How far along can you have a save and actually get the different endings? I guess it has to be right before hopping into the cab in Santa Monica but doesn't a lot of things throughout the game affect which endings you even have available, like being nice/not nice to Ming Xiao for instance?

Yes there are major decisions in the cab, of course, but I’m pretty sure there are other decisions you can make throughout the game which might change the ending you get. Those I was stuck with because obviously going back that far was a bit out of the question.

Think I never got to choose to side with the Camarilla or the Lone Wolf, but I might be wrong. Did I really just get the Anarch ending every time but the first??


Yeah, first time I blew myself up because I was so curious what was inside the sarcophagus despite Beckett warning me not to open it. Plus I didn't want to give the key to LaCroix

Brigitte ended up lone wolf. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the ending that sided with Max and the Cam.

That seems to have the coolest Indiana Jones kind of ending with the warehouse

Yeah.
“It belongs in a museum!”

Don't know if I've mentioned this, but I always thought the music from Society of Leopold sounded like the cathedral music from Deus Ex. At least enough to heavily remind me of it.

But instead of Gunther we got Bach (both Germans! ) whom we had to shoot at because he didn't have a killphrase for us to use as a cheap way to avoid a bossfight

I don’t remember the SoL music.

Usually the Downtown music is the one that is stuck in my crow head

Just saw a video where someone got a fourth Discipline from Beckett!


But apparently that's from the plus patch, something I never used. Never used the unofficial either, just used the Camarilla Edition

I play through GOG and I want to say that the unofficial patch was installed with the game itself. May be misremembering that though as it’s been a while since I installed it.

Well, I seem to have found a mod at Nexus that makes the Malkavian font look normal i.e flipping readable. Don't think I can download it though as I think I'm banned there. Also, not gonna play anyway.


Also, actually understanding the Malkavian lines, when you can read them, is another thing...

I didn’t have trouble with the Malk font, lol

I actually think it's suitable, it gives some form of immersion. But it's annoying to read and since that mod exists, this is one instant where I'm not alone


Btw, has Khajiit played Nos or Ven? Polar opposites; quite different playstyles.

Khajiit’s first ever character was a Ventrue (Raven ). I chose Ventrue because the clan description sounded like they would play similarly to the Imperials from Elder Scrolls.

Never have played a Nossie. Not being able to be seen sounded a bit tedious.

What I don't understand is how you're supposed to deal with those early quests as a Nossie when you have to speak to humans in Santa Monica.

I guess that would be a draw to playing a Nossie; seeing how that is handled. I thought it sounded tedious though.

Well I know for a fact the lady at the Diner goes batshit and drops to the floor

Saw a video yesterday showcasing all the Disciplines at lvl 5, pretty interesting. I never bothered with Fortitude when playing Gangrel but that thing at lvl 5 is OP! In the video he was hit by knives and shotguns over and over and the healthbar barely budged! Combine that with Protean War Form and man - you got a fighter! Also Pestilence for crowd control. Seriously, I didn't do my Gangrel justice.

Also I think I've misjudged Celerity. I tried it at lvl 2 and 3 when playing Toreador and I was unimpressed. Yeah the world slowed down but my character did too and it felt like moving through molasses. But at lvl 5 it seemed to be better because the character moved around pretty well while the enemies were almost frozen!

I was even impressed by lvl 5 Auspex because you could see all the enemies in an area through the walls at a great distance which was very cool.

I need to get back into a Gangrel playthrough at some point.

1. Khajiit - will - go - to - the - Elizabeth - Dane
2. Khajiit - will - go - to - the - Elizabeth - Dane
3. Khajiit - will - go - to - the - Elizabeth - Dane
4. Khajiit - will - go - to - the - Elizabeth - Dane

But I just started new Oblivion playthrough!

Khajiit is exempt, then. I'm sure the sarcophagus on the Dane is just full of explosives anyway and not an Antediluvian

A man of culture I see. Ventrue and Toreador all the way! Sometimes Tremere. The other clans are alright I guess. But Ventrue takes the cake. And Toreador has pazzazz and Tremere has some spooky mysticism that I find awesome. My ES characters has all three of these traits lol.

