ideas for a vampire enemy

[mysticsorcerer]

hello all, i need your help again. soon in my dungeon, my "pawns", will encounter a vampire. the vampire is an old enemy of one of the players' father. the vampire will be about 250 years old, so he won't be easy. but my guys are only around level four. they won't fight him yet but they will eventually. i just want them to get a taste of him and have them really look forward to killing him later.
any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
thanks again guys and gals.

 

[Nightfall]

Well if he's over 250 years old, Vampire Lord isn't a bad way to template him. Plus give him levels in either sorcerer or wizard. (Spellcasting vampires are hell to fight.)

 

[mysticsorcerer]

that sounds nice.
to all who read this:
which would be harder to fight, a vampire sorcerer,
a vampire fighter
a vampire barbarian
a vampire monk?

 

[s/LaSH]

Looking over my 3.0 MM:

A vampire has certain natural advantages that many class abilities simply remove. Energy drain only applies to their slam attack, so you can't flurry-of-blows an archmage into negative levels. A monk who gets vamped can no longer gain monk levels, because of alignment changing to chaotic.

I think the best choice for a close combat type would be a barbarian, because of their rage ability. It'll pump up their strength, thus their slam attack does more damage and is likelier to hit and drain. It'll also make grappling people easier, so you can suck zeir blood, ma a ha.

Fighters and monks will benefit from the heightened vampiric physical stats, but not as much as a barbarian, I'll wager. A temporary strength of 30 or more is nothing to sneeze at.

A sorcerer is a completely different proposition. Their Charisma isn't bumped as high as Strength, but on the other hand, all vampires are pretty lethal in combat, so the paltry +4 Cha gain will merely make him a lethal spellcaster with equally lethal melee abilities.

I've used vampire wizards (called sorcerers because it sounds cooler) in my webcomic, link in sig. It's down right now, though.

 

[Nifft]

I think the best choice for a close combat type would be a barbarian, because of their rage ability. It'll pump up their strength, thus their slam attack does more damage and is likelier to hit and drain. It'll also make grappling people easier, so you can suck zeir blood, ma a ha.

They are immune to fatigue, but they have no Con score, so their rage will last exactly 3 rounds.

All their HD are already bumped up to d12, so the Barbarian HP thing is moot.

Rogue levels could be fun. (But then, as my players know, I think Rogue levels are almost always fun.)

-- N

 

[DM_Matt]

Looking over my 3.0 MM:

A vampire has certain natural advantages that many class abilities simply remove. Energy drain only applies to their slam attack, so you can't flurry-of-blows an archmage into negative levels. A monk who gets vamped can no longer gain monk levels, because of alignment changing to chaotic.

I think the best choice for a close combat type would be a barbarian, because of their rage ability. It'll pump up their strength, thus their slam attack does more damage and is likelier to hit and drain. It'll also make grappling people easier, so you can suck zeir blood, ma a ha.

Fighters and monks will benefit from the heightened vampiric physical stats, but not as much as a barbarian, I'll wager. A temporary strength of 30 or more is nothing to sneeze at.

A sorcerer is a completely different proposition. Their Charisma isn't bumped as high as Strength, but on the other hand, all vampires are pretty lethal in combat, so the paltry +4 Cha gain will merely make him a lethal spellcaster with equally lethal melee abilities.

I've used vampire wizards (called sorcerers because it sounds cooler) in my webcomic, link in sig. It's down right now, though.

Vampire Barbs at quite bad. They get no benefit from the con bonus or the wil lsave bonus, and the d12 hd are not useful either beucase all thier hd are d12s automatically. A raging barbarian is no diffrent form a bull's strengthed barbarian.

If you want melee, fighter or rogue work. The can sneak attack a lot...they are very mobile and have great init. Evasion is useful beucase altohugh they have energy res and good ref saves they have bad hp. Rangers with favored enemy human are good too.

But for a big bag, mages are the way to go...they are still scary in melee, esp with buff spells, but they also can pick off PCs one by one and have good abilities for long-term villains that are useful outside of combat. If you go vampire lord, be careful in your spell choice...their spell-like abilities preempt many areas.

 

[RC Hagy]

They are immune to fatigue, but they have no Con score, so their rage will last exactly 3 rounds.


-- N

Some where, some when it was stated/mentioned that CON based stuff transfer over to CHA. Was really just for Concentration for the liches really... no reason it cannot be used for some other things though.
I have a feat some where which allows an intelligent undead to get half his Cha bonus per lvl as extra HP... and a follow up feat for the full bonus. 'Force of Personality' you see...

One thing I do is switch around a vampires bonus stats they receive when turned. So if a wizard gets turned put that +6 to Int and the +2 into Str.

As to non-fight pre-encounters... Mist and fog and blowing snow for gaeous form. Lots of vertical areas for spider climb and any flying alternate form. Sewers for rats and wilderness for wolves. Bats get the belfry... Make sure he summons before he talks!

Those resistances should be played up. Players left naked in the cold taking subdual while your baddie talks and talks and talks seemingly unfazed... ok, already dead and unaffected by subdual. Sounds nice though.

Enough from me.


Hagy

 

[FireLance]

Since the PCs will probably be too low-level to fight him directly, at least at first, make him a Vampire Bard or a Vampire Aristocrat with plenty of minions. You can play him as dashing, charismatic, witty, charming , and thoroughly evil. Let him toy with the PCs. Let them know that he could leave them as nothing more than a pile of blood-drained, dismembered corpses, but he won't because it wouldn't be stylish enough. Then, when they are finally powerful enough to face him in combat, give him a couple of levels of Blackguard so that he isn't a complete pushover.

 

[mysticsorcerer]

when i decided to post my call for help with this vampire guy, i just thought i would get one or two good posts and the rest would be ok. i just want to say i was so wrong. the posts that i read were beyond my wildest dreams. i thank all of you. you all are magnificently mind-blowing. i never would have come up with anything close to what you all gave me. a million thanks.

 

[Voadam]

I would go with sorcerer since it works well with the vamp template and gives options for current and future levels. You can give him some non lethal capture spells to trash them when they are weak and tougher spells for when they are stronger.

He could knock them silly with color sprays or hold persons, recognize the son of his old adversary, drain them all a little and leave him a message to tell his dad hi sinply to taunt the old goat.