Monster of the Week: Vampires

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Another classic creature born of human fear and storytelling, Vampires are a staple in a host of roleplaying games. They are inherently a strong opponent, and a puzzle, all at once. They are intelligent, and can serve in both combat and non-combat roles with ease. Oh, and they bite. Yeah.

Resistant to ordinary weapons, Vampires are only vulnerable to certain materials. Depending on the exact mythology, garlic, holy symbols, holy water, and silver weapons may help against them. Chopping off their heads often works, but there really is only one way of killing a Vampire properly: a wooden stake to its heart. Sometimes this has to remain there, otherwise the Vampire will reawaken, but this is less common in games where defeating a monster is expected to be kinda final. Actually, 4E specifically says you don’t have to stake them, but hey, 4E’s weird like that. Oh, and sunlight is bad.

Both usage and mechanics mirror a core concept: Vampires don’t exist in a vacuum. A Vampire is never just a Vampire, it is a noble, or a thief, or a merchant, or whatever. Do not waste a Vampire on a truly random encounter: give them a reason to exist. Vampires are smart, and they have goals. If there is a noble Vampire, what is his goal? Is it to conquer the kingdom? Gain it by subterfuge? Just live (as such) happily ever after?

Secondly, a Vampire should almost never get killed in regular combat. They are tough, and they can use Gaseous / Mist Form to escape almost anything. If players want to actually kill a Vampire, make them think. Hunt down the lair. Engage in a battle of wits. Nothing is as simple as just stabbing things with pointy sticks.

Does this not sound right? You wanted expendable Vampires, like the standard ones in Buffy, which go down in seconds? Ah, you must be looking for Vampire Spawn. They are minions: in 3.5, functionally; in 4E, actually. Vampire Spawn are what you normally get from a Vampire creating another, and they only exist to die. They are also a lot less dangerous.

Anyway, Vampires can be nasty out of combat: they are very smart, and can Dominate people. A clever Vampire will use this to get himself into a nice social position, with not too many peasants with torches and pitchforks. It’s good at dinner parties, too.

3.5 Edition

Vampire is a Template. Something I only realised after nearly wiping a party with a Vampiric Mouse is it can only be applied to Humanoids or Monstrous Humanoids. Oops. Sorry, guys.

Basically, make a base creature. Either pick one from the Monster Manual, or create a Humanoid one yourself. For tips on creating basic Humanoid monsters, you can refer to my post on Humans and other PC Race monsters.

Obviously, the increased stats help almost any class. Increased HD to d12s helps survivability a lot. Turning Undead means no Con score, which means a stack of immunities, including immunity to any Fort save unless the effect can target objects (so, immune to Finger of Death, but not Disintegrate). CR increases by 2.

Whilst Vampires have lots of neat abilities, their Slam Attack is where the real power is. 2 Negative Levels every round. Yeah. Hit a Wizard with that a couple of times, and he’s in trouble. Negative levels cause -5 HP, -1 to basically every roll, and you lose memorized spells; here, check the SRD link. Nasty stuff. Incidentally, it’s what makes Enervation such a great spell. Blood Drain is lame because it means working out the Grapple rules.

Vampire Spawn are naturally simpler: just read the monster entry. Similar idea: use the Negative Level attack. It’s only 1 Negative Level, but at CR 4 a pop, you can probably have a few Vampire Spawn.

Incidentally, the MM mentions Holy Wafers for keeping Vampires dead. These also make tasty snacks.

4th Edition

*sigh* Way to break consistancy. Apparently 4E Vampires aren’t actually vulnerable to most of the anti-Vampire stuff, including stakes.

While at first Vampires seem different to 3.5, they’re basically the same. Unlike 3.5, there’s an example Vampire, but they still operate through templates. Unlike 3.5, the template is in the wrong damn book! Honestly!

The Vampire Lord template is on page 182 of the DMG. Like the 3.5 version, you need to strap it to a base monster, although you could just use the sample Human Rogue. Choosing a base creature with good synergy with the Vampire’s powers is good; the sample Rogue is alright, but something that gives Combat Advantage for Blood Drain seems more sensical.

Remember that a Vampire is smart, and he knows what you as a DM knows. If the Vampire reduces a foe to 0 hp or less with Blood Drain, then they just aren’t getting up again in that encounter (see MM page 259: Creating Vampire Spawn). Heh. This is a perfect tool for DMing: the *best* encounter is one where nearly the whole party nearly dies. To ensure Blood Drain stays recharged, make the Vampire stand next to anyone taking damage. Some hired help pincushioning people may be handy here.

There is basically nothing to say about Vamprie Spawn. They’re Minions. Weak, pitiful. Meh.

Suffice to say, no matter which edition you’re playing, remember two constants: Vampires are smart, and Vampires don’t want to be destroyed. Make sure they escape when they can, or the world simply isn’t believable. Other than that, just make sure they play whatever role in society they have chosen for themselves, and things should just fall into place.

Remember to come back next week for another Monster of the Week!

By the way:

I am completely ignoring that silly Twilight series for all purposes, before someone leaves a comment. They’re not really Vampires, they just happen to be strong blood-sucking things.

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