So I have a player who wants to play a vampire as a character...I want them to do so. However, there are some kinks I still have to worry about; because a few of the other players will cry foul.
I have the Blood of the Night Book which discusses vampires at length and recommends level adjustments based on the Advanced Races Guide. SO they will follow that. However, I am looking for ways to legitimately overcome the weaknesses.
I have several non Pathfinder 3.5 books on undead and am letting them use several feats that overcome certain weaknesses like instant gaseous when reduced to zero hit points. Also a feat that allows them to endure sunlight for several rounds based on charisma.
Also there are alchemical items that protect from sunlight.
I have let them devise a "coffin" out of a sleeping bag that has soil from the vampire's grave sewn into it. It is attached to the horse in a way if they turn gaseous they can appear in it leaning over the saddle. This is kind of far fetched so I feel it needs some tweaking.
I am interpreting "direct sunlight" as light on the skin directly. So a hooded cloak and gloves and long sleeved clothing will protect them unless in melee. So they will have to stay in the shadows and ranged.
I am considering a ring of sustenance that worked on undead and potions of cause wounds among other negative energy magic items.
Any advice on how to make these ideas defensible to the other players and any alternate solutions to overcome vampire weaknesses that fit within the rules of the game?
Thanks
Honestly I suggest making Dhamphir caster emulating Vampire powers, unless it's a monster campaign and everyone is playing high LA PCs. You can get the vampire flavor without using the template, so I'd want to make sure what it is the player exactly wants.
I'm not sure what LA Blood of the Night recommends (since I was pretty sure LA doesn't exist in PF), but in 3.5 it was +8. That's going to give your player a miniscule maximum hp pool for his vampire superpowers, even if he has some DR and Fast Healing.
I think Savage Species had rules for leveling up in racial HD, slowly assuming monster powers. That's probably a better way to tackle it.
Edit: A synthesist could pull off a solid vampire mode.
Biped
Slam (x2)
Natural Armor (x3)
Skilled x4 (Bluff, Stealth, Perception, Sense Motive)
Ability Increase (Str, Dex. Since you can dump physical stats we can pump the mental stats to not need Ability Increases there)
Climb
Flavorful options
Undead Appearance (If the player wants. Vampires often don't appear undead. It does open up Lifesense, which vampires don't actually have)
Unnatural Presence
No Breath
Ultimate Magic (1/day gaseous form, high cost of admission though)
Drinking blood: You can do this for no mechanical benefit. Or you can Eldritch Heritage the Sanguine bloodline and get The Blood is the Life.
If you want to level drain/dominate, then I'd go with a sorcerer instead. If you want to do that and have "spawn", perhaps the cruoromancer wizard.
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How to make the ideas defensible? Give the other players templates of some kind too. CR+2 templates will put them on roughly equal footing.
Protective Penumbra protects from sunlight. The other weaknesses are pretty much a non-issue.
They can keep the coffin in a Bag of Holding.
Also you could try making it (and other templates) scale up instead of dumping everything on at once.
I'm going to run a templated game and this is what I came up with for the vampire player:
Senses: A vampire gains darkvision 60 ft.
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +2. At 5th level this increases to +4. At 10th level this increases to +6.
Hit Dice: Change all racial Hit Dice to d8s. Class Hit Dice are unaffected. As undead, vampires use their Charisma modifier to determine bonus hit points (instead of Constitution).
Defensive Abilities: A vampire gains channel resistance +4 and resistance to cold 5 and electricity 5, in addition to all of the defensive abilities granted by the undead type. A vampire also gains fast healing 2. If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, a vampire assumes gaseous form (see below) and attempts to escape. It must reach its coffin home within 2 hours or be utterly destroyed. (It can normally travel up to 9 miles in 2 hours.) Additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect. Once at rest, the vampire is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 5 hit points per round.
At 7th level the Cold and Electricity resistances increase to 10 and the Fast Healing increases to 5. At 10th level the vampire gains DR 10/Magic and Silver.
Weaknesses: Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from mirrors or strongly presented holy symbols. These things don't harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against that creature. Holding a vampire at bay takes a standard action. After 1 round, a vampire can overcome its revulsion of the object and function normally each round it makes a DC 25 Will save.
Vampires cannot enter a private home or dwelling unless invited in by someone with the authority to do so.
