Pre-Ravenloft Vampire Villains

[Joshua Randall]

Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh:

Spoiler

vampire magic-user lizardman!

Are you sure you're not thinking of I2: Tomb of the Lizard King?

Right, the

Spoiler

vampire magic-user lizardman

is

Spoiler

the titular antagonist

from Tomb of the Lizard King.

[sblock]His proper name is Sakatha, and he's one of my favorite D&D villains -- and a sadly underrated one, too. Sakatha's story is that he was mortally wounded during a battle with the good guy human baron (The Battle of Waycombe*).

* Why the heck do I remember that?!

Sakatha used a wish from his ring of three wishes to survive, but his wish was rather badly worded. It was along the lines of "I wish to survive to drink the blood of my enemies." Well, the wish-gods interpreted this literally, so Sakatha survived... as a vampire.

I believe it was after his vampirization that Sakatha used a wish to grant himself magic-user status.

The downside to Sakatha as a villain is that he is both insane and not very bright. I think if I were to run Tomb of the Lizard King today, I'd make Sakatha a lot smarter.[/sblock]

Another good source of vampire enemies, although it does not predate Ravenloft, is the 2e mega-adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors. There are

Spoiler

three vampires present in the Bleak Academy who have been wreaking havok around that area, and will be sent out after any PCs who meddle in the Academy's affairs

.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh:

Spoiler

vampire magic-user lizardman!

Are you sure you're not thinking of I2: Tomb of the Lizard King?

Right, the

Spoiler

vampire magic-user lizardman

is

Spoiler

the titular antagonist

from Tomb of the Lizard King.

[sblock]His proper name is Sakatha, and he's one of my favorite D&D villains -- and a sadly underrated one, too. Sakatha's story is that he was mortally wounded during a battle with the good guy human baron (The Battle of Waycombe*).

* Why the heck do I remember that?!

Sakatha used a wish from his ring of three wishes to survive, but his wish was rather badly worded. It was along the lines of "I wish to survive to drink the blood of my enemies." Well, the wish-gods interpreted this literally, so Sakatha survived... as a vampire.

I believe it was after his vampirization that Sakatha used a wish to grant himself magic-user status.

The downside to Sakatha as a villain is that he is both insane and not very bright. I think if I were to run Tomb of the Lizard King today, I'd make Sakatha a lot smarter.[/sblock]

Another good source of vampire enemies, although it does not predate Ravenloft, is the 2e mega-adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors. There are

Spoiler

three vampires present in the Bleak Academy who have been wreaking havok around that area, and will be sent out after any PCs who meddle in the Academy's affairs

.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh:

Spoiler

vampire magic-user lizardman!

Are you sure you're not thinking of I2: Tomb of the Lizard King?

Right, the

Spoiler

vampire magic-user lizardman

is

Spoiler

the titular antagonist

from Tomb of the Lizard King.

[sblock]His proper name is Sakatha, and he's one of my favorite D&D villains -- and a sadly underrated one, too. Sakatha's story is that he was mortally wounded during a battle with the good guy human baron (The Battle of Waycombe*).

* Why the heck do I remember that?!

Sakatha used a wish from his ring of three wishes to survive, but his wish was rather badly worded. It was along the lines of "I wish to survive to drink the blood of my enemies." Well, the wish-gods interpreted this literally, so Sakatha survived... as a vampire.

I believe it was after his vampirization that Sakatha used a wish to grant himself magic-user status.

The downside to Sakatha as a villain is that he is both insane and not very bright. I think if I were to run Tomb of the Lizard King today, I'd make Sakatha a lot smarter.[/sblock]

Another good source of vampire enemies, although it does not predate Ravenloft, is the 2e mega-adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors. There are

Spoiler

three vampires present in the Bleak Academy who have been wreaking havok around that area, and will be sent out after any PCs who meddle in the Academy's affairs

.

 

[Voadam]

White Plume Mountain has one guarding one of the artifacts.

I can't remember his name off the top of my head.

 

[havard]

Dave Arneson's original Blackmoor Campaign featured Lord Fang, a former ruler of Blackmoor who had been turned into a Vampire. Sir Jenkins, lord of the neighbouring dominion was also turned into a Vampire. It is unclear whether Lord Fang was responsible for this. These were villains, but due to Arneson's unusual playing style they were controlled by players.

Spoiler:

Spoiler

Lord Fang appears for D&D 3.5 in Dungeons of Castle Blackmoor

-Havard

 

[Bold or Stupid]

White Plume Mountain has one guarding one of the artifacts.

I can't remember his name off the top of my head.

I don't remember the name either but I'm pretty sure he's in Open Grave for 4e.

 

[Pour]

Ctenmir and the hammer Whelm. I knew he sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember the name at first (and frankly not sure I can properly pronounce it, either hehe).

Again, thanks everyone who contributed to the list!

 

[the Jester]

Well, Return to the Tomb of Horrors has several good'uns.

[sblock]Absalom, Blaesing and Harrow are a trio of bad ass vampire assassins that the Bleak Academy sends out to deal with threats and to bring back undead.

Mistress Ferranifer is a vampire necromancer professor in a necromancer city.[/sblock]

 

[Peraion Graufalke]

Kas the Betrayer comes to mind, though I don't know if he appeared pre-Ravenloft.

 

[Voadam]

Kas the Betrayer comes to mind, though I don't know if he appeared pre-Ravenloft.

He gets mentioned with his artefact sword much earlier, at least as far back as the 1e DMG. No stats there though for him.