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Are there ways for a vampire spawn to gain free will while their parent vampire is still around? And to what extent is a vampire spawn under the control of their parent? Do they have personality and stuff just with a compulsion to obey their master's commands? Or are they just drones until their creator is dead "Yes master, I serve the master, blah blah blah?"
There was something in 3.0 where you could become a free willed undead.
You could somehow convince (or trick) the sire into freeing the spawn. Perhaps offer it a more powerful potential spawn that would take it above its HD limit, necessitating release of the lesser minions. Of course, a smart vampire would kill its minion rather than risk it becoming a rival, but if there's no opportunity to do so, it could work.
RAW there is no way without destroying the sire. A Vampire spawn, is questionable as to the amount of free will it has as well, though there is little to indicate either way on the subject. I always got the impression that a Vampire Spawn was little more than a particularly cunning monster driven primarily by hunger and a need to obey their master.
Actual vampires, are full free willed beings. The only restrictions are the transformation twists their personality such that they are Chaotic Evil, and they must obey their masters, though I believe they maintain enough free will to twist their masters intent.
Protection from Evil would free them albeit for a short time or any effect that cancels out mental control.
RAW there is no way without destroying the sire. A Vampire spawn, is questionable as to the amount of free will it has as well, though there is little to indicate either way on the subject. I always got the impression that a Vampire Spawn was little more than a particularly cunning monster driven primarily by hunger and a need to obey their master.
Actual vampires, are full free willed beings. The only restrictions are the transformation twists their personality such that they are Chaotic Evil, and they must obey their masters, though I believe they maintain enough free will to twist their masters intent.
This, right here, is one of my issues with... I'm not sure if it's the Devs or the alignment system or (more likely) a bit of both, but I fail to see how anyone could say "This creature must be [specific alignment]" and "This creature has free will." I feel like it must be one or the other; either "This creature is always evil, but it mostly has free will" or "This creature has free will, but will heavily trend towards evil" Maybe it's just me, but at least in my mind, an important facet of free will is the ability to make choices unrestrained of factors such as alignment, i.e. someone who has free will is never irredeemably evil or incorruptibly good, though they may make the choice to remain evil or good, when the option to do the opposite presents itself.
Now, I'm fine saying Vampires might not have free will, due to their other restrictions, such as an inability to enter a house or cross running water (as well as the fact that I'm sick of "vampires" who are just nice guys, to the point where evil monstrous vampires have become the outlier; maybe a good compromise would be that they can't be good aligned, since I can think of some neutrally aligned NPC Vampires, but I digress), but saying they are both restricted to be an evil alignment and have free will seems contradictory to me.
Well...
So, a Vamp can only have 2x HD worth of spawn enslaved. If they create spawn in excess of that, the spawn is free-willed. And they may release cotrol of their spawn whenever they like.
Hrm, a 9th level Bard might be able to screw with a Vampire's ability to control his spawn.
Inspire Greatness (Su):
If a Vamp has for example 5 HD, and has 2 4HD spawn... If a bard Inspired both the spawn, they would be treated as having 6HD each, a total of 12, and beyond the Vamp's ability to control.
He'd have to let one go...
They have free will in the areas they have not been given orders. Think of True Blood vampires. The vampire ability to control spawn does not have the dominate wording of "do this to the exclusion of all else." They can't refuse. But, they can be super legalistic about wordings to comply.
Though, I don't see why people would generally try to screw over people with their spawns. A terminally ill person, for instance, could easily want to gleefully serve such for a chance at immortality especially if they knew their afterlife wasn't going to be all that great. PLENTY of plots involve people trying to figure out some sort of way to become undead. I would think it wouldn't be all that difficult, albeit risky, granted, to find someone willing to become a spawn or be able to diplomacy them into seeing the upside of their condition to placate any objections for a time. The world isn't made of goodie-two-shoes. The majority are neutral, in fact, and may not be utterly horrified at such a transformation.
Well...
** spoiler omitted **
So, a Vamp can only have 2x HD worth of spawn enslaved. If they create spawn in excess of that, the spawn is free-willed. And they may release cotrol of their spawn whenever they like.
The flaw in this is undead are immune to mind affecting effects.
This, right here, is one of my issues with... I'm not sure if it's the Devs or the alignment system or (more likely) a bit of both, but I fail to see how anyone could say "This creature must be [specific alignment]" and "This creature has free will." I feel like it must be one or the other; either "This creature is always evil, but it mostly has free will" or "This creature has free will, but will heavily trend towards evil" Maybe it's just me, but at least in my mind, an important facet of free will is the ability to make choices unrestrained of factors such as alignment, i.e. someone who has free will is never irredeemably evil or incorruptibly good, though they may make the choice to remain evil or good, when the option to do the opposite presents itself.
Now, I'm fine saying Vampires might not have free will, due to their other restrictions, such as an inability to enter a house or cross running water (as well as the fact that I'm sick of "vampires" who are just nice guys, to the point where evil monstrous vampires have become the outlier; maybe a good compromise would be that they can't be good aligned, since I can think of some neutrally aligned NPC Vampires, but I digress), but saying they are both restricted to be an evil alignment and have free will seems contradictory to me.
It's just you, absolute free will does not exist. Free Will exists as a gradient based on the level of restriction and outside interference a mind experiences.
I know people will be offend by me saying it, but humans don't even display a terribly high degree of free will. People generally live their lives on preconditioned routines and behaviors.
Now, Vampires have a far lower degree of free will than the typical person, but they still gave free will.