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DreamingGod05
2015-05-15, 12:00 PM
Now that I've had a chance to run and play DnD 5e, I've been going back and looking to port or homebrew things. In my folder of stuff I saved I noticed I had two Vampire classes that I saved from the internet from 2013 and 2014. They were incomplete and not usable, so I got to completing them in a usable form. I've tried to balance it, as I can, so I'd like to know the consensus on the vampire!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wehu9qm5ja_g682fSoNJ73rLcoFoIZvg8hbnOUZadnk/edit#

Steampunkette
2015-05-15, 01:21 PM
Okay... Few questions about Vitae.

Why twice Maximum? Why not just set their max higher?

Gaining Vitae is done by biting or drinking blood. But you lose Vitae every hour. Do you die if you have 0 Vitae? Or otherwise face significant impairment? Or can this vampire never 'starve' to death?

At level 5 a Goblin suddenly supplies all the Vitae a vampire needs from one bite-attack, is that correct?

The Seductress gains a large quantity of housecats, servants, and eventually a panther or two. The quantity (Up to 20) seems too large a quantity. Druids and Rangers only get 1 pet after all. Giving them orders without spending an action seems a bit excessive, especially if I have a panther platoon. (30 panthers)

Same questions with Wolves for the Tyrant.

Also: Not bats? What's up with that?!

DreamingGod05
2015-05-15, 01:30 PM
You only lose Vitae above your maximum every hour.

I've not figured out a starving mechanic. Perhaps tie it to Exhaustion levels?

I'm not sold on the Houses, as is, they are a hold over from the original drafts. Any idea what sub-types to make?

I've been thinking about setting an amount gained per size, and tying the Vampiric Fury into the gain on death of a target.

And I need more bats. Bats are good. (Are there stats for bats?)

Steampunkette
2015-05-15, 01:56 PM
There are, in fact, batstats.

Your basic bat is on page 318 of the Monster Manual in the bottom left corner.

They're tiny biting bat beasts with a CR of 0 making them perfect for player polymorphing at low levels.

Giant bats are on page 323 and are big enough to ride around on. And with a Challenge Rating of 1/4 it wouldn't be out of the question for people to turn into a giant bat.

But by far the best bat stats in the book are the Bat Swarm (page 337) who also have a CR 1/4 but are still the best bats for a vampire to turn into (in my opinion!)

Hope that helps.

DreamingGod05
2015-05-16, 07:19 PM
I'm thinkign of retooling it so where Vampires select Dark Gifts every other level. Dark Gifts are picked from a list, ala Invocations, and some cost Vitae, while other are permanent increases. Some will have Prerequisites, other's won't. That way Vampire's can customize themselves. I'm not sure what to do with Houses (Clans) then. Some power require a specific Bloodline, while the Houses also give their own base abilities?

PotatoGolem
2015-05-17, 12:17 PM
Holy OP class, batman! Seriously, this needs some heavy nerfing to be balanced. I haven't read all the dark gifts, but here's the issues I see from one read-through:

Skills: As many as the rogue? This is as good as a dedicated skillmonkey, which is a red flag, especially with martial HD.

Child of the Night: This is REALLY strong. Lots of powerful immunities. Also, as written, the downside seems to be negated with a thick cloak or a big hat.

Claws and Fangs: this may be a typo, but you say you can bite instead of claw "unless otherwise stated." So why would you ever claw? This gives you as many vitae as you hit with attacks. Oh, and a free magic weapon at level 1, which is the level 6 monk feature.

Blood is Life: You already have infinite vitae at level 1? Make 2 attacks, gain a vitae per hit. So you never have to manage your resource. Or, in the alternative, all of an OH monk's 3rd-level tricks.

Vampiric Fury: So unbalanced it's ridiculous. Now you truly have infinite vitae, so there's zero resource management required. The worst part of this, though, is the free powerful minion every time you kill someone. This is hands-down the best minionmancer in the game.

From there the class is generally less ridiculous, but a 5-level vampire dip is pretty much mandatory for everyone.

Methuselah's Blood: This one is actually bad in a different direction. Don't make class abilities require an optional ability; this makes the vampire have no capstone if they didn't take one particular gift. Either change this or make the Aura a class feature.

Some of the gifts are way strong too, but that's for another time. Your idea is cool, but this is WAY too strong, and much too front-loaded.

DreamingGod05
2015-05-17, 12:40 PM
Methuselah's Blood is actually in for a rewrite since, I changed how the class works. Also, you only gain Vitae on a bite attack. You can only bite a restrained, grappled or willing victim. So you only gain Vitae in those circumstances, meaning you won't get vitae often until later, when you can use Vampiric Fury to bite in combat. Until then you'll be sneaking around feeding on towns people, your companion, or what have you.

I'm cutting out portions of the original copies that I changed. For example, I was meaning to delete the extra Vitae from Vampiric Fury. I think the intention was the fact a vampire does not regain vitae naturally. They have zero healing surges ('hit dice'), and if they go to sleep with 0 vitae, they will not wake up.

As for Skills, I based it off the 4e Vampire getting as many skills as the rogue. The skill list is pretty much the same, accounting for changes in the skill list.

Alright, some changes, I got rid of the automatic vampire turning. (I figure I'll leave that up to the story, spend a vitae over a corpse you killed, get a vampire...) took out some of the things I wanted to change but forgot (Vitae gain, and deleted the old Avatar of Death text.)

For Methuselah's Blood I'm thinking it gives 4 phantom 'vitae' that can be spent every short or long rest on Dark Gifts, and healing, but do not actually fill your pool.