Sanguine Sands
Thaumaturgy
Thaumaturgy encompasses blood magic and other sorcerous arts available to Kindred. The Tremere Clan is best known for their possession (and jealous hoarding) of this Discipline. The Tremere created Thaumaturgy by combining mortal wizardry with the power of vampiric vitae, and as a result it is a versatile and powerful Discipline. Although there are whispers of the existence of Tremere antitribu in the Sabbat, other Clans in the Sword of Caine have also researched and developed access to such mystical might. Nevertheless, the Tremere of the Camarilla remain this Discipline’s masters.
Like Necromancy, the practice of Thaumaturgy is divided into paths and rituals. Thaumaturgical paths are applications of the vampire’s knowledge of blood magic, allowing her to create effects on a whim. Rituals are more formulaic in nature, most akin to ancient magical “spells.” Because so many different paths and rituals are available to the arcane Tremere, one never knows what to expect when confronted with a practitioner of this Discipline.
When a character first learns Thaumaturgy, the player selects a path for the character. That path is considered the character’s primary path, and she automatically receives one dot in it, as well as one Level One ritual. Thereafter, whenever the character increases her level in Thaumaturgy, her rating in the primary path increases by one as well. Additional rituals are learned separately, as part of a story; players need not pay experience points for their characters to learn rituals up to the level equal to their overall rating in Thaumaturgy, though they must find someone to teach the rituals in question. Path ratings never exceed 5, though the overall Thaumaturgy score may. If a character reaches a rating of 5 in her primary path and increases her Thaumaturgy score afterward, she may allocate her “free” path dot to a different path. (Experience costs are covered on p. 124.)
Many Kindred fear crossing the practitioners of Thaumaturgy. It is a very potent and mutable Discipline, and almost anything the Kindred wishes may be accomplished through its magic.
Thaumaturgical Paths
Paths define the types of magic a vampire can perform. A vampire typically learns his primary path from his sire, though it is not unknown for some vampires to study under many different tutors.
As mentioned before, the first path a character learns is considered her primary path and increases automatically as the character advances in the Discipline itself. Secondary paths may be learned once the character has acquired two or more dots in her primary path, and they must be raised separately with experience points. Furthermore, a character’s rating in her primary path must always be at least one dot higher than any of her secondary paths until she has mastered her primary path. Once the character has achieved the fifth level of her primary path, secondary paths may be increased to that level.
Each time the character invokes one of the powers of a Thaumaturgical path, the thaumaturge’s player must spend a blood point and make a Willpower roll against a difficulty equal to the power’s level +3. Only one success is required to invoke a path’s effect — path levels, not successes, govern the power of blood magic. Failure on this roll indicates that the magic fails. A botch causes some kind of loss or catastrophic backfire, such as losing a Willpower point (or dot!), spontaneous combustion, or accidentally letting a living statue run rampant. Thaumaturgy is an unforgiving art.
Various Sects and Clans have different access to each path, but unless the Storyteller decides otherwise, it is assumed the Tremere have some access to all of them. (“Having access” does not mean the same thing as “easily gained,” especially within the Tremere power structure.) The paths start with one of the most common (The Path of Blood), and thereafter are presented in alphabetical order. (The unusual “path” of Thaumaturgical Countermagic is also presented, although it is considered a separate Discipline – see p. 228 for details.)
New Dot of current path. As xp is used assuming been doing research and study during time rping.
Learning a new Path: To learn a new path will take one or two weeks to do so. This must be in active rp either with a person or alone.
If you have a trainer they must be level three in the path to do so. This will take a week to learn the new path.
If you are to study alone to learn the path it will take you two weeks of active rp study.
Learning a new Ritual
Rituals are done via study with or without a person. Each level of the ritual is one week of study time, so will run you from one week to five weeks.
Not all paths can be learned below is the ones that are forbidden to learn without Regent or Lords permission:
The Path of Corruption
The Path of the Father’s Vengeance
Thaumaturgical Countermagic (separate discipline and Restricted)
Dark Thaumaturgy
Alchemy Biothaumaturgy The Path of Blood Blood's Curse The path of Conjuring
The path of Curses Elemental Mastery Focused Mind
The Green Path Hands of Destruction Hearth Path Levinbolt
The Lure of Flames The path of Mars Mastery of the mortal shell
Movement of the mind Neptune's might Oneiromancy
Shadowcrafting Spirt manipulation The path of Technomancy
Transmutation The path of warding
Thaumaturgical Rituals