Vampire Player Race

[justduelist]

Some Players like the idea of playing a vampire so i decided to create my own vampire player race.
The idea here is that these vampires are their own entities and not the undead variant of whatever they "were" before.
They are born vampires and the originators of the vampire disease that spread to mankind upon their initial discovery of each other.

They are Humanoid NOT Undead

Heres the first draft so tell me what you think both in concept and balance.


Vampire

Ability Score Increase: +2 STR, +1 DEX

Age: Vampires age at the same rate as Elves but stop aging around their 100th to 150th year of life. Vampires do not suffer the penalties of aging and cannot die from old age.

Size: Vampires range from under 5 feet to over 6 feet tall and have slender builds. Your size is Medium.

Speed: Your base walking Speed is 35 feet.

Superior Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.

Sunlight Sensitivity: You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

Vulnerability: If a vampires takes damage from Fire, Radiant, and Necrotic damage, they cannot regain Hit Points for 1 minute.

Natural Weapons: Vampires have a supernatural toughness and strength that makes their unarmed strike particularly deadly compared to that of a human. Your Unarmed Strikes deal 1D4 Necrotic damage.

Blood Drinker: Vampires do not need to consume food or water but must consume at least 1 liter of blood each week. You may bite a willing, unconcious, or restrained Humanoid creature, as a Bonus Action, to drain 1/4 a liter of blood from the target to sustain yourself. If you do, the target takes 1D6 Necrotic damage and you regain Hit Points equal to the damage dealt by this feature. This action takes 1 minute to complete and leaves behind a mark on the neck, revealing the presence of a vampire to any who see it.

Quick Healing: As a Bonus Action, while in dim light or darkness, you may regain a number of Hit Points equal to your Level. Once you use this feature, you cannot use it until you finish a Short or Long Rest.

Blood Sent: You gain Advantage on Wisdom (Survival) Checks to track a wounded living creature within 1 mile of you. The scent is lost if the creature has not been in the area for more than 2 hours or if it is raining.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and 1 other languages of your choice.

[Seekergeek]

... so tell me what you think both in concept and balance....

All in all, I think it is probably a bit much for one race - also, given the nature of the curse I'd be tempted to make it a subrace option available to every race much like they did with the Revenant in that Gothic UA a while back.

[justduelist]

All in all, I think it is probably a bit much for one race - also, given the nature of the curse I'd be tempted to make it a subrace option available to every race much like they did with the Revenant in that Gothic UA a while back.

i guess my wording on the first couple of sentences were unclear but the intent was for them to be a unique race that caused the curse upon their first interactions with human, not a cursed individual themselves.

think of something kinda like the witcher vampires but without the abundant inherent supernatural abilities.

or maybe my interpretation of your post is just bad.

[Chaosvii7]

I think your best bet might be to use one of the versions of the vampire player race published in the Plane Shift series.

https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/magic/Plane%20Shift%20Zendikar.pdf

This one's pretty good all things considered, and it's maded by WotC despite not being official material, so it has as close to a seal of approval as homebrew can get. Will at least save you the headache of balancing the race against whatever you decide to throw against your players.

[justduelist]

I think your best bet might be to use one of the versions of the vampire player race published in the Plane Shift series.

https://media.wizards.com/2016/downloads/magic/Plane%20Shift%20Zendikar.pdf

This one's pretty good all things considered, and it's maded by WotC despite not being official material, so it has as close to a seal of approval as homebrew can get. Will at least save you the headache of balancing the race against whatever you decide to throw against your players.

it is a decent one but i enjoy the headache

[Phoenix042]

My solution was to make "vampirism" a custom background.

Flaw: I loath direct sunlight and avoid it at all costs.
Flaw: I am afraid of fire, and try not to come near it.
Flaw: I dislike crossing running water, and would rather find a way around it.
Flaw: If I go more than a day without drinking any blood, I get irritable and moody.

