So typical essentials garbage then?
Incidentally, The Vryloka has abilities that let you turn into a wolf or a bat.
So, if you want a shapeshifty vamp, Vryloka is the obvious choice.
Incidentally, The Vryloka has abilities that let you turn into a wolf or a bat.
So, if you want a shapeshifty vamp, Vryloka is the obvious choice.
According to the spoilers thread, the Vamp class has plenty of shapeshifting utilities. So they're both similar there.
Have you heard if their offensive output is at least reasonable, or does none of this even matter anyway? After all, options or no options, pre-e or post-e, if the striker can't strike it ends up on the short bus to nowhere, anyway, a la the ossassin.
Nice.
NO Skill or Racial powers for the Vampire then, without burning a feat (assuming such even exists for Racial Utilities). Gotta love a book that introduces what could be a very interesting mechanic (racial utility powers), and promptly barely lets you use them at all on the one original class it publishes.
Nice.
Uh .... what? They still get utilities, that have levels, which can be traded for utilities from other sources just fine. What they don't have is a choice of class specific utilities. That does not stop them from trading a class utility for a racial one, or a skill utility.
NO Skill or Racial powers for the Vampire then, without burning a feat (assuming such even exists for Racial Utilities). Gotta love a book that introduces what could be a very interesting mechanic (racial utility powers), and promptly barely lets you use them at all on the one original class it publishes.
Nice.
Uh .... what? They still get utilities, that have levels, which can be traded for utilities from other sources just fine. What they don't have is a choice of class specific utilities. That does not stop them from trading a class utility for a racial one, or a skill utility.
Not having seen the book, I couldn't say for sure. But if a class feature grants you a specific power, as many of the E-class features do, you can't choose to replace it with something else, even if it has a level, without, as I already said, burning a feat to do so - either Skill Power, (hopefully) Racial Power, or Acolyte Power. This is true, for instance, of the Slayer and Knight level 16 and 22 utilities, and of almost all the Warpriest powers.
So yes, they're not completely restricted, but any time you want to change a power, you have to pay a feat to do so. Other classes don't need to pay a feat if they want a skill power, or (presumably) a racial power instead of a class power.
It's not impossible, but it strikes me as dumb design when one of the other new and relatively original changes instituted by this book is the introduction of a new category of utility powers which the vampire (apparently) needs to pay a feat to access, where other classes (apparently) do not.
And none of those feats will let you replace a named power in an Essentials style class progression. Skill Power works for any class because it adds rather than replaces a utility power.
The multiclass power swaps don't work on many e-class powers because things like Power Strike and Disruptive Shot are unlevelled. They DO work on Utilities throughout, because the (post-level-1) utilities from all the classes, all have levels.
Acolyte Power works to swap those powers in -- not out. If the progression says that you get a certain power at a given level, that is what you get. If it has a level number, that just makes it available for other builds of that class that do not have a fixed choice at that level.
That said, aparantly just the option of selecting racial powers was enough to saddle the new races with extra, otherwise uncompensated penalties. Unless those utilities are noticeably better then the class utilities you'd be taking in their place, you're probably better off just taking another race instead. Especially in the case of the Shade, which is pretty terrible to begin with even before the surge penalty, and double especially in the case of the Vampire, which can't afford to sacrifice that healing at all.
Vryloka at least suffer from a lesser penalty, and are somewhat decent apart from that penalty, so they'll likely still see some reasonable use. Even if elves would be mechanically similar and overall better in most cases, it's not by so much that people should feel penalyzed playing a vryloka.
Shades though... ::shakes head::
Word from the first wave of purchasers has vampires having exactly two choices of powers: Utility Level 2 (2 choices) and Utility Level 22 (2 choices). The At-Will powers and the rest of the utility powers are pre-selected, along with all encounter and daily powers. Don't want a vampire that turns into a bat? Tough.
Actually, one of the folks at EnWorld who has the book detailed the At-Will powers, and you do get to choose them.
