Vampires and Rain: Death from above?

[Funeris]

soon we will get into the super soaker as the ultimate anti vampire weapon.....

Worked in The Lost Boys

Second time I've quoted you this morning, Crothian. I need to go to bed.

That being said, I ignore many of the weaknesses for vampires stated by the SRD in my homebrew. Most of it was myth...and thus ends up as false in my world.

But, I agree that rain would not be considered running water. More like falling water. Bucket o' Water or a gutter...again, falling water. Waterfall...falling water but depending on the height of the water, the vampire may not survive the force of it anyway.

~Fune

 

[Hypersmurf]

[sigh] We've got vampire troubles in a game I'm in at the moment.

I went out and picked up a Decanter of Endless Water specially.

When we ran into some of them in a sewer, I intended to use the geyser mode to make sure that the contents of the sewer classed as 'running water'.

Turned out they're some sort of variant vampire that aren't bothered by running water anyway. Gah!

-Hyp.

 

[frankthedm]

No varient, it is listed in the SRD
Speed
Same as the base creature. If the base creature has a swim speed, the vampire retains the ability to swim and is not vulnerable to immersion in running water (see below).

 

[Thia Halmades]

Eh, they covered everything I would have reasonably said. I really loathe those RIFTS vampire rules where, in fact, you can super-soaker your opponent.

Immersion in running water is just that - you're "drowing" your Vampire in a river. This works especially well after being staked. Ultimately, it also depends on what kinds of Vampires you want, and which rules/mythologies you beg, borrow, or steal.

But dear heavens, please, don't make "super soaker" a viable weapon.

 

[silyolpooh]

Since the d20 rules do not provide a context-specific definition of those terms, one must default to the common definition.

Really, the old 'running water' thing is a holdover from the mytholocial origins of the vampire, and in the context of D&D really has no practical value. About the only time you could make use of it would be if you managed to grapple a vampire and pull them into the nearby river.

Okay, as something of a history/religion buff, maybe I can help put this part in context. In feudal Europe, especially western Europe, most fiefdoms were boundaried by rivers. And while the legend of the vampire doesn't historically carry as much weight as movies might lead you to believe, there was a large distrust among the nobility, and the idea that evil-spawn could not cross into your territory (and later, your home) without an invitation to such evil was as much an admonission as it was a comfort.

The running water killing them is from a completely separate belief. In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, baptism was always performed in a running stream or river, where the water washed away the evils of your life before. The obvious inference is that in baptizing (from the Greek "to submerge") and washing their evil away, there is nothing left of the vampire (since it IS evil) and it is destroyed. That said, there is some interesting, if outside-the-rules, role-playing opportunity if a party member is bitten, but not yet converted. Can submerging them wash away the evil if done quickly enough? Or will it just kill them, too?

 

[Voadam]

Since the d20 rules do not provide a context-specific definition of those terms, one must default to the common definition.

And don't forget that the vampire can simply fly over any stream or river via gaseous form or via shapechange (bat). Or find a bridge; the prohibition really only prevents them from physically walking through running water.

"Crossing" does not only mean "fording". Crossing the river over the bridge seems a normal thing to say. Therefore a vampire cannot cross over a river via a bridge or canoe or other methods.

 

[Nyeshet]

Understand that Vampirism was basically an analogy to Disease, and suddenly a lot of their handicaps make sense.

Sunlight
Granted vampires are associated with the dark, but being out in the sun has been associated with health for millennia.

Running Water
Stagnant (still) water could often have various diseases and parasites, but swiftly running water generally had fewer of either and thus was generally considered healthier.

Garlic
It was belived in many regions of europe during the middle ages that diseases were associated with scents. Breathing in the wrong scent (such as the scent of decay around a corpse, the scent of refuse, the scent found around those long ill, etc) could cause illness. A strong scent was believed to effectively replace any weaker scents present (as the weaker scents could no longer be smelled). Thus a strong smelling herb / plant was generally seen as healthy (so long as it was not poisonous or had a bad reputation).

Salt
This was a great preservative, well known for keeping meat from going bad - and thus seen as 'warding off' disease. Initially - and still in some places - salt was seen as an effective barrier against fiendish creatures such as fae and undead. A line of salt across an entrance (or a circle of salt around something) was seen as able to prevent 'evil' from crossing / entering. This probably lead to the idea that if a vampire comes upon a pile of grains / seeds it must stop and could not pass until it had counted every one.

Holy Water
This is obvious; the holy repells the damned. It could be a holy sign, a cup of holy water, a holy wafer, a blest picture / icon / statue, etc.

Even Gaseous Form could be attributed to this, due to the fact that swamp mists, mists in grave yards, etc were generally seen as potentially diseased. And note that when the vampire calls upon the creature of the wilderness they call upon wolves and rats (bats came later). The former were seen as fiendish, and the latter were strongly associated with disease.

And, of course, those that were bitten were infected with vampirism - becoming themselves contageous with it after it had time to incubate (ie: after their rose into unlife).

- - -

So simple rain water would not be enough, and gutter water / barrel water would likely be quite the opposite, but a stream or river would be ideal (as would the ocean, incidentally).