So recently me and my friend were talking about what happens to vampires when they are incapacitated/being slain.
My friend was wondering if you could use an anti-magic field or spell to stop a vampire from turning into its gaseous form. Is this true? I thought they turned into a gaseous form automatically. If not, does this mean they just end up laying on the ground knocked out if it gets canceled?
Gaseous form is a supernatural ability which is canceled by an AMF. If the vampire reaches 0 HP in combat in an AMF, it will attempt to enter gaseous form but will be unable to do so. In the absence of this ability, it will be incapacitated, as if dead, until either its fast healing (an extraordinary ability that the AMF does not prevent) brings it above 0, the AMF ends, or 2 hours have passed. AMF would need to be cast at CL 12 in order to last 2 hours. In the last case, the vampire dies immediately as soon as the 2 hour mark since it was brought to 0 HP is reached. So, if you can hang out in the AMF and whack the vampire's apparently dead corpse with weapons often enough to keep him from healing up, he'll die. However, magic weapons will no longer work as magic in the AMF so there'll need to be enough oomph on those hits to get through 10 points of DR. (This assumes that the vampire's DR is an EX ability. If it is an SU ability, then the AMF suppresses it as well. However, the universal monster rules for damage reduction says that DR can be either EX or SU, and I would argue that this is a property of the vampire's intrinsically tough body.)
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Hmm, interesting. The gaseous form ability is a supernatural ability, which does not function in an anti-magic area. So, I suppose it would remain in it's form until the anti-magic goes away, and if it is still within the 2 hr limit, would change and attemp to return to its coffin. Otherwise it's just helpless at 0 hp. If the anti-magic persists for more than 2 hrs, then it would be slain.
Though, to be honest, this feels counterintuitive to the badassery of non-sparkly vampires.
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Gaseous form is a supernatural ability which is canceled by an AMF. If the vampire reaches 0 HP in combat in an AMF, it will attempt to enter gaseous form but will be unable to do so. In the absence of this ability, it will be incapacitated, as if dead, until either its fast healing (an extraordinary ability that the AMF does not prevent) brings it above 0, the AMF ends, or 2 hours have passed. AMF would need to be cast at CL 12 in order to last 2 hours. In the last case, the vampire dies immediately as soon as the 2 hour mark since it was brought to 0 HP is reached. So, if you can hang out in the AMF and whack the vampire's apparently dead corpse with weapons often enough to keep him from healing up, he'll die. However, magic weapons will no longer work as magic in the AMF so there'll need to be enough oomph on those hits to get through 10 points of DR. (This assumes that the vampire's DR is an EX ability. If it is an SU ability, then the AMF suppresses it as well. However, the universal monster rules for damage reduction says that DR can be either EX or SU, and I would argue that this is a property of the vampire's intrinsically tough body.)
Point of order: a vampire reduced to 0 hp would need to rest in its coffin for an hour before its fast healing kicked in.
Thanks, this helps me out quite a bit. My players tend to think outside the box a lot.
Right you are, HF. So, all that is necessary is to ensure the AMF lasts at least two hours, and Drac has drained his last peasant.