Playing Dhampyr

[Fallen Seraph]

Playing Dhampyr
By Brian R. James
These tormented souls have the blood of vampires in their veins. Learn what it means to be one of the tainted dhampyr.

Dragon 371: Playing Dhampyr

Right off the bat the most noticeable aspect is, it is not a true race. Instead at Level 1 there is a Vampiric Heritage feat you must take. Or later on if you and the DM can decide how this would happen. There are then different Racial Feats, you can take as well as Paragon Paths.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I love the idea...and I like the details...it could take some tweaking, but I like it...

The only thing I fear is the idea of race feats, since then you have two races...

 

[Shroomy]

Its a pretty interesting article and its clearly the way that 4e is going to re-introduce the 3.x concept of adding templates to PCs (I also think that some of that concept will be done via paragon paths).

 

[Rechan]

The only thing I fear is the idea of race feats, since then you have two races...

That's not inherently bad. After all, it hasn't made Half-Elves uber-broken because they can get Elf and Human feats.

The only potential uber-race would be dwarves, simply because they're really powaful.

 

[Shroomy]

I love the idea...and I like the details...it could take some tweaking, but I like it...

The only thing I fear is the idea of race feats, since then you have two races...

Though bloodline and racial feats are two distinct categories and you can only take one set of bloodline and one set of racial feats (with the exception of the half-elf, so far).

 

[Rechan]

Though bloodline and racial feats are two distinct categories and you can only take one set of bloodline and one set of racial feats (with the exception of the half-elf, so far).

I'm not familiar with any bloodline feats. Are there any?

 

[Shroomy]

I'm not familiar with any bloodline feats. Are there any?

Only the Vampire Bloodline feats in the Dhampyr article.

 

[Cadfan]

I... really like it. I think this is a really elegant way to handle this. Making dhampyr abilities into feats works well with customizing what sort of vampire you hope to have.

I have a small reservation about the general "pay feats for powers" concept, because it really works best when the powers you buy with feats are in some way better for you than your regular powers, but that's a small issue given that players can pick and choose what they take.

Blood Drain is really inefficient to use. Its cool, but really inefficient. Spend an action to grab, then spend another action to bite. But it does synergize really, really well with the Brutal Fencer linked in my signature...

Savage Bite fixes the inefficiency, but come on now- that's a power that needs some grammatical revision.

I do think there's some mechanical awkwardness in using "grab" in the current edition, though. Who's good at it? Basically only two people. Rogues and two handed weapon fighters who don't mind being unable to attack. You need a free hand to grab. Every class rewards using both hands to do things, or else doesn't use physical stats. I guess you could use a versatile weapon just so that you can make Grab a part of your arsenal, but there aren't many powers that use grabbing, so this would be an awful lot of investment for little gain. And once you hit paragon tier, you don't need to grab anymore. I don't really have a problem with the grab rules per se, but I do feel that there should be more builds and powers that make use of it. Again, see my Brutal Fencer for an example... I'd love to make a character who uses versatile weapons so that he can grab on occasion, but the game doesn't reward it much.

That was rambling, but whatever, I think everyone gets the point.

 

[Shroomy]

Blood Drain is really inefficient to use. Its cool, but really inefficient. Spend an action to grab, then spend another action to bite. But it does synergize really, really well with the Brutal Fencer linked in my signature...

I think that the most interesting component of the Blood Drain power is that you get to spend a healing surge once you've used it; the +2 bonus that scales upwards at each tier is nice. You wouldn't really use it as your main combat schtick, but I can clearly see where it can come in handy.

 

[Rechan]

I have a small reservation about the general "pay feats for powers" concept, because it really works best when the powers you buy with feats are in some way better for you than your regular powers, but that's a small issue given that players can pick and choose what they take.

I'm rather against the notion of feats granting powers, period. While I think that feats should be nice, powers come from leveling and classes. A power from a feat is almost too powerful.