Trait: I hardly sleep, and when I do, I prefer to sleep in rigid, confined spaces.
Trait: I never enter a residence uninvited.
Trait: I am almost hypnotically charming; conversing with me can be an intense experience.
Trait: I'm very fond of bats, and they're fond of me.
Trait: I tend to sleep during the day, and am most active in the dead of night.

Bond: I once almost died, and was accidentally buried alive. Now I am morbidly drawn to my former grave site.
Bond: I love someone who does not love me back. I am obsessed with them.
Bond: No one understands my affliction, except the vampire who gave it to me. They're the only one I can truly trust.

Custom Feature: Blood Drinker
You can drink the blood of a willing or unconscious humanoid. Doing so takes one minute. If you do, you do not need to eat or drink for one day. This deals no damage to the target, but leaves two small puncture wounds on their neck or forearm. In addition, you have one thrall, who serves you. Your thrall is a commoner who can perform mundane tasks for you, but does not fight for you, will not follow you into obviously dangerous areas (such as dungeons), and will leave if they are frequently endangered or abused.


Finally, if you stab me in the heart with a wooden stake, I die (just like everybody else).

[justduelist]

Bump.
updated race with a few edits.

any ideas that aren't just a deflection of topic?

@Pheonix
not what im interested in but bonus points for being unique

[BoutsofInsanity]

I think you personally have too much going on there for the race.

The Race should add flavor and feel very different from other races. I also think you should think about a more slim mechanical design.

I would change it to first of all, not being strictly vampires. Adding into the Undead template, sunlight issues, and being a complete monster kind of put a damper on traditional adventuring.

However, those are the things that make Vampires unique, so lets take a crack at the puzzle.

I'd say rock the Dhampir instead of a straight Vampire. If someone wants to be a Vampire, I would instead make a custom class that has three sub classes (Physical, Traditional, Spell Caster subtypes) instead, to get all the vampire goodies. There are just too many powers and abilities to fit into a traditional racial ability set.

Dhampir (Half-Vampires) allow you to get away with some traditional vampire traits, without ruining the ability to function in a traditional fantasy setting.

Racial Traits:

Age like Half-Elves
Base Walking Speed is 35 feet (Most other races can't get above this, so we want to keep that power within that space)
Typically paler in skin, with eyes that range from Red, Gold and Purple with vibrant colors

+2 to either Strength, Dexterity or Charisma. Depending on your sire, vampires can be fast, alluring or strong.

Superior Darkvision: Rip that right out of the Book

Sunlight Sensitivity: Rip that right out of the Book

Resistance to Necrotic Damage

Power in the Blood: A willing creature (Or Charmed) may share up to 1 Hit Die a day with you, allowing you to spend a hit dice of your own as an action to heal that Hit Dice. You may only take 1 Hit Dice from each creature per day. So if your party of four all agree to share some blood with you, you may as an action for each willing party member, consume some blood and spend a hit dice. They also tick down hit dice used that day.

Choose your Subrace

Monster: Gain the ability to spider climb equal to your walking speed

Charmer: May as an action, make eye contact with a humanoid, and charm them for 1 minute with a wisdom save equal to 8+Prof+Cha. At the end of that minute, you must renew that charm effect with eye contact and force another save this time with them at a disadvantage for a wisdom save to continue the effect. If they are attacked by you or your allies the charm effect ends

Shapeshifter: May once a day wild-shape like the druid ability into either a Wolf, Dog, Or Bat

Bestial: Gain Natural Weapons and Multi-Attack (At 5th Level: Two Claw Attacks) for 1d4+Str. At 9th level your claws become magical.

Nightmare: May force a wisdom save with a Gaze attack as an action or the creature becomes frightened of you till the end of your next turn.


Finally, to add some more cool stuff, lets add a racial feat.

Vampire Lineage: Pick two more sub-races and add them to your character. This feat may be taken multiple times.



The idea is to not overshadow other races, give a flavorful feat option, and allow for the character to function in a fantasy world where Paladins and Clerics exist, without having to restrict them on their diet or ability to interact with others.

