Retainers

To create a Retainer, Spirit slave or Brood of any kind you need to talk with a @Retainers Coordinator. After talking with them and determining the concept and type of a retainer you are interested in you can proceed on to creating them. Each retainer needs to have a character sheet, made in accordance with their nature and the rules outlined here. Once approved by the coordinator, the ghoul may enter play and serve as the obedient pawn they were always meant to be.

Players are allowed to play their Brood and Retainers directly, after they were allowed in play. You may even choose to spend your own experience points on them, advancing their capabilities. They do not gain experience of their own.

Human retainers
Human retainers need to have their personal sheet created in accordance to the rules outlined in Ghouls: Fatal Addiction book. Please use THIS editable pdf sheet.

A ghoul that is created after the Destiny's Call ritual is used to "summon" one will receive additional dots in 1-2 abilities these dots are equal to 1 +1/2 the number of successes on the ritual (cannot exceed 5 total dots). These extra dots must be used to reflect the specialty that was declared during the ritual.

Animal retainers
Animal retainers need to have their their personal sheet created in accordance to the rules outlined below. Please use THIS editable pdf sheet.

A character must have Animalism 1 at the very least to communicate with an Animal retainer.

Wraith retainers
Wraith retainers need to have their personal sheet created in accordance to the rules outlined in Wraith: The Oblivion book. Please use THIS editable pdf sheet.

Only Characters with some sort of an ability to communicate and control wraiths may take this background.

Brood
Brood need to have their personal sheet created in accordance to the rules outlined in Vampire: The Masquerade Revised Core book. Please use THIS editable pdf sheet.

This background represents NPC kindred embraced by your character and kept in servitude for some reason in some fashion. It is the most restricted background and has to be earned in game.

= Animal Retainer Creation =

So you are playing a Kindred who is fond of Animals and you would like to make an Animal Retainer. What do? Well in this fun-filled guide, I will tell you What Do. You will first contact your Retainer Coordinator; they will be on the Discord and can be pinged with the tag @Retainers Coordinator. Then you will have a conversation with them and determine what animal concept you would like to make. Once the concept has been okayed by your Coordinator you will first determine what Category the Animal will fall into and if your character currently meets the prerequisites to gain it based on the following factors:

Category
Diminutive - Rats, Ravens, Bats (small critters)

Minor - Cats, Dogs, Raccoons, Owls (lower predators), smaller pythons

Average - Deer, Alligator Snapping Turtle, Python / Vipers, Hawk (Large gatherers, small to mid-sized predators)

Strong - Alligators, Gorillas, Reticulated Pythons, Big Cats (Apex predators)

Powerful - Animals that are above and beyond the normal physical prowess of other animals

Category Prerequisites

Character's CHA or ANIMAL KEN SCORE [higher of the two] / Number of & Power of Animals

1 = 1 Diminutive [Costs 10 hours of downtime] +2 Freebie Points at Creation

2 = 2 Diminutive or 1 Minor [Costs 20 hours of downtime] +4 Freebie Points at Creation

3 = 4 Diminutive or 2 Minor or 1 Average [Costs 30 hours of downtime] +6 Freebie Points at Creation

4 = 6 Diminutive or 4 Minor or 2 Average or 1 Strong [Costs 40 hours of downtime] +8 Freebie Points at Creation

5 = 8 Diminutive or 6 Minor or 4 Average or 2 Strong or 1 Powerful [Costs 50 hours of downtime] +10 Freebie Points at Creation

6 = 10 Diminutive or 8 Minor or 6 Average or 4 Strong or 2 Powerful [Costs 60 hours of downtime] +12 Freebie Points at Creation

7 = 12 Diminutive or 10 Minor or 8 Average or 6 Strong or 4 Powerful [Costs 70 hours of downtime] +14 Freebie Points at Creation

Investigation:

When it comes to investigations animal retainers can help just as they are human counterparts. On qualifying rules you may add the players dots of animal retainers towards their dice pools on investigation rolls.

Etc. [Or any mixture thereof. If you have 5 Animal Ken you can have 1 Stong, and 2 Average, Or 3 Minor and 4 Diminutive, etc.]

7/4 Abilities
Talents: Alertness, Athletics, Brawl, Dodge, Expression, Empathy, Intimidation, Subterfuge Skills: Survival, Stealth, Performance, Investigation

* Secondaries can be bought for animals that make sense for them. Some examples are: Burrowing, Climbing, Flight [speed / maneuverability], Jumping, Scent, Tracking, etc.

5/3/2 Attributes
Physicals: Strength, Dexterity, Stamina

Socials: Charisma, Manipulation - capped at 1*, Appearance

Mentals: Perception, Intelligence - capped at 1*, Wits


 * Some animals are more manipulative and intelligent. Regular animals cap at 1, with the caveat that an "Intelligent Animal" can have up to 2, based on the animal. Some intelligent animals include: Ravens, Crows, exotic parrots, chimpanzees, gorillas, dolphins, etc. Must be reasonable to the animal and setting. Each animal with this is subject to approval. Example: If you have a dozen ravens, likely not all of them will have Intelligence or Manipulation 2, but one or two might.

