Vampire: The Masquerade 3rd Edition Koldunic Sorcery Reference Thread

[ahenobarbi]

Roll Intellignce + Occult, DC 3 + level, spend 1 blood point.
Rituals take at least 5 minutes per level, unless noted otherwise.

There are some very good rituals here. My favorites are:

• Beast That Feeds on Dreams. Level 1, regain a willpower point
• Reawakening Dead Water. Similar to the above. Level 1, regain 1 willpower point (you want both because of differences in their details).
• Rouse the Elemental Spirit. Level 2, Bargain with a weak spirit.
• Conjure Spirit. Level 3, offer an exchange to a more powerful spirit.
• Invoke the Greater Sign of Power. Level 3, strong buff for Koldunic sorcery. But with drawbacks
• Pool of Secrets, level 4. Look at a place you have visited or a person you’ve talked to. (this one only made the list because I felt like I should have at least one from each level)
• Conjure Demon, level 5. Get a favor from a powerful demon of the old country. Which you will have to repay.

Level 1
Beast That Feeds on Dreams
Feed a predatory animal 1 blood point. It looks for a child. When it finds a child, the caster regains 1 willpower. If the same child is fed for 3 consecutive nights it dies.

Very good. Willpower is very useful. Especially if you can arrange for the animal to have an easy time finding children you can use this to fuel significant willpower expenditure.
Hospitality
Awake spirits of items in a single structure (from a small cottage to a castle). You can talk to them. If you treat them well they’ll warn you of intruders.

Very good for defending your haven.
Reawakening Dead Water
Mix blood with stagnant water, drink it. On success don’t vomit and regain 1 willpower. Might be cast only 1 per night.

Regaining willpower is very good. And it’s less hassle than the Beast That Feeds on Dreams ritual.
Ritual of Death’s Embrace
Slowly embrace someone. Drink 1 to 3 points of victims blood and feed them the same amount of your blood. They don’t turn into a ghoul but slowly die of anemia.

You can create a vampire who is blood bound to you but doesn’t get to be a ghoul in the meantime. Doesn’t seem worth the effort.
Level 2
Blood of Flame
Until the end of the night the cost of healing is doubled. Mortal who drinks your blood dies. Supernaturals who drink it get 1 point of unsoakable aggravated damage per blood point.

Good to have if you’re worried about someone draining you. Note that there is level 6(!) power of Visicitude with similar effect (permanent, which has drawbacks but doesn’t increase healing cost).
Invoke the Lesser Sign of Power
Only takes 1 turn to use. No blood cost. Casters eyes glow in a way corresponding to the caster's highest path. -2 DC for intimidate and leadership rolls vs mortals who can see the eyes. Effects last until the end of the night.

This has a drawback of making mortals aware that you’re supernatural so I wouldn’t go around with this active all the time (I mean you can use glasses but it’s suspicious and you might lose them). Also it works only against mortals. Mostly I don’t expect problems with working those rolls on mortals. But short casting time means you can use this in a moment when you need it. Nice option to have.

Rouse the Elemental Spirit
Bargain with weak nature spirits. You offer them blood in return for service. Most spirits perform only a short task. More involved or dangerous tasks require a good social roll and cost a lot of blood.

Spirit minions are always good, even if they’re weak.
Level 3
Conjure Spirit
Draw the attention of a powerful spirit. Make an offering (blood, other things of value to spirits) in exchange for service. Spirit doesn’t bargain. It accepts the offer and drinks the blood or leaves. So it’s important to learn how to make an appropriate offer.

Very good. Spirit might be even more powerful than you. Learning how to make good offers seems like good use of the weaker ritual (Rouse the Elemental Spirit).
Invoke the Greater Sign of Power
Appearance changes to reflect your favored element. Get effects of the Invoke the Lesser Sign of Power ritual. DC of all Koldunic castings are reduced by 2. All other rolls have difficulty increased by 1. Lasts until dawn.

This is very good buff when you need it. But it has a pretty downside.
Sentinels of the Haven
More powerful version of the 1st level ritual Hospitality. Spirits can move objects in your haven (only one at the same time though).

Nice. Very convenient, you don’t have to walk around grabbing things and opening doors. You don’t have to rely on ghouls or electronics to do that. Also you can have things like a panic room which only opens from inside (or if you ask the spirit of the door to open).
Level 4
Merging of Souls
Summon a minor spirit and trick it to accept blood offering thats in the gullet of a ghoul. Takes 1 hour, blood and soil in which you rested. Inflicts 5 dice of lethal damage on the ghoul and warps its flesh. Appearance of the ghoul drops to 0. It gets +3 Strength and Stamina. Ghoul uses up 1 blood point at each sunrise. If it ever uses all of its blood it dies and the spirit escapes.
Pool of Secrets
A pool of brackish water show a present image centered on a targeted person (with whom you must have talked to before) or place (to which you must have been to before). Works for up to 1 hour per succees. You can release the vision and resume it later (until the duration runs out).

This is somewhat similar to level 6 power of Auspex Clairvoyance but noticeably weaker (longer cast time, need some water, only image, can’t use auspex through this one). It’s useful but definitely not as good.
Refuge of the Thirsty Grave
Similar effect to the power of Protean 3, Earth Meld. You stay submerged until you make a successful Strength + Survival roll (DC 6). You can try once per hour. Earth drinks 1 blood point from you per day.

It's a little annoying that you don’t wake up when you want. And not so good for escaping, it takes 20 minutes. Well it’s cheaper than learning protean 3 so I’d rather have it than not. On the other hand it’s level 4 so it’s likely you have better uses for your time. And it might not be cheap.
Level 5
Conjure Demon
Make an offering of blood to summon a mighty demon of the Old Country. Its powers usually exceed the koldun’s by far. Koldun may request a favor from a demon and offer a favor in turn. Often demons want an unspecified payment at a later date.

I mean. They are powerful. But you’ll also be in debt.
The Inmost Tug
No blood sacrifice. No complicated procedures. One word and one gesture. Roll Manipulation + Empathy (DC target’s Willpower). The target must be under full blood oath to the caster. Turn the intense love and devotion into lust, friendship or something yet more perverse. The change lasts until sunrise. No range limit.

It doesn’t seem very useful.
Nemesis of the Living Earth
Casting takes from midnight to sunrise. Names a target as an enemy of nature. All elements turn against the victim. Only death or forgiveness of the koldun may lift the curse.

Sounds like a strong debuf. And permanent. Just make sure you don’t cast it on someone who will kill you to lift it.
Level 6
Create Vozhd
Level-Six Ritual
Combine at least 15 ghouls filled up with your vitae. Chant continuously while employing Vicissitude to mold the ghouls into a single composite being. Another individual may perform the actual sculpting (if you don’t have Vicissitude). This process takes a number of hours equal to the ghouls used minus seven. Can’t take breaks.

Vozhd are powerful but you’re not going to use them anywhere where mortals will be able to spot them. You could also take a level 6 power to do this instead of a ritual. Ritual seems like a cheaper way.