As the thread name says, I'm looking for a GM and PCs for a vampiric WotW campaign! A recent thread about subtle necromancers and the trailer for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2 are what prompted me to post this groveling plea for the campaign!
As a short disclaimer, I once had a character for a similar campaign, but it was disbanded due to other player's comfort zones, in particular some of the foes that are fought in the AP. This of course gave rise to questions of 'why are you playing in WotW if you're offended by roleplaying an evil character, with all that entails'? But I digress.
Is there anyone out there brave enough to answer the call of the night and make this campaign happen?
As an aside, I generally post 1-2 per day and would love to play a Wizard(Necromancy Specialization) or something along similar lines.
Interested! Attempted a few WotW, but none lasted.
Curious about your desire to make this vampiric and what all that entails.
sounds like fun i could redo my last WotW character easily enough.
just need rules and such.
Dotting for interest as a player.
Are you saying we get to be vampires? If so count me in! As a player...
I am game
Hmm... I may end up regretting this but I could be up for GMing.
I'm GMing a WotW campaign for a home game in RL (except that it's set in Lastwall) so I have a good grasp on the campaign.
@The Silver Prince: Are you suggesting everyone starts as vampires? There is a section at the back of Book IV that does cover a vampiric campaign (although you don't start the campaign as vampires, it does happen very soon after)
As for comfort levels... I'm pretty open minded but bear in mind the sensibilities of other players
what would be interesting, is the party are all vampire spawn seeking to be free of our master.
Not possible, since spawn are unquestioning slaves.
Hmm, a a party of vampires would be problematic in that they could overwhelm an enemy by just making a horde of spawns themselves. Might have to curtail that somehow.
There's a very interesting undead WotW(I believe its WotW) floating around here. It used a fair amount of stuff from a 3rd party 3.5 book, that allowed you to become undead over time.
No idea who ran it however, or its name(I'm pretty sure it was WotW, but not positive)
I am looking to play a fetchling alchemist I've worked up. She would work very well with anyone, even a bunch of vampires. They might even be ideal as they wouldn't complain about her casting darkness all the time.
How about a group of Dhampirs instead of vampires?
Neil Mansell, yes, that is what I'm referring to! My GM chose to have us do the vampiric option, which I thought was awesome. As for the 'spawn' problem, perhaps we are an aberrant strain whose spawn are only partially loyal? Or maybe there are matters that require our spawn's attention? Being a band of supervillains requires a lot of work after all, and we're likely to have our hands full with other stuff. Also, the player comfort zone violation was due to a combat encounter.
So are you to be the GM, then? If so, would I suggest removing the 'contract' from the story? As vampires, I see little point in it, and most of us PBP'ers aren't backstabbing enough where it's necessary for party cohesion (Unless backstabbing is expected!).
Monkeygod, I never got to finish playing WotW in the vampiric way, and recent threads, videos, games, ect. have rekindled my desire to finish it. Vampiric supervillains are epic!
Everyone, glad the thread caught your attention! Hoping we can game together!
I'll throw myself into the mix as well as a player. I was (briefly) in a WotW campaign a while ago that ended before the first combat finished. I'd love to try again, and the vampiric option sounds awesome!
@Silver Prince: Really? That's what bothered them? I can see why they weren't in love with the idea but it's sort of expected for an evil campaign. Go figure.
The contract I can easily work around. Heck, I barely see the point of it in the original version of the campaign (I can't find any mention of specific penalties for breaking said contract). So sure.
The spawn thing isn't quite as big a deal as I first thought. Vampires can only control their HD x2 with any extra being uncontrolled. A good house rule is that: (1) Only Vampire Spawn (ie: essentially a modified Wight from the Bestiary) is able to be created by PCs at this time. (2) You can only create what you can control. (3) No spawn controlling spawn controlling spawn controlling controlling spawn controlling... etc etc.
This allows you guys to have some limited backup where necessary, but they'll mostly be in the background, such as serving in your 'Evil Organisation' (book II). Also, the modified Wights make life for me much easier than rebuilding stat blocks.
I've never GMed a game on the paizo board before (played a few though) so I need to work out the details on the board itself. Still, can't see why not.
Neil Mansell, I can handle adding vampire spawn templates to NPCs we turn if that will help you! I suspect that we will be selecting quality over quantity anyway, so there probably will not be a roiling tide of vampire spawn anyway. Sound good? Also, if you need any help on the messageboards, just let me know. I've been on for around a year now and know about how to do things. And yeah, I imagine the contract was a gimmicky scare tactic to keep PCs in line for fear of an 'insta-kill your contract-breaking character' type of thing!
Also Neal... does that mean you're our GM? *Evil finger-pyramid contemplation for the campaign*
Not to be "that guy", but I figured somebody should say it.
Adding the vampire template to the PC's makes balancing extremely difficult; I know, I've tried. Death is no longer a problem unless there's a TPK, because any and every party member can just regenerate. On top of that they all have huge damage reduction and regeneration, can simply take over unwilling civilians, etc etc.
Not trying to be annoying or anything, but just keep in mind what you're getting into. The simple LA doesn't cover everything.
I'm nearly sure there are feats in WoTW for that. 4 or 5 feats to become a full vampire. But I can't manage to find them in my books.
