What do you do for...Vampires?

It would also be really neat to do additional/alternative vampyric powers as Warlock-style invocations. (Yes, shameless bump for a thread dealing with subject matter I find interesting!)
 

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Old_Skool said:
In the book (by Bram Stoker), vampires could transport magically through moonlight. So I think it would be interesting to give them the Shadowdancer's "shadow jump" ability, but they must begin and end each movement in an area with at least some moonlight instead of shadow.


I might have missed this part, but I don't remember it at all. Why would Dracula need to travel to England by boat then, and travel back to Transylvania in coach/train?
 

Ringan said:
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Old_Skool said:
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In the book (by Bram Stoker), vampires could transport magically through moonlight. So I think it would be interesting to give them the Shadowdancer's "shadow jump" ability, but they must begin and end each movement in an area with at least some moonlight instead of shadow.


I might have missed this part, but I don't remember it at all. Why would Dracula need to travel to England by boat then, and travel back to Transylvania in coach/train?

Dracula is described as transforming himself into a motes of dust which can be seen sparkling by moonlight. He also summons fog to cover his movements. These two abilities are generally confused/simplified/conflated into the power to take the form of a cloud of mist or vapor. (His "brides" use the same power when confronting Harker in Dracula's castle.)

I don't recall that any of Dracula's abilities were explicitly tied to moonlight. Rather, it is circumstantial that they are seen used by moonlight. On the other hand, the shapeshifting powers of the vampire, per Van Helsing, are only accesible to the vampire at certain times: at night, dawn, dusk, and at exactly noon. (They're also limited further by where they can be used.)

Furthermore, the ability to take "mist form" (for lack of a better term) doesn't seem to provide much in the way of tangible benefit (pun intended.)

The vampires can also shrink down to slip through cracks, and (at least Dracula can) climb walls like a spider, so the ability doesn't seem to provide anything extra in terms of movement capability. It is more a "special effect."

I don't recall any indication that it allows the vampire to move instantaneously (or so quickly as to be unseen) over a distance. This is a relatively common power for vampires in modern fiction, but I don't believe that it comes from Stoker's novel.

All that said, it would still be neat to see a moonlight-themed vampire. (If I remember correctly, Ravenloft has a variant that regenerates only in moonlight.)
 

In my next campaign, there's a specially designated monster/race for each school of magic, and vampires are creatures favored or touched by the source of enchantment magic.

(Sollir's Homebrewed Vampire version .8)

Vampire, CR 5; Medium Undead; HD 4d12+12; hp 38; Init +9; Spd 40 ft; AC 17 (+2 natural, +5 Dex); Melee MW Rapier +8 (1d6+2, 18-20/x2); SA Alluring Gaze, Blood Drain, Spell-like Abilities; SQ DR 5/silver, fast healing 2, light vulnerability, turn resistance +2, undead traits; AL NE; SV Fort +1, Ref +6, Will +7; Str 14, Dex 20, Con --, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 17.
Skills and Feats: Bluff +10, Disguise +10, Diplomacy +10, Listen +6, Sense Motive +9, Spot +5; Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse. (no synergy skill bonuses thrown in)

Alluring Gaze (Su): Gaze attack, range 5’. Opponents must make a Will save (DC 15) or be dazed for 1d4 rounds. Dazed creatures do not gain a bonus to Will saves versus spells like Charm Person or Enthrall for being combatants.
Blood Drain (Ex): As a full round action a vampire can make a normal attack (+7 bonus), once per minute, to execute a Blood Drain. This deals 1d6 Con damage (Fortitude DC 14 for half). The vampire heals 5 hp for every point of Con drained this way. Alternatively, he can gain another use of one or more spell-like abilities, at the rate of 1 spell level for every 5 hp drained. The save for this ability is strength-based.
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): 3/day-Charm Person, Enthrall, Sleep; 1/day-Eagle’s Splendor, Heroism, Suggestion. Spell DC is (13+spell level).
Sunlight Vulnerability (Ex): Vampires suffer a -8 Charisma penalty when entering true sunlight, even under armor or clothes. A failed save vs. a Sunburst spell affects them this way for 1d4 rounds. Within the radius of a Daylight spell or for 1d4 rounds after failing a save from Searing Light, they receive only a -4 penalty. Charisma damage reduces a vampire's amount of hit points as a negative constitution score would a living creature, potentially causing the death of a vampire (see Unholy Strength).
Unholy Strength (Ex): Vampires gain a modifier to their hit points equal to their charisma bonus.

