Celerity

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Tales and legends of vampires ascribe to them inhuman speed, the ability to move faster than the eye can see, and even to appear in two places at once. While some of those accounts are exaggerated, Kindred with the Discipline of Celerity can indeed move far faster than any mortal. They appear to blur into nothingness, all others moving as if in slow motion in comparison.

Note that Celerity is obviously superhuman in use. Few Princes smile upon uses of Celerity that leave too many curious mortal witnesses unaccounted for.

Cost: 1 Vitae per turn
Dice Pool: Celerity is unlike many other Disciplines in that it is not actively rolled. Rather, it provides a group of benefits, many of which affect other rolls.
Action: Reflexive.

Celerity cannot be invoked more than once per turn. That is, you may not spend a second Vitae and double the benefits of Celerity in a given turn, though you may spend Vitae across multiple turns to enjoy the benefits over those turns.

Benefits

In turns when a character activates her Celerity, her dots in the Discipline are subtracted from any and all attacking characters’ dice pools, as the vampire moves much more quickly than normal and is harder to hit. This penalty to attackers’ pools applies in addition to any armor the Celerity using character may have, as well as to Defense (though note, like armor, Celerity’s benefits do not diminish based on how many attacks the character faces). Celerity’s protection even applies against firearms. For example, if a character has Celerity 3 and activates the Discipline, three dice are subtracted from any assailants’ dice pools.

Celerity also adds to a character’s Initiative during the turn in which it is active. The aforementioned character with Celerity 3 and Initiative 5 would have a basic Initiative modifier of 8 during turns in which his Celerity is active.

Finally, Celerity acts as a modifier to a character’s Speed while it is active. His Speed increases by itself again for each dot of Celerity he possesses. (Simply add one to the value of the character’s Celerity and multiply that number by his Speed.) Characters running while Celerity is active double this figure, as well. Assuming the sample character with Celerity 3 has a Speed of 12, he has an effective Speed of 48 — [(1+3) x 12] — during turns in which he activates Celerity. If he runs while his Celerity is active, his Speed is 96 — almost 65 miles per hour!

Additionally

A character may “pre-empt” her own action in a turn to activate Celerity if an opponent acts before her and the vampire wishes to call upon Celerity before the rival’s action is performed. The vampire therefore gets Celerity’s protection bonus early in the turn. Celerity’s Initiative bonus is also added immediately in the turn, potentially moving the vampire’s action before her attacker’s in the Initiative roster. The vampire also gains the benefit of additional Speed for the turn. If one Vitae is spent to keep Celerity active into the next turn, all of these benefits carry over.

If a vampire doesn’t activate Celerity until his stage of the Initiative roster in a turn, previous actions taken by others that turn aren’t invalidated. (They aren’t re-done because the vampire suddenly has a higher standing in the roster.) By activating Celerity “late” in the turn, the vampire forfeits his Initiative bonus that turn. The vampire also gains Celerity’s protection only against attacks that come after his place in the Initiative roster for the turn. If Celerity is kept active into the next turn, the vampire’s Initiative bonus and full protection applies throughout.