 |
| Reconstruction of Zosia, 17th Century Polish Vampire. |
What is a Vampire?
You already know. You'll be able to fill in all the blanks I've left (apologies if you hate that kind of negative space).
This treatment is companion to the Werewolf posts (this and this) I made the other year - trying to draw more on the folklore tradition than on media.
No-one wants to become a vampire; it's not sexy and it's not cool. But it's also traditionally quite an easy thing to do.
The vampire has an affinity with night hags and other sleep paralysis demons, as well as poltergeists, and ghouls.
As system agnostic as old fashioned D&D-ish, with no hard lines between editions and simulacra.
*indicates it's optional.
Appearance.
They look like the people who have died. No fangs. No pointy ears. Not even pale.
Often look healthy, even chubby (particularly in contrast to their victims). Well-fed, they become rosy, then ruddy, then dark and swollen with blood, skin taut like a drum, blood spilling out of not-just-their-mouth-and-nose.
Alignment: Neutral Hungry (original edition Warhammer) with at least a parenthetical 1e AD&D Evil.
That thing in the cellar is not your mother.
Faerie Fire: 5% chance of being wreathed in faerie fire (even if invisible).
*This rises to 35% in some places (Bulgaria and parts of China, for example).
Invisibility: 15% chance the Vampire is permanently invisible.
*It turns visible when helpless/resting in its lair.
 |
| I'd say Timmy Baterman from Pet Sematary (1989) fits the bill. Killed with fire in the end (and morphine works, too). |
Basic Statblock.
As a Zombie (2 HD, Move 50% Normal Human) or Ghoul (2 HD, Move 75% Normal Human) or even just a Normal Human.
Base AC as Unarmoured, or as undead type.
They can have a d12 for their Hit Die, so significantly more hp than when they were alive.
Ability Scores: If Strength was below 16 in life, raise to 16.
No Dexterity adjustment, positive or negative, but keep the score.
20% chance of retaining its intelligence, memories, languages and abilities from life.
If not, 25% chance of Animal to Semi- (1-4) Intelligence. Can't talk; doesn't understand what's being said.
Otherwise, Low (5-7) Intelligence (AD&D Ghoul). Limited comprehensible speech, but understands what's being said.
Attacks: Unarmed attacks, including grappling and choking. Improvised weapon attacks, including thrown objects.
Bite for d2, d3 or d4 damage. Attacks vs. a biting Vampire are at +4 (tweak for system).
A successful grapple can be followed up with an auto-bite.
Claw for d2, d3 or d4 damage vs. Unarmoured targets (only crits hit vs. armoured).
Invulnerability.
Vampires are Invulnerable Monsters, and otherwise only harmed by fire or magic; all damage reduced by half.
Special vulnerabilities will bypass immunity, but not usually damage reduction.
Killing/Laying a Vampire: use any traditional method(s). These vary region to region, culture to culture - only fire is universal; otherwise, everyone has more than one opinion.
The Vampire gets a death save; success means that the method is partly or wholly ineffective in killing it, but if it would logically render it helpless then it does.
If a second/follow-up method is ineffective, then the third one will work (and this sequence of methods will work on others of this strain).
Total destruction by fire or similar is always effective (no save). Magical methods will also be effective, depending on how magic and undeath works in the setting.
*It takes a lot of fuel and a long time to cremate a corpse in pre-industrial times/IRL.
Regeneration: a Vampire in its grave/lair recovers 7 hit points per rest period.
*It can even reattach/regrow lost body parts.
Special Vulnerabilities: there's so many to choose from - any or none might work.
*Vampires are nocturnal for the same reasons Thieves are nocturnal. They are no more vulnerable to the sunlight than Orcs and Goblins - unless you choose to make it a special vulnerability.
Undead Immunities: Vampires are entitled to all traditional (logical?) in-game immunities/resistances of the undead monster type.
Worth remembering that the undead category is only so neat in-game - it's a lot looser when folklore motifs come into play (drunken slumbers, drownings, poison etc).
You Cannot Kill That Which Is Already Dead: at 0 hp, the Vampire falls prone/helpless or is driven off (back to its lair).
A helpless/resting Vampire's invulnerability can by bypassed for purposes of killing/laying it.
Special Rules.
Blood Loss.
Feeding on a helpless victim, the Vampire will drain d2 pints of blood over a 10-minute turn.
Basic requirement is 2-3 pints per night, with a soft cap of 7 pints.
Loss of the 1st pint has no mechanical effect on the victim, but every pint thereafter causes the loss of one-third of their hit points and d3 each of CON, DEX, STR and WIS.
