Every time you embrace someone it decreases your masquerade score, and if it gets too low there's the chance an inquisitor will try to kill you. Additionally, if you embrace someone ambitious, they may try to diablorize you right after the embrace.

But as far as I can tell, there are no hard limits. Only soft ones.

Its not easy at all to gain powers that way, herd XP gain is incredibly small.

I am playing a diablerist warmonger who executes through diablerie all vampire prisoners that are 9th generation and lower, this gives me a much better return than the herd but it's still quite low. I am going to restart for the new update. Then I am planning to found the sabbat in this next playthrough when everything is stable, and see how far I can take that playstyle.

I also want to try a herd of revenants to see if that increases the gain. I am not sure what the hard cap on the herd numbers are though.

Your herd size is capped at 5, this includes mortals and vampires. Earning XP through feeding is relatively slow but can go slightly faster if you have the talents from Auspex (lets you locate mortals of a specific humour) and Presence (lets you add a hunt target to your herd).

Originally posted by Target Practice:

Your herd size is capped at 5, this includes mortals and vampires. Earning XP through feeding is relatively slow but can go slightly faster if you have the talents from Auspex (lets you locate mortals of a specific humour) and Presence (lets you add a hunt target to your herd).

I thought it was five for herd as well but I just loaded up my game and I can start a scheme for a sixth. I wonder if its a bug with the version switch, or if one is lost when I complete it.

*I haven't started a brand new game yet after the update as I am waiting for any official or mod stability patches before investing time, so it could be going from the old version to the new version that has done it.

5 is the minimum. Before the latest patch you could increase it to diplomacy/10, rounded. Something has changed for sure, but now sure how. I would hazard a guess it's dimplomacy/5 now.

OP, "very powerful" is subjective and relative, but as noted above herd is not major contributing factor to character's development.
Is possible to max all trees, mundane and dsicipline, from scratch within 270 years of game time? Easily.
Is it possible to do so without herding at all? Very likely.

Originally posted by I haz grapes:

5 is the minimum. Before the latest patch you could increase it to diplomacy/10, rounded. Something has changed for sure, but now sure how. I would hazard a guess it's dimplomacy/5 now.

OP, "very powerful" is subjective and relative, but as noted above herd is not major contributing factor to character's development.
Is possible to max all trees, mundane and dsicipline, from scratch within 270 years of game time? Easily.
Is it possible to do so without herding at all? Very likely.

That's interesting to know about the limit being tied to diplomacy, with a minimum of 5
However, what are the major ways to becoming more powerful? If not herding, is straight-up hunting the best way to become more powerful/get more disciplines?

I agree with OP here. Herding is basically playing hunt-a-mole until you find a human with the intense/acute Resonance of your choice. Then, Herd them followed by Ghouling them. Congratulations, you have Resonance mana forever, with no maintenance at all.

I am of the school that it should flat-out impossible to max out every single lifestyle in 270 years. Personally, I would suggest:

a) Either Herd a mortal or Ghoul a mortal, but not both. Ghoul blood should give no sustenance in Resonance.

b) Going for full quantity of blood should significantly increase the likelihood that the Herd or Ghoul will get injured or sick, or immediately die of accidental blood loss. Do you want slow and steady resonance, or fast but deadly resonance?

c) Intense Resonance should be rare, and Acute resonance even rarer still. Basically, these should be reserved for humans of excellent or spectacular ability or pedigree. They should be assets to be held as dearly as a prized warhorse, an Artifact, or a luxury haven. Commonfolk or low-ability humans, meanwhile, should have the basest of resonance.

d) Ghoul maintenance should regularly cost you blood. Right now, it's free. If they don't have their yearly dose of blood, they should lose their powers and either become sick or start to wither and die. Denial of blood is a tool Kindreds use to keep their ghouls in line. The more ghouls you own, the more blood you need to spend. If that situation leads to you hunting all the time well that's the price to pay for having a lot of ghouls.

e) Other uses should be found for ghouls than just be there, look pretty, and be fed upon indefinitely. They were, after all, stand-ins for their masters' interest during daylight. Maybe only ghouls, revenants, and kindreds should be eligible for minor titles?

f) Finally, Predator type should play a definitive role in which type of character you should be able to Herd. If Siren, for example, only lovers or seduced victims should be able to join a Herd. Cenobite? Characters with Learning lifestyles only. Etc.

@WingedIncubus

I find gain steady even when I do diablerie like a maniac, the herd gives very little by comparison.

B - Revanants should get some added protection from this, if i've gone to the time and trouble of saving space in court for them, breeding them, and ghouling people to get them in the first place.

D and E - Yes. Very much yes. I've suggested this before. I was really hoping to be able to use them in schemes and events. When hunting a vampire or being hunted yourself, ghouls should be optional to have in play, and obviously, often die for your victory. Perhaps they could be assigned to protect others you care about, your childe, or a mortal in your herd you want to be protected.

Even just story events here could work, having them inform you of a security concern, find a hook on someone of their own free will, be kidnapped by another vampire looking to anger you, be assigned to spy on others, or keep a lookout for a special kind of mortal.

Otherwise the blood cost would be too high, because after you've got out of the early game and filled the council with significantly better vampires, bred your revanants then ghouls are only there for RP value.

I've never hunted a third-gen since the mechanics were changed, but for an example event chain I was hoping they'd be in that hunt with you and likely die of course.

F - Nice idea.

hunt till you find intense resonance your looking for, ghoul them first dont herd first as you will get a weak hook instead of the ghoul hook if you do. try to get auspex first for finding mortals with specific resonance. in terms of learning new diciplines I found the best way is to romance or befriend someone with lots of diciplines and ask them to mentor you. beware the blood blond thou, let the hook expire before you ask for mentoring from the same person again.