Can a vampire teleport or dimension door across running water?

[eyebreaker7]

Also could they fly high enough to "fly over it"? I don't see it being an issue if they are high enough.
**lalalala just me being a vampire flying along. lalalala**
**BAM!!!!**
"What the hell? Oh man there must be water way down there. Shucks. Gotta find another way I guess."

With teleport and dimension door you're not actually crossing the water you're leaving one spot and appearing in another. You don't actually cross the water do you?

[Segev]

Also could they fly high enough to "fly over it"? I don't see it being an issue if they are high enough.
**lalalala just me being a vampire flying along. lalalala**
**BAM!!!!**
"What the hell? Oh man there must be water way down there. Shucks. Gotta find another way I guess."

With teleport and dimension door you're not actually crossing the water you're leaving one spot and appearing in another. You don't actually cross the water do you?
DM's call. The question of what counts and what mystic defenses work how well is going to vary from setting to setting.

[aglondier]

I would rule that it is a conceptual limitation. Cannot cross running water. Meaning that they cannot, under their own power or by their own will, cross running water. Getting in a coffin, carriage, boat, box or whatever and being carried across by the will of another (ship captain, cart driver, etc) gets by the limitation. Being dragged across by someone forcefully also works.

Small child: what's wrong mister?
Vampire: I cannot cross the river, it's too scarey.
Small child: I'll help you. *grabs vampires hand and drags him across the stream* see mister, easy.
Vampire: thank you, child.

[Maat Mons]

I don't think teleporting to the other side of a body of water counts as crossing it, for these purposes. I also don't think that going through a tunnel under the body of water counts as crossing it. Nor do I think that going around a body of water counts as crossing it.

It may be worth noting that if you somehow acquire a swim speed before getting turned into a vampire, you suffer no harm from immersion in water. You still can't cross it, for some reason. But it can no longer hurt you.

[Melcar]

Also could they fly high enough to "fly over it"? I don't see it being an issue if they are high enough.
**lalalala just me being a vampire flying along. lalalala**
**BAM!!!!**
"What the hell? Oh man there must be water way down there. Shucks. Gotta find another way I guess."

With teleport and dimension door you're not actually crossing the water you're leaving one spot and appearing in another. You don't actually cross the water do you?

I would say that since a vampire can be carried across running water, I would say teleport definitely works... Or lie in his coffin, and use telekinesis to carry himself over... there are so few defined parameters of that weakness that I as a DM would ignore it completely!

[King of Nowhere]

It is, indeed, dm call.
I think a neat wsy to solve it would have it depending on the vampire's perception. So that a vsmpire flying high may pass over a small stream without noticing. But a vampire flying specifically to avoid the stream cannot

[Morgaln]

So does a sewer system count as running water? Does that mean vampires can't move around cities? What if it's raining and rivulets form in the streets? Will that keep the vampire from going outside?
What if water is running vertically; can vampires move past a waterfall? Or a running tap, for that matter? If not, how far does the "tap barrier" extend? How fast does a water elemental need to move to count as "running"?
Maybe the whole "running water" thing is just dumb to begin with...

[Crake]

Yeah, this has always been one of the things that has been rather poorly defined. Considering literally every vampire is capable of flying thanks to their gaseous form ability, I would have to imagine that the limitation would account for that, but then you get silly questions like "Does this arbitrary barrier extend to infinity from the planet? If not, where does the barrier end" etc. There's no real answer about it though, in the end it just has to come to DM discretion. I've honestly run multiple games with vampires and this one has just never come up.

[Melcar]

So does a sewer system count as running water? Does that mean vampires can't move around cities? What if it's raining and rivulets form in the streets? Will that keep the vampire from going outside?
What if water is running vertically; can vampires move past a waterfall? Or a running tap, for that matter? If not, how far does the "tap barrier" extend? How fast does a water elemental need to move to count as "running"?
Maybe the whole "running water" thing is just dumb to begin with...

That was precisely my point, and why I said I would ignore it completely... I would go so far as to argue, that unless the water was magical, it couldn't affect a vampire. What specifically is interacting with the non-magical water?

In 3.X there needs to be some effect, that can interact. I don't see it. And even if there were, there needs to be a clearly defined parameters... Line of effect or something. Here there is nothing. I would therefore argue, that the weakness is written in such a way as to render is null and void!

