(3.5) Help with the Vampire template

[Vegan Zombie]

Hi everyone! I had some questions about overcoming the ludicrous +8 level adjustment of the vampire template. In my current campaign, Vampires are extremely prominent in human society, and my PC (Human Wizard 10) is looking to get in on that (really though, I've always wanted to try a vampire in game). However, that +8 LA is killing the deal.

Is their any way to negate said LA? Would LA buy off work? (We don't use many templates and have no experience with buyoff) Or is my only "real" option for gaining Undead status the Necropolitan template?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I sadly don't think there are any transformation PrCs for vampires, so faking it as a necropolitan is probably your only hope.

That being said, I believe the book of bad Latin had some alternate vampires that might be easier to swallow.

[Vhaidara]

Okay, I cannot think of a solution within 3.5, however, there is one from Pathfinder's Dreamscarred Press: The Lords of Night (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?388553-Dreamscarred-Press-Announces-Lords-of-the-Night-Playtest) is currently in playtesting, and it is a book about playing as a vampire. Starting on page six of the playtest document (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e8fEPaiDdxFN2PX4KJ1rd8S4sNQn0GnyLr9tsb8AdCw/edit). It is effectively a +2 LA, if I remember PF modifications (CR addition = LA)

[Jowgen]

The WotC website has a Savage Progression for Vampires here
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a

There is also the Vampire Lord template, which is written and intedned (according to dragon mag) as a LA + 0 upgrade to Vampires to balance out the horrible +8 LA.

The Book of Bad Latin has a 8 level monster class for vampire spawn; which is more or less terrible.

Said book also has variant vampire traits, which you can think of as Alternate Class Features for vampires.

Lastly, there is a +2 LA (I think) Half-vampire template somewhere (is it Libris Mortis, or maybe Lords of Madness) that gives a bunch of vampire goodies, but it's an inhereted template.

My personal recommendation is to make a +4 Vampire Spawn savage progression or template; by taking the features of the Libris Mortis vampire spawn class and applying them like the Wight template from Dragon Mag #I forget. I made a thread about this a while ago that I could dig up if you're interested.

[Vegan Zombie]

Savage Species levels seem like a good solution, but maybe more so for an initiator, rather than losing 8 caster levels. Vampire Spawn seems off, I'm wondering if I should just suck it up and go Necropolitan. Thank you guys, as always, for taking the time help me!

[frogglesmash]

See if can't get your DM to give you a half-vampire/necropolitan combo template, you'd get all the flavour for a fraction of the LA.

[leonfenrir]

Good news, this is exactly what Lords of the Night was written for!
It gives you an easy cr+1 vampire template and lots of options.

[Urpriest]

If vampires are common enough in your campaign that they make sense for the occasional PC, then your DM should probably homebrew a lower-LA version. As a quick and dirty hack a Necropolitan Half-Vampire covers most of the major stuff.

[Drork]

Well you could just take a hit of 5 negative levels then you dont gain much ... suddenly becoming a vampire doesnt seem as good does it. Keep in mind most vampires are going to add negative levels before turning someone to make sure they are well under control. Minions a good but powerful evil minions are as much a risk as a reward.

[Vhaidara]

Um, guys. This thread is almost 5 months old.