Vampire class?

[KittenMagician]

i had a dream the other night about homebrewing a vampire class. i couldnt remember what abilities it had but i remember the 3 subclasses it had were generic more powerful vampire, feral monster, and sangromancer (magic caster). the more i thought about this dream the more i wanted to make it reality

i was thinking a 1d8 hit die martial class with a point system similar to monks/sorcerers.

thoughts? or is this just a bad idea

[clash]

Ya go for it. I think I would draft it kinda like a warlock where you can pick vampiric powers and then use blood points or something to execute then

[Jervis]

i had a dream the other night about homebrewing a vampire class. i couldnt remember what abilities it had but i remember the 3 subclasses it had were generic more powerful vampire, feral monster, and sangromancer (magic caster). the more i thought about this dream the more i wanted to make it reality

i was thinking a 1d8 hit die martial class with a point system similar to monks/sorcerers.

thoughts? or is this just a bad idea

I's personally homebrew it as a series of sublasses, likely bard, paladin, and maybe warlock.

[Intregus182]

I's personally homebrew it as a series of sublasses, likely bard, paladin, and maybe warlock.

Ya this is probably the best/easiest route unless you have some sort of core mechanic like rage, ki, sorcery points etc. That you want to build a base class around.

[clash]

I's personally homebrew it as a series of sublasses, likely bard, paladin, and maybe warlock.

I'm off the opposite opinion. If something can be represented by a single subclass then it should be a subclass. If it requires a series of subclasses, unless they are so very different as to need different classes to represent them(full caster vs martial), it should be it's own class.

[Garfunion]

I always felt that the warlock class could easily accommodate a vampiric subclass or the entire class could be reskinned to be a vampire class.

[GalacticAxekick]

I'm off the opposite opinion. If something can be represented by a single subclass then it should be a subclass. If it requires a series of subclasses, unless they are so very different as to need different classes to represent them(full caster vs martial), it should be it's own class.But vampirism isn't one thing. It's an umbrella term for many different mythological and fictional monsters.

Some vampires (such as Bram Stoker's Dracula) are essentially liches. They became undead by practicing occult magic during their lives, and have a variety of occult powers not related to being undead or sucking blood (intangibility, super strength, shapeshifting into animals, charming beasts and peoples, transforming into smoke). This Wizard or Warlock would be good classes to represent this.

Some vampires (such as Castlevania's Dracula) are demons. They fiends and not undead. They were born or created as vampires, and have a variety of magical powers by virtue of this heritage (such as throwing fireballs, summoning demons, adopting a demonic form). The Sorcerer would be a good class to represent this

Some vampires (such as Bloodborne and Blade's) are essentially werewolves. They are alive and not undead. They became vampires by infection or birth, and have no spell-like abilities (though they have many supernatural abilities such as enhanced strength/speed/durability/healing/senses). The Barbarian would be a good class to represent this.

[Old Harry MTX]

Can I suggest you a different approach? Here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?644495-D-amp-D-5e-Base-Class-Contest-XIX-Doesn-t-Meet-Expectations-II-(Submission-Thread)&p=25452005#post25452005) I have proposed for the last contest a method to make Racial Classes, I think that you can easily make a Vampire with 4 or 8 Racial Levels using the same method.

It have pros and cons, and probably it best fits other kind of monsters, but it worth a try!

[Olffandad]

I remember the 4e Vampire class as looking cool from a flavor perspective.

I think the real magic of a Vampire class would be combining the "hunger" of incentivizing inflicting damage/getting blood coupled with devastating attacks (without it being so heinous that it doesn't fit the 5e kinder play meta.)