Merits, Locations

From Codex of Darkness

A large dot (●) in the second column denotes a Merit that can be shared by multiple characters, while a hollow dot (○) denotes a Merit that 'must' be shared by multiple characters.

Merit Rating Prerequisites Description Book
Safe Place • to ••••• You've secured a place from intrusion. Apply your Safe Place rating as an Initiative bonus while there, and a penalty to break in. With Crafts you can install traps, forcing intruders to roll Dexterity + Larceny - Safe Place to avoid up to your Safe Place in lethal damage. CofD 54
Hiding Place ••• Cannot be shared You have a place that is always secure. If found out, gain a new one at the start of the next chapter. GTTN 124
Vampire Merits
Burrow • to ••••• Safe Place Replaces Haven. You share a hideout with other revenants. Add Burrow as bonus dice to stir from daysleep and stay awake in the daytime. In combat, intruders and unfamiliar guests are Distracted for one turn per dot of Burrow. HD 80
Haven • to ••••• Safe Place You've sunproofed your residence and made it a home. Add Haven as bonus dice to stir from daysleep and stay awake in the daytime, and to use Kindred Senses within your home. VTR 2e 112
Mandragora Garden • to ••••• Crúac •, Crone Status, ≤ Safe Place Your Safe Place grows ghouled plants, which you must feed Vitae equal to your Merit dots each month, but which produce twice that quantity in Vitae's worth of sap and nectar. Their magical sympathy empowers Crúac cast there and receives it from afar, but can rile the Beast when attacked. SotC 181
Nest Guardian • to ••••• Ordo Status You are the custodian of a Wyrm's Nest, host to a supernatural phenomenon proportional to dots in this Merit. You may purchase additional features separately, listed below. SotC 197
Temple of Damnation • to ••••• Lancea Status, ≤ Safe Place You've secured and consecrated a gathering place to a particular Sanctified virtue. Apply dots in this Merit as a bonus to actions in service of that virtue while within the temple, or after attending rites there. SotC 194
Werewolf Merits
Dedicated Locus • to ••••• Safe Place You've personally attuned a locus to your pack. The locus has a rating equal to this Merit, and provides the pack the ability to spend a point of Essence above their per-turn cap, a number of times per day equal to this Merit. WTF 2e 106
Lodge Stronghold •• or •••• Lodge As a five-dot Safe Place. With four dots, it boasts lines of supernatural defenses or spirit wards. Pack 81
Residential Area • to ••••• Your pack has integrated into an inhabited territory. Every session, by canvassing for help, you can redistribute your dots in this Merit among effective dots of Allies, Contacts and Retainers. WTF 2e 107
Mage Merits
Demesne ••• Sanctum Your Sanctum has been prepared as a Demesne, providing a +2 Yantra bonus to appropriate spells, and shielding them from the risk of Paradoxes so long as they're not exposed to Sleepers. MTA 2e 104, 242
Hallow • to ••••• You've secured a geomantic wellspring of Mana. You can draw out up to your dots in this Merit in points of Mana each day, and the Hallow can store up to three times as many unharvested points as some form of tass. MTA 2e 101
Sanctum • to ••••• Safe Place Your secure place is secreted away well enough to insulate your sorcery. Increase your spell control when casting there by your dots in this Merit. You can maintain spells cast beyond your normal spell control this way after leaving the Sanctum. MTA 2e 104
Promethean Merits
Hovel • to ••••• Safe Place You've crafted a space to acclimate it to your Azoth. Time spent in your Hovel doesn't contribute to Wastelands. You can store a dot of Azoth per dot in this Merit in an item aligned with your element in the Hovel, leaving you with reduced Azoth until you retrieve it from the item. PTC 2e 115
Changeling Merits
Calming Eidolons • to ••• Shared Bastion Reduces Composure dice penalty of Subtle Shifts enacted by the Bastion's owners. Hedge 118
Hollow • to ••••• You've secured a residence within the Hedge, impregnable to outsiders with lesser Wyrd. While in your Hollow, penalize attempts to investigate, track or pursue you by dots in this Merit. Dots of Hollow are also distributed among features listed below. CTL 2e 116
Motley Awareness • or ••• Shared Bastion At one dot, gain +1 to social roles with other motley members. At three dots, gain an instinctive knowledge of other motley members' moods and the ability to send messages, but use the highest clarity perception penalty of the group. Hedge 119
Somnambulation ••• to •••• Shared Bastion Can use an Eidolon to keep your body from being neglected while you sleep, or slightly more complex tasks with the four-dot version. Require significantly more sleep. Hedge 119
Shared Bastion • to ••••• You or your motley have established a permanent location within dreams, impregnable to outsiders with lesser Wyrd. This merit requires group effort to maintain. While in your Bastion, penalize attempts to investigate, track or pursue you or to manipulate your mind, future, or destiny by dots in this merit. Hedge 115
Stable Trod • to ••••• You've secured a local trod of equal rating. A number of Hollows along the trod up to dots in Stable Trod share an extra one-dot Hollow feature. You may roll Stable Trod as a dice pool once a story to farm extra Glamour goblin fruit from it. CTL 2e 119
Workshop • to ••••• Hollow Your Hollow contains space and equipment for an appropriate Crafts Specialty for each dot in this Merit. Apply Workshop as bonus dice to relevant Crafts rolls. CTL 2e 120
Hunter Merits
Safe Place • to ••••• Resources • A secure site for the hunter that provides a bonus to initiative and a number of features (see below) equal to its dots. A hunter cannot be surprised while in their Safe Place. HTV 2e 94
Sin-Eater Merits
Cenote • to ••••• Safe Place You tend a ghostly place where Plasm accumulates, at your Merit rating in points per chapter. GTS 2e 85
Mummy Merits
Tomb •+ You have drawn Sekhem to a personal sanctum, where you can meditate to replenish Pillars. Dots of Tomb are distributed among features listed below, always starting with a dot of Geometry. MTC 2e 108
Demon Merits
Bolthole • to ••••• You have a tiny extradimensional realm where time doesn't progress. It's warded against angels, and rolls to find the access point are penalized by its Merit rating. Dots of Bolthole are also distributed among features listed below. DTD 120
Beast Merits
Connected Lair •• Characters with the appropriate devices can access internet, tele-phone, television, or radio communications. Any attempt to trace these signals from the outside world will lead to contradictory or nonsensical results. BPG 100
Trap Room •• When opening a Primordial Pathway into or out of the mundane world your character may choose to spend a point of Satiety in addition to the normal cost of 1 Willpower. If she does so, the duration of the pathway is extended. It stays open until sunrise or sunset on a normal success, or any time up to a week on an exceptional success BPG 101
Vast Lair • to ••• Uninvited guests require at least 10 minutes per dot in this Merit to traverse a Chamber or Burrow. Further, each dot in this Merit adds five required successes and five minutes to the time increment of any extended action to collapse a Chamber BPG 101
Well-Stocked Lair • to ••••• ≤ Lair Each dot in this Merit allows the character to select two dots worth of Merits that represent the material goods and inhabit-ants available in her Lair. Material goods removed from the Lair deteriorate into dust, insects, water, or some other useless substance within a few days. Alternately, one dot of this Merit can be used to make one or more Chambers of a character’s Lair comfortable and livable. BPG 101