Reducing a vampire's hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn't always destroy it (see fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. Each round of immersion in running water inflicts damage on a vampire equal to one-third of its maximum hit points—a vampire reduced to 0 hit points in this manner is destroyed. Driving a wooden stake through a helpless vampire's heart instantly slays it (this is a full-round action). However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the head is also severed and anointed with holy water.
Speed: Same as the base creature. If the base creature has a swim speed, the vampire is not unduly harmed by running water.
Melee: A vampire gains a slam attack if the base creature didn't have one. Damage for the slam depends on the vampire's size. At 5th level its natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Special Attacks: A vampire gains several special attacks. Save DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 vampire's HD + vampire's Cha modifier unless otherwise noted.
Blood Drain (Su)
A vampire can suck blood from a grappled opponent; if the vampire establishes or maintains a pin, it drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage. The vampire heals 5 hit points or gains 5 temporary hit points for 1 hour (up to a maximum number of temporary hit points equal to its full normal hit points) each round it drains blood.
Children of the Night (Su)
Once per day, a vampire can call forth 1d6+1 rats, 1d4+1 bats, or 1d3 wolves as a standard action. (If the base creature is not terrestrial, this power might summon other creatures of similar power.) These creatures arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the vampire for up to 1 hour.
At 5th level the vampire may summon 1d4+1 dire rats, 1d4+1 dire bats, or 1d4+1 wolves instead.
Create Spawn (Su)
Starting at 10th level, a vampire can create spawn out of those it slays with blood drain or energy drain, provided that the slain creature is of the same creature type as the vampire's base creature type. The victim rises from death as a vampire spawn in 1d4 days. This vampire is under the command of the vampire that created it, and remains enslaved until its master's destruction. A vampire may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than twice its own Hit Dice; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit become free-willed undead. A vampire may free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.
Mental Mastery (Su)
A vampire can crush a humanoid opponent's will as a standard action once per day. This works as Hold Person with a caster level equal to the vampire's Hit Dice. At 7th level the number of uses increases to 3 per day. At 10th level he may instead choose to cast Dominate Person or Hold Monster.
Special Qualities: A vampire gains the following:
Change Shape (Su)
Starting at 5th level, a vampire can use change shape to assume the form of a dire bat or wolf, as beast shape II.
Gaseous Form (Su)
Starting at 7th level, as a standard action, a vampire can assume gaseous form at will (caster level equal to Hit Dice), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.
Shadowless (Ex)
A vampire casts no shadows and shows no reflection in a mirror.
Spider Climb (Ex)
A vampire can climb sheer surfaces as though under the effects of a spider climb spell.
Sunlight Resistance (Su)
Starting at 7th level, this ability provides a vampire a measure of resistance against sunlight. On the second and all later rounds of exposure to direct sunlight, the vampire takes damage equal to one-third of its maximum hit points and is destroyed if this brings it to 0 hit points. The vampire is staggered on any round it is exposed to direct sunlight.
Ability Scores: Str +2, Dex +2 Cha +2. As an undead creature, a vampire has no Constitution score. At 5th level these bonuses increase to Str +4, Dex +4, Cha +4. At 10th level the vampire also gains Int +2 and Wis +2, and the Str bonus increases to +6.
Feats: Vampires gain Skill Focus (Bluff, Perception, Sense Motive, and Stealth) as Bonus Feats. At 5th level they gain Alertness, Toughness, and Dodge. At 7th level they gain Improved Initiative and Combat Reflexes.
Honestly I suggest making Dhamphir caster emulating Vampire powers, unless it's a monster campaign and everyone is playing high LA PCs. You can get the vampire flavor without using the template, so I'd want to make sure what it is the player exactly wants.
I'm not sure what LA Blood of the Night recommends (since I was pretty sure LA doesn't exist in PF), but in 3.5 it was +8. That's going to give your player a miniscule maximum hp pool for his vampire superpowers, even if he has some DR and Fast Healing.
I think Savage Species had rules for leveling up in racial HD, slowly assuming monster powers. That's probably a better way to tackle it.
Well Pathfinder doesn't exactly use level adjustment...but in the Advanced Races Guide it gives guidelines on what the level difference should be...basically level adjustment...as the character advances in level the difference goes down. For the level the players are playing at, the "regular" characters are supposed to be three levels higher than a vampire character...or rather a vampire character is considered three levels higher than a "regular" character of their level. Eventually the "level adjustment" will go away once the characters get high enough level.
