I'm working on a mid-powered Hunter: The Vigil game, and I want the characters to have a bit of an edge in combat. What are all of the published "minor templates" that could be applied to Mortals -- and where are they published? I'm familiar with the following:
Anything I'm overlooking? Either edition (1E or 2E) is fine; they play reasonably well together and I'm using elements of each anyway.
I'm going to repeat some in the interest of having a complete list. Paraphrasing the definition introduced in Second Sight, a lesser/minor template has 3 facets: 1) still mortal 2) has powers 3) able to be overwritten by major template. I'm also including a link to my similar RPG SO answer: Rules for gradual transformation from mortal to template in nWoD? If anyone is aware of additional minor templates, please let me know in a comment and I'll add them.
Atariya
Exceptionally lucky mortals.
Covered in: Hurt Locker p. 78-82
The Dreamers
Mortal sleeper agents who have learned to access some of their subliminal Jason Bourne-style training.
Covered in: Hurt Locker p. 82-86
Extrordinary Mortals
Mortals with Skill Tricks, which are astounding applications of normal skills that might surprise even supernatural types and each comes with a Plot Hook.
Covered in: World of Darkness: Mirrors p. 52-69
Forbidden Lore, Conviction & Expanded Willpower
Optional systems for allowing mortal characters to pack more punch against the strange, sort of building your own minor template. Forbidden Lore offers supernatural boons in exchange for sanity, the human spirit powers Conviction, and Expanded Willpower is mostly what it sounds like: more ways to use Willpower.
Covered in: World of Darkness: Mirrors p. 28-33
Immortal
There are multiple types (from blood-bathers to body-thieves to people who've basically become spirits) and depending on how you want to treat them, they might be major-template-able.
Covered in: Immortals for 1e. For more recent rules, see Mummy: The Curse 2e material.
The Infected
Carriers of a supernatural sickness.
Covered in: Hurt Locker p. 87-91
The Lost Boys (can be any gender)
Soldiers experimented on by an organization called Delta Protocol. They have high-tech implants but are dependent on the Protocol's serum.
Covered in: Hurt Locker p. 96-100
The Plain
An online community of assertive, radical pacifists, some of whom have attained supernatural abilities to quell violence.
Covered in: Hurt Locker p. 91-95
Possessed
A mortal who shares their mind and body with a demon. Gain powers related to the 7 deadly sins. NOTE: These demons are traditional infernal flavor, predating and distinct from Demon: The Descent.
Covered in: Inferno Chapter 3
Psychic
Psychic is kind of a catch-all for anything supernatural, if we're honest. Almost every power could be construed as psychic and anything listed as a psychic power could be Storytold as having some other origin.
Covered mechanically in: Second Sight Chapter 2, Chronicles of Darkness as Supernatural Merits, Hurt Locker p. 71-77 for more Supernatural Merits.
Psychic Vampires
Psychics who can drain life essence from others.
Covered in: Hurt Locker p. 101-105
Skinchanger
Mortals who steal the shapes of animals by wearing their skins.
Covered in: Skinchangers for 1e, but summarized and updated for 2e on Dark Eras p. 248-249.
Slasher
Technically intended as a strictly antagonist template, they are still mortal and could theoretically be Embraced, undergo First Change, Awaken, etc. Keep in mind that this template and its Merts are meant to keep a whole troupe busy, so they are often purposefully unbalanced compared to individual characters.
Covered in: World of Darkness: Slasher (the most Hunter of non-Hunter books)
Thaumaturge
Mortals who practice a Low Magic tradition. Provided traditions include Apostle of the Dark One, Ceremonial Magician, Hedge Witch, Shaman, Taoist Alchemist, Vodoun.
Covered in: introduced in Second Sight Chapter 3. For 2e, most of their powers could be Supernatural Merits from the core book or Hurt Locker. See also Sorcerers in Mummy.
Ghoul
Mortals who drink vampire blood for immortality, healing and sometimes learn vampire Disciplines. CAUTION: after the 3rd feeding from the same vampire, the ghoul develops a Vinculum, a supernatural emotional dependence on that vampire.
Covered in: Existed in VtR1 and had their own sourcebook, Ghouls. Vampire: The Requiem 2e and Half-Damned would have the most recent rules.
