A lone figure clad in burnished steel greets the roaring infantry as they charge through the breach in the castle’s walls. In a flash of black mist, the figure appears in front of the soldiers, striking them down with inhuman speed. Candlelight flickers as a hooded adviser leans over an ornate throne, whispering machinations into her lord’s ensnared mind. The chamber erupts in commotion as the lord announces further powers be granted to the resident merchant’s guild. Vampires are creatures of cursed blood and tragic existence. Exquisite food, a warm summer’s breeze, and growing old with loved ones are all luxuries a Vampire will never experience. Unable to enjoy many of the fineries of life as they once knew it, Vampires often become bitter creatures, filled with hate for everything they once loved.
Becoming a Vampire
Vampires are spawned into the world when a mortal contracts the Sanguine Curse, dies, and is reborn undead. There are a variety of ways to contract the curse. A Vampire may have offered their blood to a loyal servant, powerful ally, or loved one they wished to elevate. More commonly, a Vampire may have bitten you, and you survived the Vampire’s attack long enough to contract the Sanguine Curse before perishing and being reborn. Other methods include ancient and dark magic, as well as powerful but cursed magical artifacts. Regardless of how you have become a Vampire, you should discuss with your GM what type of Vampire you would like to become, and how it can be implemented in the campaign.
Dark Desire
Whether or not a vampire retains any memories from its former life, its emotional attachments wither as once-pure feelings become twisted by undeath. Love turns into a hungry obsession, while friendship becomes bitter jealousy. In place of emotion, vampires pursue physical symbols of what they crave, so that a vampire seeking love might fixate on a young beauty. A child might become an object of fascination for a vampire obsessed with youth and potential. Others surround themselves with art, books, or sinister items such as torture devices or trophies from creatures they have killed.
- Dark Desire Table
This section provides a table for players and Dungeon Masters who want to choose or randomly generate dark desires and where they originated from for vampires. It is recommended that if you are picking a desire for an already made character, that you pick traits that oppose or are the warped version of one of your character virtues.
| d8 | Desire | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greed | Greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth. The hoarding of materials or objects, theft, and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by Greed. | Greed can be considered to be the warped form of charity. A generous cleric who becomes a vampire may acquire a taste for the blood of those whose mouths they once fed out of their own pocket. Luring them in with their known charity only to drain them of their lives and possesses. |
| 2 | Lust | Lust is characterized as an intense longing. It is usually thought of as intense or unbridled sexual desire, which leads to fornication, adultery, ****, bestiality, and other fraudulent sexual acts. However, lust can also mean simply desire in general; thus, hunger for money, power, and other things are also considered lust. | Lust strips away the meaning of things and as such, it is produced from chastity or purity. A vampire that once loved someone or something without all their heart may find their love has been warped into a hungry self-destructive obsession. |
| 3 | Gluttony | Gluttony is overindulgence and overconsumption of anything to the point of waste. | Gluttony stems from temperance or self-restraint, a champion fighter might work every day of their life to mold their body into a perfect fighting machine, refraining from eating anything outside of their precisely thought out diet. As a vampire, that same fighter may wipe a village off the face of the planet when they receive even a pang of hunger, drinking, bathing and wastefully spilling the blood of others despite only needing a few sips to sate themselves. |
| 4 | Sloth | Sloth is affectectionless, a lack of any feeling about self or other, a mind-state that gives rise to boredom, rancor, apathy, and a passive inert or sluggish mentation. | Sloth may rise from diligence, zeal, integrity or labor. For example, a Monk who along with his brother who has spent years searching for an item of significance to their monastery that has become a vampire may kill their brother, sell all their research to a rival monastery and then sit in their coffin for as long as they can until their hunger forces them on the hunt. |
| 5 | Wrath | It is important to understand that anger isn't evil nor good, it is a neutral act on the scale of good and evil, however, anger becomes wrath when it is directed against an innocent, when it is unduly, unbending or long-lasting, or when it desires excessive punishment. Anger becomes wrath when it reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound. It is the desiring that someone else may suffer misfortune or evil. | Wrath stems not just from anger, but peace, composure, and forgiveness. It comes from a feeling of being wronged usually. A character that becomes a vampire may seek vengeance against any and all that have wronged them in the most brutal and cruelest fashion they are capable of regardless of the severity of the offense. Another may seek to use their position they held in life to incite war, strife and pain all so they have an excuse to take to the battlefield and rend skin from flesh from bone. |
| 6 | Envy | Envy is the need to have better or be better than others. Is it the need to have the goods, possession or even the connection of others. Wanting what others have for yourself. | Envy stems from kindness and admiration. A once diligent pupil may become envious of their teachers, achievements, skills, abilities and such and thus seem to destroy or take for themselves any of those, potentially wearing the guise of the even diligent student. A wizard's apprentice may steal the spellbook or research of his master, a warrior may challenge his mentor to a dual and using his vampiric might to surpass him to take his formal position as a leader, and one best friend may kill his own just to secure his position as a woman's suitor. |
| 7 | Pride | Pride is considered by some to be the root of all evil and naturally is the most common characteristics for a true vampire to have. The almost stereotypical haughty and self-important vampire lord radiates an aura of superiority as they look down at the foolish adventurers who would dare challenge them. | Unlike the other sins presented here, pride is natural for every true vampire to possess, and if not, it spawns from humility and humbleness. A character once content with dividing up the loot equally may simply demand more, for them with all their pride believe themselves to have done the most to earn such rewards. Or a character who once saw him companions as friends may now view them as expendable servants, as simply means to whatever twisted end, they have concocted. |
| 8 | Roll Twice. |
Rerolling results of 8. |
Level Milestones
The following are examples of possible level milestones for the Vampire:
- Establish a coven of vampire spawn.