@Talon: I appreciate the heads up and it hasn't escaped my attention.
Most of the abilities don't bother me too much. Certainly, I am expecting the first few levels to be a bit easy for the party but I intend on modifying encounters appropriately.
I am strongly considering limiting the amount of powers the PCs get. For example, Children of the Night and Dominate might not be accessible or can be claimed only as feats.
@Namtarou: Try book 5; p.84. I'm not sure if I'll be using them myself though. I think I'll be doing some homebrewing for this one.
@The Silver Prince: Sorry, no. The hassle of adding the vampire template and re-writing stat blocks is not the full problem. I'm ruling that any spawn created will not have the full-fledged vampire template (bestiary p. 270) as it is quite simply too powerful. (You can control your HD x 2 in vampires slaves so you could hypothetically triple the power of your party through this ability if you select the right 'candidates'. Ouch)
Nope, I'm going to have to house rule this one as all spawn created MUST be the actual vampire-spawn (yuck, why couldn't the writers have differentiated those terms?) from p. 271. This isn't a template, they are all stock standard.
Vampire Spawn - CR4
LE Medium undead
Init +1; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11
Defense
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14 (+1 Dex, +4 natural)
hp 26 (4d8+8)
Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +5
Defensive Abilities channel resistance +2, DR 5/silver, fast healing 2, resist cold 10, electricity 10, undead traits
Weaknesses resurrection vulnerability
Offense
Speed 30 ft.
Melee slam +4 (1d4+1 plus energy drain)
Special Attacks blood drain, create spawn, energy drain
(1 level, DC 14)
Statistics
Str 12, Dex 12, Con —, Int 11, Wis 13, Cha 15
Base Atk +3; CMB +4; CMD 15
Feats Blind-Fight, Skill Focus (Perception)
Skills Intimidate +9, Knowledge
(religion) +7, Perception +11, Stealth
+16; Racial Modifier +8 Stealth
Languages Common
SQ create spawn
NOTE: A vampire spawn gains normal vampire qualities (gaseous form, shadowless, and spider climb). A vampire spawn also gains all of the standard vampire weaknesses.
I reckon it would be cool to play a barbarian.
I am also interested in participating as a player. I have a few character concepts brewing but the most appealing on so far is a cleric or similar divine caster. An idea to consider (if it hasn't been already) is to have us begin the campaign as regular player races who then get turned as the campaign progresses. That way we can RP having to adjust to the limitations of being a vampire.
@dathom: You're reading my mind. :)
My thinking is that everyone will indeed begin as a mortal character but will be given the chance to go undead fairly early on.
Unfortunately, after some thought, I'm aware that slapping a vampire template on level 3 or 4 PCs is a recipe for disaster. Encounters become a joke at such a low levels, with PCs dominating and energy draining everything that moves.
Thus, turning into a vampire will be VERY slow progression, requiring feats to be spent as the character advances and slowly gaining more and more power.*
I figure full vampire powers will manifest about level 13, so powers at lower levels won't be amazing.
Of course, I'd like to leave an option NOT to be turned into a vampire. Maybe a character wants to be the guardian for the vampire PCs coffins at night, or maybe they want to be a different undead, etc.
@True Repentance: Mayyyybeeee... But raging without a con score isn't all that impressive.
*Hmm, I might make it more interesting. The same 'Vampire Feat' feat will give different boons or penalties depending on the PC in question...
Boy, this is getting confusing. :S
*perk* Loyal Dhampir Monk coffin guard, volunteering!
Here is a link to a book on pc vampires that I really liked. I couldn't find a copy of it available on paizo.
Neil Mansell, no problem, I was merely offering help. My former GM said that there are actually 'feats' in WotW that allows vamps to 'grow' into the template or something of that nature. Is that the general idea you have in mind or am I mistaken? Heck, I'd be up for selecting a vampire feat! Also, what would your character creation rules be for prospective PCs? I say prospective because despite the fact I started the thread, I think it only fair that I be subject to the same selection process as everyone else.
This is what I was talking about earlier. Now, granted, its 3.5, and thus in need of an update, but that's not too difficult. Also, while some of the classes are powerful, I do not think they are overly more so than full on vampire.
They also aren't just vampire based, which allows the PCs more options, which I'm always a fan of.
Hell yeah! I've wanted to play a boneblade reaper ever since I first saw it. :-)
So no morale bonuses I see. Oh well. I like the thought of other types of undead too. I'd totally be a graveknight antipaladin.
Oh, I've seen those, Monkeygod! GM Gluttony's WotW campaign, right? I made a character for it but got sidetracked by college. I made a human Druid planning on taking the prestige class with control over the undead bees!
Thanks Monkeygod! Most of those Prestige Classes look pretty fine to me (although being 3.5 I'll go over them more thoroughly when the time comes.)
I had a look at that 'Fangs and Fury' book but wasn't overly impressed. Some spells are okay and a few of the feats look acceptable, but mostly not up to date enough of be of much use.
Yea, Silver Prince, exactly that. I had a PC in mind for it too, though I don't recall which PrC I was going for. One of the necromancy focused ones for sure.
I've started a thread for the game.
http://paizo.com/campaigns/v5748p75hoio5/recruiting