Homid Gifts

Garou Gifts

Climb Like an Ape / City Running

Rank 1 Homid Gift

Called City Running in 20th Anniversary Edition

Garou with this Gift find that moving vertically is just as easy as moving horizontally; whether they are walking along a sidewalk, climbing stairs, or scaling the side of a building, their pace doesn’t change in the slightest, nor do they tire out more rapidly. This Gift doesn’t make it any easier or less dangerous to climb in precarious circumstance — a ten-story fall is still a ten-story fall, and a sheer surface remains sheer — but the Gift does make sure that the character can climb as quickly as he walks.

System: The player spends a point of Rage. For the next scene the Garou’s movement rate is unchanged whether he is climbing or walking; he moves at Dexterity +5 meters per turn, period. This Gift does not decrease the difficulty for Athletics rolls used to climb, but it does allow the Garou to run, or make an Athletics roll to improve his speed, just as he could while moving across an empty plain. This Gift is taught by a monkey-spirit.

Source: Book of the City / 20th Anniversary Edition

Stench and the City

Rank 1 Homid Gift / Rank 1 Bone Gnawer Gift

Many city Garou use this Gift when facing off against just about anything with a particularly sensitive nose: this can include other Garou, Black Spiral Dancers, and a host of normal animals or Wyrm-creatures. The Gift incapacitates its target by overwhelming its sense of smell with the stink of the city: sweat, blood, human waste, rot, smoke and car exhaust.

Garou have been known to use this Gift to pull one of their own out of the thrall of frenzy, or to incapacitate a crazed wolf without permanent injury. The Black Spiral Dancers are said to be quite familiar with Stench and the City as well, and are perfectly willing to use it on Gaian Garou.

System: The Garou should select a target with a sense of smell better than a human, spend a point of Rage, and roll Stamina + Primal-Urge (difficulty of the target’s Stamina + 5, maximum of 9). For every success rolled, the target loses one die from all actions for the next turn; if five successes are rolled, the target is incapacitated for the scene. The target may resist by holding its breath, if he is aware; if he does so he must follow the rules for suffocation on p.189 of Werewolf. This Gift is taught by a skunk-spirit.

Source: Book of the City

Master of Fire

Rank 1 Homid Gift / Rank 1 Croatan Gift / Rank 1 Get of Fenris Gift

Once humans tamed fire to keep them warm and to drive off the wild beasts, they were humanity’s ancient pact with the spirits of fire. The spirits of flame agree to hold back their hunger when the werewolf touches them. An ancestor spirit or a fire-spirit grants this Gift.

System: This Gift allows a werewolf to heal fire damage as if it were bashing. This requires the expenditure of a Gnosis point; the effects last for a scene.

Source: Core book revised / 20th Anniversary Edition

Persuasion

Rank 1 Homid Gift / Rank 1 Fianna Gift / Rank 1 Glass Walkers Gift

This Gift allows a homid to become more persuasive when dealing with others, in such a way that his statements and arguments are imbued with added meaning or credibility. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Charisma + Subterfuge. If successful, the Storyteller reduces the difficulties of all Social rolls by one for the remainder of the scene. In addition, any successful Social rolls may have significantly more impact than they would without the Gift. A werewolf could win arguments with hard line opponents, or cause a cold-hearted psychopath to relent (at least for a little while).

Source: Core book revised / 20th Anniversary Edition

Smell of Man

Rank 1 Homid Gift

Creatures of the wild have leanred well that where man goes, death follows. With this Gift the werewolf enhances the human scent around him greatly, causing wild animals to feel uneasy and nervous. However, the scent also causes domestic animals to recognize the werewolf as their master. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: All wild animals (not including supernatural creatures in animal form) lose one die from their dice pools when within 20 feet of the Garou (save when defending themselves or running away), and they are likely to flee. All domesticated animals recognize the werewolf as a friend and refuse to harm him. For example, an attack-trained dog ordered to take down the werewolf would run up to the character and wag its tail. If the domesticated animal is harmed, then it will revert to acting naturally. The Garou may use this GIft at will. She wimply states when she is activating it or turning it off.

Source: Core book revised.

Apecraft’s Blessings

Rank 1 Homid Gift

Though many of Gaia’s children use tools, none have mastered them so thoroughly as humanity. The homid focuses this mastery into the tools she uses, causing their spirits to awaken and lend her aid. An ancestor-spirit or spirit of a man-made object teaches this Gift.

