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Fax Celestis
2007-06-11, 03:28 PM
...that vampires do not get bite attacks?

Arbitrarity
2007-06-11, 03:33 PM
S'pose it's hard to get the teeth into position unless you're wrestling. Or something. You could add one.

The Glyphstone
2007-06-11, 03:34 PM
Not really. A vampire has sharper teeth than a human, but they're not any BIGGER than a human's effectively. To bite an opponent, the vampire has to have them immobilized/pinned, which is reflected in its Blood Drain(Ex) ability. It's difficult for something that's not a crocodile/gnoll/giant big nasty thing to use its mouth as an effective weapon most of the time.

Jasdoif
2007-06-11, 03:36 PM
Thematically, a bit. Mechanically, not really.

Despite the fangs, their mouth isn't any better suited for combat then the base creature's. A bite attack would be lunging with their face at a creature, while a vampire has more...finesse when employing their blood drain.

Everyman
2007-06-11, 03:38 PM
Eh...not really. The enlarged canines that vampires have are for assisting them in getting to the blood they need, not for fighting. Ever tried to bite someone during a fight? I know they have larger-than-normal teeth, but they aren't that big. It would be extremely difficult to inflict reasonable harm with those suckers. Besides, wouldn't it be a very BAD idea for a vampire to stick his head out a lot? After all, they are one of the few undead who can be destroyed by removing their head (and doing stuff to it).

Vampires get to drain blood when they successfully grapple someone (read: bite and suck), so that's enough for me, I guess.

jamroar
2007-06-11, 03:40 PM
...that vampires do not get bite attacks?

A Vampire's fangs aren't really of much use as weapons, unlike the powerful jaws of some carnivorous predator. The victim has to be pinned/helpless/dominated for him to use the Blood Drain ability.

Ordinary humans have teeth too, but they don't get natural bite attacks either.

phantomhermit
2007-06-11, 04:02 PM
i think that they should get one, but for medium sized humanoids, it only does a d4 of damage and roll % to see if you contract porryphic hemophilia. now if it is a vampiric bear [can those even exist?], that is something else entirely.

Starbuck_II
2007-06-11, 04:33 PM
Besides, wouldn't it be a very BAD idea for a vampire to stick his head out a lot? After all, they are one of the few undead who can be destroyed by removing their head (and doing stuff to it).


Nope, only if followed back to their coffin. Otherwise, they just turn to mist and go rest in their coffin till rechatged (yes, this is how it works).

So what you do is stake them while defenseless, paralyzing them (in coffin) than cut off head and fill with garlic/holy water.

Fawsto
2007-06-11, 04:38 PM
Quite odd indeed... But as being stated, anatomicaly speaking, they are still humanoids, and mostly all humanoids dont have bite attacks. Unless the base creature is something else... Spooky.

greenknight
2007-06-11, 05:16 PM
Huh? Vampires do get Bite attacks - provided they're in Dire Bat, Wolf or Dire Wolf forms (all of which they can change into as a standard action). And as the other posters have stated, in their normal form there's always their Blood Drain ability.

Nerd-o-rama
2007-06-11, 05:28 PM
If I may derail the topic, what's really odd:

The way Slaads are neatly color-coded into a hierarchy based on their abilities. Aren't they basically Chaos incarnate?

DomarSaul
2007-06-11, 05:34 PM
I recall there being a bit of fluff about the first slaad, Ssendam and Ygorl, having bound the slaad Spawning Stone to limit the kind of slaad it would spawn - y'know, to keep it from pumping out any more Uberslaad for them to have to vie with.

Orzel
2007-06-11, 05:55 PM
Creatures tend to only get attacks that they can perform without leaving themselves dangerously open to counterattack and have a decent chance of succeeding. Vampire jaws are too small and too weak to injure anything not pinned down without risking head injury.



A bite attack from a vampire is like an eyepoke from an elf's ear.

DreadArchon
2007-06-11, 06:30 PM
I recall there being a bit of fluff about the first slaad, Ssendam and Ygorl, having bound the slaad Spawning Stone to limit the kind of slaad it would spawn - y'know, to keep it from pumping out any more Uberslaad for them to have to vie with.
Not the first slaad, just the existing slaad lords. See, if you get indefinitely many randomly powerful creatures, some of them are going to be way towards the right on the bell curve. In the interest of maintaining the status quo, the current way-towards-the-right slaadi made the Stone spawn more predictable slaad types.

Edit: Vampire jaws are the same structure as human jaws. I find that the best way to solve this argument is by trying to bite a large, flat space on a wall or door--you should see the problem pretty fast.

Arbitrarity
2007-06-11, 06:53 PM
The only order now is that everything is chaotic. Law wins.

:smallbiggrin:

Neon Knight
2007-06-11, 07:11 PM
I'll add my voice to the choir. As others have stated, a Vampire does not have the means to employ its teeth effectively without risk, thus the need to pin an opponent or render them unconscious.

AtomicKitKat
2007-06-11, 08:12 PM
Some of my ex-classmates would say I had a pretty vicious bite attack. I really only used it in grapples though, or when they provoked Attacks of Opportunity with their Unarmed Strike arms.:smallbiggrin:

Matthew
2007-06-11, 09:00 PM
I think Vampires should have some sort of Improved Grab Ability that allows them to then employ a Bite Attack, similar to ArmorArmadillo's Ghoul Revision (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45288).