There are three At-Will powers, one targeting each NAD. Ranged vs Will which pulls, Melee vs Reflex and Melee vs Fort that pushes. You get to pick two (unless you actually get all three, which I doubt).
Actually, one of the folks at EnWorld who has the book detailed the At-Will powers, and you do get to choose them.
There are three At-Will powers, one targeting each NAD. Ranged vs Will which pulls, Melee vs Reflex and Melee vs Fort that pushes. You get to pick two (unless you actually get all three, which I doubt).
WalterKovacs said "Yup, they get all three," in regards to the at-wills, so my impression is that Vampires get three pre-chosen at wills.
Actually, one of the folks at EnWorld who has the book detailed the At-Will powers, and you do get to choose them.
There are three At-Will powers, one targeting each NAD. Ranged vs Will which pulls, Melee vs Reflex and Melee vs Fort that pushes. You get to pick two (unless you actually get all three, which I doubt).
WalterKovacs said "Yup, they get all three," in regards to the at-wills, so my impression is that Vampires get three pre-chosen at wills.
Hmmm. That kind of sucks in that it does really mean that, aside from Race and Feats, a Vampire really doesn't get many choices at all.
On the other hand, being able to attack any of the NADs at will is pretty sweet.
Yes, there are more vampires in the various Montser Manuals/Vaults than there are possible PC Vampires.
I imagine DDi or future publications will release various Vampire Builds.
Yes, because Dragon Magazine has been so rich with new content lately. And WotC is publishing so many books, one of them is bound to have vampire support!
I imagine DDi or future publications will release various Vampire Builds.
Yes, because Dragon Magazine has been so rich with new content lately. And WotC is publishing so many books, one of them is bound to have vampire support!
if only they were coming out with some sort of book of vile darkness with some players material in it...
I imagine DDi or future publications will release various Vampire Builds.
Yes, because Dragon Magazine has been so rich with new content lately. And WotC is publishing so many books, one of them is bound to have vampire support!
Actually, new builds for the new essential classes seem to be the only thing we can consistently count on in Dragon content atm. We have had staff knight, eladrin knight, pyromancer, earth warpriest, star hexblade and White well hexblade in the last 5 months.
If i were a betting man, Dragon Magazine support for HoS sub classes is the one thing i would not bet against.
Ravenloft... All I gotta say.
Not sure what this is directed at.
If it's "Vampire Support will come in the Ravenloft Player's Guide" you are mistaken: that book was canceled, and this class was moved from that book into HoS.
If you're saying "It's so campy because it was originally from Ravenloft." I agree with you, but I don't think that excuses it.
postponed, not canceled. It was and will be a boxed set, not a book.
Ravenloft was officially announced as cancelled at DDXP. Not postponed.
Vampires will be effectively identical. Their 3 choices are made at 2, 11, and 22, each with two choices. This means there are exactly seven possible builds for vampires by the time they reach epic level.
Yes, there are more vampires in the various Montser Manuals/Vaults than there are possible PC Vampires.
Don't you mean eight? 2 times 2 times 2 = 8.
Vampires will be effectively identical. Their 3 choices are made at 2, 11, and 22, each with two choices. This means there are exactly seven possible builds for vampires by the time they reach epic level.
Yes, there are more vampires in the various Montser Manuals/Vaults than there are possible PC Vampires.
Don't you mean eight? 2 times 2 times 2 = 8.
Correct, eight. In other words, as many possible combonations of vampire powers by level 30 as there are combonations of PHB fighter powers by the time they're done choosing at-will powers.
I imagine DDi or future publications will release various Vampire Builds.
Yes, because Dragon Magazine has been so rich with new content lately. And WotC is publishing so many books, one of them is bound to have vampire support!
if only they were coming out with some sort of book of vile darkness with some players material in it...
