| lord4571 |
so i do have another post about me trying to create my own vampire template. (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2tsun?advice-skyrim-vampire-template-and-throw n)
but this post is what if i went with the dread vampire template instead as a child vampire or what if i went the vampire template as a child vampire.
its a cr +3 or +2 seems really low for gaining all the ability scores and not having to worry about con anymore. i know that not being able to go into direct sunlight is a major flaw and could stop me dead in my tracks. is that why a vampire has these great scores and abilities they have? or is it for another reason?
if you were to take away the weakness to die instantly under the direct sunlight what other powers would you take away? same for the must reach coffin in 2 hrs or die. what would a vampire lose if you were to take that away?
what powers or edits would you make out right to balance this being added on to someone?
i don't mean both post to be similar if they are to similar. the other one is to see what i made was balance or not. this post is so i can understand how this would be balanced for a player to have the original templates and if it needs to be homebrewed a bit.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/dread-vampire-c r-3
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/vampire
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/thesmlnbndt-s-lab/templa tes/-living-vampire
| Anger Nogar |
Pathfinder is not really suited to playing a vampire characters as PCs. The rules are there mostly for the DM to use them as antagonists.
It's not only that the stats are unbalanced, but it also require a different play style that does not mesh well with the rest of the group (even if they are evil and ok with nocturnal adventuring).
I would suggest to anyone playing a vampire unless his DM and fellow players are ok with what they are getting into and ok with that. If they are OK and know what they are getting into - then they will be more than capable to balance it enough for the needs of their campaign.
Weirdo
|
I'm GMing for a vampire right now. I gave him a stripped down version of the template to start (mostly just blood drain and immunity to ability damage, poison, disease, sleep) and then have been adding on the other special abilities slowly - as a Nosferatu he has spider climb and telepathy now at level 8. He has a custom cloak to negate the sunlight weakness, and it's not too hard to cart around a coffin once you have extradimensional storage.
Other party members are also getting special abilities to bring them up to a similar power level, though they're coming in at a slightly different rate for story reasons. A bit of homebrew, but I stole heavily from the Mythic rules.
Staggering out the abilities works better for us since we started from level 1 and the template was acquired around level 5-6. The in-game reasoning is that the character is still a very young vampire coming into his power over time. If you're starting at a higher level it might be simpler just to tack on the whole template but unless it's an all-vampire party (which would be a lot of fun...) the GM needs to be willing to adjust for power as they play. CR is after all intended to measure a monster's threat level as an opponent to a standard party, and some abilities that are balanced for an opponent can be unbalancing in a PC (at will Dominate for example).
| Goblin_Priest |
I'd smite you.
A skeletal champion or juju zombie are basically just tacking the undead subtype on someone, and that's already a +1CR, with no special abilities to show for it.
Templates are terrible overall for game balance. In most cases, a PC with a template is much stronger than his peers without one, unless the LA is taken into account, in which case he'll be much weaker.
If the whole party has the same template, then that's another thing, one I'd have no issues with. But when some players start getting a whole bunch of racial abilities, and others aren't, balance is practically impossible. Unless your group is fine with the party being imbalanced (differently-powered PCs don't seem as common a thing as back in the days when so much had XP costs).
If a player really ardently wanted it, then I'd insist he pick a class that allows him to gain the undead traits to represent his gradual maturation as a "vampire" (or whatever other undead type was desired), such as a sorcerer with the undead bloodline or an antipaladin with that undead archetype. In theory, these classes should be balanced around giving the player undead abilities as part of their normal progression, instead of just tacking them on top of other abilities one would normally gain.
| Kudaku |
If I were the GM I'd either go with the tested and true Dhampir, or look to a reputable 3rd party company to provide rules for vampire PCs. Dreamscarred Press released Lords of the Night back in 2015 - it has "a new vampire template designed for easy use by players and GMs alike", has 4.5 stars on Paizo.com (including a 4 star review from Endzeitgeist), and is currently on sale at 8.99 on Drivethru RPG.
| LizardMage |
My first instinct would be to ask, "why this particular combo?". Assuming I'm running a game where a Drow is both thematically fitting, meshes with the overall power level and isn't going to be in conflict with the party, it would be hard to convince me to add a template.
I definitely support going the dhampir route or Goblin Priest's suggestion of taking a class that slowly becomes undead. Barring that, perhaps finding a copy of the Undead book from 3.5, Libras Mortis I think. I recall it having some prestige classes/feats that allowed you to become various undead.