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Clan Highlight: Ventrue

ventruelogoblack.png

The Clan of Kings, Blue Bloods, Tyrants, Warlords, Patricians, Borgias

Ventrue vampires usually choose their progeny from mortals familiar with power, wealth and influence. Seeing themselves as the rightful leaders of vampire society, Kindred of clan Ventrue take up the mantle of leadership wherever possible, often in the form of high positions in Camarilla Courts.

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Playing a Ventrue in Bloodlines 2​

Ventrue are blue blooded tyrants who incite obedience in both their allies and their foes. Focusing on the Discipline Dominate, Ventrue forces their prey to obey their command to fight their friends, forget what they’ve seen or even kill themselves. Feeding builds up Fortitude, allowing the Ventrue to soak up more damage in case any enemy is powerful enough to resist their force of will.

Abilities​

When you choose your clan, you will start out with a passive ability unique to each clan. You are then able to unlock abilities from the Ability Tree, starting with your chosen clan. Each ability requires spending Ability Points to unlock which are earned from completing missions, combat and exploration. At the peak of the Ability Tree, you can unlock the clan Perk, a reward to those dedicated enough to unlock all of the abilities for a clan, giving a permanent passive upgrade.

Flesh of Marble​

Clan Passive
Feeding hardens your skin, making you highly resistant to damage.​

Cloud Memory​

Cause a target to forget you were there, putting them into a relaxed state.
Ventrue_cloudmemory_ingame.png

Possession​

Possess an opponent, allowing you to see through their eyes for a period. While possessed, the target can be commanded to attack another person.
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Terminal Decree​

Use your powers of Dominate to command someone to kill themselves.
Ventrue_TerminalDecree_Ingame.png


Mass Manipulation​

Subdues enemies within your gaze, preventing them from attacking. Dominate abilities will affect all subdued opponents while Mass Manipulation is active.
Ventrue_MassManipulation_ingame.png

Thirst​

Clan Perk
Increases the amount of health restored by feeding.​

Customizing your playstyle​

There are many different ways to play your character in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2. Ventrue rely on the rise-and-fall mechanics of their Layered Fortitude, building up a defense to take on stronger opponents, while using abilities to dominate weaker foes and make them fight their friends or even kill themselves. Each clan has a straightforward way of playing, and does not require ability optimization. At the same time, if you want to, you can customize your playstyle by visiting certain important vampires throughout Seattle, who are sworn to assist you by offering their Blood to help you unlock abilities from their Clan.

Abilities from other clans may cost more AP depending on how well they align with your clans Disciplines. The Ventrue Disciplines are Dominate (the supernatural ability to control others) Fortitude (the ability to resist physical and mental attacks) and Presence (the supernatural ability to attract, awe, or terrify). If a Ventrue would try to unlock the Brujah ability Taunt, which is part of the Presence Discipline, it would cost less AP, than if they attempt to unlock an ability from a Discipline they don’t already have, such as Obfuscate. Unlocking additional Clan Perks will make them stack, so you can collect them all if you wish, elevating your power much closer to elder level.

Activated abilities and the Clan Perks can be learned from the other clans, but your clan passive can not. This means that while you can combine abilities and features from other clans in hundreds of different ways, your Ventrue playthrough will remain different from playing as another clan who branches into Ventrue abilities.

Ventrue Ability Tree.png

Ability tree for Ventrue with all clan abilities and the clan perk are unlocked. The Banu Haqim ability Split Second has been equipped, replacing Possession.
 
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Looks cool. I really like that we can customize the character beyond the three in-Clan Disciplines. Something which gave me paus was however...

At the same time, if you want to, you can customize your playstyle by visiting certain important vampires throughout Seattle, who are sworn to assist you by offering their Blood to help you unlock abilities from their Clan.
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...the "sworn" part. I can't say that I'm thrilled about the idea that characters will just hand out these things for free. A cost in red (blood or even a candidate fo diablerie), green (dollars) or a favor (quest(s)) would seem a better choice to me. But I know that I could be wrong in regards to the word "sworn".
 
Gurkhal said:
Looks cool. I really like that we can customize the character beyond the three in-Clan Disciplines. Something which gave me paus was however...



...the "sworn" part. I can't say that I'm thrilled about the idea that characters will just hand out these things for free. A cost in red (blood or even a candidate fo diablerie), green (dollars) or a favor (quest(s)) would seem a better choice to me. But I know that I could be wrong in regards to the word "sworn".
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It was said previously that you will do quests for the primogen and build reputation with them before getting any rewards.

They're "sworn" to Phyre in the sense that she is the Sheriff and the Camarilla obligates them to respect the hierarchy.
 
A thing that really bugs me about these fluff posts is the tone: they seem to be aimed at a CoD audience. Everything is cool! Aggressive!!! Violent!!! Yu da Bezt!1!1! A power fantasy for an angsty teenager ready to blow up... Something (edited because this is a sensible topic in 'Murika)


In my limited anecdotal experience, VtM fans tend to be in the moody, romantic zone... But what do I know? I like story heavy, weird RPGs, not action punching games for mobiles.
 