The Description on Amazon sure doesnt seem that the Box of Vile Darkness is going to have alot of player options. Its one of 6 things listed for the 96 page Game Supplement book. Thats just not alot of info for the box, and honestly they should have planned this all better. Its a hook for the movie, just like the Neverwinter book is a hook for the video game and neither of which are being handled well, (see Character Builder, Dragon, Dungeon & New Releases for others).
Vampires will be effectively identical. Their 3 choices are made at 2, 11, and 22, each with two choices. This means there are exactly seven possible builds for vampires by the time they reach epic level.
Yes, there are more vampires in the various Montser Manuals/Vaults than there are possible PC Vampires.
Wow, that's stunning.
Recently I was trying to explain how limitted the choices of Essentials Martial classes were, compared to generic AEDU classes. The idea being that more choices equals more opportunity for powerful synergies... Just looking at attack powers, the E-Martials had 70 distinct choices (of stances, basically), while an AEDU class, assuming 4 choices at each decision point (and counting PP as one decision point, and not counting the choice of powers ultimately traded out for higher level ones), comes out to something like 98,000. Actual heavily-supported AEDU classes would have much more, and specific builds could have considerably less, around a thousand for 2 choices at each point, less if there are some non-decision decision points.
Still 98k vs 70 vs 7.
Still 98k vs 70 vs 7.
It's actually 8, not 7. My bad, I fail at math.
Still though... right?
All in all, the vampire is just looking severely problematic. Lack of player options. Multiple required attack stats. No class feats. Restrictive striker feature. Low damage output. This is just not good design.
I agree that the vampire has some neat, potentially fun gimmicks. But neat fun gimmicks do not excuse a class from having to perform its basic party role. Just like they didn't excuse the ossassin. Just like a defender with neat gimmicks would still suck if it was unable to discourage enemies from attacking its allies. Just like a leader with neat gimmicks would still suck if it was unable to offer meaningful heals/saves/buffs to allies. Just like a controler with neat gimmicks would still suck if it was unable to clear minions or hamper enemy actions. If the vampire has neat gimmicks, that's great, I love gimmicks. But that's no excuse for not filling its party role.
My first thought runs that the Vamp will get free MC in my games. I'll have to see it first, but I'm getting suspicious.
AYE!
All in favor of boycotting the book say 'AYE!'
AYE!
nay...
"who keeps saying that?"
All in favor of boycotting the book say 'AYE!'
AYE!
I already intended not to buy it. Only thing I want is the blackguard and i've mostly been building my own class anyway (E-style is not hard). It'd just be for poaching ideas.
Only other stuff i'd find interesting is the new Mages schools, which I'll probably just build my own versions of anyway.
I have no interest in vamps, straight-jacketed or not. The Binder might be neat, but i'm not excited about it.
It looks like to me that they literally made the vampire class from the time that they decided to go hardback with the book. Some dev sat down and thought up a few powers and a neat blood mechanic in a weekend, then they tested it for a month... nice going WotC you're getting better and better, I bet the next class will have 2 at-will powers and just get bonuses to it at specific levels...
Very possible. We know this class was supposed to be in the Ravenloft Player's Guide at one point, but what we don't know is when it was moved and what state it was in. If it was just a basic concept scribbled on some paper in schwalb's office when they decided they needed more content for HoS when they moved to hardcover, and the only had a few months to throw it together, it explains why there are no options (no time to write them) but also apparently not enough play testing, explaining the laughable "striker" damage.
We expect better from you WotC. Hell, even I expected better, and my expectations weren't that high. 4eE has been, for the most part "boring but functional" The vampire though... it's like you went up to some intern and was like "quick, make a class, it goes to the printers in 2 weeks!"
All in favor of boycotting the book say 'AYE!'
AYE!
Uh, no. Just ... no. Even with the questionable state of the Vampire, the Blackguard is still awesome, the Necromancer and Nethermancer and Binder look good, and the Vryloka looks awesome. More than worth a purchase.