[Tzardok]

I am against ignoring it. The inability to cross water, like the inability to enter uninvited and the burning in the sun, are part of the iconic image of the vampire and part of the flavor that keep it from being just corporal undead #47. I don't see a problem with the weakness not being mechanically described. Fluff and crunch are a unit.

And incidentally, I would make the decision wether a vampire can teleport over a river or not depending on the mechanics of the setting. In the standard cosmology, a teleportation is a trip over the Astral Plane. Unless there's running water in the way on the Astral (spoiler alert: there likely isn't), the teleportation should work. If I, on the other hand, were playing in Ravenloft, where teleportation doesn't utilize other planes of existence, I would say no.

[Telonius]

It's part of the moral and religious dimension of vampire stories. In certain stories, Vampires are an evil that can't just randomly kill you; they're a sin that has to be invited in. The things that harm them are (mostly) symbols of Good and purity: sunlight, water, religious icons. For the "water" thing, not to get too close to real-world religions, but the general idea is that the flowing water would wash away the evil.

[Morgaln]

I am against ignoring it. The inability to cross water, like the inability to enter uninvited and the burning in the sun, are part of the iconic image of the vampire and part of the flavor that keep it from being just corporal undead #47. I don't see a problem with the weakness not being mechanically described. Fluff and crunch are a unit.

And incidentally, I would make the decision wether a vampire can teleport over a river or not depending on the mechanics of the setting. In the standard cosmology, a teleportation is a trip over the Astral Plane. Unless there's running water in the way on the Astral (spoiler alert: there likely isn't), the teleportation should work. If I, on the other hand, were playing in Ravenloft, where teleportation doesn't utilize other planes of existence, I would say no.

Vampires in eastern European folklore suffer none of those limitations. The most iconic vampire, Count Dracula, does not burn in the sun, it only weakens his powers; he can cross running water at low or high tide (which is weird, since rivers don't have a tide).
Contemporary vampires mostly only suck blood and die in sunlight (unless they sparkle); most other weaknesses get waved or used very selectively. I don't see a problem with doing the same in D&D.

[Zanos]

I would allow teleportation because you travel through the Astral Plane. You specifically do not travel through the actual space on the material. Vampires can be carried across but I would not allow flight over running water.


I am against ignoring it. The inability to cross water, like the inability to enter uninvited and the burning in the sun, are part of the iconic image of the vampire and part of the flavor that keep it from being just corporal undead #47. I don't see a problem with the weakness not being mechanically described. Fluff and crunch are a unit.
Eh. Vampires have varied widely across media depictions. While I'd argue that the sun being an anathema to vampires is pretty iconic these days, the majority of modern depictions don't feature a weakness to running water or a compulsion to count dropped objects.

[Segev]

Like many folklore/fairy-tale things, the narrative role of the weakness is the important thing to consider. Obviously, if you're playing a game, it's always possible for the players to want to know the precise rules so they can exploit them to the best of their ability - this is not a bad thing. But you want to think about the nature of, in this case, the water. What do you want it to do for them?

Do you want a river to completely protect the town built on an island in its center? Then the mystical prohibition includes teleportation or the like, and thus considers the starting and ending points as being "motion from one to the other" for these purposes. I'd probably say that anything where a legal path could be drawn would permit teleportation to work as long as the legal path wasn't further than they could teleport.

If underground streams do not stop them, then you have to ask yourself what qualifies as "underground:" can they cross on a bridge, or on a very wide bridge, or on a hill the river enters one side of and exits the other? If underground streams do stop them, are they forced to take strange pathways through cities with underground sewers? Is there a minimal width the "river" or "water" must be to prevent their passage?

Notably, in 3.5, it's only flowing water that stops them. A vampire can actually hide in still water for as long as he likes, moving about as he wishes. It's not like he needs to breathe.

I would probably rule that it has to be a steady flow of water that is at least fast enough that the average observer could see a unified motion. A sewer with standing water that you could, if you watched floating things in it, see a general but slow movement, with some things moving faster than others based on eddies in the body, wouldn't count. It would need to be strong enough a flow that there's no question of its stillness or lack thereof. And enough of it that it wouldn't visibly divert just from the vampire stepping into it. That is, a garden hose pouring out water would, if the vampire got into the stream, have to part around him in a fashion that actively disrupts the flow and changes its path, but a creek that's more than a foot or two wide, he could step in and it would remain largely unchanged by his physical obstruction.

