Hey guys,
In the scope of playing a vampire without making it a huge pain in the ass for GM with at-will gaseous form, dominate humanoid gaze, level drain, I propose the following alterations to the Paizo base vampire template .
It is slightly better than the vampire spawn.
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4 (instead of +6).
Defensive Abilities: Fast healing 0 if above half of full hit points total, 1 if below (instead of 2 for the spawn, 5 for the vampire).
Dominate: Charm person 2/day instead of an at will dominate.
Energy drain: No energy drain.
Gaseous form: 2/day. Furthermore, if the vampire already used this ability, it is destroyed when brought to 0 hit points (no gaseous form left available).
Change shape: 2/day per day isntead of 'at will'.
Spider climb: +8 bonus to climb checks instead of continous spider climb. Climb always considered a class skill.
Racial skill bonus: reduce to +4.
Bonus feat: Alertness.
Ability modifiers: +6 Str, +4 Dex, +4 Cha, +2 Int.
If you were willing fluff-wise to let your PC play a vampire, would you let them use this template? If not, why not? What level adjustment would you give them?
Persoannly, I see like around +3.
Regards,
GP
I didvided abilities into ages and don't really make a distinction between vampire spawn and normal vampires here, though perhaps vampires are stuck in the first age unless they are allowed to 'age' by their master or released by death of the master for example.
Draining blood from another willing old vampire might perhaps instantly 'age' the younger vampire (such as their master) thus making them more powerful early on.
The First Age
str +4 dex +2 con - int +0 wis +2 cha +2
natural armor +4
• It gains the blood drain special attack.
• It gains channel resistance +2, DR
5/silver, resist cold and energy 10, fast
healing 2, and the vampire qualities shadowless, and spider climb.
• A vampire spawn gains all of the
standard vampire weaknesses.
* slam attack 1d4
* +4 racial bonus on skills
* undead type
* 2 feats
no energy drain (ever, I just dont like this ability though)
The Second Age
* + 2 dex, change shape, fast heal 2, feat, +5 racial skills
The Third Age
* + 2 str, children of the night, fast heal 3, channel resist +3, feat, +6 racial skills
The Fourth Age
* + 2 cha, dominate, fast heal 4, feat, gaseous form 2/day, +7 racial skills
The Fifth Age
* + 2 int, DR 10 magic + silver, fast heal 5, channel resist +4, feat, +8 racial skills, gaseous form 4/day, also gains gaseous form upon "death" now.
Just an example, I personally would not use gaseous form at all except for really old vampires, a flavor preference, instead the bite might cause energy drain with a bite attack if the vampire wills it, also for personal flavor by the 4th or 5th age it could be 2 levels drained.
I like your template mr/ms Pony,
But you might actually be able to make it a +1 or even a +0 adjustment.
You specify none of the weaknesses! If you do not give them all of the immunities of undead, they are less powerful. You can declare them Unliving (my own term to toot my own horn) which are not true undead.
If the Vampire is a PC and the others are standard races, then you can give them enough weaknesses to make up for the increased stats; Try two or three of the following choices=
During daylight hours they are fatigued.
They cannot heal during daylight hours.
They are damaged by holy water and take double damage from Holy weapons.
They are treated as undead in terms of their reaction to divine spells.
They can be turned or rebuked as undead, but gain a +4 bonus to the save.
They take an extra +1d6 damage from silver weapons.
A critical hit with a wood tipped spear or arrow requires a fort save (DC 15+damage) or else they drop to -2 HP and are unconcious, and if they succeed they still take +1d10 extra damage.