Homid
(top)

Homid Gifts derive from humans' craft,
ingenuity, society and talent for destruction -- the
legacies of the Maker and Unmaker. Many
animals and spirits instinctively respect a human,
even if that respect verges into hostility. Many
of the Gifts bestowed on human-born Bastet link
to this instinctive regard -- and to the powers of
the creation and destruction that have won it.

Level One

Cat Claws
By calling on her heritage, a Bastet in Homid or Sokto form can unsheathe her claws and attack as if she was in beast-form.
System: A simple Stamina + Primal-Urge roll (difficulty 7) brings out a cat's claws. They remain out as long as she cares to keep them, but damned peculiar and hurt to use (+1 to all combat and Dexterity difficulties). Once resheathed, they must be called forth again.

Sweet Hunter's Smile
With a charming look, the werecat wins his target over; if that look shifts into a snarl or a stare, the victim feels uneasy and may back away, intimidated.
System: By rolling Manipulation + Primal-Urge, the Bastets adds a die to all subsequent Social rolls for the remainder of the scene. This only works on one target at a time. Difficulty is the subject's Willpower if she's hostile to the werecat, 6 in most situations, and 4 if she's already inclined to like or fear him. At storyteller's option, the player may add two dice if he scores four successes or more.

Level Two

Jam Technology
As the Garou Homid Gift of the same name.
Garou sensing for the Wyrm at this time will notice a slight shimmer coming from the werecat who uses this Gift, as the Bastet version invokes the power of Cahlash.

Eavesdropper’s Ear
By listening carefully, a Bastet may hear things outside the normal human range, or understand something spoken some distance away. This is said to be a Gift from Whispers.
System: A simple Perception + Enigmas roll (difficulty 6) boosts the cat’s hearing into the high and low sonic spectrums, and adds two dice to her Perception Dice Pool for hearing rolls only. The Gift lasts one scene, and makes the Bastet susceptible to sudden loud noises (which might inflict one to three Health Levels of normal damage in extreme cases like explosions or high-frequency alarms).

Level Three

Craft of the Maker
As the Garou Homid Gift: Reshape Object

Babel’s Cure
By flexing Rahjah’s powers, a Bastet can translate any human language in her vicinity. Invoking the Unmaker will turn everything into gibberish.
System: To render languages either clear or unintelligible, the player rolls her Manipulation + Linguistics (difficulty 6). This Gift works on spoken words, writing and even body language. Everyone within 50 feet will understand all communications for the duration. Cahlash’s inversion of the Gift scrambles everything the same way. Either version lasts for one turn (or minute) per success, and each can cancel the other out.

Level Four

What’s the Password?
By communing with the odd spirits inside computers, a werecat can call up the passwords to files, accounts or encryptions. Although few nature-bound Bastet know this trick, many of their city cousins have at lest heard of it. Most of those who do know it charge hefty favors for the teaching ....
System: The player rolls Manipulation + Enigmas, spends a Gnosis point, and hopes the Net-Spiders will be generous. These encounters should be played out -- computer spirits can be pretty weird, and may want a bribe. The difficulty depends on the target’s value. A successful Computer or Hacking roll can reduce this difficulty by 1 for every two successes (same difficulties; see The Werewolf Players Guide, pages 194-199).

Information
Difficulty

Checking accounts
5

Corporate records
6

Important documents
7

Secure accounts
8

Corporate secrets
9

Government secrets
10

Monkey’s Uncle
With this Gift, a werecat can assume any human form in seconds. Changes can include physical prowess, attractiveness, racial features, gender and age. Legends credit this Gift to Coyote, although the Bubasti claim to have discovered it first.
System: The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty 5). Really extreme changes, like changing from Dr. Ruth into Arnold Schwarzenegger, raise the difficulty by one. For each success, the player can add one dot to her character’s Physical or Social Traits for the Gift’s duration. Monkey’s Uncle lasts for one hour per success, applies only to the Bastet herself, and may be detected with a resisted roll (Perception verses Gnosis, difficulty 8) by someone with magical senses.

Level Five

Black Friday
This dreaded Gift, the bane of the Information Age, allows a Bastet to crash a computer network in seconds. By communing with Net Spiders (see “What’s the Password?”) and promising a few favors, a lucky werecat can wreak system havoc without even touching a keyboard. It’s rarely done because of its tendency to backfire (wiping out one’s own computer files!), but causes untold headaches for the programmers of Pentex.
System: The player rolls his Manipulation + Enigmas to convince the Spiders to do his dirty work. Obviously, he has to have some way of reaching them first, such as a Gift, a short visit to the Penumbra, or a message typed into the doomed system. Once the deal is set in motion, the Spiders eat the system’s data; a skillful data retriever can undo the damage, but it’ll take days or weeks to fix. The Gift’s difficulty depends on the size and complexity of the system in question. Protected networks add one to the amount of successes needed; magickal systems include Trinary computers or Technomagickal networks (see Mage: The Ascension). A botch causes the Spiders to wreck your own data instead. Note that this kind of tampering immediately sets off alarms on guarded systems; a would-be saboteur would be wise to amscray ontopray!