Stepping back from this a bit, I think the key point is whether the water takes special care to cross. Do you need a boat, or to seek out a bridge or other passage to avoid setting foot in it? Or is crossing it trivial to the point that most wouldn't even notice they're doing so?

[RexDart]

I would allow teleportation because you travel through the Astral Plane. You specifically do not travel through the actual space on the material. Vampires can be carried across but I would not allow flight over running water.


Eh. Vampires have varied widely across media depictions. While I'd argue that the sun being an anathema to vampires is pretty iconic these days, the majority of modern depictions don't feature a weakness to running water or a compulsion to count dropped objects.

Yeah, the running water bit feels like a particularly "village folklore" element, that makes more sense in a local environment where a river or stream might be an important boundary in both a real and metaphorical sense (e.g. between "home" and the "unknown.") I don't think this particular element translates well to stories that have the vampire moving around a lot, as she's likely to do post-Stoker.

[Raven777]

When adjucating the extent of a vampire's esoteric limitations and compulsions, it might be thematically relevant to consider that Vampires are horror's original rules munchkins. Dracula's ability to rest and regenerate was bound to the soil of his homeland. A conservative interpretation could have lead to Dracula being confined to the borders of Transylvania, forever. But instead, he packed 50 crates of the stuff aboard the Demeter and dumped it in his new pad in England. If this is not textbook D&D player shenanigans, I don't know what is. :smalltongue:

So, depending on the precise wording of their running water aversion, thematically speaking, any clever/creative interpretation that skirts the letter of the law while subverting it is probably fair game. Like setting a house on fire or sending a wolf in so that you can enter once the occupants call for "help". Or Strahd being able to freely enter any home in Barovia because as lord of the realm, he technically owns them all.

[Tzardok]

So, depending on the precise wording of their running water aversion, thematically speaking, any clever/creative interpretation that skirts the letter of the law while subverting it is probably fair game. Like setting a house on fire or sending a wolf in so that you can enter once the occupants call for "help".

I'm pretty sure Dracula did something like that once, too. Stole a pack of wolves from the local zoo and send them to attack people in a house he couldn't enter. :smallamused:

[Vaern]

So does a sewer system count as running water? Does that mean vampires can't move around cities? What if it's raining and rivulets form in the streets? Will that keep the vampire from going outside?
What if water is running vertically; can vampires move past a waterfall? Or a running tap, for that matter? If not, how far does the "tap barrier" extend? How fast does a water elemental need to move to count as "running"?
Maybe the whole "running water" thing is just dumb to begin with...

I think the whole "can't cross running water" thing is supposed to be because running water, as in a natural stream or river, is supposed to represent purity or something that vampires are repelled by. A sewer probably wouldn't hinder them since it's literally full of filth, though man-made fresh-water irrigation or canals might.

[Melcar]

I would allow teleportation because you travel through the Astral Plane. You specifically do not travel through the actual space on the material. Vampires can be carried across but I would not allow flight over running water.

What if the vampire is in a Spacejammer vehicle thousands of miles in the air/space?

See, stuff like that needs to be defined, as I do not expect water to basically form a barrier x miles high...

[Tzardok]

What if the vampire is in a Spacejammer vehicle thousands of miles in the air/space?

See, stuff like that needs to be defined, as I do not expect water to basically form a barrier x miles high...

A vampire can be carried over in a boat. Why should a spelljammer be different?

[gijoemike]

This was mentioned above but the running water thing was about purity and health. The vampire is a contagion or plague upon the soul. So clean running water from a river or stream would weaken or hold off a vampire.

This is also a reason water in pipes, sewers, gutters, drainage ditches, stagnant water don't phase a vamp. These are unclean or covered protecting the room from being flooded. Vampires would totally pollute the waters and form swamps. Once again it plays into the corruption imagery.

Dracula had to have lots of help to cross the sea and was finally killed when he was in a box being pulled across a bridge. All the good guys jumped his servants and murder hoboed their way to glory.

[Calthropstu]

I like how the castlevania anime did it.

They had a priest bless the water upstream and destroy the vampire army.

