Zom B
2010-10-27, 12:47 AM
So I got to thinking that the classic concepts of templates are rather restricting. For a set level adjustment, you get a set list of bonuses and abilities, but what about a creature that wants to transcend the classic concept?
In honor of Halloween, I decided to start with the Vampire, rendering the concept of the Vampire Spawn moot (as that's effectively what a creature with only a few levels would be) and allowing for a creature to become a Greater version by investing more of his character levels into his vampire-hood.
In the creation process, I decided to do away with all of things like the ability score bonuses and skill bonuses. I wanted this to feel a bit more like a class than a "monster ECL made into a class" that you find in Savage Species and the like.
There'll be tweaks on these based on feedback, which is welcome. So, without further ado:
http://i53.tinypic.com/b4uv60.png
http://i56.tinypic.com/28ktuuw.jpg
"Creature of the night? No, my pet. I am the night."
-Lord Kavarel, Baron of Rosemont
Special: Only Humanoid and Monstrous Humanoid creatures can become vampires. When a creature with class levels becomes a vampire, he may trade in any number of class levels for levels in the vampire class. If he has or gains any levels in cleric, he rebukes undead rather than turning them. A vampire with class levels in sorcerer or wizard may only have a rat or bat (or similar creature, DM's discretion) as a familiar.
Hit Die: d12
Starting Gold: As rogue
Class Features
Class Skills: The vampire's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (All; taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language, Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points at First Level: (8 + Int) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 8 + Int
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Speed|Slam|Special
1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+0|1d6|Bite, Natural Armor, Turn Resist +1, Undead, Vampire Weaknesses
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3|
+0|1d6|Alternate Form (1/day; bat), Spell-like abilities (1/day; Charm Person, Spider Climb)
3rd|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+10|1d6|Alternate Form (wolf), Fast Healing 2
4th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|
+10|1d8|Alternate Form (dire bat), Damage Reduction 2/silver and magic
5th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|
+10|1d8|Alternate Form (2/day; dire wolf), Bonus Feat, Spell-like abilities (Gaseous Form)
6th|
+4|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+20|1d8|
7th|
+5|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+20|1d8|Fast Healing 4, Spell-like abilities (3/day; Charm Monster), Turn Resist +2
8th|
+6|
+2|
+6|
+6|
+20|1d10|Alternate Form (3/day; bat swarm, rat swarm), Damage Reduction 4/silver and magic
9th|
+6|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+30|1d10|Spell-like abilities (Dominate Person)
10th|
+7|
+3|
+7|
+7|
+30|1d10|Bonus Feat, Resistances 5, Wings
11th|
+8|
+3|
+7|
+7|
+30|1d10|Alternate Form (4/day), Fast Healing 6
12th|
+9|
+3|
+8|
+8|
+40|2d6|Damage Reduction 6/silver and magic, Spell-like abilities (4/day)
13th|
+9|
+4|
+8|
+8|
+40|2d6|Turn Resist +3
14th|
+10|
+4|
+9|
+9|
+40|2d6|Alternate Form (5/day)
15th|
+11|
+4|
+9|
+9|
+50|2d6|Bonus Feat, Fast Healing 8, Spell-like abilities (Mass Charm Monster)
16th|
+12|
+5|
+10|
+10|
+50|2d8|Damage Reduction 8/silver and magic
17th|
+12|
+5|
+10|
+10|
+50|2d8|Alternate Form (6/day; Nightwing), Spell-like abilities (6/day; Dominate Monster)
18th|
+13|
+5|
+11|
+11|
+60|2d8|
19th|
+14|
+6|
+11|
+11|
+60|2d8|Fast Healing 10, Turn Resist +4
20th|
+15|
+6|
+12|
+12|
+60|2d10|Alternate Form (7/day; Nightcrawler, Nightwalker), Bonus Feat, Damage Reduction 10/silver and magic, Resistances 10[/table]
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A vampire gains proficiency with all simple weapons and with light armors, but not with shields.
Slam: A vampire has a slam attack, dealing the listed damage as indicated by their level. On a successful slam attack, a vampire can attempt to start a grapple. Once he is grappling, he can bite (see below).
