The Vampie Class preview

[Nemesis Destiny]

It's a shame Blood is Life applies to willing allies... being able to capture enemies and drain them would be fun. Unbalanced, I guess, though

I think it would make sense if they add "helpless target" to the list of things whose blood you can drink to gain back HP. They can't resist if they're helpless.

 

[twilsemail]

Well, remember that Blood Drinking deals damage, so you can't drain a foe indefinitely. And the cap on healing surges means there's limited value to be had from keeping defeated foes around to nosh on.

You could always just knock them unconscious over and over again... They're not dying if you do that, neh?

 

[Dausuul]

You could always just knock them unconscious over and over again... They're not dying if you do that, neh?

Technically yes, but I think that's the point when any halfway sensible DM says, "Sorry, you sucked it dry and now it's dead." In any case, there's not a lot of point. You can't store healing surges above your maximum, so once you're full up and fully healed, further Blood Drinking serves no purpose.

Vampires look to be an interesting class... potentially immune to healing surge attrition if they play their cards right, but with access to fewer surges in any one battle.

 

[Xris Robin]

Well, they can sort of store surges, since they explicitly regain full health if they have more than their maximum during a short rest. Which why I don't think they'll have like, 3 surges or something silly. Too easy to overcap and heal after the fight, especially since they can steal at least one surge each fight.

UngeheuerLich has a point, though. Since they have regen when bloodied, after any fight you can almost assume they heal back to non-bloodied. And since they heal double by eating an ally's surge, they heal to full for one surge after every fight. Vampires really want a way to trade surges.. artficier or another vampire, what other ways are there?

 

[UngeheuerLich]

i really assume something like 1+con surges at most...

But even if they have more, they don´t want to end a fight with less than their starting number...

 

[Xris Robin]

Assuming the vampire can manage to only heal once per fight, they usually won't lose any surges, since they can gain a surge so easily. Heal once, then steal a surge on your next hit to make up for it. And with such good regen (especially in early heroic), they might not even have to do that much.

 

[Dausuul]

Assuming the vampire can manage to only heal once per fight, they usually won't lose any surges, since they can gain a surge so easily. Heal once, then steal a surge on your next hit to make up for it. And with such good regen (especially in early heroic), they might not even have to do that much.

Yeah, with that regen and the ability to steal surges, I think the intent is for vampires to be tough to wear down. I expect them to have on the order of 2-3 healing surges as a counterbalance, so they'll be endlessly hungry for blood.

It'll also get interesting when DMs house rule (as many will, I suspect) that Blood Drinker and Blood Is Life don't work on non-living targets. Vampires fighting constructs or other undead could get real hungry... those feats that give you extra healing surges could be useful for a change.

 

[TarionzCousin]

That whole "wear a cloak" thing mostly makes the sunlight vulnerability into pure fluff, but that's fine.

(And I strongly approve of the "burns in sunlight" effect.

I played a 2E Dark Sun campaign and one of my fellow players was unwillingly turned into a vampire. The DM ruled that he was always sick during the day if he was outside--mechanically it was something like -2 to all d20 rolls.

Also, it was amazing how many attacks knocked off his hood. He rigged up something to keep it on tight, but the DM ruled he had a penalty to initiative (and Search/Perception or whatever we used in 2E).

Whenever he was exposed to the sun he took increasing damage (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc). I think being Stunned is much worse.

Ah, good times.

 

[Dausuul]

I played a 2E Dark Sun campaign and one of my fellow players was unwillingly turned into a vampire. The DM ruled that he was always sick during the day if he was outside--mechanically it was something like -2 to all d20 rolls.

Also, it was amazing how many attacks knocked off his hood. He rigged up something to keep it on tight, but the DM ruled he had a penalty to initiative (and Search/Perception or whatever we used in 2E).

Whenever he was exposed to the sun he took increasing damage (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc). I think being Stunned is much worse.

Ah, good times.

It's weakened, not stunned. Stunned would be a death sentence, at least if you didn't have allies to save you--you could never get out of the sun to safety.

 

[Incenjucar]

You could always just knock them unconscious over and over again... They're not dying if you do that, neh?

You can't gain benefits from attacking targets that aren't a meaningful threat. There's a whole blurb about the "sack of rats" issue in the core books.