In effect, this vampire uses a concept of feeding and powers similar to what some other settings have done, such as The Elder Scrolls and Daybreakers, where vampires who feed regularly maintain humanity and grace, while those who abstain become the more feral vampires. This is their core striker/controller mechanic: feed, and you are a controller, dominating minds and being all pretty. Go hungry, and you become a striker, brutal and animalistic.
As such, you are effectively building two characters who progress in two different ways. In your Sated State, you choose powers much like an O4e class did, gaining several encounter and daily powers which effect the minds of your opponents in different ways. In your Ravenous State, you are more like an Essentials character, with no daily powers and one repeatable encounter ability. Untilities will be designed to work with either state.
Dexterity is the secondary score of this class, while it switches between strength and charisma for it's primary scores while ravenous or sated, respectively. The scores themselves actually swap: If a Vampire has a score of 20 str, 16 dex, 11 cha while ravenous, while sated he will have a score of 11 str, 16 dex, and 20 cha while sated. This means a race with a str bonus but no cha bonus will effectively get the bonus for both, depending on his state, and vice versa.
Below are the notes I've been writing for the concept. Feel free to comment on what you think will and will not work, and your suggestions for what anything left unwritten should look like.
Role: Striker and Controller. Depending on your current state, you can bend minds to your will or rend flesh like a beast
Power Source: Shadow. You are a creature of the night, blessed with a dark gift and a terrible curse.
Weapon Proficiencies: Simple Weapons, Vampire Unarmed Strike
Implement Proficiencies: Vitae
Armor Proficiencies: Cloth
Class Features
Feast and Famine
During each short rest, you can choose to feed on a willing or helpless living creature of size small or larger. During any rest, if you have been bloodied since your last rest, or have not fed in the last three days, you become ravenous if you do not feed. Otherwise, you remain sated. If you wish, you can ritualistically bleed yourself during a short rest to bring on the ravenous state yourself.
If you feed, you are Sated: you appear to be a living member of your race and can easily hide your vampiric traits, gaining a +5 bonus to bluff checks made disguise your true nature. In this state, you use the higher score of strength or charisma as your charisma score, and the lower score as your strength score. In this state you are a controller, and have access to a greater variety of mind-altering powers and abilities, but lose your higher damaging abilities and feral might. You take no penalty in sunlight while sated.
If you choose not to feed, you are ravenous: you cannot easily hide your true nature, taking on the pallor, fangs, and sunken features of the undead. In this state, you use the higher score of strength or charisma as your strength score, and the lower score as your charisma score. In this state, you are a striker, losing access to your potent controlling powers, but gaining access to higher damage, and the Feral Might class feature. While in this state, if you end your turn in direct sunlight, you take damage equal to your radiant vulnerability (as if you had taken radiant damage)
For the sake of meeting prerequisites for feats and other elements, you can take any feat you meet the prerequisite for in either state.
Feral Might
While you are ravenous, add your dexterity modifier to your damage rolls with vampire attacks. This bonus increases to 1d6+Dexterity Modifier at 5th level, 2d6+Dexterity Modifier at 15th level, and 3d6+Dexterity Modifier at 25th level.
Vampiric Nature
You can use your fangs and claws to make unarmed attacks with brutal ferocity. When you make an unarmed weapon attack, you can use the Vampire Unarmed Strike to do so. This weapon is a melee weapon in the unarmed group with the offhand property that deals 1d8 damage and has a proficiency bonus of +3.
While you have at least one hand free, you gain a +2 shield bonus to AC and Reflexes.
You have a vulnerability to radiant damage equal to 5+half your level. you have a resistance to necrotic damage equal to 5+half your level.
Vitae
The "implements" used by vampires consist of the special properties of the blood from which they feed, the essence of powerful creatures, charismatic leaders, or other unique individuals. Once a vampire consumes the vitae of an individual, that essence remains within him, ready to empower the vampire's attacks. Vitae lends it's enhancement bonus not only to the vampire's implement attacks, but to his weapon attacks as well, just as a ki focus can be used in place of a weapon's enhancement bonus. While a vampire can store an unlimited quantity of vitae, he can only use one at a time. During a short rest, he can choose to tap a different reserve of vitae if he wishes.
Vitae does not need to be drained directly from a living victim. secret markets exist, where vampires can purchase bottles of distilled vitae, and they extract any vitae they have stored from themselves for sale in such places, though doing so removes it from their system. In addition, the Create Magic Item ritual can enchant ordinary blood to turn it into vitae.
Powers for Sated State
These powers will be renamed, refluffed, and set to use charisma as the primary skill. Some damage types may be changed for flavor. Generally, exisitng vampire daily powers will be included amongst the selections. Note that none of these powers are avalable while ravenous.
I'll be building up this list over time. I'd love suggestions for what powers to include and how they can be refluffed. Looking for 4-6 power choices at each level, and I'm looking for mix of mind-control, shapeshifting, dark-forces control (summoning swarms of bats, fog, etc) and other abilities well suited for the intelligent manipulator vampire.