I would again, if you want a vampire character, because of the plethora of powers they get, make a custom class with Sub Classes focused on either Physical, Mental, Or Magical Abilities while the standard progression gives standard vampire abilities.



Lastly: If you want to really hit that suffering level. I would change their hit-dice feature a bit to get that blood thing rolling.

Alternate Ruling: Dhampir gain hit dice at 1/3 the rate of normal classes (Minimum 1). They do not refresh those hit dice at the end of a long rest. Rather, they must as an action drink some blood of a living creature (A few sips will do) to gain access to those hit dice. Doing so, spends the hit dice of the creature whose blood is being drunk acting as if that creature had spent those hit dice during a short rest. (The Creature being drained does not gain hit points).

The Dhampir may now spend 1 hit die a round as a bonus action. It takes an action for them to drink the blood of a creature. (It must be a willing creature or a charmed creature.) IF that creature doesn't have any hit dice left to spend, the ability has no effect. Drinking blood promotes an opportunity attack with advantage. Or something like that.

[justduelist]

I think you personally have too much going on there for the race.

The Race should add flavor and feel very different from other races. I also think you should think about a more slim mechanical design.

I would change it to first of all, not being strictly vampires. Adding into the Undead template, sunlight issues, and being a complete monster kind of put a damper on traditional adventuring.

However, those are the things that make Vampires unique, so lets take a crack at the puzzle.

i've already stated that they are not vampires in the same vein as dnd/undead vampires.
they are living beings (not cursed in any way), who's past interactions with humans lead to the creation of the classic dnd vampires.

i'll make edits to make this point clearer in the OP.

i'll also note they do not posses the same sunlight weakness as classic dnd vampires nor do they have all the same supernatural abilities.

the concept is slightly derived from the Witcher game series and my interpretation of various classical vampire works such as Dracula.
I've interpreted most of the major supernatural abilities of vampires to be learned magic and not inherent.

with that said, i appreciate the comment but would like some detail as to whats wrong with what i have currently presented instead of more empty statements that leave me to wonder whether anyones even bothered to read it before posting...

[BoutsofInsanity]

I shall be blunt.

Mechanically, you are giving too much goodies, while being mechanically dense and clunky for 5e. You need to trim the fat, balance the race against others in the game and simplify things as much as possible.

Humans get 1 feat, attribute bonus, and 1 extra skill. You need to balance against them or tieflings. Heck, Half-Elves are incredibly strong as a race, balance against that. You Vampire gets way to much.

Yours gets, blood powers, natural weapons, fast movement, an aggravated damage mechanic, sunlight sensitivity, fast healing (WTF), a bite healing attack, Extra Languages, blood powers along with proficiency's and sub races...

Your race is mechanically too dense, complicated, and powerful compared to the other races.

I would trim the fat, and identify exactly what it is about vampires that is exciting and slim the mechanics way down. Further reducing the power, and ask yourself, what am I really getting by adding these features.

1. Sunlight Sensitivity and Superior Dark vision is awesome and fits the theme. That should stay

2. Faster Movement is pretty good, but you increased it above regular races. Drop it to 35 to maintain balance with the other races

3. Aggravated damage is way to much mechanically to deal with. Remove it, it doesn't add anything other then giving more to deal with on your character sheet.

4. Fast healing is too powerful. Get rid of it. That is so strong and should be reserved for monsters. To represent the toughness or healing ability of vampires, Instead change it to being able to as an action, spend a hit dice as long as the Vampire isn't in sunlight. This gives a balancing effect based around mechanics already in place.

We know, that the champion fighter (A Class!) gets fast healing at a really high level. This is way to strong.

5. Claw attacks and bite attacks. You have way to much going on there. Keep it simple. The Vampire gains claws and fangs. It counts as armed when not wielding weapons and may use its hands or fangs as natural weapons. 1d4+str. If the creature is grappled, the Vampire may bite the target instead, dealing 1d6+str and 1d6 Necrotic.

