The Lure of Flames

This path grants the thaumaturge the ability to conjure forth mystical flames — small fires at first, but skilled magicians may create great conflagrations. Fire created by this path is not “natural.” In fact, many vampires believe the flames to be conjured from Hell itself. The Lure of Flames is greatly feared, as fire is one of the surest ways to bring Final Death upon a vampire. See “Fire” (p. 297) for more information on how vampires suffer from flame. 

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Fire conjured by The Lure of Flames must be released for it to have any effect. Thus, a “palm of flame” does not burn the vampire’s hand and cause an aggravated wound (nor does it cause the caster to frenzy) — it merely produces light. Once the flame has been released, however, it burns normally and the character has no control over it. 

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System: The number of successes determines how accurately the vampire places the flame in his desired location (declared before the roll is made). One success is all that is necessary to conjure a flame in one’s hand, while five successes place a flame anywhere in the Kindred’s line of sight. Less successes mean that the flame appears somewhere at the Storyteller’s discretion — as a rough rule of thumb, the thaumaturge can accurately place a flame within 10 yards or meters of themselves per success. 

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Individual descriptions are not provided for each level of this path — fire is fire, after all (including potentially causing frenzy in other vampires witnessing it). The chart below describes the path level required to generate a specific amount of flame. To soak the damage at all, a vampire must have the Fortitude Discipline. Fire under the caster’s control does not harm the vampire or cause him to frenzy, but fires started as a result of the unnatural flame affect the thaumaturge normally. 

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•  Candle (difficulty 3 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)

••  Palm of flame (difficulty 4 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)

•••  Campfire (difficulty 5 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)

••••  Bonfire (difficulty 7 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)

••••• Inferno (difficulty 9 to soak, three health levels of aggravated damage/turn)