Merits are optional, unique advantages a character may possess. You may add them to your character at their listed point value by spending Freebie Points when you build your werewolf. Later, with Storyteller Approval, some Merits can be purchased for double their cost in Experience Points.

Flaws are similar to Merits, only they disadvantage your character.

Some Merits are Restricted. The rules are here, but without special Storyteller approval, you may not select Restricted Merits.

Merits may not be purchased more than once unless specifically allowed in the write-up for the merit.

Additional Merits can be discovered in other rulebooks. If a Merit is not listed here, do not take it for your character unless the Storytellers explicitly approve it. Then send the rules for the Merit to the bookkeeper so that they can be published here. 

Celestial Merits: You have an appropriate Merit from that Celestine, also documented in Rage Across the Heavens. These Merits may be taken at character creation. You may purchase these merits with ST approval, which represents discovering the spirit's influence in your life. Even if you possess merits from multiple Celestines, you may only ever gain the Gifts of one through this method, which will be clearly marked on the PCs sheet notes.

Purchasing Merits with Experience

Adding a new Merit to your character sheet always requires Storyteller approval, and the Storytellers won't approve anything that can't be justified by the story. If they approve, you will be required to devote a number of Downtime Actions to acquiring the Merit, like so:

• A non-Restricted Merit requires a number of major Downtime actions equal to three times its value.
• A Restricted Merit requires a number of major Downtime actions equal to five times its value.

Once you've devoted the appropriate number of Downtime actions to acquiring the Merit, you may purchase it at an Experience Point cost of twice its value.

