Making a Certain Baddie

[Zaq]

Obligatory comment: If you're in my group, kindly refrain from reading this.

So, anyway, I've read the rules for making NPCs, and I know that it's not at all wise to try to use an enemy built like a PC. I have no intention of doing that. That just breaks all the assumptions of the system. That said, I have a bad guy who's much easier to stat up as a PC than as an NPC, and I want a little help trying to make him an appropriate NPC who's still easily recognizable.

If this were a PC, he would be a revenant vryloka Vampire with the feat Vampiric Heritage, prepping to enter Archlich.

Yup. It's the infamous Vampire Vampire Vampire Zombie Lich.

Now, I claim zero credit for coming up with this particular combo, but I want to use it for all it's worth. How can I make an NPC who is recognizable as a VVVZL and not just another vampire? Yes, he'll tell the party what he is, but that's SO not the point. The fact that he's an NPC makes it easier in one regard (I can just apply the Lich template instead of waiting for the Archlich ED), but how do I make his Vampire Vampire Vampire Zombie-ness shine through? The party's level 11, and he's meant to be good for at least an arc or so, so having him somewhere in the 12-13 range (maybe 14 if necessary) would be appropriate. Where should I even start? I don't even really care what he ends up doing, so long as it's immediately obvious that he's a VVVZL. (In terms of fluff and plot, he's an opportunistic usurper who happened to stumble across one of Dracula's vacant castles on the Shadowfell and has claimed it for his own, declaring himself to be the rightful heir/reincarnation of Dracula. This is utter bunk, and will be mostly played for laughs.)

Thoughts?

[Dimers]

How can I make an NPC who is recognizable as a VVVZL ... ? Thoughts?

My only thought is "remove one degree of Vampire and you have a vuvuzela". Which might be somewhat more frustrating for the players. :smallwink:

[DragonBaneDM]

My only thought is "remove one degree of Vampire and you have a vuvuzela". Which might be somewhat more frustrating for the players. :smallwink:

Every villain in all of my campaigns just became this.

My only thought is this: Make a dungeon, or at least a skill challenge, based around discovering parts of this bad guy's past life (lives?). Like tracing every change he made, career he had, and soul he sold.

Make the changes get more despicable and bloodthirsty as he progresses farther down undeath. Maybe it wasn't his choice to be a Vrylocka, but after dying and becoming a Reverent, he just wanted more... Next thing you know he's sacrificing to Orcus to become a Vampire, and now he's on his way to becoming an Archlich by who knows what means!

[Surrealistik]

He should have 3 pairs of fangs; like shark teeth. Slap on some withered, lich like features and you should be good to go.

[Zaq]

My only thought is "remove one degree of Vampire and you have a vuvuzela". Which might be somewhat more frustrating for the players. :smallwink:

This? This is awesome. I'll see what I can do about adding that in.


Every villain in all of my campaigns just became this.

My only thought is this: Make a dungeon, or at least a skill challenge, based around discovering parts of this bad guy's past life (lives?). Like tracing every change he made, career he had, and soul he sold.

Make the changes get more despicable and bloodthirsty as he progresses farther down undeath. Maybe it wasn't his choice to be a Vrylocka, but after dying and becoming a Reverent, he just wanted more... Next thing you know he's sacrificing to Orcus to become a Vampire, and now he's on his way to becoming an Archlich by who knows what means!

Hmm. Not bad, but kinda too serious. I'll see if I can make that a little bit funnier. Remember, it's very much NOT his castle, which is kinda important. Nonetheless, I'll keep it in mind.


He should have 3 pairs of fangs; like shark teeth. Slap on some withered, lich like features and you should be good to go.

OK, this, on the other hand, is precisely what I was looking for. Anything else in this vein would be amazingly helpful. There will probably be a few corpses lying around with six puncture wounds in their necks. Thanks for this.

[BobTheDog]

Have the commoners/guards/villain underlings argue about the BBEG's undead state.

"Please help us! Our village is being savaged by a vampire!"
"What did you say, Pip? Vampire? No, no, I'm pretty sure it was a nasty zombie... Of the spellcasting sort."

[Zaq]

Have the commoners/guards/villain underlings argue about the BBEG's undead state.

"Please help us! Our village is being savaged by a vampire!"
"What did you say, Pip? Vampire? No, no, I'm pretty sure it was a nasty zombie... Of the spellcasting sort."

This is why I came to you folks. This is excellent.

Any other ideas?

[Treblain]

Make him angst endlessly and wax poetic about what a horrible curse his being a vampire is, and how he struggles with his cursed curse of cursedness every single day. He wishes he could rid himself of it, yet he must press on and do vampire-y things.

But he's talking about being a vampire (class). He loves being a lich, a revenant, a vampire, and a vampire, and oblivious to the blatant hypocrisy.

[Zaq]

Make him angst endlessly and wax poetic about what a horrible curse his being a vampire is, and how he struggles with his cursed curse of cursedness every single day. He wishes he could rid himself of it, yet he must press on and do vampire-y things.

But he's talking about being a vampire (class). He loves being a lich, a revenant, a vampire, and a vampire, and oblivious to the blatant hypocrisy.

Once again, this is exactly why I asked you folks for this. (Is it bad that when I saw "cursed curse of cursedness," my first thought was "ah, so you read Heroes of Shadow too, huh?"). I need to find a quick way to make the distinction very clear, but I'm sure I can come up with something.

[LaZodiac]

Give him Vrylocka specific racial abilities, make his hand bones clawed like Revenant's claws. Make him have a slightly reduced sunlight weakness for being a vampire, but also for being the Vampiric Heritage feat (which is basically a Dhampyr, and therefor would lessen the sunlight damager).

That's about all I've got.