Word from the first wave of purchasers has vampires having exactly two choices of powers: Utility Level 2 (2 choices) and Utility Level 22 (2 choices). The At-Will powers and the rest of the utility powers are pre-selected, along with all encounter and daily powers. Don't want a vampire that turns into a bat? Tough.
Sigh. Who was it that got the bright idea in the R&D department that classes with limited customization options are fun? It was one of the great innovations of the classic 4e design that there should be no dead levels ever. And now it has been abandoned
.Seriously Damon_tor, where did you get your book early from. Since I can't find the complete and full stats for the vampire class, I would like to know so I can buy my book early too.
some local brick & mortars have it early, like ones that run wizards events and stuff. There's a term for it, I forget. It's a way WotC tries to support the local stores that help build the fanbase to compete against online distributors with their massive discounts and megastores with their giant selections.
Uh, no. Just ... no. Even with the questionable state of the Vampire, the Blackguard is still awesome, the Necromancer and Nethermancer and Binder look good, and the Vryloka looks awesome. More than worth a purchase.
That's pretty subjective. A couple new subclasses that look interesting, a handful of wizard powers, and one passable race isn't going to warrant the hardcover price for all gamers. For some it will, for some it won't. Calling for a 'boycott' is rather melodramatic, though.
I'll probably get it, but mostly for the fluff, which I'll be using to help fuel my own homebrew shadow material, so that it doesn't stray so far from WotC material that I couldn't try and submit it to dragon.
All in favor of boycotting the book say 'AYE!'
AYE!
AYE. A thousand times over.
I agree that the vampire has some neat, potentially fun gimmicks. But neat fun gimmicks do not excuse a class from having to perform its basic party role.
It looks like to me that they literally made the vampire class from the time that they decided to go hardback with the book. Some dev sat down and thought up a few powers and a neat blood mechanic in a weekend, then they tested it for a month.....
Since the first Essentials previews, I couldn't help but notice that the Essentials take would be a lot easier to design for. I'd tried my hand at creating a complete 4e class, and it's daunting in the extreme - mainly because of all the power choices you need to provide just to make a basic two-build class. An Essential Martial class, OTOH, can be roughed out in a matter of hours. Essentials AEDU classes that can leverage old material are only a little harder. I doubt it would even take a weekend to put together a class as low-option as the Vampire, all you'd need is the inspiration to come up with the novel healing surge mechanics. You could struggle with that for a while, or it could come to you in a flash.
While it's tempting to note the 'continued support' and 'compatibility' of casters, especially Mage builds with the wizard, and visualize a conspiracy to return the imbalanced god-wizards of yester-editions, an alternate explanation that fits the facts just as well is simply WotC trying to deal with a real lack of development resources, either due to lay-offs or diversion to some higher-priority project(s).
All in favor of boycotting the book say 'AYE!'
AYE!
Meh. I'm not going to buy it, but I'm not going to call that a 'boycott.' I haven't been buying much D&D stuff lately, and, when I do buy, it's usually something that's been out quite a while that I'm just getting around to.
A boycott is usually vs a company. I say, just don't buy stuff if it's bad - and, OK, admittedly, HoS doesn't look that great - but don't refuse to buy something good, just because the company is also putting out stuff that's bad.
All in favor of boycotting the book say 'AYE!'
AYE!
Well, I'm not really interested in it, but a boycott really cuts in to my "sitting around doing nothing" time. I'll just not buy it, if that's cool. ;)
Since I have no interest in this book, it's not a boycott. Monster Vault, that was a boycott, as I really did want that.
Yes but .... they flat out said the Ravenloft box set is canceled, and not going to be re-evaluated for later release. It's dead, Jim. That is why the Vampire got moved to HoS.
To be fair, Ravenloft isn't dead. It's on life support at Mordenheim's castle. Or rather, more honestly, it still lives on in the domains of dread articles.
Yes but .... they flat out said the Ravenloft box set is canceled, and not going to be re-evaluated for later release. It's dead, Jim. That is why the Vampire got moved to HoS.