Bite (Ex): A vampire that can pin his foe deals damage equivalent to his Slam attack at the beginning of each round that he maintains the pin. Each time he damages his opponent with a Bite, he gains 5 temporary hit points. At the vampire's option, a creature slain by the vampire's bite rises as a vampire 1d4 days after its apparent death.
Natural Armor: The vampire gains an amount of natural armor equal to his class level or his Charisma modifier, whichever is lower.
Turn Resistance (Ex): Whenever the vampire is subject to a turn or rebuke attempt, he adds this bonus to his Hit Die to resist the attempt.
Undead: The vampire is undead, gaining all of the benefits and drawbacks that come with this, except that his hit die, base attack bonus, saving throws, skills, and skill points are dependent on his class levels. Depending on the base creature, he has the (Augmented Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid) descriptor.
Vampire Weaknesses:
Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from a mirror or a strongly presented holy symbol. These things don’t harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from a creature holding the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against the creature holding the item for the rest of the encounter. Holding a vampire at bay takes a*standard action.
Vampires are also unable to cross running water, although they can be carried over it while resting in their coffins or aboard a ship.
They are utterly unable to enter a home or other building unless invited in by someone with the authority to do so. They may freely enter public places, since these are by definition open to all.
Reducing a vampire’s hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn’t always destroy it (see the note on fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight disorients it: It can take only a single*move action*or attack action and is destroyed utterly in the next round if it cannot escape. Similarly, immersing a vampire in running water robs it of one-third of its hit points each round until it is destroyed at the end of the third round of immersion. Driving a wooden stake through a vampire’s heart instantly slays the monster. However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the body is destroyed.
Alternate Form (Su): The vampire gains the ability to change into a myriad of animals and even other undead as a standard action. He gains a number of daily usages of this ability, and some of his forms consume multiple daily uses in order to assume them. While in his alternate form, the vampire loses the use of his slam attack and spell-like abilities, but gains the*natural weapons*and extraordinary special attacks of his new form. He remains in the chosen form as long as he wishes or until the next sunrise, whichever comes first. The daily use expenditure for each form is:
{table=head]Form|Daily Usages
Bat, Wolf|
1|
Dire Bat, Dire Wolf|
2|
Bat Swarm, Rat Swarm|
3|
Nightwing|
4|
Nightcrawler, Nightwalker|
5|[/table]
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): Similarly to his alternate forms, the vampire gains daily usages of his spell-like abilities, and some of them consume multiple daily uses to use. The caster level for each ability is equal to his class level. The saving throw for these spell-like abilities is 10 + ˝ class level + Cha modifier. The daily use expenditure for each spell-like ability is:
{table=head]Spell-like ability|Daily Usages
Charm Animal, Spider Climb|
1|
Charm Monster, Gaseous Form|
2|
Dominate Person, Mass Charm Monster|
3|
Dominate Monster|
4|[/table]
Fast Healing (Ex): Each round, the vampire heals the given amount of hit points so long as he has at least 1 hit point. If reduced to 0 hit points, he automatically uses his Gaseous Form spell-like ability, if he has daily usages remaining. If he does not have usages remaining or does not yet have it as a spell-like ability, he can suffer 1d4 points of Charisma drain (he is not immune to ability drain from this source) in order to gain an additional use or to renew the duration of his Gaseous Form. He must reach his coffin within the ability's duration or be utterly destroyed. Any additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect. Once at rest in its coffin, a 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. If he suffered Charisma drain to assume or maintain his Gaseous Form, he recovers it at a rate of 1 per full eight hours of rest.
Damage Reduction (Su): The vampire gains the listed damage reduction, which can only be overcome by a weapon that is both silver and magic. His natural attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Bonus Feat: At 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter, the vampire selects a bonus feat from the following list: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, and Toughness.
Resistances (Ex): At 10th level, the vampire gains resistance to cold 5 and electricity 5. Both of these resistances improve at level 20.
Wings (Ex): The vampire gains wings resembling those of a bat or a dragon, giving him a flight speed equal to twice his land speed with average maneuverability.
In honor of Halloween, I decided to start with the Vampire, rendering the concept of the Vampire Spawn moot (as that's effectively what a creature with only a few levels would be) and allowing for a creature to become a Greater version by investing more of his character levels into his vampire-hood.