Once 4-5 pints are drained, the victim must make death saves/recovery rolls or be reduced to 0 hp/Casualty state.
Once 6 pints have been drained, it's save or die. Any more than that and it's death, no save.
*Adjust thresholds by +1 for CON and/or STR of 14 or more, and by -1 if 7 or less. Not terribly realistic when it comes to pints per person, but this is for a game.
*You can transfer these rules to other blood loss scenarios, but these have been written specifically for a Vampire feeding on a human(-oid/-sized) victim.
Blood drinking in combat: 1 pint in d3 rounds, and the Vampire cannot defend itself except to resist being pulled from the victim (feats of strength).
*Blood Vomit.
Close/melee range missile attack (save to evade or ranged touch attack), with target as centre of splash: d3 acid damage and effects as Cave Locust spit.
You are also exposed to disease and at risk of becoming a Vampire after death (see below).
Clerical Turning.
As a Vampire (unless you want to do it by Hit Dice).
Astral Vampires (see below) are Turned as Specials; Ghost Vampires (see below) are Turned as Ghosts.
*Contagion.
Anyone killed by a Vampire rises as a new Vampire in d4 days.
Anyone who dies of the disease that accompanies a Vampire must make a death save or rise as a new Vampire in d4 days.
Anyone who has been injured by a Vampire has a % per point of damage of becoming a Vampire when they die (rise in d4 days). This is cumulative across your life (max. 97%).
Anyone who has had contact with the blood of a Vampire has a d4% per incident (+10% for a Blood Vomit target, +3% for a Blood Vomit splash) of becoming a Vampire when they die (rise in d4 days). This is cumulative across your life (max. 97%);
*(Successful) Vampire hunters are virtually guaranteed to become Vampires on death, which is why they always train successors.
*Preventative Measures: various traditional methods that might work, might not, or might make it more likely you'll become a Vampire on death (esp. eating Vampire grave earth and drinking Vampire blood).
Some fairly commonplace burial practices are effective/ have anti-Vampire roots.
*Vampire Spawn: new Vampires will be similar to the original one in basic details of stats, abilities, special vulnerabilities (i.e. invisible Vampires spawn more of the same; those that retain their intelligence etc. likewise).
Creating new Vampires can be accidental or deliberate.
New Vampires are not necessarily under the control of their creator, though sire and get will usually at least tolerate each other, if not actively cooperate.
*Disease.
Disease frequently forms the backdrop to a Vampire walking abroad.
It is otherwise normally communicable (and treatable), but those who see, hear, have physical contact with the Vampire or are splashed with its blood, make all relevant rolls at disadvantage/penalty.
Cholera, plague, yellow fever and tuberculosis are all suitable for a Vampire epidemic. Less commonly, smallpox.
Mystery Vampire Disease: symptoms of anaemia, lassitude, thirst, loss of appetite, narcolepsy, catatonia/coma, hydrophobia, photosensitivity, feelings of being choked or stifled, somnambulism. In the later stages, hallucinations but also the ability to see invisible Vampires.
*Favoured Enemy of Dogs and Wolves.
Dogs and Wolves have benefits vs. Vampires as a Ranger vs. humanoids/Favoured Enemy.
*Attacks bypass invulnerability.
*Horrible Stench.
As a Ghast/Troglodyte. Sometimes it's just their breath.
*Sometimes mistaken for the 'odour of sanctity', and the Vampire mistaken for a saint.
*Paralysis.
If you are alone and see a Vampire, save vs. paralysis or be helpless until d3 rounds after the Vampire moves out of sight, or the arrival/intervention of an intelligent living being.
Invisible Vampires paralyse by touch, and you do not need to be alone.
*Save at -2 if it's staring directly into your eyes.
 |
| This one from 1977's not even (un)dead. |
Astral Vampires.
Sometimes the Vampire is a projection, a sending. It looks like a Vampire, maybe a little translucent or wispy.
The projection is semi-material, with equivalent of descending Armour Class 0, and is otherwise the same as a Vampire in stats and abilities. It is not an Invulnerable Monster, but still reduces all damage by half.
If the projection suffers damage while abroad, it immediately withdraws and returns to its grave. It may not go abroad until days have passed equal to the hit points it lost.
If the projection is destroyed before it can return to its grave, then make a death save to see if this kills/lays the Vampire. If not, it may not go abroad until days have passed equal to its total hit points.
