Gifts de StarGazer et Hakken

General StarGazers Gifts

• Balance (Level One) — The Stargazer is able to walk across any ledge, rope, or other narrow causeway, no matter how thin or slippery. Wind-spirits teach this Gift.
System: Difficulties for climbing decrease by three, and attempts to maintain balance automatically succeed. This Gift’s effects are permanent.

• Channeling (Level One) — Rage is both a boon and a bane to the Garou, and the Stargazers feel this more than most. Many stargazers seek new ways to harness and direct their divine fury, and those with this Gift have at least one more option: to channel the vast stream of Rage into a single action, intensifying and clarifying it. This Gift is taught by a fire-spirit.
System: The player may spend up to three Rage points on a single action. Each point spent in this manner gives the werewolf an extra die for that roll.

• Falling Touch (Level One) — As the Ahroun Gift.

• Iron Resolve (Level One) — Through the blessings of the spirits, the Stargazer’s resolve is tempered like steel, allowing great feats through application of sheer will. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: Once per scene, the Stargazer may spend one Willpower to gain two automatic successes on an action, rather than one.

• Sense Wyrm (Level One) — As the metis Gift.

• Inner Light (Level Two) — The Stargazer can step sideways into the Umbra using only his own inner light; he needs no mirror. This Gift is taught by an Epiphling of Truth.
System: The character is always considered to be using a mirror when attempting to step sideways, regardless of the presence of any reflective surface.


General Hakken Gifts

• Dream of a Thousand Cranes (Level One) — By folding an origami crane, the Hakken enjoys good luck for a short period of time. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The origami takes a full turn to complete; the player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Charisma + Occult. For the rest of the scene, the Hakken gains one die per success to add to other dice pools; each die can be used only once.

• Fair Path (Level One) — The Hakken appears at formal ceremonies clean and dressed in proper attire, even if
he has just returned from battle. A water-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Hakken places her hand in clean water; the player rolls Charisma + Etiquette. The Hakken gains one die to all Appearance-related rolls for the rest of the scene.


Breed Gifts

Homid Gifts

• Apecraft’s Blessings (Level One) — 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.

• City Running (Level One) — Humans are creatures of the city, raising their steel and glass nests high into the sky. This Gift allows a homid to easily scale the concrete canyons and navigate the tangled back alleys and rooftops of the urban landscape. Some lupus derisively refer to this Gift as “Climb Like an Ape.” It is taught by an ancestor-spirit or an urban city-spirit.
System: The player spends a point of Rage. For the rest of the scene, the character may climb urban features at her full movement speed, and the difficulty of all Athletics rolls to navigate through cities (running down cluttered alleys, climbing the side of buildings, leaping from rooftop to rooftop) is reduced by two.

• Master of Fire (Level One) — Fire-spirits were among the very first to make pacts with humanity, allow-ing men to warm themselves, drive off wild beasts, and clear the land. The cornerstones of civilization were laid in these simple acts, granting the spirits of flame much prestige. Homid Garou remember and continue to call upon these ancients pacts to protect themselves as the final fires of the Apocalypse loom. An ancestor-spirit or fire elemental teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point. For the rest of the scene, fire inflicts bashing rather than aggravated damage to the Garou.

• Persuasion (Level One) — This Gift imbues a homid’s words with intrinsic credibility and conviction, causing them to ring true to the ear and lay heavy on the heart. An ancestor-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). Success lowers the difficulty of all social rolls by one for the rest of the scene, and allows successful rolls to have uncommonly strong impact (such as changing long-held political views, or causing an addict to seriously reconsider the course of his life).

• Smell of Man (Level One) — To creatures of the wild, man’s scent is death. To creatures of the city, it is authority, comfort, easy meals. This Gift, taught by an ancestor-spirit, enhances a werewolf’s human scent, infusing it with spiritual power.
System: Non-supernatural wild animals lose two dice from their dice pools when interacting with the Garou, save when defending themselves or running away, and will be inclined to flee rather than attack if possible. Domesticated animals recognize the werewolf as a friend, and even trained attack dogs will do no more than wag their tails at the character unless attacked first. This Gift’s effects are permanently active.