Level 1
Encounter:
Chill Strike (PHB, Wizard)
Daily:
Sleep (PHB, Wizard)
Level 2
Encounter:
Icy Rays (PHB, Wizard)
Level 5
Daily:
Stinking Cloud (PHB, Wizard)
Level 7
Encounter:
Level 9
Daily:
Level 13
Encounter:
Mesmeric Hold (PHB, Wizard)
Level 15
Daily:
Level 17
Encounter:
Ice Tomb (PHB, Wizard)
Level 19
Daily:
Evard's Black Tentacles (PHB, Wizard)
Level 23
Encounter:
Level 25
Daily:
Necrotic Web (PHB, Wizard)
Level 27
Encounter:
Confusion (PHB, Wizard)
Level 29
Daily:
These powers will be renamed, refluffed, and set to use charisma as the primary skill. Some damage types may be changed for flavor. Generally, exisitng vampire daily powers will be included amongst the selections. Note that none of these powers are avalable while ravenous.
I'll be building up this list over time. I'd love suggestions for what powers to include and how they can be refluffed. Looking for 4-6 power choices at each level, and I'm looking for mix of mind-control, shapeshifting, dark-forces control (summoning swarms of bats, fog, etc) and other abilities well suited for the intelligent manipulator vampire.
Level 1
Encounter:
Chill Strike (PHB, Wizard)
Daily:
Sleep (PHB, Wizard)
Level 2
Encounter:
Icy Rays (PHB, Wizard)
Level 5
Daily:
Stinking Cloud (PHB, Wizard)
Level 7
Encounter:
Level 9
Daily:
Level 13
Encounter:
Mesmeric Hold (PHB, Wizard)
Level 15
Daily:
Level 17
Encounter:
Ice Tomb (PHB, Wizard)
Level 19
Daily:
Evard's Black Tentacles (PHB, Wizard)
Level 23
Encounter:
Level 25
Daily:
Necrotic Web (PHB, Wizard)
Level 27
Encounter:
Confusion (PHB, Wizard)
Level 29
Daily:
On the one hand, you've got a control-heavy psionic monster capable of draining vitae from a distance. On the other, a fast, vicious beast that sups directly on blood. Granted, it doesn't hit most images of vampires on the head, but (to me), it seems a bit smoother than making mechanics for feeding.
Anyway. I'm gonna follow this one, just 'cus I want to see a useful vampire. Good hunting! :3
Why a class, at all? Why not a race like the revenant, or a Theme?
Or two themes (if you want two different things).
I don't think a class is a bad idea - but I think themes might be a better idea. At least consider it.
Oh, and vitae might be more of a problem than its worth, as you would need to create a whole new set of implements. I would consider making vitae a basic magic implement with no properties other than pluses and crit damage, and allowing them the use of ki focus.
Why a class, at all? Why not a race like the revenant, or a Theme?
^^^ This. So very much this. And I have a few reasons why I don't want to go with a class.
1) A vampire should be able to fill any role, like a race. We have several vampiric examples from myth and literature of different classes/roles. Dracula is a warrior (perhaps a flighter, warlord, knight, or slayer), Strahd is a wizard (though he has warrior roots), Lestat is an artist (perhaps a bard), and there is no dearth of other examples.
In order to have the ability to fill any role, this cuts classes out of the running.
2) A vampire should retain some or all of their racial traits. Some of the best vampires I have ever seen in D&D are Ravenloft's non-human vampires (elves, dwarves, etc). This means you either need to have a vampire variation for each race (though awesome, this is ultimately untenable), or you need to let the vampire keep some or all of their race's qualities.
In order to keep some or all racial qualities, this cuts a vampire race out of the running.
In the light of races and classes being cut from the list, this ultimately leaves us with only 2 options from the existing material: Themes, and Bloodline Feats. The only real problem with losing a "vampire class" as an option is that you lose some of the vampire feel because they don't have a host of vampire-themed powers.
There are a couple different ways we can remedy this.
1) Create a suite of vampire powers. When a vampire gains a class power (or trades-up for a higher level power, etc), they may select one of these powers instead. The only problem I see with this is that it dilutes the vampire's effectiveness as a member of that class.
2) Create riders that vampires can attach to class powers; perhaps in exchange for a resource like an action point, or healing surge, or a form of power points unique to the vampire (the power of the blood, etc).
But that's just my
Especially with the HoS "Race, Drawback, and Racial Powers", I think it's doable.
Why a class, at all? Why not a race like the revenant, or a Theme?
I have a feeling I'm going to be facing a player who wants to play one on a few weeks. He's all geeked out about it, and yeah, the class-based structure seems to be important to him (he never seemed to care about the dhampyre or vyrloka) so I want there to be something there for him that isn't... what we got. I don't want to say no to him, and I don't really want to be a dick and tell him to refluff a rogue, as much as that's what I feel he should do.
As for effort: the powers will likely be ripped wholesale from other controllers, psions and wizards and even bards and warlocks and the like. For the vitae, I'll be refluffing existing ki foci. The ravenous half should be easy, since it's a no-powers-gained essentials-style class-in-a-box.