To be fair, Ravenloft isn't dead. It's on life support at Mordenheim's castle. Or rather, more honestly, it still lives on in the domains of dread articles.
Which we haven't gotten one of in a while.
Yes but .... they flat out said the Ravenloft box set is canceled, and not going to be re-evaluated for later release. It's dead, Jim. That is why the Vampire got moved to HoS.
To be fair, Ravenloft isn't dead. It's on life support at Mordenheim's castle. Or rather, more honestly, it still lives on in the domains of dread articles.
Which we haven't gotten one of in a while.
I'm not a subscriber, so I don't know when the last one came out. It is my opinion however that WotC is going to migrate more content to their digital offerings to encourage DDI subs and to reduce distribution costs.
It really does seem like they were going out of their way to design the vamp as rigid. I mean I know that they wanted to try "radical" things, but this isn't really the radical direction I was hoping for.
My first thought runs that the Vamp will get free MC in my games. I'll have to see it first, but I'm getting suspicious.
personally, i'm just going to convert it to a theme, since really thats all it is...
I'm not a subscriber, so I don't know when the last one came out. It is my opinion however that WotC is going to migrate more content to their digital offerings to encourage DDI subs and to reduce distribution costs.
Thats a great theory and has been implied by some at WOTC, but honestly the last couple of "issues" of both magazine have been article poor (oh and yeah not really issues at all now that we are too lazy to gather them as such) in both quantity and quality. If the magazines are taking over for the cancelled books, then we actually should see an increase not a decrease in page count, but that hasnt happened so far, and the list for April doesnt appear to buck the recent trend. Todays podcast was also more then a little disappointing.
I'm not a subscriber, so I don't know when the last one came out. It is my opinion however that WotC is going to migrate more content to their digital offerings to encourage DDI subs and to reduce distribution costs.
Thats a great theory and has been implied by some at WOTC, but honestly the last couple of "issues" of both magazine have been article poor (oh and yeah not really issues at all now that we are too lazy to gather them as such) in both quantity and quality. If the magazines are taking over for the cancelled books, then we actually should see an increase not a decrease in page count, but that hasnt happened so far, and the list for April doesnt appear to buck the recent trend.
Honestly, I would say that's not conclusive. If they are reformatting the online magazines to accomodate the additional content, then it might also be subject to a slowdown before the new policy begins. Of course, my stance is only an opinion as well.
Todays podcast was also more then a little disappointing.
Idk. I don't listen to the podcasts.
I'm not a subscriber, so I don't know when the last one came out. It is my opinion however that WotC is going to migrate more content to their digital offerings to encourage DDI subs and to reduce distribution costs.
Thats a great theory and has been implied by some at WOTC, but honestly the last couple of "issues" of both magazine have been article poor (oh and yeah not really issues at all now that we are too lazy to gather them as such) in both quantity and quality. If the magazines are taking over for the cancelled books, then we actually should see an increase not a decrease in page count, but that hasnt happened so far, and the list for April doesnt appear to buck the recent trend. Todays podcast was also more then a little disappointing.
On the contrary, April's content calendar looks more full than it has been in months. I think we've passed through the low point, and we've started the climb back up now. Of course, two weeks of no content is more than a little strange, but I can understand why they would rather release all the content in the last three weeks of the month than do a rush job.
If you read Steve Winter's twitter, or followed a few threads on the forums that WotC employees were posting in at the end of last month, the reason why some of the articles were delayed a few hours or days were because of typing errors for things like the letters in The Legacy of Baelard adventure, for example.
While the writing may have been done for some time now, a lot of the final editing still is done the month of release. And that they update articles a few weeks after release show that they're catching things late. But of course, with the new way of doing things, updates/errata for articles shouldn't be as common, because they're getting the same treatment as physical books and box sets and such, and I don't know how much ahead of the game they're working on these things now that they're putting them through larger review processes. But the evidence points that they need the extra time to fix the editing.