5a. If the Vampire wants to raise minions, he should be a cleric or mage. Racially, its too much.

6. Blood Scent essentially functions as a lesser blindsight. Along with everything else you have added, its too powerful. Instead, change it to, if a creature is wounded, the Vampire has advantage to track the creature using survival as long as the trail is only a few hours old or advantage on investigate checks to identify if he recognizes the blood scent as someone he has met before.

Now we have speed (Movement), Toughness (Healing), Blood Stuff (Blood Tracking and Investigating), Strength (Attribute Bonus), Natural Attacks and Biting (Fangs and Claws) and Sunlight Sensitivity.

That is a freaking lot. That's plenty. As for sub races to diversify...

Nosferatu: Proficiency in Intimidate

Mekhet: Proficiency in Stealth

Gangrel: Proficiency in Athletics

Devea: Proficiency in Persuasion

Ventru: Proficiency in Bluff


Finally: If you want to add feeding from blood to regain hit dice. I would do the following. As an action, may take the blood from a creature. Willing or Incapacitated. Must be alive. You may drain hit dice from the creature to replenish your own. Those hit dice count as spent, and if the creature has no hit dice remaining, you do not gain this benefit. You drain one hit dice per round, and provoke opportunity attacks while doing so, which have advantage.

There must be serious drawbacks from being able to just replenish healing like this. We can't have it be so powerful that it is easy. But some easy setups from the team, or clever role play will allow a vampire to be able to drink blood. This effect will not wake sleeping targets with a successful stealth check.

[justduelist]

I shall be blunt.



finally, something helpful, thank you!

i already removed the thrall part but forgot to edit it out here.
i also think keeping the improved unarmed damage over the claws may be more prudent as while all vampire are more dangerous in hand to hand fights, not all vampires have claws.
other than that i like the look of alot of this and will take it into heavy consideration while i edit.
itll take a bit but ill update the OP once i finish making the changes

[JNAProductions]

Way overpowered.

They're faster than any other race, get regen (with no cap-making it better than even the Champion's last archetype feature) and stealth for the living is impossible within 30' of them.

And THEN they get their subrace.

[ErrantNonsense]

1. Changing out hit dice for blood is more mechanically complex than most races are. If your players are into that, cool, but worth keeping in mind.

2. Aggro damage is a massive weakness when it applies. I feel like the race would feel very powerful when fighting in the shade but really fragile against any of its weaknesses. That’s flavourful for vampires, but not necessarily great balance for PCs, your vamp players would maybe overshadow everyone else in the dark, and feel useless when they aren’t. Would you be sending them up against fire wielders/out in the daytime often?

2,5. Blood is also far more important when you have to take aggro, so consider that players might stack up a huge supply of blood when they get to fight in favourable conditions, and only have to spend it when they end up fighting someone who came prepared or baits them out in sunlight. Consider swapping out the fast healing (which is too strong on its own) for the ability to spend blood to heal as an action, or maybe bonus.

3. Class variety. All races other than human are better for some classes than others thanks to their stat boosts, but the reliance on bites to generate blood makes it seem impossible to play anything other than a melee martial here. If that’s deliberate, that’s fine, but if someone has their heart set on a vamp wizard you aren’t supporting that.

4. Just generally, this race has a lot more toys to play with than other races. If everyone at the table is playing a vampire, or is okay with the power imbalance, it’s your game, go ahead, but it’s certainly something you need to discuss with your players.

[justduelist]

thanks everyone for the comments.
i fully expected the initial run to be over powered and was looking for ideas/advice on correcting it.

i now have the second draft posted up. ive decided to leave out the subraces for now.
originally, i made the subraces for the purpose of providing the "burns in sunlight" idea as an option for those who might feel its required and feel that its unneeded otherwise.

so let me now what you think of the current rendition and what further changes may need to be done.
i do hope however, to eventually included features that add to the vampiric need to consume blood but we'll see what happens.

as for the melee preference comment: i do feel vampires should be inherently better in melee combat but i do not feel that just because a race is inherently better at something that it somehow limits their ability to do something else.

