D&D 5E UA Revenant PC vs death by vampire bite

[Nevvur]

Can a PC revenant be turned into a vampire spawn? Or does Relentless Pursuit still kick in 24 hours after death, returning you to life?

My thoughts... I think it depends a lot on how you define undeath. Is it a form of life, or a form of death? If it's a form of life, being a revenant (the UA kind anyway) is compatible with vampirism. If it's a form of death, being a revenant takes precedence. If it's truly a unique half-way point, as I think most people define it, it's really a matter of DM fiat.

The rules don't offer an explicit answer, but I think the green box on p.295 supports revenants being turned into vampire spawn. That is, they keep their stats, which would include subrace. On the other hand, I think it's a much cooler story if the thirst for revenge is more powerful than vampirism, so I would personally rule accordingly.

(If this has been discussed already, please point me to the relevant thread)

 

[5Shilling]

Good question. This might be a case of looking past the rules to underlying fiction eg why would a vampire want to drink the blood of, essentially, a walking corpse. For the vampire it would be like biting a zombie, very unpleasant.

Here's a fun idea though - what if the revenant returned in a different body, and the body killed by the vampire rose as a spawn? Could get pretty trippy with the revenant fighting its own previous body (what's animating it? maybe the original owner, maybe an evil spirit of some kind).

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

In the Danilov Quintet, a vampire compared drinking another vampire's blood as drinking urine.

I think a PC could make a Will save, and if successful, they come to life. Otherwise, they become an NPC vampire spawn. But that's not directly in the rules, of course.

 

[jayoungr]

I think a PC could make a Will save, and if successful, they come to life.

5E doesn't have Will saves. What stat would you use? WIS? CON? I could even see STR...

 

[CAFRedblade]

If you want to have a PC make a save, I'd go with Wis, since it's the Revenant's driving will pushing him onwards.

But honestly, I prefer the above thought that a Vampire trying to drink from what is essentially a walking corpse
may find the situation unpleasant at the very least, and disgusting. Drinking urine, sewer water, spoiled milk....

Yes, it gives those PC's a protection against vampires, but that should be a fairly rare opportunity.

 

[Nevvur]

Except revenant PCs from UA are not undead, at least as far as mechanics are concerned.

Travis ‎@Celerum [MENTION=32417]MikeM[/MENTION]earls does a revanent become undead?

Mike Mearls &#8206 [MENTION=32417]MikeM[/MENTION]earls
@Celerum nope - you still can be poisoned, etc.
9:30 PM - 5 Apr 2016

FWIW, I tweeted the question in the OP to JC, though I suspect the answer will be it's up to the DM.

 

[Nevvur]

Except revenant PCs from UA are not undead, at least as far as mechanics are concerned.

Travis ‎@Celerum
[MENTION=32417]MikeM[/MENTION]earls does a revanent become undead?

Mike Mearls &#8206 [MENTION=32417]MikeM[/MENTION]earls
@Celerum nope - you still can be poisoned, etc.
9:30 PM - 5 Apr 2016

FWIW, I tweeted the question in the OP to JC, though I suspect the answer will be it's up to the DM.

 

[Sunseeker]

The way I have always run it is that vampirism is a curse. Although it requires a physical interaction to take place, death is not always necessary, nor really is even the biting. But any creature not already under some other effect that would prevent them from being afflicted with vampirism (such as lycanthropy) can be afflicted with the vampiric curse that causes one to "live" in a state of being that is neither dead, nor alive and require the blood of living creatures for sustenance.

 

[Nuncle]

Thanks for the discussion, folks!
And thanks to Nevvur for re-posting my question here, where there's more bodies to hash out various viewpoints
Here's the original page with the original question, just for completeness


Greetings all!
Here's a "How would you rule?" issue to sink your fangs into!
My players will be starting Curse of Strahd next week. One of them will be using this optional subrace from the Unearthed Arcana on the WotC site:

Revenant
*My linking ability is on hold pending more posts by me, so this webpage link is missing*

The part that concerns me from the Revenant benefits is this:
"If you die, you return to life 24 hours after death."

And the reason it concerns me is Strahd's ability, which is this (After Strahd kills a PC with his bite):
"A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under Strahd's control."

See where I'm going with this?

How would you rule this? If Strahd kills a Revenant PC, what happens? Does the PC come under his control? Or does the Revenant ability trump Strahd's powers?
I already have an idea how I will rule this, but I'm very curious to hear other opinions, namely yours!

 

[Demorgus]

My 2 copper pieces on this a vampire wouldn't knowingly do the whole biting death on a revenant. They would recognize the other worldliness of it and would kill it outright in another fashion, maybe even making sure to place the revenant's corpse somewhere that when it came back to life in 24 hours, it would be in a contained situation.