System: The werewolf spends a turn concentrating, and then the player rolls Wits + Crafts (difficulty 7). Each success reduces the difficulty by one on the next roll she makes for her character to employ a tool made by human hands. The purpose is irrelevant—this Gift is equally efficacious for attempts to repair an engine, drive a car or fire a gun.

Source: 20th Anniversary Edition

Jam Technology

Rank 2 Homid Gift / Rank 2 Glass Walker Gift

The werewolf can cause technological devices to cease functioning, albeit temporarily. Even the simplest of shaped objects will refuse to perform its function. A Gremlin — a type of Wyld-spirit that enjoys breaking things — teaches this Gift

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Crafts. The werewolf may choose the level of complexity she inteds to “jam.” All technological devices (i.e., any devices shaped from fabricated materials like metal or plastic) of that compledity within 50 feet cease functioning for one turn per success. The devices remain unchanged but inert. Knives won’t cut, gunpowder won’t ignite, gears won’t turn and so on. The difficulty of the roll is based on the following chart:

Device	Difficulty
Computer	4
Phone	6
Automobile	8
Gun	9
Knife	10

Source: Core book revised / 20th Anniversary Edition

Speech of the World

Rank 2 Homid Gift / Rank 2 Silent Strider Gift

This Gift allows Gaia’s warriors to read and wield the spirit of speech, bypassing the need to learn different languages and dialects. The Garou may speak and understand any human language she encounters, though she speaks with an obvious accent, marking her as an outsider. Speech of the World doesn’t convey literacy, nor is it an encyclopedia of cultural information. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Intelligence + Academics (difficulty 7). The effect lasts for one scene.

Source: 20th Anniversary Edition

Staredown

Rank 2 Homid Gift

By staring into the eyes of a human or animal, a werewolf can cause the target to flee in terror. This Gift can be used against other werewolves, but the target will freeze in place rather than flee. A ram or snake-spirit teaches this gift.

System: The Garous using this Gift may focus on only one target per turn; the player rolls Charisma + Intimidation (difficulty 5 + the victim’s Rank). The victim flees for one turn per success, although he may expend a Willpower point to resist the Gift’s effects for a turn. Should the character score five or more successes, the victim flees for the duration of the scene. Werewolves (and most powerful Wyrm-monsters) will not flee, but they cannot attack while the Gift’s user continues to stare them down. However, if they are attacked themselves, all bets are off.

Source: Core book revised.

Divide

Rank 2 Homid Gift

Humanity excels at making tiny differences into massive gulfs. This can be seen in racism, sexism, and homophobia. This Gift rises up such hatred and suspicion. It is taught by a dog-spirit.

System: By spending one Gnosis point, and rolling Manipulation + Brawl, difficulty 7, the Garou can exacerbate divisions between individuals or groups. Note that the Gift cannot actually create anger and divisions; they must already exist to be exploited. If used on the theoretical “perfect family”, the Gift would fail. Among humans, the Gift simply prevents any resolution of issues and difficulties, possibly breaking into violence. One success might cause targets to raise voices at one another, three would spell lawsuits, and five might bring them to blows.

Amongst Garou and other shapeshifters with Rage, however, the Gift is even more powerful. Every success on the initial roll adds one success on all Rage rolls the targets make throughout the scene. With such manipulation, it is doubtful that any peace can be made, and highly probable new troubles will emerge.

Source: Players’ Guide to Garou (revised)

Weaver’s Eyes

Rank 2 Homid Gift

Humanity has a knack for finding patterns everywhere, steeped as it is in the Weaver’s influence. The homid can read the patterns in her enemies’ behavior and the battlefield’s dynamics to predict what will happen next. A Weaver-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point. For the rest of the scene, she may wait to declare her character’s action for the current turn until everyone else has done so, regardless of her initiative. She still acts according to the result of her initiative roll, but she has the advantage of knowing what her foes and allies will do before she decides herself.

Source: Changing Ways W20

Rooftop Sprint

Rank 2 Homid Gift

On occasion, a city Garou may find himself in a chase across the rooftops of his town. He may be pursuing a fleeing Wyrm-spirit or Black Spiral Dancer, or he might be running for his life from similar foes. Rooftop Sprint makes such a chase much more survivable — and even winnable — for the Garou who uses it. He becomes able to leap up and down several stories, and easily spring across open alleyways. The primary restriction on the character’s movement is that he cannot touch the ground, or the Gift’s effect ends at once.