Network
Difficulty
Successes Needed

Small Office
6
one - two

Large Office
6
three - four

Small Corporate
7
four - five

Large Corporate
8
four - five

Internatioanl/Government
9
five - 10

Secret Government/Magickal
10
five - 15

Deny the Hungry
With a gesture or spray, a spiteful werecat can destroy crops and fertile land, spoil food or toxify drinking water. Legend lays this Gift at the feet of the Bubasti, who were said to punish disrespectful communities with famine and drought. Some Simba use it for the same reasons. Sadly, it’s easier to destroy than to create; undoing this damage requires a different Gift all together.
System: The player spends a permanent Rage point and rolls Wits + Primal-Urge (difficulty 7). Each success withers one mile of crops, spoils a waterhole or lake, or renders one ton of food or drink unusable. Only the Redeem the Waste Gift, a Rite of Cleansing, or powerful Life and Prime magicks (see Mage) can undo the destruction. Cropland will remain infertile for a year, water will be poisoned for the same time. Spoiled food is rotten forever, and those who eat it anyway will grow ill. These effects, and the casting of the Gift, clearly comes from the Unmaker, and may be detected by appropriate Gifts.

Metis
(top)
Unlike Garou Metis, werecat crossbreeds are not outcasts,
but embody mystical links to the primordial Jamaa. Their Gifts
reveal this deep connection and allow them elemental tricks
no other Bastet can learn. For this, they're
admired in public and envied in secret.

Level One

Create Element
As the Garou Metis Gift. Most Bastet favor the five Oriental elements (fire, wood, metal, earth and water), but those born in the Western Hemisphere often know them as earth, air, fire and water. An Eastern Bastet may create raw ore and wood, but cannot conjure air. Neither version can create precious metals, refined ores, gasses or poison.

Sense Primal Nature
As attuned as they are to the Jamaa, Metis Bastet can easily sense whether one of those entities has a strong influence on a person, place or thing.
System: This Gift works like the Level One Common Gift: Sense Unmaker's Hand, except that it detects as strong affinity for Rahjah, Nala or Cahlash (Weaver, Wyld or Wyrm). Examples include Banes Cahlash), Technomagi (Rahjah) and some Garou (Nala, though some may tend toward the other two). However, the difficulty is one higher than that of Sense Unmaker's Hand.

Level Two

Blinding Moonbeam Gaze
By calling upon Mother Seline, the werecat shoots bright beams of moonlight from her eyes. These don’t inflict real damage, but can blind or distract an opponent, and provide illumination as well. Superstitious people often run away when confronted with a giant moon-eyed cat.
System: The player rolls Gnosis (difficulty 7). The light blasts forth on the next turn, and lasts for one turn per success. The moonlight offers the illumination of a high-powered flashlight, and can blind an opponent during his next turn if he’s surprised and hit in the eyes with the light (Dexterity + Brawl, difficulty 8).

Whisker Sight
By attuning herself to her surroundings, a Metis Bastet can get as sense of her surroundings. Anything within reach -- even if it’s behind her, or invisible -- is plain to all her senses.
System: Roll Perception + Primal-Urge (difficulty 6). Success grants the character total sensory perceptions within a 10 foot radius. This doesn’t automatically reveal hidden or invisible objects, but it allows her to try a normal Perception roll to notice things that would normally be beyond her sight. The Gift lasts one scene.

Level Three

Spirit-Touch
This Gift functions like the Level Four Common Gift: Spirit Claws, except that it works anywhere.

First of Cahlash
By channeling in raw destructive power, an angry Bastet can destroy any material thing with a snarl. Although the Gift isn’t terrible effective against living (or undead) creatures, its potency can be avowed by a multitude of puzzled technicians and drivers in various rainforest-clearing projects.
System: The werecat’s player spends a Rage point and rolls her Rage against difficulty 6 (for inanimate objects) or 8 (for living or undead beings). Each success either destroys 10 pounds or (10 cubic feet) of matter, or inflicts one aggravated Health Level. The later damage can only be soaked by a Gnosis or Glamour roll (difficulty 6) Spirit or Prime countermagick, or vampiric Fortitude. Affected targets literally burst or fly apart. The First cannot affect spirit-matter of any kind; even Materialized spirits or ghosts are immune. New attacks require new rolls and expenditures.