Complete List of Merits

• Ability Aptitude (1 Trait Merit) You've got natural talent at some activity. You have a two-Trait bonus for all Challenges involving that skill while not in combat. You may purchase this merit an equal number of times to your Rank, minimum of 1. Each purchase must be for a different Ability.
• Acute Sense (1 Trait Merit)-Restricted if taken multiple times with ST approval You're unusually sharp with one of your senses. Choose one: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Touch, or Taste. You have a two-Trait bonus to all perception Challenges that involve that sense.
• Alcohol Tolerance (1 Trait Merit) -- Get of Fenris Only. You're not as think as they drunk you are. Spend a Tough trait (or synonym) to shake off intoxication. 
• Ambidexterity (1 Trait Merit) You're not just equally left- and right-handed -- you're naturally adept. You get a +1 Trait bonus to challenges in which you employ an ambidextrous fighting style (two guns, two blades, two claws, etc.)
• Ancestral Mentor (1 Trait Merit) -- Restricted. A dead Garou friend or relative from your past visits you as an Ancestor-spirit, offering guidance. It can materialize if it really tries, but it usually remains in the Umbra to provide you with advice and company. Your Ancestral Mentor has no special expertise to teach you anything in particular unless you also purchase the Mentor Background to reflect its capabilities.
• Animal Magnetism (1 Trait Merit) You've got a certain je nais sais quoi... or is that voulez-vous coucher avec moi? In any case, you get a 2-Trait bonus to attract and seduce others.
• Battle Prowess (3 trait merit) --RESTRICTED-- +2 traits to melee and melee associated Spec Coms.
• Bad Taste (2 Trait Merit) The natural oils of your skin and hide are noxious to the tongue. Wolves won't lick you and lovers find you unpleasant to kiss. Anyone who bites you must immediately spend a Willpower Trait or spend the rest of the scene retching.
• Berserker (2 Trait Merit) You can trigger your own Rage, hurling yourself into a Berserk Frenzy at will. This doesn't protect you from needing to make Frenzy tests when provoked as usual.
• Bruiser (1 trait merit)  Your appearance is sufficiently thug-like to inspire fear in those who see you. While you’re not necessarily ugly, you do radiate a quiet menace, to the point where people cross the street to avoid passing near you. All Intimidation rolls against those who have not demonstrated their physical superiority to you are down 1 trait.
• Caern Child (5 trait merit) -restricted- You were born during a rite in the caern heart. Spirits pay special attention to you and you get a free background trait for the totem of the sept you were born at. You gain +1 social traits when dealing with Gaian garou and Spirits due to the nature of your birth.
• Calm Heart (3 Trait Merit)  You have a relatively even-keeled temperament, for a werewolf. You are one Trait up on tests to resist Frenzy.
• Catlike Balance (1 Trait Merit) Your sense of balance is uncanny. You walk ledges and high-wires with confidence, and you keep your feet on a ship in a storm. You get a two-Trait bonus on all challenges where your balance is a major factor.  
• Code of Honor (1 Trait Merit) In addition to the Litany and a typical understanding of Honor, you are beholden to your own specific code, shaped by your background. Create a code of behavior with hindrances and restrictions as well as beliefs and passions, and have it approved by a Storyteller. You gain a free retest against any supernatural force (such as a Gift or vampire Discipline) that uses a Mental or Social Challenge to try to make you violate your code.
• Cloak of Seasons (3 trait merit) --Restricted-- Adverse weather does not bother you. This will not save you from being crushed to death under snow or save you from being set on fire. But the cold or a heatwave never bothered you anyway. You are still affected by fog in a visual sense. 
• Combat Expertise (2 Trait Merit) -- Ahrouns Only. Years of combat experience has left you with a sort of sixth sense that helps you from making a critical - and potentially fatal - mistake in battle. Once per session, you may make a single retest on any challenge where you are either directly attacking a foe or a foe is directly attacking you. 
• Common Sense (1 Trait Merit) You have a strong intuition for caution and practicality. If you're about to do something risky, you can ask the Storyteller to tell you outright if they think your action goes against common sense. New players who are unfamiliar with the World of Darkness setting may find this a particularly helpful Merit to take. 
• Concentration (1 Trait Merit) Noises and interruptions never faze you. You cannot be penalized for distractions -- you always maintain focus.
• Cool in Battle (2 trait) You are in control in battle despite how crazy it gets Add +1 to your initiative and +1 bonus on making any tactics during combat.
• Corporate CEO (5 Trait Merit) -- Restricted. Like Bruce Wayne of Wayne Tech.You own a fairly successful company, which is a good place for meeting people, helping people out, and having plot-convenient fire-fights in, etc. Characters can get money from the company but the company exists without taking up your resources. You gain an additional 2 levels of Resources that can go over cap. In addition, when you purchase the Merit you select three Influences. Once per Season you may perform a level 6 Influence action for one of those Influences (per the Camarilla Clanbook). While the benefits are potent, running a company comes with an investment of time and the risk of the world's attention. You must spend 1 Downtime action a month to maintain your Corporation (cannot be done as a Minor Action), and you gain a “Fame” like recognition and any time you are caught in a place you shouldn’t be it will raise eyebrows. Other complications (such as Paparazzi camping outside your home, etc.) may arise at ST discretion.
• Culture Knack (3 trait merit)  You have a knack for fitting in wherever you are, and though you may not know them beforehand, you pick up on customs quickly. In appropriate situations, your social difficulties may be lowered, or you may be able to retest a failed chop with a retest. 
• Danger Sense (2 Trait Merit) You react to danger as if with a sixth sense. You may act on your normal initiative even if you're surprised.
• Daredevil (3 Trait Merit) You have a knack for pulling off dangerous stunts. You gain a +1 Trait bonus to any challenge wherein you attempt something especially dangerous (over-and-above a typical combat challenge). Once per scene, when you suffer a punishing consequence for failing such a challenge, you may immediately ask the Storyteller for a less painful consequence.
• Diverse Fighting Style (4 Trait Merit) -- Ahrouns Only. The breadth of your training with different fighting styles makes you a knowledgeable foe. You cannot be penalized for using unfamiliar or exotic weapons, and you can identify any weapon or fighting style you see and their weaknesses. As a result, you can identify their Negative Traits with a simple Mental-challenge against 10 traits.
• Double-Jointed (1 Trait Merit) You're something of a contortionist, twisting your body into unexpected shapes and squeezing into small spaces. Take a two-Trait bonus on tests of your flexibility, like twisting free of an enemy's grapple.
• Early Maturation (3 trait merit) -Gurahl only -  Circumstances occurring before your First Change have caused you to emerge as an Auspice other than Arcas. Perhaps your transformation came late in life, striking you after you had attained full adulthood. Maybe your early years contained so much strife or upheavals that your change catapulted you directly into another Auspice, skipping the "playful" stage of your development as a Gurahl.