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Gurkhal said:
...the "sworn" part. I can't say that I'm thrilled about the idea that characters will just hand out these things for free. A cost in red (blood or even a candidate fo diablerie), green (dollars) or a favor (quest(s)) would seem a better choice to me. But I know that I could be wrong in regards to the word "sworn".
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This could be many things, but I would guess it has to do with Phyre being sheriff, and thus all the camarilla vamps (except the prince) being "sworn" to assist her in her tasks..

We know from some earlier articles that Phyre can acquire the status of sheriff. We dont know how railroaded this path is. It could be that all playthroughs have Phyre as Sheriff.
 
Feeona said:
Activated abilities and the Clan Perks can be learned from the other clans, but your clan passive can not. This means that while you can combine abilities and features from other clans in hundreds of different ways, your Ventrue playthrough will remain different from playing as another clan who branches into Ventrue abilities.
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This is such an insulting line. How does an occasional passive defense buff make a playthrough feel different? It does not change the gameplay, nor does it change the way players approach different situations. It's a mindless passive that takes effect by you doing something that you would do even if you didn't have the passive. Taking less damage from time to time is "nice," but it is not something players will actively think about or make decisions around.

Do you know what's better than taking less damage? Taking no damage at all. Regardless of the clan you play, the gameplay will revolve around dodging and avoiding attacks, meaning this passive does not meaningfully change the gameplay to feel "unique" for Ventrue.

If you wanted to make the clans play differently, you could give Ventrue bonuses for when they get hit during their defense buff. This could either be reflecting some of the damage back to the enemy, or a small % damage buff every time you get hit. This would change the gameplay by effectively giving you a "tank stance" where you WANT to get hit.
 
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Speaking of passives that actually affect gameplay, why is there no restriction on whom a Ventrue can feed from? It is a crucial weakness of the clan, after all, and adds a mechanical challenge to gameplay by forcing you to strategize your feeding, unlike "more defense."
 
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Lindaegan said:
Speaking of passives that actually affect gameplay, why is there no restriction on whom a Ventrue can feed from? It is a crucial weakness of the clan, after all, and adds a mechanical challenge to gameplay by forcing you to strategize your feeding, unlike "more defense."
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As of V5 player's guide every clan has two banes and the table chooses the one they like the best. Ventrue's alternate bane is being weaker against any vampire with a lower generation. They could have used that instead of the old selective feeding bane. They could have also just made up a new bane like Bloodlines 1 did for many clans.
 
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Jia Xu said:
As of V5 player's guide every clan has two banes and the table chooses the one they like the best. Ventrue's alternate bane is being weaker against any vampire with a lower generation. They could have used that instead of the old selective feeding bane. They could have also just made up a new bane like Bloodlines 1 did for many clans.
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That would be the cop-out of the century, as the alt.bane is likely completely meaningless for Phyre who is an elder in the story...

I liked Ventrue bane in original bloodlines, as it was thematic (Couldnt feed from rats or the lowlife bums)

I cant say Im entirely happy with these altered game mechanics... but it is their game..
 
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Azar said:
That would be the cop-out of the century, as the alt.bane is likely completely meaningless for Phyre who is an elder in the story...

I liked Ventrue bane in original bloodlines, as it was thematic (Couldnt feed from rats or the lowlife bums)

I cant say Im entirely happy with these altered game mechanics... but it is their game..
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Elder is defined by age, not generation. If you get sired by a 6th gen in 2024, you'd be 7th generation but not an elder. Likewise, Phyre could have been sired by an 11th gen, 300 years ago. She would be an elder but not a low gen.
 
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Jia Xu said:
Elder is defined by age, not generation. If you get sired by a 6th gen in 2024, you'd be 7th generation but not an elder. Likewise, Phyre could have been sired by an 11th gen, 300 years ago. She would be an elder but not a low gen.
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Sure, but completely new characters tend to follow the norms. The V5 rulebook itself mentions elders when talking about generation. Many unrelated ideas tend to get mixed up in VtM products into a mush which is at times difficult to understand.

age.jpg
 
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Azar said:
Sure, but completely new characters tend to follow the norms. The V5 rulebook itself mentions elders when talking about generation. Many unrelated ideas tend to get mixed up in VtM products into a mush which is at times difficult to understand.

View attachment 1142462
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Mostly embraced doesn't mean all. Phyre, solely by merit of being the protagonist, is going to be an exceptional character. Trying to figure her out by tabletop rules for generic player characters isn't going to get very far because she's written by writers and not tabletop players. Additionally, page 59 formally defines what an Elder is and it says:

elder: a vampire who has experienced at least two or more centuries of unlife. Elders are the most active participants in the Jyhad.
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That's it. It's just 200 years as a vampire. It says nothing about generation.
 
Phyre's thumb is little weirdly shaped... probably due to how its animated..
 
For the NPC, they have their hand palm in so the thumb is curled behind in movement so it's normal.

As for Phyre's hand... I don't really know what to say because I put my hand out in the same position and... I have now realised how eerily similar our hands are, yes, even down to the thumb. And I think I have pretty regular hands so take from that what you will.
 
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