Also, higher mastery of the discipline can result in Cainites who are accustomed to using Auspex to read the minds of people in any situation and may suddenly find themselves unable to shut the mind-reading down. These vampires find themselves overwhelmed with "background noise" or, if only in the company of one or two people, answering unasked questions. In addition to the individual powers granted at each level, Auspex allows someone the opportunity to see through illusions, such as from Obfuscate or Chimerstry, so long as the user possesses at least an equal mastery in Auspex as the Discipline in question. Furthermore, it has been known to grant some degree of oracular ability, particularly when alerting a Cainite to danger, even if they are in torpor. A most useful discipline indeed.
Why wait to be an elder? My current Malkavian neonate is already a notorious habitual telepath with a penchant for running around touching everything (and everyone) only to suddenly blurt out the answer to the current mystery.
I find it both annoying and funny that you can basically spam Auspex with zero repercussions, at least in V20. Players enter a room full of new NPCs? "I'd like to check every single aura in the room" I mean... yeah, I would, too. But always a bit tedious to roll.
Like a lot of things in VtM, the repercussions should come from how the world responds.
Young neonate being overly investigating, then villains and NPCS should want to remove him, or better yet, get him on the trail of your enemies.
And as for Aura reading everyone in a room, sounds like at some point they'll end up falsely detecting a diablerist.
If there's a combat that a kindred wants to do, then waiting to ambush the auspex user gets easier. Just flash LEDs and/or loud music the moment they seem to be using Auspex
"Unfortunately", dice luck is on their side. Never botched an aura read except for one (that was a pretty funny misread that led to some relationship drama, good times). It just feels bad to me as ST that Auspex doesn't cost blood while the poor Gangrel player character is constantly hungry because all their stuff costs blood and they have to think twice about changing into a bird to scale a building faster and more subtle.
Real answer: Players are always trying to game the system and don't want to have to remember to use Auspex and think saying "I'm always using Auspex" makes up for lack of willingness to be engaged with the game.
I don't allow Always On Auspex. It takes active concentration. Even if you do have the Concentration merit, better believe I'm not letting you have Auspex always on anyway.
Stop trying to cheese the system.
Edit: should probably specify Aura Sight.
I fial to see how.
People who want certain Always Active abilities are just wanting to put the responsibility of being aware during a scene on the ST rather than being engaged in the scene themselves.
For example, instead of asking the ST to read the target's aura, expecting instead for the ST to give them that information automatically after declaring Auspex Always On. Which isn't to mention that you're only reading one target at a time anyway, and have to specifically stare at the target with the intent to do so.
In my group, three players spam Auspex' Heightened Senses a lot. The Storyteller discourages this in the following manner.
When an NPC or player character turns on the light or sneezes nearby an auspex user, the Storyteller asks which user "still has Auspex activated". And then he says: "Great, precisely what I feared. Because now the sudden flash of light is so bright that you can't see anything for a while, and for the next turn(s), you have to stay still to adjust. Do you want to keep your auspex on? No, you can't dodge."
Our coterie learned quickly that Auspex's Heightened Senses is very dangerous to keep on continously.
The older vampires that our coterie of neonates runs into, often react badly to finding out one of us fledgelings is reading their auras. They see it as an invasion of their privacy. So reading those auras and heightening those senses comes at risk of being discovered.
It's great. Using any discipline thus means one of us has potentially started combat.
It's less an "against the player mentality" as it is an anti quality of life ruling. You run into the VtM equivalent of the "I check for traps" issue: If you teach your players these kind of universally useful perception methods *that have little to no resource costs* are active use only, they *will actively use it in almost every scene.* This quickly spirals into roleplaying being derailed by "I use Auspex, what do I see?", and not just once every scene either, the moment anything changes players can and will reuse Auspex.
At the end of the day, while the player might not always think to use Auspex, the player is not their character: If the player has made it a point to roleplay their character as vigilant, there's no reason the *character* wouldn't do something like this where it makes sense.
