Editing Vampire Steroids

[[File:Batman Bane.jpeg|400px|thumb|right|Boy! It didn't take Atlas long to do this for me! What MUSCLES! That bully won't shove ME around again!]]
In [[Vampire: The Requiem]] (1st Edition), in the Ordo Dracul book, we are introduced to a concept known as Blood Alchemy, aka Spoiling. Already a powerful hex in and of itself (You can curse someones clothing with a spot of blood, giving them an attribute penalty for as long as they wear it), it also allows for the character to create magic drinks by combining it with existing Disciplines (As Devotions). One of the solutions you can make is called "Sanguine Strength", and drinking it causes the player to get swole for the rest of the scene at the cost of roid rage (-2 to intelligence rolls, must try to solve all problems with strength, and non-vampires have a chance of flipping out if they fail a roll).

==Sanguine Strength Solutions==
This trick depends on the murky definition of Sanguine Strength. Because of the wonky way it was written (it seems like the author changed his mind on how the power should work halfway through writing its description, or he was drunk), the wording is such that the roll you make is to resist the effect of the potion, but it also implies that same roll adds bonus strength dots to the potion, without being clear on how powerful the potion is initially or whether you're adding additional strength points on top of what's already in it. To make things more confusing it says that you're limited to bestowing a strength bonus depending on the level of Vigor you had at the time of buying the ability, meaning you can logically buy the ability for the first time at 3 vigor and never need to update it (Which is immediately debunked in the in-game example following the abilities description). 

Because of these circumstances you should leave it to your ST will decide how exactly this power should work, but for the sake of this article we'll assume drinking the Solution conveys a flat strength bonus (Either +1, +2 or +3 depending on the level you learned) with a possibility of adding an additional +3 with a dice roll, since in my humble opinion this seems to be what the rules are implying. 

Regardless it doesn't matter: What's important is that the rules say nothing about the bonus you gain from this potion being unable to stack with Vigor (Which you must already have a few points in order to even use this power). This means that if you're a mid-range player ambushed by a bunch of punks, all you need to do is drink a +6 strength potion while activating your +5 strength Vigor, and you've immediately added up 11 ADDITIONAL dice in your pool (For reference, an average mortal has 2 strength dice and an olympic athlete had 5.) In fact, due to the nature of Spoiling (It's an instant action to create a solution), as long as you can spend 3 vitae in a single turn, you can just stick a finger in your mouth and activate both powers right then and there.

==Shenanigans==
You can break the game right at character creation because you're able to create 11 strength monstrosities immediately. With this power you're able to powerlift 2000 pounds on command and hypothetically whittle your way through an reinforced bank vault with just your bare hands (Since they have a durability of 10, more than enough when you add in your brawl dice):

# Make a [[Nosferatu]] or a [[Daeva]] (Since Vigor is cheaper for them to buy down the road)
#Give your character high strength (Our hypothetical character starts with 5 dots). Give him whatever skills you desire (Athletics is recommended for making stronger and longer-lasting Solutions, but Brawl/Weaponry is also good).
#For Disciplines, buy • Spoiling and •• Vigor. Spoiling is considered an out-of-clan discipline available for all characters. It does not require you to be in the Ordo Dracul to learn it (Though you do need a mentor to learn past one dot)
#Take the optional rule of dropping your starting Morality by 2 points in order to get 10 additional experience points. Use 6 XP from this rule to learn the Sanguine Strength 1.
#When the game begins, find an opportunity to create a Sanguine Strength Potion. If you don't +3 successes with it, simply drink the potion and piggyback on the bonus you DID get in order to try again.
#You now have a potion of +4 strength in your pocket and a Vigor ability granting you +2 additional strength at your beck and call. This means that at any given time, immediately after character creation, as long as you have 3 vitae and can suck your thumb for two seconds you'll be super-humanly strong, way stronger than you have any right to be just as you're beginning the game

Also, you can give extra solutions to your buddies for extra hilarity

==No Fun Allowed==
The ST can just declare that Sanguine Strength and Vigor don't stack.

Also a lot of the punch of this trick can be brushed away by simply declaring that the potions are created with a flat bonus depending on the level of Sanguine Strength that you bought (ex: a Level 2 Devotion would confer a flat +2 bonus). A few missing bonus dice isn't going to make this power worthless but it might not be worth basing your whole character on this

[[Category:World of Darkness]][[Category:Gamebreaking]][[Category:Vampire: The Requiem]]