The vampires of my setting are vastly different from the conventional bestiary sort, yet at once cleave closely to many of the traditional tropes.
Their creation story involves a race of humans that worshipped the sun (which is also the god of party time) but over time became so overzealous and brutal in their ceremonies that their priesthood was forever cursed by the sun.
Ever since then, in their misguided ways, they seek to regain the sun's favour through copious amounts of human sacrifice. Much later, arcanists seeking the fountain of youth stumbled across this civilisation and returned with blood samples, soon propagating vampirism as a grim immortality to less morally inclined nobility.
The flavour is very much inspired by a mix of Mayan and Aztec, and I am looking at making a new vampire template that is largely similar to the old one and can be swapped out with minimal work (ideally no CR change) but is different enough to fit the distinctly different origin.
They should still be undead, but I want to change some of the powers and weaknesses a lot so experienced players may find them fresh. The vampiric nature should still be strongly expressed.
Most of all I want them to be able to go out in the sun yet be greatly weakened. The priesthood perform their sacrifices under the punishing gaze of the sun, subjecting themselves to its wrath in hopes that it will relent once its supposed thirst for blood is sated.
I'm toying with the idea that they become mortal and are especially vulnerable, but a creature that can alternate between living and undead may be difficult to manage in mechanical terms.
A lot of the abilities are rather unfitting, but I have no good ideas for replacements.
Maybe give them DR 15/wood & piercing. Have them become exhausted and nauseated in sunlight (-6 Str & Dex, limits to actions) even though undead are usually immune to those. Maybe 10 points of damage a round too?
Maybe give them an ability to make people revel instead of their dominate person ability. Revel might be an alternate form of confusion, with some other action instead of attacking use.
Maybe give them the Grab ability, so they can more easily use grapple to get their blood drain on.
Maybe give them the ability to turn into a jaguar and condor instead of turning into a wolf or bat?
EDIT:
Or play up the spider theme vampires have. Instead of becoming gaseous, they turn into a swarm of spiders when at 0 hit points. Give them some web-based abilities to go with their spider climb, including immunity to web entanglement. Maybe they can summon spider swarms and giant spiders (and turn into them) instead of rats, bats, and wolves.
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Are your Players on board with this?
I know if I was in a game and a DM said, "BTW, vampires in my game a radically different", I'd be a little skeptical of the DM.
Changing a troglodyte or a beholder or a winter wolf or a gelatinous cube is no big deal -- they're D&D monsters. But vampires and werewolves and such -- that seems a little different to me.
Maybe give them DR 15/wood & piercing. Have them become exhausted and nauseated in sunlight (-6 Str & Dex, limits to actions) even though undead are usually immune to those. Maybe 10 points of damage a round too?
Maybe give them an ability to make people revel instead of their dominate person ability. Revel might be an alternate form of confusion, with some other action instead of attacking use.
Maybe give them the Grab ability, so they can more easily use grapple to get their blood drain on.
Maybe give them the ability to turn into a jaguar and condor instead of turning into a wolf or bat?
EDIT:
Or play up the spider theme vampires have. Instead of becoming gaseous, they turn into a swarm of spiders when at 0 hit points. Give them some web-based abilities to go with their spider climb, including immunity to web entanglement. Maybe they can summon spider swarms and giant spiders (and turn into them) instead of rats, bats, and wolves.
I'd do away with dominate too, maybe give them the ability to rage instead +4 strength / charisma - 2 penalty to ac otherwise like barbarian, might drain blood faster in rage (bloodrage).
Nocturnal predators of the jungle theme, bats, spiders, and jaguars seem nice ideas. Especially spiders are creepy as favored pets.
- take shape of a dire bat, bat swarm, giant spider or spider swarm also jaguar is a nice one.
- give them an ability to charm/command these creatures like dominate person would and communicate with these creatures by empathy/telepathy.
One or more of the following penalties in (sun)light :
* In sunlight I'd treat them as staggered (standard or move action only)
* –4 penalty on attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks. (like bestow curse).
* exposure to bright light can blind them for one round and after that they are dazzled (like drow).
