Celerity

Disciplines / Discipline Techniques

You tell me to slow down. I speed up.

You tell me that I am reckless. I say that I'm endowed.

You tell me that I am irresponsible. I say I'm just impetuous.

You tell me to avoid danger. I bypass boundaries.

You tell me to take the simple way out. I'll turn around, with a hindrance ahead of me.

You tell me to ride smoothly. I'll ski the thousand moguls ahead of me.

And I'll leave you in my tracks.

A Thousand Moguls, by violenteloner, published on allpoetry.com

Introduction to Celerity

Celerity is one of the three core physical Disciplines that are common to most Cainites. Even those clans whose members don't actively favor Celerity (that is, those who are not the Brujah, Toreador and Assamites) find the power just too useful to do without. Celerity enables a vampire to accelerate his reaction time up to speeds that the mortal eye can barely follow, letting him move more quickly or fell half a dozen foes in a few heartbeats. Some Toreador use Celerity to enhance their ability to perform arts such as dance; Assamites, Brujah and most other clans use it to swiftly end fights, either by fleeing or by brutally dropping foes before they can react.

Most Cainites assume that Caine or the Antediluvians developed this ability to enable them to hunt more effectively, which is a paradox of sorts, since using it for any length of time costs the user as much blood as she might gain from a successful hunt. Other vampires claim that Celerity is part of Caine's curse on his undead children, as the great speeds it bequeaths a vampire are fleeting, and leave the Discipline's user exhausted, hungry and impatient with the ordinary, slow pace of nightly life.

Main Sequence

Vampires with Celerity can use the Discipline to take multiple actions in a turn without the normal penalties to their dice pools. These actions can include movement, enabling the Celerity-user to sprint at unheard-of speeds.

Each point of Celerity allows up to one extra action, and the vampire may use his entire dice pool for each additional action he takes. The character must spend one blood point per extra action per turn, and these blood points do not count toward the vampire's normal generational maximum for blood expenditure in a turn.

The extra actions granted by Celerity may not be "mental" actions, nor may they be split: The user is limited to physical actions at his or her full dice pool. Celerity actions occur in sequence within the round: Initiative treats them just as if they were extra split actions. Blood must be declared and spent on Celerity by the time the Cainite is done with his or her first initiative action, even if he or she has further "split" actions coming.

Alternate Powers (1-5)

Celerity, like other physical disciplines, does not allow alternate powers: Each level between 1 and 5 can only be bought once, and each level grants the possibility of exactly one extra action per turn.

Advanced Celerity

Advanced Celerity powers can either be identical to main-line Celerity (one additional action per level), or allow the elder vampire to learn other awe-inspiring feats of physical speed. Just as with other disciplines, a Kindred may learn multiple powers of any given level, with the caveat that additional actions may only be bought once at each level. (Celerity 6: extra action may only be bought once. To get 7 extra actions, the Kindred must be of the 6th generation or better, and buy both Celerity 6 and Celerity 7).

Level 6

Quicken the Blood (Created by Kaitlin, Iteration II, made obsolete by DA rule changes)

Flawless Parry (PGHC 152)

Precision (CA3 64)

Projectile / Mercury's Arrow(GC 87)

Level 7

Celerity Refinement (PGHC 152-153)

Flower of Death / Sanguinary Wind (GC 87)

Stutter-Step (CB3 68)

Unassailable Parry (GC 117)

Level 8

The Unseen Storm (PGHC 153)