Kaptain_Kantrip said:
I said this before and got zero replies. Kenzer's Kalamar module, Harvest of Darkness, has great low-powered vampire templates. Go check it out and save yourself the trouble (if not the $10.95). 
These templates are all very doable as PCs, and invoke a scaling XP penalty to offset their advantages (starting at -10%). There is also a cool vampire cult you can use, which explains how to advance from one template to the next most powerful.
Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep it in mind next time I'm at the game store.
First of all, forget everything Anne Rice or White Wolf ever taught you about Vampires... They're not meant to be Romantic Figures! The original Vampires of Medieval Folklore were created back in the days of the Black Plague, and they were supposed to look like Zombies at best, or Nosferatu at worst. Hell, until Bram Stocker's Dracula, Vampires had a tendancy to avoid social interaction, and just prayed on sleeping victims at night.
Don't recall complaining about anything other than mechanics. I certainly didn't say anything about the vampire needing to be more "romantic". Personally I prefer my vampires as horrific, vile monsters, but that's just me. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
And about the Con Drain being permanent... guess what? That's actually how the Myth used to go.
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...The reported symptoms of vampiric predation were most often a type of wasting sickness, as the victim's life was drained by the lealous dead. Weakness, paleness, shortness of breath, and other infirtmities were thought to be caused by the creature's attack.
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Source: Gurps Blood Types
Sounds an awful lot like a permanent Con Drain, doesn't it? The idea of the Vampire as a creature of Negative Energy and Death that can permanently drain a creature's Lifeforce is actually how it's supposed to go.
And that snippet proves your point how? I don't see where it says that the victims spend the rest of their lives sick after a vampire attack. It proves that people do get sick after an attack. Yes, obviously as their CON goes down. I wasn't disputing that people get sick. But unless you can find a story with a person who was attacked by a vampire, say,
30 years previously and they're still sick, then I'll gladly back off that point. Got no problem with being proven wrong. But til then, I'll continue to argue that CON drain shouldn't be permanent.
Vampires aren't Parasites that can live off a stable population of "Cattle". They're living carriers of the Plague, bringing Death to whole villages. Green Knight's "Ridiculous" scenario about a Vampire slowly draining the inhabitants of a small village until the population starts wasting away, with some of it's dead arising as Vampire Spawns as well. Left Unchecked, Vampirism was supposed to reach Epidemic proportions, much like the Plague did.
Epidemic proportions? More like "apocalyptic" proportions! What's "ridiculous" is just how easily a new vampire can be created. In the DMG it says that your average thorp has between 20-80 people. Let's say a vampire attacks one with 80 people while everyone's asleep and kills them all. This vampire just created
80 Vampire Spawn. In one night. All of which are under his total control. This vampire, with his newly created horde of Vampire Spawn, can go on to attack nearby villages and draining everyone there dry, too, and create more Spawn.
So where are the legends of marauding vampire armies across europe? Vampire legions marching on Constantinople? Vampire nations? After all, if vampires can so easily create hordes of Vampire Spawn, then why haven't there been stories of conquering vampires ruling over the human populace like cattle, subjugating the whole earth? Considering how easily vampires reproduce, I'd say their threat goes way BEYOND "epidemic".
Now, while I may do as suggested by others and "tweak" the Vampire Template to make it more like the Ghost or Half-Fiend in terms of ability selection, I don't see any reason why to get rid of the Energy and Con Drain abilities. It's just how Vampires work.
Well, IMO, how they work is stupid and ill-conceived. But that's just my opinion. Personally, I'd prefer their blood drain to be worked in one of 3 ways.
A) Vampire bite does temporary CON damage. Those who survive are sick for a while, but eventually recover.
B) Vampire bite does level drain damage. You can recover if you survive, but it takes longer. The other downside is you can kill a 1st level person to quickly, while a higher level person takes longer to die.
C) Vampire bite does BOTH a level drain and temporary CON damage.
Whatever the case, if they had to have level drain, it would've made much more sense as a result of a bite. Not as a result from a bitchslap.
