Corrections to Monsters in the CC

[Cleon]

I was wandering through my D&D collection over the weekend and while comparing Giant Bats entries (as one does), happened to notice a wee problem with the CC conversion of the Lesser Vampire.

Here's the Creature Catalog new 3.5 conversions.

Since they are incapable of creating others of their kind, they care little for whom they devour.

Here's the Original Text.

A target reduced to 0 Constitution dies and becomes a lesser vampire.

Oops!

Looks like we should add a Create Spawn ability and rework the flavour text.

 

[freyar]

Oops indeed! Boilerplate create spawn from the vampire, I guess? I think we can just delete that one sentence of flavor text.

 

[Cleon]

Oops indeed! Boilerplate create spawn from the vampire, I guess? I think we can just delete that one sentence of flavor text.

It's a bit more complicated than that. Most of the background text revolves around their inability to spawn and how they serve regular vampires:

Lesser vampires are the weakest of vampirekind, but also the most social. They infiltrate humanoid society, feeding discretely until found out. Once their true nature is revealed, lesser vampires attack with a feral ferocity. Lesser vampires are pack hunters, capable of killing off an entire settlement in a single night. Since they are incapable of creating others of their kind, they care little for whom they devour.

Many vampires have the ability to create lesser vampires rather than (or in addition to) vampire spawn. They are less free-willed than vampire spawn, and their lack of a dominate gaze prevents them from following their own agendas. As such, they make excellent foot soldiers, scouts and spies for the more powerful vampires. And since lesser vampires lack the ability to create spawn, a master can keep their numbers in check.

Occasionally packs of lesser vampires break away from their progenitors, perhaps due to the master's death. Although they are usually content to simply roam about and feed, the rare individual with a spark of ambition may lead a pack to capture a true vampire, which is then forced to "breed" others of their kind.

I'm thinking we ought to leave that version in the CC and add a "Lesser Vampire (revised)" entry with Create Spawn plus new background text, maybe with a note to explain the correction.

Something like this:

Lesser vampires are the weakest of vampirekind, but also the most social. They infiltrate humanoid society, feeding discretely until found out. Once their true nature is revealed, lesser vampires attack with a feral ferocity. Lesser vampires are pack hunters, capable of killing off an entire settlement in a single night. They care little for whom they devour.

Most lesser vampires were once victims who died from a lesser vampire's blood draining. These monsters often destroy the corpses of their victims to avoid spawning unwanted competition.

A few normal vampires have the ability to create lesser vampires rather than (or in addition to) vampire spawn. These lesser vampires are unable to create spawn as long as the vampire who created them exists. They make excellent foot soldiers, scouts and spies for the more powerful vampires.

Create Spawn (Su): A humanoid or monstrous humanoid slain by a lesser vampire’s blood drain rises as a lesser vampire 1d4 days after their death.

Note: This is a correction of the Creature Catalog's Lesser Vampire conversion.

I'd also add the following to the original CC version:

Note: This conversion is missing the Create Spawn ability of the original, see Lesser Vampire (revised) for a corrected version.

 

[Cleon]

Upon reflection, I wouldn't mind excising the paragraph about normal vampires creating them since there's no mention of it in the original text.

i.e. just have:

Lesser vampires are the weakest of vampirekind, but also the most social. They infiltrate humanoid society, feeding discretely until found out. Once their true nature is revealed, lesser vampires attack with a feral ferocity. Lesser vampires are pack hunters, capable of killing off an entire settlement in a single night. They care little for whom they devour.

Most lesser vampires were once victims who died from a lesser vampire's blood draining. These monsters often destroy the corpses of their victims to avoid spawning unwanted competition.​

That said, as was discussed before it does line up nicely with the "vampire minions created by a vampire master" trope. I could even see some lesser vampires being able to create spawn, allowing for the "master vampire with an expanding horde of thralls" scenario. Maybe something along these lines:

Some normal vampires have the ability to create lesser vampire thralls rather than (or in addition to) vampire spawn. They make excellent foot soldiers, scouts and spies for the more powerful vampires. Most lesser vampire thralls are unable to create spawn as long as the vampire who created them exists, but a few vampires are able to produce lesser vampire thralls with the ability to spawn more of their kind. Such "master vampires" may command an exponentially growing horde of lesser vampires.​

I haven't decided which of those options I prefer.

 

[Cleon]

Upon even further reflection, I would have no objection to emphasizing the Create Spawn ability the "Lesser Vampire Thralls" have, along the lines of:

Some normal vampires have the ability to create lesser vampire thralls rather than (or in addition to) vampire spawn. They make excellent foot soldiers, scouts and spies for more powerful vampires. Lesser vampires lack many of the supernatural abilities of a vampire spawn, but their create spawn power allows them to produce a self-multiplying army of lesser vampire minions for their master.​

I'm leaning towards keeping the multiple options though:

Some normal vampires have the ability to create lesser vampire thralls rather than (or in addition to) vampire spawn. They lack many of the supernatural abilities of a vampire spawn, but still make excellent foot soldiers, scouts and spies for their vampire masters. Most vampire masters create lesser vampires who either lack the create spawn ability or are unable to use it as long as their vampire master exists. Vampire masters who can produce lesser vampires with the create spawn ability use them to propagate a self-multiplying horde of vampire minions.​

So which do you prefer? I'm inclined towards the most recent one just because it has the widest range of options.

 

[freyar]

Probably the last one with all the options. Variants are fun.

But before we make the change, let's go through that old thread. Maybe we made a conscious decision to make the change as a way to distinguish them further from vampire spawn.

 

[Cleon]

Probably the last one with all the options. Variants are fun.

Works for me.

But before we make the change, let's go through that old thread. Maybe we made a conscious decision to make the change as a way to distinguish them further from vampire spawn.

I don't recall the details, but it's easy enough to check the Original Thread…

Yes, it looks like Shade and Demiurge liked the idea of them not being able to create spawn. There's no mention of the original description saying they could do so!

 

[freyar]

Well, they weren't very distinct from vampire spawn, so this was a change in that respect. Anyway, I'll go along with leaving the first conversion and a revised conversion with the "many options" text.

 

[Cleon]

Well, they weren't very distinct from vampire spawn, so this was a change in that respect. Anyway, I'll go along with leaving the first conversion and a revised conversion with the "many options" text.

Agreed.

I'll whip up the revisions/amendments for the CC.

 

[Cleon]

There appears to be a problem with the full attack line of the Spider Horse:

Full Attack: 2 claws +5 melee (1d3+3) and 2 hooves -2 melee (1d4+1); or web +3 ranged touch (special)

Why do the hooves have a –7 secondary attack adjustment instead of the normal –5?

Surely it should be "hooves +0 melee (1d4+1)".

I'll try to find the original conversion thread to see whether it was deliberate or an mere miscalculation.