Also, it seems that the editorials aren't written until nearly the last minute, based on certain tweets, blogs, and forum posts that I've read. The columns too seem to be written only a day or two ahead of time (but must be a bit more proactive, since they are VERY good about having those out at midnight EDT).
And the weekly Bart blog telling what's in store for the week in Dungeon and Dragon magazines is supposed to come back on Monday. They made their deadlines last month. I think it's better to take the first week and a half to two weeks off from publishing material in order to refine and make sure things are on schedule for the rest of the month than to be trying to churn things out every day and constantly fall behind schedule until they kick themselves on the last few days and somehow pull out seven articles in two days.
I don't know about that. That sounds like a whole lot of speculation based in negative feelings, rather than in looking at the facts presented to us (or what they claim are the facts, but I'll assume WotC aren't outright lying to us on Twitter, blogs, and forums).
If you read Steve Winter's twitter, or followed a few threads on the forums that WotC employees were posting in at the end of last month, the reason why some of the articles were delayed a few hours or days were because of typing errors for things like the letters in The Legacy of Baelard adventure, for example.
While the writing may have been done for some time now, a lot of the final editing still is done the month of release. And that they update articles a few weeks after release show that they're catching things late. But of course, with the new way of doing things, updates/errata for articles shouldn't be as common, because they're getting the same treatment as physical books and box sets and such, and I don't know how much ahead of the game they're working on these things now that they're putting them through larger review processes. But the evidence points that they need the extra time to fix the editing.
Also, it seems that the editorials aren't written until nearly the last minute, based on certain tweets, blogs, and forum posts that I've read. The columns too seem to be written only a day or two ahead of time (but must be a bit more proactive, since they are VERY good about having those out at midnight EDT).
And the weekly Bart blog telling what's in store for the week in Dungeon and Dragon magazines is supposed to come back on Monday. They made their deadlines last month. I think it's better to take the first week and a half to two weeks off from publishing material in order to refine and make sure things are on schedule for the rest of the month than to be trying to churn things out every day and constantly fall behind schedule until they kick themselves on the last few days and somehow pull out seven articles in two days.
Oh, you mean like an end of month deadline?
While it's tempting to note the 'continued support' and 'compatibility' of casters, especially Mage builds with the wizard, and visualize a conspiracy to return the imbalanced god-wizards of yester-editions, an alternate explanation that fits the facts just as well is simply WotC trying to deal with a real lack of development resources, either due to lay-offs or diversion to some higher-priority project(s).
Like board games and collectible cards.
Oh, you mean like an end of month deadline?
Sorry, I must be too dullwitted to follow your logic. Could you explain what you mean, Iokiare?
Seriously Damon_tor, where did you get your book early from. Since I can't find the complete and full stats for the vampire class, I would like to know so I can buy my book early too.
some local brick & mortars have it early, like ones that run wizards events and stuff. There's a term for it, I forget. It's a way WotC tries to support the local stores that help build the fanbase to compete against online distributors with their massive discounts and megastores with their giant selections.
Part of my pestering was to say "if you have this hard math that the vampire is the worst striker since greedo became an Ossassin and shot first with no shrouds" then back it up with some math from the book.
I highly suspect at the time that statment was made that he didn't have the book and was making opinions from half informed "facts."
And I think the word you were looking for was "premier" stores?
I didn't want to believe it myself (rather vocally at that), but doing a math comparison of a 1st level Vamp vs 1st level Ossassin, the Ossassin does seem to come out on top.
That said, what we've seen of the dailies look pretty. . . controllery, and the main encounter power didn't seem like it scaled particularly well, and being implement based isn't exactly promising to begin with (less damage support for implements then weapons), so it's not looking promising, it's just not a closed book.
And this slight lingering optimism is coming from someone who doesn't like the execution of the Vampire regardless due to the railroading.
And the lv 11 choice for the bloodline of your paragon path basically makes it 2 different paragon paths. With different static bonuses, encounter, utility and dailly.