Level Four

Moon’s Gateway
By calling upon a Lune for help, the Bastet opens a Moon Bridge between caerns or Den-Realms. Such travel only occurs at night. The Gateway forms as a glowing fog, which slowly swirls into the shape of werecat’s intended destination. Anyone who wants to use the Bridge must enter before the summoner. when she passes through, the Gateway disperses.
System: The player spends one Gnosis point per 100 miles and rolls Intelligence + Alertness. The Gateway’s difficulty depends on the werecat’s familiarity with her destination, from 5 for her own Den-Realm to 10 for an unknown location or any Otherworldly Ream. The two travel points must involve either a Den-Realm or some other mystical location (a caern, a Node or Chantry, a Horizon Realm, etc.). A botch lands the traveler(s) in some strange or dangerous place. Traveling out of material reality is always tricky; those lost on such trips are often lost forever ....

Redeem the Waste
Part of Metis’ role is the salvation of despoiled wilderness. To do so, he’ll often sniff around, paw at the earth, rub his scent around and urinate in various places, essentially claiming the place as his own. While this isn’t a true Rite of Claiming, it resembles it in many ways. By dedicating himself to this land, he can summon forth a healing power to save it from toxins and other desecrations.
System: The player rolls Manipulation + Survival (difficulty 7) and spends a Gnosis point. Each success makes one square half-mile of damaged, cursed or barren land fertile again; uprooted trees won’t re-plant themselves, but new trees and plants will rapidly grow. This healing is permanent until someone takes the time to despoil the land again.

Level Five

Moon Sense
By meditating upon a pool of moonlit water, a Bastet may see anything that transpires beneath Seline’s glow. Although it’s difficult to see distant or hidden locations, a rigorous search can see anywhere on Earth.
System: The player rolls Perception + Enigmas and spends a Gnosis point. The Bastet must be staring into outside water. Any place touched my moonlight (even near windows, indoors, and within the Penumbra) may be sensed with all six senses, as if the Bastet were standing in the moonlight itself. The water’s surface must be calm; raging waters will reveal nothing. The search’s difficulty depends upon the distance scanned and the Bastet’s familiarity with it. If she observes for more than a minute (or requires more than three rolls), another Gnosis point must be spent. A person with mystical senses might realize he’s being spied upon with a successful Perception + Occult or Enigmas roll (difficulty 6). He would, if he discovered this, see a giant moonlit cat slowly fading away. Naturally, discovery terminates the Gift.

Subject
Difficulty
Successes Needed

Near & familiar
6
Two

Distant & familiar
7
Three

Unfamiliar
8
Three

Seen pictures
8
Five

Never been
9
Five

Distant & alien
10
Five

Wraith of Nala
This Gift whips up a wild storm that devastates the werecat’s vicinity. This tempest springs up out of nowhere and lasts for five minutes or less, then calms and disperses. Nala herself teaches this Gift in dreams.
System: The Wrath works like the Level Five Common Gift: Soothe/Summon Storm, except that it requires only five successes (difficulty 8). This conjures a sever thunderstorm which lasts only a few minutes and remains beyond the werecat’s power once it’s in motion.

Level One

Kitten's Cry
Also called "Pathetamew" for its pitiful sound, this Gift imbues the werecat's voice with a tone so pathetic that anyone who hears it goes out of his way to comfort her. This compulsion extends to attackers, who break off hostilities unless they're attacked in return. Most Bastet consider this a dirty but useful trick.
System: The Bastet's player rolls her Manipulation + Expression; the difficulty depends on the circumstances and the target. If the roll succeeds, the target immediatly stops whatever he's doing and offers sympathy for the werecat's pain. Some folks, of course, have no pity in their hearts. The Gift inspires hard-souled enemies to torment the Bastet even more than they normally would.

Relationship
Difficulty

Lover/relative
4

Friend
5

Passerby
6

Total stranger
7

Rival
8

Enemy
9

Foe in combat
10

Mark as Mine
By spraying a given area or object with urine and must, a Bastet stakes a claim on it. Any shapeshifter will know that a werecat has marked the place, and any other mystically-inclined being (a mage, a vampire, etc.) will recognize the sign as a "Keep Out" warning. This usually lasts until someone else removes the Gift with some other magic, or until the Bastet sees fit to destroy the Mark himself (not likely!).
System: This costs a temporary Gnosis point for each object or area treated. Anyone making a successful Perception + Empathy roll will feel distinctly uneasy when coming within 10 feet of the Mark, as if they were trespassing in someone else's house or stealing someone else's valuables. Through sensory magics, an intruder may actually see the Mark, even after the spray dries, and may remove it through appropriate use of magical powers. The Bastet may remove the Gift himself by spraying it a second time. This Gift does work on live creatures, but does not harm them in any way

Level Two

Killer’s Leap
As the Lupus Gift: Leap of the Kangaroo.

