Greetings, fellow Kindred! Spooky month is finally here, and what could be more spooky than sprouting limbs, tentacles and cartilage in places where you really, really don’t want them? That’s right! We’re unveiling our plans for Protean, one of my personal favorites. So settle in, get comfortable and keep scratching that weird growth in the back of your neck, I’m sure nothing unseemly is popping out of there…

Protean is about transformation, in all its forms: anything from turning your sclera pitch black to turning into a blackberry bush (for whatever reason). We wanted to tangibly split this into 3 distinct trees, each specializing into a different type of transformation: Elemental (nature, fire and lightning), Primal (bestial shapeshifting) and Vital (contortion of one’s own body).

Can you spec into all of these trees at the same time? Yes.

Can you use all of these skills at the same time? Yes and no.

Protean is a little different from other Disciplines. Every mini-tree has about a third of the nodes that other Disciplines have, and every node corresponds to a node in another mini-tree. For example, the Ball Lightning node in the Elemental tree corresponds perfectly with the Metamorphosis node in the Primal tree. The question is… why?

When unlocking nodes in Protean, you only need to unlock them in one tree: this then means the same node in the same position will be unlocked in the other two trees. Every Night, you have the ability to attune to a specific branch in Haven (Elemental, Primal or Vital) and those nodes and ONLY those nodes will become active. Protean can arguably spend less points to unlock everything compared to other Disciplines, but will have less access to them each Night.

For example, you might plan on going downtown. A lot of tall buildings, so attuning Primal might be a good idea to turn into a bird and reach crevices and ledges. However, you might find a noxious pool of underground sewer water where Ball Lightning’s hazard invulnerability would’ve been useful. Versatility in use comes with a little frustration when you find out you attuned wrong, and we think that’s part of the charm. After all, who here hasn’t gotten stuck in cat form for a couple more hours than they wished to?

One more thing. Protean’s passive, Mimic, allows the user to copy the stats of another character. If for example, your preferred gunslinger got seriously wounded in a fight, you can leave them at home, copy their Attribute dots with Mimic and have a temporary shooter for the night. We’re still deciding if using Mimic will cut you off from the rest of your Protean abilities, as it could easily become overpowered.

Terrible pun, but you get it. Don’t you just hate it when you’re whacking someone with a lead pipe and they suddenly turn into a flaming, burning avatar of destruction? Through Elemental, you can morph your body into electricity, fire or vapor. You can use loose dirt to rest or even traverse the map with Earth Meld and Turnabout.

Perhaps it’s a good time to mention that every mini-tree comes with a transformational ability that constantly drains Blood until depletion. In the case of Elemental we have access to Incorporeal, which will grant us dodge but limit our ability to do damage with weapon skills, for example.

Ever meet that guy in the howling wolf t-shirt? Jealous? Primal allows you not only to transform into a spectral fursona of your choice, but also lets you attune your senses in ways an animal would: using sonar like a bat, sprouting spectral tentacles like an octopus or lunging forward like an apex predator. You can even get all alchemical and create a cute gargoyle homunculus to entertain your Haven guests and perform menial tasks.

As for your toggle ability, Shapechange transforms you into a wolf with great mobility and critical damage, but unable to use weapons. Unfortunately, no revolver-wielding wolves… yet.

If you’re more into your intrapersonal intelligence, you’re an expert at knowing yourself and using what’s inside you… literally. The Vital tree deals in everything fleshy, bony and sinewy, grafting your own body as well as shaping your willing (or unwilling) Coterie members. Most of these nodes deal with these “skin grafts”, which are essentially additional gear sockets that give you more stats, maybe even a hidden fleshy pouch that can store an additional combat consumable. Suffice to say, you will lose these bonuses if you attune to a different branch.

For the transformation ability, you got your classics: Feral Weapons, later upgradeable to Horrid Form, turns you into a bloody monstrosity that has additional  melee range and aoe capabilities. Being so big however, you will lose some dodge and be unable to use items as your gnarly claws will be too clumsy to do so.

That’ll wrap it up for Protean! As always, be sure to leave your feedback in our Discord and feel free to ask questions. See you next time, and have a great Halloween!