Help me make a sample vampire?

[Devigor]

Hi. So, I was looking at ways to have a vampire PC, and I realized: almost every class can flavor it. Help me build the full version, though? I want to craft three vampiric DMPCs to help direct my current group and provide character foils. I was thinking of some multiclass combos.

One needs to be a melee tank, one a ranged striker type, and the last a utility caster with at least a third of his repertoire being necromancy or flavored that way (a fireball can just be black fire, a web spell doesn't even need reflavoring, etc.).

Barbarian for some nice RP rage and fancy abilities...
Bard for experise and spells, also nice for a more party-friendly vampire or a completely evil manipulator vampire...
Cleric is always a boost, grab any feature you like, with the addition of making sense for you to not be repulsed by holy stuff...
Druid to shapeshift into a giant bat, plus other goodies...
Fighter if you're aiming for an armored vampire, or to just get extra ability boosts/feats (which also make sense flavor-wise, vampires are stronger/faster/etc.)...
Monk, incidentally, seems to be specifically built to RP as a vampire. Look at each ability and see if it won't make vampiric sensicalness. Yes that is a word. Hush... :smallbiggrin:
Paladin for a more knightly vampire, lots of damage and some utility...
Ranger for a bat companion perhaps? Favored terrain for your lair area, favored enemies for whatever society you're nearest to...
Rogue for expertise and other things, not much here you couldn't grab elsewhere, except oh look, ASSASSIN! Wonderful for all kinds of shenanigans...
Sorcerer if your vampire wants to mess with metamagic, or perhaps use "the chill of the grave" with reflavored draconic magic...
Warlock could not be more perfect for a flavorful vampire, and you can choose which mythology your vampirism spawned from!
Wizard gets you Polymorph (better than Wild Shape for this), WITH lots of wizardly goodies (necromancy isn't a bad way to go). Ritual casting is lovely...

Adding in the evil/necrotic divine class variants from the DMG makes those classes even more appealing. Pick the Noble background or its variant; maybe you were the servant of a more powerful vampire at some point? Be selective with feats, choose the right skill and tool proficiencies, and use money the way a noble vampire lord would.

Who needs the MM version again? :smallcool: And this way you don't have to be Lawful Evil. People tend to frown on corrupt businessmen.

[Devigor]

Each needs to be between levels 12 and 15, by the way. Suggestions?

[Celcey]

Hi. So, I was looking at ways to have a vampire PC, and I realized: almost every class can flavor it. Help me build the full version, though? I want to craft three vampiric DMPCs to help direct my current group and provide character foils. I was thinking of some multiclass combos.

One needs to be a melee tank, one a ranged striker type, and the last a utility caster with at least a third of his repertoire being necromancy or flavored that way (a fireball can just be black fire, a web spell doesn't even need reflavoring, etc.).

As the DM, you can basically do whatever you want to make vampire PCs. DMPCs though... they're a little bit different.

The first thing is DMPCs. Many people will tell you that they're a terrible idea and you should never do it in a million years. That's silly. DMPCs are like anything else: a tool in the DM's toolbox. But they're not something to be used lightly or played around with. DMPCs are full, player characters that travel with the party, take a share of the party's XP, and, if played poorly, can be a downright nuisance. So before you start, a few questions to answer:

Why do you want the DMPCs? Will they be filling necessary holes in the party? Why do you need so many of them? What purpose will they serve in advancing the story? Are they just being put in because you want to have cool characters that you play? Will any of them overshadow the party in any way?

Also, it sounds like what you're looking for isn't DMPCs (who, again, are part of the party), just regular NPCs, who interact with the party, may help or hinder them, or perhaps might join them for a while to accomplish a mutual goal. It sounds like you're looking more for (not-necessarily-)evil counterparts.

To that end, I would recommend that you give these vampires all the regular vampire abilities and some base abilities from the classes you choose. For example, for the utility caster you don't even need a full class; just the casting. Give them skill/tool proficiencies as you feel they should have them, follow the standard casting chart, and let them use whatever casting stat seems most appropriate for their character. For spells known, I would base off the bard list, and use mainly the bard list for the spells you want. But this way you can customize, and get your utility and necromancy.

If you're set on them having full classes, I would go Beserker Barbarian, Lore Bard, and Rouge, Ranger, or Fighter for your ranged fighter. Fighter could also work for the melee person, if you so choose.

[Devigor]

As the DM, you can basically do whatever you want to make vampire PCs. DMPCs though... they're a little bit different.