• Eidetic Memory (2 Trait Merit) You benefit from a nearly perfect memory. You can keep an out-of-character notebook or cheat sheet to "memorize" anything your character can give a single turn of attention to. In stressful situations like combat, memorizing information in this way requires a static Mental Challenge versus six Traits.

• Enchanting Voice (2 Trait Merit) You have a resonant voice, good for commanding the attention and emotions of your listeners. You seduce, intimidate and cajole others through your tone and inflection. Take a two-Trait bonuses on challenges that involve your spoken words.  

• Fair Glabro (2 Trait Merit) -- Restricted. Your Glabro form can pass for human at a cursory glance, albeit a large and bulky human. You don't have the usual Negative Social Traits for being in Glabro. Any actual directed scrutiny can still reveal that you're not human, so this form can still threaten the Veil.

• Favor (1 or 3 Trait Merit) You once did something invaluable for a powerful ally, most likely an elder Garou, and now they owe you a debt -- it is a matter of honor that they repay you. One Trait indicates that you are owed a minor favor, where three Traits indicate a major one. Work with the Storyteller to come up with the specific details of the repayment.

• Feared Mentor (3 Trait Merit) -- Shadow Lords Only. As the Mentor Merit (below), except your Mentor also has a fearsome reputation within the tribe -- and as their student, you enjoy a bit of that notoriety. You enjoy a one-Trait bonus to all Social Challenges with Shadow Lords. On the downside, you also inherit any enemies your Feared Mentor may have made while earning their reputation.
• Fin Blade (3 Trait Merit) -- Rokea Only--  When you assume Standing Jaws form, your arm, leg and back fins are as sharp as your talons, enabling you to attack with your fins and doing one additional level of aggravated damage. This does not give you an extra attack, but it does allow you several attack alternatives.
• Friendly Face (1 trait merit) --RESTRICTED --  You have a face that reminds everyone of someone. It makes people more inclined to approach you and ask for conversation. It makes it easy to turn a "mistake" into something more. This merit only functions at first meeting.

• Gall (2 Trait Merit) -- Kinfolk Only. Garou society can be condescending toward kinfolk, and so you've developed a personality to compensate. You have the pluck to stand up for yourself no matter who's staring you down. Take a one-Trait bonus on any Social Challenge involving a display of backbone. 

• Ghost Sight (4 Trait Merit) -- Silent Strider Only. This merit is identical to the Medium merit (see below) while also providing additional insight into the land of the dead. You are subject to occasional, uncontrolled flashes of vision into the Dark Umbra at ST discretion. This typically occurs when something significant is present there, such as a strong or watchful ghost, or in places that are inherently significant to the dead. In addition, you may attempt to do this willfully by making a gnosis challenge (difficulty 8) to effectively peek across the Shroud. This allows you to potentially see ghosts that are hiding beyond the Shroud, as well as see detailed scenes and events that are occurring in the Shadowlands. 

• Good Ol' Girl/Boy (2 Trait Merit) -- Kinfolk Only. You take naturally to the role of emotional support to Garou society. You have a demeanor that invites other Garou and kinfolk -- even Lupus -- to like you and confide in you. Take a one-Trait bonus on all Social Challenges with kinfolk and Garou. 

•  Gnosis (5-7 point Merit) (Kinfolk) -- More than any other blessing, the possession of Gnosis among Kin is a special mark of Gaia's favor. It's extremely rare for mortals to be so gifted. Having Gnosis grants many privileges, such as the ability to learn Gifts, use fetishes and, in the case of a vampire's Embrace, the chance to die with dignity and honor, rather than suffer unlife. Even the stuffiest Garou gives a nod of respect to a Kin who possesses Gnosis. Kinfolk lucky enough to possess Gnosis recover it in the same manner as Garou. Kinfolk cannot have Rage; they do not have the fury of Gaia within them. Five points spent on the Merit grants one point of Gnosis, six points gives two points of Gnosis, and seven points gives three points of Gnosis.