- Drink the blood of a legendary monster.
- Learn the great secrets of vampirism from a Vampire Lord.
- Learn to embrace your Hideous Form and lose the ability to conceal it.
- Discover the lost crypts of an ancient vampire and consume its essence.
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Transformation Level 1
Starting at 1st level, you gain the following Transformation Boons and this level’s Transformation Flaw.
Transformation Boon: Blood Fury
You have become possessed by the thirst that grips all Vampires. In combat, this thirst drives you into an insatiable frenzy of bloodshed. Whenever you deal combat damage with an unarmed strike or a melee/ranged weapon to a target that can bleed, and is not undead or a construct, you gain one Fury Point. You may only have a maximum of 4 Fury Points at any time. Upon completing a short or long rest, the number of Fury Points you have is reset to 0. These points are used by certain abilities that you can learn through your transformation levels.
Blood Fury Abilities
You can spend Fury Points (FP) to use the following abilities. The entries below detail their names, Fury Points cost in parentheses, and features:
Fanged Bite (1FP). On your turn, immediately after you take the attack action, you can use your bonus action to make a special unarmed bite attack. You can use your Dexterity modifier instead of strength to hit with this attack. This attack deals piercing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength or Dexterity modifier. The target must then succeed at a Constitution saving throw or take 2d6 necrotic damage. You regain hit point equal to the necrotic damage dealt this way. This attack generates 1 Fury Point as normal. If this attack reduces a humanoid creature of size Medium or smaller to 0 hit points, you gain 3 Fury Points instead.
Calculated Strike (1FP). When you hit with a melee weapon attack, you may use this ability before damage is dealt. If you do so, you may add 1d6 of the same damage as your weapon to the damage result. If this ability is used, no Fury Points are generated for this attack.
Vampiric Mist (2FP). As a bonus action, you can disappear in a puff of shadowy mist and teleport up to 30 feet to an unoccupied space you can see.
Unearthly Reflexes (1FP). After you have rolled a Dexterity saving throw, but before the GM has determined the result, you can use your reaction and take half damage on a failed save, and no damage on a successful one.
Vampire Deathly Horror (3FP). As a bonus action, you can emit a ghastly distortion of your true form. A creature of your choice within 30 feet of you must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or become Frightened of you for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. A creature that succeeds on its saving throw is immune to this ability for 24 hours.
Transformation Boon: Undead Form
Your Dexterity score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1. In addition, your creature type changes to undead. Spells and abilities that state effects or conditions specifically regarding Undead of a specific CR have no effect on you. If a spell or ability other than your own would cause you to gain Hit Points, you gain that many temporary Hit Points instead. If you are reduced to 0 hit points and fall unconscious as a result, any healing you receive will stabilize you and leave you on 1 hit point and unconscious. Furthermore, you cannot die from old age and you do not require air, food or drink.
You also Gain resistance to Bludgeoning, Piercing and Slashing damage from non-magical weapons, but gain vulnerability to Radiant damage.Feeding
Transcended beyond mortal needs, vampires do not need to eat. However, the gripping nature of their curse requires them to feed on the fresh blood of humanoids. A task they undertake with delight.
On your turn, as an action, you can make an unarmed bite attack against an unconcious, restrained or charmed humanoid. If you do so, the target is drained for 1 pint of blood and bears a bite mark on the location you bit them. This attack does not wake sleeping creatures or end the effect of spells and abilities. A creature bitten this way gains a level of exhaustion, which can only be removed with the use of a greater restoration spell.A vampire that does not feed within the required time goes into an unconscious feeding frenzy, under the GM’s control. The next time they sleep or enter a trance they attack all nearby living creatures and attempt to feed on them. A vampire remains in this state until they have drained a creature completely (killing them), at which point the vampire falls unconscious for 4 hours.
Transformation Flaw: The Sanguine Curse
The sanguine curse has taken a hold on you. As a result you gain the following features:
- You cannot enter a residence you do not own without an invitation from one of the occupants. If you enter a residence involuntarily such as by being dragged into one, you take 1d10 psychic damage at the start of your turn while you are inside it.
- You gain Darkvision (60 ft.) if you do not already have it.
- While in sunlight, you have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
- You must feed every 7 days.
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