I like how this vampire makes the "action or bonus action but not both" of slow meaningful & the legendary actions would definitely allow the vampire to whimsically toy with prey before misting off to the rafters or something 
Level Up (A5E) Monster preview thread!
dave2008
Legend
@duneguy: I have a question about the Reaping Greatsword of the vampire warrior. It mentions "up to 3 targets." I assume that is three separate attack rolls and you can hit one target 3 times (i.e. like a fighter's extra attacks) or 3 separate targets? To me it is a bit unclear at the moment as it could be read to mean that if you only target one creature it only takes one hit.
I have also struggled to come up with a simple way to be clear about this without using the multiattack action.
I have also struggled to come up with a simple way to be clear about this without using the multiattack action.
Faolyn
(she/her)
I was about to comment on that! It's a really interesting addition. I'm getting some cool visuals from it. The victim tossing and turning in their sleep as visions of the vampire or being stalked prevent them from truly resting, until they wake up with a start and feel compelled to meet with the vampire.
I definitely approve of the different abilities they might have. I love the Van Richten's Guides, and giving standard monsters different abilities is that series' hallmark. I'm also kind of amused by the fact they inflict necrotic damage on a slam--it reminds me of the older editions where they inflicted level drain on a hit instead of biting.
However, a possible goof. Under Quirks, it suggests that the vampire's main form is bat, but some might have other shapes instead. However, under Shapechanger, it says they can turn into any Medium or smaller beast. Personally, I would have said that the vampire can turn into one specific beast Medium or smaller beast, have a section of the description that says that they commonly turn into bats but some turn into other things (wolves, centipedes, ravens, whatever), and change that Quirk to something else, like the vamp feeds on psychic energy or something and inflicts psychic damage instead of necrotic.
dave2008
Legend
Personally I prefer if it just say vampire. We are not fools, we know it is a spawn and not a full fledged vampire. Why waste space on saying spawn all the time. Not in the MM, the dragong stat block doesn't say "blue dragon" through out its stat block, it just says "dragon." This is the better way to go IMO.
Then maybe it should be The spawn, instead of the vampire?
dave2008
Legend
Not IMO. It is a type of vampire, like a blue dragon is a type of dragon. I believe one of the developers of 5e mentioned that "vampire spawn" are typical vampires and "vampires" in the MM are what some would call "vampire lords." That is basically how I see it. Back in 2e, I believe, you could advance a vampire based on its age. I look at the vampire entry in the MM and LevelUp the same way. All the entries here are listed under "Vampires," so they are just different types (or in my mind ages) of vampire.
Vampire Spawn = young vampire
Vampire = mature vampire
Elder Vampire = old vampire
EDIT: You can of course want whatever you want. I don't mean to suggest otherwise, but I wouldn't expect a change in the final document.
EDIT 2: notice the traits under Elder Vampire simply refer to "vampire."
Not an error. It's the standard way D&D does it with monster variants in the MM. We didn't feel any need to change that. YMMV.
Darkwynters
Explorer
One of my gamers brought up a question I could not answer: will there be any change to animal companions or familiars, such as the Beast Master archetype?
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