• Guardian Angel (6) -Restricted-Someone or something watches over you and protects you from harm. You have no idea who or what it is, but you have an idea that someone is looking out for you. In times of great need, you may be supernaturally protected. However, one can never count on a guardian angel. The Storyteller must decide why you are being watched and what is watching you (not necessarily an angel, despite the name). 

• Huge Size (4 Trait Merit) You're a giant. In Homid shape you're probably seven feet tall, and as a wolf you're just as formidable. You gain an extra Bruised health level and 1 extra step in combat in all forms, as result of your longer stride.

• Human Tribal Status (2 or 4 Trait Merit) -- Homid Only. You maintain ties and authority within the human ethnic minority group of your upbringing. At two Traits, you might act as a shaman or advisor; at four Traits, you have a seat on a tribal council, or perhaps you act as a political spokesman for the tribe at large.

• Inner Strength (2 trait merit) -restricted- You have a way of surviving things others might find impossible. Against overwhelming odds+2 traits on Willpower challenges defensively. 

• Insight (2 trait merit) - Restricted- You have a way of seeing the inner works of a person and are not often fooled. +2 traits when investigating or determine if someone is lying to you. 

• Intertribal fosterage (1 trait merit)- Restricted-  You are of one tribe, but were fostered in another. You may choose your tribal lore from among those available to either tribe and may gain plus 2 on interactions with the tribe who fostered you.

• Iron Will (5 Trait Merit) - Restricted- Your astonishing strength of will resists supernatural influence with ease. You may resist any mind-altering or controlling effect (such as vampiric Dominate, or certain Gifts) by spending a Willpower Trait. Your heart is still vulnerable: powers that affect the emotions (such as Help me gift) cannot be canceled by this Merit.

• Jack of All Trades (5 Trait Merit) You've done a little bit of everything in your time, and picked up just enough knowledge about most topics to make yourself dangerous. Even when you do not possess an Ability you'd need to attempt an action -- like Medicine to perform first aid, Computer to hack a database, or Spirit Lore to understand a strange spirit -- you can always make the attempt. You don't get any Ability retest for the Challenge, but if you lose, you can spend a Willpower to avoid losing the Trait you bid.

• Jupiter Midsky: (4 pt Merit) - restricted- You are very learned. You learn very easily and have, over the course of your life, acquired much Knowledge.  Add +2 to any test involving a Knowledge.

• Jupiter Rising: (7 pt Merit) - restricted-  You are a preternaturally lucky person: every time you really need a dose of solid good luck to save you or make things easier, you get it. You are usually luckiest when you are helping another person with their problems. If you wish to invoke your Luck, spend two Gnosis points and make an extended Gnosis chop, difficulty nine.   You may only make one Luck test per scene. If you are out of Gnosis, your luck has temporarily run out. The number of successes on this test is your Luck total for the scene. You may spend your Luck wins in any of the following ways:

• You can heal a body level (even aggravated).

•  You can use them as Willpower points.

•  You can use them as Rage points.

•  You can use them retests

• Lightning Calculator (1 Trait Merit) You have such an intrinsic knack for math that you have a +2 Trait bonus to all challenges that involve working with numbers. You're also good at estimating probabilities. When you have adequate information about a situation, you can ask the Storyteller to tell you in advance the difficulty of challenges involving that situation.

• Lack of Scent (2 Trait Merit) For whatever reason, you leave behind very muted scents. Anyone attempting to track you by smell takes a two-Trait penalty in the attempt.

• Loyalty (2 Trait Merit) There is someone to whom your trust and loyalty runs so deep that even formidable powers of mental or emotional control cannot easily break it. Choose an individual when taking this Merit. You gain +2 traits to resist any effect that would force you to work against that person.  

• Luck (3 Trait Merit) -- Restricted. Once in a while it looks like you've got the devil's own luck. Once per session, you may bid Lucky to retest any failed Challenge. The results of this attempt must stand.

• Mars Midsky: (5 pt Merit) - restricted- You have a terrible temper, and your frenzies are renowned for the amount of destruction they cause.  You never enter a fox frenzy, it is always the path of the berserker for you. While in berserk frenzy you receive +2 bonus to any soak chop you make and you add +1 to any Strength chops you make (including damage).  You Frenzy if you tie or lose a rage chop.

