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Work · Game · Tabletop role-playing game · 5th Edition (V5)

Vampire: The Masquerade powers.

Every Discipline and every Clan Bane in the fifth edition, with the price each power charges and the closest Power on our list.

Vampire: The Masquerade is a tabletop role-playing game about vampires who hide inside modern cities. It first came out in 1991, and its fifth edition, known as V5, arrived in 2018. Players build a vampire, pick a Clan and spend the game trying to feed without losing what is left of their humanity.

The supernatural abilities in V5 are called Disciplines. Each one is a family of powers that grows stronger as the character invests in it, and every Clan starts with three of them that come easily to its members.

What makes the game useful to anyone designing a power system is that nothing is free. Most active powers are paid for in blood, and every Clan carries a built-in curse called a Bane. In our terms, the blood cost is a Drawback the vampire pays, and many Banes are Weaknesses the world can use against them.

How powers are paid for

Why every Vampire power has a price

Hunger and the Rouse Check

In V5 a vampire's appetite is tracked as Hunger, from 0 (fed and calm) to 5 (barely in control). Waking up, healing and using most active Discipline powers call for a Rouse Check: a single die that, on a bad result, pushes Hunger up by one. Hunger also replaces dice in the character's rolls, so a hungry vampire is more likely to lose control of the Beast at the worst moment. The price of a power is therefore never a fixed number. It is a gamble that compounds over a night.

Drawback what the vampire pays

The blood each power burns, and Banes like the Ventrue's picky palate or the Brujah's short fuse.

Weakness what the world uses against them

Banes that outsiders can exploit: bright light for the Ministry, cameras for the Lasombra, hunters for the Salubri.

5th Edition (V5) · 12 Disciplines

Every Discipline and what it costs

Tap a Clan name to jump to its Bane, or “Filter table” to list every Clan that has the Discipline in-clan.

  • Animalism

    Same name in V20

    Talk to animals, command them, feed through them, and reach into the Beast that lives inside other vampires.

    Price · Roughly seven in ten of its powers ask for a Rouse Check each time they are used.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Auspex

    Same name in V20

    Senses pushed far past human limits: spotting lies, reading surface thoughts and moods, noticing the supernatural, and catching flashes of what comes next.

    Price · Nearly every power costs a Rouse Check; only the sharpened senses themselves are free.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Blood Sorcery

    Older editions: Thaumaturgy / Quietus

    Magic worked through blood, both the vampire's own and other people's. It also opens up rituals that take time to cast but do things no other Discipline can.

    Price · Most powers cost at least one Rouse Check. A few demand more, such as real injury or a stain on the soul.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Celerity

    Same name in V20

    Speed and reflexes beyond any human: dodging, sprinting and acting in bursts before anyone else can react.

    Price · About four in five of its powers need a Rouse Check, so a long fight at full speed empties the vampire fast.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Dominate

    Same name in V20

    Control through eye contact and spoken orders: forcing actions, rewriting memories and making people act against their will.

    Price · About two thirds of its powers cost a Rouse Check; the rest are free once the eye contact is made.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Fortitude

    Same name in V20

    Toughness of body and mind: shrugging off blows, resisting supernatural pressure and enduring what should break a person.

    Price · Most powers cost a Rouse Check; a handful are always on, and one is paid in Stains instead of blood.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Obfuscate

    Same name in V20

    Going unseen by clouding the minds of whoever is watching, from slipping out of notice to wearing someone else's face.

    Price · Around three in four of its powers cost a Rouse Check; staying hidden while still is one of the free ones.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Oblivion

    Older editions: Obtenebration / Necromancy

    Power drawn from a realm of death and nothingness. One tradition shapes living shadow into weapons and tools; the other speaks with the dead and turns the energy of death on its targets.

    Price · Uses Rouse Checks like other Disciplines, but an unlucky die also leaves a Stain on the user's humanity on top of the Hunger.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Potence

    Same name in V20

    Raw strength: blows that land far harder than they should and feats of lifting and leaping no body could manage.

    Price · The cheapest of the physical Disciplines. About half its powers are free and the rest cost a Rouse Check.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Presence

    Same name in V20

    Emotional pull rather than direct control: awe, fear, adoration. Targets can still think, so they may react in ways the vampire did not plan.

