Vampires that aren't crap!

[Sylrae]

Ah. See, you're just seeing vampires as enemies. In which case, you have one of the older vampires, with younger minions.

The issue is, we dont just play PHB races. people WANT to play vampires. so when I do monsters, I keep in mind that they should be functional as players, even if that means making rules that will likely not come up in random encounters against them, such as blood hunger.

IMO any creature should be fair game for players of the appropriate level. That's not to say it works socially, but there's nothing wrong with a band of celestial heroes, or something to that effect, so I try to keep that in mind.

You want big scary vampires, you can have them. you want playable vampires? theyre in there too. Still doing some tweaking though, cause I pegged the LA too high.

 

[Hawken]

Hiya, Syl.

See if you can get a hold of that Ravenloft book, Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead. It has ways of building undead up from scratch. Not so much vampires, mostly skeletons, zombies, ghouls and such, but the process it has in there for undead could be adapted to vampires.

Another way you could do it is to stagger the vampiric powers and abilities based on the creature's HD, like how the Savage Species handles the Feral template.

Vampire: 1-5HD:

• Natural Armor bonus: +2
• Blood Drain: 1 pt of Constitution per round
• Charm: As per Charm Person, in place of the Dominate ability.
• Energy Drain: Drain 1 level on a hit with the Slam attack that is a confirmed critical hit.
• Alternate Form: Bat only.
• Damage Reduction: 5/Silver
• Fast Healing: 1
• Resistance: Cold 5
• Turn Resistance: +1 Turn Resistance
• Abilities: Str +2, Dex +2, Cha +2
• Skills: +2 to listed skills.
• Feats: Alertness, Improved Initiative.

Vampire: 6-10HD

• Natural Armor increases to +4
• Blood Drain: Increases to 1d2 Con points.
• Children of the Night: Bats only.
• Dominate: Charm ability is lost in place of Dominate. This power has a range of only 10'.
• Create Spawn: By Energy Drain only.
• Energy Drain: Drain 1 level per hit.
• Alternate Form: Bat or Wolf only.
• Damage Reduction: 5/Silver and Magic
• Fast Healing: 3
• Resistance: Cold and Electricity 5
• Turn Resistance: +2 Turn Resistance
• Abilities: Str +2, Dex +2, Wis +2
• Skills: +4 to listed skills, instead of previous +2 bonus.
• Feats: Dodge.

Vampires: 11+HD
The Vampire receives all abilities and powers as listed in the Vampire template.

 

[GandalfMithrandir]

for my games, if a player wants to play a vampire, I generally use the rules from Savage Species with the rule that the characters must progress the HD, so if they start at level 12, they don't automatically get the powers of a full vampire, they have to progress 11 levels before they get the full powers.

 

[Hawken]

The only problem with that, Gandalf, is that all the goodies from the vampire template aren't worth 11 levels, especially when you start getting into epic levels.

Where do you get 11 levels from? As a template, Vampire is an LA +8 and provides no extra HD.

 

[GandalfMithrandir]

I generally discourage templates in my games but if a character really wants to play a vampire or a lycanthrope, I generally will work out something with the player to make sure the character doesn't instantly become very powerful, also advancement happens pretty quickly in my games. it could be as many as 15 levels or 5 to get full powers, it depends on the character and the campaign.

 

[Sylrae]

While I understand your thoughts on a sudden power jump, Ewww.

The Monster Manual vampire is actually a +5 LA IIRC, the +8 was a typo that got fixed in later printings. I'd check but all my gaming books are packed up since im still in the middle of moving.

And as for the EWW, The huge LA, and the no-drawbacks are what are awful about the MM Vampire. The reason I'm making a new vampie to begin with is to have a very low LA vampire that can be grown in power as necessary and that allows for the first level characters to become vampires without breaking the game in terms of power level. Instead of making it a class where you take all sorts of levels for abilities that mostly suck, you'll get your +1 LA template (or even a +0, as the Vampire Spawn is actually worth a -LA right now).

 

[bykov]

I would appreciate any feedback to my vampire template also, if any of you would so indulge.

Sorry for the interruption and thank you!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/homebrews/264862-ultimate-vampire-template.html

Bykov.