Post/Author/DateTime	Post
SydsBlueSky 06-13-07, 12:42 AM	I'm relatively new to DnD (if this thing has spell check why don't people use it?) And I'm currently working on a backup character for a... high death campaign, I'll call it. With the DMs permission I used a daywalker half vampire(or half vampire scion to be more exact) template, presented in the fang and fury D20 book. I nerfed the stats down to make a more reasonable character (+4str, +2dex, -2con, +2int, +2wis, +4cha with a +2LA with a d12 being the original.) I killed the +2s that didn't balance and squashed the +4s to make them +2s. The +2 str and +2 cha, as well as the hit die are for this reason - The thirst. At any rate, the DM accepted this as a +0LA character (high powered campaign.) By the way: str-18(+4) dex-17(+3) con-10 int-20(+5) wis-7(-2) cha-16(+3) total=88 mod total=+13 Yes I rolled these... then subbed in an 18 after the DM suggested it(replaced a 16) As far as the actual mechanics of the draining, I have him taking a level of wizard for the collegiate wizard feat(pg 181ish complete arcane,) trading in scribe spell for a bonus feat(complete arcane,) a level of fighter for the feat, and also taking advantage of the half-human blood for the bonus feat and skill points, while continuing down the path of fire domain wizard(complete arcane.) This leaves me with improved unarmed strike and improved grapple as well as a few other grapple-based assets to assist in the physical draining. I also utilize a decent cha to seduce and that sort of thing. I also plan on using a large greatsword... muahaha!! Now for my problem: Morality. How do I play a non-evil PC who must recover the 1d8+1/level damage incurred every day from the thirst by drinking the blood of the living? I REFUSE to take the animal drinking feat to make drinking the blood of non-sentient creatures more... feasible... I didn't make a daywalker to suck dry a bunch of rabbits. In the PH 3.5 it says that non intelligent animals can be neither good nor evil, due to their sheer predatory nature. Is a vampire not in the same boat? Drink or Die (Hide with Spread Beaver.) The book doesn't give much info for this, but I need some opinions on how to play this. What alignment to take, how to react with the dick paladin in my group tries to cut off my genitals (least I produce more of my kind.... 16 Cha = :) ,) how to avoid being smitten by various clarics and that sort of thing. All ideas are welcome.
Rerecros 06-13-07, 01:03 AM	If your playing a half-vamp, wizard is a bad class choice. LA really hurts full spell casters, pick something melee based to get use out of improved grab. If you don't want to be evil, and you refuse to feed of non-sentient creatures, then your only option left is to scavenge for monsters your party didn't fully kill, or feed off a willing party member. If you have decent cha, and enough points in bluff and diplomacy you can seduce strangers and feed off them, but avoid killing them, but this make you neutral at best. Now, it's okay to have an evil and/or undead party member, and it's okay to have a paladin in the party, but you should never have both in the same party. You'll have to talk to the DM and the pally about this.
Infinitive 06-13-07, 01:16 AM	I agree that choosing a wizard for this character concept is tough, but since you've gotten it down to a +0 LA, not for the reasons that Rerecros mentioned. Running on HDs that are lower than the daily damage you take is somewhat dangerous. It's true that you start out with a d12 maxed, but d4s after that will render you by far the lowest HP member of the party, even presuming that the DM rules that Cure spells work normally on you, instead of harming you as it would undead. Still, arcane casters are always viable choices. Here's an idea: You're an arcane caster. Aside from wands, which you can make yourself, and pearls of power, which you can also make, you have very little need for money (compared with the party Fighter, who's burning big chunks of cash at a time for weapon and armor upgrades). As such, when you accept adventuring requests, smile at the requestor (who's offering you substantial sums of money) and tell them that payment in gold will be completely unnecessary. A few meals will be quite sufficient, as you'll find the loot you need to pay for the stuff you want to craft by slaying baddies. In addition, drain what enemies you can dry; see if your DM will allow you to store over-the-top blood drain in a pool that helps to pay for the subsequent day. Say, you can store no more than one extra day's worth in this pool, and any remaining that you have at the end of that time is lost? There's always the question of whether you can drain the very recently dead of their blood as, technically, their hearts are still beating, and a person's blood doesn't begin to degrade for a couple of minutes after death. That should put you pretty squarely into CN, I think.
SydsBlueSky 06-14-07, 03:12 AM	ALL HD are 12s. Forever. Fang and Fury - guidebook to vampires page 49. Also, they're not undead. They have a con stat. I took the improved grapple because that's the only way to feed..forcibly... from a creature. I got my grapple check to +13. I could ask the DM if I could use a ...umm.. gore golem.. it's like a little servant construct that holds up to about a week or something worth of blood... but the rules say only full vampires can create them. Same goes for vampire spawn (totally lame.) I like the ideas for keeping it in the CN though. I gave myself decent cha to help.. stimulate morality while feeding. And as far as playing the char as a wizard goes, I want to play it more like a cleric. I have him wearing cord armor, which is basically leather but with a 5% arcane failure rate.. its in the complete arcane. Under alternate armor materials, I believe... anyway, basically the idea is buff... fist of stone.. +6 to an already impressive str stat... aannddd kill stuff. Possibly enlarge self to make the large great sword more easily wielded (I took monkey grip,) followed by death. I mean... if the sh%t really hits the fan... we have a CN warlock, CN rogue, a cleric played by a rather evil-minded individual and a moron giant with 5 int.... LN, but easily swayed.. I think I might just be able to kill the paladin haha. Not a big fan of them anyway. :D
Cypher_of_the_Eye 06-14-07, 04:25 AM	love the concept. and so you know if you enlarge yourself (via enlarge person anyway) you also enlarge that already large sword... i made a DM cry with that! :evillaugh also, can you drain the pally dry just for me, please?
SydsBlueSky 06-14-07, 04:36 AM	That's right!!! I love you!! I also like enlarging two handed weapons so that people can no longer weild them hahaha. I wonder if you can turn full plate into a 'cage' so to speak... hm.. I also think there's a way to use like three vampire feats (all of them SUCK) to build pre-reqs so that you can drain specific things out of victims.. one of them causes rage.. can you imagine a vampire wizard with 18 str to start with using stone fist to gain 6, then using enlarge person to make himself large and his greatsword huge, as well as gaining 2 more str... then going into rage??? thats a +10 modifier... added to damage at a rate of 1.5 with the two handed weapon. attacking with +10 for str and +2 for base but -1 for size and -2 for weapon size... so thats an attack at +9 that hits for 4d6(call it 12) +15. = 27 damage... possible at level 1... this would also increase my grapple check to +23. It's 13 now.. extra 6 for str mod and another 4 for size. Enlarge lasts 1min/level and fist of stone lasts for 1 minute. I like characters that are full of surprises. ..anything else I should know??