Focused Mind

Developed by a Tremere Kabbalah scholar, this little-known path of Thaumaturgy has been around for a few centuries and remains in practice by a select few. Practitioners of the Focused Mind greatly enhance their mental alacrity and readiness, allowing better comprehension of problems and situations. Thaumaturges, already disciplined of mind, become frightfully powerful in the realm of the cerebral when mastering this path. Unlike most Thaumaturgy, the powers of this path do not require an action to invoke, although they still require the normal blood expenditure and Willpower activation roll. Each of these powers is usable only once per turn. Note: This path is not available to PCs. * Readiness Using Readiness makes the caster able to gain a quicker understanding on a predicament. Enhanced lucidity enlightens the caster, allowing better reactions to changing situations and increased cleverness. System: This power is only usable on the thaumaturge himself. Every success on the activation roll adds one die to a special dice pool for the remainder of the turn. These dice may be used on any Wits-related rolls or actions that the magus performs during this turn. Alternatively, each die removed from the dice pool adds one to the caster’s initiative rating. ** Centering By invoking this power, the thaumaturge causes a sudden, intense calmness in the subject by whispering soothing words to her. While under this serenity, the target is able to better focus on tasks at hand, ignoring distractions and annoyances, including grave bodily harm. Magi in fear of frenzy often use this power on themselves to achieve a state of tranquility, as emotions are stifled. System: This power is usable on any subject within earshot of the thaumaturge and lasts for one turn per success on the activation roll. During this period the target is unaffected by any effect that reduces his dice pools. This includes wound penalties, situational modifiers and Disciplines. Modifications to difficulty numbers still apply during this time, however. In addition, due to the unnatural serenity that this power bestows, the target receives two additional dice in all attempts to avoid or break frenzy. Lupines may even be calmed from their murderous rampages if five or more successes are scored on the activation roll. *** One-Tracked Mind By extending his powers to other individuals, the thaumaturge is able to fixate the subject on one action. This single-mindedness of the target is such that they ignore everything else that occurs around them. Guards are easily distracted with this power, as their attention becomes fixated elsewhere, and research becomes a dedicated, focused task. Use of this power is sometimes colloquially referred to as “railroading someone.” System: This power may affect anyone who can hear the thaumaturge. Successful invocation makes the target unable to split any dice pools for extra actions and unable to change tactics after actions have been declared. As a side benefit, reduce the difficulty of the action by one. Additional actions that the victim takes (from Celerity, for example) during the duration of this power must follow their initial action, as they concentrate wholly upon this one idea. The duration of One-Tracked Mind is one scene if used outside of combat, otherwise it is reduced to one turn per success on the activation roll. **** Dual Thought With the rigors of concentration required to learn Thaumaturgy, many Tremere are able to take quick and complete control of a situation. With this power, the thaumaturge is able to divide his attention to two completely separate tasks without problems. As One- Tracked Mind forces the subject’s attention into a single objective, Dual Thought expands the thaumaturge’s concentration to the point that focus upon two goals is possible. System: Successful use of Dual Thought allows the caster to take an extra action during his turn. This is restricted to mental actions, be it the use of Disciplines such as the use of Auspex or Thaumaturgy, or the contemplation of some problem. If the character is using both actions to solve a problem, he has two separate dice pools to draw from. These two actions happen at the same time, as determined by the initiative rating of the character. ***** Perfect Clarity Perfect Clarity brings about a Zen-like moment of unimpeded insight for the thaumaturge. Pure focus is achieved, thought and action become one, and complete serenity of mind descends upon the Kindred magus. This lucidity protects the thaumaturge from influences both internal and external; even the Beast within is unable to rage forth. Some practitioners have likened use of this power with the state of Golconda (theoretically, of course), but the upper Tremere hierarchy denies this rumor as much as they deride the existence Golconda itself. System: This power lasts for the duration of one scene. For this period the thaumaturge has the difficulties of all actions reduced by two. The Kindred is immune to frenzy and Rotschreck from all sources, even by supernatural means. Finally, any means to control or influence the thaumaturge suffer a +2 difficulty, including the powers of Presence and Dominate.