Attributes quantify a character’s innate strengths and weaknesses. Depending upon how a player allocates her starting dots, the character might be strong and perceptive, quick and intelligent, or witty and beautiful, based on whether the character has high Physical, Social, or Mental attributes. A character should also be weak in some attributes.
Creating a character who is an imperfect individual makes her more realistic, and gives the character weaknesses that she can overcome during the course of the chronicle. Moments of growth are good for a protagonist, and raising an attribute can be a wonderful reward after a tense moment in the story. It could indicate that the character learned from her experiences, growing wiser, stronger, or more capable of surviving in a dangerous social setting.
Most characters have attribute ratings between 3 (poor) and 5 (average), though exceptionally gifted individuals may have ratings of 7 (excellent) or even 10 (peak human capacity). As vampires are supernatural creatures, their players receive bonus points that they can add to their potential attribute maximums. The number of points a vampire character receives in this manner varies according to her Generation, reflecting the potency of the vampire’s blood.