vampire without LA

[Origomar]

is there a vampireish thing that doesnt have LA or has very little LA?

[herrhauptmann]

Half vampire might be your best bet.

Most vampire templates have a LA of +8 or more. Even vampire spawn is fairly high.
Check out the templates on crystalkeep

[Starbuck_II]

is there a vampireish thing that doesnt have LA or has very little LA?

Pathfinder Monster as PCs uses CR instead of Character HD + LA.
So it has much less.

[ericgrau]

That's not very smart unless those PCs also have monster wealth and 10's for their stats. It shouldn't be surprising that those two things make a PC stronger. But eh, it's Pathfinder, it's not the worst thing they've done before.

[Jota]

There's a homebrew LA +2 version here. It doesn't have all the the facets of a full vampire, but it's functional. You can do one racial hit die and LA +1 as well, to reduce the negative impact of the LA.

[mrcarter11]

There is a homebrew version on this site that lets take levels as the vampire. It was no LA at all.

[crazedloon]

vampiric dragon on a kobold is only a +5 and has more bells and whistles

[Boci]

If you want undead, necropolitant can give you that for no real LA.

[FMArthur]

Maenads are LA: +0...

[Coidzor]

Maenads are LA: +0...

But how do they enter into it?

[Starbuck_II]

But how do they enter into it?

He is making a Twilight joke, a poor one at that.

[Jallorn]

The Demented One has a nice low LA fix for the vampire here.

[devinkowalczyk]

A unique game I once ran was everyone had to have level adjustments. Every character was required in mine to have a min. of +4. It forces everyone to work in different ways and create truly remarkable characters (mine wasa werebear minotaur).

[Prime32]

Tome vampire has LA +0, and a paragon class if you want more abilities (the effects of those subtypes are at the top of the page - basically they remove some of your undead immunities since you're close to a living creature).

[Coidzor]

He is making a Twilight joke, a poor one at that.

Maenads sparkle? How did I forget about that.

[Quietus]

If you want undead, necropolitant can give you that for no real LA.

This is what I'd do. Start with Necropolitan, and then buy up the LA for the abilities you want. Yes, you drink blood, but you can only drink from dead/helpless creatures (as unarmed coup de grace?), and not normally do damage with your bite.

[Darrin]

This Savage Progression article breaks the LA +8 into an 8-level template class. While it isn't quite a vampire without LA (you'd have to start with at least a 1 HD/level base creature, then earn a template class level), it allows you to build up gradually. And since they're template class levels and not monster class levels, you don't have to take them in order.

[Coidzor]

This Savage Progression article breaks the LA +8 into an 8-level template class. While it isn't quite a vampire without LA (you'd have to start with at least a 1 HD/level base creature, then earn a template class level), it allows you to build up gradually. And since they're template class levels and not monster class levels, you don't have to take them in order.

However, you're 7th level before actually becoming undead, so that's 6 levels wherein one has a con penalty and has to survive with it, so dumping Con becomes more problematic since the undead stuff to make up for it doesn't kick in until so much later.

If at all possible get something homebrew approved, use this as a last resort before just taking the LA as given.

[Rainbownaga]

For a game I'm running I'm using the vampire spawn progression, but swapping the LA for more hit dice. You're still a half BAB melee-er so it's not that broken.

Okay, you become immortal at level 5 (since you go to your coffin whenever you die), and the undead immunities and stat bonuses are a little crazy, so it's probably going to tip it from monk power level to warblade level-

the game hasn't gone to far yet so I can't comment much.

[Flickerdart]

If you want CON-drain goodness, get a Dire Weasel Animal Companion, they have the same blood drain vampires do.

[Xallace]

I imagine a small amount of houseruling could easily allow you to combine Necropolitan with Half-Vampire for a low-to-no-LA template.

[Oslecamo]

My custom vampire comes in the form of a 2 level "Prc" and focus on the blood draining aspect. The more you drink the stronger you can become, but you must seek fresh blood to recharge your powers.

[herrhauptmann]

I imagine a small amount of houseruling could easily allow you to combine Necropolitan with Half-Vampire for a low-to-no-LA template.

Necropolitan are undead correct?
I'm pretty sure the halfvampire needs a living creature as a base. The same way you can't throw half fiend onto an outsider planetouched creature like a tiefling or aasimar.

[Boci]

Necropolitan are undead correct?
I'm pretty sure the halfvampire needs a living creature as a base. The same way you can't throw half fiend onto an outsider planetouched creature like a tiefling or aasimar.

Hence the "small amount of houseruling ".

[Edge]

Houseruling isn't necessary. Half-vampires are still living creatures, and can thus become Necropolitans. Unfortunately, this way you do get saddled with the half-vampire LA, but I think it's only +1 or +2.

[hamishspence]

Necropolitan are undead correct?
I'm pretty sure the halfvampire needs a living creature as a base. The same way you can't throw half fiend onto an outsider planetouched creature like a tiefling or aasimar.

Half fiend has "any living nongood creature with Int 4 or more" - and according to Savage Species, outsiders qualify as living.

So, you can have a half-fiend balor, or a half-fiend tiefling. But you can't have a half-fiend celestial.

WoTC's "Things that Should Not Be" article encourages DMs to occasionally set some of these restrictions aside though.

[Xallace]

Houseruling isn't necessary. Half-vampires are still living creatures, and can thus become Necropolitans. Unfortunately, this way you do get saddled with the half-vampire LA, but I think it's only +1 or +2.

I believe you'd still need some houseruling for the whole feel. I imagine the player would want to take the "blood drain" ability from half-vampire, which allows the character to drain Con equal to his own Con score per day (if I recall correctly). As necropolitan removes the Con score... well, you can see where that's going.

Edit: Half-vampire is LA +2, but with the loss of the Con boost and the changes to blood drain, not to mention the level loss from necropolitan, the whole combination is probably worth a +1.

[Drolyt]

Here is my homebrew class which essentially makes you a vampire. Might be of interest. Never did get around to doing that test to see if it was balanced though.

[Cravix]

You could also make a Count Chocula character.

[Lothmar]

Libris mortis has a system (for alot of undead types actually) that you can build in power over 8 levels to become a true vampire spawn. After that if you take five character level's - at level 14 you can roll it over and evolve into a Level 6 vampire.