My second playthrough was Tremere! I thought it was a lot of fun and was a good contrast to the Ventrue playthrough.

I hope you wore the red glasses! You're not Tremere without those iconic glasses.

I honestly don’t remember! If it was on a vanilla outfit then I definitely wore them!

If memory serves me, my character sheet looks like this:

Gangrel
Toreador
Malkavian
Tremere
Malkavian
Malk - AAAAARRRRGGGHGHH!!!!

Man, that seems really Malk heavy.

I know; that's the only clan I could eventually play. All the others are so serious, Malks are the only funny ones!


That being said, Tremere was a good choice too.

Oh I don’t know, I laughed my butt off when my Tremere did the Ming Xiao ending.

Poor guy. All that hard work just to end up spending his eternity strapped to a silly sarcophagus at the bottom of the ocean


I like the Anarch ending cause you get to see what happened to Nines. Nice little trophy he got himself

It’s a good thing vampires don’t scar.

Well, his face was a little blemished...

He’ll be good as new after a few nights…

One point I find interesting is right after Griffith Park. While I hate the wolf of weres the aftermath is quite good.

Returning to the streets of Santa Monica but nothing is normal; no establishment open, no humans strolling around. Just packs of vampires and a cab at the other end you need to get to. Even the sewers are inaccessable. This is where the game shines imo. Too bad there aren't more moments like that.

I remember that sounded like it would be daunting, but I never had any issues getting to Cabbie Caine.

Reason I liked that is because it's a pure Deus Ex moment; stealth galore! Unless you wanna fight your way through of course, but I never did that.


Also, just the fact we return to a place that is now totally different; makes my day

If I got to choose three Disciplines to have in one character, it'd be these:

Obfuscate
Dementation
Thaumaturgy



Only thing about this I don't like is Dementation and Thaumaturgy each have five selectable options, meaning you have ten to cycle through in a fight apart from Bloodbuff (and Bloodheal if modded), which is not optimal. So maybe Obfuscate and Fortitude and then one of the two for the last Discipline. I never had much of a feel for Celerity but maybe at level 5 it's great, and I never got to that with my Toreador. Also Auspex is more useable than I thought, not least for firearms, so there's more to this than what I chose above.


Thoughts?

I kinda feel like if you have obfuscate you don’t really need many other powers, so maybe then just things that let you fight or flee better when you are out of sneaky options (like Auspex, Celerity, or Fortitude). Also, I would say Dementation and Thaumaturgy together would be overkill, as both give you options for the same jobs.

Yeah. Basically the only time you need good fighting abilities really is with the bosses and with those above you're in good shape as you can either avoid damage with Celerity or just soak it with Fortitude and then use Auspex together with a good firearm. If there is such a thing in this game. Well, they're better than in Doom 3 at least


Perhaps. They do differ a bit I think as Malks have no Blood Shield equivalent and Blood Boil costs more than Vision of Death, although Blood Boil can damage foes around the initial target. Idk.

But this is why I wanted a second opinion. Sometimes I just don't think all the way through. Shocker; I know


Khajiit's three Disciplines of choice?

Idk, it really just depends on what I’m going for in a character. I do remember having a lot of fun with Thaumaturgy, Dementation, and Dominate.

Dominate is one Discipline I've never dabbled in. Think it makes enemy attacks weaker, right?

Basically, it dominates a targets mind.

https://vtmb.fandom.com/wiki/Dominate

Oh, yeah. I was thinking of Presence. D'oh


Looks like Dominate has some good stuff, one equivalent to Vision of Death and something perhaps even better than Bedlam in Mass Suicide. But I guess that can be fun too

I really should have tried that out more when I did the Tremere run but I focused all on Thaumaturgy


Edit: I see on the wiki that normally Fortitude does not need to be activated. But it also shows that it lasts 25 secs It also lists Bloodheal as a Discipline even though it's not in the vanilla game.

Well,Tremere’s signature power is Thaumaturgy, so it’s understandable that would be your focus on that character. Dominate is perfect for Ventrue.

Oh, most def! No wonder they rose to leader positions

Just saw a video of someone killing Ming Xiao in a very cheap way.



She deserves it though