Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Malkavian Build
The player can select one of seven vampire clans: the powerful Brujah, the decadent Toreador, the insane Malkavian, the aristocratic Ventrue, the monstrously-deformed Nosferatu, the blood-magic wielding Tremere, or the animalistic Gangrel. The player builds their character by spending acquired points to increase their ratings in the three areas.
I've played this game several dozen times, and any time I'm feeling a little unhappy I play again to pick me up. It is without doubt one of the best games ever made, but it's also old and full of weird stuff that no one explains. So I thought I'd make this thread to offer some useful information to new players:
The game can be bought here and the (near mandatory) community patch is available here which does a lot of fixing and tweaking the game really needs. Other good mods are Camarilla edition and clan quest
The sneak skill works on everything in the game except a select few bosses, but supernatural enemies have such high detection it's very difficult to sneak by them. The obfuscate discipline, which turns you completely invisible, does not work on several very common enemies you'll encounter and is not very reliable. The very last dungeon(s) do give you a chance to stealth things up though, as only one enemy in either level can see through obfuscate. Specific word of warning: The vampire in the purple coat, with the dreadlocks, who says 'Those of you in the front row may get a little wet' (You'll know what I'm talking about when you play) - he's the baseline model for an enemy Toreador. All Toreador vampires you encounter will look like him, and all of them will have access to auspex - a radar discipline that directly counters your stealth and obfuscate.
As the above implies, you will want some combat ability for when your stealth inevitably fails. Melee or guns, the choice is yours. Melee is better in the early-mid game and guns become better in the late game.
Speaking of guns, if you get no other gun get the .44 magnum revolver. It's accurate, high damage, fast firing, fast reloading, with the only real downside being high ammo costs. Still, a very good personal defense weapon that will see you from the moment you get it to the final boss.
There are three social skills in the game, persuasion, seduction, and intimidate. Their utility is in the order I just said them. Every character probably wants at least 5 persuasion, as it makes certain quests a lot easier. Seduction lets you feed on women at night clubs in public without anyone caring. It also lets you seduce a female vampire, and get her to send you shitty poetry. Otherwise it's not that useful. Finally, intimidate is pretty much garbage.
Your abilities that go above 10 still count. So if you have a 14 in your ranged statistic, you will do more damage than if you just had the (seeming) cap of 10. However, no skill test in the game is higher than ten so for non-combat abilities there is no point to raising them past that point. Yes, I have tested 14 sneak out and no it doesn't let you sneak through Hallowbrook.
Characters intent on using guns should invest a few points in the finance skill. Ammunition is expensive, and more importantly a certain someone will give you more cash after every main story mission based on how high your haggle skill is (no not that someone, the other someone).
Attacks that kill your enemy in one hit, from outside a certain range, don't cause any surrounding enemies to aggro you. On larger levels, with the sniper rifle, you can pick off an entire map's worth of enemies without any of them trying to get you.
Headshots work on some things and not on others. Against zombies, as one example, a headshot with any gun is an instant kill. The aforementioned sniper rifle works best if you go for the head.
Malkavians are cursed with insanity, and have a lot of very unique content added just for them. Every dialogue response is different, you get to carry out some wacky hijinks, and you will even get cryptic clues from the voices in your head about the game's plot (which won't make sense to you until your 2nd playthrough). Playing as a Malkavain, at least once, is mandatory. It's simply too entertaining to miss.
Celerity is the most powerful discipline in the game. At high levels of celerity, you will never take a hit as you dodge every incoming bullet or punch like you're Neo. A gun-focused Toreador is, in my opinion, just as mandatory a playthrough as a Malkavian. It's much less interesting out of combat, but in combat it's the most fun.
Clan Tremere is the 3rd mandatory playthrough. They get a unique haven, some unique dialogue with Strauss, and access to thaumataurgy (the 2nd best discipline in the game). Thaumaturgy is blood magic, and it contains a relatively random grab bag of very useful abilities. Level 1 is blood strike, which does great damage against super natural enemies and is a boss-killer. Level 2 is blood purge, which forces enemies in an AoE around your character to vomit blood. Note the word forces - while they're vomiting, you're free to beat them with a stick. It even works on most bosses. Level 3 is blood shield, which renders you much more resistant to damage. In fact, in the late game with blood shield and auspex turned on you are effectively invincible against anything except fire. Level 4 is blood salvo, or blood theft if you've got the unofficial patch. It brings your enemy's blood back to you and fills your blood pool, and depending on what version you're playing may or may not kill the victim. Tremere can spam their disciplines like no other clan thanks to this ability. Level 5 is blood boil, which does extremely high AoE damage but takes ~5 seconds after casting to detonate (the enemy you cast it on is instantly killed however). Combined with auspex (basically map hacks that buff your defense and guns abilities) and dominate (contains a lot of very powerful crowd control powers) the later half of the game is your playground.