Equipment: MW Rapier, often armor such as a MW Chain Shirt (add only +3 AC to vampire’s stat block, as the chain armor’s max Dex bonus is +4).
Advancement: By character class.
Favored Class: Enchanter

(Note that up to level 4, arcane spellcasting classse would only count as 1/2 for purposes of CR. So a Vampire Enchanter 2 would be CR 6 and a Enchanter 4 would be CR 7 while a Enchanter 6 would be CR 9.)

If anyone's interested, there's also a Vampire Count prestige class that improves a base vampire's SA's, spell-likes, and resistances, along with advancing their arcane spellcaster progression.
 
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The kind folks at Internet Archives have the electronic version of the first edition of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" available for free download. You can download it in several formats, from your browser or by FTP, at this link. Proving once again that Canadians are awesome.

So with the book in electronic format, it was rather simple for me to look through it and find the section of the book relating to Dracula's powers. In this particular passage, Dr. Van Helsing is explaining Dracula's history and powers to the men who have gathered to hunt the monster. I have copied and pasted the passage below, from the original. (Spoiler alert, for those of you who have not read the original novel and wish to someday do so.)

From "Dracula," by Bram Stoker, pages 222-224, (c) 1897 by New York Grosset & Dunlap:
[SBLOCK]"Now let us see how far the general powers arrayed against us are restrict, and how the individual cannot. In fine, let us consider the limitations of the vampire in general, and of this one in particular.

"All we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions. These do not at the first appear much, when the matter is one of life and death--nay of more than either life or death. Yet must we be satisfied; in the first place because we have to be--no other means is at our control and secondly, because, after all, these things--tradition and superstition--are everything. Does not the belief in vampires rest for othershough not, alas! for us on them? A year ago which of us would have received such a possibility, in the midst of our scientific, sceptical, matter-of-fact nineteenth century? We even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our very eyes. Take it, then, that the vampire, and the belief in his limitations and his cure, rest for the moment on the same base. For, let me tell you, he is known everywhere that men have been. In old Greece, in old Rome; he flourish in Germany all over, in France, in India, even in the Chernosese; and in China, so far from us in all ways, there even is he, and the peoples fear him at this day. He have follow the wake of the berserker Icelander, the devil-begotten Hun, the Slav, the Saxon, the Magyar. So far, then, we have all we may act upon; and let me tell you that very much of the beliefs are justified by what we have seen in our own so imhappy experience. The vampire live on, and cannot die by mere passing of the time; he can flourish when that he can fatten on the blood of the living.

Even more, we have seen amongst us that he can even grow younger; that his vital facilties grow strenuous, and seem as though they refresh themselves when his special pabulum is plenty. But he cannot flourish without this diet; he eat not as others. Even friend Jonathan, who lived with him for weeks, did never see him to eat, never! He throws no shadow; he make in the mirror no reflect, as again Jonathan observe. He has the strength of many of his hand--witness again Jonathan when he shut the door against the wolfs, and when he help him from the diligence too. He can transform himself to wolf, as we gather from the ship arrival in Whitby, when he tear open the dog; he can be as bat, as Madam Mina saw him on the window at Whitby, and as friend John saw him fly from this so near house, and as my friend Quincey saw him at the window of Miss Lucy. He can come in mist which he create--that noble ship's captain proved him of this; but, from what we know, the distance he can make this mist is limited, and it can only be round himself. He come on moonlight rays as elemental dust--as again Jonathan saw those sisters in the castle of Dracula. He become so small--we ourselves saw Miss Lucy, ere she was at peace, slip through a hairbreadth space at the tomb door. He can, when once he find his way, come out from anything or into anything, no matter how close it be bound or even fused up with fire--solder you call it. He can see in the dark--no small power this, in a world which is one half shut from the light. Ah, but hear me through. He can do all these things, yet. he is not free. Nay; he is even more prisoner than the slave of the galley, than the madman in his cell. He cannot go where he lists; he who is not of nature has yet to obey some of nature's laws--why, we know not. He may not enter anywhere at the first, unless there be some one of the household who bid him to come; though afterwards he can come as he please. His power ceases, as does that of all evil things, at the coming of the day. Only at certain times can he have limited freedom. If he be not at the place whither he is bound, he can only change himself at noon or at exact sunrise or sunset. These things are we told, and in this record of ours we have proof by inference. Thus, whereas he can do as he will within his limit, when he have his earth-home, his coffin-home, his hell-home, the place unhallowed, as we saw when he went to the grave of the suicide at Whitby; still at other time he can only change when the time come. It is said, too, that he can only pass running water at the slack or the flood of the tide. Then there are things which so afflict him that he has no power, as the garlic that we know of; and as for things sacred, as this symbol, my crucifix, that was amongst us even now when we resolve, to them he is nothing, but in their presence he take his place far off and silent with respect. There are others, too, which I shall tell you of, lest in our seeking we may need them. The branch of wild rose on his coffin keep him that he move not from it; a sacred bullet fired into the coffin kill him so that he be true dead; and as for the stake through him, we know already of its peace; or the cut-off head that giveth rest. We have seen it with our eyes.