Dhampir / Dampyr
Mortals descended from vampires.
Covered in: First presented in 1e's Night Horrors: The Wicked Dead (there as dampyr), but recently fleshed out further in Half-Damned for 2e.
Wolf-Blooded
Mortal relatives of werewolves. Blood of the Wolf provided expanded rules for wolf-bloodedness.
Covered in: Werewolf: The Forsaken, Blood of the Wolf, Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e p. 276-305
Spirit-Ridden / Shadow Occultists
Mortals normally can't intentionally access the abilities of spirits riding them, but some know how to bargain for these powers. The Shadow Occultism Merit in Shunned by the Moon is for mortals who survived being possessed, partaking of the spirit, and endured a breaking point from it all, thereby attuning them to the spirit's Influences and its Bane.
Covered in:
Church of the Wolf
Mortals who worship werewolves (presented in a book of antagonists mind you). They have several stacking Merits, the first causes Lunacy breaking points to make them Awestruck, Enraptured or, on a dramatic failure, Wolf-Blooded.
Covered in: Shunned by the Moon p. 134
Sleepwalker
Sleepwalkers are mortals who can view and remember Supernal magic and do not unravel spells through Disbelief.
Covered in: Mage: The Awakening 2e
Proximus (plural: Proximi)
Mortals whose lineage or life has been touched by the Supernal. They receive some mini-Mage powers and have a Curse that acts as a Persistent Condition. Instead of getting Paradox from spells, their Curse gets worse.
Covered in: Mage: The Awakening 2e p. 307-309, a 2nd example lineage exists on Dark Eras p. 110-111. First mentioned in MtA 1e, fleshed out in The Silver Ladder.
Illuminated
Sleepwalkers or exceptionally willful mortals that have been educated and initiated by the Silver Ladder and now run one of the order's Cryptopoly cells. While not necessarily magical themselves, they know about Supernal magic and have the connections to request spells or imbued items from their Awakened handlers. Some Illuminated are also Proximi.
Covered in: The Silver Ladder
Ensorcelled
Mortals who are able to see fae magic for what it is, typically granted by a changeling through a Pledge. Autumn Nightmares p. 44 describes the eternally (and unintentionally) Ensorcelled and suggests playing as them.
Covered in: Changeling: The Lost 1e. NOTE: Doesn't appear to exist in 2e.
Fae-touched - 1e
Mortals who have been to Faerie but had not completed the full transformation into changelings.
Covered in: Equinox Road p. 105-107
Fae-touched - 2e
Mortals who had powerful promises to a changeling and wandered into the Hedge looking for them, invisibly altered by the Wyrd and the strength of the promise. They can learn to use some Contracts and even get some unique Merits all their own. However, the mortal is plagued by a compulsion to return to the Hedge and by distracting, disturbing dreams of the changeling's Durance until they escape Arcadia.
Covered in: Changeling: The Lost 2e p. 310-321
Former Goblin Queen (or King, presumably)
If a mortal child comes of age while a Goblin Queen, they return back to being mortal but gain 3 dots of Supernatural Merits "as she is irrevocably changed."
Covered in: Changeling: The Lost 2e p. 304
Lucid-Dreamer
Non-changelings who can access the Gate of Ivory while asleep and consciously choose to wake.
Covered in: Changeling: The Lost 2e p. 123
Hunter
Hunters themselves check all 3 boxes for being a minor template. In addition to the main set of Endowments, the book Compacts & Conspiracies introduces special Merits for the Compacts. Keep in mind also that there are additional Conspiracies and Compacts in pretty much every Hunter supplement, so check those out if you don't like the core-book's ones.
Covered in: Hunter: the Vigil, Compacts & Conspiracies.
Gifted
A Merit for Mortals who have access to specific Gutter Magic-like abilities (Gutter Magic being the much-condensed magic system presented in Witch Finders).
Covered in: Witch Finders p. 139
The Redeemed
Prometheans who have completed their Great Work and become mortal. They might retain some memories or supernatural powers, particularly if they maintained an Athanor.
Covered in: Promethean: The Created
Scion
Child of a Promethean. Seemingly immune to Disquiet.
Covered in: Magnum Opus
(I'll admit these are all kind of a reach.)
