Vampires don't scare me anymore.

[Desdichado]

Re: Re: Vampires don't scare me anymore.

I'm starting to feel that way lately. 3e has many, many improvements over 1e & 2e but it is starting to feel like a big game of number crunching latley. I think it's over-engineered. I feel like I spend all my prep time balancing encounters. A big part of the problem, in my opinion is that whole CR/EL system. By trying to balance everything they've made it too rigid. I wish the designers hadn't made assumptions about how many players would be in my party or how much treasure I wanted to give out.

The simplification of the base mechanics was a big step forward, but I'm starting to feel like it was a lot easier to wing it in 2e when everything was looser.

Yeah, but all that's really pretty optional. I essentially ignore ELs, XP and treasure tables, etc. and only use the CR number as a very general handwave of a guideline on how powerful a monster is relative to another monster (not necessarily to my party.) You can easily wing all this if you simply ignore it. Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to (or even should) use all the number crunching possibilities 3e provides.

I agree, the system is overengineered to a certain degree. But it doesn't stop my from having tons of fun DMing it, by just ignoring certain things that we never had before in any other edition.

 

[magnas_veritas]

I'm in the more frightening camp.

(deletia)

In 3e, the PC's find corpses drained of blood and suffer wolf attacks, then load on stakes and garlic to combat the beastie, then discover that some vampire has bitten a medusa/10th level sorcerer/ogre magic etc etc to make the entire job that much harder.

The first vampire we fought was an ancient elven sorceress who appeared out of thin air and started tossing disintegrates and other funky spells at us with complete and utter surprise. Our tank was elsewhere at the time, and we nearly had a TPK until the mage decided to cast an anti-magic shell and walk next to the vampire, and the melee cleric tossed the extremely-ticked (and held) rogue in to grapple the vampire for staking/smiting. That was a distinctly unpleasant fight.

Brad

 

[Hypersmurf]

If the vampire has some class levels, on the other hand, then it can really be time to start sweating, especially if it's a class that boosts the vampire's unarmed attacks. When those level-draining blows start coming faster and faster, it's time to worry.

According to the FAQ, there's a difference between the Slam attack and an Unarmed Strike.

A Vampire Monk, each round, can punch you five times, or he can Slam + level drain once.

-Hyp.

 

[Kryndal Levik]

The most important thing is to never let the rules (or the numbers) get in the way of the story- or, more importantly, your players' enjoyment. Sure, you (as a player and as a PC) get more knowledgeable as you progress in your career; it just takes a bit more to impress you. I agree with what others have said- who says all vampires need be alike? Even without progression, one vampire could be much more powerful than another (like on "Buffy," for example, where age is a huge factor).

I've been playing with the same individuals for years now, and they still get freaked out when I throw a vamp at them (regardless of level). The fun part is playing them as intelligent- remember, they're free-willed (and sometimes ancient) undead. Let them have the upper hand, and it makes for a much different experience (such as in the original Ravenloft module).

 

[Nightfall]

Vampires, by themselves, don't scare me. But exceptional vampires like Stradh and a few others DO. But even so, something as simple as a Razor Boar/Iron Tusker scares me.