In the creation process, I decided to do away with all of things like the ability score bonuses and skill bonuses. I wanted this to feel a bit more like a class than a "monster ECL made into a class" that you find in Savage Species and the like.
There'll be tweaks on these based on feedback, which is welcome. So, without further ado:
http://i53.tinypic.com/b4uv60.png
http://i56.tinypic.com/28ktuuw.jpg
"Creature of the night? No, my pet. I am the night."
-Lord Kavarel, Baron of Rosemont
Special: Only Humanoid and Monstrous Humanoid creatures can become vampires. When a creature with class levels becomes a vampire, he may trade in any number of class levels for levels in the vampire class. If he has or gains any levels in cleric, he rebukes undead rather than turning them. A vampire with class levels in sorcerer or wizard may only have a rat or bat (or similar creature, DM's discretion) as a familiar.
Hit Die: d12
Starting Gold: As rogue
Class Features
Class Skills: The vampire's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Decipher Script (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (All; taken individually) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Sleight of Hand (Dex), Speak Language, Spot (Wis), Tumble (Dex)
Skill Points at First Level: (8 + Int) x 4
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 8 + Int
{table=head]Level|Base Attack Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Speed|Slam|Special
1st|
+0|
+0|
+2|
+2|
+0|1d6|Bite, Natural Armor, Turn Resist +1, Undead, Vampire Weaknesses
2nd|
+1|
+0|
+3|
+3|
+0|1d6|Alternate Form (1/day; bat), Spell-like abilities (1/day; Charm Person, Spider Climb)
3rd|
+2|
+1|
+3|
+3|
+10|1d6|Alternate Form (wolf), Fast Healing 2
4th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|
+10|1d8|Alternate Form (dire bat), Damage Reduction 2/silver and magic
5th|
+3|
+1|
+4|
+4|
+10|1d8|Alternate Form (2/day; dire wolf), Bonus Feat, Spell-like abilities (Gaseous Form)
6th|
+4|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+20|1d8|
7th|
+5|
+2|
+5|
+5|
+20|1d8|Fast Healing 4, Spell-like abilities (3/day; Charm Monster), Turn Resist +2
8th|
+6|
+2|
+6|
+6|
+20|1d10|Alternate Form (3/day; bat swarm, rat swarm), Damage Reduction 4/silver and magic
9th|
+6|
+3|
+6|
+6|
+30|1d10|Spell-like abilities (Dominate Person)
10th|
+7|
+3|
+7|
+7|
+30|1d10|Bonus Feat, Resistances 5, Wings
11th|
+8|
+3|
+7|
+7|
+30|1d10|Alternate Form (4/day), Fast Healing 6
12th|
+9|
+3|
+8|
+8|
+40|2d6|Damage Reduction 6/silver and magic, Spell-like abilities (4/day)
13th|
+9|
+4|
+8|
+8|
+40|2d6|Turn Resist +3
14th|
+10|
+4|
+9|
+9|
+40|2d6|Alternate Form (5/day)
15th|
+11|
+4|
+9|
+9|
+50|2d6|Bonus Feat, Fast Healing 8, Spell-like abilities (Mass Charm Monster)
16th|
+12|
+5|
+10|
+10|
+50|2d8|Damage Reduction 8/silver and magic
17th|
+12|
+5|
+10|
+10|
+50|2d8|Alternate Form (6/day; Nightwing), Spell-like abilities (6/day; Dominate Monster)
18th|
+13|
+5|
+11|
+11|
+60|2d8|
19th|
+14|
+6|
+11|
+11|
+60|2d8|Fast Healing 10, Turn Resist +4
20th|
+15|
+6|
+12|
+12|
+60|2d10|Alternate Form (7/day; Nightcrawler, Nightwalker), Bonus Feat, Damage Reduction 10/silver and magic, Resistances 10[/table]
Weapon and Armor Proficiencies: A vampire gains proficiency with all simple weapons and with light armors, but not with shields.
Slam: A vampire has a slam attack, dealing the listed damage as indicated by their level. On a successful slam attack, a vampire can attempt to start a grapple. Once he is grappling, he can bite (see below).