Wyrm's Nest Features

Feature Rating Prerequisites Description Book
Chapterhouse • to ••••• Ordo Status ••• Vampires in the Nest add dots in this Merit as a bonus to resist violence, and as a penalty to lash out with the Predatory Aura. SotC 199
Crucible ••• Occult •••• Vampires may advance study of the Mysteries of the Dragon in the Nest at an experience discount. SotC 199
Feng Shui • to ••••• Academics ••, Occult ••• Choose a Skill. Vampires in the Nest may add dots in this Merit as bonus dice when rolling that Skill. SotC 199
Perilous Nest • to ••••• Occult ••• You've harnessed a hazard native to the Nest to attack certain unwelcome types. It uses a dice pool equal to twice your dots in this Merit. SotC 199

Hollow Features

Feature Rating Prerequisites Description Book
Easy Access ••• The Hollow has no fixed entrance, and is instead entered (and later exited) through any unlocked door with Glamour and a small ritual. CTL 2e 117
Escape Route • or •• The Hollow has a secondary exit into the material realm, which with two dots may be accessed from anywhere in the Hollow. CTL 2e 116
Hidden Entry •• Penalize rolls to find the Hollow's entrance by -2. When all characters sharing the Hollow are within, the entrance disappears. CTL 2e 117
Hob Alarm Hob Kin Each story, take one Goblin Debt to preserve a domestic guard of friendly hobs. Ambush in the Hollow does not strip Defense and applies Hollow as bonus dice to actions in the first turn of combat. CTL 2e 116
Home Turf ••• Apply Hollow as a bonus to Initiative and Defense against intruders. CTL 2e 117
Luxury Goods Once a session, roll Hollow as a dice pool and distribute successes among amenities by Availability or Hedgespun items by rating. CTL 2e 116
Phantom Phone Booth A magical fixture can make outgoing calls to publically listed numbers outside the Hedge. CTL 2e 116
Route Zero A one-dot trod passes through the Hollow. It may link allied Hollows, or once a day, may be traversed with a Hedge navigation roll to recover Willpower. CTL 2e 116
Shadow Garden A plot of soil infinitely replenishes copies of goblin fruit without their magical properties, which only temporarily stave off hunger. CTL 2e 116
Size Matters • or •• The Hollow is large enough to sustain up to six residents, or with two dots, the size of a small town. CTL 2e 116