[Rijan_Sai]

My 2 coppers (for what they're worth):

To start off, let's look at two related points:

Vampire Weaknesses
For all their power, vampires have a number of weaknesses.

Repelling a Vampire
...

Vampires are also unable to cross running water, although they can be carried over it while resting in their coffins or aboard a ship.

...

Slaying a Vampire
... Similarly, immersing a vampire in running water robs it of one-third of its hit points each round until it is destroyed at the end of the third round of immersion. ...

Only leaving the relevant points...
IMO, a vampire's inability to cross running water may have origins in RL folklore/religious aspects, but in-game is more of a deep-seeded phobia, ingrained into the very physiological core of the flesh, because running water will utterly destroy it in ~18 seconds! And do a crap-ton of damage before that! Running water hurts!

With this mentality in mind though, any water that would not "immerse" the vampire would cause no damage, and thus be no problem to cross...
-Underground streams/sewers? Chances are the vampire doesn't even know that they are there! (And even if they do, so what? There is very little chance to be taking a swim in them...)
-Medieval-style "above ground" sewer systems/gutters/rain-carved ditches in the road? Not enough water to cover it's boot! Hardly considered "immersion."
-Rivers/Streams/Etc. in the "wild" Now, here we could have a problem... however, to quote (or, more precisely, badly paraphrase/misquote) Jackie Chan and Uncle:

Jackie "You said that they can not cross the river, right?"
Uncle "Yes, but they can use a BRIDGE!!!"
*Vampire proceeds to cross with no problems...*

[Zanos]

What if the vampire is in a Spacejammer vehicle thousands of miles in the air/space?

See, stuff like that needs to be defined, as I do not expect water to basically form a barrier x miles high...
I don't think we'll have to worry about that. After all, the vampire is already dead from exposure to sunlight outside of any atmosphere. :smalltongue: And this is pretty well handled already, is a spelljaming ship not just a boat in space?

Its gets a bit more confusing if the vampire is flying under his own power. If he wants to exit the gravity well of the planet he's on maybe he can circumvent the river, but I think it might take a while...

[Feldar]

Vampires in eastern European folklore suffer none of those limitations. The most iconic vampire, Count Dracula, does not burn in the sun, it only weakens his powers; he can cross running water at low or high tide (which is weird, since rivers don't have a tide).

This is only true for rivers when they are not near bodies of water that do have tides. Near the sea or a large lake, a river will go through tides as the water rises or lowers in the nearby larger body of water.

[Particle_Man]

I think if the vampire doesn’t get wet the vampire is ok. So flying (or in some cases jumping) over the running water should work. So a vampire that doesn’t want to reveal their gaseous form ability might have an issue but otherwise is fine. Or if there is a dry bridge.

[Calthropstu]

Guys, it's fairly simple. A vampire who crosses a flowing body of water is destroyed. All a vampire has to do is avoid making the water angry and everything is fine. But if the wrong stream becomes cross with him, that vampire is screwed!

I am guessing water spirits get easily ticked at vampires.

[Tzardok]

Does that mean the Ghost Busters are vampires? Don't cross the streams?

[Raven777]

Does that mean the Ghost Busters are vampires? Don't cross the streams?

If the problem is crossing streams, maybe Vampires should dump Charisma, stop making waves, and just go with the flow.

[Malphegor]

I’ve always rules it as one cannot cross flowing water through the water. Not least of all because it’ll kill you, but water as a magical purifier of vileness is anathema to vampiric nature.

However a vampire can usually cross a bridge.

HOWEVER most vampires have some significant thaumaturgi-psycho issues with doing so when it involves crossing over a boundary into land that is not public land unless they have a legal writ or permission otherwise to enter that land. Vampire adventurers tend to schmooze the kings and lords of places into accidentally saying ‘you can go anywhere in my lands man it’s fine chill out’ for that delicious permission.

Rivers often mark political boundaries so vampires tend to respect them just in case they do get a reaction.

