Vampire in play

[AbdulAlhazred]

Claiming to be a Revenant Monk that dables in druid (for the changing into different animal bits) is probably enough to explain most of the stuff (the Rev part pertaining to why the cleric's turn undead hurts him). As long as one party member is in on it and willing to give up the surges (and elp with the lying), they can probably get away with most. Heck the whole biting thing can even be explained as the primal beast form "coming out".

Here's my question though, why would CHARACTERS need to be told anything like that? Do the characters have a list of classes? Maybe they run around with a PHB1-3 and an HotFL and a DDI subscription on their laptop (getting Internet must be a bitch).

In the GAME WORLD there are no classes. There are no defined lists of powers that are packaged together. All the characters have to go on is what they see and what they think they know. So yeah, the vampire might be trying to pretend to be 'not a vampire' and claiming to be "from the monastery over by Bigtown" might be a good cover, or not.

Also, as far as party acceptance, I'd consider that most adventurers seem to have some sort of background that includes not exactly fitting in with the rest of civilization. It is a good chunk of why they're adventuring. A vampire might be a little far out, but he's just another misfit. In a crazy magical world there's not that much of a reason why the party should be rejecting someone who's an oddball.

 

[generalchaos34]

Here's my question though, why would CHARACTERS need to be told anything like that? Do the characters have a list of classes? Maybe they run around with a PHB1-3 and an HotFL and a DDI subscription on their laptop (getting Internet must be a bitch).

In the GAME WORLD there are no classes. There are no defined lists of powers that are packaged together. All the characters have to go on is what they see and what they think they know. So yeah, the vampire might be trying to pretend to be 'not a vampire' and claiming to be "from the monastery over by Bigtown" might be a good cover, or not.

Also, as far as party acceptance, I'd consider that most adventurers seem to have some sort of background that includes not exactly fitting in with the rest of civilization. It is a good chunk of why they're adventuring. A vampire might be a little far out, but he's just another misfit. In a crazy magical world there's not that much of a reason why the party should be rejecting someone who's an oddball.

The whole reason we are spitballing ideas on acceptance is because the OPs group did not want to accept the vamp into their party, so we are trying interesting and fun ways to integrate a character into that kind of game, plus its kinda fun!

And while there arent classes per se in the game world, im sure people in the game world still get referred to by their profession, i.e. "That damned paladin" or "go hire the ranger looking typer by the bar" or "we'll need a capable fighter to make sure we have plenty of protection"

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

The whole reason we are spitballing ideas on acceptance is because the OPs group did not want to accept the vamp into their party, so we are trying interesting and fun ways to integrate a character into that kind of game, plus its kinda fun!

And while there arent classes per se in the game world, im sure people in the game world still get referred to by their profession, i.e. "That damned paladin" or "go hire the ranger looking typer by the bar" or "we'll need a capable fighter to make sure we have plenty of protection"

I suspect it would be a lot more grey than that. It can be amusing too. There is an NPC organization in the setting I am running my current campaign in. During the last campaign I ran in the same setting the players were quite surprised that the Rangers of Otillis weren't particularly 'ranger-like'. Some of them are wilderness types, which is a focus of the organization, but often they're priests, wizards, fighters, etc. Even then they're NPCs so they don't work by class rules anyway.

So, calling someone a 'ranger' would imply very little about their capabilities in that setting. Probably little more than calling someone a 'salesman' does in the real world. Sure, a guy who blasts things with magic probably gets labeled 'wizard' in game, but that could cover a LOT of different classes, including all the arcane ones as well as possibly things like invoker, and possibly others like shaman or druid as well. Given that NPCs can have any eclectic mix of powers I think it would be pretty hard to pigeonhole anyone down to the level of what class they are.

In other words there'd never realistically be a question of "How does that Monk do that? Monks don't do that." in the game world. I think you'd more likely identify people in some fashion in a positive fashion (IE that guy drinks blook, he's a vampire) and the same character might easily be labeled in quite different ways in different contexts.

 

[Ryujin]

Perhaps, but calling someone a "blood-sucking undead fiend" is pretty universal

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Perhaps, but calling someone a "blood-sucking undead fiend" is pretty universal

I'm just saying, it is a positive identification. Nobody is going to say "gosh, that guy turned into a bat, he can't possibly be a monk." If someone cops onto your vampire's dietary preferences, sure they'll probably call him a vampire. They might put 2 and 2 together from lesser clues and decide you're a vampire as well. OTOH evincing one or two abilities that don't happen to match with something in PHB3 isn't likely going to do the trick. Things in game are always a lot more ambiguous than they are at the table to the players. The point being there should be plenty of scope for players to play their characters in such a way that they don't have to run around staking each other. They MAY run into problems, but it isn't clear that they will inevitably. This can be plenty of fun. The cleric of Pelor might eventually be getting suspicious of the pale stranger who joined the party last week, but there could be a long phase of doubt and uncertainty about exactly what he's dealing with.

 

[DracoSuave]

I would think a class that uses holy symbols would have an easier time blending with clerics and pallies.
They of Kelemvor? So are you, invested as an undead hunter on the path of redemption.

Or maybe youre a Deathless.

Or maybe you're evil but you're not a dick so they'll work with you.

Lets not pretend this is even a challenge. So long as youre playing realistic characters a way can be always be found.

 

[hbnetto]

down

 

[hbnetto]

Whatabout gnoll, thri-kreen or a cannibal darksun halfling? They would just eat their enemies!

 

[Nyghthawk]

It's been noted already a couple times, thanks for trying though.

I actually think that this is the best idea for "blending in" if you're a vampire.

 

[mudlock]

I haven't heard of anyone wanting to play a Warlock in need of redemption yet though

I have. Tiefling warlock. Was rebuilt as a human sorcerer after being "cleansed" (although it was a relatively early arc in the story; 6th level I think was when he did the rebuild).

Actually, that game had a lot of "rebuilding after dramatic plot points"... there was a cleric who became an avenger, too.

(The proximate release of PH2 was of course just a coincidence, I'm sure But that can't cover the tiefling->human bit.)