D&D General Ideas for minions of a vampire

[the Jester]

Hey!

First off, if you play in my Cydra game, especially in the Ghost Wagon group, please depart the thread. This isn't for you and reading it might spoil some stuff.

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That said, a group I run has acquired a vampire spellcaster (5.0) as a nemesis. Said vampire is dispatching a team of minions to follow, harass, and ultimately (hopefully) assassinate the party.

The only thing I know for sure is that one of them is a skulk vampire. As such, she or he is invisible under almost all circumstances. Skulks are normally visible in a mirror or to human children; as a vampire, half of the weaknesses here are already eliminated (no reflection!).

I'm wanting to build the rest of the evil party. I know I want a tracker (perhaps I'll just use an invisible stalker?). I'm not sure what else- children turned into vampire spawn will be a thing if the skulk isn't eliminated quickly enough though!

Thoughts? Ideas? Nasty concepts?

 

[Stormonu]

I've always been partial to "blood hounds" - wolves, wargs or mastiffs that have been fed vampire blood to give them a little bit of an oomph. They make great daytime guardians over a sleeping vampire and for stats you simply use the base creature and slap one or two spell-like effects onto them, such as false life, enlarge, bless or the like - and you can scale the supernatural effect by assuming the creatures have fed more or been around longer. Possibly consider even giving them a stirge-like blood drain effect when they successfully trip opponents, if you want to make them really nasty.

<Edit>
Also, homonculus, imp or quasit might fit, especially the former as it is a creature made of the caster's congealed blood. Their terror would come from the constant spying (stealthily, invisibly, or as an innocuous creature such as a raven). At night, these tiny pests can slink into the party's camp unseen and pass along nightmares (by touch) that disrupt individual party members ability to recover HD, spells or even get a good night's sleep. In each case, if they are caught and destroyed, the vampire can simply recreate them to once again locate and harass the party (after a brief respite for the party).

 

[aco175]

A good sub-villain works to encounter before getting to the main vampire. Something like Renfield where he came from an institution and easts bugs and rats. The vampire has some sort of control over him and Renfield serves him as some sort of god. Give him some powers or he can be the tag-along to other more powerful ghouls or such. He can have information the PC can get or be released to follow back to the vampire.

A couple more modern movies and shows have the 'Renfield' minion as serving because they cannot get out of it and maybe do not want to serve anymore. They might see the PCs as being able to help, but does not think they can win so might not want to show he is helping.

 

[the Jester]

A good sub-villain works to encounter before getting to the main vampire.

That's the skulk vampire- the real boss is a (formerly human) spellcaster vampire.

 

[Tonguez]

The invisble stalker as tracker is a great idea. Peronally I like shadow mastiffs (or Bog Hounds) as its ability to blend into shadows and its fear inducing howl is great thematics for a vampiric stalker in the darkness.

For the Renfield analogue you could do Ravenloft style Goblyns (blood drinking cannibals with a telepathic link to their Master)
You could even replace the Shadow Mastiff with a Barghest to go all in with the Goblyn theme

 

[the Jester]

The invisble stalker as tracker is a great idea. Peronally I like shadow mastiffs (or Bog Hounds) as its ability to blend into shadows and its fear inducing howl is great thematics for a vampiric stalker in the darkness.

That also fits the fact that the master vampire dwells on the Shadowfell.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Forgive me, but the mention of the Shadow Mastiff/Barghest sent my mind down the road to a twisted version of the Scooby-Doo gang as the minions.

With Scooby being one of the above, the Renfield analog would be smart, like Velma.

“Daphne” could be a seductress kind of vampire spawn, found in many vampiric tales.

The invisible stalker could be Shaggy, but possibly some form of always hungry undead would be better, if the mechanics are amenable.

Fred? Mostly muscle, but also some charisma. IDK.

 

[GMMichael]

Don't forget the comic relief - the Beast-Man to Skeletor. I'm picturing a ghoul or zombie who's always off eating a body part somewhere when the rest of the party needs her.

 

[ersatzphil]

Forgive me, but the mention of the Shadow Mastiff/Barghest sent my mind down the road to a twisted version of the Scooby-Doo gang as the minions.

With Scooby being one of the above, the Renfield analog would be smart, like Velma.

“Daphne” could be a seductress kind of vampire spawn, found in many vampiric tales.

The invisible stalker could be Shaggy, but possibly some form of always hungry undead would be better, if the mechanics are amenable.

Fred? Mostly muscle, but also some charisma. IDK.

Reminds me of the Venture Bros episode, "Viva Los Muertos!", with it's pastiche of Mystery, Inc - the possibly demon possessed dog Groovy talking to the Shaggy analog: "I'm not here to talk to them. You are the hand chosen by the Master! Yours is the will of plot, yours is the sword of Michael!"

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Go Team Venture!