[Phoenix042]

Vampire

Ability Score Increase: +2 STR, +1 DEX

Speed: Your base walking Speed is 35 feet.

This is fine. You can leave this, although I'd consider going +1 str, +1 dex, and +1 cha. Triton's have a similar setup, and it works just fine.



Superior Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.

Sunlight Sensitivity: You have disadvantage on attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

These fit well and should be left in as-is. They balance each other well enough that you need not really consider them against the weight of other features elsewhere in the race. There's precedent elsewhere for this pair of features to exist together, and they fit perhaps better here than on anyone else.



Vulnerability: Vampires take double damage from Fire, Radiant, and Necrotic damage.

This is an extraordinary penalty and is also unprecedented in the game for players. I don't see the reasoning behind adding necrotic to the list, but really, I'm not sure vulnerabilities are appropriate here. They might be...

Maybe try something like this : "When you take fire or radiant damage, you cannot regain hit points for one minute."



Natural Weapons: Vampires posses a number of natural weapons including the following:

-Unarmed Strikes: Your Unarmed Strikes deal 1D4 Bludgeoning damage and, if you use your Action to make an attack roll, you can use a Bonus Action to make 1 Unarmed Strike.

This feels a little bloat-ish to me. Vampires already have that +2 strength, making them like four times better than a typical commoner at fighting hand-to-hand (with +3 strength, you do 4 damage on a hit as opposed to most people's 1). That's probably enough to model the "I'm better at fighting with my bare hands than normal humans" thing without this extra stuff.

Plus that bonus action thing is pretty strong, and cuts into the monk niche a little, especially at the early levels. A vampire who goes monk will feel like they're wasting a good ability.



-Bite: Vampires have a particularly nasty bite the Deals 1D4 Necrotic damage and, if the target is a living creature, restores your Hit Points by an amount equal to the damage dealt. If your Bite attack restores Hit Points and kills the target, you regain 1 Hit Die, up to 1/2 your maximum (rounded up). You do not add any of your ability modifiers to your Bite attack. The target must be restrained or unconcious in order for you to bite them.

I like where you head is at, but I'd suggest you take a look at lizardfolk and do something similar here.

I'd argue that you can bump that die up to a d6, but that you should only be able to heal from your bite once per short rest. Healing resources are intentionally tied to rest mechanics in this edition to help the flow of play feel smooth. If you can drink an unlimited amount of blood to just keep healing, then players either use that to heal up to full sometimes, or intentionally avoid using their features to full potential just to avoid bogging down the game. Either way, it's not working as intended.

Maybe try this:
Bite: Your bite is a natural weapon with which you're proficient. On a hit, it deals piercing damage equal to 1d6 + your strength modifier.

Blood Drinker You can drink the blood of other humanoids instead of consuming normal food or beverage. When you bite a creature that is willing, unconscious, or grappled by you, you can use a bonus action to drain life from the target to sustain yourself. The target takes necrotic damage equal to 1d6 + your strength modifier, and you regain hit points equal to the damage dealt. Once you have used this feature, you cannot use it again until you have finished a long rest.



Quick Healing: As a Bonus Action, while in dim light or darkness, you may spend 1 Hit Die and roll it. You gain Hit Points equal to the result of the rolled Hit Die.

I don't really like this ability, because again it escapes the usual short / long rest pacing mechanics inherent in 5E design.

How about this: When you are in an area of dim light or darkness and roll one or more dice to regain hit points, you regain one additional hit point per die rolled.

This way, you heal more quickly than others, but still on the same general time scale.



Blood Sent: You gain Advantage on Wisdom (Survival) Checks to track a wounded living creature within 1 mile of you. The scent is lost if the creature has not been in the area for more than 2 hours or if it is raining.

I'd simplify this; rain already makes it harder to track things, and being out of the area for a long time probably does too (although wounds can leave tiny traces of blood along a trail that last longer, and predators can track wounded animals for much longer than that).

