Flaws and Merits

Magical Addict
(3- or 5-pt. Physical Flaw)
Whether through a weak will, a lingering anomaly from your mortal days or overuse of ritual components like kalif, you have become addicted to the alchemical psycho-active drugs that some sorcerers use to focus their blood magic. Going beyond a mere physical or psychological addiction, this dependence goes so far as to affect your very mastery of the powers at your command. Your competence with Assamite Sorcery is dependent on the frequency at which you cater to your addiction.

UnBroken
(3-pt. Supernatural Flaw)
For whatever reason, the Tremere curse was stronger in you than in most of your clanmates. This was no great liability while all of you were so afflicted. However, when ur-Shulgi cast the Breaking, the great ritual's power did not fully cleanse you. You now share your caste's thirst for Cainite blood - but for you, the very substance you crave is still a poison.

The following merits were written by Clayton Oliver for Clanbook: Assamite revised and Libellus Sanguinus III. They didn't make it to the final print, and as such are unedited and undeveloped. Storytellers are, of course, free to (dis)allow them in their games.

Dual-Blooded
(4-pt. Supernatural Merit)
You are a throwback to ancient times: the way the Curse has changed you is proof that all three castes are somehow interconnected by ancestry and common Blood. You exhibit some of the Discipline affinities of a caste besides your own, effectively giving you four Disciplines for which you pay in-clan experience costs. If you are a warrior, you gain Auspex. If you are a sorcerer, you gain Celerity. If you are a vizier, you gain Obfuscate. Those Assamites who know what you are hold you in high esteem, and the more superstitious members of the clan consider you a good luck charm.

However, this blessing does not come without an offsetting curse. You have manifested the blood-borne weakness of another caste in addition to that of your own, effectively giving you two clan weaknesses (note that this requires use of the optional caste weakness rules from the Revised Clanbook). Warriors receive the sorcerers' pierced concealment, sorcerers are cursed with the viziers' obsessive dementia, and viziers bear the vitae addiction of the warriors. You may take this in conjunction with the Flaw: UnBroken (see the Revised Clanbook), effectively giving you three clan flaws and a very interesting unlife.

Only Assamite characters may take this flaw. It is available to Assamites of all castes and political affiliations, including Dispossessed (but not Assamite-sired Caitiff).

Unaging
(2-pt. Supernatural Merit)
Your skin does not darken as does that of most Assamites. While this is of little advantage to the average neonate, it will become progressively more valuable as you grow older. Characters with this Merit have the same physical appearance as Cainites of other clans - that is, pale and lifeless - but they do not encounter the typical Assamite social difficulties after their first few centuries of unlife and they find passing as a member of another clan much easier. Only an Assamite of tenth generation or lower may take this Merit, and it is lost if she drinks her way to ninth generation or higher.

Bloodlined
(5-pt Supernatural Merit)
Perhaps your Sire specialized in a non-clan Discipline, or your Kindred lineage contains an hereditary abnormality. Regardless of the cause, you find yourself quite proficient in a Discipline uncommon to your clan, but you are struggling with one of your clan's usual Disciplines.

You can exchange one of your clan Disciplines for any one of the following Disciplines:
   Animalism
   Auspex
   Celerity
   Dominate
   Fortitude
   Obfuscate
   Potence
   Presence

This Merit allows the exchange of only one Discipline, and you cannot exchange a Discipline that is considered a clan specialty (such as Quietus or Assamite Sorcery).

Damaged Blood
(5- or 7-pt. Supernatural Flaw)
Due to some unknown abnormality during your Embrace your body is incapable of utilizing the full physical potential inherent to the undead state. As a result you are unable to learn any of the three physical Disciplines (Celerity, Fortitude and Potence). You can never possess even a single dot in any of these Disciplines.

For seven points the damage to your Kindred vitae is so extensive that you cannot raise your physical attributes either through the use of blood. No matter how much vitae you spend, you are unable to enhance your Strength, Dexterity or Stamina. Only through experience can you raise these Attributes.

Echoes
(1- to 5-pt. Supernatural Flaw) (Adapted from Mage: the Ascension.)
This flaw, appropriate for Assamite sorcerers, flows from the supernatural nature of these beings. It is degreed from 1 to 5 points and causes reality around the character to behave unnaturally. If taken for 1 point the flaw's effect is barely noticed; milk curdles, water whirls in the other direction that it is supposed to, and similar effects.

For higher levels the effects are more distinct; smoke from a cigarette flows against the wind, or light breezes permanently accompany the vampire.

At the highest levels the flaw is quite severe; things start to levitate, door swing shut, sweet tastes bitter, shadow falls in the opposite direction, and so on.

This flaw doesn't create things that don't exist, like hallucinations. It is reality's recoil from the magical essence of a vampire mage.