    Price · About two thirds of its powers cost a Rouse Check; some of the simplest effects are free.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Protean

    Same name in V20

    Reshaping the body: claws and fangs, animal forms, sinking into the earth to sleep, and finally dissolving into mist.

    Price · About three quarters of its powers need a Rouse Check; seeing in the dark is one of the free ones.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

  • Thin-Blood Alchemy

    Thin-bloods only

    Brewing blood and odd ingredients into short-lived effects, including copies of other Disciplines. Only thin-bloods, the weakest vampires, can learn it.

    Price · Each brew costs a Rouse Check and a roll, and the result wears off; a lab makes the stronger formulas possible.

    In-clan for

    Closest Power on our list

14 Clans + Caitiff and thin-bloods

Clans, their Banes and Compulsions

A Bane is the curse every member of a Clan carries for good. A Compulsion is a short urge that takes over when the Beast slips its leash. We tag each Bane as a Drawback or a Weakness; that tag is our reading, not a rule from the books.

Has in-clan

Showing 16 of 16

  • Brujah“Rebels”

    Bane

    Violent TemperDrawbackAlways one insult away from rage. The worse the curse, the harder it is to hold back a furious frenzy.

    Compulsion

    RebellionMust defy an order, an expectation or the status quo before anything else feels worth doing.
  • Gangrel“Ferals”

    Bane

    Bestial FeaturesDrawbackEvery frenzy leaves animal traits behind for a while, and each one makes the vampire a little clumsier or duller.

    Compulsion

    Feral ImpulsesSlides toward the animal for a scene: speech comes hard, clothes feel wrong and problems look like something to bite.
  • Malkavian“Lunatics”

    Bane

    Fractured PerspectiveDrawbackEach Malkavian carries a mental affliction. When the Beast slips, it surfaces and drags down one kind of action for the rest of the scene.

    Compulsion

    DelusionSees things that are not there, or truths no one else can, and acts on them for a scene.
  • Nosferatu“Sewer Rats”

    Bane

    RepulsivenessDrawbackThe Embrace makes them monstrous to look at. They can never pass as attractive, and even supernatural disguises work less well.

    Compulsion

    CryptophiliaCraves a secret, any secret, and gives up its own only in trade for something worth more.
  • Toreador“Divas”

    Bane

    Aesthetic FixationWeaknessUgly or shabby surroundings get under their skin, and their Disciplines falter until they leave.

    Compulsion

    ObsessionLocks onto one beautiful person, object or moment and can think about nothing else until it is gone.
  • Tremere

    Bane

    Deficient BloodDrawbackTheir blood has lost its grip. They cannot blood-bond other vampires at all, and binding a mortal takes extra feedings.

    Compulsion

    PerfectionismAnything less than flawless feels like failure, so they keep redoing the task until it is exceptional.
  • Ventrue“Clan of Kings”

    Bane

    Rarefied TastesDrawbackCan only keep down blood from one narrow kind of mortal. Anything else comes back up unless they force it with willpower.

    Compulsion

    ArroganceNeeds someone to obey them, and it has to be ordinary obedience, not a mind trick.
  • Banu Haqim“Judges” · formerly Assamites

    Bane

    Blood AddictionDrawbackDrinking from another vampire is dangerously sweet to them. Once they start, they may not stop, and that road leads toward diablerie.

    Compulsion

    JudgmentMust punish someone who has broken their code, by feeding on them, before they can focus on anything else.
  • The Ministry“Serpents” · formerly Followers of Set

    Bane

    Abhors the LightWeaknessBright light of any kind, even a lamp, weighs on everything they do, and sunlight burns them worse than other vampires.

    Compulsion

    TransgressionFeels driven to tempt someone, or themselves, into breaking a personal rule.
  • Lasombra

    Bane

    Distorted ImageWeaknessMirrors, cameras and microphones twist their image and voice, so modern technology fights them and gives them away to anyone who knows what to look for.

    Compulsion

    RuthlessnessAfter a failure, they cannot let it go and struggle at that task until they succeed at it.
  • Tzimisce

    Bane

    GroundedDrawbackMust spend each day surrounded by whatever they have claimed as theirs: a place, a group of people, a home. Sleeping away from it wears down their willpower.