The corpse remains in the grave and is physically vulnerable (though it is still an Invulnerable Monster). Damage to the projection does not affect the corpse and vice versa.
If the grave is discovered/disturbed, the projection immediately returns to defend itself, arriving in up to d100 rounds (or as many as necessary for realism or drama, depending on how you do these things).
The Vampire can choose to have the projection defend the corpse, or merge with and reanimate it to defend itself (as a corporeal Invulnerable Monster with a round of helplessness). If the Vampire merges, then it can use the better hit points of the body or projection.
*Some astral vampires are projections of the living. The behaviour of the projection will at best be put down to an impostor, at worst be seen as deliberate acts by the individual. Projections of the living may go out without the awareness, consent or control of the projector.
Elder Vampires.
I don't mean ancient bloodlines and mythical sires.
I mean that most Vampires are lucky to survive months, seasons, before they are dug up and dealt with.
There are two main reasons why a Vampire might survive longer than usual.
First, ineffective destruction/disposal methods can trap the helpless Vampire in its grave, awaiting future revival by accident or design. Sometimes this is long enough for fading of the memory of the threat it poses and the methods to deal with it properly.
Second, depopulation and abandonment of the territory following disease and predation. Vampires don't like or think to range very far, so it will just go back to its grave. It will roam its old haunt for want of anything else to do, and eagerly fall upon passing prey, but must mainly subsist on the Renfield diet or slip into a restless and miserable torpor.
If it can survive longer than a mortal lifetime, then it will start to exhibit weird physical changes.
Consult the tables for Hordlings (1e and 2e AD&D) and Appendix D from the 1e AD&D DMG, for ideas or to roll on. You can be as traditional or as outrageous as you want.
*An Elder Vampire drains 1 pint of blood per round, more if has outsize fangs, tusks etc.
*Per Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, wings on a Vampire is a rare and prestigious thing.
*Per Buffy the Vampire Slayer, cloven (pincer?) hands and feet are the sign of a very old Vampire. But how do you define 'very old'?
*Elder Vampires feed off other Vampires, including their spawn.
Ghost Vampires.
Sometimes the Vampire is a Ghost.
Stats etc. remain the same, but it is incorporeal and can only be harmed by magic (or on the Ethereal Plane equivalent for the setting).
It must become semi-material to feed (or otherwise interact physically), at which point it has the equivalent of descending Armour Class 0.
The corpse remains in the grave and is physically vulnerable (though it is still an Invulnerable Monster). Each round the grave is open and the body exposed, roll an additional d6. Any 1s (or if hit point damage is caused) and the Ghost rushes back to defend its tie to the material world.
All damage cause to the corpse is also suffered by the Ghost (bypassing its incorporeality or AC 0).
Destroying the Ghost (except by special method) without also dealing with the body will only neutralise it for d6 days before it reforms and gets back to business.
Methods of disposal must generally be applied to the corpse to kill/lay the Vampire - you can't stake even a semi-material heart, for example.
Commentary.
The common rpg Vampire (and certainly the D&D-ish version) is Dracula - book, movies, comics.
Maybe the rulebook Vampire should be renamed the Dracula. There's already precedent - it's why they are Pegasi and not Winged Horses.
The Vampire is one of the Important Monsters. It's the model of the monster-supervillain, and the first monster (give or take the regenerating Troll) that you can't just fight to death. It also often has one of the most in-depth entries in a bestiary.
The vampire is the ancestor of the zombie flesh-eater (via I Am Legend, then Night of the Living Dead).
There are so many ways of putting yourself at risk of becoming a vampire after death that it's a wonder we aren't overrun.
Paul Barber's Vampires, Burial & Death (1988 and 2010): the vampire is a corpse behaving normally.
It was rarely a mystery who and what the vampire was, and everyone knew how to recognise and deal with them.
The D&D-ish convolution of blood-drinking vampires being a variant of the energy-drainer.
Note that it doesn't matter how much blood you have in your (character's) body, but how much you lose, and that it's intended to bypass the extreme survivability of high level characters.
In China Mieville's Bas-Lag setting, vampires are the lowest class of undead in the city-state of High Cromlech, forced to beg on the streets for blood - basically junkies.
I know almost nothing about Vampire: the Masquerade. Should I remedy that?
In some folklore, blood is the last thing on list of things the vampire eats and only after normal food, livestock, other corpses, even bits of itself. The Dark Sun Fael is not far off this kind of thing.
See also: Croglin Vampire.
BFRPG for giving the Vampire an awkward bite attack - thank you.
A Ghastly Affair for blood-letting rules - thank you.