• Mars Rising (6 trait merit)--Restricted– The fire battle runs through your veins and communicates itself through every fiber of your being. Your eyes gleam with the eagle’s ferocity, while you posture demonstrates your constant readiness for combat. The Get of Fenris celebrate the birth of any tribe members born with Mars Rising. You choose to EITHER make a +1 bonus on brawl / melee challenges OR add a +1 level of the appropriate level of damage.

• Mechanical Aptitude (2 Trait Merit) You've got a natural knack with machines. Gain a two-Trait bonus to understand, fix or operate any mechanical device. (This bonus doesn't include driving, or interacting with electronics.)

• Medium (2 Trait Merit)  -- Restricted. You can both see and hear Ghosts, and they can see and hear you. They may trade favors or information with you if you agree to fulfill the passions they felt in life. This merit can be something of a double-edged sword, as interacting with Ghosts can gain you a reputation that could make you a potential target - to the living and the dead.

• Mentor (2 Trait Merit) -- Shadow Lords Only. While Shadow Lords can't take the Mentor Background, this Merit provides some fraction of those benefits. You have a disinterested and neglectful Mentor who only instructs you occasionally, never comes to your aid, and expects significant service from you. If you prove yourself faithful over time, this Mentor may see fit to grant you some sparing benefits -- or perhaps more than you ever dreamed. See also the Feared Mentor merit, above.

• Mercury Midsky: (2 pt Merit) - restricted- You will be a great teacher. The insight and wisdom of Mercury is yours to tap. However, you will often find that your obligation to teach interferes with other tasks. The teacher-student relation ship is highly respected among the Garou, so you gain 5 temp Honor Renown each time you publicly take on a student. Unless you have Instruction skill, you must have at least 4 dots in an ability or attribute before you can teach it to others. You must spend at least one scene with the student in order for the student to receive the benefits of your teaching. 

• Mercury Rising: (3 pt Merit) - restricted- You will be a far-traveler. Limitations, bound aries, and barriers are simple for you to overcome. Gain a +1 bonus to any Gauntlet difficulty, from stepping sideways to using the Gift: Open Seal.

• Metamorph (6 Trait Merit) You control the shape of your body with a skill that is uncanny even to other werewolves. You may change forms instantly without any expenditures. If you're knocked unconscious, you may win or tie a Simple Test to revert to whatever form you like (instead of automatically taking your breed form).
• Mitanu's Tongue (2 trait merit)--Restricted– You have the ability to talk your way out of most things when dealing with reasoning creatures, including most spirits. You gain +2 traits on social challenges to lie or otherwise obscure the truth.
• Mixed-morph (1 or 5 trait merit)  You find the art of partial transformation relatively easy, and make the required Physical chop v 5 instead of the usual 9. The five-point version of this Merit eliminates the need for  a chop; you can achieve partial transformation almost at will.

• Moon-Bound (2 Trait Merit) Your close ties to Luna give you a one-Trait bonus to all Challenges while she is waxing in the phase of your Auspice. On the other hand, if she's waning, you have a one-Trait penalty to all Challenges. (Talk to a Storyteller at the beginning of each session to determine the phase of the moon.)

• Natural Channel (3 Trait Merit) -- Restricted. Your spirit nature is strong; you feel at home in the Umbra. Once per session, you may use a free retest on a Challenge to cross the Gauntlet. Spirits also recognize your affinity and become more willing to listen to you (at Storyteller discretion).

• Natural Linguist (2 Trait Merit) Languages come easily to you; you know twice the number of languages your Linguistics Ability would otherwise indicate.

• Notable Heritage (2 Trait Merit) -- Restricted. Your ancestry is well-known and well-respected (or feared). If your heritage comes from the Garou, you enjoy a one-Trait bonus on all Social Challenges with Garou and Kinfolk. If your heritage is a famous human family, you enjoy a one-Trait bonus with all regular humans, and with Garou such as Glass Walkers who operate regularly in human society.