* lose energy drain power
An ability to create shadows of people they killed instead of vampire spawn might be nice. They might have the ability to change into a shadow instead of a gaseous cloud themselves.
The improved grab mentioned seems nice to me.
Vampires are in classic monsters revisited arent they? There should be some interesting alternate features in there. Might be worth a look. i dont specifically remember what they did to vampires but i liked a number of the other options for zombies and such.
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I disagree with needing to get your players on board for specific changes. Just a broad, "Not everything is what you're used to so metagame at your own risk." should suffice.
There are about as many vampire myths as there are cultures so there really is no need to say they need to conform to the one presented in the Bestiary (or Monster Manual or whatever), anyway.
Just don't make them sparkle. That's where you'd be crossing the line... :P
DM: The vampire steps pale and thin into daylight. He sighs and sparkles. Will saves, please.
Players: 17! 21! 18! Damn, a 7!
DM: Grond the Barbarian is affected by the vampire's sparkly ennui. He can do nothing but mope and bite his bottom lip for... (rolls die) ...the next 3 rounds.
Mark L. Chance
Spes Magna Games
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The vampire has a hundred of so 'classic' interpretations, and makes a great monster to play around with. The infected vampires of many modern movies (Daywalkers, Blade, 30 Days of Night) are vastly different than the more supernatural undead vampires of Dracula. (Indeed, the level-draining D&D vampire doesn't really fit any of the traditional myths, that I know of.)
There's no need at all for this sort of vampire to be actually undead, or have anything to do with negative energy. Vampires, even the undead ones, have traditionally been affected by poison, need to feed, are subject to critical hits (stake through the heart / decapitation), can be sickened or nauseated by the smell of garlic, sometimes even need to sleep, and are occasionally even subject to blood-born illness, making them probably the last undead type creature to fit the '0 Con score' one-size-fits-all D&D Undead Type.
I'd give these cursed former sun-worshippers a suitable bonus to strength, dexterity and constitution (+4 to each) at night. Mental powers and physical shapeshifting don't necessarily fit the backstory you've established, so you'll have to either come up with alternate powers, or arrange the backstory so that it makes sense for them to have these powers.
Example of the latter (traditional vampire powers re-flavored for the new mythology); Perhaps part of the blood sacrices of old was taking on traits and abilities of the sacrificed, and wearing their skins and assuming their forms was part of the blood rite, with the descendents of those sun-worshippers retaining the ability to transform into a set number of humanoid or animal shapes via [/i]alter self[/i] and / or beast shape depending on what sort of blood it feeds off of, and being able to conduct a blood ceremony to add a new shape to the list, at the cost of losing an old one, since they can only know a maximum of 3 + some stat modifier shapes at a time, and usually have one flying predator (hawk, owl, bat), one land-based predator (wolf, jaguar, hound) and one or more local people whom they have killed, and pretend to be through taking their form and living their lives during the day. Despite acting like alter self or beast shape, mechanically, the effect can last for many hours, and the 'vampire' can even sleep in the stolen form.
Example of the former (new powers based on the origin); Their rejection by the sun has caused them to begin rejecting the sun in turn, and they now have the ability to create areas of darkness, in which they can function fine, having the ability to See in Darkness (like a Dark Stalker or Bone Devil). Their skin is never warm to the touch, and they are either cool or, standing in the sunlight, feverishly hot. They also have light-weakness, and even if the sun doesn't cause them to burst into flames, they tend to wear hoods during the day, and scuttle from shadowy area to enclosed building, when forced to operate during the day. In addition to being able to quench light, they can also quench fire, acting like the Fire Elemental 'drench' ability, only without creating any water. If damaged by fire or light-based damaging effects, they take +50% damage, and they have Cold Resistance 5 and ignore the effects of environmental cold entirely (making them more common in the frozen lands). Perhaps they even have the innate ability to 'counter' fire spells, even if they are not spellcasters, allowing a vampire who has readied an action to use his innate power to diminish fire to 'counterspell' a fireball or scorching ray. That first fireball, unsuspected, may do amazing extra damage to the vampires, but once they are aware that this is a possibility, one or more of them can ready themselves to counter any further fire spells...