[Berenger]

Nearly all vampire weaknesses are linked to concepts of a) faith (holy ground, religious symbols), b) life / health (garlic, stake made from living wood), c) purity (salt, silver) or d) liminal spaces (entrances to houses, running water). I'd argue that a river (likely the type of 'running water' barrier the original myths have in mind) can fulfill some or all of these roles:

a) The river may be sacred or inhabited by nature spirits that take actions to repel unnatural invaders.
b) It contains water, which is a strong symbol of life and contains life (in the form of plants, fish etc.).
c) It is also pure (that's the important difference between running and stagnant water, the latter is considered to be less pure).
d) It is also a liminal space, functioning as both a connection (up-down = easy travel) and a natural barrier (across = hard travel).

So, if you want to keep the basic premise of "vampires are hindered by running water" but don't want the sillyness of "water taps and sewers make cities vampire-proof", maybe rule that several of these aspects must be intact to make the body of water "count":

a) Very small (e. g. watertap) or temporary (e. g. trickle of rain) bodies of water, or those forced into profane man-made surroundings (e. g. moats or sewers), usually don't hold spiritual significance and are not home to powerful spirits.
b) and c) If the water is "dead" (e. g. polluted river, no longer able to support life), the aspects of life and purity are compromised.
d) If the concept of the barrier is "broken" (e. g. by a bridge), that area of the river no longer counts as a barrier.

[SangoProduction]

The thing about vampiric weaknesses like this... it's from folklore.
It's basically saying "You're safe, if you cross the river."
Essentially, it was certain towns' way of telling kids, "Don't cross the river at night, or else the vampire is going to get you."

If you're keeping this folklore-related weakness at all, then it should not be able to be circumvented, except by exceptional means.

[Calthropstu]

The thing about vampiric weaknesses like this... it's from folklore.
It's basically saying "You're safe, if you cross the river."
Essentially, it was certain towns' way of telling kids, "Don't cross the river at night, or else the vampire is going to get you."

If you're keeping this folklore-related weakness at all, then it should not be able to be circumvented, except by exceptional means.

Teleporting is pretty exceptional. Just saying.

[Zanos]

A vampire that can teleport, assuming 'standard' access, is ECL 17 at minimum, which is the stuff of legends. So I'd agree that's pretty exceptional.

[SangoProduction]

Teleporting is pretty exceptional. Just saying.

In D&D? Eh. It's an unusual method of travel, but is hardly exceptional.

[Asmotherion]

I can't imagine a Vampyre suddendly being stuck because of an underground river, so there's that. Crossing a bridge on the other hand, kinda too easy but technically they're not in the water. Also, technically, clouds are "running water" which would mean Vampyres should stay put during a storm, if we extend the concept indefinitelly - Kinda defeats the purpose of a Vampyre entrance during a storm, IMO.

My take would be, unless the Vampyre is in direct contact with the water, it doesn't do anything to it. This way we can also have cool Vampyre-Pirates, which is a concept everyone will probably agree is awesome.

[FrogInATopHat]

This way we can also have cool Vampyre-Pirates, which is a concept everyone will probably agree is awesome.

It is impossible to argue with this impeccable logic.

My players will be engaging in sea-travel in a few sessions...

[Remuko]

I can't imagine a Vampyre suddendly being stuck because of an underground river, so there's that. Crossing a bridge on the other hand, kinda too easy but technically they're not in the water. Also, technically, clouds are "running water" which would mean Vampyres should stay put during a storm, if we extend the concept indefinitelly - Kinda defeats the purpose of a Vampyre entrance during a storm, IMO.

My take would be, unless the Vampyre is in direct contact with the water, it doesn't do anything to it. This way we can also have cool Vampyre-Pirates, which is a concept everyone will probably agree is awesome.

missed the perfect chance to call them VamPIRATES

[Tzardok]

missed the perfect chance to call them VamPIRATES

They love going for the arrrtery. :smallbiggrin:

[Asmotherion]

It is impossible to argue with this impeccable logic.

My players will be engaging in sea-travel in a few sessions...

-Yohoho, and a bottle of rum-intoxicated blood. :D


missed the perfect chance to call them VamPIRATES

True, I have to grant you the trademark on this one U_U Well done.

