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Logician
2011-11-16, 10:30 PM
In a game of 3.5 I am DMing, two players have expressed interest in becoming vampires. Coincidentally, I had already planned on making vampires a significant part of the plot and setting (ruling class of a underground civilization, being underground has tons of advantages for vamps) so I am more than happy to indulge their interests, and in fact think it would go great for the plot and so forth.

However, as I'm sure many of you are aware, the vampire template is completely unsuitable for player use with its +8LA, especially when the party is ecl 4. Thus, i have decided to create a variant vampire template with a lower LA and better playability at lower levels (I looked into the Half-Vampire template and other home-brews and was unsatisfied).

This is my first attempt at orderly home-brew.


Lesser Vampire (Template)

The Lesser Vampire template may be added to any creature with the following changes.

Special Attacks:
Blood Drain - A Lesser Vampire may only use this ability, biting into the target with his fangs, on a pinned victim, or a helpless/willing victim. When using this ability, the Lesser Vampire may choose to either deal a single point of Con damage per round or 1d4 con. Con damaged this way is added to the Lesser Vampire's Con, however a Lesser Vampire may not gain more Con in such a way then he has hit dice. If a victim is sleeping, the Lesser vampire may make a move silently check against the targets listen check to deal a single point of Con damage, though dealing more than a single point during the targets rest will wake the victim.

Charming Gaze - Any humanoid within 30ft who makes eye contact with a Lesser Vampire must make a will save (DC is Cha based) or be affected as though by the Charm Person spell. If a target resists this effect they will continue to resist is for the rest of the day. This effect is suppressible.

Suggestion - A number of times per day equal to his charisma modifier (though never less than one), a lesser vampire may target anyone currently under the effect of his Charming Gaze with an effect mimicking the Suggestion spell (DC is Cha based).

Special Qualities:
Blood Thirst - Every day that a Lesser Vampire goes without using its Blood Drain ability to drain at least one point of Con he takes two Con damage. This Con damage cannot be restored by any means other than his Blood Drain ability. If a Lesser Vampires Constitution reaches zero by this means, it is destroyed and may not be ressurected except by a wish spell.

Damage Reduction - Lesser Vampires gain DR5/silver or magic.

Fast Healing - A Lesser Vampire regains hit points equal to its charisma modifier every ten minutes. See Eternal for additional effect.

Resistance - A Lesser Vampire has resistance cold 5 and electricity 5.

Daylight Anathema - Lesser Vampires take a -4 penalty to all rolls while in sunlight, and for every round after the first in the sun take 1 point of Con damage as though through Blood Thirst.

Eternal - Lesser Vampires do not die of age. Lesser Vampires will allways come back to life eventually by their fast healing ability unless one of the following occurs. A wooden stake driven through a Lesser Vampires heart or submerging a Lesser Vampires ashes will prevent their fast healing ability from bringing them above 0 hit points. Having its Con brought to 0 by the Blood Thirst or Daylight Anathema qualities will also prevent a Lesser Vampire from regenerating.

Creature of the Night - A Lesser Vampire may, once per day, transform into either a bat, a rat, or a wolf. Also, all nocturnal animals treat a Lesser Vampire as an ally, though this ability does not grant any means by which the Lesser Vampire may communicate with such animals.

Abilities:
+2str, +2dex, +2cha

Skills:
+4hide, +8move silently, +4 diplomacy, +4bluff, +2spot, +2listen.

LA: +2

bobthe6th
2011-11-16, 10:40 PM
drain hurts.... a lot. if used against players it seems a lagitamet reason to scrap a character. damage is way better, as it allows for healing. admitedly at higher level you can fix it... but it hurts a lot.

Logician
2011-11-17, 03:53 PM
drain hurts.... a lot. if used against players it seems a lagitamet reason to scrap a character. damage is way better, as it allows for healing. admitedly at higher level you can fix it... but it hurts a lot.

I thought ability damage healed naturally at a rate of one point per day?

edit: Ah I see, I didn't realize the terminology was different. I will change "drain" to "damage" to rectify this, and reflect my intent.

Yitzi
2011-11-17, 08:57 PM
-Firstly, are they supposed to be undead? If so, they don't have CON scores.
-Secondly, this might be called "lesser", but is actually superior to the normal vampire in some notable ways:
1. When draining, the lesser vampire gets actual points of CON, rather than just hit points.
2. Even more importantly, the lesser vampire gets the CON added to their current value, implying that it stacks. The normal vampire gets it as temporary HP, meaning that it doesn't stack. (This, by the way, is why the "infinite HP for shambling mounds" exploit doesn't work: Temporary constitution points presumably do not stack, just like temporary hit points don't).
3. The lesser vampire only needs a grapple check to drain; a normal vampire must pin the victim.
4. Charming Gaze is an actual gaze attack (requires no action), whereas the normal vampire's dominate ability requires a standard action. (Also, while Dominate is overall more powerful than Charm, Charm does have some notable advantages.)
5. The lesser vampire lacks most of the normal vampire's weaknesses, although that's probably just an unintentional omission.

Also, DR that requires 2 things to beat is too much for low levels. Make it /silver or /magic or /silver or magic.

Logician
2011-11-17, 09:08 PM
-Firstly, are they supposed to be undead? If so, they don't have CON scores.
-Secondly, this might be called "lesser", but is actually superior to the normal vampire in some notable ways:
1. When draining, the lesser vampire gets actual points of CON, rather than just hit points.
2. Even more importantly, the lesser vampire gets the CON added to their current value, implying that it stacks. The normal vampire gets it as temporary HP, meaning that it doesn't stack. (This, by the way, is why the "infinite HP for shambling mounds" exploit doesn't work: Temporary constitution points presumably do not stack, just like temporary hit points don't).
3. The lesser vampire only needs a grapple check to drain; a normal vampire must pin the victim.
4. Charming Gaze is an actual gaze attack (requires no action), whereas the normal vampire's dominate ability requires a standard action. (Also, while Dominate is overall more powerful than Charm, Charm does have some notable advantages.)
5. The lesser vampire lacks most of the normal vampire's weaknesses, although that's probably just an unintentional omission.

Also, DR that requires 2 things to beat is too much for low levels. Make it /silver or /magic or /silver or magic.

They are intended NOT to be undead.

I find that the first two advantages you listed are weighed out by the new weakness of losing Con for not feeding. And while yes the Con does stack, infinite health is not acquirable do to the "cannot gain more Con this way than hit dice" clause. Admittedly, however, i too see this as questionable in terms of power.

Point 3 was unintended, ill edit it to fix that.

4 is indeed an advantage. Do you think it is too strong?

As for vampire weaknesses, I did leave out some things, but I only meant for this template to reflect the more crunch notable aspects of the template. I may add a new entry for random, quirky weaknesses. However, I fell that the Blood Thirst and Sunlight Anathema disadvantages are sufficient to keep it balanced (with, of course, the 2LA). Do you disagree?

Finally, I did intend to put DR5/silver OR Magic, thanks for pointing that out.

Noblesse
2011-11-17, 09:24 PM
Blood thirst does not have any stated requirements for the target aside from helpless or willing. Therefore, a strict reading would allow you to drain well... anything. Bag of Tricks (gray) cost 900gp and would give you 10 animals a week to drain.

question: drained con -- untyped bonus?