V5 Animalism

At the request of Ethan Szadkowski, one of Our World of Darkness' amazing veiwers I present a detailed look at the Vampiric Discipline of Animalism. I have a fun time with this video and I hope others get something out of it.

[@LoneWolf-gz9mr]

If you like Animalism, there was a book written for V20 (but is easy to adapt to any of the other series) called "Savagery" in the Storyteller's Vault... That was IMHO pretty cool.. It covered "twists of blood"... Essentially, "uses" of Gangrel powers that you FIRST had to have the "discipline effect" it was based on, then could gain the use presented either through role-playing OR buy it.... It had a LARGE section devoted to the first five powers of animalism (it only went up on ANY ability to level 5). Quite a few cool ones, some misses(of course)...Anyway, I am not associated with any of the producers of the book (in fact off the top of my head, I have no idea even the names.. LOL) but it was a good read and thought I'd recommend it, if anyone had never seen it.
VTR: first edition you could buy other materials that you could meld with... Water, trees, stone, concrete/asphalt... In 2nd edition you just pay more blood when you meld depending on what you want to meld with. So you were correct.
I do like v5's Raising a familiar... I thought that was sorely lacking in the previous vers.

[@VoivodeMekhet]

I'll have to check out that book, thanks.

[@theOriginalS.P.]

Animalism is one of these Disciplines I underestimated for a long time. I learned its benefits and coolness late. But I have learned to love it.
In V5 Animalism is actually the reason why I don’t miss Auspex for my Tzimisce. You can create the oracle, seer and wiseman some Tzimisces are supposed to be with Animalism alone and maybe even better, because it is more alien, then with Auspex. Sense the Beast is imo a good replacement for Scry the soul or Aura Perception. Subsume the Spirit is only different from Psychic Projection or Clairvoyance in that you need a creature to carry your mind (at would be so cool to make that a moth but it needs to be a vertebra until you have Unliving Hive for what you need obfuscate, but anyway…). And One with the Land is both, a better Clairvoyance and as you said basically Way of the Spirit or Genius Loci.
I think the seer kind of Tzimisce works even better with animalism, since the methods of such a character would be even alien to a Toreador or Malkavian. And what we should also not forget is, that many ancient oracles were made with animal involvement, be it the Augur, who was able to tell the future by watching the behavior of birds and sometimes other animals or the Haruspex who read the entrails of sacrificed animals. I belive it can hardly get any more Tzimisce as that.

[@VoivodeMekhet]

As an avid Tzimisce play I fullheartedly agree. The more I think about it the combination of Animalism, Dominate and Protean works so much better for the fiends. The idea that Auspex, a more suffisticated discipline would be fore the Old Clan rather than the morecommon Sabbat members makes so much more sense.

[@theOriginalS.P.]

Wow, the pictured story at the beginning looked so good! Well done! Very well done!

[@VoivodeMekhet]

Thankyou very much. Very glad you enjoyed it.

[@devinbrizendine7821]

I’m now going to make a Tzimisce STC who has carved out a proper nest inside themselves and now has a swarm of wasps ready to unleash on anyone stupid enough to try to harm them. Perhaps as the Sabbat bishop coming to take Chicago thirty years after the sect was removed from the Second City.

[@VoivodeMekhet]

Not a bad concept at all. I'd love to see Kevin Jackson's face when a fiend walks into town.

[@devinbrizendine7821]

@@VoivodeMekhet At this point in the chronicle, as far as everyone knows, he's dead. Killed at a secret meeting with the PCs that they all managed to survive. The PCs have been tasked with finding out who was responsible, but not everything is as it seems (as it should be), with a clue to what's going on being that when it was spilled, the Prince's vitae tasted of higher generation and less potency than it should have.

[@Randomdudefromtheinternet]

That reminds me of a power from Bioshock (your veins become a nest for wasps)

[@RunningOnAutopilot]

I would love to be able to force frenzy into a werewolf although it would be a stupid thing to do most of the time

[@VoivodeMekhet]

Maybe. If they are already pissed at something else you could just give them that push.

