D&D 5E Homebrewing a race: Gnomeferatu

[QuietBrowser]

So, bit of a backstory behind this; I stumbled across the "Heroes of Hearthstone" tie-in for World of Warcraft fairly recently, and in particular I stumbled across the Warlock minion card "Gnomeferatu" - a vampire gnome. Now, I know that this is supposed to be a "goofier" card, but still, the race idea actually has some interesting potential to it. Gnomish Vampires, creepy little zuggers with permanent rictus grins and cursed to perpetual silence, were a thing in Ravenloft, which was also home to gnomes who had a taste for macabre humor and "gothic" trappings. Then there's the riffing on the old cliche (based on the AD&D rules) that all gnomes everywhere are illusionists; what, then, happened to gnomes who tried dabbling in necromancy?

But... I'm not sure what traits to give such a race. So, I came here in hopes that maybe I might find folks willing to talk it out and help me come to some kind of decision.

The card, for folks who want to know what set me off on this kick: https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Gnomeferatu

Kneejerk Thoughts:
The biggest problem I'm having is that gnomes have nothing really inherent to their core race; they're Small and they have Advantage on Mental saves vs. magic. That's it. So, I'm going to need to make this up from scratch, I feel.

To start with, I envision a "Gnomeferatu" race as basically a gnomish equivalent to 4e's vryloka, or the vampires of Ixalan and Zendikar from Plane Shift: they're not "true" vampires in the D&D sense, so they're much more balanced. Ideally, I want to go for the Svirfneblin route; a good, strongly thematic "base race" that isn't overpowered, but with racial feats that build on its flavor and give it stronger abilities. For example, the Ixalan Vampire has an awesome feat that lets them fly 1/encounter, so I'd definitely like an equivalent feat for Gnomeferatu. Or another example, a Spider Climb ability would be great, whether inherent or feat-locked.

Ability score wise... I don't know if +2 Int (homaging the gnome core race) or +2 Cha (representing a vampire's tendency towards more innate magic) is better, but I definitely see them as +1 Strength. After all, what's the good of having some of that vampiric muscle if the stats don't represent it?

Gnomes already get Darkvision 60, so maybe bumping it up to 120 feet is fair?

The Sunlight Sensitivity weakness is a perfect fit. Maybe with an addendum that you take Disadvantage on Exhaustion checks made whils exposed to sunlight?

Blood Drain can be taken from the Ixalan Vampire, so that's an easy fit.

Beyond that... well, I'm really hoping to debate that with you good folks. Spell-like abilities? Necrotic Resistance? More esoteric abilities? I really want to talk about this with someone...

 

[QuietBrowser]

So, just for example, this was my first draft at a racial writeup; I actually showed this on /tg/, and to my surprise I was told that it was really weak (with a concession that maybe, just maybe, Blood Drain might be a touch too strong). It's a big reason why I want to talk about this if I can get anyone interested in speaking.

Gnomeferatu
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Cha, +1 Str
Size: Small
Speed: 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision 120 feet
Sunlight Allergen: You suffer Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and on Perception checks based on sight if you, or the subject of your attack/scrutiny, is in direct sunlight. Additionally, if forced to make an Exhaustion check whilst your skin is exposed to sunlight, you have Disadvantage on the check.
Gnomeferatu Resilience: You have Resistance to Necrotic damage.
Blood Thirst: You can drain blood and life energy from a willing creature, or one that is grappled by you, incapacitated, or restrained. Make a melee attack against the target. If you hit, you deal 1 piercing damage and 1d6 necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and you regain hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. If you kill a humanoid in this way, you can remove 1 level of Fatigue (if you have any).
Gnomeferatu Grace: You have Proficiency in Athletics.

Racial feats to add more "vampire" flavor:

Racial Feat: Wallcreeper
Prerequisite: Gnomeferatu race
Effect: You gain a Climb speed of 30 feet. You can move on ceilings as if it were a vertical wall.