Pick up a cheap copy of White Wolf's Vampire the Masquerade at an auction or online. Maybe even a few clan books. They present radically different vampires via clans, and give them powers based on a variety of myths.
Alternately, you could go with the 'vampires of the east' expansion they did.
I really like those vampires. Basically, it's very similar to your myth. They were servants of heaven, but gained too much pride, and were cursed by heaven. They rot slowly in sunlight, they don't burn or go poof. They are not infectious, they are spirits that have fought free of Yomi h3lls and come back to earth. They have to feed (and depending on level, have to feed on either flesh, blood, or raw chi). If an eastern vampire feeds on just Yin chi, he's cold and serious and has a palor of death to him. If he feeds on just Yang chi, he's full of life and energy, he breaths, he has a pulse, he can father children (who are dhampire).
Each vampire has a 'good soul' and a 'demon soul', and if the good soul is in charge, he retains his faculties. If the demon soul takes over, he becomes a ravening monster.
The vampires can channel this demon soul though and manifest it's power as special abilities (in addition to their normal ones). I'd basically treat it as a template with 3-4 'paths' and each vampire focus's on one path (and can switch from one path to another after a couple of weeks, changing their abilities to the new paths abilities).
Makes it great for a formerly Yin drinking corpse to hide and become a Yang fueled party animal, and the party trying to track him down and unable to find him in any of the cemeteries. :)
I did away with color-coded Dragons in '76. I once had a horrible vampire generation system (1st Ed) that was little more than a list of powers ascribed to them over multiple cultures. Many turned out to be local bogeymen and the like, particularly in Mesopotamia. With the formulas revealed, constructing a variety of 'types' at differing power levels would be a great addition to the Pf generation!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_folklore_by_region
http://www.emmadavies.net/vampire/
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DM: The vampire steps pale and thin into daylight. He sighs and sparkles. Will saves, please.
Players: 17! 21! 18! Damn, a 7!
DM: Grond the Barbarian is affected by the vampire's sparkly ennui. He can do nothing but mope and bite his bottom lip for... (rolls die) ...the next 3 rounds.
Mark L. Chance
Spes Magna Games
You, sir, are chock-full of win.
You might look to the Van Richten's Guide to Vampires (a 2e D&D Ravenloft accessory) for ideas on customizing and fleshing out your vampires. The White Wolf (through the Sword and Sorcery imprint) Ravenloft licensed stuff took the crunch of this and updated it to 3.X, with rules on vampire aging and customizing your vampire with different salient powers in the Ravenloft Campaign Setting (3.0) and in the Ravenloft Player's Handbook (3.5). The Denizens of Darkness (for 3.0) and Denizens of Dread (for 3.5) were monster books that contained a number of variant vampires, including one vampire "race" for each of the traditional demihuman races (elves, dwarves, etc).
One interesting thing here was that for the Elven vampire, they were not weakened by sunlight, instead they were dependent on it! These elven vampires suffered the same consequences of being caught after the sun went down as the normal vampire did when the sun was out. Perhaps you could apply this ironic twist here?
Here is a handy little publication that helps tackle alternative vampire species...
One interesting thing here was that for the Elven vampire, they were not weakened by sunlight, instead they were dependent on it! These elven vampires suffered the same consequences of being caught after the sun went down as the normal vampire did when the sun was out. Perhaps you could apply this ironic twist here?
Did they have to stock up on scrolls of sunlight to stay alive? D:
One interesting thing here was that for the Elven vampire, they were not weakened by sunlight, instead they were dependent on it! These elven vampires suffered the same consequences of being caught after the sun went down as the normal vampire did when the sun was out. Perhaps you could apply this ironic twist here?Did they have to stock up on scrolls of sunlight to stay alive? D:
Nope, just had a coffin they had to rest in like normal vamps do, effectively reversing the normal vamp sleep/activity patterns.
In the Andes, they had myths about vampires that sucked FAT. I s~%! you not.
Hot Dang! I can make a fortune...Wait! Doh!
In the Andes, they had myths about vampires that sucked FAT. I s~%! you not.Hot Dang! I can make a fortune...Wait! Doh!
There are even Inca Mummy Girls that suck the life force from people to stay young and beautiful.