"Thus when we find the habitation of this man-that-was, we can confine him to his coffin and destroy him, if we obey what we know. But he is clever. I have asked my friend Arminius, of Buda-Pesth University, to make his record; and, from all the means that are, he tell me of what he has been. He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man; for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the 'land beyond the forest.' That mighty brain and that iron resolution went with him to his grave, and are even now arrayed against us. The Draculas were, says Arminius, a great and noble race, though now and again were scions who were held by their coevals to have had dealings with the Evil One. They learned his secrets in the Scholomance, amongst the mountains over Lake Hermanstadt, where the devil claims the tenth scholar as his due. In the records are such words as ' stregoica' witch, 'ordog' and 'pokol'--Satan and hell; and in one manuscript this very Dracula is spoken of as 'wampyr' which we all understand too well. There have been from the loins of this very one great men and good women, and their graves make sacred the earth where alone this foulness can dwell. For it is not the least of its terrors that this evil thing is rooted deep in all good; in soil barren of holy memories it cannot rest."
[/SBLOCK]And the text goes on.

The novel is chock-full of many other entries that might make good game mechanics, if you were wanting to develop a "gaslamp" Transylvanian-style vampire. This is only one such passage in the book. And all gaming mechanics and dice aside: if you are a fan of vampires, gothic horror, and/or classical literature, you should set aside some time to read it. It's brilliant.
 
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Old_Skool--- The following text caught my attention:

He come on moonlight rays as elemental dust​

I think you could read this either way. It could be taken either as a poetic description, or as indicative that the ability to assume the form of "elemental dust" only in the presence of moonlight, and to travel in that form to anywhere moonlight shines.

From the way the "sisters" use the ability, it does seem more like a limited flight/levitation rather than a teleportation effect, though.

Still, you definitely caught something I missed.

I've read the novel a half-dozen times, but each time I find something I missed. ;)

Have you taken a look at the link in my sig, by any chance? I'd be very interested in your opinion.

trav_laney--- Very cool adaptation. I really love alternate vampires that are tied to a particular "theme". A desert vampire must have one hellish thirst. :D

pallandrome--- I like it! The mechanic is much more representative of most fiction and cinematic vampires, I think. Plus, the gaseous form to coffin shtick is always annoying.

Al the Absentminded--- Intersting! What mechanics have you used (spells, PrCs, etc.)?
 

Al the Absentminded said:
Vampire is a general term for anyone who drinks fresh human blood and receives a mystic benefit thereby.

Keeps the players on their toes. Heck, once had a player seriously consider having his character initiated into a vampiric cult for the potential benefits.

-Albert

I echo Dagredhel- tell us more about these mystic benefits!

I think vampirism is related to the scourge consumption (tuberculosis) was in the 18th and 19th centuries. In urban areas it was responsible for up to 25% of all deaths. And of course the pale, wasting progression of tuberculosis is well represented by Con drain.
 

Cheiromancer said:
I echo Dagredhel- tell us more about these mystic benefits!
Hmm...well, I know that you were asking Al the Absentminded, but your comment sparked something in my brain and I had this furious need to toss in my opinion.

How about this?