Racial Feat: Gnomeferatu Magic
Prerequisite: Gnomeferatu race
Effect: You can cast the Toll The Dead cantrip. At 3rd level, you can cast Cause Fear as a 1st level spell once per long rest. At 5th level, you can cast Gaseous Form on yourself only once per long rest. Spells cast through this trait use Charisma as their spellcasting ability score.

Tame the Children of the Night
Prerequisite: Gnomeferatu race, Proficiency in Animal Handling.
Effect: You can communicate simple ideas with Small or smaller beasts, and gain Advantage on Animal Handling checks. Gnomeferatu tend to prefer "dark" beasts such as bats, rats, centipedes and spiders.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'd give them wallcreeper as part of the subrace, I think it fits the ''dark prankster'' theme perfectly. In exchange I would touch the darksvision and remove Grace.

 

[The M'hael]

Gnefarious Gnomish Gnecromancers

Maybe have the Feat options be worked into subraces? I like the theme but haven't done a balance analysis.

Also, there was a surfarcher spreadsheet that had a make a race by points algorithm in it. I'm not sure where you can find it, but it could be helpful.

 

[QuietBrowser]

I'd give them wallcreeper as part of the subrace, I think it fits the ''dark prankster'' theme perfectly. In exchange I would touch the darksvision and remove Grace.

Gnefarious Gnomish Gnecromancers

Maybe have the Feat options be worked into subraces? I like the theme but haven't done a balance analysis.

Also, there was a surfarcher spreadsheet that had a make a race by points algorithm in it. I'm not sure where you can find it, but it could be helpful.

I appreciate the feedback. Personally, though, I'd prefer to avoid the subraces (I have a human-based Dhampir race that'll be using subraces). Plus, feats seem like a better way to emphasize the themes of the race.

I'm just... kind of stuck. When I think Gnomeferatu, my first thoughts are that they're small, they really don't like the sun, they drink blood (because what's a vampiric race without some form of that ability?), they are deceptively strong for their size, and they are highly mobile. I really like the idea of this small, gray-skinned, fiery-eyed gnome scuttling across a ceiling like an oversized spider or being able to throw a man through a closed door.

Refining them beyond that...? Not sure. I really like the Vampiric Exultation (fly by turning your lower half into mist) feat from Plane Shift: Ixalan. Some kind of innate spellcasting seems fitting, but I'm just not sure what spells beyond that. Maybe a feat to unlock something equivalent to the "Create Null" racial trait of Zendikaran Vampires, where you can turn a humanoid you kill with Blood Drain into a zombie minion for 24 hours? ...I'm sorry, this is my thread and I should be more helpful, but I'm just drawing a huge blank in terms of ideas.

 

[Iry]

Reminds me of this little gem:

 

[QuietBrowser]

Yeah, that was one of the things that gave me the courage to try this, Iry.

So, I have no useful comments here, but I want to thank the forumites who've spoken up for not mocking the idea too badly. I do get that it's a bit of a silly concept, but then, D&D has had races like the Kubbits (18" tall dinosaur hunting amazons), the Phanatons (raccoon/monkey hybrids with patagia) and the Pterrans (wingless, non-evil pterafolk), so it's not like D&D can't take a race being a bit on the goofy side.

 

[Satyrn]

So, just for example, this was my first draft at a racial writeup; I actually showed this on /tg/, and to my surprise I was told that it was really weak (with a concession that maybe, just maybe, Blood Drain might be a touch too strong). It's a big reason why I want to talk about this if I can get anyone interested in speaking.

I totally agree with /tg/

The number of times my table has faced necrotic damage is hovering around 0. I would much rather have the dwarf and stout halfling's poison resistance (and I do! ) because it seems to come up nearly every session. Of course, this varies by table.

Sunlight Allergen is simply a giant weakness. But if you're dungeon crawling mostly, it won't even come up, so I don't like it as balancing factor for the near-endless healing they can get from Blood Thirst.

