Heightened Senses

Activation Time: At will

Effect: All your senses become keen to an astonishing degree. In Homid or Glabro shape, you have senses as sharp as a wolf's, gaining a two-Trait bonus to all Perceptive challenges (or synonymous), and you may make Mental Challenges to perform tasks like tracking by scent that would ordinarily only be possible to wolves. In Crinos, Hispo and Lupus forms, you gain a three-Trait bonus to Perceptive challenges and a one-Trait bonus to challenges of the Primal Urge Ability. If you experience any sudden blasts of sensory information while this Gift is active, like seeing a camera flash, hearing a klaxon or getting sprayed by a skunk, you will be stunned for two rounds, and you may lose that sense completely for an hour at the Storyteller's discretion.

Duration: One Scene or Hour

Hare's Leap

Activation Time: Activate instead of taking your regular movement

Challenge: Physical vs. Storyteller-set difficulty

Retest: Athletics

Effect: You leap with a hare's agility, traveling remarkable distances. If successful, your leap will carry you up to forty feet (thirteen steps) in combat, or a dramatically appropriate distance outside of combat.

 

Prey Mind

Required: You're actively fleeing or hiding from someone

Challenge: Mental vs. 10 in the wilderness, 15 in the city

Retest: Primal-Urge

Followup Cost: 0 to 5 Mental Traits

Effect: Sometimes the wolf is prey rather than predator; this Gift helps you survive that unfortunate circumstance. You gain a three-Trait bonus to all challenges to escape, outdistance, evade, or hide from your pursuers.

Duration: One turn, plus one per Mental Trait spent (in combat); five minutes, plus five per Mental Trait spent (out of combat)

 

Scent of Sight

Challenge: Static Mental vs. surroundings or target scent (5 Traits for strong scents, 10 Traits for faint ones)

Retest: Primal Urge

Effect: You don't need to see if you can smell. Your nose compensates you completely in darkness, and you can attack invisible creatures with uncanny accuracy.

Duration: Until the specific scent or ambient environmental scents change significantly (like trying to track across a river)

 

Scent of the True Form

Challenge: Automatic vs. Garou; Static Mental vs. variable for others (10 Traits for fomori and mages; 8 Traits for vampires, changelings and fera; 6 Traits for everything else)

Retest: Primal Urge

Effect: Mystical cues come to you with a target's scent, informing you of its primal nature. You automatically recognize another werewolf as such; to recognize other types of creatures. succeed at the challenge.

 

Sense Prey

Challenge: Static Mental vs. 6 Traits in the wilderness, or 15 Traits in the city

Retest: Primal Urge

Effect: A spiritual sense of direction leads you to the nearest large number of prey animals, enough to provide a good meal for a pack of wolves. In the wilderness, it's the nearest within 50 miles; in the city, it's the nearest within the limits of the city and its suburbs (and which often indicates an animal shelter or zoo). Humans and other Garou don't count as prey for this Gift, although it's said that the Red Talon tribe might know a version that doesn't draw that distinction.

 

Sense the Unnatural

Challenge: Mental vs. Storyteller-determined difficulty

Retest: Enigmas

Followup Cost: 0 to 2 Mental Traits

Effect: This spiritual sense reveals any presence that is out-of-place in Gaia's design: magic, ghosts, strange spirits, vampires, Wyrm influence, etc. The number of Mental Traits you spend determines how clear the information is. If you spend no Traits, the Storyteller will give you a cryptic but vague hint, like the smell of old blood for either a vampire or a man-eating fomor. One Mental Trait will get you a clear but generic idea of what's unnatural here; two Mental traits will give you a specific signature impression that will allow you to recognize similar disturbances in the future. If an impression is particularly unfamiliar, the Storyteller may require a followup Mental Challenge (retest Occult) against six Traits.

 

Sense Wyld

Challenge: Mental vs. Storyteller difficulty based on intensity of Wyld influence (high intensity is low difficulty, low intensity is high difficulty)

Retest: Enigmas or Investigation

Effect: A mystical sense not unlike a scent tells you whether the Wyld has changed anything in the area. This "Wyld-Taint" may mean there is a Wyld-spirit nearby, or it may simply mean that a random passerby employs Wyld-touched childcare or spends a lot of time in the verdant wilderness.