I'd just do this:
Blood Scent: While a creature is missing any of its hit points, it leaves a trail that you can track with ease. You have advantage on Wisdom (Survival) checks made to find or follow such a trail.



Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common and 1 other languages of your choice.

This is starting to look like a fairly reasonable race, overall. I try to stay away from homebrew in practice, but I often think about how I might implement certain things from a gamist perspective.

[justduelist]

Thx for the feedback

i felt the vulnerability might be much but included it as more of a proof of concept for what i felt should be represented.
the weakness to necrotic was to reflect the concept of vampires taking more lethal damage from their own kind.

for the unarmed but: i feel an effect 1 point advantage over a human in str is too lack luster but i do see your point on the monk comparison.

when it came to the blood scent ability, i couldn't remember if there was an inherent rain/time factor in the tracking mechanic. i'll leave it as is for now but will change it once i double check the mechanics on this.

i don't like limiting a vampires ability to consume blood to effectly once per day but you suggestion has given me an idea to fix the bite feature

[MagneticKitty]

Dhampir
Dhampir have pale skin, often sporting exotic eye colors. They otherwise appear like a normal humanoid. Due to their mixed blood they suffer less from sunlight. You count as a humanoid and are not undead.

Ability Score Increase: +2 con

Age: Dhampir age at the same rate as Elves but stop aging around their 100th to 150th year of life. Dhampir do not suffer the penalties of aging and cannot die from old age.

Size: See subclass.

Speed: See subclass.

Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.
Slow Metabolism : Dhampir may hold their breath twice as long as normal.

Blood Drinker: Dhampir may elect to drink blood in place of food. You may make an unarmed attack against a grappled, restrained, unconscious, recently dead or willing creature. Whenever you hit them with this bite attack you heal the damage you caused plus your level. This special unarmed attack deals 1d4 + strength piercing. Afterwards you do not need to eat for the next 24 hours, and may not use this ability again until you have completed a long rest.

Immortal Blood: Your unique blood ensures you don't need to sleep. Instead, You may maintain light activity for 8 hours a day. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. You may not be put to sleep magically.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common.

Subclasses:
You may take any existing subclass from any other race. They must be humanoid and possess blood. You count as half that race. You get the size, weight, and speed (walking only) of that subclass's main race. You can speak, read, and write one additional language originating from your subrace's race.
If the race you wish to be descendent from does not have a subclass, you may instead take a +1 in a stat it normally gets, and speak to your dm about which racial trait(s) to adopt from the other half of your parentage.

Dhampir have pale skin, often sporting exotic eye colors. They tend to be exceptionally beautiful, and youthful in appearance. They otherwise appear like a normal humanoid. Due to their mixed blood they suffer less from sunlight. You count as a humanoid and are not undead.

Ability Score Increase: +2 con

Age: Dhampir stop aging around their 18th to 25th year of life. Dhampir do not suffer the penalties of aging and cannot die from old age.

Size: See below

Speed: See below

Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.

Slow Metabolism : Dhampir may hold their breath twice as long as normal.

Blood Drinker: Dhampir may elect to drink blood in place of food. You may make an unarmed attack against a grappled, restrained, unconscious, recently dead or willing creature. Whenever you hit them with this bite attack you heal the damage you caused plus your level. This special unarmed attack deals 1d4 + strength piercing. Afterwards you do not need to eat for the next 24 hours, and may not use this ability again until you have completed a long rest.

Immortal Blood: Your unique blood ensures you don't need to sleep. Instead, you enter a trance for 4 hours. After resting in this way, you gain the same benefit that a human does from 8 hours of sleep. You may not be put to sleep magically.

Languages: You can speak, read, and write Common.

Mortal Parantage: From the other half of your parentage you have the appearance of a humanoid race, they must be a race that possess blood. You get the size, weight, and speed (walking only) of that race. You can speak, read, and write one additional language, usually but not always originating from that race. You gain +1 in a stat the race gets the biggest bonus in.