System: The player must spend a point of Rage and roll Dexterity + Athletics (difficulty 6). For every success achieved, the character can jump up or down one story (3 meters) or 3 meters horizontally, without danger or difficulty. Athletics rolls can improve jumping distances, just as always; the effects of those Athletics rolls just add to the result given by this Gift. The Gift’s effects last for one scene, or until the character touches the ground at street level — if the Garou touches pavement, grass, or anything else commonly considered “ground” he is considered to have touched ground, but if he leaps from car roof to car roof he should be okay. Rooftop Sprint is taught by an alleycat-spirit.

Source: Book of the City

Global Citizen

Rank 2 Homid Gift

Some homid Garou have a propensity for travel that has them able to fit in wherever they go. This Gift takes this principle a step further. The Garou blends into different cultures, and inherently understand minor cultural traditions, faux pas, and quirks. To the untrained observer,she appears part of the group. Her skin and facial structure doesn’t’ change, but nobody seems to notice any difference in heritage. She does not become able to understand languages associated with the group; that’s the purview of other Gifts such as the Homid Gift: Speech of the World and the Child of Gaia Gift: Speech of All Things. A chameleon-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: This Gift effectively makes the Garou part of whatever culture she immerses herself in. Any active efforts to out her as a non-member suffer a +3 difficulty. Any time she needs to fake a behavior with which she’s unfamiliar, she can emulate it if she succeeds at an Intelligence + Etiquette roll. The difficulty depends on the commonalities with her home culture. A culture similar to hers is difficulty 5, most other human cultures are difficulty 7, and cultures that are lost, unnatural, or alien are difficulty 9. With a point of Gnosis, she can temporarily establish relevant Allies and Contacts Background dots equal to her Wisdom dots, divided however she likes.

Source: Rage Across the World W20

Mark of the Wolf

Rank 2 Homid Gift

The werewolf marks those she comes in contact with, leaving them to carry the same aura of the predator the Garou does. This subtle curse can wreak havoc in a target’s private or professional life, and is a favorite of many homids looking to provoke discord in the ranks of the enemy. A Lune teaches this Gift.

System: The player selects a target that has had some interaction with the Garou during the scene (even something as simple as light conversation in an elevator counts), then rolls Manipulation + Primal-Urge (difficulty 7). The target inherits the Curse (see p. 262) as though she had a Rage rating equal to that of the Garou for one day per success.

Source: 20th Anniversary Edition

Reshape Object

Rank 3 Homid Gift / Rank 3 Bone Gnawers Gift / Rank 3 Fianna Gift / Rank 3 Glass Walker Gift

The werewolf can shape once-living material (but not undead!) into a variety of objects instantly. Trees may become shelter, buck antlers become spears, animal hides become armor, and flowers become perfumes. The item will resemble the object from which it was shaped (e.g., the aforementioned spear is made of antler, not wood). A Pattern Spider — one of the Weaver’s spirits — teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Crafts against a variable difficulty (5 to turn a broken tree limb into a spear, 8 to turn a plant into a floatable raft) and spends a Gnosis point. The created object is not necessarily permanent; it will last a length of time according to the following chart. Expending an additional Gnosis point allows a created weapon to inflect aggravated damage for the scene’s duration or until the object returns to its original form. This effect can be made permanent with the sacrifice of a permanent point of Gnosis if the object itself if changed permanently.

Duration
One	5 minutes
Two	10 minutes
Three	One scene
Four	One Story
Five	Permanent

Source: Core book revised.

Calm the Savage Beast

Rank 3 Homid Gift / Rank 3 Children of Gaia Gift

Even the most callous of homids can sympathize with the Rage that moves their fellow Garou in the final days. This Gift allows the werewolf to lend a frenzying Garou the will to escape her Rage’s hold over her. It is taught by an ancestor-spirit.

System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Primal-Urge (difficulty 8). If successful, the Willpower point soothes a frenzying Garou within 30 feet (9 m), canceling the frenzy. By spending an extra point of Willpower, this Gift may affect non-Garou in a state of frenzy, such as other shapeshifters or vampires.