[Lapak]

I don't think we'll have to worry about that. After all, the vampire is already dead from exposure to sunlight outside of any atmosphere. :smalltongue: And this is pretty well handled already, is a spelljaming ship not just a boat in space?Spalljammers carry atmosphere with them! And plenty of them are either already explicitly designed for sunlight-averse creatures (mindflayer nautiloids, neogi mindspiders) or would make perfect vampire lairs regardless. For example, a dwarven citadel would be cool as heck as a vampire's home base if you had an alternate power source and thinking about that is what made me reply to a post so far upthread. :D

[MR_Anderson]

IMO, a vampire's inability to cross running water may have origins in RL folklore/religious aspects, but in-game is more of a deep-seeded phobia, ingrained into the very physiological core of the flesh, because running water will utterly destroy it in ~18 seconds! And do a crap-ton of damage before that! Running water hurts!
It absolutely has to do with real life religious aspects. However, in game it is not completely a phobia, but an actual supernatural weakness.


With this mentality in mind though, any water that would not "immerse" the vampire would cause no damage, and thus be no problem to cross...
The ability to be immersed in the water is the determining factor, because of the tie to certain ceremonial religious rituals that involve immersion in water.

The water must be known to be deep enough for such an immersion, or the depth of the moving water must be unknown to the vampire and at least appear to be deep enough for immersion to prevent a crossing.

This is similar (not exactly the same) to why Tolkien says the Nazgul (ring wraiths) had an aversion to water in the Lord of the Rings. They were stopped or very cautious by water in his writings, yet still looked to cross a low flowing river chasing Frodo and Arwen as it wasn’t enough, and they flew across the Dead Marshes freely because it wasn’t “Living Water.”


-Underground streams/sewers? Chances are the vampire doesn't even know that they are there! (And even if they do, so what? There is very little chance to be taking a swim in them...)
I would agree, and previous edition’s material would seem to support this.

Even underground sewers large enough for travel would allow vampires to travel over water within the tunnels, because of multiple reasons: 1) sewers tend not to be a true flowing of water usually, and 2) waters that a vampire could jump (not fly) over between ground and ground are passable.

Thus a large river with a rock path across could be passable, but a vampire would fear falling in to his/her death, just like most people would fear jumping around on the frame of a skyscraper. A person can not walk above the gaps in a skyscraper, and a vampire would not be able to fly above waters, but jumping is allowed.

A vampire would not freely choose to jump the rock path, just like I wouldn’t freely jump around on a skyscraper’s frame. However, if stuck on an island with no cover and facing death by the sun, the supernatural fear of falling in water while jumping the rock path is surpassed by the fear of the rising sun, the fear of taking the rock path would become insignificant.

This also helps resolves what type of bridge a Vampire can use to cross a river. They can cross stone bridges, but not wooden bridges.


-Medieval-style "above ground" sewer systems/gutters/rain-carved ditches in the road? Not enough water to cover it's boot! Hardly considered "immersion."
Again I would agree. A sprinkling or trickle of water does not allow for actual immersion, and thus would not meet the RL ceremonial rituals that the vampire mythology and game base the supernatural weakness upon.


-Rivers/Streams/Etc. in the "wild" Now, here we could have a problem... however, to quote (or, more precisely, badly paraphrase/misquote) Jackie Chan and Uncle:

Jackie "You said that they can not cross the river, right?"
Uncle "Yes, but they can use a BRIDGE!!!"
*Vampire proceeds to cross with no problems...*
There is a 2nd Edition source that I think I remember reading that prevented Vampires from using bridges unless the bridge was a stone bridge, or they were in a coffin in dirt being carried over it. Of course that is not 3rd edition or Pathfinder, but it explains the attachment to the ground.

It is almost as if Vampires are Earth and Air based creatures, as Fire and Water are their weaknesses.


What if the vampire is in a Spacejammer vehicle thousands of miles in the air/space?

See, stuff like that needs to be defined, as I do not expect water to basically form a barrier x miles high...

A vampire can be carried over in a boat. Why should a spelljammer be different?

LoL, I’m running a Spelljammer campaign with Vampires, and this had me seriously laughing.

I decided to run Vampire: the Masquerade versions of vampires to add depth to vampire lore, and to mix up the players who have decades of play experience against vampires in D&D.

[Psyren]

As written, teleportation effects send you to another plane briefly (the Astral.) You're not actually on the same plane as the water anymore, therefore the restriction does not apply.

As not all vampires can teleport, I'm okay with this "loophole."

[Ettina]

missed the perfect chance to call them VamPIRATES


True, I have to grant you the trademark on this one U_U Well done.

Sadly, it's already trademarked (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampirates).