I considered Savage Species, but they don't really do vampire, but vampire spawn. However, I was thinking about having the player take a certain number of levels in vampire anyway until I found the Blood of the Night Pathfinder book, which covers the level issue. I have no problem with that I think...its just the other stuff. An yes I offered the Dhampir, but even to me its not a very good race. I might consider offering Dhampir feats...like vampiric heritage feats that would increase certain abilities. Basically the character is a conversion from another edition where vampire was a class instead of a race. So they really like the character as a vampire and so I for that matter.
How to make the ideas defensible? Give the other players templates of some kind too. CR+2 templates will put them on roughly equal footing.
Protective Penumbra protects from sunlight. The other weaknesses are pretty much a non-issue.
They can keep the coffin in a Bag of Holding.
Also you could try making it (and other templates) scale up instead of dumping everything on at once.
I'm going to run a templated game and this is what I came up with for the vampire player:
** spoiler omitted **...
Thanks for the template suggestions. Actually the game is set at level 12 right now and will probably be 13th when the character is introduced so most of the powers will be there if not all really. I actually told the other players they could use templates as long as they did not go over a +3 adjustment. Only one chose to do so and he chose to be a werewolf.
Ah, well if you want to feed some power into the PCs that didn't want to be monstrous, you could give them Advanced a few times over.
Or some kind of artifact item that fits their class.
Ah, well if you want to feed some power into the PCs that didn't want to be monstrous, you could give them Advanced a few times over.
Thanks, that's a good idea. I did let them have a lot better chance to get higher ability scores and hit points too. I wanted powerful characters because what they will be facing is powerful. Artifacts work too...
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Is this an evil campaign?
Vampires are irredeemably evil monsters. This is more than supported in Pathfinder.
I highly suggest using Dhampir, if not evil.
This isn't entirely true. Blood of the Night notes that while the vast majority of vampires are Evil, a few are Neutral, and while a Good one is unheard of it's not technically impossible.
And PCs are supposed to be the ones who are the only people like them in the world.
Besides, this is the GM asking. If he wants to let his player play a vampire, who are we to say otherwise?
A dhampir bat shaman druid with all the feats that let you drink blood basically let you become a vampire. Maybe a druid worshipping the demon lord of vampires and take one of her domains, maybe the blood subdomain.
In regards to the sunlight issue there is the Protective Penumbra spell. Constantly using second level wands may get pricey but this will do the trick.
School evocation [darkness]; Level cleric 2, sorcerer/wizard 2, witch 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S,
Range touch
Target creature touched
Duration 10 minutes/level
Saving Throw Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance yesThis spell keeps the target slightly in shadow. A target with light blindness, light sensitivity, or vulnerability to sunlight (such as vampires and wraiths) may ignore penalties from those qualities. The spell gives the target a +2 bonus on saving throws against nonmagical hazards related to bright light, such as glare or sunburn.
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In regards to the sunlight issue there is the Protective Penumbra spell. Constantly using second level wands may get pricey but this will do the trick.
At level 12, that's two hours if you actually cast it. Grab a couple of Pearls of Power (2nd level) and a Lesser Rod of Extend, and you have 12 hours a day for 1 2nd level spell slot (plus the 11k that cost you...maybe less with Item Creation Feats).
In regards to the sunlight issue there is the Protective Penumbra spell. Constantly using second level wands may get pricey but this will do the trick.
Get craft ring and craft magical item and make a ring or maybe a necklace or craft a weapon with it or ... yeah lol if that made any sense
What we're talking about is a Lawful Neutral fetchling vampire slayer 8 / bard 1 (slayer is found in the Advanced Classes Guide Playtest PDF) who hunts undead. The original character was a 4th edition D&D unaligned shade vampire. Vampire is/was a class in 4th edition. She was turned into a vampire on an excursion and spent centuries as a vampire's thrall until her compatriots found her. Now she hates herself, but uses her powers to hunt undead until the last undead is killed and then she will either kill herself or look for a way to turn back.
I was considering the Protective Penumbra on a broach or cloak, but what just came to mind was the shadow blending ability of the fetchling. It might make it unbalanced. However, if I just have it where it makes a shadow inside her cloak...she would not be able to take advantage of shadow blending with it. A Cloak of Shadows or Shadow Cloak. Needs a cooler name...but there you go...
Also, I was considering reducing ability bonuses by two and halving damage reduction and energy resistance. Perhaps removing a few feats.