Vampire Hunting[3.5]

[CockroachTeaParty]

The Vampire Hunter feat in Libris Mortis is an odd little feat, allowing you to detect vampires and resist their dominating gaze.

It got me thinking: what would be the ultimate vampire hunting build? I've been thumbing through some splatbooks looking for thematically appropriate classes and prestige classes, but I'd like to hear the forum's wisdom on the subject.

Vampires being undead, classes like Avenging Executioner or Corrupt Avenger wouldn't work very well, despite their 'sworn enemy' flavor, since they rely on fear effects or precision damage.

Are there any other good 'hunter' style classes that would work well for hunting the vampire scourge? I suppose bonus points are in order if the build is useful for more than just killing vampires (likely strong against undead in general), but versatility is never a crime.

I'd like to see a character that relies more on melee combat or other tricks rather than 100% spell casting. Sure, a Radiant Servant of Pelor would probably make a great vampire hunter, but I'm looking for something a little more 'hunter' in flavor: a character that tracks down vampires, weeds out their minions, then tracks down the coffins and slams some steaks into hearts. Somewhere between a bounty hunter and inquisitor, mercilessly seeking out his hated foes.

Any ideas? Any cool anti-vampire tricks I might not be aware of?

[Niro]

Well I haven't really tried to make a character for someone else before (and there will most likely be someone with a better character in a few minutes..) but here is what I have gotten so far:

Class: Paladin 4/Rogue 4*/Skullclan hunter 10/swordsage 2?**

Race: Choose one you like
2 flaws: Murk eyed and Shaky (This build will focus on melee so you shouldn't care about ranged)

lets see what you get with this build:

Rogue: +2d6 sneak attack, trapfinding, evasion, uncanny dodge, trapsense +1
Paladin: Aura of good, smite evil, detect evil, divine grace, divine health, lay on hands, aura of courage, turn undead
Skullclan hunter: track undead, divine strike, protection from evil, +3d6 sneak attack, sword of darkness, sword of light, Immunities (fear, disease, paralysis
and ability drain)
Swordsage: 7 maneuvers known, 4 readied and stances, AC bonus = wis mod

9 feats: (these are listed at random)
weapon finess,
enable critical (undead),
foe specialist (should work against undead now that you have "Enable Critical (undead)")
combat reflexes
TwF
ITwF
GTwF
improved smithing - CD
double hit - MH

stats wise I would go for something like... Dex>Cha>Con>Wis>Str>Int

*or fighter with the alternate class feature that grants him Sneak attack
** I had no idea what to do with the last two levels, so I added swordsage because you can always specialise in Shadow Hand and get some sweet 5th(?) level maneuvers and stances

With this build you should be able to deal quite some damage especially if you combine your Sneak attacks with that stance in ToB that allows you to turn invisible each round and can thereby SN each round >:D

(I am terribly sorry if the build is crap but it is how I would create a vampire hunter without too much magic)

ENABLE CRITICALS [General, Fighter]
You have learned to score critical hits on unusual creature types.
Benefit: Choose one type of creature that is normally immune to critical hits (construct, elemental, ooze, plant, undead). You can score critical hits against that type of creature, despite that this is not generally allowed.
Special: If you choose constructs, you can also score critical hits against inanimate objects. If you choose undead and are using an attack that does not suffer a miss chance against incorporeal opponents (like a ghost touch weapon), you can score critical hits against incorporeal undead.
Notes: This also allows you to use abilities and actions that only work against creatures subject to critical hits, such as Coup de Grace, Sneak Attack and the ranger's Favored Enemy damage bonus. A construct, object, or undead need never make a Fortitude save to survive a coup-de-grace.

[vampire2948]

Cleric works, imo. A good aligned cleric is pretty good vs. those undead.

I played in an undead-heavy campaign as a cleric, managed to out-perform all the other players fairly easily, with no real optimization. And the other players were trying.

Healing, Turning, Death Ward, A great deal of anti-undead spells...

You'd probably also want something like anti-gaze attack goggles, or a perma protection from evil method.

Obviously you'd also want to play against the vampire's weaknesses.
They can't enter a private dwelling, they can't cross running water (unless they have an aquatic base race) and they have to flee from a presented mirror or holy symbol.

Cleric wins?

Vampire2948,

[AtwasAwamps]

There's always "Hunter of the Dead", the PrC in complete divine, I think it was.