Source: 20th Anniversary Edition

Tongues

Rank 3 Homid Gift / Rank 3 Silent Strider Gift / Rank 3 Glass Walker Gift

This Gift allows the user to read or write any human language encountered, no matter how ancient or obscure. Galliards often use this Gift when translating ancient texts to revive old legends or compose new songs for moots. This Gift is taught by a Raven-spirit.

System: After spending one Willpower point, the player rolls her Intelligence + Linguistics. The obscurity and relative age of the language determines the difficulty. A common modern language such as Spanish is difficulty 4. An ancient and obscure tongue, such as Etruscan, would be difficulty 10. The number of successes determines the character’s fluency with the language.

Source: Player’s Guide Second Edition / 20th Anniversary Edition

Rally the Troops

Rank 3 Homid Gift

Being more than human, the homid can gather people quickly with a single command, bending them to a common task. She can rally a small army to hunt her enemies, preside over a heroic rescue effort during a crisis, or rouse a crowd to heckling a speaker. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The werewolf makes a short rallying cry, command, or speech to a group of non-supernatural humans and then the player rolls Charisma + Leadership (difficulty 6). The group can range from a few people lingering on a street corner to an audience of up to several hundred; all they need is to hear her. Each success adds one die to all rolls the player makes in that scene toward accomplishing one task with which the group could conceivably aid her. The difficulty of all these rolls is reduced by one if most of the group are Kinfolk. Individual characters with importance to the story may decline to help, at the Storyteller’s discretion, but even they feel the authority in the Garou’s directive.

Source: Changing Ways W20

Gaia’s Toolbox

Rank 3 Homid Gift

Garou are half wolf, and so runners after prey. But they are also half human, and thus toolmakers and tool users whose brains and hands enable them to control far more of the cosmos. This Gift allows the Garou to see how any tool fits into the greater “toolmaker puzzle”: the question of how humans can survive their own cleverness. A monkey-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The Garou holds a tool or thinks of a task. She need not be in Homid form, but must be able to do what the Gift requires. She breathes carefully, asking Gaia’s will for the place of the tool or deed; the player rolls Intelligence + Primal-Urge. The Storyteller, based on the number of successes, will allow the Garou some insight into how the tool can be used to affect the web of life. Often in ways that are not obvious. As the Garou doesn’t receive the answer to any one particular question (other than “What can this object/deed accomplish in the greater scheme of things?”), this Gift is mainly useful for gaining “hints” from the Storyteller as needed.

Source: Book of the City

Cowing the Bullet

Rank 3 Homid Gift

The spirits of tools recognize man as their master; as a result, they become reluctant to harm the homid. A Weaver-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point. For the rest of the scene, the Garou gains two additional soak dice against all crafted weapons not made of silver.

Source: 20th Anniversary Edition

Disquiet

Rank 3 Homid Gift

This Gift makes its target feel inexplicably depressed and withdrawn. The subject finds it difficult to draw on his full emotion or to maintain any type of concentration. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy against a difficulty equal to the target’s Willpower. If successful, that opponent will not be able to recover Rage for the duration of the scene. Furthermore, all difficulties for extended actions increase by one.

Source: Core book revised.

Body Shift

Rank 4 Homid Gift / Rank 4 Ahroun Gift / Rank 4 Get of Fenris Gift

Garou raised in the shifting maze of human society are well-prepared for the endless adaptations Gaia demands of her protectors. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The Garou can use her shapeshifting to alter her physical Attributes: a dot of Dexterity can be shifted to Strength or Stamina, and so forth. The player rolls Stamina + Primal-Urge (difficulty 9). For each two successes, one physical Attribute dot can be shifted for the rest of the scene.

Source: 20th Anniversary

Spirit Ward

Rank 4 Homid Gift

A werewolf with this Gift may protect himself from spirits by performing a quick warding rite. To use this Gift, the werewolf draws an invisible pictogram in the air that scares and unnerves any nearby spirits (except pack totems or caern spirits). The symbol travels with the werewolf as long as it lasts. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Rituals (difficulty 7). Spirits within 100 feet of the character (again, except the pack totem or local caern spirits) must subtract one from their dice pools for each success. This Gift lasts for one scene.

Source: Core book revised.

