Playable Vampire: From Level 0 Up.

[Steinhauser]

Oh, alright. It doesn't seem like much of a weakness for the savvy character then; it's actually a major boon. Free healing virtually whenever you want and a free 5 temporary hp every day.

How many cold-blooded creatures are there? The only one I know for sure is kobolds (as stated in RotD); I assume lizardfolk, too. As undead, can vampires even be ecto/endothermic? Do they have flowing blood? I guess this depends entirely on your world, but I think the conventional D&D vampires are always corpe-cold and have no working circulatory system, just like everything else without a Con score.

 

[Sylrae]

Oh, alright. It doesn't seem like much of a weakness for the savvy character then; it's actually a major boon. Free healing virtually whenever you want and a free 5 temporary hp every day.

That's part of the reason I've been considering ditching the healing and just keeping the 5 bonus HP. You have fast healing.

How many cold-blooded creatures are there? The only one I know for sure is kobolds (as stated in RotD); I assume lizardfolk, too.

Any reptiles, non-mammalian aquatic creatures, vermin, dragons, etc, would be cold-blooded. It's not hard to look at something and say, 'is it a lizard, bug, or fish? if so, cold blooded too bad for you mr. vampire.' lol.

As undead, can vampires even be ecto/endothermic? Do they have flowing blood? I guess this depends entirely on your world, but I think the conventional D&D vampires are always corpe-cold and have no working circulatory system, just like everything else without a Con score.

Hmm. I'd say that the reason they take in blood is to have the flowing blood. If they're starving they dont have flowing blood, but if theyre full, the blood circulates the way it did when they were alive. which is why it makes a difference if youre cold blooded and you consume warm blooded blood.

 

[Steinhauser]

Any reptiles, non-mammalian aquatic creatures, vermin, dragons, etc, would be cold-blooded. It's not hard to look at something and say, 'is it a lizard, bug, or fish? if so, cold blooded too bad for you mr. vampire.' lol.

It's not so simple for fantasy creatures. Dragons, for example, would probably be warm-blooded (or more accurately, endothermic). An endotherm by definition is able to control its own body temperature - if dragons are always the same temperature as their environment, where does the fire (or cold breath) come from?

Dinosaurs are warm-blooded. Wouldn't it stand to reason that very active reptiles would also be? Lizardfolk don't bask all day as far as I know.

And then you have things like merfok and driders which are half-and-half. Medusas are scaly but have mammalian features (boobs).

I guess it's up to DM fiat, since it isn't spelled out in the monster descriptions.

 

[Sylrae]

Well, it would be entirely DM fiat as to what was warm/cold blooded. It was more proposed as a possible option. I was actually looking for feedback as to whether it was a viable option.

 

[Steinhauser]

Well there's nothing particularly wrong with it as an option (assuming the game adopts your "vampire drinks blood to replace its own blood" idea, which I rather like actually).

Although I think cold-blooded creatures would seek out warm blood, especially since they have no way of basking in the sun as vampires. Plus I like the idea of a vampiric kobold drinking the blood of nearby livestock ala "el chupacabra".

As a balancing factor, it's...not a factor. Besides kobolds, there's no LA +0 cold-blooded race.

 

[Sylrae]

The point of this isnt to be used with LA. It works I guess.

Maybe just make cold blooded creatures give 1/2 regardless?

That should be a non issue eventually, it will be if it ever comes up in my games. If a player wants to play a LA+ HD Lizardfolk, etc, I do something like this for it.

I intend to make a whole MM like this. I have 4 monsters done. I think I may release it in small, cheap iterations, and if someone gets all of them then they'll get the compilation for free.

I think LA was horribly implemented. I also think that anything that *could* make a cool player character should have a class progression ala AU/AE instead of LA+HD/SS Progressions.

 

[Steinhauser]

Maybe just make cold blooded creatures give 1/2 regardless?

Sure, that makes more sense. Or maybe cold blood should be irrelevant - I don't think there's anything different about the actual blood itself, just the creature's self-regulation of body temperature (or lack thereof). Either way I very much doubt it'll come up a lot; most fantasy worlds aren't particularly reptile-heavy.

Some more thoughts occur. "Vampires cannot willingly cross running water. They can be carried over without actively resisting, but they cannot will themselves to cross it." What about mounts? Would a vampire be able to guide his mount to carry him over the water? Or train it to cross a bridge no matter how much he resists, then tie himself to the saddle?

What kind of effect is it - a fear/morale effect? Compulsion? What if danger loomed - say the sun was rising and the only way to stay in the shadow was to cross a river. I ask because automatic, behaviour-modifying effects can be hard for players to go along with, especially if they don't allow a Will save. (I guess what I'm saying is I think you should allow one, similar to the holy symbol.)

How easy is it to avoid the sun? Would a vampire in full plate with a visor of tinted glass (i.e. no part of his skin is exposed) be fine in daylight? How about a thick robe, gloves, and tinted mask for casters?

Does a vampire's attire cast shadows or have reflections? How about things he picks up?

 

[Ilja]

On account of the cold/warmblooded issue, why have exactly that differentiation? Vampires in fantasy almost always try to pray on human(oid)s, why not put that as a limitation? "If the victim is not of the same creature type as the vampire, only half the effect applies".
That way, there would be a reason except for malevolence to pray on humanoids. And the vampiric dragon would search out and drain other dragons...

 

[Sylrae]

After a bit of Playtesting and character building, I determined the temp HP is too much, and the DR scales too fast.

This is in need of an update, and I'll be looking into doing so as soon as I move to my new place.