My vampire concept for d20 Modern games

[barsoomcore]

I'd appreciate seeing a rundown on the blood thirst ideas -- it's something I'm having trouble finding a way to model in my own campaign. I was using ability damage to the afflicted character's Wisdom score that increases over time, but then a character can simply receive a restoration spell and they're all back to normal. Okay, it's a reasonably high-level spell but it still seemed wrong to me. On the other hand, just Rule Zeroing that restoration wouldn't work seemed unfair.

Thoughts?

 

[cybernetic]

Vampire Blood Rules...

Ok...here's what I have thus far for blood rules...I'll probably end up changing them and refining them....

Blood Rules
The fiendish essence of a vampire was not meant to inhabitat a mortal body, thus it requires constant influx of life giving blood to allow the vampire to survive. Unfortunetly, the heart of a vampire's body becomes the receptacle in which the fiendish essence is contant, preventing it from creating an untainted blood source, thus the vampire must steal the blood of other mortals in order to continue its existance. Typically, this necessity of feeding comes to the vampire instinctually. Sometimes, a vampire either will not be able to feed for various reasons or they choose not to feed because of their own morals. The bodies of vampires that do not feed, start to deteriorate as the fiendish essence within start to literally consume the body from within. Vampires who have gone this far risk becoming one of the ravenous undead, mindless vampiric monsters.

Vampiric Constitution
Vampires do not actually retain the normal constitution as a mortal character even though they do still have a constitution score. The vampire's constitution represents the available blood within the vampire's veins. (note: since the vampire's blood score is not the same as a mortal Constitution, it is not susceptable to circumstances and effects that damage or heal Constitution. Magical effects that bolster a mortal constitution do not bolster a vampire constitition, but vampires can raise their Constitution using ability score bonuses gained from raising character levels) Additionally, every two character levels a vampire possesses grants them a +1 bonus to their Constitution Score.

Blood Thirst
All vampires, at one point or another becomes a victim of the vampiric blood thirst. Every 24 hours, the fiendish essence burns off a little of the vampire's blood supply to fuel its dark power causing the vampire to loose 1d6+1 point of Constitution. A vampire is allowed a Will save (DC 15) to minimize the damage to half damage. If successful, the will save for the following 24 hours in increased by +5 (DC 20) and deals double damage (2d6+2). The damage and will save can be circumvented by the vampire feeding on mortal blood (requires at least 5 points of constitution.)

Vampire's who do not feed risk becoming ravenous mindless vampiric mosntrosities (I'll work on them and post them soon...it'll basically be a template....and the vamp, if a pc, becomes an npc..)...some older vampires are able to shut themsleves down into a state of stasis with their fiendish essence and brain basically falling into a deep coma of sorts...(more info later..as I write it..)


ok...so I need some opinions on these...i'm not quite sure if I hate them or love them...so I'll see what you guys think.

One thing I was definatly thinking about is Vampiric Constiution...My original thought was to make it +1 per level in a vampire class (Lesser Vampire, Greater Vampire..etc..) would that work better than +1 per every two character levels? Since a vampire's constitution (although different than normal ones) still deteremines constitution based checks and fort saves, they are undead so I want them to have high Con scores...and having it raise based on level kinda fits with most vamps genres..with the older vamps having being able to "use" more blood born powers than younger ones...

another thing I thought of is maybe allowing vamps to spend a Con point to heal 1d4 points of damage....

 

[Mordane76]

One thing I was definatly thinking about is Vampiric Constiution...My original thought was to make it +1 per level in a vampire class (Lesser Vampire, Greater Vampire..etc..) would that work better than +1 per every two character levels? Since a vampire's constitution (although different than normal ones) still deteremines constitution based checks and fort saves, they are undead so I want them to have high Con scores...and having it raise based on level kinda fits with most vamps genres..with the older vamps having being able to "use" more blood born powers than younger ones...

I've highlighted the part of this that concerns me the most. Basically, if a vampire has to burn Con every day, and burn it to run their powers... and then can regain it by drinking blood, and then might be able to burn it to heal... we're talking about a forever fluctuating Con Score, which affects Fort Save, hit points, and Con-based skills. This is a LOT of book-keeping, and leaves a LOT of room for error.

 

[cybernetic]

I've highlighted the part of this that concerns me the most. Basically, if a vampire has to burn Con every day, and burn it to run their powers... and then can regain it by drinking blood, and then might be able to burn it to heal... we're talking about a forever fluctuating Con Score, which affects Fort Save, hit points, and Con-based skills. This is a LOT of book-keeping, and leaves a LOT of room for error.

My bad.... it should have read that the Maximum Constitution of the vampire is used for Con. based checks and fort saves..etc..

It seems I did leave out a bit about vamps only being able to drink up to their max Con... and that this max is what determines any derived stats...thats what happens when you try to type from memory to web too fast...


Thanx for catching that for me!

 

[barsoomcore]

Okay, let me see if I've got this. Vampires have no Constitution score -- instead they have a Vampiric Constitution score -- which, not being an ability score per se, is not affected by such things as restoration or ability drain or anything like that.

Hey, that's pretty clever. I'm yoinking it.

My lycanthropes have a Shadow Wisdom score that they use to determine all Wisdom-based checks. It's not as susceptible to fluctuation as your Vampiric Constitution, so there won't be the same need for bookkeeping.

Interesting. Good idea and novel mechanic!

 

[cybernetic]

I've decided I'm going to attempt to actually build a campaign model/sourcebook built around my vampire concepts...after they are finished..

Since Underworld came out on dvd today....its kinda inspired me to write a vampire centric setting/sourcebook..albeit a free one.

I'm going to call the book/setting Vampire Apocalypse.

I've been kicking around another idea as well....kinda a vampire racial enemy/polar opposite (for the setting)... the Malakim. Which are the inverse of a vampire. They are humans who have willingly (perhaps through a family line or bloodline) allowed a celestial essence to merge with their body..becoming an anti-vampire who still requires the life essence of mortals (like a vampire's blood thrist) but instead may only feed on the soul of a human who allows them to of their own free will...they would kinda be like fleshbound angels....what you guys think?

I'll tackle them after I finish up my vamp rules..which the malakim will use similar concepts...

 

[Mordane76]

One thing I was definatly thinking about is Vampiric Constiution...My original thought was to make it +1 per level in a vampire class (Lesser Vampire, Greater Vampire..etc..) would that work better than +1 per every two character levels? Since a vampire's constitution (although different than normal ones) still deteremines constitution based checks and fort saves, they are undead so I want them to have high Con scores...and having it raise based on level kinda fits with most vamps genres..with the older vamps having being able to "use" more blood born powers than younger ones...

In all honesty, I would use +1 per two class levels. This way, a vampire can't get additional Con for levels in a template or something else that simulates a character level. Mainly, if you went with +1 per level in vampire classes, you open an avenue for a character to end up with a potential +20 Con by 20th level (so a character could possibly have a 38 Max Con), which would make them nigh unstoppable in Fort save, Concentration checks, and hit points (+200 HP for just the bonus Con). Also, with that much blood available, they could burn through powers without much worry. With +1/2 class levels, you end up with a +10 Con for all vampires from levels when they reach the 20th class level (they might already be 20+ ECL by then). This equates to only 100 extra hit points, and +5 to Fort Saves and Concentration (by itself).

 

[dekrass]

This is probably the best vampire idea I've seen for d20.
I'll have to try it out!