Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Latro 11-19-05, 03:12 PM	Well, at least I find him pretty fascinating. Having found this site incredibly helpful I thought it might me nice to give something back for a change. So for anybody who is interested in a (IMHO fascinating) npc, here he comes :) This character comes from one of the books in the Vampire: Dark Ages series, which naturally makes him a vampire (although that's not really important for the main idea behind this character). The person in question is a member of the clan Lasombra, people who dabble in the questionable art of "shadow magic". Questionable because what this basicly means is ripping small holes in the barrier between this world and the abyss ... and then they try to control the "things" that pour into our world where they do their destructive work by animating/possessing shadows. Our man here, is one of these shadowmancers. He's just a bit more obsessed with the nature of the abyss and is part of a cult that want's to release the abyss into this world (needless to say that would be a bad thing). During the ritual to accomplish this, he realised the error of his ways and somehow managed to stop it before it was finished. The book isn't very clear about the exact events of that time, this person is not a main character, and the person self is reluctant to talk about it when asked. Since then he had been a very devout follower of God, doing God's work and expecting everybody to do the same etc etc. On the surface he doesn't seem to be using shadow magic anymore. Deep within however he is using is constantly to stop the abyss from gaining access to whis world ... the failed ritual has left him as a living conduit between this world and the abyss. His eyes have changed into pure black, like the abyss ... but, as someone said, the darkness isn't empty. His own shadow behaves in odd ways, never moving quite exactly as it should, sometimes as if trying to get away from him and when is concentration is weakened it even takes a more active and agressive role. All other shadows around him simply keep as far away from him as possible. What this all would mean in gaming-terms and rules, I don't know. That for everybody himself to find out, but I do know that I personally like the idea behind this character very original and very fascinating. :cool:
Araes 11-19-05, 03:32 PM	Quick additions to this, but from a purely fluff perspective, this character seems like it would be a natural for the Shadowdancer PrC, and if Forgotten Realms stuff is allowed, the Telflammar Shadowlord PrC and Shadow Walker Template (both from Unapproachable East). In D&D terms, how is he getting around the vampire problems and still staying good? Would be an interesting thing to figure out for backstory purposes. Perhaps he has a number of people who realize his usefulness or who pulled him back from the brink and realize that giving up a little blood helps him. As you mentioned, wouldn't necessarily have to be a vamp, and might be better not being one. That could cause some problems from a D&D perspective where he would be very unique compared to VtM where he's much less so. In game terms, another way to go might be to have him be an illusionist who almost uniformly uses spells with the (shadow) subtype. If you wanted him to be really redeemed, he could also have taken some of the BoVD PrCs (like those devoted to demon lords) and then realized the error of his ways.
hammer_hand 11-19-05, 04:38 PM	As you mentioned, wouldn't necessarily have to be a vamp, and might be better not being one. That could cause some problems from a D&D perspective where he would be very unique compared to VtM where he's much less so. Whats wrong with a good vamp? I have one word for you BLADE!!!!!!
Araes 11-19-05, 04:58 PM	Well, couple things in general. Obviously Blade is an example of a good aligned vampire type character. As I mentioned in my post though, my feeling is that in Vampire the Masquerade, "good" vampires are much more common (or at least neutral ones) from a story perspective than they are in your typical D&D setting. In D&D, the fact that a character is a vampire theoretically makes them more unique and sometimes more isolated than in VtM, as they don't have big clans, families, whatnot to fall back on. This can obviously be good, as they stand out a bit more from the pattern, but there's no common ground where they can say "look at all the work of my breatheren, who aren't totally evil before you kill me." I guess part of my other problem might be that depending on who you play with, good vamps can be nearly as much of a stereotype as good drow (lots of people want to be Drizzt or Blade). Makes the character more unique if they distance themself from that and the perception it causes. Hope that clarifies a bit for you hammer.
Morka 11-19-05, 06:34 PM	He could be a Lawful Evil vampire, who realised how complicated his life would be if the Abysses invaded the Material Plane, how difficult it would be to hunt down mortals if 90% of them are dead, and that Celine Dion is not that bad after all. You might call him a coward, it's perhaps just an evil guy who fear what is completely vile.
Latro 11-20-05, 03:04 AM	Personally, when I introduce him, I would not make him a vampire. It distracts too much from the things that do matter. He should be someone that places the heroes for a dilemma: is he good or is he evil? ... how much of a threat is he? ... what can/must we do to stop this threat? ... can we afford to let him be harmed at all? instead of: Vampire! ... grab the stakes! :cool:
Cantankerous 11-20-05, 09:12 AM	One thing to remember, is that the way alignment sits in D&D, what it IS, in D&D, a character can be of ANY alignment and still be a hero, at least to some, at least on a local level. He may be a feared hero, but many heroes are feared. An example below: We also had Prince Dionus, who enacted a pogrom that took more than three quarters of his life time to complete, completely irradicating all orcs and goblins from the lands of the six kingdoms. Alot of people saw him as the perfgect Knight Commander, others as a genocidal madman who, thank the gods, was on their side. He was known to have had the skull of the last goblin youngling taken in the first of the fifteen campaigns against the humanoids that he lead and he had it gilded and used it as a drinking cup. This man was famous for his tormenting captured orcs to get clues to where the next concentration of orcs might be. He was quite open about it, and since it was ultimately good for them, no one in these very civilized lands complained too loudly. He was definately Lawful Evil, without a doubt, but he was also a great hero to the people, their savior in many ways, and was greatly respected and well loved on the whole. Now, Dionus had a backstory that would be a classical psychological profile of such a man, but it didn't stop his slaughter and torture from being Evil, even though it produced a great good. That's the nice thing about D&D alignments. You can have a Lawful Evil person as a great and well loved protector of the people. You can have a Chaotic Evil person earn the highest rewards and decorations that a basicly Lawful Good society can bestow. Isshia
hammer_hand 11-20-05, 11:52 AM	My idea would be this, instead of having him starting out as something other than vamp he could be always encountered at night so as to give the players a hint but not to tell them outright, as he gains their trust then he may feel confident to reveal his secret to them and hopefully it won't be a case of see vamp=kill vamp