Vampire Cape

[Grogg of the North]

In the near future my party is probably going to be fighting a vampire. I'd like to give this vampire a kick-butt cape. Something similar to the capes the nobility has in the Vampire Hunter D mythos.

Since I don't have novels with me anymore, I'm going to use the second movie as a starting point. In VHD: Bloodlust, the vampire's cape is able to deflect sword blows and also reflect a missile back. In combat, the cape grows jagged edges, long reach, and is able to cleave flesh and even concrete.

So, enworld, will you help me come up with stats for such a cape? The cape should provide an armor bonus, shield just seems ... wrong, and while +4 seems to be the standard bonus, it just seems ... low. How much damage would a cape do? d8, d10, 2d6, 1d10-d8?

Since this is for an NPC, I could probably do whatever I wanted but I'm a bit worried that someone in my group will take it for themselves and it would cause problems. Perhaps if I add a curse to the cape....

 

[James the Newbie]

I think +4 is pretty adequate, but if you want more +6 doesn't sound like its going too far.

You could apply protect against arrows to the cape to remove missile damage.

the claws of darkness spell would probably cover the damage pretty nicely, if applied to the edge of the cape.
Claws of Darkness – Spell – D&D Tools

If you really want to keep it out of PC hands then you can always make it explode after battle.
A less unfair alternative would be to make it an evil item, so non evil pc's get -1's to their attacks.
a Curse as you said is viable.

Edit: some items only work for certain races, you could make it work only for undead.

But in doing this you are almost robbing the pc's of their reward. Try not to put in something your not willing to let the PC's have, as there is always a way of getting around problems.

 

[LiL KiNG]

Restricting use for undead seems good, or if Good characters put it on they gain X amount of negative levels like other items made for Evil confer would work well too, or even in addition to the undead requirement.

Putting Deflect Arrows on it for 1-3/Day could be cool, or the Armor Crystal like ability from MIC of +5 against ranged attacks or something.

Reach weapon for 10 ft. seems doable, unsure of the damage but James suggested Claws of Darkness which seems very fitting.

If an armor bonus then you can't wear actual armor, so up to +8 would be fine in my eyes... gonna be a pricey cape though!

 

[kitcik]

+6 is epic?

Have it provide a "Wings of Cover" effect 3/day.

 

[Loonook]

Why do the players get their grubby hands on anything?

Your bosses need to follow the party paradigm... And that means that he should be able to throw quite a bit more hate towards the party without necessarily providing back the same abilities.

If you want the players to have it? Give it to them.

If you want them to have the players gain it with penalties? Range from weak (item is evil like Demon's Armor) to Strong (Legacy Items, need to Sanctify) penalties.

If it's game-changing? Then its a series of SLAs and the character's 'weapons' and 'armor' are just presented as being part of the cloak itself. A cape of armor +4, brilliant energy spiked chain... Seems pretty simple. All SRD, and simple.

I made a character based on Nicodemus from the Dresden Files from a Hanging Judge and Evard's Black Tentacles in a 10' burst range. Its the presentation that makes the creature.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

 

[Sekhmet]

Make an addendum to the Claws of Darkness (as it pertains to the Cloak) in that it should bypass hardness - this will give you the "cleaving concrete" effect that you're looking for.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Why not make it an Intelligent Item?

With all the abilities you want to give it, I'd imagine it would have a high ego score, and since it's alignment would be different from the PCs, I could see it trying to choke whoever wore it that it disagreed with.

Alternately, what if it was a pumped up Cloaker?

 

[Empath Negative]

Cloak with X bonuses, but also acts as an animated +3 spiked chain...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hanson6
has no status.

Registered User

Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 18
Novice (Lvl 1)

Reported

 

[Grogg of the North]

I figured I'd let everyone know what I had decided on doing.

Vampire's Cape

A sign of status among the vampire nobility, this cape is created from the blood of their victims and magically enhanced and treated. While this garment appears to be a normal cape sized for a medium creature, it confers many magical bonuses upon its wearer.

The cape provides a +6 armor bonus and 3 times per day may be used to provide an effect similar to Wings of Cover. The cape may also be used to great effect in combat, gaining jagged edges and billowing outwards and extending the wearer's natural reach to 10 feet. The cape deals 1d6 + strength modifier slashing damage, crits on 19-20 and channels a vampire's energy drain ability. These jagged edges ignore hardness less than 20.

Any living creature that dons this cape does so at great peril. Each day at sundown, the wearer must make a fortitude save or start turning into a vampire. The wearer of the cape is unaware of this transformation.

The damage is a blend of claws of darkness (above) and beast claws (CD). And I added the energy drain ability because that is such a big threat that by removing it from the fight, the danger of the creature is greatly diminished.

Defense abilities are there to fit the theme and feel of vampire's cape.

I added the curse because curses are awesome. I don't know what the DC will be for the save but I'm thinking it will be steep. DC 25 perhaps? As for how long the transformation takes, I'm thinking that on a failed save, the wearer takes the blood drain damage. When con hits 0 they become a vampire. If the party figures out what is going on they can use magic to fix it.