The first thing is DMPCs. Many people will tell you that they're a terrible idea and you should never do it in a million years. That's silly. DMPCs are like anything else: a tool in the DM's toolbox. But they're not something to be used lightly or played around with. DMPCs are full, player characters that travel with the party, take a share of the party's XP, and, if played poorly, can be a downright nuisance. So before you start, a few questions to answer:

Why do you want the DMPCs? Will they be filling necessary holes in the party? Why do you need so many of them? What purpose will they serve in advancing the story? Are they just being put in because you want to have cool characters that you play? Will any of them overshadow the party in any way?

Also, it sounds like what you're looking for isn't DMPCs (who, again, are part of the party), just regular NPCs, who interact with the party, may help or hinder them, or perhaps might join them for a while to accomplish a mutual goal. It sounds like you're looking more for (not-necessarily-)evil counterparts.

1. These vamps are gonna stick with the party for most of the campaign. Like all of it. Over the course of a time skip with a different group of characters (same players) as well.

2. Definitely DMPC's. I know my goal, I just need help figuring them out. One is to be a lawful evil ranged striker to be a foil to our chaotic neutral melee striker rogue. One is to be a lawful neutral melee tank to our chaotic neutral ranged striker ranger. The last is to be a lawful neutral utility caster to our lawful good ranged tank fighter/artificer. Yes, this is 5e.

3. They are supposed to slightly antagonize the party while remaining elusive to the party's wild antics and directing them through a potentially infinite list of objectives over a potentially finite amount of time, in order to do a sort of "prepare for the end" mission (it's complicated, but I have all of my plans complete besides the actual statistics of the vamps, which have their own goals and such to run through, as directed and changed by the players; I try to make my campaigns living, breathing constructs of articulate structure and flexible implementation).

4. They'll definitely be a major, direct contributor to the party's power level, though they'll all have to be kept from ramming skulls. XP isn't an issue, we don't use it. They level up when I tell them to, and I give them random benefits and curses as I see fit for what they do. These guys are for RP and mechanical effect: inspiration and combat value. The characters aren't going to like these DMPC's, but the players will absolutely love them.

5. As for barbarian/fighter, bard, and rogue/ranger/fighter, I like how those sound, though I think mixing and matching to find the right suite of features will be a nice challenge. Fighter 2 and barb 12 for rage +bear resist +eagle sight with 3 feats should make a decent tank, especially with Con of 18+ (I have a wealth table generated and may get him the tome to up his min./max. Con by 2). Lore bard is nice for this, especially with the magical secrets to glean off the necro type stuff, so I'll mix in Warlock for invocation goodies/pact crud, Wizard for the ritual casting, and leave that as fit for duty utility. Rogue 3 assassin/fighter 4 for crit. boost +feat/ranger 8 for spell boosts, favored stuffs, feats, and hunter picks may do ranged striker well. Imo fighter > rogue for damage, but disguising is fun and the player's will enjoy it more.

6. I stick to given rules as much as possible while retaining coherency to the previous system (a game I created when I was 11, actually we still prefer it but the campus club only counts D&D). Sometimes we lose a bit of coherency to past things due to club rules saying we need to play "real D&D" (the pres. is a quite annoying but not much we can do about it, since that building is the only place we can really meet, we're too lazy to just relocate everything).

7. Anywho, the biggest issue for me right now for D&D is figuring the builds out for these vamps in a way that over"shadowing" is going to happen, BUT the characters can still contribute decently. I know these players very well and I've had several conversations with each of them about their feelings on the campaign and their characters. Their characters aren't "optimized", per se, but the crazy stuff I give them (namely a dagger that has a CHANCE to instantly slay any LIVING thing; titan magic that conjures wielded weapons dealing 1d100 for a hit but causing the wielder to roll a save each round or pass out; and a particle cannon crafted by the artificer that requires he fire it using of his invention slots, which does multiple d100's based on his slot sacrificed) makes them ridiculous. The monsters I give them, besides the Titans I made up (think height minimums around 1k feet), aren't meant to be ANY real challenge at all while they have their superweapons handy. These vampires will have their own special abilities, but the aim of this is to make them slightly more powerful when all superweapons are taken away. Each ability is carefully notated and adjusted as I see certain stipulations are necessary, but so far they haven't been used out of line with the ways intended for them to be used.

8. What are some nice combos and ways these vamps can work as a team, that will bring their consistent capabilities up to match the relative one-to-five use power spike abilities of the PC's, BEFORE they get their own matching superstuffs?

9. Btw, I'm mostly asleep as I write this so please excuse terrible grammar and/or spelling.

10. Wow. This post is a lot longer than originally intended.