Disciplines
Start with 1 to Potence, as a normal ghoul, and 1 point to another Discipline of the Domitor. Depending on the animal, and the power of their Domitor that an animal could gain other powers. Auspex, Obfuscation, Quietus Dot 1 etc for detecting / tracking / hunting / hiding are just some examples. A tiger I could see having a dot of Dominate or Presence arguably... meet eyes they could force someone to "freeze" in supernatural fear. Things that take study, like Necromancy and Thaumaturgy don't make sense as much of course, so are not viable. Non-Physical Disciplines must make sense to the animal and be approved by the Retainer.

Other
Virtues: Instinct/Courage 5 points

Willpower: Capped at 4

Freebies: 10 points

Merits & Flaws
As with any ghoul of particular clans, animals gain certain limitations. All animals ghouled by a Malkavian will have mental problems while those of a Ventrue will only like the blood of their Domitor, for example.

However for ease of book-keeping most Animal Retainers will not be granted merits and / or flaws.

That being said: rarely animal ghouls *can gain merits or flaws* based on the Clan of their Domitor, such as Short Temper for a Brujah animal or Hulking Size for a Nosferatu animal, etc. But these do not generate additional freebie points for the animal and are subject to ST approval before they enter play.

And that is What Do for Animal Retainers!

That being said please keep in mind the following:

Animal Retainers are still animals. They still retain their non-sentience and their baser instincts above and beyond other ghouls. They cannot communicate like humans, or even like wraiths, and often cannot garner a large amount of information for their Domitor on their own. Please keep this in mind when portraying your Animal Retainer actions.

Animal Retainers DO NOT COUNT towards the Generation Cap limitation on ghouled Retainers. Instead they are capped by the character's highest level of Charisma or Animal Ken [whichever is higher].

Your character MUST HAVE Animalism 1 at the very least to Communicate with your Animal Retainer.

= Retainer Training, a.k.a. Ghoul Power Hour = Increasing Your Retainer's Abilities: Instead of spending experience on retainers, you can now increase them through downtime. The dicepool will vary depending upon the vampire's teaching methods, at a difficulty of 6 with the vampire's assistance, lowered by appropriate secondaries (such as Instruction), or base difficulty 7 if learning things on their own. The success margin needed varies depending upon the type of retainer and the thing to be learned. Each roll consumes 10 downtime hours.

Brood
Attributes 45 - 60 - 75 - 90 - 105

Abilities 10 - 20 - 40 - 80 - 100

Disciplines 25 - 50 - 75 - 100 - 125

Humanity, Virtues and Willpower may only be raised through exp according to the Experience Cost Chart in the Vampire: the Masquerade Revised core rulebook. Disciplines: When it comes to teaching your retainer disciplines, they can learn in clan disciplines on their own, with put of clans (excepting physicals) requiring a teacher. Physicals, if they are not in clan, require a teacher for the first dot; beyond that, they can be developed naturally, like an in clan.]

Wraiths
Attributes 90 - 120 - 150 - 180 - 210

Abilities 20 - 40 - 80 - 160 - 200

Disciplines* 50 - 100 - 150 - 200

Wraiths may increase attributes and abilities as per the above system, however Arcanoi, Passions, Dark Passions, Thorns and Willpower can only be raised through experience, as per the experience cost chart in Wraith: the Oblivion.

Human Ghouls
Attributes 90 - 120 - 150 - 180 - 210

Abilities 20 - 40 - 80 - 160 - 200

Disciplines* 50 - 100 - 150 - 200

Humanity, Virtues and Willpower may only be raised through exp according to the Experience Cost Chart found in Ghouls: Fatal Addiction. Discipline ratings for Animal and Human ghouls still cannot exceed their Domitor's generation maximum, according to the Optional Maximum Discipline Level found in Ghouls: Fatal Addiction. Disciplines: When it comes to teaching your Retainer's disciplines, they can learn in clan disciplines on their own, with put of clans (excepting physicals) requiring a teacher. Physicals, if they are not in clan, require a teacher for the first dot; beyond that, they can be developed naturally, like an in clan.

Animals Ghouls
Attributes 135 - 180 - 225 - 270 - 315

Abilities 20 - 40 - 80 - 160 - 200

Disciplines 75 - 150 - 225 - 300

Humanity, Virtues and Willpower may only be raised through exp according to the Experience Cost Chart found in Ghouls: Fatal Addiction. Discipline ratings for Animal and Human ghouls still cannot exceed their Domitor's generation maximum, according to the Optional Maximum Discipline Level found in Ghouls: Fatal Addiction. Disciplines: When it comes to teaching your Retainer's disciplines, they can learn in clan disciplines on their own, with put of clans (excepting physicals) requiring a teacher. Physicals, if they are not in clan, require a teacher for the first dot; beyond that, they can be developed naturally, like an in clan.