A Druid Vampire

[Jhaelen]

From a campaign building standpoint, RAW is something that stands in the corner weeping softly.

As it should be!

 

[gamerprinter]

From a campaign building standpoint, RAW is something that stands in the corner weeping softly.

And I'm kicking it while its down! Hai-yah!

GP

 

[Diamond Cross]

A ghost is a soul that hasn't moved on yet. Ghosts exist in D&D.

And in Buffy both Spike and Angel have their soul.

And undead may have no soul, but they would be animated by some sort of life force. So you'd have to address where that comes from. Perhaps the life force comes from Midichlorines.

 

[Herschel]

From a campaign building standpoint, RAW is something that stands in the corner weeping softly.

Darned tootin'.

@ Diamond Cross: Your idea may have a logic hole the size of Nova Scotia, but it's freakin' cool, and that's what counts.

 

[Hussar]

A ghost is a soul that hasn't moved on yet. Ghosts exist in D&D.

And in Buffy both Spike and Angel have their soul.

And undead may have no soul, but they would be animated by some sort of life force. So you'd have to address where that comes from. Perhaps the life force comes from Midichlorines.

Did you miss the SRD quote?

once-living creatures animated by spiritual or supernatural forces.

In other words, not animated by some sort of "life force".

I really don't know how to make it clearer. "Once living" means not living anymore by any reasonable reading of English. There's no life force, because it's dead.

Bringing in Spike and Angel is fine. Not RAW, but certainly fine. Heck, I LOVE the idea of vampiric druids. Very cool. But, don't try to justify it through mechanics because you can't. It's a contradition of RAW.

And that's totally cool.

 

[Diamond Cross]

SRD?

I spit on the SRD.

My game, my story, my rules.

Oh, BTW, spiritual is another name for life-force.

 

[jonesy]

...another name for life-force.

Yeah, I love Mathilda May. That was a fun movie.

What?

 

[gamerprinter]

SRD?

I spit on the SRD.

My game, my story, my rules.

Oh, BTW, spiritual is another name for life-force.

I'd have to agree with this, Hussar's mention of the SRD: once living beings now animated by spiritual or other supernatural means...

'Spiritual' sounds like a soul to me, even if a corrupted one.

While the RAW has Orcus as a 'god' of the undead, I've developed my own god of vampires campaigns ago. To a vampire being human is like being a caterpillar - some day, it might grow up to be a vampire, but for now its just food. Vampires are not automotons, they think, have individual goals, need to feed and rest - sounds like someone with a soul to me.

An animated skeleton has no soul, and is not 'un-alive' like a vampire. It is just an automoton activated by magic. Both are undead, but are two very different 'animals'.

As an aside, a lich has a soul, he just keeps his in a phylactery...

GP

 

[Diamond Cross]

Yeah, I love Mathilda May. That was a fun movie.

What?

Yep. That was the movie that convinced me that if an absolutely gorgeous naked woman comes up to you completely out of the blue you should run because she's going to kill you.

 

[Hussar]

Yes, but that whole pesky, "Once alive" bit tends to mean that there's no life energy there.

And, I'll note that the lich doesn't actually have a soul in his body. He's got his in a jar somewhere. And, if you hit him with a True Rez, he doesn't become a living lich, he outright is destroyed.

Same as the vampire. The person reverts to however he or she was before she was killed by the previous vampire. Including alignment and whatnot.

Spirit and soul are not synonymous in D&D. Souls are specific in D&D canon. Lot's of Fey are nature spirits - not souls.