[Maat Mons]

Okay, I had to check that link to settle a possibility that cropped up in my mind. But it turn out those vampire-pirate books are not by the same people who did the Vampire Cheerleaders webcomic.

[loky1109]

Rivers kill vampires because there are silver particles in the water. Like gold particles in gold-bearing rivers. So sewers don't work.

[Firechanter]

I'd handle it close to what someone here already suggested: Vampires can't cross running water out of their own power or volition. Means they can't walk through the river, they can't swim, they can't walk across a bridge, and they can't fly over it, neither in their own form, nor turned into bats, nor in gaseous form.

However they can arrange to get transported over by someone else. A child pulling them by the hand won't work bc they'd still have to move their legs. A child pulling them across while they're sitting in a toy wagon, arms wrapped around their knees, that would work. xD

As for teleport or dimdoor -- I'd say since those are _extra-dimensional_ methods of travel, they aren't really crossing the water on the material plane, so it works.

How about getting catapulted across? As long as they make no attempt to fly themselves? Might work; might also make for a hilarious image when the vampire cannonball collides with an invisible barrier in the middle of the river and drops like a rock into the water. xD

--

Akshually, it reminds me of a related idea to rationalize why, in typical D&D-style worlds, there even are castles with moats around them when things can just fly across. (In one adventure we conquered such a castle ourselves simply by flying and landing on the roof of the highest tower, then working our way down from there.)
The idea was: magical flight cannot cross any body of water. If you try it you just stop mid-air and plummet down. And that's the reason why there are moats.

[hamishspence]

Okay, I had to check that link to settle a possibility that cropped up in my mind. But it turn out those vampire-pirate books are not by the same people who did the Vampire Cheerleaders webcomic.

Or by the writer of the Vampirates webcomic, or by the writer of the Charby the Vampirate comic.

It sure is a popular name.

[denthor]

I alway thought if you hold a vampire under running water it becomes a source of final death.

Using that the water it can not cross must be deep enough for the body to be submerged.

A pond, lake is not running water. Walk around great lakes of the North American continent. You are stopped by Niagara falls. Turn around walk the other direction to get to the other side. Provided there is not running water deep enough to be submerged in.

This is flaw design to keep a vampire hunter and vampire in a specific area. Evil gives great power but there are great flaws.

I would simply use another flaw as a vampire. I would plane shift twice.. Then hope I did not land in water as it possible upon return to the prime. See great lakes area for reference.

[noob]

So does a sewer system count as running water? Does that mean vampires can't move around cities? What if it's raining and rivulets form in the streets? Will that keep the vampire from going outside?
What if water is running vertically; can vampires move past a waterfall? Or a running tap, for that matter? If not, how far does the "tap barrier" extend? How fast does a water elemental need to move to count as "running"?
Maybe the whole "running water" thing is just dumb to begin with...

the water elemental can have any base speed speed provided it is taking the run action it will be running water.

[D+1]

Vampires in eastern European folklore suffer none of those limitations. The most iconic vampire, Count Dracula, does not burn in the sun, it only weakens his powers; he can cross running water at low or high tide (which is weird, since rivers don't have a tide).No, rivers don't have a tide, but tides are dependent upon the position of the moon, and without getting too deep into the science of tides, it's most easily assumed that the tide is diurnal - you have two low tides and two high tides every day. In between those times you might be able to corner a vampire against a river or stream. While they can be CARRIED over running water, a vampire is simply NOT free to fly wherever they want, whenever they want. Their movements are CONSTRAINED to some degree by tides and streams, which was the point in the go-to handbook about vampires: Dracula.

In a D&D setting where they have the same limitation it's largely for the same reasons. People have talked about why the thing with running water exists, but the PRACTICAL upshot in the game is that their movement is NOT as free and easy in all times and all places as it seems. To permit them to easily get around what few restrictions they have is something that needs to be very carefully considered. If the DM wants to win then the DM wins. When the DM takes away ALL the impediments to major monsters they aren't necessarily making the game more interesting or exciting for players - just pointlessly harder. I personally would NOT let them teleport "over" a river, or just fly really high over it at just any time. They need to be on horseback, or in a carriage, or on a boat, or whatever to cross running water - UNLESS it's high or low tide. At THOSE times they can move more freely.