[@Nyrufa]

You don't need Animalism to do that. Just walk into their territory as a vampire and they'll flip out on their own.

[@reservedcheese]

I am not looking forward to the day when my tzimece player realizes she can be a pirate/crazy bird lady with flock of ghoul parrots using dominate one to call out one word commands. Like sit, stay, roll, dance, jump…
Edit
I thought the tzimece were wonderful with auspex. It gave them enough “just as planned”plot armor to be persistent characters for the st and players

[@Mithras-jp4jp]

Is animal Ken useless when you have Animalism? I'm trying it out and it's a discipline I haven't used much, seems like Animal Ken is rendered useless once you reach Lvl 3 Animalism.

[@VoivodeMekhet]

Pretty much. I both hate and don't care at the same time. Due to the fact that disciplines don't really interact with skills in v5 that is a thing. Animal kin is also really good for teaching animals, knowing how to care for them and just in general understanding them. I would say that there are tests I could think of where it would still come in handy but those would be incredibly obscure and most games would just not have them.

[@thelast9021]

What happens when you give unliving hive the potence 4 ability?

[@VoivodeMekhet]

I think I would just up the penalty in that case. Just due to the fact that the bugs are tiny.

[@daviga1]

So having read Animal Dominion, why would anyone spend 25 (or 35!) XP and TWO rouse checks on this? Description aside, you still have to make a persuasion check, which you can do with Feral Whispers alone

[@VoivodeMekhet]

I'll admit that it could be worded better but I do see use in Animal Dominion. I see it as the Aminalism equivolent to Dominate's Mass Manipulation.

[@joyboy3d2k]

Hi. New ST here. I am a little unclear about Bond Famulus and Feral Whispers. Bond Famulus creates a mental link with the animal. Is communication then Mental or by speech? Can a bird Famulus mentally tell a kindred what they see from the sky?

[@VoivodeMekhet]

That's a very great question. Personally I've always said that the animal and Vampire need eye contact. The vocal coaching is more just something that the vamp does because they are still human deep down and we talk vocaly. Body language and eye contact are more important.

[@joyboy3d2k]

@@VoivodeMekhet Thank you. That makes sense. Appreciate the clarification. :)

[@daviga1]

By-the-book, that mental link doesn't have many tangible applications. Aside from unlimited loyalty, its mostly just the underpinnings for the animalism powers that have specific benefits for the famulus. By default, you can give it commands without prior training for a pretty easy difficulty. That's not inconsequential-good luck teaching a cat a new trick on thw first try during combat without it! There's nothing in the book that lets them communicate back unless you can play "Lassie" well. Feral Whispers is a must-have-aside from the 'always on' famulus benefit, it's nice that you're not going to be making persuasion checks with a famulus.

[@daviga1]

Although I'll point out Feral Whispers says you 'Commune', not 'Speak'. My headcannon is that you could speak English or other languages to an animal if you wanted, but you could just as well lock eyes with them and have a quick discussion, or you could go parselmouth and start cawing, barking, and hissing with the best of them-and a bird call travels a good long way; even groud to air I'm sure.

[@Nyrufa]

31:30 - I don't think the Tzimisce give a crap about the Lasombra's departure. They weren't exactly the most socially active clan to begin with. According to V20, those on the Path of Metamorphosis only made public appearances because they were obligated to do so by responsibilities to their packs.

[@VoivodeMekhet]

I agree, it's not really about the Lasombra leaving, it's more about the entitled sense of "if you can do it so can I". It fits in with the idea of the Tzimisce compulsion of Covetousness.

[@Nyrufa]

@@VoivodeMekhet While the nobles from other clans begrudgingly adapted with the changing political structure over time, the Tzimisce have a long standing tradition of refusing to do so. They still very much believe that a lord's authority over their subjects should be absolute, and that the peasant folk are inherently inferior to the aristocracy.