Building Dracula

[Ortesk]

Since my regular DM is out for business, the group asked me if i could do a one shot session to cover him. So heres the skinny: Its a holiday game, it goes on 3 months a year for the past 6 years. Everyone is level 18 with mainly homebrew stuff the usual DM made (They told him crazy things they wished to be, he made it as balanced as possible in dnd 3.5)


So i was told just run them against an iconic monster, make it fun and dont be afraid to kick there ass's in the fight, if its based off canon for the BBEG. So i figured who hasnt heard of dracula, vampires are widely known and a cult favorite at haloween time, so run them against the original vampire himself


So looking at various renditions of dracula, which was in the name of research and not an excuse to gorge my face on popcorn as i watched i promise, He seems that he was once a really good guy who got a bad hand and fell from grace. He also seems in alot of renditions not to be a homicidal nut job but a man with alot of control and drive. He seems almost an anti hero, a man with a curse who uses it in the least violent way plausible, but is still evil due to the curse

So playgrounders, help me out here. I know hes vampire/vampire lord no problem, but im also wondering would he be worthy of the paragon template and/or demigod rank? He is always shown as the greatest vampire around and can destroy regular vampires. Also he kind of looks like a crusader almost, i wanted to say blackguard but crusader strikes me more (a few things showed him in folklore as a man who fought wars for his land and led crusades for there plights, which isnt paladin worthy)

Thanks in advance

[Emperor Tippy]

Which version of Dracula? There are way too many in fiction and their powers, abilities, personality, strengths, weaknesses, and temperament run the entire gamut of possibilities.

[Ortesk]

Which version of Dracula? There are way too many in fiction and their powers, abilities, personality, strengths, weaknesses, and temperament run the entire gamut of possibilities.

Right now im actually gonna model him off the movie dark prince

Basically as my OP said, he was a crusading hero who lost his love why'll he was fighting and blamed "god". In response he's cursed into being a vampire and is more of the bad guy who says F it, leave me alone i leave you alone

[blelliot]

Look up the vampire lord template off of the wotc website. It gives a lot of powers that are taken from the francis ford coppola movie from the early 90s. All together with this on top of the vampire template, it would make a very powerful vamprire villain. As for class, cleric would be good since he is a former crusader for good. Tack on a few levels of blackguard and voila! Dracula the Dark Prince.

[Ossian]

Look up the vampire lord template off of the wotc website. It gives a lot of powers that are taken from the francis ford coppola movie from the early 90s. All together with this on top of the vampire template, it would make a very powerful vamprire villain. As for class, cleric would be good since he is a former crusader for good. Tack on a few levels of blackguard and voila! Dracula the Dark Prince.

Or even just Crusader from tome of battle. If you have access to it, I'd go Knight (then fall from grace into Paladin of Tyranny, then blackguard).

scary in melee, some spells and special effect here and there, not too much book-keeping, tons of HP.