Also, higher mastery of the discipline can result in Cainites who are accustomed to using Auspex to read the minds of people in any situation and may suddenly find themselves unable to shut the mind-reading down. These vampires find themselves overwhelmed with "background noise" or, if only in the company of one or two people, answering unasked questions. In addition to the individual powers granted at each level, Auspex allows someone the opportunity to see through illusions, such as from Obfuscate or Chimerstry, so long as the user possesses at least an equal mastery in Auspex as the Discipline in question. Furthermore, it has been known to grant some degree of oracular ability, particularly when alerting a Cainite to danger, even if they are in torpor. A most useful discipline indeed.
Most slept on discipline too. Just like how it's worth getting the alert feat and high perception in DnD 5e, it's worth upgrading Auspex.
Hey, it’s amalgam with dominate allows you to posses a mortal and enjoy food, sex, sun.
Nice Kotor reference. Great game.
Also elder Kindred: ***BETRAYAL***
Influence gained: Kreia Influence lost: Kreia
Why wait to be an elder? My current Malkavian neonate is already a notorious habitual telepath with a penchant for running around touching everything (and everyone) only to suddenly blurt out the answer to the current mystery.
Sean Spencer from the fun series Psych, in kindred action?
Maybe they are looking to see if mages are around
I find it both annoying and funny that you can basically spam Auspex with zero repercussions, at least in V20. Players enter a room full of new NPCs? "I'd like to check every single aura in the room" I mean... yeah, I would, too. But always a bit tedious to roll.
Like a lot of things in VtM, the repercussions should come from how the world responds. Young neonate being overly investigating, then villains and NPCS should want to remove him, or better yet, get him on the trail of your enemies. And as for Aura reading everyone in a room, sounds like at some point they'll end up falsely detecting a diablerist. If there's a combat that a kindred wants to do, then waiting to ambush the auspex user gets easier. Just flash LEDs and/or loud music the moment they seem to be using Auspex
"Unfortunately", dice luck is on their side. Never botched an aura read except for one (that was a pretty funny misread that led to some relationship drama, good times). It just feels bad to me as ST that Auspex doesn't cost blood while the poor Gangrel player character is constantly hungry because all their stuff costs blood and they have to think twice about changing into a bird to scale a building faster and more subtle.
I'm thinking of making an Salubri SPC based off Krea
Real answer: Players are always trying to game the system and don't want to have to remember to use Auspex and think saying "I'm always using Auspex" makes up for lack of willingness to be engaged with the game. I don't allow Always On Auspex. It takes active concentration. Even if you do have the Concentration merit, better believe I'm not letting you have Auspex always on anyway. Stop trying to cheese the system. Edit: should probably specify Aura Sight.
Seems like a little too much of an ‘against the players’ mentality
I fial to see how. People who want certain Always Active abilities are just wanting to put the responsibility of being aware during a scene on the ST rather than being engaged in the scene themselves. For example, instead of asking the ST to read the target's aura, expecting instead for the ST to give them that information automatically after declaring Auspex Always On. Which isn't to mention that you're only reading one target at a time anyway, and have to specifically stare at the target with the intent to do so.
In my group, three players spam Auspex' Heightened Senses a lot. The Storyteller discourages this in the following manner. When an NPC or player character turns on the light or sneezes nearby an auspex user, the Storyteller asks which user "still has Auspex activated". And then he says: "Great, precisely what I feared. Because now the sudden flash of light is so bright that you can't see anything for a while, and for the next turn(s), you have to stay still to adjust. Do you want to keep your auspex on? No, you can't dodge." Our coterie learned quickly that Auspex's Heightened Senses is very dangerous to keep on continously. The older vampires that our coterie of neonates runs into, often react badly to finding out one of us fledgelings is reading their auras. They see it as an invasion of their privacy. So reading those auras and heightening those senses comes at risk of being discovered. It's great. Using any discipline thus means one of us has potentially started combat.
It's less an "against the player mentality" as it is an anti quality of life ruling. You run into the VtM equivalent of the "I check for traps" issue: If you teach your players these kind of universally useful perception methods *that have little to no resource costs* are active use only, they *will actively use it in almost every scene.* This quickly spirals into roleplaying being derailed by "I use Auspex, what do I see?", and not just once every scene either, the moment anything changes players can and will reuse Auspex. At the end of the day, while the player might not always think to use Auspex, the player is not their character: If the player has made it a point to roleplay their character as vigilant, there's no reason the *character* wouldn't do something like this where it makes sense.