Although that healing might prove to be rather weak, too, once 5th level hits and cantrip damage is boosted or extra attack comes online (and fireball, etc). Blood Thirst might just wind up as a neat flavorful fine feature, but it's the sort of thing that only playtesting will discover. So give it a go, I say.

The extra skill prof maybe makes it almost okay as a choice.

I agree with vincegetorix that wallcreeper ought to just be a part of the race. And I think there's room for it to just be tacked on.

I also think there's room to simply add in Tame the Children of Night feature, but make it just like the forest gnome's speak with beast feature but for what you described as "dark beasts." It'll be a nice boost of flavour.

Maybe at that point, drop the Athletics prof if you think it's straying into too strong.

 

[QuietBrowser]

I totally agree with /tg/

The number of times my table has faced necrotic damage is hovering around 0. I would much rather have the dwarf and stout halfling's poison resistance (and I do! ) because it seems to come up nearly every session. Of course, this varies by table.

Sunlight Allergen is simply a giant weakness. But if you're dungeon crawling mostly, it won't even come up, so I don't like it as balancing factor for the near-endless healing they can get from Blood Thirst.

Although that healing might prove to be rather weak, too, once 5th level hits and cantrip damage is boosted or extra attack comes online (and fireball, etc). Blood Thirst might just wind up as a neat flavorful fine feature, but it's the sort of thing that only playtesting will discover. So give it a go, I say.

The extra skill prof maybe makes it almost okay as a choice.

I agree with vincegetorix that wallcreeper ought to just be a part of the race. And I think there's room for it to just be tacked on.

I also think there's room to simply add in Tame the Children of Night feature, but make it just like the forest gnome's speak with beast feature but for what you described as "dark beasts." It'll be a nice boost of flavour.

Maybe at that point, drop the Athletics prof if you think it's straying into too strong.

Thank you so much for the critique!

Hmm... what if they were Resistant to Necrotic & Poison Damage, and had Advantage on saves vs. Poison, Disease and Maximum HP drain?

Is Sunlight Allergen really that big a deal? It's basically Sunlight Sensitivity with an added trait that you can get fatigued more easily IF you're in the sun without adequate protection - a simple hooded robe and face-mask will keep it off.

I'm not a huge fan of the Athletics proficiency, it was basically supposed to indicate that gnomeferatu are extra adept at climbing & leaping because, y'know, vampires are mobile. Maybe replace that entirely with Wallcreeper (spider climb)?

Speaking to rats, bats, and other creepy crawlies would be a nice flavor ribbon.

Alright, when I have access to a comp again, I'll give reworking this a shot. Any suggestion for racial feats? Spell-like abilities or boosted racial traits (Create Null and Vampiric Exultation, for example) are options I really want to explore.

 

[Satyrn]

Thank you so much for the critique!

Hmm... what if they were Resistant to Necrotic & Poison Damage, and had Advantage on saves vs. Poison, Disease and Maximum HP drain.

I don't actually think you should change it from what you had originally. My point wasn't to say it needed improving, but that it wasn't such a strong feature that you should let it "crowd out" something extra like the climb speed.

But now that you mention it, you should totally add advantage on saves to avoid disease and Max HP drain. That's awesome. (Leave out the poison stuff, keep that for the dwarves)

Similarly, I wasn't saying the Sunlight Allergen was such a big thing. I was really just pointing out that it's a feature that doesn't strengthen the race, and along with the necrotic resistance and Athletics prof, the only source of "strength" the race really gets is Blood Thirst. And all of that was to bolster /tg/'s opinion that your race was indeed weak.

And yeah, since you don't really like that Athletics prof, the climb speed is definitely the way to go.

Making it spiderclimb might be pushing it (I really don't know offhand what the difference is between climb speed and spiderclimb, though), but I'd totally add that in and if it is pushing the boundaries then I'd tack on a once/rest limit on Blood Thirst.

Of course, putting a once/rest limit on Blood Thirst probably opens up making it scale like a cantrip.

So, I think my suggestions add up to

Necrotic resistance, advantage on save vs Disease and Max HP drain.
Climb speed (with spiderclimb)
Sunlight Allergen
Blood Thirst (1d8 + Str damage, heal a like amount, scales like a cantrip, 1/short rest )
Speak with creepy crawlies.
Darkvision 120'


And this looks really cool to me

 

[QuietBrowser]

I don't actually think you should change it from what you had originally. My point wasn't to say it needed improving, but that it wasn't such a strong feature that you should let it "crowd out" something extra like the climb speed.

But now that you mention it, you should totally add advantage on saves to avoid disease and Max HP drain. That's awesome. (Leave out the poison stuff, keep that for the dwarves)

Similarly, I wasn't saying the Sunlight Allergen was such a big thing. I was really just pointing out that it's a feature that doesn't strengthen the race, and along with the necrotic resistance and Athletics prof, the only source of "strength" the race really gets is Blood Thirst. And all of that was to bolster /tg/'s opinion that your race was indeed weak.

And yeah, since you don't really like that Athletics prof, the climb speed is definitely the way to go.

Making it spiderclimb might be pushing it (I really don't know offhand what the difference is between climb speed and spiderclimb, though), but I'd totally add that in and if it is pushing the boundaries then I'd tack on a once/rest limit on Blood Thirst.

Of course, putting a once/rest limit on Blood Thirst probably opens up making it scale like a cantrip.

So, I think my suggestions add up to

Necrotic resistance, advantage on save vs Disease and Max HP drain.
Climb speed (with spiderclimb)
Sunlight Allergen
Blood Thirst (1d8 + Str damage, heal a like amount, scales like a cantrip, 1/short rest )
Speak with creepy crawlies.
Darkvision 120'


And this looks really cool to me

Really appreciate all of your comments! The racial feats are going to need some equally strong reworking, but let's focus on the core of the race first.

Gnomeferatu, mk 2
Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Cha, +1 Str
Size: Small
Speed: 30 feet, Climb 30 feet
Vision: Darkvision 120 feet
Sunlight Allergen: You suffer Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and on Perception checks based on sight if you, or the subject of your attack/scrutiny, is in direct sunlight. Additionally, if forced to make an Exhaustion check whilst your skin is exposed to sunlight, you have Disadvantage on the check.
Blood Thirst: You can drain blood and life energy from a willing creature, or one that is grappled by you, incapacitated, or restrained. Make a melee attack against the target. If you hit, you deal 1 piercing damage and 1d8 + Strength modifier Necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and you regain hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. If you kill a humanoid in this way, you can remove 1 level of Fatigue (if you have any). You can use this ability once, and then must complete a short rest or a long rest before you can use it again. The necrotic damage inflicted by this attack increases to 2d8 at level 5, 3d8 at level 11, and 4d8 at level 17.
Wallcreeper: You have a Climb speed of 30 feet, and can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down, without needing to make an ability check.
Vermincharmer: You can speak with any Tiny sized beast, such as ravens, owls, rats, spiders or snakes.

 

[Satyrn]

You left out the necrotic resistance. Are you thinking it woukd make the race too strong? And if you are leaving it out because of that, I think you picked a good one to drop, as it adds less flavor than everything else.


I thought of a feat idea. Call it Verminform or something and grant one use of wildshape to transform into a tarantula (tiny spider) or wolf spider (from the MM). One use, 1 hour max, refresh on short rest. I think a spider would be more interesting for this vampire than shaping into a bat.

Maybe the giant spider (I'm loving it for my moon druid) but you might think a CR creature is too good.

 

[toucanbuzz]

You're not building from complete scratch. Iry posted pictures of Ravenloft's AD&D vampires for all the demi-humans. There's a gnome vampire. And these guys, man, they are tortured and nasty. Consider converting the below from the Ravenloft version:

Features
* Cursed with silence, robbing them of their beloved joking and singing.
* Weak melee blows, but in combat their hits may render targets permanently crippled. In AD&D, vampires permanently drained XP or ability scores. Gnome vampires drained 2 Dexterity a pop.
* Once a round, they could twist their face into Tasha's Hideous Uncontrollable Laughter with double duration and damage each round.
* Immune to non-metal weapons. Wood won't do a thing.
* Can assume Spectral Form (like vampire mist), can pass through stone but cannot pass through living things or once-living things like a wooden wall
* Change Self (Disguise) at will with no duration limit, cannot change form like other vampires.
* Command (Dominate) animal at will, 2d4 day duration
* Spider Climb at will, earth and stone only
* Immune to illusions, 1/2 damage from cold, lightning, fire
* Use any class abilities they had before transformed
* Bonus save vs. magic
* They cannot turn away from a valuable Jewel (unless attacked)
* Reduced damage from holy water
* Immune to daylight created by spells. Instantly destroyed, however, by natural daylight.
* Very complex way to kill it. Only with blessed silver spike, then cut off hands and boil in a hot spring for 24 hours, then put body in a casket, replace eyes with gems, and nail it shut to end it all. Wow.
* Very hard process to create more vampires, involving a ritual where they are powerless for a few days. Hence, they rarely do and are largely solo.

Plus, like all Ravenloft vampires, they all get tougher with age.

 

[QuietBrowser]

[MENTION=6801204]Satyrn[/MENTION]: I actually just forgot to include it... As for a shapeshifting feat... I like the concept, but I really don't know how to balance it out mechanically.
[MENTION=19270]toucanbuzz[/MENTION]: Yes, I know about the existence of Ravenloft's demihuman vampires.

 

[Satyrn]

@Satyrn: I actually just forgot to include it... As for a shapeshifting feat... I like the concept, but I really don't know how to balance it out mechanically.

Neither do I.

I think it might be fine as I laid out, but I could be wildly wrong in either direction. I mean, it's neat and versatile, but as far as the combat power level of wildshaping into even the giant spider at 4th level or higher . . . Well, it's probably not much, but the 27 bonus hp might be good (the wildshape hp buffer is the best feature of my moon druid, combat wise).

It's the sort of idea that totally needs playtesting to figure out. And for that, I'd just go with something that looks decent enough and make sure any player who takes it knows I will tweak it in either direction as it gets played.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Yeah, I really do think the Gnomeferatu should keep some kind of necrotic resistance trait; it may be the 4rrie in me, but it just doesn't make sense to me if a "deathtouched" race doesn't have some resistance to the undead energy type.

Now... feats... aside from Verminshifting, Flight and turning people they suck dry into zombies, what possibilities are there? Any ideas?

In fact... spell-like abilities. Svirfneblin get them via feat, so maybe Gnomeferatu could get them too. But what spells are appropriate? Anyone interested in discussing that?

 

[Satyrn]

In fact... spell-like abilities. Svirfneblin get them via feat, so maybe Gnomeferatu could get them too. But what spells are appropriate? Anyone interested in discussing that?

I'm uncreatively sticking to the vermin bit here, but Giant Insect (druid 4) leaps to mind. Does that sound like a good choice for a spell?

 

[QuietBrowser]

I'm uncreatively sticking to the vermin bit here, but Giant Insect (druid 4) leaps to mind. Does that sound like a good choice for a spell?

I think you're getting a little fixated on the vermin theme, which I don't think is really that big of an aspect for them, honestly.

 

[Satyrn]

I think you're getting a little fixated on the vermin theme, which I don't think is really that big of an aspect for them, honestly.

Aye. That's why I said I was being uncreative. It was the only thing that came to mind, but I mentioned it anyway as more of a sort of brainstorming seed.

 

[QuietBrowser]

Aye. That's why I said I was being uncreative. It was the only thing that came to mind, but I mentioned it anyway as more of a sort of brainstorming seed.

No harm done. I just... I don't know, I really don't think that they need that much in the way of vermin-manipulating powers. My kneejerk would probably be either iconic necromancer powers, spells that mimic vampiric traits (Gaseous Form at 5th level, for example), a dark take on gnome traits (for example, Tasha's Hideous Laughter), or some combination of those.