• Occult Library (2 trait merit) You own a collection of rare and occult books. These precious volumes contain bits of accurate knowledge concerning the supernatural. You are not necessarily familiar with the contents of these volumes (for that you need the Occult Ability), but your library can be an invaluable aid in research. 

• Perfect Balance (3 trait merit) --  Your sense of balance has achieved great heights by constant training or inherited traits. It is very unlikely that you will ever fall during your life. You may trip, but you will always catch yourself before you fully lose your footing or handhold. This Merit functions for such actions as tightrope walking, crossing ice and climbing mountains. All difficulties involving such feats are reduced by three. 

• Physically Impressive (2 trait merit) GET OF FENRIS ONLY  You appear dangerous both in outward demeanor and in physical bearing, and exude a confidence that impresses opponents.  This merit gains a +1 trait bonus on all Intimidation based challenges.

•  Quiet Heart (4 trait Merit): This Merit gives the character a free retest when attempting to resist  emotion influencing powers or frenzy.

• Recognize Garou (3 trait merit) KINFOLK ONLY Due to your life surrounded by garou you have an uncanny ability to pick garou out of a crowd. You can not find someone before thier first change but once they've had a first change you know them.

•   Resistant to Wyrm Emanations (6 Trait Merit) Gaia has chosen you to stand as a bulwark against the the Wyrm's corruption. In all Challenges involving Wyrm-Taint, you get a free retest to remain pure and unaffected. The protection granted by this Merit also guards against balefire, radiation and possession by Banes.

• Second Sight (2-6 Trait Merit) -- Fianna Only. A smattering of faerie blood in your veins blesses you with limited, uncontrolled moments of clairvoyance and precognition. For two points, you may know who is calling before you pick up the phone, or feel a visitor is coming. Disorienting flashes of insight and sudden visions of the future and other places are hallmarks of the Sight at higher levels. For six points, visions are relatively detailed and lengthy. Visions may be of real events or metaphorical, but are usually maddeningly hard to unravel until the foretold event occurs. This Merit is largely in the hands of Storytellers and Narrators to use as they feel is appropriate.

• Secret Code Language (2 trait merit)  This Merit confers knowledge of a particular communication mode, which might not be in any way verbal. It could involve hand-signals, body postures, artwork, flags, symbolism, numbers, and so on. To uninitiated observers, that language appears to be gibberish. Indeed, in many cases, a coded method of communication appears completely mundane unless you know what to look for.

• Silver Tolerance (7 Trait Merit) Something about the circumstances of your birth has blessed you with a greater tolerance toward the metal of the moon. You may win or tie a Simple Test to ignore the additional damage added by a silver weapon. You also suffer half the usual Gnosis penalties for carrying silver on your person.

• Spirit Magnet (2 Trait Merit) Whenever you visit the Umbra, you attract an unusual amount of attention from the area spirits, which converge on your location. Usually they're simply curious about you, though if something like a Bane becomes curious, that can become its own problem.

• Spirit Mentor (3 trait merit) --RESTRICTED  You have a ghostly companion and guide. This spirit is able to employ a number of minor powers when it really struggles to exert itself, but for the most part, its benefit to you is through the advice it can give. This ghost is the incorporeal spirit of someone who was once living, perhaps even someone particularly famous or wise. The Storyteller will create the ghost character, but will not reveal to you its full powers and potencies. Mentors of this sort are not true Mentors of the Arts, but might give special insights into aspects of mortal life that characters have missed or forgotten.

• Spiritual Parent (6 Trait Merit) One of your parents was a powerful Gaian spirit, and you bear the mark of that spirit's favor. You start the gain with one more Renown (of your choice) and the cost for you or your pack to take the spirit as a Totem is reduced by one. Banes hate you and tend to single you out for abuse. You also have another custom boon and a custom drawback based on the identity of your parent. Work these out with the STs in advance.

• Spirit Reputation (3pt Merit) Restricted: You have worked hard to make your name known to Spirits. You have +2 traits on social challenges of persuasion or intimidation against spirits. You are however -2 trait on challenges to deceive a spirit of your identity. Rare spirits and minor spirits may not understand your name, negating this merit. 