Perfect Cover
Cats must excel at covering their tracks and lairs, especially in these dangerous times. To help them, the spirits have passed this Gift on to the wild members of the race. By scratching around the place, trail or object to be hidden, the Bastet obscures it from normal and magical view.
System: After the Bastet "buries" all traces of the hidden thing, the player rolls Perception + Survival and spends a Gnosis point. From that point on, the place or object is safe from any form of mortal perception until it moves or is moved. Any magical senses (including Awareness) scanning the area add 1 to their difficulty to notice the hiding place for every success the player rolls. The difficulty of the roll depends on the size of the object and the surroundings: hiding a haunch of deer in the underbrush would be 5, while concealing a cave entrance in a lightly-wooded area would be 9. The Gift cannot conceal obvious objects, like a car on the side of the street, nor does it make things disappear. Rather, it uses surrounding cover, like shadows and underbrush, to make the hidden spot seem overgrown. A letter on a table covered with paper could be hidden, but a jewelry box on a bare mantle could not. A Bastet may use this Gift to conceal himself, and many do.

Level Three

Underbelly
By sizing up a foe or obstacle, a feral Bastet can get a feeling for its weakest point. Once that's spotted, he can rip through most things with a good swipe.
System: By rolling Perception + Primal-Urge, the Bastet can find a weak spot on living (or once-living) beings. Picking a weakness on a technological object requires Perception + Repair, while noticing a flaw in a natural one takes Perception + Survival. Either way, the difficulty depends on the target's toughness:

Subject
Difficulty

Typical (man, computer, wall)
6

Sturdy (athlete, car, desk)
7

Powerful (vampire, heavy machine)
8

Reinforced (man in armor)
9

Each success adds one to the Bastet's damage Dice Pool against that target for the scene. Spotting a weakness in a magical object or mystical protection requires a Gnosis point in addition to the roll. This Gift doesn't work against spirits of any kind

Whisker Sight
As the Level Two Metis Gift of the same name.

Level Four

Ghosts at Play
By spraying around an area, the werecat can expose all nearby spirits. Although the Gauntlet remains intact, any active spirit becomes visible, as if everyone in the vicinity had used the Level one Common Gift: Spirits' Sight.
System: The Bastet's player rolls Manipulation + Enigmas against a difficulty of the Gauntlet. Success reveals all spirits in the area. The range of the Gift extends 10 feet for every success the player rolls; the vision itself lasts for one turn per success.

Hand of Will
By willing things to move, the Bastet can lift objects or open barriers merely by staring at them. A strong-willed Bastet can move even trucks and construction vehicles with her mind alone! King-Of-Cats and Hatti favor this Gift, especially given the devastation brought about by human traffic.
System: Invoking the power of the will requires a Gnosis point and a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). Each success gives the Bastet three points worth of Strength at range (see "Feats of Strength," Werewolf, page 212). This power can only move things, not punch or crush them, and the cat's degree of control is limited. A typewriter can be shoved aside, but not used. It's possible to employ a bit of fine manipulation by raising the difficulty to 9, but this requires total concentration. For each extra turn the object remains in motion, the werecat has to spend a point of Willpower to keep it going. Once she sets it aside, the Gift ends.

Level Five

Judgment of Pestilence
In many ancestral lands, epidemics rage both human and animal populations. The Mistress of Catkind bequeaths this Gift to her feline children in an effort to channel the disease. Communities who respect the cats' Kinfolk and the land find pestilence banished from their homes; those who exploit nature or hunt the great cats receive the disease in return. Nature's balance must be maintained.
System: This Gift doesn't create a plaque; it moves it from one place to another. To do this, a cat spends two Gnosis points and rolls Manipulation + Primal-Urge to absorb the sickness without harming herself. From there, she carries it to a place she dislikes, then releases it by breathing into the night air. Once in motion, the disease runs its course in the new location. Every survivor in the original community mysteriously recovers. A werecat who botches her roll quickly dies, overwhelmed by the toxins in her blood.

Revolt of the Land
As the Red Talons Gift: Gaia's Vengeance.