Vampire Minions

[Dr. Cliché]

I'm looking for creatures to act as minions/lieutenants for a vampire. Lycanthropes obviously spring to mind (and wolfweres, if I feel like including them), along with various undead.

Do you guys have any other suggestions?

(I'm primarily looking for monsters, but if you have any suggestions based on classes I'll hear those too.)

[JoeJ]

I'm looking for creatures to act as minions/lieutenants for a vampire. Lycanthropes obviously spring to mind (and wolfweres, if I feel like including them), along with various undead.

Do you guys have any other suggestions?

(I'm primarily looking for monsters, but if you have any suggestions based on classes I'll hear those too.)

Vampire spawn is the first thing that comes to my mind.

[Dr. Cliché]

Vampire spawn is the first thing that comes to my mind.

Any other ideas?

[RickAllison]

Any other ideas?

Humanoid minions are a good idea, as they need to exert their will in daylight. Wights and their zombie spawn can be good for populating the dungeon, especially if the vampire is a servant of Orcus.

[MaxWilson]

I'm looking for creatures to act as minions/lieutenants for a vampire. Lycanthropes obviously spring to mind (and wolfweres, if I feel like including them), along with various undead.

Do you guys have any other suggestions?

(I'm primarily looking for monsters, but if you have any suggestions based on classes I'll hear those too.)

Intellect Devourers, Blood Puddings (custom pudding), Perytons (especially with that freaky mythology about the shadow), Penanggalans, Green Hag covens, Grus and Grimms and Demon Knights (from Fifth Edition Foes), and any brutish bipeds (from orcs to ogres to hill giants) all seem like the appropriate flavor. Possibly Medusas depending on context.

Don't go overboard though. I would only pick one or two monstrous lieutenants and make the rest of the adventure all Renfields (brutish humanoids, humans, and maybe the odd vampire spawn).

[Waffle_Iron]

For lieutenants, I like physically weak but crafty monsters, like hags, mages, and assassins. For rank and file, I stick with vampire spawn, thugs, wolves and swarms of bats.

[LordFluffy]

A Wraith perahps? With Wights controlling zombies beneath him?

[Joe the Rat]

Vampire Spawn, Wights, Zombies and Ghouls. Hunger and Drain. Specters, Shadows, and Ghosts I see not so much as minions but as attendant creatures (possibly the spirits of previous victims).

Renfields - cult fanatics and cultists. A scrawny worm of a fellow that uses Berserker stats when enraged would be fun. Renfield+Igor = Nothic?

Scary monster animals: Giant Bats, Dire Wolves, Winter wolves (I'd be tempted to have a variant based on necrotic instead of cold)

MM lore suggests Blights would make a nice addition to any Vampire's garden. Plants that are fed the Vampire's blood, then animate as minions under its control.

If you have mad scientists arcanists, you could always toss in a flesh golem.

[Democratus]

I like the idea of a Vampire garden with blights in it. Maybe some cursed and/or undead dryads linked to dead trees?


Ghouls would be a good part of the ecology since they can eat the drained bodies once the vampire is done with them.
A cult of voluntary blood donors who vie for the honor of the Drinking Ritual.
Easily mentally dominated brutes like an Ogre or Ettin would make excellent doormen.

[Dr. Cliché]

Thanks, chaps, a lot of good ideas here.



A cult of voluntary blood donors who vie for the honor of the Drinking Ritual.

Just wanted to say that I love this idea. Also makes me think of Carpe Jugulum.:smallbiggrin:

[Robocroc1]

I recently found something quite interesting while running Curse Of Strahd called a Cruorbeast. The premise is that it is a dead Giant Bat that the vampire bites (which is slightly unusual for a vampire, but the payoff is great) and turns into a Cruorbat, a very weak pet. Eventually, the Cruorbat grows up big and strong into a Cruorgheist. At this point, the vampire can feed it their blood to transform it into a mighty CR 12 Cruorhulk. For me, this creature was exactly what I needed to boost up the final battle difficulty against Strahd.

You can find it by first finding the Dark Arts Player's Companion and going to page 29.