For the record, I'm open to suggestions on what powers to include.
I have a feeling I'm going to be facing a player who wants to play one on a few weeks. He's all geeked out about it, and yeah, the class-based structure seems to be important to him (he never seemed to care about the dhampyre or vyrloka) so I want there to be something there for him that isn't... what we got.
Meh. Let him be dissapointed... if he even is. He may be perfectly happy with the Vamp in HoS.
I have a feeling I'm going to be facing a player who wants to play one on a few weeks. He's all geeked out about it, and yeah, the class-based structure seems to be important to him (he never seemed to care about the dhampyre or vyrloka) so I want there to be something there for him that isn't... what we got.
Meh. Let him be dissapointed... if he even is. He may be perfectly happy with the Vamp in HoS.
He might be fine brining it to the table, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with it sitting at my table. A PC without a combat role (and make no mistake, that's exactly what the HoS vampire is) means I'm going to have to coddle my party. Further, the healing surge mechanics are just too complicated, and I really don't like having to plan around really off-the-wall mechanics. Example: in an skill-challenge enounter I ran a while ago, the PCs had to navigate a burning building to search for survivors and get them out. The smoke levels were constantly rising: each round required an endurance check from each PC, fail and you lose a HS, and each round the DC goes up by 1. Effectively, it's a timing mechanicsm, and it worked well (and it served to drain party resources before what I expected would be a low-encounter day, simply due to the nature of the narrative)
That sort of thing just doesn't work with the HoS vampire, because the vampire is built under the assumption that he will only be losing healing surges in combat where he can regain them via his encounter power, dispite the fact that loss of healing surges is a very common penalty for skill challenge failures. As in character as it may be for the vampire to drain dry the poor little girl he rescues from the fire, I'd like that sort of decision to be a decision made my a roleplayer with their character's thoughts and actions in mind, not become a mechanical necessity.
That healing surge weirdness is built into the class pretty deep, too deep to reasonably expect to dig out without effectively rewriting the class anyway.
While ravenous you cat your vapire unarmed attack. But instead of getting defensive bonuses you are considered wielding 2 weapons (so you can take all two weapon fighting feats). Turn them into glass cannons, but allow feats to boost their defenses. Then give the ravenous side of the class "bunch of" two weapon powers, though I would give them some kind of a blood drain/heal encounter power. If you fo this route you might need to adjust Feral Might.
Oh, I might allow them to use Str/Cha (depending on their curren state) to be used for their AC instead of Dex/Int, to simulate unnatural toughness. But I would still keep armor at cloth only.
I would also make a feat to give their claws high crit and/or brutal property.
As for PPs, I would make seperate one for each state, forcing the player to pick their "primary" nature by thid level.
Sated powers should focus on fear/charm/domination effects.
He might be fine brining it to the table, but that doesn't mean I'm okay with it sitting at my table. A PC without a combat role (and make no mistake, that's exactly what the HoS vampire is) means I'm going to have to coddle my party.
OK, I can see that. I'm just thinking, if the player is excited about the class, he might be dissapointed with it heavily re-designed. You know your player, though.
Further, the healing surge mechanics are just too complicated, and I really don't like having to plan around really off-the-wall mechanics. Example: in an skill-challenge enounter I ran a while ago, the PCs had to navigate a burning building to search for survivors and get them out. The smoke levels were constantly rising: each round required an endurance check from each PC, fail and you lose a HS, and each round the DC goes up by 1. Effectively, it's a timing mechanicsm, and it worked well (and it served to drain party resources before what I expected would be a low-encounter day, simply due to the nature of the narrative)
That sort of thing just doesn't work with the HoS vampire, because the vampire is built under the assumption that he will only be losing healing surges in combat where he can regain them via his encounter power, dispite the fact that loss of healing surges is a very common penalty for skill challenge failures.
You could rationalize not giving the Vampire surge loss in many of those, in the theory that, well, he's a vampire, and less prone to the weaknesses of mere mortals...
As in character as it may be for the vampire to drain dry the poor little girl he rescues from the fire, I'd like that sort of decision to be a decision made my a roleplayer with their character's thoughts and actions in mind, not become a mechanical necessity.
Or that, yeah.
That healing surge weirdness is built into the class pretty deep, too deep to reasonably expect to dig out without effectively rewriting the class anyway.
I suppose you could just play it straight and it might take care of itself, when he 'goes into torpor' in every other Skill Challenge. ;) But, yes, I see the point. The class is an abberation (oddly apropriate, in a way).
He's not exited about the class because it's any good, I don't think, I think he's just grooving on the idea that he gets to play a vampire in the complete kind of way only a class can really deliver, and I get that. I'm hoping that this class feels like a straight upgrade from the one in HoS: perhaps I'll leave in some kind of a compromised version of the healing surge oddity, like instead of 2 healing surges they get 4+Con Mod (still exceedingly low for a striker) but keep their bloodied regeneration and (at least in ravenous state) blood sucker encounter power intact while eliminating their "feed on allies' surges during rests at 2X efficiency" ability.