Edit:
The k button opens up a menu that lets you assign weapons and powers to hotkeys. During my most recent malkavian run, for example, I had 1, 3 and 4 be specific dementation powers, 6 be obfuscate, and 7 be auspex. 2 was a sniper rifle and 5 was the assault rifle.
Bethesda mods for fallout 4. When you're holding a melee weapon, tab makes you block. When you're holding a weapon with a scope, tab makes you zoom in. When you're holding a weapon with more than one fire mode, tab changes between them. You want the Uzi on automatic, and the .44 magnum on fan.
You can change up the type of melee attack you do by selecting a specific direction on WASD. I didn't find it too useful, but it's worth keeping in the back of your head.
The lethality rating of your weapon is - basically - how well it works against enemy supernaturals. The higher the lethality the deadlier it is. The flamethrower's extreme lethality makes it trivially easy to kill any vampire you come across with it, even bosses. If your skill with a weapon is below its minimum level, you take a feat adjustment that lowers its lethality.
When your vampire frenzies, their inner beast takes control and they satiate their atavistic impulses. In game terms, you lose control of your character and they charge at the nearest creature intent on either feeding from it or beating it up with their bare hands. For brawl-oriented characters, this isn't a big deal. For clans that require a bit more finesse in combat, like the Malkavians, it is usually a death sentence. You can lower your chances of frenzy by 1) Avoiding fire - vampires are scared of fire 2) Keeping your blood meter high. Lower blood means less resistance to frenzy and 3) Having a high humanity. You can spend XP to raise your humanity, but it's not worth it. The better option is to just avoid killing innocents, trying to resolve quests in a peaceful way, etc.
Although a pure stealth character is impossible, a stealthy warrior is completely viable and indeed quite fun. My Malkavian vampires tend to invest rather heavily into the sneak skill, for example, as it allows them to set up a plan of attack before battle begins.
In Steam, right click on the game and go down to properties. Then click on 'set launch options'. Enter '-console' without the quotes. Now when you're playing the game, the ` key (top left of your keyboard, under the escape usually) will open the console. You can, at any time, type in noclip to fly around and skip levels you don't like. More importantly, this lets you un-stick yourself when the game's rather buggy physics get you trapped in an impossible spot. Type in noclip again to return to normal.
And now the most awaited clan on the Camarilla : the Malkavian clan.
The Malkavian Clan was my first clan, like many others. They’re “different”, they “have the ultimate truth” and whatnot. They’re misunderstood. Just like me in my teenage years, just like you guys as PnP players : by default we’re the odd kind, we’re elsewhere, and the Malkavian’s concept usually strikes close to home because “hey they tell me I’m insane too !” and of course, the general teen feeling that we’re smarter than other people.
Let’s face it, most of us gamers have primaries in Mental attributes And by being teens, gamers, nerds and geeks, the Malk strike so close to home it’s normal it’s our “default” clan.
Well it’s a mistake. It’s very complex, but yeah. We were wrong.
Malkavians are not fun, they’re not cute, they’re not “the smart misunderstood ones”. The clanbooks are just awful, they’re full of troll talk, and they do not explain what “insanity” is. Big faux pas! But understandable when we consider the target audience for White Wolf’s books.
Malkavians are the least prone to wear funny clothes. No ponytails. No top hats. No crazy talk. A good Malkavian is one you can’t guess the clan right away. It’s that a bit creepy neighbor, that one cashier that looks at you odd, that one homeless guy with his beer and mumbling around in public transportation. That one person you ignore when they try to talk to you, or you just switch sidewalks and turn the volume up on your music.
Nobody wants to be around those people, and nobody wants to be around a Malkavian for these reasons. You may talk to them for a while, then get that shiver of worry, like they don’t quite get it, like they don’t quite understand, like there’s a big black hole of scary stuff behind those eyes, and be like “Imma gotta head over there…” Avoid the Malk at all costs. Even Malks avoid each other.