Metis Gifts

• Create Element (Level One) — The metis may create a small amount of one of the four Western classical elements — fire, air, earth, or water. She could make a rock to throw, fill a bathtub with no faucet, light fires without matches, or provide air in an airtight room. She cannot create specialized forms of any element. Precious metals (especially silver), lethal gases, and acid are beyond her reach. Elementals teach this Gift.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Gnosis. Each success allows the character to create roughly one cubic foot (.3 cubic meter) of the desired element, to a maximum weight of 100 lbs (45 kg), anywhere she can see within 60 feet (18 m). The element remains in existence until used up (breathed, in the case of air, or burned up, in the case of fire without any fuel to keep it going). The flames created by this Gift inflict one health level of damage per success, to a maximum of three levels of damage.

• Primal Anger (Level One) — The metis gives of herself to feed the Rage in her heart, burning away her very blood and muscle in the process. The spirits of ancient metis teach this Gift; few members of other breeds have endured enough shame and suffering to learn it.
System: The character may inflict a single level of aggravated damage on herself once per scene, and gain three points of Rage in exchange (even if doing so takes her beyond her permanent Rage rating).

• Rat Head (Level One) — Metis are born into a world where they metaphorically don’t belong; it seemed only natural to rat-spirits to teach them to get into such places in the literal sense as well. This Gift renders the metis’s bone structure collapsible, allowing her to squeeze through any gap she can fit her head into.
System: The player spends one Gnosis and rolls Dexterity + Athletics (difficulty 7). For the rest of the scene, the metis may squirm through any gap she can fit her face into, moving at her walking speed to do so.

• Sense Wyrm (Level One) — The werewolf can sense nearby manifestations of the Wyrm. This Gift involves a mystical sense, not a visual or olfactory image, although Garou often describe the Wyrm’s spiritual emanations as a stench. This Gift doesn’t necessarily sense dedication to the Wyrm, merely contact with its spiritual essence, which can cling to even blameless souls. Sense Wyrm requires active concentration; the spiritual sense it provides doesn’t function passively. The Gift may be taught by any Gaian spirit.
System: The player rolls Perception + Occult. The difficulty depends on the concentration and strength of the Wyrm’s influence: sensing a single fomor in the next room would be difficulty 6, while detecting the stench of a Bane that was in the room an hour ago would be difficulty 7. Vampires register as Wyrm-tainted, save those with Humanity ratings of 7 or higher.

• Shed (Level One) — The metis can shed a layer of fur and skin, slipping from an opponent’s grasp or escaping from bonds with ease. A lizard-spirit or snake-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Dexterity + Primal-Urge (difficulty 7). If the roll succeeds, the character loses a tuft of fur or skin (revealing healthy new hide), allowing her to slip free of grapples or bonds such as ropes or chains.


Lupus Gifts

• Hare’s Leap (Level One) — The werewolf can leap impossible distances. Hare-spirits teach this Gift, naturally, though cat-, frog-, kangaroo-, and even fleaspirits occasionally do so as well.
System: The player makes a reflexive Strength + Athletics roll (difficulty 7) to activate this Gift. If successful, the character’s leaping distances are doubled for the scene — or tripled for a single turn with the expenditure of a Willpower point (see Jumping, p. 271).

• Heightened Senses (Level One) — This Gift sharpens the werewolf’s senses to an incredible degree. She enjoys the olfactory and auditory acuity of a wolf whenever she is in Homid and Glabro forms, along with superior night vision. In Crinos, Hispo and Lupus, her senses become preternaturally potent, allowing sensoryfeats that border on precognition. Sudden loud noises, bright lights or overwhelming scents can be disorienting, however. Wolf-spirits teach this Gift.
System: The player spends a Gnosis point to activate this Gift for a scene. In Homid and Glabro, the werewolf’s Perception difficulties decrease by two and she may roll Perception + Primal-Urge to perform uncanny sensory feats such as tracking by scent. In Crinos, Hispo, and Lupus, Perception difficulties decrease by three (this is not cumulative with the ordinary Lupus-form Perception bonuses) and the werewolf gains an extra die to Primal-Urge dice pools.

