vampire prestige classes

[Kimras]

what are there and what books are they in and do they go with divine and arcane casters

[Gemini476]

There's only two prestige classes that require you to be a vampire, to my knowledge - the Lifedrinker from the Book of Vile Darkness, and the Master Vampire from Libris Mortis.

Due to the excess LA of the vampire template, it is impossible for a PC to take all ten levels of Lifedrinker. The class also does not progress spellcasting whilst getting the ability to apply free metamagic to spells.
It's an NPC class, really.

The Master Vampire is a three-level class that has 2/3 spellcasting and gets more spawn (+Charisma hit dice worth of them), +1 turn resistance for each spawn within 60', and ability boosts to created spawn (+2 str/dex for all, +6 str/dex for one Master's Chosen). It's kind of worth it for the minionmancy, but it's mostly for NPCs.

Why are these for NPCs? Because vampire PCs are pretty bad, to be honest. LA+8 is just too darn high.

[Raven777]

Truly, if you want to rock as a Vampire, it's Pathfinder you wanna play. There, Vampirism is either LA+0 or LA+2 (the rules say to either ignore LA entirely or use template CR as LA). Its Fortitude Saving Throw and Hit Points are now fueled by its Charisma modifier. And there is a 2nd level arcane spell that provides 10 minutes per level of immunity to sunlight, which can be made permanent by crafting an item of it.

[Bullet06320]

then there is this

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20021018a

[The Insanity]

Due to the excess LA of the vampire template, it is impossible for a PC to take all ten levels of Lifedrinker. The class also does not progress spellcasting whilst getting the ability to apply free metamagic to spells.
Isn't there a monster class for Vampire in Libris Mortis? With it it should be possible to finish before Epic levels.

[Gemini476]

then there is this

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20021018a

The problem with that is that you aren't getting it until quite far into your career.

Technically you can get it at level 10 if you got turned when you had ten hit dice, but if you got bitten before then then you need to wait until ECL 18.
Which sucks.

I guess you might be able to do something with the vampire monster class, but that has some weird interactions.

Not to mention how you both need to betray and kill your sire (a RAW impossibility, I think) and live for a hundred years more.

Now, if you are in an ECL 18 game and need to be a Vampire for whatever reason? Go for it. It makes up for a lot, although not everything. I'm still not sure what kind of class you should use if you want to be a Vampire Lord. Something that doesn't care much for BAB, obviously, and probably not a caster either. You need either something that doesn't care about hit dice or enhances your inherent Vampire abilities, like getting some spell that sends your voice to a place and turning it into a ranged Dominate Person.

[Flickerdart]

Not to mention how you both need to betray and kill your sire (a RAW impossibility, I think)
It's possible - while a vampire has full control over its spawn, he has a strict HD cap on its minions and must either create free spawn or free old spawn once he exceeds that limit. Given that a vampire creates servants through natural processes (either by simply attacking stuff, or by feeding) it's not unlikely that he will end up with servants he doesn't actually want. A clever vampire (the ones that survive to become Vampire Lords, anyway) would have his minions seek out and destroy any such accidental spawn to make sure they don't take revenge on him for killing them, but even then, especially powerful progeny might survive.

You don't need Vampire Lord to make vampires worthwhile though. By doing the spawn pyramid thing, you can get minions that are much more powerful than you would have been at that level (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?327984-3-5-Vampire-shenanigans).

[Gemini476]

Isn't there a monster class for Vampire in Libris Mortis? With it it should be possible to finish before Epic levels.
You mean the one that you can't leave until you've taken all the levels in it? Because that one won't help you at all.
I think there's an online one, but I don't know if it's one of the ones you can opt out of.

Either way, a lot of the Vampire Lord abilities are just upgrades of your previous ones. I'm unsure what happens if you don't get them in the first place.


It's possible - while a vampire has full control over its spawn, he has a strict HD cap on its minions and must either create free spawn or free old spawn once he exceeds that limit. Given that a vampire creates servants through natural processes (either by simply attacking stuff, or by feeding) it's not unlikely that he will end up with servants he doesn't actually want. A clever vampire (the ones that survive to become Vampire Lords, anyway) would have his minions seek out and destroy any such accidental spawn to make sure they don't take revenge on him for killing them, but even then, especially powerful progeny might survive.

You don't need Vampire Lord to make vampires worthwhile though. By doing the spawn pyramid thing, you can get minions that are much more powerful than you would have been at that level (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?327984-3-5-Vampire-shenanigans).
Grab two levels in the Master Vampire prestige class to add twice your Charisma to your control limit - it'll probably help, what with your low hit dice.

It's a pretty good strategy, yeah. Minionmancy is the one thing that makes the Vampire template almost worth it.

However, do note that becoming a Vampire Lord means that you need to survive an assassination from one of your (at least ten) spawn. That could get tricky.

[Flickerdart]

I think there's an online one, but I don't know if it's one of the ones you can opt out of.

The article with the Vampire template class has this to say on template classes: "Characters are not required to complete all the levels of a given template class in uninterrupted succession. For example, a character who takes a level of wereboar could then take a level of fighter and a level of rogue (or any other combination of other class levels) before taking another level of wereboar. A character must still take the first level of wereboar before taking the second, just as with a normal class."



However, do note that becoming a Vampire Lord means that you need to survive an assassination from one of your (at least ten) spawn. That could get tricky.
Eh, if you have to have 10 spawn, then they're 1/5th of your HD and kind of rubbish. Trick them into thinking you're vulnerable, then have all your other spawn jump out of the walls and stomp the rebel into the dirt.

[Gemini476]

Hmm. Alright.
Here's the Vampire (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a), and here's the Vampire Lord (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20021018a).

You still need to take seven levels of the former to qualify for the latter, but LA+7 is better than LA+8.

Do note that you can take the Vampire-exclusive stuff with just one level of the savage progression, but you won't get much use out of Master Vampire until 7th and Lifedrinker before 2nd level (when Blood Drain starts to do Con damage.)
Lifedrinker still kind of sucks, though. I'm sure you can do something with it, but it's prime Iron Chef material. Going Lifedrinker 10/Vampire 2 gives you eight levels to spend in some kind of other class, but I dunno.

Also, you don't turn into an Undead until the 7th level of the progression. That might be useful, I guess.