As a stealthy and intuitive Malkavian, Leysha is a very interesting character in Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong. This guide will cover her skills and disciplines, and discuss good ways to build her as the game goes on.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is a narrative RPG developed by Big Bad Wolf and published by Nacon. Set in the World of Darkness, the city of Boston has become the site of a mass murder of Kindred and Kine alike. With this threat to the Masquerade looming over them, three vampires must uncover the truth and work to survive the fallout.
Leysha's Clan and Disciplines
Leysha is a Malkavian, the clan of Mad Oracles whose fragmented minds glean knowledge of the future and past from visions. As a Malkavian Leysha is able to use the Disciplines Obfuscate, Dominate, and Auspex, which allow her to move unseen, manipulate others, and greatly enhance her senses.
All upgrades for a skill also grant +1 to that skill's rating, thus improving its effectiveness and/or reducing the hunger costs of using that discipline in dialog or exploration.
Obfuscate
The Discipline of Obfuscate allows the vampire to move unseen by manipulating the perception of those around them, allowing them to fade from view or even disguise themselves.
- Mask of Stealth: Grants Leysha access to "Unseen Passage" allowing her to become imperceptible to others, but preventing her from interacting with the environment beyond reading documents and/or examining objects. This does not protect her from detection by electronic equipment. This skill also grants "Mask of a Thousand Faces," allowing Leysha to copy a target's uniform and then change into it in a Safe Zone. This skill is automatically unlocked at the start of the game.
- Cloak of Concealment: This allows Leysha to hide objects from onlookers and interfere with electrical equipment, including the ability to prevent electrical equipment from detecting Leysha.
- Janus: Leysha can copy an additional uniform, allowing her to store two disguises at once.
- Doppelganger: Allows Leysha to steal someone's identity and impersonate them after gathering information from them in conversation. She can then disguise herself as that person in a Safe Zone.
- Vanish: Mask of a Thousand Faces and Doppelganger may now be activated anywhere, without needing access to a Safe Zone.
Leysha spends much of her time throughout the game investigating and infiltrating places she isn't supposed to be, so grabbing extra skills from Obfuscate when possible is greatly helpful when exploring the world.
Dominate
The Vampiric Discipline of command and control, allowing Leysha to give commands to others and compel them to obey.
- Compel: Gives access to Dominate as a Dialogue choice. This is automatically unlocked at the start of the game.
- Words of Steel: Gives an additional Dominate point.
- Imperious Speech: Using Dominate generates one less Hunger.
- Iron Fist: The next skill used will automatically succeed without using Willpower. This ability generates four hunger when used.
- Logotomy: Iron Fist generates one less hunger when used.
There are several situations where Leysha will need to manipulate or fast-talk her way through enemies while exploring restricted areas, and having points in Dominate can greatly improve her skill at doing so.
Auspex
Auspex is the Vampiric Discipline of choice when investigating, allowing Leysha to enhance her senses and read the recent past and possible future.
- Heightened Senses: Grants Auspex Vision and reveals interactions that use Leysha's five senses. This is unlocked automatically at the start of the game.
- Psychometry: Auspex Vision now reveals interactions involving the memories of an item, allowing Leysha to see visions of the past.
- Premoniton: Auspex Vision now reveals premonitions, allowing Leysha glimpses of possible futures.
- Scry the Soul: Auspex Vision allows Leysha to read the aura of a target, allowing her to discern their nature and/or resonance.
- Scry the Mind: This allows Leysha to determine whether her opponent will focus a skill or not in conversation.
Leysha can make constant use of Auspex throughout the game to uncover additional details in the world and enhance her skills as an investigator, making Auspex invaluable.
Attributes and Skills
More than any other character, Leysha specializes in investigation and infiltration. As a result she makes excellent use of skills that allow her to uncover secrets, identify additional details, and manipulate others while in disguise.
As a result, Leysha makes excellent use of the Psychology skill, allowing her to read people and play off of their personality, motivations, and fears to manipulate them.
The Psychology skill is governed by the Mental attribute, which also improves the Dominate discipline. As such, putting points into the Mental attribute is very useful for her.
As an infiltrator and investigator, Leysha also benefits greatly from the Deduction and Education skills, allowing her to make accurate assumptions and deductions based on clues, and to identify important terms and details in the environment and conversation.
Finally, Leysha can make very good use of the Security and Technology skills, allowing her to bypass security and gain access to restricted areas and/or hidden items.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong is available now for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch.