D&D 5E How do Vampires Exist?

[Giant2005]

The question might seem ridiculous but I genuinely don't see how a vampire can be created without some serious effort and a lot of healing magic being involved.

In order for a vampire to be made, the victim must have its maximum hit points reduced to zero by the vampire's bite. The problem is that the vampire's bite has two damage components: piercing and necrotic. Only the necrotic aspect reduces the targets maximum hit points, which means that the piercing damage will cause the victim to be dead long before it is possible to convert them into a vampire.

It seems that in order to convert a humanoid into a vampire, the vampire must constantly heal the victim in order to mitigate the piercing portion of the damage and then hope that the final bite doesn't inflict enough piercing damage to down the victim. That sounds a little cumbersome but possible in theory, except for the fact that vampires have no natural means of healing their victims. Do vampires spend a fortune on healing potions whenever they decide they want to convert a new vampire? If so, eradicating vampires from the planet should be relatively easy as prospective vampire hunters would only have to monitor the alchemist shops.

 

[mellored]

When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable.

So... just keep stabilizing them with their bite, and reducing their HP with the necrotic damage.


Hmm.... oddly, you can hit someone who's dying to stabilize them.

 

[Giant2005]

When an attacker reduces a creature to 0 hit points with a melee attack, the attacker can knock the creature out. The attacker can make this choice the instant the damage is dealt. The creature falls unconscious and is stable.

So... just keep stabilizing them with their bite, and reducing their HP with the necrotic damage.


Hmm.... oddly, you can hit someone who's dying to stabilize them.

Wouldn't that only work the first time?
Without healing them, you can only reduce them to 0 hit points once.

 

[mellored]

Wouldn't that only work the first time?
Without healing them, you can only reduce them to 0 hit points once.

Fair point.

But next part...
A stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.


So it just takes a while to turn someone.

 

[Giant2005]

Fair point.

But next part...
A stable creature that isn’t healed regains 1 hit point after 1d4 hours.


So it just takes a while to turn someone.

That would do the trick! It would be an absolutely horrible way to go too - being beaten unconscious repeatedly over the next few days.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Once you've KO'd someone you can still do damage to them, it just has to be a lot of damage to kill them outright.

You can also just hand-waive it from the overly technical to just 'killed by a vampire...' :shrug:

 

[feartheminotaur]

Most literary vampires (from classic literature, not some potboiler or improbable fan-fic) took days, if not weeks, to transform a victim, slowly draining their life force. IIRC, Lucy in Dracula is slowly drained over weeks, and Mina is attacked over several days.

Of course, that only works if they victim doesn't realize they are being attacked. Otherwise, you'd have to assume a slow drain max/heal damage ritual performed on a captured (or incapacitated victim)

 

[The Crimson Binome]

If the reduction in maximum HP does not recover naturally, you could just bite the person once per day and wait for the regular damage to heal overnight.

 

[iserith]

[video=youtube;sVgVB3qsySQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVgVB3qsySQ[/video]

 

[pukunui]

Unless it's a matter of a PC being turned into a vampire, I'd just be inclined to handwave it.