Malkavians are insane, not stupid. Many of them are perfectly lucid about their own state : they know they’re supposed to be insane, and they know that if someone finds out they have a split personality, that will be used against them. So a good aware Malkavian tends to fake their insanity, or masquerade their insanity to something else, because their own behavior is totally normal to them. They don’t think they’re crazy after all, but it’s expected of them to be crazy, so they create a set of crazy things to do so that people around them will see “that” as their curse, and not the real deal.
Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines Malkavian Dementation
But what is insanity exactly?
No, it’s not prophetic visions and crazy talk. Insanity is not fun, it’s not cute, it’s not nice, and it’s not childish. Insanity is very, very scary shit. But insanity is not visible at all times. Please understand that most insane and mentally ill people don’t strike as insane at the first glance. But given enough time, anyone will be like 'okaaaayy… backing away now…'
Insanity is about having a certain mindset and a certain understanding of the world. To make a good Malkavian, means you need to draw a psychological profile and push it just a little further. Malkavians are extremely rational in their own mindset, you have to be sure that you get the inner logic, and that your ST gets it too so they can create your world.
The Malkavian mind works a bit like the passion of the Toreador : you have to be very exhaustive with a Malkavian’s background because the “blood of Malkav” affects the character according to this background. Insanity is personal, it’s linked to your close up history and life. Which is why, for the love of everything, PLEASE NEVER start saying “I’m playing a Malkavian”.
You need first a character, THEN the character gets embraced. And nobody chooses to be Malkavian.
This is true for all clans, but it’s even more true for Malkavians.
Why is it more important for Malkavian characters to be characters first, then Malkavians? It’s important for all clans, but I insist, for Malks it’s even more important. Why ? Because the adjective for Malkavians is : diversity. Malkavians can truly be anyone and everyone.
Most Malkavians have different thinking patterns, but most Malkavias are smart enough to keep those secret, because they don’t want to be manipulated by other people who can trigger their issues at will. Some of them, especially the sociopaths, are perfectly aware that they’re not “normal”, but they take extra time and energy to look normal. They fake feelings, they fake their derangements, they play an extra level of Masquerade, because they want to be trusted, because they have their agendas, because the voices whisper.
Also, that extra sight Malkavians have ? Give Auspex 2 to the character, and whisper “he’s lying.”. Malkavians get it right because their intuition is usually right. However, they can (and people do) assign this intuition to their madness and the voices, and not just good cold reading.
Always remember that Kindred are not perfectly aware and educated about how their own body and how their powers work. Can you describe exactly what happens to an orange you eat and how it’s processed exactly in your body ? Discipline training is very vague and odd, and misunderstood. There’s no science ^^ Especially if you don’t have ny points in Occult and if you don’t have a Tremere Library supporting your studies (through dogma and proselitism of course !). Kindred just “know” how it works, but they can’t word it. Malks are the more prone to explain it in a different, unconventional way.
The Tremere have two disciplines in common with the Malks : Dominate and Auspex (Dementation is just an offspring of Dominate.). They are very much alike, except the Tremere have their own initiations and their own beliefs systems. Even if both think each other are so different… Like the Toreador and the Brujah, after all, they do, too, share two disciplines (Presence and Celerity).
Malkavians make great investigators, sheriffs and interrogators because their mind usually do not work the same way as other : they are more prone to notice things that people overlook. They care not about norms, and they’ll break someone because they just won’t bother thinking about frames and thought patterns. They will come out with solutions that nobody has thought.
Think about it this way : there’s a bathtub full of water, the psy and sulu to empty it and gives a spoon, a cup and a bucket. The malkavian will think about “unplugging the cork” of the bathtub, while us, normies, won’t even consider the option. It doesn’t belong to our frame of thinking.
This lack of boundaries is a blessing and a curse. Use it well, and very carefully !
Best Malk in my opinion ? Therese Voerman (character from Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines). Forget about Jeanette, Therese really has issues. Control issues, delusions, ambition, and a very narrow minded view of hierarchy. Perfect.
As we're discussed with a few people, actually, the mere concept of a clan for the crazies is just. 'why ?'. All Malkavians can be assigned to other clans without any issues. I'd better have a OCD Tremere, a Control issues Brujah, a Inferiority or superiority complex Ventrue.. I don't need a clan for the crazies to have crazy characters. Because at some point, ALL Kindred are crazy. They're all insane. Their minds can't keep up with the shit arround them, they're freaking DEAD, everythinkg they knew was shattered to pieces.. There's no need of an extra layer of horror. There's plenty shit to work with, nope ?