Web of Knowledge

Rank 4 Homid Gift

In the Digital Age of humanity, tiny spirits of information and knowledge spring into being every second, flitting between objects of curiosity and carrying with them the answers to all manner of questions. The homid can attune herself to these streams of consciousness, circumventing the need for books or special training during an investigation. A Pattern Spider teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends on Gnosis point. Once during the current scene, she may roll to perform research or an investigation as an instant action instead of an extended one, and without any forensic skills or tools, gleaning answers directly from the interconnectedness of the spirit world. The roll suffers no penalties if she has no dots in the required Ability. She must begin with a general idea of her topic, and can only learn what she could have learned with an appropriate source of information. She could build a profile of a killer with just the corpse or murder weapon, but she still must know the basic facts of the murder and won’t learn the killer’s identify; likewise, she could research an ancient symbol without poring over dusty tomes, but she must have seen the symbol in a relevant context and won’t automatically deduce its importance. Rolls of difficulty higher than 7 cannot be made with this Gift, as the information is too obscure.

Source: Changing Ways W20

Bury the Wolf

Rank 4 Homid Gift

The war against the Wyrm isn’t always a matter of slashing claws and righteous fury — sometimes duplicity is required. A werewolf can temporarily “restrain” her inner wolf and appear to be a normal human. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Gnosis (difficulty of her own Willpower). Success causes the character to appear human to all supernatural scrutiny. The Gift also nullifies the Curse and makes spending Rage impossible, and locks her in homid form so long as its effects persist. The number of successes determines the Gift’s duration; to “free the wolf” before that time elapses requires a full turn of concentration and another point of Gnosis.

Successes Duration

One One Scene Two 12 hours Three One day Four One week Five One lunar cycle.

Source: 20th Anniversary Edition

Cocoon

Rank 4 Homid Gift

The werewolf can wrap himself in a thick, opaque sarcophagus-like epidermis, making him immobile but near-impervious to harm. This cocoon grants him immunity to fire, starvation, gas, high pressure, cold and similar environmental hazards. An insect or Weaver-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The Garou spends on Gnosis point. While in the cocoon, the werewolf ignores any attacks which fail to do damage at least equal to her Stamina + Rituals, but attacks that pierce the cocoon destroy it. The cocoon lasts for one scene, after which it dissolves rapidly and evaporates. The player may extend the duration of the Gift spending more Gnosis points. Spending days in the cocoon is entirely possible, but the maximum duration is up to the Storyteller.

Source: Core book revised.

Übermensch / Beyond Human

Rank 5 Homid Gift

Called Beyond Human in the 20th Anniversary Edition

The Garou is human plus. Human plus strength, agility and health. Human plus devoted, assured spirituality and meaning. Human plus animal instinct and lightning reflexes. He is as man, but greater and more whole. Every Garou radiates this to some extent, causing humans to fear and avoid them instinctively. This Gift warps this perception, turning the Garou from a figure to be avoided into a figure to be admired or adored. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: Once learned, this Gift is always active. Humans dealing with the character will immediately pick her out as more desirable, attractive, smarter or more charismatic compared to throw around them, regardless of their actual capacity in such matters. The Curse still applies, but rather than being instinctively feared as a predator, the werewolf is dreaded as an intimidating figure of great presence. Also, the character may boost his Social Attributes by spending Rage or Gnosis, each dot of either spent raises one Social Attribute by one point for a single scene.

Source: Players’ Guide to Garou (revised)

Assimilation

Rank 5 Homid Gift

A werewolf with this Gift blends smoothly into any culture, no matter how strange or unfamiliar he might normally find it. He could slip among Bedouin nomads as if he were one of them, or he could shop in a Chinese market without anyone noticing that he does not belong. The Gift doesn’t hide racial differences, but it does allow the user to mimic the behaviors and mannerisms of a native. It also grants the ability to speak and understand the culture’s language, although this knowledge vanishes as the Gift ends. Ancestor-spirits teach this gift.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy. If successful, the character interacts with members of another culture as if he were one of them. This difficulty depends on how alien the culture is. The difficulty would be 5 for another Garou sept, but it could be as high as 9 when trying to assimilate into a Black Spiral Hive in a foreign country. The character will not suffer Social-roll penalties when interacting with members of the culture, although he will not receive any special benefits. The Gift lasts for one scene plus one day per Willpower point spent when activating it.

Source: Core book revised.

Part the Veil

Rank 5 Homid Gift

With this Gift, a werewolf may immunize any human from the Delirium for a scene. In this way, the human can interact with Garou without deleterious effects. However, the human will forget much of what he knows if the Delirium is induced in him at a later date. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Empathy. One success is all that’s required.

Source: Core book revised.