A really **different** kind of vampire

[Desdichado]

Just in time! The gamers will start showing up in about half an hour! Adamantineangel and MEM, I'm printing those two off so I can look at them before they come.

I may have to tone it down just a tad; though -- I'm expecting three fourth level PCs tonight (one guy can't make it...)

 

[Umbran]

Turning the players expectations on their heads a bit?

That only works if you tell them ahead of time that it is a vampire, and then have them meet this thing. Otherwise, the players probably won't ever think "vampire". At best they'll get "undead monster", and your careful plan to play with their expectations will be lost.

 

[tarchon]

Blood Magnet (Su) - Whenever a physical wound is inflicted on a living target with a piercing or slashing weapon within 10 ft. of the creature, blood flows from the wound, doing an additional 1 point of damage to the target on each subsequent round, until the wound is healed (as with a wounding weapon) or the target is no longer within the 10 ft. range of the creature. The lost blood flows inexorably in a stream to the creature, which ingests or absorbs the blood. For every hit point lost by a target in this manner, the creature regains a lost hit point. The creature can also gain temporary hit points in this manner, if undamaged, up to a maximum of twice its hit dice. This ability affects an unlimited number of targets, as long as they are within 10 ft. of the creature. A target must have red blood and be capable of bleeding from a wound in order for this ability to affect it. The bleeding wound does not necessarily have to be inflicted by the creature or its allies, though the creature commonly performs multiple attacks on nearby targets in the early part of combat in order to generate a steady supply of blood.
Commonly the creature draws the blood to itself in some particularly dramatic manner, causing the gore to flow up its blade or spurt in a stream from the target. However it may also allow the lost blood to trickle along the ground in a more subtle manner. It can also draw fluid from any open containers of blood (or already bleeding wounds) within range at will. Bleeding from a weapon of wounding does not stack with this effect, so a character struck with a wounding weapon only suffers 1 point of bleeding damage per hit when in range of the Blood Magnet ability, but any blood loss due to the wounding effect does not cease when the character is out of range.

 

[mhacdebhandia]

The figure reminds me of the way Dracula is described in Kim Newman's novel Anno Dracula - bloated with power and complacency, shapeshifted into a massive and powerful form which is at once bestial and still human-seeming, with a personality like the worst Anglo-Saxon stereotypes of crude Eastern European nobility. His power to enthrall others is described less as a charm and more of an overpowering of their will by his own, radiating in almost palpable fashion from him. When enraged, his fingers sprout claws like spearheads and his mouth is filled with teeth like knives as he grows even larger, assuming a form more like a gargoyle than a man. He is pretty much exactly the sort of person you'd imagine you'd get when a bloodthirsty Transylvanian prince crawls out of a shallow battlefield grave as a vampire.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Barghest + Soul Eater (BoVD)

If you don't have the BoVD, I can provide details, but this combination grants you most of what you are looking for, an easy way to scale him up if he becomes reacurring, (advances both from class and special abilities), and will mess with the PC's heads if used right. You could play him as a vampire, a werewolf, both, but in fact he is neither.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Barghest + Soul Eater (BoVD)

If you don't have the BoVD, I can provide details, but this combination grants you most of what you are looking for, an easy way to scale him up if he becomes reacurring, (advances both from class and special abilities), and will mess with the PC's heads if used right. You could play him as a vampire, a werewolf, both, but in fact he is neither.

Elegant and simple, plus that feat must be killer. Let me guess...level drain?

 

[Voadam]

Oooh! The only monster book I don't have yet! Yeah, if you could explain how that ability works just a tad more...

The only one? Quite a big statement given the d20 field. I have a couple dozen but there are tons I don't have.

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Elegant and simple, plus that feat must be killer. Let me guess...level drain?

Yes, at first level. It gets uglier from there. (Its a PrC).

As you gain levels, you can drain multiple levels, increase stats, take on the victim's form, and multiply the number of times you can use any SU or SP ablities that you have. Poor BAB, but three good saves and a D8.


Or you could go with Grey Renders with levels of Shadow Dancer. They had those in Tomb Raider II, cradle of life.

 

[Desdichado]

The only one? Quite a big statement given the d20 field. I have a couple dozen but there are tons I don't have.

Only WotC one. I do have a lot of third party monster books too, though.

Anyway, we just had the session, it didn't come up as the PCs didn't even come close to meeting the creature yet. They had hints about a vampire (for Umbran) and I expect to be more explicit before they meet him yet.

I'm also considering making the mini be his 'enraged' state while his normal state is a bloated and corpulent almost human.

Anyway, I'm gonna keep an eye on this thread for a while; it looks like I have some time yet to figure out exactly what kind of vampire this is after all.

 

[reanjr]

Rather than drinking your blood, he probably just munches on your flesh, and does a Con drain thingy that can mummify a person in 30 seconds flat.

How exactly does he do the Con drain thing? Cause I was thinking maybe he could do some kind of meditation thing (full-round action) that absorbed the life force of those around him (all within 30', Fort save to avoid Con dmg 2), gaining 1d8 temporary hp for each person drained. It's a pretty nice ability and would go a long way towards defining it as a vampire, IMO. Con damage's one that scales pretty well to different levels for recurring villainy.

Could make those fully drained come back as some feral, flesh-eating creatures (ghoul?)