• Struggling (1 Point Merit) -- Bone Gnawers Only. Through long hours and hard work, you can occasionally pay a few bills. You can spend one Downtime Action to get a crappy-ass job. As long as you spend one Downtime Action every session thereafter working at your crappy-ass job, you can enjoy the benefits of Resources 1. You can't save the money you make; it all goes into immediate, important expenses. If you miss a downtime, you lose your job and you have to start over.

• Supernatural Companion (3 Trait Merit)-- Restricted. A friend of yours belongs to one of the other occult communities that populate the World of Darkness: a vampire, a ghost, a fera, a faerie, or something stranger still. Your friendship means you occasionally get to ask your friend for help -- just as your friend will sometimes ask the same of you. Garou elders will see this relationship as a conflict of loyalties, so you can expect repercussions if it's discovered. The Storyteller creates your friend as an NPC.

• Supporter (2 Trait Merit) You inspire those around you to greater efforts. You gain a +2 bonus on Social challenges to encourage, inspire, and otherwise evoke positive responses.  Once per scene you can give your allies a +1 Trait bonus on their next challenge by speaking a rousing word of support.

• Thunder's Child (5 Trait Merit) -- Shadow Lords Only. You are especially close to Grandfather Thunder, to the point where even Theurges of your Sept look on you with envy. If you are exposed to a thunderstorm, you gain a bonus Gnosis Trait, which can be spent normally. If you leave the storm or it finishes before the Gnosis is used, the Gnosis simply goes away. Storm- or electrical-based damage inflicts one less level of damage on you than normal. You also gain a bonus Trait in Social Challenges with Grandfather Thunder's brood or storm-spirits.

• Too Tough to Die (5 Trait Merit) --Restricted--  There's people who heal freakishly fast, there are werewolves and you're somewhere in between. You shrug off what would kill even the toughest human and casually walk away from things even expertly trained stuntmen dare not attempt. 

•  Mortals with this Merit are affected by Lethal and Agg Damage just like Garou. They're just that Tough!

•  Garou with this Merit Regenerates in all Forms.

• Non-Supernatural Poisons and Diseases have little effect on you, you couldn't catch a cold even if you had both hands and a map! This sadly includes alcohol and other drugs, for better and for worse.  

• True Love (1 Trait Merit) You have found the love of your life. In the darkest times, thinking of this person gives you the strength to carry on. Once per session, when the need arises, you may gain an additional Willpower Trait from the strength of your love. Be warned that the World of Darkness cannot abide such things as true love, and so you can expect its existence to be threatened. 

• Umbral Affinity (2 Trait Merit) -- Nuwisha Only. You have an unusually strong connection to the spirit world. All your difficulties for stepping sideways are reduced by two, to a minimum of three. 

• Unusually Fertile (1 Trait merit)  The character with this merit is far more likely to become a parent than another Garou is. While Garou are not substantially less fertile than humans are, a Garou with Unusually Fertile is twice as likely as an average human to either become pregnant or cause a pregnancy after a single unprotected sexual encounter. The children of a character with this Merit are no more likely to be Garou than are the children of another character not so blessed. 

• Venus Midsky: (3 pt Merit) -restricted-  You are good at mediating between factions. People trust you; you have a calming nature and voice. In any situation you mediate, you gain 3 Willpower points for the duration of the scene. Venus Midsky also limits your Rage: you cannot spend Rage points while you are mediating, furthermore you can not frenzy during. (Of course, success is determined by the Storyteller.) 

• Venus Rising: (4 pt Merit)-restricted- You are a born leader, and your charisma extends like an aura around you. People naturally like you, and love is not hard for you to find. The Children of Gaia are particularly fond of this aspect, and they see it as a way to bring peace and harmony to the Garou. Gain + 1 bonus on to any test involving leadership. 

• Weaver's Child (5 Trait Merit) You have an affinity for the patterns of civilization. As per the Glass Walker Tribal Advantage, you start with 1 extra Influence and may purchase Influence for 1 XP each. 

• Wolf Sight (1 Trait Merit) You see colors and intensities of light as a wolf does, no matter your form. You have a flat perception of colors, but your night vision is superb. In low light or when picking out movement, take a one-Trait bonus to your perception Challenges.