As some one else pointed out 2 and 22 are the only times you chosse a utility all other utility, encounter, and daily powers are granted by a class feature just like a warlock's at-wills.
The at-wills are lv1 though so a PHB 1/2 elf could dilletante them.
Also kind of cool one of the Vryloka utilitys lets you use blood magic to resurect a dead ally and if you the other player and the DM agree you can turn a human into a Vryloka.
I didn't want to believe it myself (rather vocally at that), but doing a math comparison of a 1st level Vamp vs 1st level Ossassin, the Ossassin does seem to come out on top.
Mabye it balances across levels? Y'know, not so hot at low level, but rocks at Paragon or dominates (pi) at Epic?
I didn't want to believe it myself (rather vocally at that), but doing a math comparison of a 1st level Vamp vs 1st level Ossassin, the Ossassin does seem to come out on top.
Mabye it balances across levels? Y'know, not so hot at low level, but rocks at Paragon or dominates (pi) at Epic?
Gygaxian class balance awesome....
Before it got deleted there was a thread on the CharOps board where a guy who had gotten HoS from a Premier Store was posting full power info. Like, entire stat blocks minus the fluff. Which is why it got deleted I'd assume. But he wrote out what each of the Vampire At-Wills do, as well as a few of the later attacks.
I didn't want to believe it myself (rather vocally at that), but doing a math comparison of a 1st level Vamp vs 1st level Ossassin, the Ossassin does seem to come out on top.
Fair enough. I see the Vampire as doing a generous amount of damage, the slam dealing an average of 5.5 (die) + 5 (prim atribute) + 3 (secondary attribute) which is 13.5 damage. It's Prim stat vs ref so that is an average chance to hit. 60, 65%? is that so terrible?
In short, yes, it is.
For comparison, the damage is identical to what sorcerers do at-will, but they do so at range, and have options for multi-targeting. Sorcerers don't to great at-will single target damage, but they are the archtypical multi-target strikers. Vampires don't have that excuse. Warlocks do similar (though marginally higher) at-will damage, also at range, but they also have Prime Shot (situational +1 to attacks) to boost their damage while in close combat. The vampire has to get his super-fragile butt into melee to put out anything like similar damage, and he has no attack bonus, and no non-daily multi-targeting capacity.
Most dedicated single-target strikers have some form of +attack bonus. Slayers and Thieves get a straight-up +1 to attacks, plus they can use +3 weapons right off the bat. Monks are also-multi-target, but can straight-up out-damage a vampire even vs a single target dispite very similar mechanics, and do so with far superior mobility and versatility.
There is no mechanical reason to play a vampire. Every other striker in the game deals more or similar single-target damage, and has other things going for it as well. The only thing about this class which may be useful is the odd healing surge mechanics, though I see this being a weakness at least as often as it's a benefit without the backup of some serious cheese.
Something i don't understand is why people get so bothered by the lack of options for the vampire,
I do. The biggest two are people like options even if they are never going to actually use them. The second id people like to complain. As for the rest of your post you have assumed what is going on on other peoples games so it is based on an assumption that might not be true.
Personally I would like more options, but it isn't a requirement for me to like the class.
Gygaxian class balance awesome....
Short version: it's not about gygaxian balance. It's about acknowledging that the ossassin problem isn't with their first level output, it's with scaling. Showing that the vampire's first level output is less then the assassin doesn't show they fail as a striker at all. If they're dealing equal or less damage then the osssassin at levels 11, 15, 21, 25 then there's a problem, because the ossassin output at those levels is actually bad.
There was a touch of humor in there you seem to be missing... the basic definition of Gygaxian balance ... making up for potentially long periods of suckage by making everyone else like baggage carriers. Tony was implying they could sneak that in on us. Duskweaver then confirmed the tone of Mearles post was way too fond of something very very broken...
Lost Boys burst in to flames in sunlight, have flying early on (use motorcycles ie mount as a focus for overland flight) - Probably have to play at level 16 - but no shape shifting more than a shifter has.