3.5 Vampires

[med stud]

wel, remember, in the folk tales, Vampires were'nt just draining blood, they were draining life-force itself, using blood as a medium. Victims can regain their blood cells, but their life-force is still lost (and would be until major magical mojo is used to restore it).

In most folk tales, vampires didnt even have fangs; they had to use tools to open peoples' blood vessels. And in most folk tales, people didnt survive the vampire's attacks either, so it's hard to tell whatever they were restored after the vampire's bite or not ^^

 

[Green Knight]

I remember several months ago a thread about how 3e vampires weren't very vampiric at all, really. I just picked up my 3.5 Monster Manual (undecided on when I'll get the other books -- I'm in no hurry) and one of the things I noticed (besides the much improved artwork by WAR that finally looks like a vampire instead of -- whatever the heck BAXA's scribbling is supposed to be) is that vampires no longer slap the levels out of you, they now pin you and make a blood drain attack (1d4 Con damage for every round you're pinned.)

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with this book -- obviously a lot of it is repeat material for me (even the stuff that is new, like the Gith and inevitables, for instance) but nonetheless, this is a pretty solid book. A lot more animals than we had before too -- I also specifically remembering someone asking for hyena's once, and I did see one in the animals section. The lycanthrope section is also very, very useful.

Couple quick questions.

1) Do vampires still do permanent CON damage to whoever they drink blood, from? (I.E. If a vampire sucks out 4 points of CON, you don't recover it naturally. You have to use magic to get it back).

2) Do vampires still do level drain, and how? From what some of the people here are saying, it does.

 

[Emiricol]

Vampires still do CON drain, which can't be regained except through the 4th-level spell, Restoration.

Their slam attack delivers energy drain for 2 negative levels per hit.

So...

 

[Green Knight]

Vampires still do CON drain, which can't be regained except through the 4th-level spell, Restoration.

Their slam attack delivers energy drain for 2 negative levels per hit.

So...

So nothing about them has actually changed? How utterly retarded. Get bitchslapped by a Vampire and get your levels drained. Right. Why can't WoTC make a monster which actually makes sense, rather than make a monster whose sole purpose is to screw over the PC's, even though in doing so the monster becomes completely ridiculous? Oh well.

 

[Zerth]

So nothing about them has actually changed? How utterly retarded. Get bitchslapped by a Vampire and get your levels drained. Right. Why can't WoTC make a monster which actually makes sense, rather than make a monster whose sole purpose is to screw over the PC's, even though in doing so the monster becomes completely ridiculous? Oh well.

LOL. Vampires are mean. People at WoTC even meaner.

Well, seriously, I'm with you GK. Vampires should drain blood, not make stupid energy draining slam attacks. I'm not against the idea of vampires draining levels, but it should also result from bloodsucking.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

I'll use Sean K Reynold's flesh-bound vampire template, but I'll be sure to modify the Elite Vampire to fit.

Arrggh... the vampire (even SKR's) get way too many feats! Do you know how hard it is to design a vampiric fighter? Many of the feats I would have spent are freebies! There aren't a lot of feats for a 14th-level vampire fighter.

The vampire feats are added if the fighter does not already have them, so it is possible that the fighter might have one or two before he became a vampire, like dodge or improved initiative. Even if he had none of the vampire feats, it should not be too difficult to fill all the feat slots.

Improved unarmed strike and improved grapple sound good for those pinning blood drain attacks. Dodge, mobility, and spring attack would work nicely with the vampire's energy drain slam attack. Weapon focus and specialization with slam attacks and/or its main weapon, along with the greater focus/specialization feats will use up most of the higher level slots. And don't forget power attack and cleave, or combat expertise.

 

[jaerdaph]

Vampire Spawn?

Are there still Vampire Spawn (non-templated vampires below 5th level) in 3.5e, or can the vampire template be applied to a character of any level (like in d20 Modern)?

 

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by jaerdaph:

Are there still Vampire Spawn (non-templated vampires below 5th level) in 3.5e, or can the vampire template be applied to a character of any level (like in d20 Modern)?

Yep, vampire spawn is still a non-templated creature. However, the vampire template can be applied to any character or monster, regardless of level.

 

[jaerdaph]

Yep, vampire spawn is still a non-templated creature. However, the vampire template can be applied to any character or monster, regardless of level.

Thanks

That's good - the spawn can still be used as quick and dirty mooks. Best of both worlds.

 

[Valiantheart]

Vampires still do CON drain, which can't be regained except through the 4th-level spell, Restoration.

Their slam attack delivers energy drain for 2 negative levels per hit.

So...

....so what was the point of this thread exactly? Vampires are changed but not? Or are we just bitching that we still dont like our vampires to have energy drain; cause i can get on board that train?