Custom Merits

Mother’s Embrace (• to •••••)

Created by Crazycodgie2

Prerequisites: Beast, Stamina ••• or Resolve •••

Effect: The Dark Mother is not just the origin of all nightmares, horrors, and things that bump in the night. To you, she is a guiding force that you have listened to, learned from, and now seek to draw inspiration from. More than that, you’ve taken to emulating one particular aspect of the Mother in order to better understand your role – namely, the task of being a parent, of a sort. To use this merit, you must perform Mother’s Kiss on someone. That target, in addition to the normal benefits of Mother’s Kiss, may also be treated as your Embraced for the rest of the scene. The benefits of this merit only apply to you and your Embraced, and you may only have one Embraced at a time. If you use Mother’s Kiss on another person in the same scene, your Embraced changes to that person. If the person you used Mother’s Kiss on expends all the dice provided by that benefit, they still remain your Embraced until the end of the scene.

Guiding Hand (•): You have learned to not only cherish your family, but you have learned to show them the ropes, as well. When your Embraced attempts a dice roll using a Skill you have dots in, you may reflexively choose to add your dots in that same Skill to their dice pool.

Shield the Child (••): In the act of guiding, one learns to not only care for, but also to protect their charges. Children are prone to putting themselves in harm’s way – sometimes, the only answer is to shield them from their more punishing mistakes, lest they become too afraid to learn. When your Embraced would take damage from a source that does not also deal damage to you, you may reflexively spend a point of Willpower, and choose to transfer a certain amount of this damage to yourself. You may take only a single point, or take any amount of it, up to the full damage. Mundane armor does not apply to this damage, but supernatural armor may. You always suffer a minimum of 1 Bashing from any source of damage taken in this way, and this cannot be reduced or negated. If the damage you protect your Embraced from is Aggravated, you ignore the requirement of spending Willpower for this ability, as your instincts kick in to protect them, even against your own safety.

Momma Bear (•••): Anyone who has seen a bear cub in danger knows, or will quickly learn, that there is little more dangerous than the mother, who will throw caution to the wind in an effort to utterly destroy that which might harm her child. Whenever your Embraced is targeted by an attack, your rage flares up. The next attack you make against the aggressor who threatened to hurt your Embraced gains a bonus to the roll equal to your highest Power attribute, to a maximum bonus of +5.

A Mother’s Pride (••••): Parents always love to see their child succeed. To watch them excel, and find their own capabilities, swells the parent’s heart with pride. Once per scene, when your Embraced scores an exceptional success on a roll, you regain a point of Willpower. In addition, the Embraced may now also apply the dice added by Mother’s Kiss to any roll, not just a roll involving a supernatural power.

The Mother’s Blessing (•••••): The Dark Mother is always present in her Begotten – especially so in those who look after charges of their own. Your Embraced may spend a point of Willpower, and choose one Atavism that you possess. For the rest of the scene, they may use that Atavism at will. It uses your Lair rating where applicable. They may use the Normal Effect at will, but only gain access to the Low Satiety effect if you are at Low Satiety yourself. They may spend a point of Willpower and suffer a Breaking Point in order to access the Satiety Expenditure effect.