• Sense Prey (Level One) — This Gift lets a werewolf locate enough prey to feed her pack. In the urban environment, this tends to guide lupus to prey in parks, sewers, animal shelters or even zoos, drawing her unfailingly to the presence of prey animals. Humans and carnivores too large or dangerous for a lone wolf to regard as prey do not register as prey animals. A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Perception + Primal-Urge. The difficulty is 5 in wilderness environments and 7 in urban environments. Success indicates the location of enough prey to feed a large pack for a day.

• Predator’s Arsenal (Level One) — One of the most unnerving aspects of the Homid shape is its lack of proper weapons. This Gift remedies that problem (while still retaining much of the Homid shape’s ability to blend in with the human world), granting the Garou battle-ready claws and teeth in Homid form. It is taught by a wolf-spirit.
System: The werewolf concentrates for a turn to gain access to bite and claw attacks in Homid form for the rest of the scene, or until she dismisses the transformation. These attacks inflict lethal rather than aggravated damage, and may be concealed by simple expediencies such as the werewolf keeping her mouth closed, wearing long sleeves, or keeping her hands in her pockets. She can even speak normally without giving herself away, as long as she’s careful not to open her mouth too wide or smile so that her teeth show, although her voice sounds rough and a bit distorted (attempting to discern that there’s something amiss with a Garou taking such precautions requires a Perception + Alertness roll, difficulty 9).

• Prey Mind (Level One) — As Gaia dies and her natural order is perverted, predators become prey with increasing frequency — this is a sorrowful truth that lupus know all too well. This Gift assists the Garou in evading their enemies that they might fight another day, showing them places to hide, ways to run, and even chances to strike back. A hare- or deer-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Wits + Primal-Urge; difficulty 7 in the wilderness, 9 in urban environments. Each success adds one die to all pools made to escape, outdistance, hide from or evade pursuit for the remainder of the scene.


Auspices Gifts


Ragabash Gifts

• Blur of the Milky Eye (Level One) — The werewolf’s form becomes a shimmering, indistinct blur, as though seen through heavy cataracts — even in the midday sun. The Ragabash is not truly invisible, however, and if spotted, this Gift’s protection fails until the observer is distracted. A chameleon- or ermine-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Manipulation + Stealth (difficulty . Each success increases the difficulty of all Perception rolls made to detect him by one for the rest of the scene.

• Infectious Laughter (Level One) — Laughter is the tool with which Gaia’s tricksters promote enlightenment and the knife that slashes through the veil of Rage. When the Ragabash laughs, those around her are compelled to follow along, forgetting their grievances. A coyote- or hyena-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Ragabash must make some comment mocking the present situation in which she finds herself, then laugh at it. The player then rolls Manipulation + Expres​sion(difficulty of the highest Rage rating of anyone listening). Success causes those who hear the Ragabash’s comment and laughter lose hold of their ire, and forget what it was that had them upset in the first place — although their temper will return if they are reminded of what the New Moon has made them forget.

• Liar’s Face (Level One) — The Ragabash wraps herself in such a deceitful attitude that nothing she says can be trusted — not even the clear and unvarnished truth. The werewolf may make a single truthful statement, and no human who hears it will believe her. A platypus-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: After the character makes a truthful statement, the player spends one Willpower point and rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). This Gift is automatically effective on humans, causing them to believe the Ragabash is lying. Supernatural listeners whose Willpower rating is lower than the Ragabash’s successes also refuse to believe the Ragabash’s words.

• Open Seal (Level One) — The werewolf can open nearly any sort of closed or locked physical device. A raccoon-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Gnosis (difficulty of the local Gauntlet rating). If the object is sealed with magic, the player must spend a Gnosis point before making the attempt.

• Scent of Running Water (Level One) — The werewolf can mask her scent completely, making herself virtually impossible to track. A fox-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The difficulties of all rolls to track the Garou increase by two. This Gift’s effects are permanent, though the Ragabash may temporarily suppress them at will (which may be necessary to blend in with wolf packs).


