I don't see anything in the vampire creature abilities about the vampire turning to ash if destroyed. Does a destroyed vampire leave a body behind?
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I always interpreted destroyed as there is nothing left.
else i see no reason to use distinction from normal.
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The adventure Ashes At Dawn, part of the Carrion Crown adventure path, treats a vampire being destroyed as being reduced to ash. Certainly, any vampire destroyed by sunlight would become a pile of ash in my game. A head anointed with holy water should also, but I'm on the fence about whether anything happens to the rest of the body in this case--I'd treat a decapitated body with a destroyed as mechanically identical to getting dusted, but I don't feel it necessarily reacts to the head's destruction automatically. Albeit, it begins to decay on its own and will still turn to dust if exposed to sunlight.
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This seems like a narrative question to me.
Do your players expect ash at the end? Then have ash at the end.
Does your narrative need an intact vampire body? Maybe for some clue? Then the body is intact.
Is it something in the middle, like the excellent examples Sibelius gave? Then do that.
I always interpreted destroyed as there is nothing left.
else i see no reason to use distinction from normal.
Would that mean all undead leave no remains?
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I always interpreted destroyed as there is nothing left.
else i see no reason to use distinction from normal.
I definitely interpreted this as more of a “the body is too far gone to be reanimated” thing rather than a “the body is gone” thing. I mean it makes sense for vampires and some other forms of undead, but all undead are destroyed when they die.
Does a skeleton leave no physical remains? What of a zombie? I mean vampires have lore and alternate media to support this, but many other types of undead do not. Just my two cents here though.
Technically, 'destroyed at 0 HP' is a game rule that means that the creature definitely does not use the Death and Dying rules and conditions that the PCs do. Other NPC enemies/allies may or may not use those rules at the GM's discretion. But a Vampire never would.
As for leaving behind a corpse, it is likely left up to the GM. Even in cultural references, Vampires behave differently. Vampires that Buffy fights would collapse into dust immediately. Other Vampires would eventually regenerate even after they were beaten unconscious unless specific things were done to prevent it.
There are no "RULES" for that. Destroyed is a game term meaning it is dead and will not come back. I would leave it up to the GM to determine from a descriptive standpoint what happens to the corpse.
Maybe there is a physical body left? Maybe they turn to ash, or dissolve into a black vapor? You could go the True Blood route and have them burst like a blood-filled water balloon.
We have 6 different vampire families in P2 current: Moroi (standard western vampire), Vrykolakas, Nosferatu, Jian-Shi, Vetalarana, and Strigoi.
It might be interesting to have the corpse of each type be affected a different way depending on their unique weaknesses.