Why don't vampires have a standing army of bodyguards?

[Vahktang]

problem is is:

How long do they stay dominated?

You have to redominate them a bunch of times over time.

And, if you miss one and they save and:
A) escape and/or
B) kill you

that would be a bad thing.

So, sure, increase the paranoia of the vampire lord.

OTHO, all vampire lairs should have pipes and holes that allow a gaseous form vamp to escape, uh, move through.

And her resting place should be just her size, with a couple hundred feet of solid rock away, with a windy tunnel to get to it that's just gaseous form sized.
The weight of the returning vamp triggers a seal so it can't be followed by a gaseous form and it's to small to teleport/dimension door to, too.
And there are multiple ways out, as well as minions at more easily accessed areas to kill first.

an example:
Hero's kill vamp, chase gaseous form to stone sarcophagus, but vamp has passed through stone sarcaphagus to hidden area beyond, leaving heroes to open up the sealed area to fight a battle ready (spelled up?) monster/undead awaiting them.
Or maybe a just a big explosive/trap.

"Get it open, fast. If he lays there an hour, she can come back after us."
(stone shape)
Boom.

Vamps are fun.

 

[Cbas_10]

I'm working on introducing a vampire NPC in my campaign, as I look over his abilities a thought hits me. Is there any reason why a vampire wouldn't have a standing army of Dominated humanoids with him? Beyond the attention it might bring (and this depends on locale, etc), is there anything stopping a vampire from doing this?

Some advice for you when running a vampire as more of a leader than "just another monster."

Don't limit the vampire, his tactics, or your ideas to just the italicized (Ex) or (Su) statblock entries. Looking at the Ability adjustments, you can see that their undead nature makes them (on the average) superior to the average human (or whatever race you are dealing with). They are smarter, have a sharper wit, and have a far stronger force of personality than the "normal" people around them. They are also scary to deal with on any personal level outside of combat; because of their skills, they are able to see, sense, anticipate, and manipulate those they interact with....with relative ease. A +8 racial bonus on top of whatever ranks and ability modifiers the vampire has will ensure that it has the upper hand over practically all "common" folk around him.

They don't die. Well...our heroic characters might destroy them, but aging and time sure wont. Without even touching on how time allows them the luxury of collecting magical powers, items, and other stuff...think of how they could cultivate a staff or even a small village over a couple of generations.

It could start with the vampire (or more probably a single, most trusted and capable pawn) employing a certain set of people as his staff. They take care of his home, purchase needed goods, and provide protection, just like people would do for any other lord of the land that is "away" for extended periods. Occasionally, the vampire meets with the people and provides positive reinforcement, gaining trust and loyalty. Time goes on, the vampire learns more about his employees' lives, convinces them to have their offspring or other relatives work for him, and does his evil bit to drive out or destroy other wealthy/influential people who could be competition. Generations would go by, and his secret would inevitably get out: he's a vampire. Fortunately for him, he's been a motivating influence in town for so long that people simply accept his presence as an unfortunate truth in nature. People simply would not have the drive and ambition to do what it would take to oppose him and his loyal followers.

Vampires don't lead or command by powers alone. Blackmail, threats, intelligence, raw charisma....oh....and that fairly impressive bit of normal townsfolk being utterly powerless to do any real harm to him, let alone destroy him.

Ravenloft is a great example of this sort of reasoning (indeed...a huge inspiration behind a lot of vampires in games). Check out the original module or the recent Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Having a standing army of drones attracts a lot of attention. Especially to the guy at the centre of their attention. That's usually bad for a vampire.

Subtlety goes a long way when you're a vampire.

 

[Drowbane]

The answer to your question is...they do.

NEXT!

Mine sure as hell does...

Diplomacy: I'm not huge on the whole "Diplomancy" thing... but his skill is high enough to convince even the most dedicated "slayer" to reconsider.

Vampire Spawn: he has 4 Spawn (of PC equivilent or higher HD) who each have 1 -3 spawn (some of those have capacity for 1 or 2 more). Generally I try to claim a defeated opponent every session or two as a new vampire spawn. Two sessions ago I gained a 25th lvl Monk (playing through the Quicksilver Hourglass). Booya! (he is still a gimp compared to my companions in melee ).

Leadership: He and his 3 out of his 4 spawn has this feat... living Cohorts as bodyguards (with the cohorts of teh caster-vampires having a lvl dip in Death's Chosen). If you follow the chain of command, he has literally thousands of 1 HD followers.

... and then to consider what more he could claim with Dominate? I've only used it a handful of times... to gain info from an otherwise unhelpful NPC.

 

[Dog Moon]

An army of people CAN attract a large group of people, depending on how you do it. However, a large congregation at a Temple wouldn't necessarily. Choose a N deity. It doesn't really matter if the Vampire believes in that deity or not, but you might want to add in a few ranks of Kn (Religion) into his skills. His dominated followers act like worshippers of said God.

Perhaps the PCs find out that the leader of the temple is a Vampire. They perhaps might know that the others are Dominated [and it very might well be the case that some of the worshippers are NOT dominated, making the situation a little more difficult] and because of this, they are going to have to fight the dominated without actually killing them.

Further, as being members of this well-known deity, other people in the village/city may not like the idea of the temple being out-right attacked because it IS a holy place and would also attempt to stop the Vampire.

As for the temple being a holy place, well, I can't imagine a N temple to be especially holy and if it is, say the vampire sort of neutralized the effect with a spell from a priest or he has an item which protects against that.

Temples are not the only sort of place a Vampire could have. Leader of a noble house, guild house, merchant house, gambling house, or virtually any other middle-class establishment which would bring in people as well as allow for the vampire to legitimately bring in guards to protect him as if he was just a regular business owner.

 

[Cheiromancer]

If you think of vampires as sort of a metaphor for how the upper-class parasitically feeds off the lower classes... well, yeah, of course he has a staff and guards and such.

Unpleasant personal habits... well, the bored, corrupt aristocracy have been known to have their eccentricities. Or just brutal- Vlad the Impaler was prince of Wallachia, and Elizabeth of Bathory was a Hungarian countess.

A peculiar "illness" - many of the symptoms associated with vampirism are related to consumption (tuberculosis). Paleness, a need to rest that keeps them asleep during daytime (the aristocracy often kept very late hours anyway), loss of appetite, bloody sputum... even a certain romantic appeal. Consumption, the "white death" was a major killer in big cities in the 18th and 19th centuries. Easily suggestive of a large group of undead who prey on their cattle.

I don't know if this symbolism would work in everyone's campaign, but when questions like the OP's come up it is helpful to have an image to fall back on.

 

[Vahktang]

Fun with templates

"It's just an orc bandit."
Actually, it's a friggin orc vampire lord with a lot of minions.

Did you know lycanthropy can affect giants?
Hey, lets just sunder that little ol' silvered weapon you have, and go to town.

 

[Brace Cormaeril]

Nope, no good reason not to and many good reasons why he should have a lot of commoners at his beck and call. Standing armies... not so much since those take more resource management that a vampire would have patience for and would call the attention of those most mid level vampires would try to avoid.

Because immortal undead are low on patience...