First, make some changes to the Vampire template, to make a more PC-friendly version of vampire (allowing my players to play undead characters, especially the vampire as written in the SRD, would be far too unbalancing for my campaign.) Something like this (which I just hammered out on the fly, without any thought for balance or structure, and which probably needs adjustment by people more knowledgeable of game mechanics than I):
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- Type, Size, Hit Dice, and Armor Class are same as base creature. (or maybe Monstrous Humanoid?)
- Attack, full attack, and damage: base creature gains the vampire's slam attack, but not the energy drain.
- Special attacks: the vampire gains only the Blood Drain ability.
- Special qualities: the base creature gains darkvision 120', blood thirst, and the drow's Light Blindness trait only.
- Abilities: Str +2, Dex +2, Cha +2.
- Skills: +2 racial bonus on Bluff, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot
- Feats: the base creature gains Alertness as a bonus feat
- Environment, organization, treasure, alignment, and advancement are all the same as the base creature. Vampires who are good in alignment are sensitive to unholy symbols and unholy water. Vampires who are evil in alignment, or are neutral with respect to good and evil, are sensitive to holy symbols and holy water (see below).
- CR = base creature +2
- Level Adjustment: +2
- Weaknesses: garlic nauseates them (10' range), silver items and (un)holy symbols burn their skin (as if affected by a permanent heat metal spell, and (un)holy water deals damage equivalent to acid (1d6, splash 1). All other vampire weaknesses are omitted.

Blood Drain (Ex): A vampire can suck blood from a living victim with its fangs by making a successful grapple check. If it pins the foe, it drinks blood, dealing 1 point of Constitution damage each round the pin is maintained. For each point of Constitution drained, the vampire gains 5 temporary hit points. Lost Constitution returns at the rate of 1 point per day.

Blood Thirst (Ex): Vampires do not eat, but derive their sustainence from the blood of the living. A vampire must drink a number of points of Constitution equivalent to one-half his Hit Dice each day, or begin to suffer the effects of starvation as written in the SRD.
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Once you have a PC-playable version of the vampire template created, you could create a series of feats that do other nifty things when blood is consumed, called "Vampiric" feats or something like that. Some examples (which I have just created off the top of my head, and are probably in serious need of balancing):

Vampiric Regeneration [Vampiric]
Prerequisite: Vampire, base Fortitude save +4
Benefit: you gain Fast Healing 5 for 1 minute following a successful Blood Drain attack.

Blood Hunter [Vampiric]
Prerequisite: Vampire, base attack +6
Benefit: you gain a +2 bonus on damage rolls, and a +2 bonus on Bluff, Listen, Sense Motive, Spot, and Survival checks when using these skills against a living creature whose blood you have tasted within the last 24 hours. If you are also a ranger, these bonuses stack with your Favored Enemy bonuses when applicable.

Vampiric Resistance [Vampiric]
Prerequisite: Vampire, base Fortitude save +4
Benefit: you gain a +2 bonus to all save throws when using your Blood Drain attack. The benefits of this ability last for 1 minute per point of Constitution damage dealt.

Blood Caster [Vampiric]
Prerequisite: Vampire, Spell Focus [Necromancy], caster level 5
Benefit: If you drain 5 or more points of Constitution with your Blood Drain ability, you gain a +1 bonus to the save DC of your Necromancy spells for the remainder of the day. This bonus stacks with the bonus granted by the Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus feats.

Voice of the Night [Vampiric]
Prerequisite: Vampire, bardic music ability, base Will save +4
Benefit: If you deal 5 or more points of Constitution damage with your Blood Drain attack, you gain one extra use of your bardic music for the day.
============================================

Is this what you had in mind?
 
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Dagredhel said:
Still, you definitely caught something I missed.

I've read the novel a half-dozen times, but each time I find something I missed. ;)

Have you taken a look at the link in my sig, by any chance? I'd be very interested in your opinion.
I hope you don't think I was trying to prove you wrong or anything, when I posted that exerpt from the book! I was hoping to spark a little interest, and trying to promote one of my favorite novels of all time. Besides...who doesn't like a free book? :)

I did check your Vampyr thread, and it looks very well-done. Good attention to detail...it reminds me a lot of the old Vampire: Masquerade books. Keep up the good work.
 

I prefer the Neil Gaiman variety from Neverwhere (i.e., Velvets -- they drain and live on body heat, rather than blood). Simple twists like that keep the players on their toes and make them question what they think they know about Overdone Cliche X.
 

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