Templates as Classes (Installment One: Vampire)

[Zom B]

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 + ½ 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.

[umbrapolaris]

the concept is original, especially with the trading levels.

i think that the Nightshade creatures is not in the "flavor" of the vampire, you may instead replace them by a Crimson Death (a vampiric mist) or a advanced hybrid Lycanthrope form.

Finally you may add some "salient abilities" like described in the Ravenloft Van Richten guides (AD&D), for reflecting the fact that the vampire Character is more than a simple vampire.

i wait the Lich (and maybe the Demilich) ^^

[Eldan]

One approach that I've seen, and that I've liked quite a bit, was letting the vampire choose his own abilities... there's so much vampire mythology and pop culture out there that barely any two vampires in fiction have the same abilities. How about letting them choose an ability every, say, five levels, so that they can choose if they'd rather be able to summon more critters, turn into a bat-monster or cast more spell-like abilities?

[umbrapolaris]

there's so much vampire mythology and pop culture out there that barely any two vampires in fiction have the same abilities. How about letting them choose an ability every, say, five levels, so that they can choose if they'd rather be able to summon more critters, turn into a bat-monster or cast more spell-like abilities?

i agree, it will make your vampire more unique, not like the common stock.

[Pyre_Born]

Agreeing, variation is always nice to shake up the stereotypical vamp every now and then.

Another thing that would help to make it unique is altered weakness'. Obviously sunlight and such as a basic, but there are as many weakness' for Vampires as there are abilities, maybe list a few and require the selection of a certain amount.

Something like, Sunlight (required) and choose x others. That way, although sunlight and garlic may work for all, holy symbols, running water, invitation only, blood from a corpse, grave dirt, mirrors, wolfsbane, counting spilled seeds, etc are on a more varied basis.

Even something as extreme as an option to take up 2 or 3 weakness abilities by instantly being destroyed at 0hp? Something to let a character take a gamble, or even to toss in for low level servitor vamps, giving the lead vamp an ability that makes it appear as destroyed, while actually fleeing to safety. Kind of a backup plan just in case.

Just some thoughts.

Anyways...looks great, I'm definitely waiting to see what else you've got planned!

Peace,
Pyre

[Eldan]

Actually, not even every vampire has sunlight. Dracula didn't, in the original novel.

[Cipher Stars]

You need to take in the Vampire Lord weaknesses instead of basic vampire weaknesses at a certain level, i'd say ten.

Vampire Lord weaknesses:
Vampire lords have far fewer weaknesses than normal vampires, a benefit of their quest for power.

Vampire lords cannot be repelled by garlic or holy symbols, though they can be turned. Mere presentation of a holy symbol has no effect. They have no fear of mirrors, and they cast reflections as living beings do.

Vampire lords can cross over or through running water with no impediments. They are not harmed in any way by immersion in running water.

A vampire lord is not as vulnerable to sunlight as a normal vampire, and can go about in broad daylight if it desires. Under sunlight, it takes a -4 penalty to all ability scores and on all attacks, saves, and skill checks. Also, a vampire lord in sunlight cannot use any of its supernatural powers. Victims of its domination power are not freed of the vampire lord's control during daylight hours; the vampire lord can verbally command any creature in its thrall even in direct sunlight. Spells that produce sunlight effects cannot harm a vampire lord; only direct light from the sun can weaken it. If the vampire lord is destroyed while exposed to direct sunlight, it seems to die, but unless the body is disposed of as described below, it assumes gaseous form as soon as the sun sets and attempts to return to its coffin.

A vampire lord is not killed outright by a wooden stake driven through its heart, though the stake does cause normal damage if it can bypass the creature's damage reduction.

The only way to make sure that a vampire lord does not return is to cut its head from its body, burn the body and the head separately, scatter the ashes from the body over running water, immerse the ashes from the head in holy water, and bury the immersed ashes in consecrated ground. However, if the head ashes are ever unearthed and somehow separated from the holy water, dried thoroughly, and then subjected to an unhallow spell, the vampire lord can regenerate in a week if the ashes are placed inside one of its places of rest.
( source http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20021018a )

My suggestion is change the weaknesses one at a time gradually, OR
change the weaknesses at Tenth level.

[Pyre_Born]

Actually, not even every vampire has sunlight. Dracula didn't, in the original novel.

I always forget about that....but I think it has something to do with recent day walking "vampires" forcing me to repress memories :smalleek:


You need to take in the Vampire Lord weaknesses instead of basic vampire weaknesses at a certain level, i'd say ten.

I've always been a fan of losing weakness' as they grow in power, especially the vulnerability to running water, which is one I always houserule out in settings.

Peace,
Pyre

[Cipher Stars]

I've always been a fan of losing weakness' as they grow in power, especially the vulnerability to running water, which is one I always houserule out in settings.

Peace,
Pyre

Yes ! exactly, If your growing so powerful, then Why for the love of the monkeys are you still crapping yourself at the sight of a holy symbol?:smallannoyed:

The Running water... Its so ridiculous. who first added that ?

Ah. I googled it before I submitted this:

Water used to be believed to weaken any earthy-supernatural powers. Water commonly acts as a barrier (though some legends also has it act as a gateway). Anyways, in the old days it was believed vampires drew their power from earth (seeing as they returned from the grave), and running water would drain it away. By the way, according to a few folktales pixies, faeries and the like couldn't cross salt water.


But the idea still stands, Grow in power= lose weakness. Imagine if a giant walking mountain ready to charge Olympus turned and ran because it saw a little fluffy kitten all because when it was once just a pile of sand a kitten used it as a litter-box and has since had a fear of kittens.

[Pyromancer999]

Nice work, even if it doesn't entirely follow the Vampire template. It really is an awesome class.

Even though one may think of it as similar to the Vampire, I'd just like to suggest a Half-Vampire class in the future, as I find it to be a very awesome template.

[Zom B]

Some ideas I'm bouncing around in my head:

A) The character picks two weaknesses, and can opt to add more in order to gain extra "vampire feats".

B) Vampire feats that do things like grant extra uses per day of alternate form and spell-like abilities.

C) Maybe at certain levels, the ability to either drop a weakness or get an extra vampire feat.

I initially considered letting the character pick their abilities, but ultimately I decided that that was:

A) lazy on my part and

B) had the same design flaw that things like the Archmage has: People pick the stuff that makes them more powerful than if they had picked the other stuff. This forces the class designer to be very careful to make sure all options look equally appealing, which may unintentionally make something that wasn't that interesting before become too powerful or better than the way somebody else does it. For instance, being able to summon some bats and wolves has to be made appealing, but not competitive with the specialist Summoner.

As for half-vampire, I'm not so sure you couldn't accomplish something like that by just taking a handful of levels of Vamp along with your other classes instead of it being your focus.