Bite (Ex): A vampire that can pin his foe deals damage equivalent to his Slam attack at the beginning of each round that he maintains the pin. Each time he damages his opponent with a Bite, he gains 5 temporary hit points. At the vampire's option, a creature slain by the vampire's bite rises as a vampire 1d4 days after its apparent death.
Natural Armor: The vampire gains an amount of natural armor equal to his class level or his Charisma modifier, whichever is lower.
Turn Resistance (Ex): Whenever the vampire is subject to a turn or rebuke attempt, he adds this bonus to his Hit Die to resist the attempt.
Undead: The vampire is undead, gaining all of the benefits and drawbacks that come with this, except that his hit die, base attack bonus, saving throws, skills, and skill points are dependent on his class levels. Depending on the base creature, he has the (Augmented Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid) descriptor.
Vampire Weaknesses:
Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from a mirror or a strongly presented holy symbol. These things don’t harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from a creature holding the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against the creature holding the item for the rest of the encounter. Holding a vampire at bay takes a*standard action.
Vampires are also unable to cross running water, although they can be carried over it while resting in their coffins or aboard a ship.
They are utterly unable to enter a home or other building unless invited in by someone with the authority to do so. They may freely enter public places, since these are by definition open to all.
Reducing a vampire’s hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn’t always destroy it (see the note on fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight disorients it: It can take only a single*move action*or attack action and is destroyed utterly in the next round if it cannot escape. Similarly, immersing a vampire in running water robs it of one-third of its hit points each round until it is destroyed at the end of the third round of immersion. Driving a wooden stake through a vampire’s heart instantly slays the monster. However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the body is destroyed.
Alternate Form (Su): The vampire gains the ability to change into a myriad of animals and even other undead as a standard action. He gains a number of daily usages of this ability, and some of his forms consume multiple daily uses in order to assume them. While in his alternate form, the vampire loses the use of his slam attack and spell-like abilities, but gains the*natural weapons*and extraordinary special attacks of his new form. He remains in the chosen form as long as he wishes or until the next sunrise, whichever comes first. The daily use expenditure for each form is:
{table=head]Form|Daily Usages
Bat, Wolf|
1|
Dire Bat, Dire Wolf|
2|
Bat Swarm, Rat Swarm|
3|
Nightwing|
4|
Nightcrawler, Nightwalker|
5|[/table]
Spell-like Abilities (Sp): Similarly to his alternate forms, the vampire gains daily usages of his spell-like abilities, and some of them consume multiple daily uses to use. The caster level for each ability is equal to his class level. The saving throw for these spell-like abilities is 10 + ˝ class level + Cha modifier. The daily use expenditure for each spell-like ability is:
{table=head]Spell-like ability|Daily Usages
Charm Animal, Spider Climb|
1|
Charm Monster, Gaseous Form|
2|
Dominate Person, Mass Charm Monster|
3|
Dominate Monster|
4|[/table]
Fast Healing (Ex): Each round, the vampire heals the given amount of hit points so long as he has at least 1 hit point. If reduced to 0 hit points, he automatically uses his Gaseous Form spell-like ability, if he has daily usages remaining. If he does not have usages remaining or does not yet have it as a spell-like ability, he can suffer 1d4 points of Charisma drain (he is not immune to ability drain from this source) in order to gain an additional use or to renew the duration of his Gaseous Form. He must reach his coffin within the ability's duration or be utterly destroyed. Any additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect. Once at rest in its coffin, a 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. If he suffered Charisma drain to assume or maintain his Gaseous Form, he recovers it at a rate of 1 per full eight hours of rest.
Damage Reduction (Su): The vampire gains the listed damage reduction, which can only be overcome by a weapon that is both silver and magic. His natural attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Bonus Feat: At 5th level, and every 5 levels thereafter, the vampire selects a bonus feat from the following list: Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Grapple, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, and Toughness.
Resistances (Ex): At 10th level, the vampire gains resistance to cold 5 and electricity 5. Both of these resistances improve at level 20.
Wings (Ex): The vampire gains wings resembling those of a bat or a dragon, giving him a flight speed equal to twice his land speed with average maneuverability.