What stats should I give to a vampire who was just embraced? For example, if a player sought permission from the Prince successfully (no matter how he did it…), or if he is a Sabbat member who is mass embracing. Should I generate him just as I would generate a normal character?
Someone told me that Camarilla neonates/fledglings built at character creation actually aren't that young, they already spent some time being vampires. He also told me that Sabbat shovelheads typically have just Disciplines on level one, and are typically weak. I asked him to support his point by an official source, and he responded with "No, you!"
What do the books say about it?
If vampires get those 3 free dots of Disciplines when embraced, are they already familiar with them, how to use them, etc.? With things such as Potence, Fortitude or Celerity it's obvious, but can one understand how to use, say, Obfuscate or Thaumaturgy when just embraced? In the same case, why don't vampires ghoul potential embraces before it happens so they get 1 more in-clan discipline dot and Potence?
Best Answer
Your friend is correct that neonate is not the rank of a new Camarilla vampire; they're called fledglings.
However, the difference is merely legal-social — a fledgling is still the responsibility of their sire, with all the actions of the fledgling attributed to the sire. This keeps sires motivated to keep their childer in line and to teach them how to be functional members of vampire society.
Notably, there is no power difference — again, the distinction is only social (VtM20, p. 19):
The stats of a fledgling vampire then would be the same as of a neonate. However, VtM is not a strict rules-as-written kind of game; when the Storyteller is doing something non-standard, the Storyteller is expected to make the necessary adjustments that make sense. In particular, you should decide which abilities on the PC's sheet require teaching, and not allow them to be used (or not used at full pip strength) by the fledgling until receiving that teaching from their sire.
Though this focuses on Camarilla, the fundamental nature of a fledgling doesn't change when you look at Sabbat — it's still a social distinction. A Sabbat fledgling may have a harder time learning their bloodline's abilities of course, but self-discovery is a good, if harsh, teacher and befits the situation of a shovelhead.