Shared Bastion Features

Feature Rating Prerequisites Description Book
Buttressed Dreaming Penalize Clash of Wills to force open Bastion by merit rating. Hedge 115
Fixed Doorway ••• Hollow Door in the Motley's hollow functions as a Gate of Horn leading to and from the Shared Bastion. Hedge 118
Guardian Eidolon Spend Willpower to activate the guardian for the scene, gaining immunity to surprise and adding dots in the merit on the first round of an action scene. Hedge 118
Illusory Armory •• Once per chapter, spend glamour to summon an unimportant prop with rating equal to twice glamour spent (max +5). Spend willpower to summon additional props. Hedge 118
Permanent Armory Maintain mundane "real" items in shared bastion, or magic items by spending Willpower each chapter. Hedge 118
Raised Defenses Whenever any motley mate is in the Shared Bastion, all members double the bonuses against the attacks or circumstances normally granted by the merit. Hedge 118
Subtle Speech •• Phantom Eidolons of Motley Members can receive messages, but Changelings with clarity damage might suffer further damage as their sense of reality is befuddled. Hedge 118

Hunter Safe Place Features

Feature Description Book
Anathema The Safe Place is warded against monsters with a specific power, prompting a Wits + Resolve - Safe Place roll on any attempt to break through, becoming Immobilized or Stunned on failure. HTV 2e 94
Arsenal Rolls to clean, fix, or improvise equipment gain +2. HTV 2e 94
Concealed Attempts to find the Safe Place through any means are penalised by -2. HTV 2e 94
Escape Hatch The hunter(s) may roll Dexterity + Athletics or Survival to reach the secret exit without suffering any damage from the environment. HTV 2e 94
Infirmary Medicine rolls here are improved by +2 for any invested hunter with dots in the skill, and the space may substitute for a hospital for the purposes of injury and recovery. HTV 2e 95
Home Security System The Safe Place is outfitted with a defense system, penalising attempts to break in by Safe Place dots. HTV 2e 95

Tomb Features

Feature Rating Description Book
Geometry • to ••••• Apply this rating as a bonus to meditate upon your Pillars. MTC 2e 206
Perils •+ Your tomb resists intruders with traps totalling this rating, and an equal number of curses from released vessels. MTC 2e 206
Provisions •+ Your tomb is furnished with equipment or infrastructure totalling this rating. MTC 2e 206

Bolthole Features

Feature Rating Description Book
Arsenal • to ••••• Once per session, your bolthole can supply one weapon with a rating equal to your Arsenal dots, two weapons with a rating one less than your Arsenal dots, and any number of weapons with a rating less than that. DTD 120
Cover-Linked •• Choose one Cover identity. The bolthole only exists while you are in that Cover's form. Anything in the bolthole not provided by these features is lost forever when the bolthole stops existing. DTD 120
Easy Access ••• You can reassign the bolthole's entrance by touching a door and spending Aether. Characters still exit the bolthole the way they came in. DTD 121
No Twilight Ephemeral beings that enter the bolthole manifest physically. DTD 120
Self-Destruct You can implode your bolthole. Anyone inside takes lethal damage equal to your dots in Bolthole and has one turn to leave before the exit to reality is lost. DTD 120
Trap Door •• The entrance from the physical realm into the bolthole only exists when you're outside it, although those capable can still enter from Twilight. DTD 121
Notation Legend
Dot of a Trait Rating (Skills, Merits)
Power Trait Point (Vitae, Mana)
Willpower Point
Activation Damage B/L/A
Special/Other Activation Cost
Alternate Costs ●/●●●
Costs per Item ●/item
Optional Costs (●)
Cost Ranges ● to ●●●
●●+
Combined Notation Example ●(○)
●/item, 1L