Well, I've got the general idea of how I want the campaign to go along, and have plenty of alternatives depending on the players choices. Now what I am boggling my mind over is how best to create my vampires and other characters that are going to be used in the campaign.
For a general idea of the backstory I have planned, the group is asked to join a band of knights who follow Sarenae as well as some who follow Pharasma in the assistance of "purging evil from a nearby village". Depending on what the party says and does, sooner or later it is revealed that the so called "evil" is a mansion full of vampires. What is hinted at throughout the campaign is that these aren't ordinary vampires, but instead previous knights following Sarenae. It is further hinted, or revealed, that these vampires who were once knights were experimented on by the clerics in order to find a method for immortality. Seeing as though it were higher ups within the religion, they hid the truth, and essentially hid them under the rug, hiding the truth and then attempting to kill their failed attempts.
These vampires, although having lived for a long time, have long abandoned their hope of their goddess saving them from their curse, but have not given up on humanity. They still show compasion to mortal beings, although with some in-particular, slightly warped due to their longevity or other reasons. All in all, they are not classified as evil.
Now, the most crucial thing is, if I were to use the character vampire template, how strong would I have to make him if he were to take on the party alone? What about if it was a pair of vampires? Is there a program that allows you to make custom monsters and get a good feel for the CR of your custom character or monster?
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Vampires are pretty powerful for their CR (it's basically impossible to deal lasting damage to them, especially at low levels). If a vampire is going to take on the party alone, I would make him party CR+3 (or one level higher than the party, plus the vampire template). If you want him to kill a couple PCs, I'd say party CR+4. If you have a pair of vampires, make them both party CR+1.
I haven't been able to find a program for that, unfortunately.
I'd suggest that the vampires have a thrall of vampire spawn with them. Usually with games like this, it's very very difficult to have a solo BBEG, especially at much higher levels.
Do the players know there are vampires there? If so, they can prepare ahead of time by researching how to defeat them and getting the correct materials. Also, make sure to play up that the vampires don't want any trouble, or else the party is just going to assume they are evil and simply try and kill them.
A nice strength check 30-gauge portcullis to turn gaseous and escape through is a handy thing when you have fast healing 5.
Just brainstorming,....they guys in the castle need a dwarven engineer/Renfield type crony that's filled the castle with portcullises and/or other mechanical contrivances for them; he's trying to suck up to his vampire masters to get them to make him a vampire too.
It's also fun to lead the party on a merry chase, via gaseous form, to the "coffin room." Especially when they have to spelunk down a 100 foot shaft on the way there;.....that's always good for laughs.
Good to have the coffin room guarded by some stuff too.....pack of ghouls, a juju zombie unicorn,....whatever you want.....
What a great idea! I have vampires in my current campaign, but I changed them. I like the idea of the Underworld vampire where crosses don't scare them and they are "more" realistic. I had the players "work" with a faction of vampires as they had a common enemy. I used politics as well and the group liked working with them, all though they were very cautious. The vampires were not available during the day, but were around at other times. Also, they had double speed available, fast healing, could fly, were exceptionally strong and very intelligent. My vamps were not mindless killing machines ala sharks...
Much appreciated for the quick responses guys! :)
I'll try and go with your numbers on the vampire levels Malebranche.
Odraude and pobbes, currently its kinda hard to tell where my parties level is going to be estimated when they start meeting the vampires. There is the possibility of a character continuation from a different campaign. This said though, I'm going to have a guestimation at around level 8 or 9 if that grants any insight.
Spanky, well, I'm not planning on including that. Take into consideration that all of the knights who are now vampires who inhabit the castle still have a sense of honor, believe what they have to be a curse, and wish for nothing more than to rid of it without having themselves die and persecuted as abominations, that which they drove to seek out when they were still mere mortals. There will be, however, one vampire who choose to have himself experimented on in an attempt to help all of them find a cure for the scientifically/magically made vampirism. Due to these experimentations, he's become deformed and has lost most of his insanity in bloodlust, wishing to inflict death upon those who made him suffer, forgetting that he was the one that volunteered.
Alex, I completely agree with you. Just because something has a disease does not necessarily mean they are evil. Due to the extraneous circumstances of their knighthood, alignment, and who they once believed in, they aren't as phased to certain things that would make most vampires hiss in response. Naturally, some things, such as light, would still obviously bring harm to them.
Blackbloodtroll, you don't have to tell me twice. As a matter of fact, I am having a pseudo achievement list for the end of the campaign, one of which is about going through the entire campaign with atleast one person who did not make a Twilight reference or laugh at one brought up by another player. :P