Theurge Gifts

• Mother’s Touch (Level One) — The Theurge channels spiritual power through her hands, mending the wounds of any other living creature. This Gift may not heal the werewolf herself, spirits, or the undead. A bear- or unicorn-spirit teaches it.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Intelligence + Empathy (difficulty is the target’s current Rage, or 5 for those with no Rage). Each success heals one level of lethal, bashing, or aggravated damage. The healer may even heal fresh Battle Scars (see p. 259) in this manner, if the Gift is applied during the same scene in which the scar is received and an extra Gnosis point is spent.

• Sense Wyrm (Level One) — As the metis Gift.

• Spirit Snare (Level One) — The Theurge casts out an invisible, mystic net which entangles hostile spirits, confounding them with a mixture of magical force and long-broken but still potent Gaian law. An owl-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Intelligence + Occult (difficulty as an attack directed at a spirit within 30 feet, which can be defended against normally. Rather than inflicting damage, this attack reduces the spirit’s effective Willpower by two for the purpose of all combat actions for the rest of the scene. Multiple applications of this Gift don’t stack.

• Spirit Speech (Level One) — This Gift bestows understanding of the language of the spirit world, permitting the Garou to clearly understand and speak with any spirit he encounters. The Gift doesn’t influence spirits’ attitudes toward the werewolf in any way, nor ensure that they have any desire to communicate with him. Any spirit can teach it.
System: This Gift’s effects are permanent.

• Umbral Tether (Level One) — The Umbra is a shifting world where logic doesn’t always apply and losing one’s way is easy. Theurges ensure they can always find their way back to the point where they entered the Umbra with this Gift, which creates a silvery “umbilical cord” connecting the Garou to the point where they last crossed the Gauntlet. Only the werewolf who creates the tether can see it. This Gift is taught by a spider-spirit.
System: No roll is needed to create the thread. However, after each full day the character spends in the Umbra, a point of Gnosis must be spent to maintain the cord; otherwise, it slowly corrodes from the point of entry and toward the Garou.


Philodox Gifts

• Fangs of Judgment (Level One) — It falls upon the Philodox to levy not only judgment but also punishment against those who have fallen from their proper stations. This Gift, taught by an ancestor-spirit, causes the werewolf’s claws and fangs to burn with the righteous power of law.
System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the next full day, all of the Garou’s natural weaponry attacks do two extra dice of damage to all beings who have fallen from their original purpose to the service of the Wyrm (such as Black Spiral Dancers, fomori, and corrupted nature spirits; Banes which came into existence as agents of the Wyrm are, regrettably, exempt from this Gift’s sanction).

• Persuasion (Level One) — As the homid Gift.

• Resist Pain (Level One) — Fortifying herself with purpose and will, the werewolf shuts out the pain of her wounds. A bear- or badger-spirit teaches this Gift. System: The player spends one Willpower point; the character ignores all wound penalties for the rest of the scene.

• Scent of the True Form (Level One) — The Philodox is able to scent the truth of those she meets, literally sniffing out an individual’s true form. A vulturespirit teaches this Gift.
System: The Garou can smell Kinfolk or a fellow werewolf automatically. In all other cases, the player must roll Perception + Primal-Urge (difficulty 6). One success will identify a normal human or animal; two successes will detect a vampire, changeling, demon, mummy, or Fera; four successes are needed to sniff out a mage, ghoul, or fomor. The Imbued register as normal humans to this Gift. Unfamiliar scents aren’t automatically recognized: A Philodox that has never encountered any Rokea might not immediately recognize the scent she detects as “wereshark.”

• Truth of Gaia (Level One) — As judges of the Litany, Philodox may easily separate truth from falsehood. A Gaffling of Falcon teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Intelligence + Empathy (difficulty equals the subject’s Manipulation + Subterfuge). This Gift reveals only which of the words that have been spoken are true and which are false. It doesn’t reveal the truth behind a lie unless the speaker utters it. If the speaker is uncertain whether his words are true or false, the Gift identifies them as neither.


Galliard Gifts

• Beast Speech (Level One) — The werewolf may instinctively understand and communicate with any natural animals, from fish to mammals. She need only speak normally to be understood by animals, along with a touch of appropriate body language — there is no need to bark like a dog. This Gift doesn’t change animals’ basic reactions or dispositions; most are still afraid of predators such as werewolves. Any animal spirit can teach this Gift.
System: This Gift’s effects are permanent.