 

Intermediate Gifts

 

Beast Life

Initial Cost: One Gnosis

Followup Cost: 0 to 5 Mental Traits (range); 0 to 5 Gnosis (duration)

Effect: You can communicate with all animal life. Animals become inclined to help you, fulfilling any request, even risky or suicidal ones -- although you may gain notoriety with Gaian spirits if you fail to give homage to such animal-spirits after they've sacrificed themselves for you. You may also summon all animals of a chosen type within ten miles, plus another then miles for each Mental Trait spent; those animals who can reach you without too much difficulty will do so, and follow your commands.

Duration: One Scene or Hour, plus one for each additional Gnosis spent

 

Catfeet

Effect: A cat-spirit has shared its secrets of agility with you, granting you unusual grace. You take no damage from falls of less than 100 feet (you always land perfectly) and expert balance on any slope. In challenges involving dodging, grappling and biting, you may call on additional Quick x3 Traits. You MUST be in Lupus or Hispo forms.

Duration: Always in effect

 

Gnaw

Cost: One Willpower

Challenge: Physical vs. hardness of the target material (5 for wood; 9 for steel; 15 for titanium)

Retest: Athletics

Effect: The power of your jaws increases sharply, giving you the ability to gnaw easily through the target material. In addition, your bite inflicts one additional level of Lethal damage in combat.

Duration: One Scene or Hour

 

Monkey Tail

Effect: Your tail is prehensile. It can grasp objects, suspend you from the rafters, or even swing a weapon (though it doesn't count as an "off-hand" or give you extra actions). Your tail is not especially strong, however, so you may not bid Strength traits when using it for Physical Challenges.

Duration: Always in effect

 

Name the Spirit

Required: Target spirit within 50 feet

Challenge: Mental vs. target spirit

Retest: Spirit Lore

Followup Cost: one Willpower (optional)

Effect: With a glance, you take the measure of a given spirit, learning its type, Rage, Gnosis and Willpower. If you spend a Willpower Trait, you learn the spirit's true name as well.

 

Advanced Gifts

 

Boon of the Animal Fathers

Frequency: Once per scene

Cost: Two Gnosis

Challenge: Social vs. Storyteller difficulty

Retest: Primal Urge

Effect: By entreating one of the Animal Fathers, you gain the bonuses of a chosen Totem spirit for the duration. The Totem chosen must be one of the natural animals current to Gaia, such as Bear, Owl, or Chameleon -- it cannot be a mythical or non-animal Totem like Unicorn, Pegasus, or Granite.

Duration: One Scene

 

Elemental Gift

Cost: One Gnosis

Followup Cost: 0 to 5 Social Traits

Effect: Having made permanent pacts with elemental spirits, you can call on their aid at any moment. You summon one elemental, capable of commanding one of the four elements in any of their forms, in an area 20 feet (plus another 20 per Mental Trait spent) square. The elemental remains for the duration.

Duration: One Scene, or until the elemental is destroyed or dismissed

 

Song of the Great Beast

Required: You are in the deep wilderness

Initial Cost: One Gnosis

Followup Cost: 0 to 5 Social Traits

Effect: Howling an ancient song, you summon a Great Beast out of the Umbra: a Yeti, the Willawau (giant owl), the Tyrannosaurus Rex, the Loch Ness Monster or the like. Take care, because the Great Beast will listen to you but may choose not to cooperate (hint: say please). Spending Social Traits increases the odds that the beast will look on you favorably. The Storyteller will set the beast's exact Traits and abilities, but you can expect them to be impressive.

 

Venom

Activation Time: At will once per bite

Cost: 1 Physical Trait

Effect: Your teeth inject a deadly venom when you bite an enemy. Each round after you activate the gift, your victim attempts a Rock-Paper-Scissors test. If they tie or lose, they suffer a level of Aggravated damage. If they win, the venom has run its course, and the Gift ends. Multiple bites may deliver multiple doses of the venom; handle each dose separately.

Duration: Until the victim wins (not ties) the Rock-Paper-Scissors test