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View Full Version : Vampirism... as a background?



Phoenix042
2017-12-05, 02:30 PM
Vampire
You have been cursed with Vampirism, a disease with no known cure that gives you unique dietary requirements.

Feature: Blood Drinker
You do not need to eat or drink ordinary food or water. Instead, you must drink a small amount of blood from a living humanoid for sustenance each day. You have especially long and sharp top canine teeth, which allows you to draw blood from a person you bite without dealing damage to that person. You do not gain the benefits of a short or long rest unless you consume at least 1 ounce of blood in this way during that rest. You can drink blood from a creature only if it is unconscious, incapacitated, or willing. As long as you have access to a source of fresh blood each day, you do not suffer the effects of starvation or thirst, and you do not appear to age.


Personality Trait:
I make an effort to befriend bats, rats, and wolves that I meet. There's usually a bat or two following me around.

I'm very charming, and people usually do what I want them to after their eyes meet mine.

I sleep during the day and stay awake all night.

If I can feel the warmth of a flame at all, I'm too close to that flame.

I have a strange accent which I claim is from a different land, but no one else from that land seems to speak the way I do.

I'm super dark and edgy, like I'm the main romantic interest in some angsty teen romance novel.


Ideal:
Choose one from the player's handbook.


Bond:
Someone gave me this affliction. When I find them, I'm going to burn them alive.

Someone gave me this blessing. Now I owe them big time.

My thrall lets me feed on him/her whenever I want, but secretly, I'm falling in love with him/her.

I can't stop coming back to the place where I was transformed. It feels like coming home.

Me and a werewolf once desired the same girl, so we agreed to kill and eat her so as to avoid a fight. Now we're the best of friends.

I have a certain fondness for a Vampire hunter who long ago swore to hunt me down and kill me. His bumbling attempts to carry out his oath warm my heart, and I would be deeply saddened if he ever died or gave up.



Flaw:
Sunlight makes me very uncomfortable, and I get sunburnt easily.

I refuse to enter someone's residence unless they invite me in, no matter how desperate I am to get inside.

Running water makes me dizzy, and I won't cross a river unless I'm blindfolded and led across.

Driving a wooden stake through my heart will kill me. I mean, it'd kill anyone else too, and driving other things through my heart would also kill me, but man am I afraid of wooden stakes.

Holy Water burns me like really spicy food burns normal people.

I had a traumatic experience with a priest of Pelor when I was young, and now I won't set foot on holy ground.


Quirk:
When I first got sick, my family accidentally buried me alive. They were horrified when they found out what they'd done, but I actually thought it was quite comfortable, and now I take my coffin with me wherever I go and use it as a bedroll.

I never need to blink, and can breath as rarely as once every minute or so.

I'm as cold and hard as marble to the touch.

My skin appears to sizzle and smoke in the sunlight.

My skin appears to sparkle in the sunlight, like it's covered in cheap glitter and angst.

GlenSmash!
2017-12-05, 02:37 PM
Interesting. I liked the Planeshift Vampire race. This is a nice option too.

Specter
2017-12-05, 07:30 PM
Background features are supposed to be something situationally good. If you find no one to take blood from, you will literally die insix days. That's not cool.

Also there's the other stuff that's hard to fit into a background, like being hurt by sun/running water and having charm abilities.

But I do like this stuff. If you have the time, go through the Half-Vampire race I adapted to 5e, maybe it gives you ideas.

Hypersmith
2017-12-05, 07:45 PM
I think it's a bit much for a background and you can't change your background midgame to be infected, but shouldn't be a free feature either. My compromise is a prestige class. (http://www.dmsguild.com/product/196744/the-Vampire-Prestige-Class-for-DD-5e). Now I never got the chance to playtest it, but it gives a sense of progression without adding a whole bunch of free power.

Hyde
2017-12-06, 12:30 AM
I'm working on racial templates, personally. Though the idea is that everyone in the party would receive something like it.

Ivor_The_Mad
2017-12-06, 11:01 AM
What about being able to make a bite attack on a victim?