RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32
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Something that I hadn't really noticed in the entry for vampires in Pathfinder is this curious little tidbit:
Reducing a vampire's hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn't always destroy it (see fast healing).
Under the fast healing entry in the universal monster rules, fast healing is described thusly:
Fast Healing (Ex) A creature with the fast healing special quality regains hit points at an exceptional rate, usually 1 or more hit points per round, as given in the creature's entry. Except where noted here, fast healing is just like natural healing. Fast healing does not restore hit points lost from starvation, thirst, or suffocation, nor does it allow a creature to regrow lost body parts. Unless otherwise stated, it does not allow lost body parts to be reattached. Fast healing continues to function (even at negative hit points) until a creature dies, at which point the effects of fast healing end immediately.
Further into the vampire entry, it tells us a few special ways of permanently dispatching a vampire. It even says that decapitation is not sufficient unless the head is annointed with holy water thereafter.
What I want to know, then, is... if one of the vampire-specific methods of destruction are not employed, is it possible to destroy a vampire with ordinary means? I know they revert to gaseous form until they return home and are then helpless... but say the party tracks it to the coffin and doesn't have the knowledges or equipment necessary to permanently dispatch it? Can they just chop the body up into little bits? Fast healing says it doesn't allow limb regrowth, so that should theoretically do the trick. Incineration seems like it would also work. What's the consensus on this?
I think the idea is that it can be used by the GM to determine how they want to vampire to be killed. It also provides a BBEG that can not be one shoted even when the Paladin crits on a smite on the first hit.
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The problem with chopping up or incinerating a vampire, as far as I understand the rules, is that as soon as the vampire is reduced to 0 HP by these methods it turns gaseous and further damage has no effect. You can't actually completely dice or burn a vampire because it goes gaseous before irreparable damage is done.
It wouldn't be unreasonable for the DM to allow the party to dice or burn the vampire in his coffin, but even if that doesn't work it shouldn't be too hard to finish him off. It should be a really easy Knowledge (Religion) check (DC 10) to remember how to kill a vampire permanently. Once that's dealt with I can't imagine a party that can't quickly obtain a wooden stake (sharpen any wooden object!), which will at least keep the vampire essentially paralysed for as long as is necessary to drag them to running water or into sunlight or get a vial of holy water.
Smite Vampire to death.
Let Vampire retreat to Coffin.
Use Flame Strike on the Coffin.
Watch as Holy Fire permakills the Vampire and get Exp.