Tomb of Horrors Question- (spoiilers?)

[Hyde]

There's a room in the Tomb of Horrors that teleports living matter to the beginning of the dungeon, and nonliving matter to the end. I have a PC that's a vampire. I'm having a spot of trouble deciding which to classify them as. All other undead are fairly obvious, they rot and decay, they're not "alive" at all.

Vampires, though, they feed on "living matter" to sustain their largely-indistinguishable-from-mortal forms. Is the body of a well-fed vampire truly unliving?

It's a bit easy to say "they have the undead creature type, so they're unliving".

What do y'all think?

(Also hi, it's been ages since I've posted anything!)

Edit: It might be helpful to expand thusly: My suggestion is that, while ultimately undead creatures, their organic bodies are still living after a fashion, albeit being maintained differently. There aren't any rules for it exactly, but I would point to the wide expanse of vampire media for examples.

[Erys]

Vampires in DnD are considered non-living matter. While they sustain themselves on the living they are still 'undead'.

[Hyde]

I realize this is a bit getting science in your fantasy, but the fact that vampires appear living suggests that, at least while well-fed, the cells that comprise their body are alive. Every other undead rots or dries up, so it would seem to me that they might be a special case.

Alternately, it's simply that the blood fuels their undeath, and their version of undeath is just special enough that they look alive.

Again, I'm looking for something a bit more complex than "they're undead therefore they're nonliving". I didn't put this is the RAW thread for that reason. But thanks for answering :D

[Erys]

Sound like you are in 'do what you want' territory then.

As such, do what will be best for the game and not worry about what the rules might be.

[Hyde]

For sure, I'm very much looking for insight rather than rules.

Skeletons are pretty obvious- they utterly lack tissues, they're not using muscles to flex their limbs.
Zombies are very clearly dead. They might use muscle to move around, but it's hard to argue living for something so clearly decayed.

Most everything pretty much fits into those broad categories.

Vampires are weird, though (and they always sort of have been, even among "intelligent" undead) They need their brain and their heart to be intact (or at least their head to be un-chopped-off), and I feel they use their tissues exactly as they did in life, just running on a different fuel.

Like, in sorting creatures, vampires and skeletons would be in the same group. But if that sorting is expanded to "a vampire, a skeleton, and a burlap sack" I'm not sure the vampire goes with the bag.

I know this is entirely a fluff thing here, but it's an interesting fluff thing, I think.

From a narrative standpoint, I really like the idea of sending the vampire, clothed but alone, in to face Acererak totally and inviolably alone.

The naked Vampire back to start feels right biologically, but it doesn't seem as interesting?

The undead typing agrees with the more interesting option, I just want it to sit well with the players when the time comes... as well as it can sit in the Tomb of Horrors, anyway.

[Drayelock]

Hmm, perhaps vampires could inhabit some form of "limbo", a state that is exactly on the edge of both life and death. I'm not sure how that would help your dilemma though other than giving you perhaps another angle to look at it from. I suppose if you took that perspective you would be more free to choose what to do, perhaps that state malfunctions the magic of the room in some manner and sends them somewhere else or does something totally unique that you can think of!

My advice is to figure out what makes for the coolest turn for the story and justify it however you need to in the fluff to make it cool! If you want that poor Vampire to face Acererak because that would be the most fun then go for it, I think you have a pretty good reason on why he would be transported there not with the others.

I mean, magic is not science so who knows exactly what kind of commands or imprints Acererak could of left for this and because of that it does not always distinguish correctly from an outsider's perspective. Or perhaps he just never thought a Vampire would enter the tomb, or maybe in your world Acererak never even encountered them and is unaware of their existence as he predates them completely.

[Vorpalchicken]

Dead. And loving it.

[Temperjoke]

What if it teleports the gear, but leaves the vampire there (naked) and doesn't teleport him, as if it can't decide where to send him?

[Hyde]

reading a bit more into this- it would be a very strange fight, indeed. It'll be interesting to see what happens. Thanks for the input, everyone.