Absent (*ghost)
Ghosts who have detached from their Anchors, instead using stolen memories to resist the pull of the Underworld. Technically not a mortal, but I'm including it because it is described as a minor template.
Covered in: Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e p. 281-291
Beacon of Life
Mortals with such a strong connection to life that they repel the Underworld's influence, adding their dots in Occult when resisting ghost Numina or the Stygian Key. Single 3-dot Merit only available to non-supernaturals at character creation.
Covered in: World of Darkness: Book of the Dead p. 91
Gatekeeper
Some mortals can open Avernian Gates. They don't get any other powers explicitly, but could be combined with Supernatural Merits or Second Sight stuff to flesh them out.
Covered in: World of Darkness: Book of the Dead p. 50-51
Medium
Only available to non-supernatural mortals, the 3-dot Medium Merit lets them see and hear ghosts clearly and they don't penalize ghosts trying to manifest, but only in stressful scenes. 5-dot version provides more control. Lastly, if a medium dies or nearly dies, they are more likely to attract a geist.
Covered in: World of Darkness: Book of the Dead p. 93
Immortals
All the immortal types from World of Darkness: Immortals are reprised, either in Mummy 2e or Book of Lasting Death.
Covered in: Mummy: The Curse 2e
Invested Cultist / Lineal Inheritor
Via the Rite of Investment, a mummy may empower a mortal cultist with a Pillar, granting the mortal access to the mummy's Decree Affinities. A mortal child with an invested parent automagically inherits the Pillar upon the parent's death, whether the child knows about mummies or not. Also, if the mummy's body is destroyed, the mummy might reincarnate into any invested mortal's body.
Covered in: Mummy: The Curse 2e p. 118, 162, 204
Sadikh
Half-alive, mystically-bound servants of mummies. They sleep when mummies "die" and awaken when their masters return. I'm not sure if they're greater-template-able, though.
Covered in: Mummy: The Curse 1e p. 188-192, Mummy 2e p. 162 & 204-205.
Sorcerors
Mortals with the talent or knowledge to practice Sorcerous Rites. Many learn to create vestiges, the lesser type of vessels for Sekhem. Becoming an invested cultist on top of that makes rites more efficient.
Covered in: Mummy: The Curse 2e p. 271-283, but see also the Supernatural Merits section of that book.
Witness
Mortals immune to Sybaris, an aura of awe & despair that mummies give off. They're somewhat like Mage's Sleepwalkers, except Witnesses are mechanically drawn to mummies (Sleepwalkers have no especial compulsion).
Covered in: Mummy: The Curse 1e p. 83-84, 2e p. 121, 162-163
Stigmatic
Humans exposed to the God-Machine and marked by it.
Covered in: Demon: The Descent
Demon-blooded
Children of demons, adopted or biological. Automatically Stigmatic. Come in 3 levels: Latent, Offspring or Fractal. Latent may be become Offspring the way mortals become Stigmatic. Offspring automatically learn 1 Embed and are able to learn more. Fractals are rare, only born of 2 demon parents, come with several inherent powers, including potentially the Quantum Understanding Merit which is the only mechanically reliable way to detect if a demon is lying.
Covered in: Heirs to Hell
Inferno has the Possessed, which are pretty much what they sound like. A demon has bonded itself permanently to them, giving them infernal powers (Vestments) and immortality, with the demon tending to roll to assume control if the host isn't sating the demon's Vice sufficiently.
Hurt Locker introduced six new micro-templates for mortals: Atariya, Dreamers, Infected, Plain, Lost Boys, and Psychic Vampires. They have luck powers, special training as brainwashed sleeper agents, a supernatural disease, nonviolent protest powers, military implants, and a thirst for others' energy/Willpower, respectively.
Changeling the Lost: Equinox Road (a 1e book) provides two lesser templates, for those who have spent less time in Arcadia:
This process of transformation has four distinct stages: mortal, enchanted mortal, fae- touched mortal, and changeling.
Draft rules for the upcoming Changeling: The Lost 2e have included a different minor template with the same name as an old one: the Fae-Touched, mortals who made a promise to a changeling before they were abducted, and were drawn into the Hedge by that connection. (Opposite from 1e, their Wyrd 0 makes them burn bright and brief, giving them a shortened lifespan. They tend to last less than 20 years after they've seen the Hedge.)
