Sanctity of Merits

[ChrisF]

As a reminder to folks, Sanctity of Merits doesn't let you just dump dots randomly to buy other stuff. You need a reasonable reason to have actually lost it, even if willingly "Cashing it in." You aren't going to forget high level fighting styles in a few months or have encyclopedic knowledge vanish. And removing social merits like Allies and Status means you're purposely cutting ties with them IC, which may have consequences (though yes, most times it's the same as just quitting or not calling anymore, but quitting a Covenant, for instance, means they'll be watching you closely).

Per the entry for it in the core: "With Storyteller permission, you may ‘cash in’ a Merit voluntarily and replace it with Experiences. This should not be used as a way to purchase a Merit, take advantage of its benefits, and then cash it out for something else. But if a Merit’s run its course and no longer makes sense for your character, you may use those points elsewhere. Merits such as Ambidextrous, Eidetic Memory and the various Fighting Style Merits reflect abilities and knowledge that your character has, and therefore shouldn’t be cashed in or replaced. Then again, if an Ambidextrous character loses his left hand...."

So, it should never be something "internal" to a character. Exceptions to this exist, but mainly come down to ST plots and the one month or so grace period we give people to tweak their sheet after creation. Or the one Atariya merit that explicitly lets them do something similar (potentially, other powers might allow similar things).