having a weakness or ‘clan bane’ that will challenge them. While each clan is home to some truly powerful entities,some clans are more powerful than others.
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The most important choice to make when creating their vampire is the clan. Whether they want to be alluring, strong, or magical, there is a clan for everyone. This article has been updated to include every clan currently available in the fifth edition so prospective players get a detailed overview of each and can choose the right bloodline for them.
14Salubri
Other Vampires Covet Their Blood
In modern nights, the Salubri are one of the rarest kindred to encounter. The Salubri only embrace when achieving Golconda, and the embrace to them is not to be done on a whim. They select prospective candidates for the embrace very carefully, normally those who have inquisitive minds or personal struggles they battle with daily.
Their small numbers combined with how many kindred desire their blood are part of what make the Salubri one of the weakest clans in VtM, but they are also one of the more unique, complex, and interesting vampires to RP. Their struggle to find a place to belong with no sect opening their walls to them, and any kindred they find themselves in the company of tempted to devour them are additional dangers they must learn to navigate, which many Salubri’s before them have fallen to.
13Ravnos
The Amalgam Discipline Allows Ravnos To Craft Hallucinations
InVampire: The Masqueradelore, Clan Ravnos was thought to be erased during the Week of Nightmares, a time when signs of vampire doomsday began appearing. As one of these portents, the descendants of Ravnos all fell to madness and began slaughtering each order. The rest of the kindred thought the entire clan had ended, but a few plucky Ravnos have survived, which alone is a testament to the hardiness of the Ravnos clan.
Along with surviving their clan’s apocalypse, the Ravnos also have interesting powers at their fingertips, such as Presence to sway the minds of others, Obfuscate to hide from sight, and Animalism, which can allow them to communicate oreven control animals. But, the Ravnos clan bane can be difficult to deal with, as they must sleep somewhere a mile away from where they had their last day’s rest, meaning they can never set down roots, and should they be captured, they could be in for a world of pain.
12Malkavian
Their Blend Of Powers Can Be Weaponized To Induce Madness In Others
Members of Clan Malkavian are the descendants of the Antediluvian Malkav and consequently gain his powers while suffering from his clan bane. All those embraced into the clan of Seers suffer from some form of mental illness, be it psychosis, DID, paranoia, depression, anxiety, or any psychological ailment a mortal could potentially have.
Malkavians are also blessed with some truly unique powers that make them stand out in theWorld of Darkness. They canmake themselves unseenwith Obfuscate, gain the sight to see beyond the veil with Auspex and bend the wills of mortals or even other supernaturals with Dominate. Their unique blend of disciplines means they can inflict madness on another, so other kindreds should beware they do not get on the wrong side of a Malkavian.
11Toreadors
The Clan of Roses Comes With A Few Thorns
Beautiful mortals and artistic souls sooner or later draw the eye of a seductive Toreador, dark sirens of the night that are drawn and fixate on things they find beautiful, which differ from person to person. Classical paintings, musical performances, or even the bloody unleashing of death can catch their obsessive nature, as beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Toreadors are strong in the way they can puppeteer mortals and other kindred alike, wielding their beauty and their mastery over clan disciplines Dominate or Presence to enforce their will on another. Who needs brute strength to protect themselves when one can simply command another to protect them with simple words and eye contact?
10Ministry
Temptation Is Their Weapon
The closestone will get to a cultinVampire: the Masqueradeis being part of the Ministry clan, who love all things sinful, dressing it up as liberation. Freedom always comes with a cost though, and those that are successfully swayed may find themselves losing everything.
Like the Toreador, they excel in using Presence to make themselves more alluring or fearful to any who behold them, though their intentions might be slightly more nefarious than those of the Rose’s. Their access to Protean can make them more formidable, as they can manipulate their form from extending their fangs to assuming the shape of a snake for when all else fails.
9Nosferatu
None Have Perfected The Art Of Invisibility Like The Nosferatu
Clan Nosferatu is the exact inverse of the Toreadors, as these vampires suffer the clan bane of extreme disfigurements and physical scarring that leave them looking not only ugly but akin to hideous monsters from a horror B-Movie. A human that spies a Nosferatu who is not employing any powers to look like an ordinary person could be counted as a masquerade breach, as their appearance is inhuman.
While this clan bane is a big hindrance, it does mean the Nosferatu haveperfected the arts of going unseenand using alternative means of traversing a city rather than the streets like other kindred. Instead, they claim the underbellies of cities as their territory and use Obfuscate when they ascend to the upper levels. Their mastery of stealth and technology places them as the biggest information brokers in theWorld of Darkness. If someone needs information, they speak to a Nosferatu.
8Gangrel
Gangrel And Their Affinity With Animals Is Unparalleled
The Gangrel are the clan known for their strong affinity to animals, which is where their strength comes into play. After all, who doesn’t want thepower to shift into a wolfto forget about people’s problems for a while?
There is more to this clan than their shapeshifting ability. Like the Ravnos, the Gangrel clan has access to the Animalism discipline, which means they can communicate and befriend other animals, but they also have Fortitude, which allows them to better soak physical damage and shield their minds from control. Protean is the discipline that allows them to shift their form and even specific parts of their bodies, such as eyes to see in the dark or their nails to give them dangerously sharp claws.
7Banu Haqim
Judge, Jury, And Executioners
The path of the night is a dangerous one to all who walk it, be it a mortal or a kindred. Mortals fear all that goes bump in the night, but kindred have more to fear, from enemy vampires to hunters to their own withering humanity. Convictions can be a useful tool in helping them toe the line of humanity, and none follow these as stringently as the Banu Haqim.
Children of Haqim follow personal, government, or religious rules to the letter, which in itself demonstrates a strong sense of will and ethics, and they have the prowess to back this up. The Haqim can tap into unique Blood Sorcery rituals to better strike down the wrongdoers, such as Dagon’s Call. Combining that with their ability to shroud themselves using Obfuscate, or improve their speed and agility with Celerity, any who cross paths with a Banu Haqim better hope they do not find them wanting.
6Brujah
The Hardest Hitters Of All
Brujah is the clanfor those who don’t want any fancy magical powers and simply want to punch things. TheVTMequivalent of Barbarians inD&D, Brujah are the antithesis of Ventrue. They are all about chaos, freedom, and sticking it to the man. They are a bread-and-butter Anarch clan, but there are some in the Camarilla as well, lending their brute strength to the Tower and their relentless pursuit of extending their territories and influence.
Members of clan Brujah gain access to Presence, allowing them to bolster their strength with intimidation tactics, Celerity to move faster than their opponent’s eyes can see, and Potence to ensure they can hit their opponent with the force of a freight train.
5Hecata
The Masters Of Death And The Dead
Once, there were multiple bloodlines that prided themselves as the most knowledgeable scholars of death and how to use it to serve their means. Distilled into just one, they are now known as the Hecata. They remain one of the very few clans that still largely consider themselves independent of each Sect, though some defectors find their studies may lead them to the Anarchs, the Tower, or even the Sabbat.
They have access to Disciplines such as Auspex to see what mortal eyes might see, Fortitude to soak damage, and Oblivion. It is through certain Oblivion rituals that they can commune with the deceased and manipulate them for their own personal use.
