DMG Excerpt: Customizing Monsters

[FabioMilitoPagliara]

how vampires create other vampires?

the template we are seeing are from the DMG

I suppose normal vampire (not the lords) will be into the monster manual and so the info on spawning; this vampire lord is quite strong, I suppose we will have Vampire spawn, free willed Vampires and this template....

just guessing

 

[Stormtalon]

Ummm, wow. Huge, huge props to FabioMB for somehow noticing and pointing out the obvious answer that all the rest of us (myself included) somehow missed. I'm not being sarcastic here -- we all completely flaked out on that tiny-yet-soooo-cruicial detail that the excerpt is from the DMG and not the MM.

 

[Lizard]

I'll believe this when I see you apply the same exact reasoning to the naming conventions WotC is using for abilities, as they're also valuable in helping set a 'shared consensus world' just like what you want for vampire lords.

I disagree.

That's like saying I want to be told where vampires come from, what god they worship, and so on.

What I'm asking for is more aking to "Can vampires cross running water?" or "Are they affected by religious symbols". (Also missing from the template description, come to think of it...).

 

[eleran]

I disagree.

That's like saying I want to be told where vampires come from, what god they worship, and so on.

What I'm asking for is more aking to "Can vampires cross running water?" or "Are they affected by religious symbols". (Also missing from the template description, come to think of it...).

Why do you assume this info is nowhere in the game anyway?

 

[occam]

After doing a quick search through this thread... am I really the first one to catch on to the Forbidden City reference?

The characters are delving into the jungle-covered ruins of an ancient city now haunted by the yuan-ti. There they discover strange arboreal humanoids with long arms that swoop into battle on the backs of giant wasps. What are these mysterious beings?

W00t!

 

[Lizard]

Ummm, wow. Huge, huge props to FabioMB for somehow noticing and pointing out the obvious answer that all the rest of us (myself included) somehow missed. I'm not being sarcastic here -- we all completely flaked out on that tiny-yet-soooo-cruicial detail that the excerpt is from the DMG and not the MM.

Fair enough. In 3x, the template text included all salient abilities, but there's no reason to assume this follows through in 4e. There was also no such thing in 3x as "a vampire", just "something with the vampire template". (There was a specific, non-template, vampire spawn, which was pretty backwards. All undead should have been templates. But I digress.)

So all of these rules might well be in the "Vampire" entry in the MM, along with a lot of Vampire NounVerbers.

 

[Rykion]

One of us is misreading that chart, and I don't think its me.

Magic items don't work as well when they're in the hands of less powerful individuals, which is something I think you can work with in a simulationist manner.

Derren is the one that is right in this case. The magic threshold number from the chart is subtracted from the magic item's bonus. Thus a level 1 monster with a +5 sword gets a +5 bonus when using that sword because it has a magic threshold of 0 and 5-0=5. A level 26 monster with a +5 sword gets no bonus when using that sword because it has a magic threshold of +5 and 5-5=0. Basically, as others have mentioned, high level monsters have a bonus already built in. Of course, a level 1 monster isn't likely to be running around with a +5 weapon to begin with.

 

[el-remmen]

You ACTUALLY might be able to run a low magic item campaign in D&D for once.

I been doing that since 2000.

re: Natural armour and regular armour
Cutting it off at the pass is a good thing. When 3E allowed for natural armour to stack with regular armour, that was one of the most abusive things/broken things that 3E did for the spellcasters. Wildshape/polymorph into high natural AC/boost natural AC via spell/wear armour/boost manufactured armour via spell.

You guys honestly can't see how this "broke" the system?

It might be one of those things I personally never saw broken, but worked that way for others. But if it is a necessary fix seems like an unintuitive one.

 

[Clawhound]

Why do vampire lords resist 5 necrotic at 1st level and 10 at 11th level? They have a prerequisite of 11th level.

Note also that the DM is the final arbiter of whether to apply the template. Although the designers give a prerequisite, the DM can ignore this. The designers full expect and want the DM's to monkey with the game.

 

[Green Knight]

As is so often the case, you look at one three-paragraph excerpt from the rules, find it lacking, and come to the conclusion that the missing information just doesn't exist. That seems to be a fairly typical attitude around here, and no matter how many times it gets pointed out, the 4e detractors just keep doing it. For all you know there are extensive rules for creating vampire spawn in the vampire spawn entry in the MM or elsewhere in the rules. I'd be surprised if it isn't at least mentioned somewhere, and there is no particular reason why it has to be part of the vampire template if there is a good reason to provide that information someplace else.

I'm hoping for a Ritual called "Create Vampire Spawn" or something similar, which only Vampires and Vampire Lords can take. The requirements for such a ritual could involve Dominating the target and forcing them to drink the vampires blood, then using Blood Drain to reduce them to 0 Hit Points, and burying them. If they lay undisturbed for three days then they rise again as Vampire Spawn. Nice and simple.