The Embrace comes with many drawbacks. However, it also comes with numerous advantages. Every vampire can use the following edges. Many of these advantages require Vitae. These expenditures are reflexive, and subject to the vampire’s Vitae per turn limit as determined by her Blood Potency.

**Blush of Life**

Normally, a vampire looks the part of a corpse. He’s pale. He registers no pulse. He exists at slightly below room temperature. Food and drink taste terrible, and immediately cause violent, bloody vomiting. However, with a bit of Vitae, he can fake life temporarily.

By spending a point of Vitae, Kindred may invoke the blush of life for a scene. This makes them functionally human. They become warm to the touch, with a full, hearty pulse. They produce natural bodily fluids. They function sexually in the way a human can, becoming physically aroused, erect, and lubricated. They can keep food and drink down, ejecting it later in the night. They’ll pass medical inspection while the blush remains active.

**Kindred Senses**

Kindred exist in the dark. Not only can they see better than humans in the dark, their other senses are sharper to facilitate their predatory needs.

Kindred do not suffer normal vision penalties for being in the dark, and can compensate with hearing. In full darkness, they only suffer a –2 die penalty to rolls that require vision. If they encounter traces of blood, even if dried or hidden (in a carpet, for example), they immediately see even very small quantities.

Vampire hearing becomes similarly enhanced. They can hear heartbeats at three yards or meters per dot of Blood Potency. Upon Embrace, a vampire’s sense of smell attunes to the scent of blood. A vampire can smell the presence of blood from about ten yards or meters per dot of Blood Potency without rolling. Multiply both these ranges by her Auspex dots (so a vampire with Blood Potency 2 and Auspex 3 could hear heartbeats from 18 yards away and smell blood from 60 yards away).

If she’s tasted a particular human’s blood, she can add her Blood Potency to any rolls to track him by scent. Kindred blood does not offer this advantage, since it’s mostly old, dead, and its smell is a blend of all the vampire’s recent victims.

If any of her Kindred senses apply, add her Blood Potency to any rolls to detect hidden people or details by the traces of blood.

**A Taste of Blood**

In addition to being able to smell blood and to identify and track with blood, Kindred discern subtle cues from blood they taste.

Dice Pool: Wits + Composure

Dramatic Failure: The Storyteller gives two true statements about the blood, and one very dangerous lie.

Failure: The blood offers no insight.

Success: You can discern basic details from the blood. These include blood type, clan, the presence of popular drugs, how long the blood has been out of the body, blood-borne diseases and poisons, if you’ve tasted that person’s blood before, and if the blood is human. It can also tell the number of steps removed a character is in blood sympathy to another character who’s blood you’ve tasted. If the donor is not human, your character detects what it is (if she’s tasted that type of creature’s blood before).

Exceptional Success: You can discern extensive details from the blood. These include whether the blood is from a ghoul and to what clan, infections, what the vessel ate recently, hormones in the bloodstream, diseases, some causes of death, and other fine details at Storyteller discretion.

Suggested Modifiers: Auspex active (+2), bloodtied (+2), currently hungry (+2), hour-old blood (−1), day-old blood (−3), week or more old (−5)

**Physical Intensity**

Vampire tales speak of creatures stronger and faster than anything human. With Vitae, any Kindred can accomplish massive bursts of physical prowess. By spending a point of Vitae, he may add two dice to rolls involving his choice of Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina for the turn. This does not increase traits derived from these Attributes. However, it will increase relevant resistances. For example, a Strength increase will reduce an opponent’s rolls to grapple him.

**Healing**

Kindred blood seeks to return a vampire to the state of her Embrace. Her hair and fingernails regrow as she sleeps. More importantly, Vitae can force her injured body to reconstruct, mending bones and knitting torn flesh in seconds. In dramatic instances, severed limbs regenerate or even simply reattach (if she’s able to heal the entire injury in a turn).

A vampire heals 1 bashing damage per turn automatically. Even though they're undead and lack a natural metabolic process, the Blood can easily mend superficial wounds without much effort.

A single point of Vitae heals two points of bashing damage or one point of lethal damage. A single aggravated wound requires five Vitae and a full day’s sleep. Aggravated damage is the only type of wound that leaves a scar on Kindred. The scar appears natural, unlike the original damage.

**The Cleansing**

While Kindred sleep, they return to the time of their Embrace. Anything that wouldn’t constitute a Health level of damage heals automatically and returns to its original state. For this reason, many sires recommend their childer groom for the Embrace, as part of the ritual of entering the Danse.

If an injury would require Vitae to heal (represented by Health levels), the vampire will unconsciously heal it during daysleep. Sometimes, this means the vampire will not have the Vitae necessary to wake. As she falls to slumber, she may spend Willpower points to “preserve” wounds through her rest, to keep herself from healing them and spending excessive Vitae. This cost is once per wound, and covers the wound permanently.

Sometimes, Kindred force other marks to remain. For example, vampires often keep scars, tattoos, and piercings for spiritual reasons or just to fit in with the flock. Many Kindred remove long hair, in favor of wigs or cleaner, more modern styles. The vampire spends Willpower to fight the healing process while she sleeps. After a day’s rest, any damage heals as normal, but her body remains changed. A vampire can use this technique to adapt to cybernetic enhancements as well.