Friday, December 19, 2008

VtES Signature Cards

When thinking of vampiric disciplines VtES players often associate a particular card with that discipline even though most disciplines offer 30+ different cards. And that's not even counting the multi-discipline cards. The cards I would call signature cards since they reflect the essence of that discipline, whether it is bleed, combat or voting.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice but I think thaumaturgy should be Theft ov Vitae.
Fortitude could arguably be a prevent dmg-card such as Skin of Steel or mabye Force of Will but Freak Drive works.

Anonymous said...

Pretty much my list too with 2 exceptions: Deflection for Dominate and Blur or Pursuit for Celerity.

For me, deflection is *the* signature card for dominate. Decks I make that have dominate in them always got deflection but not nessecarily Govern of the unaligned :)

Although Blur has lost a lot of its flair since you dont need to hit twice to torpor something that often anymore (less capacity on vampires, bigger permanent effects on equipment used and so on) its still pretty discipline defining. I'd rate Pursuit higher still on the basis that it gives both manuver and an additional strike showing the two combat-defining abilities of celerity :)

aaron_clark said...

If "signature" means "most popular" or "most strategically potent", then your list is good.

If "signature" means "most typical of what the discipline does" or "specific to the discipline", than I think the list should be tweaked:
Celerity: Flash
Fortitude: Skin of Steel
Presence: Bewitching Oration
Thaumaturgy: Walk of Flames

It's really tough when a discipline does more than one or two things. Celerity gives maneuvers, presses, dodges, and additional strikes! Which to choose? Presence is not primarily a combat discipline, so I think Majesty should be changed to a vote-gaining card, since vote-gaining is unique to Presence. And what is more signature than Walk of Flame for Thaumaturgy?: combat card/not useable first round/nasty effect.

extrala said...

As you can see by the previous comment, there is a slight dispute what the signature card for a particular discipline is, especially for the more diversified disciplines like Celerity, Presence or Thaumaturgy.

I admit, in the end I listed the card that I was thinking of first when speaking of a particular discipline. And your mileage may vary, of course.

Unknown said...

what about exotic disciplines ? :)
It's much more difficult since those disciplines can do a wide array of things but some are found in almost every deck based on the vampires mastering them...

my tentative suggestion would be :

Abombwe : Predator's transformation
Daimonion : Conflagration
Melpominee : Siren's Lure
Mytherceria : Fae Contorsion
Obeah : Spirit Marionnette
Sanguinus : Walk of Caine
Spiritus : Speak with spirits
Temporis : Rewind time
Thanatosis : Withering
Valeren : Blissful agony
Visceratika : Stonestrength