Vampire

Note: The Vampire subrace may only be selected by spending a Major Award, and acquiring the approval of the Admin Team!

Introduction

Vampirism treads a fine line between what could be called a racial status, and a condition, not very unlike planetouched creatures of different sorts. A vampire is an undead creature that retains its previous race and, contrary to many other sorts of undead, also retains all their mental faculties and most of their appearance, making them, to the untrained eye, hard to point out from a normal individual of the same race - it is for these traits that vampires are considered one of the most dangerous and dreadful sorts of undead.

Vampirism could be considered a curse like lycanthropy, but not necessarily an infection. Contrary to lycanthropy, it is not exactly certain how an individual becomes a vampire. Some say that the slightest bite of the vampire could infect the victim, and others insist that only the willing that surrender their blood and are, instead, offered the blood of the vampire may become one. Save for some loose theories, it is only known that creatures slain by a vampire and drained of their blood become loyal vampire spawns - minor vampires.

Vampires look very much like their 'normal' counterpart, except that they seem to have a slightly more feral look and air to them. Often it is described as predatory. Other than that, vampires cast no natural shadow, neither they cast any reflection in mirroring surfaces.

The motives of the vampire to how it is, is its own, and none can really say that two vampires will become allies or sworn enemies. If all the vampires have something in common, it's that all of them have had their beings darkened to a deep degree of evil.

Abilities and Condition

As undead creatures, they gain a plethora of abilities and immunities. However, their apparent immortality and large arsenal of tricks comes with an equally large list of weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

Undead Status: Vampires are undead creatures, therefore they are vulnerable to all effects that normally hurt or empower undeads. This means, for example:

• They are immune to critical hits and sneak attacks (and all effects that need those to work).
• They are damaged by healing spells, and restored by negative energy spells.
• They can be rebuked and turned.

Bloodthirst: Vampires cannot drink or eat. Instead, vampires must fill their blood reserves by killing creatures. Bigger and more powerful creatures offer higher levels of blood. Blood of other vampires, as well as blood belonging to demons or devils, offer the greatest rewards - but be careful not to drink from creatures such as these if they are much lower level than you, lest you weaken your own blood in the process.

It is possible to craft blood vials through the use of alchemy. It is an difficult task to store blood such that it keeps fresh for a prolonged period, but once you have the vials, they won't expire. (???)

Physical Attributes:

• Level 1: +1 regeneration, +1 str, +1 dex
• Level 5: +1 regeneration, +5% move speed
• Level 10: +1 regeneration, +2 con
• Level 15: +1 regeneration, +5% move speed
• Level 20: +1 regeneration, +1 str, +1 dex
• Level 25: +1 regeneration +5% move speed
• Level 30: +1 regeneration, +2 con

The ability scores (str, dex, con) is all soft and counts toward the +12 cap bonus. The bonuses are cumulative: A level 5 vampire will have 2 regeneration, for example.

This bonus is tied to their Blood levels. If they keep themselves well-fed, these abilities will appear as they are. If the vampire, however, neglects its hunger, these bonuses will decay and slowly turn into negatives.

Sunlight: Vampires that are exposed to sunlight will rapidly die. Every round they spend in the sunlight they will gain an increasing stack of negative regeneration until they hide in the darkness. Artificial darkness (as created by the spell), serves as temporary cover.

Bat and Wolf form: The vampire can morph into these forms at will. However, the process costs some of their Blood reserve.

Bite: Every 3 minutes, a vampire can mark their next attack as a bite, and if successful, they will heal and recover a large portion of their blood reserves, which scales depending the size of the creature.

Thralling: Vampires can recruit other characters as their thralls. Thralls can be used as servants or portable blood tanks. When they deign it, the vampire may may feed their thrall a portion of their immortal blood. This confers physical improvements to the thrall, as such:

First feeding in 24 hours: +1 con

Second feeding in 24 hours: +1 con

Third feeding in 24 hours: +1 con

Fourth feeding in 24 hours: +1 con

The bonuses listed about are cumulative; the second feeding will have +2 con total. The bonuses are soft, counting toward the +12 ability cap.

Vampires can feed from thralls. Thralls suffer a -2 con penalty for every feeding they have given their master in the last 24 game hours, culminating in death after the fourth feeding (they are drained dry!).

The more a thrall feeds on the vampire, the more urgent the thrall's dependency on the vampire's blood becomes. A prolonged period without feeding may result in drastic withdrawal systems, ultimately culminating in death if the fortitude saves are failed.

Gaseous Form: Once per day, upon death, the vampire will instead enter a gaseous form for twelve seconds. This form confers immunity to damage and an inability to attack for the duration of the effect. They will be at 1HP when the effect ends.

Creating a new character on Arelith

Prerequisites:

• Requires Major award
• Must be approved by the DM Team

• For this, you should send a PM to any DM in the forum or to the Active DM group. The content of your PM should explain that you got the major award, that you want a vampire character, some loose background and your intention for the character. Researching vampires and undead in general beforehand may be wise. The Libris Mortis (3.5) may provide useful information. Bear also in mind that the approval is not only to verify that you won't play a setting-disrupting character, but also, to control the number of vampire characters active in the island, and your request may be denied solely for the latte reason.

Abilities

All base race abilities, stats and feats

All described above

ECL +3 (added to previous racial ECL, if any)

Notes

• Does not have to eat or drink.
• Starting City: Same options as base race + Andunor (?)