Vampires and the ethereal plane


Rules Questions


A couple of questions have come to mind about a character I'm making for an upcoming evil campaign. This character will rely heavily on his ability to become ethereal.

Question #1) Does a vampire on the ethereal plane need to worry about sunlight? (No. This question has been answered by James Jacobs here)

Question #2) Is a vampire on the ethereal plane still influenced by mirrors or holy symbols?

Question #3) Can a vampire enter the ethereal version of someones home without permission?

Question #4; Though not ethereal based) What happens if a vampire reduced to gaseous form via damage is subsequently healed (inflicted) before reaching its coffin? What if it has fast healing or regeneration from a different source?


2) As a non-damaging effect with a corporeal source, I suspect it would have a 50% chance of working normally.

3) Dunno.

4) It looks like a vampire can never go below 0. Additional damage does nothing; if healed, the healing brings it to positive hit points, the vampire's Fast Healing resumes, and I assume that it can act normally.

Such a vampire is encouraged to always have a coffin accessible to it. Can an ethereal vampire in gaseous form rest in a corporeal coffin ... ? Perhaps not. That would be a one-way trip to ash city if you bet wrong. Maybe keep two copies of coffins just in case.

Unusually, I don't see anything stating that a vampire exits Gaseous Form when it returns to its coffin. Can a vampire stay in Gaseous Form, rendering it immune to being staked through the heart?

Is a vampire reduced to 0 hit points outside of combat not required to seek out its coffin home?

Can a vampire have multiple coffin homes?


Troubleshooter wrote:
2) As a non-damaging effect with a corporeal source, I suspect it would have a 50% chance of working normally.

That is a rule for incorporeal creatures, not ethereal plane. Only force effects and abjuration magic specifically affecting ethereal creatures extends from Material Plane to Ethereal Plane.

However, mirrors and holy symbols work solely on the basis of vampire's own revulsion upon seeing them, there is no magic involved. The catch is that someone on Ethereal Plane can see into Material Plane so I would say that they would affect the vampire.


2) Why not? A mirror or holy symbol is not an attack, the fear rests within the Vampire itself. So if the Vampire can see the mirror or holy symbol, he could be affected. The 50% chance would come into play if a Vampire on the material would encounter an ethereal cleric presenting a holy symbol or mirror.

3) Not sure, but he could not return from ethereal to the material or affect anything in the material home without invitation.

4) I would rule that once reduced to 0 hit point, nothing modifying hit points affect the Vampire before he returns to his coffin. I know the RAW only talks about damage, but we can deduce that the fast healing doesn't work as well, hence I would say that healing doesn't work at all untill the Vampire reaches his coffin.

The RAW doesn't go into details because for an NPC it doesn't need to be. I have a Vampire PC in a campaign I DM, and I had to make some rule calls to make the Vampire a bit in line with the classic image and expectations from popular fiction.


2) An ethereal creature is not incorporeal, it's on another plane. that's why I was wondering about the holy symbol/mirror thing.
4) But does the gaining of a few hit points do that? What about if this vampire was a troll; would his regeneration work even he hits 0?

As written, it seems a vampire could remain in gaseous form while resting in a coffin O_O

It would also seem that, as a man may own multiple homes, so to a vampire multiple coffins.

And, strictly RAW, a vampire reduced to 0 via a non combat scenario doesn't have to assume gaseous form, but it still needs to find a coffin in 2 hours. likewise, if it doesn't assume gaseous form it can still take damage, taking it below 0. That, however, seems weird.

Dark Archive

The regeneration issue turns out to be easy because of a technicality.

Bestiary Universal Special Rules wrote:
A creature must have a Constitution score to have the regeneration ability.

A vampire troll would lose its regeneration when it loses its Con score by becoming a vampire, so it's a non-issue.


Benn Roe wrote:
A vampire troll would lose its regeneration when it loses its Con score by becoming a vampire, so it's a non-issue.

Okay, so what if it's healed by an inflict light wounds?

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