Hive Nexus Gestalt

Very few Hive coteries develop the fullest expression of their philosophy, in which every member’s mind shares certain aspects with all the others. This is because very few Kindred develop the Disciplines needed for Hive Nexus Gestalt. Those few coteries are, essentially, individuals in their own right while the Devotion is active, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Cost: 1 Vitae per night
Dice Pool: Wits + Socialize + Auspex – the total number of minds in the gestalt
Action: Instant

A single success on the activation roll establishes the link until the nexus member (the “queen” to rude outsiders, “focus” to hivers) next slumbers, gets knocked into torpor or is destroyed. However, there are several restrictions that govern admission into the totality. First, only Kindred can join. Second, every Kindred who participates needs a second-stage Vinculum to every other participant. Any who lack this bond cannot be joined, though the others may fuse without them. Third, all the members must willingly submit to the Devotion.

Once fused, all the components act in concert and participate in each other’s thoughts. This has several benefits:

• All members gain a +1 bonus to Intelligence dice pools.
• Members gain a +1 bonus to Skill dice pools if someone else in the Hive has that Skill at a level at least two points higher.
• Willpower is shared out of a common pool. There are drawbacks to being mentally aware in this fashion, however.
• Whenever any character takes an action that would force a degeneration roll on one of the members, all the members make individual degeneration rolls.
• Members cannot regain Willpower through their Vices unless all members of the Hive have the same Vice. Even then indulgence yields only a single Willpower point to the pool.
• The gestalt may force an individual to perform an action against his will.

This last one is particularly important. Gestalts share their thoughts and beliefs, but that doesn’t mean they always agree, no more than a mortal always has an unambiguous opinion, no more than a vampire’s Man and Beast always concur. When a majority of the Hive members want one of the bodies to do something, they can attempt to force that body to act, even if the body’s owner disagrees. When that happens, the owner rolls Composure + Resolve against the highest opposing Intelligence and highest opposing Resolve. If the body’s owner gets more successes, he retains control. If not, the body does the bidding of the Hive.

If there is a tie, in which half the Hive wants an action and half does not, the owner of the body that would take the action decides. Furthermore, any member of the group can break out of the Hive at any time by spending a Willpower point out of the collective pool. So Hives that need to send a member to certain death should make sure their Willpower is completely gone first — though if a Hive is considering such a sacrifice, it’s usually because all other options have already failed.