• Call of the Wyld (Level One) — The werewolf may send her howl far beyond the normal range of hearing and imbue it with great emotion, stirring the heartsof fellow Garou and chilling the bones of all others.  A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player rolls Stamina + Empathy; the number of successes determines how far away the Call can be heard (double the normal range for each success) and how stirring it is to those who hear it. This Gift should be used in conjunction with one of the Garou howls (see p. 58). The Storyteller determines the effects as appropriate to the purpose to which it is put, perhaps awarding a bonus die to revel participants for each two successes, or granting a point of Rage to all listeners for an exceptional battlefield howl.

• Heightened Senses (Level One) — As the lupus Gift.

• Mindspeak (Level One) — Invoking the power of a waking dream, the Garou can place any chosen characters into silent communication. A Chimerling teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends one Willpower point per
chosen sentient being and makes a Manipulation + Expression roll (difficulty of the victim’s Willpower) if any participants are unwilling. All those included in the waking dream may interact normally through the Mindspeak, although they can inflict no damage through it. Their real bodies can still act, although all dice pools decrease by two. The Mindspeak ends when all the participants want it to, or on the turn the Galliard fails the roll against an unwilling member. All beings affected must be within line of sight. The Garou may include her entire pack in the waking dream for only one Willpower point, if she desires.

• Perfect Recall (Level One) — The werewolf is able to remember and relive any memory with perfect clarity. An elephant-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player may spend one Gnosis point to perfectly remember any one detail, no matter how small, from any point in her character’s entire life.


Ahroun Gifts

• Falling Touch (Level One) — This Gift allows the Garou to send her foe sprawling with but a touch. Any aerial spirit can teach this Gift.
System: The player rolls Willpower (difficulty of the opponent’s Stamina + Athletics). Even one success sends the victim to the ground. This Gift may be employed through even the lightest, brushing contact at no cost, or may be delivered through an attack by paying one point of Willpower or Rage. Such attacks inflict full damage in addition to knocking the target prone.

• Inspiration (Level One) — Other werewolves look to the Ahroun for leadership in battle, and this Gift helps them to live up to that trust. The werewolf employs this Gift to lend her resolve and righteous anger to those who share her cause. A lion- or wolf-spirit teaches it.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point. All comrades (but not the Gift’s user) receive one Willpower point, which disappears if it is not used before the end of the scene.

• Pack Tactics (Level One) — While the Ahroun’s role as the overall leader of Garou is questionable, there’s no doubt at all who should take control of the pack in battle. By taking the lead and coordinating pack actions, the Ahroun gifts all her packmates with great competence in the heat of battle. A wolf-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends a Willpower point before initiating a Pack Tactics maneuver (see p. 300) and divides a pool of extra dice equal to her Leadership score among everyone performing the maneuver. The dice should be divided as evenly as possible, although the player may choose where to distribute extra dice (or in case of the Ahroun’s Leadership score granting fewer dice than the number of packmates involved).

• Razor Claws (Level One) — By raking his claws over stone, steel, or some other hard surface, the werewolf hones them to razor sharpness. A cat- or bear-spirit teaches this Gift.
System: The player spends one Rage point and the Ahroun takes a full turn sharpening her claws. All claw attacks do two additional dice of damage and are made at –1 difficulty for the rest of the scene.

• Spur Claws (Level One) — In ancient times, Ahroun warriors made common cause with the spirit-Queen of Bees. As her own hive-children rallied to protect her, so too did the Garou fight in defense of Gaia, and the Queen decreed that they should be properly equipped for the fight. This Gift, taught by a bee-spirit in recognition of that alliance, allows the Ahroun to transform her claws into hooked and barbed spurs.
System: The player spends one Rage. The next successful claw attack the character makes buries her claws into the victim, where they stick after breaking free from the werewolf’s fingertips. Until the victim takes the time to pull them out (which takes a full turn), they suffer +2 difficulty to all actions. The Garou’s claws take a full turn to regenerate.