    Compulsion

    CovetousnessFixates on owning something or someone in the scene and will not rest until it is theirs or out of reach.
  • Hecata

    Bane

    Painful KissDrawbackTheir bite hurts instead of soothing, so victims fight or flee and feeding quietly is almost impossible.

    Compulsion

    MorbidityNeeds to push something across the line between life and death, in either direction.
  • Ravnos“Ravens”

    Bane

    DoomedDrawbackThe sun hunts them if they rest in the same place too often, so they have to keep moving from one shelter to the next.

    Compulsion

    Tempting FateMust take the most daring, dangerous route to the next problem.
  • Salubri

    Bane

    HuntedWeaknessOther vampires find their blood irresistible once they taste it, and the third eye that weeps blood when they use a power can set nearby hungry vampires off.

    Compulsion

    Affective EmpathyBecomes consumed by someone else's pain and can only work on easing it.
  • Caitiffnot a Clan
    Any, none in-clan

    Bane

    OutcastWeaknessNo shared clan curse, but no clan either. Other vampires look down on them, and they start out with a bad reputation.

    Compulsion

    None.

    Can learn any Discipline, but none counts as in-clan.

  • Thin-bloodnot a Clan“Duskborn”

    Bane

    No clan Bane.

    Compulsion

    None.

    So far from the first vampire that they are barely vampires at all: weaker, but some can stand sunlight and they rarely frenzy. They can borrow other Disciplines briefly by feeding on the right kind of blood.

Across fiction

How Vampire powers compare to other fiction

FAQ

What are Disciplines in Vampire: The Masquerade?

Disciplines are the supernatural powers of V5 vampires. Each is a family of abilities, such as Celerity for speed or Dominate for mind control. Every Clan has three in-clan Disciplines that are cheaper for its members to learn, and most active powers cost a Rouse Check that can raise the vampire's Hunger.

What happened to Thaumaturgy in V5?

In the fifth edition, the blood magic the Tremere called Thaumaturgy and the Banu Haqim called Quietus is a single Discipline named Blood Sorcery. Both clans have it in-clan, and both claim they invented it.

What is the difference between a Clan Bane and a Compulsion?

A Bane is a permanent curse every member of the Clan carries, such as the Ventrue only being able to keep down blood from one kind of mortal. A Compulsion is a short-lived urge that takes over when the Beast slips its leash, and it lasts until the vampire satisfies it or the scene ends. A Toreador, for example, fixates on something beautiful and can think of nothing else.

Which clans have Oblivion?

The Lasombra and the Hecata. Oblivion merges the older shadow Discipline Obtenebration with Necromancy: the Lasombra lean toward shaping shadows and the Hecata toward speaking with and commanding the dead.

Unofficial fan reference

This page is not official World of Darkness material. It is not made, approved or endorsed by Paradox Interactive AB. Vampire: The Masquerade, World of Darkness and the names of its Clans and Disciplines are trademarks or copyrights of Paradox Interactive AB and are used here only to identify the game. Every description on this page is written in our own words; no rulebook text, logos or official art are reproduced. For the official game, visit worldofdarkness.com.

Sources and how this page was written Updated October 16, 2026 +

We checked each Discipline and Clan against the pages below, then wrote every line ourselves. Counts like “about two thirds of its powers cost a Rouse Check” are our tallies of the published power lists and may shift as new books add powers. Clans first appeared in V5 in these books: Brujah (Core rulebook (2018)), Gangrel (Core rulebook (2018)), Malkavian (Core rulebook (2018)), Nosferatu (Core rulebook (2018)), Toreador (Core rulebook (2018)), Tremere (Core rulebook (2018)), Ventrue (Core rulebook (2018)), Banu Haqim (Camarilla sourcebook), The Ministry (Anarch sourcebook), Lasombra (Chicago by Night), Tzimisce (Companion (free download, 2020)), Hecata (Cults of the Blood Gods), Ravnos (Companion (free download, 2020)), Salubri (Companion (free download, 2020)).

Paradox Interactive owns the game; Renegade Game Studios has published the books since 2021.