Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="coyote6" data-source="post: 256986" data-attributes="member: 1225">1) Check out the MM, p. 7: "Slam: The creature batters opponents with an appendage, dealing bludgeoning damage."It's not a body slam or anything like that; it's just a smack. A punch, kick, elbow, backhand, pimp slap, whatever. "Slam" is shorthand for "some kind of unarmed attack that doesn't use claws or anything, but counts as an armed attack for purposes of most rules." It drains levels 'cause vampires are fueled by negative energy, and negative energy drains levels. That's how undead work in D&D, mostly.2) That's the way vampires work in D&D. They drain you permanently. They do that in other game systems, too -- if you lose Essence to a Shadowrun vamp, it ain't coming back. Actually, I think that fits with at least some legends -- once you've been the victim of a vampire, you feel the effects forever.Besides, "permanent" drain isn't. Attributes permanently lost don't recover naturally, but powerful enough magic will bring 'em back. Restoration is "only" 4th level.3) Vampire spawn & vampires have different powers. Spawn charm rather than dominate, they don't summon animals, don't heal as fast, etc.It could (and probably should) be a template; however, such a template would only apply to creatures of 4 HD or less, and would raise any creature with less than 4 HD to 4 HD. See, vampires, even vampire spawn, can only be so weak. Even a baby kobold would become a 4 HD creature.4) The ease of vampire creation is true of certain vampire legends. I don't understand how any humans survived in Transylvania, if anyone killed by a vamp rises in three days. That's one thing I like about the Anne Rice/VtM/Buffy-style vamps -- they have to take action to make a vamp.It's pretty easy to prevent most vampire victims from rising -- you just burn the bodies. "Realistically", societies afflicted with D&D vamps would probably take to cremating all of their dead. Then you'd only get new vamps in unusual circumstances (e.g., vamp guards the body, body lost, etc.)And, actually, I notice that it says they rise "1d4 days after burial [emphasis added]". So if there's no burial, there's no rising -- which will cut out the corpses dropped in the wilderness and such.Me, I'm not real fond of the D&D vampire either -- but I use it in D&D, 'cause, well, it's part of the game. However, you can create alternates. Sean Reynolds created a more physical vamp, with no energy drain, no slam attack, no spell-like abilities, & its bite does temporary Con damage; <a href="http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/monsters/fleshboundvampire.html" target="_blank">check it out</a>. It even gives an ECL modifier, so you can have PC vamps! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

Verification