In the Andes, they had myths about vampires that sucked FAT. I s#&& you not.
Oh, so that's what happens to supermodels...
In my game, I tried to get away from most vampire tropes, while still giving off something that can be seen from some angles as a classic vampire.
so.... in my world, Vampirism stems from blood magic.... a system that I've been working out to give some of my NPCs a Costly edge. Becoming a vampire is almost akin to becoming a litch, but instead of putting your soul into a little box, you place it into your magic infused blood. this allowed me to toy around with some of the vampire's Abilities,
Create spawn also allowed them to Inject cursed blood into creatures create Bloodhulks and Bloodsilk spiders, allowing encounters that are a little more varied.
I allowed the switching out of dominating gaze for the God Blooded template, going for a few more combat abilities for the less suave bloodsuckers.
This, plus a few other tweeks made for a pretty varied monster... one which will be vexing my players in about..... four weeks.
While everyone is here....I was wondering, anyone know of a way to make a sort of " lesser" vampire spawn? ...something that still was under the vampire's control, but not something I need to worry about adding to the ton of negative levels the party is going to be racking up?
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While everyone is here....I was wondering, anyone know of a way to make a sort of " lesser" vampire spawn? ...something that still was under the vampire's control, but not something I need to worry about adding to the ton of negative levels the party is going to be racking up?
Using the stats for a Ghoul and then just handwaving it as someone who was infected / changed by a vampire but hasn't completely transitioned over (or may never transition, if the vampire chose to 'stunt their growth' at this level for its own reasons) works pretty well.
You could also use the Ghoul as a baseline, and swap out the paralysis for a chill touch type effect (1 pt of Str drain with each hit), or just give it no special touch-related powers at all, just claws and a bite. Throw on some daylight sensitivity (like a kobold, not like a vampire) or a fear of bright light, to simulate how the critter isn't more than a fraction of the way to being a vampire, and you're good to go.
Wasn't that what one of the bad guys turned into in one of the Blade movies? They tossed the a female character into a pit with that guy who didn't fully turn correctly... he was basically a pasty white, always hungering creature that even the vampires didn't like (like it was rabid animal version of them).
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Wasn't that what one of the bad guys turned into in one of the Blade movies? They tossed the a female character into a pit with that guy who didn't fully turn correctly... he was basically a pasty white, always hungering creature that even the vampires didn't like (like it was rabid animal version of them).
Pretty much. Other vampire media have had other explanations for why some vampires are all pale and tragic and others are all nosferatu-y and gross. In Forever Knight, after someone became a vampire, if the first thing they fed from was a human, they stayed pretty and 'human', but if the first thing they fed from was an animal, they turned into sewer-dwelling fuglies. In Daywalkers (and, to a different extent, in Vampire the Masquerade), feeding off of other vampires caused physical and mental degeneration instead.
So you can play around until you find an option that fits your taste.
You could even make it totally arbitrary, and have vampires themselves not only have no control over whether they make vampires or 'flunkies', but make it beyond their understanding, and have some vampires just not 'take,' which lends some fun pathos to the concept, as the vampire lord picks his perfect mate for all eternity and she turns into a rotting feral flesh-eating beast he has to 'put down,' while some annoying twit he turned as an expendable flunky to leave behind and get staked while he fled, retained his personality and complexion.
I've actually been watching a lot of Buffy lately, and you could maybe switch out the negative levels and increase their base slam damage to that of a monk of their level; they choose to do non-lethal damage because the live prey is yummy.
If you want to go the whole bumpy forehead route, I would suggest having it give the benefits of rage, but remove the AC penalty for some kind of natural armor bonus, and have no limits to duration. And the speed of transformation can be based on age: newbie vamps need to do a full round action to transform, which is why they usually walk around all bumpy. Older vamps can transform as a swift action, which is why the older ones usually look normal until they NEED to put on their game face.
Holy water acts as acid, sunlight acts as alchemist fire, holy symbols can keep them at bay and cause damage on contact, and they have DR 10/wood and piercing. They are subject to critical hits, and in fact have critical vulnerability--they have to make a DC 15 + the critical multiplier Fort save on a critical hit or POOF! they're dust.