Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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There's a lot of weird errors in the Misty Escape feature for the Vampire.
Misty Escape. If the vampire drops to 0 Hit Points outside its resting place, the vampire uses Shape-Shift to become mist (no action required). If it can’t use Shape-Shift, it is destroyed.
While it has 0 Hit Points in mist form, it can’t return to its vampire form, and it must reach its resting place within 2 hours or be destroyed. Once in its resting place, it returns to its vampire form and has the Paralyzed condition until it regains any Hit Points, and it regains 1 Hit Point after spending 1 hour there.
For instance, is it immune to all damage in mist form, even the damage from sunlight? Can it just die if it takes any damage in mist form? Is it stable, if it can't return to its vampire form, can it still return to its bat form?
Can someone answer this please?
Greetings PPSS2022,
1st Question: Yes it still takes Damage from Sunlight in Mist form which is stated in the Stat Block:
"While in mist form, the vampire can’t take any actions, speak, or manipulate objects. It is weightless and can enter an enemy’s space and stop there. If air can pass through a space, the mist can do so, but it can’t pass through liquid. It has Resistance to all damage, except the damage it takes from sunlight."
2nd Question: Yes it can die if it takes damage in mist form. Per the Stat Block (reading between the lines):
"While it has 0 Hit Points in mist form, it can’t return to its vampire form, and it must reach its resting place within 2 hours or be destroyed."
"It has Resistance to all damage, except the damage it takes from sunlight."
3rd Question: No it cannot shape shift to Bat form at 0HP as it is at 0HP and not able to take actions:
"While in mist form, the vampire can’t take any actions"
"While it has 0 Hit Points in mist form, it can’t return to its vampire form, and it must reach its resting place within 2 hours or be destroyed."
Think of the Mist Form as like an 'auto-pilot' of sorts... When the Vampire is reduced to 0HP they poof into a mist, and the mist takes over trying to get back to its resting place so it can start to regenerate.
Hope this helps!
Cheers :)
Breathe, dragons; sing of the First World, forged out of chaos and painted with beauty.
Sing of Bahamut, the Platinum, molding the shape of the mountains and rivers;
Sing too of Chromatic Tiamat, painting all over the infinite canvas.
Partnered, they woke in the darkness; partnered, they labored in acts of creation.
Not sure why you think any of these are errors, it just seems you need to read the stat block:
No, nowhere on the stat block does it say it's mist form gives it immunity to damage. Mist form gives it resistance to all damage, except the sunlight damage.
RAW no, unless the DM has given the vampire death saving throws. The Misty Escape overrides death at 0 hit points, and instead it remains at 0 until it reaches it's resting place, or the 2 hours expire.
Being stable at 0 hit points only applies if the creature gets death saving throws, so RAW it's not in a state where being stable applies
No, because:
Anything that stops you taking actions stops you taking bonus actions as well. The only thing that can end its mist form is returning to it's resting place
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Thanks for the clarification!
One more thing I wondered: Is the vampire immune to sunlight while Misty Escape is active? (I.e, if you caught the mist in sunlight after one round after Misty Escape was triggered)
There's nothing in the stat block about it being immune to sunlight under any circumstances, so it's not immune while Misty Escape is active, or at any other time.
pronouns: he/she/they
Things do what they say they do. The vampire stat block does not use the word "immune" or "immunity" anywhere on it
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No, what I meant was that if you caught the 0HP mist in sunlight, would it die? If it didn't, that would seem kind of weird.
Davyd explained what happens if it takes damage in mist form in post #3 above.
pronouns: he/she/they
You've already asked that and I already answered:
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I was kind of stumped, too, as I read this thread.
The thing most supported by the rules is that the Misty Escape only applies specifically to a vampire in vampire-form or bat-form; Misty Escape doesn't bail the vampire out if it's in mist form. And even that's a bit of a gray area; can you shapeshift into mist if you're already mist? Common sense says no, but there's at least a little interpretation occurring there.
While there's no specific rule for the weird situation of a creature having 0 hp and not having the destroyed condition (excepting the whole dying / death saves rules, which notably aren't invoked by the stat block), the most straightforward answer is that any further damage of any kind destroys the vampire.
Which really seems like an oversight. They could have just as easily written it to say the mist form is immune to all damage, and then it would ensure any number of PC shenanigans can't derail the iconic escape-and-return trope.
No, it only applies to mist form as a vampire can't enter bat form once misty escape has triggered because it can't take actions while in mist form or while misty escape is active.
Yes it does, because the vampire can't die while misty escape is active unless the 2 hour time limit runs out. They're at 0 hit points but misty escape replaces them dying. They can't lose further hit points so damage does nothing.
No because again, you can't take actions while in mist form. It's not a "common sense" thing, and there's no "little interpretation occurring" because the rules are explicit. Shapeshifting is a bonus action, and anything the prohibits actions also prohibits bonus actions.
There's no destroyed condition. A monster dies when it reaches 0 hit points unless a more specific rule overrides that, such as misty escape.
There's no rule that says that—a creature dies when they are reduced to zero hit points. Taking damage at zero hit points only matters if you're making death saving throws, which by default does not apply to monsters.
It's not, everything is covered here by the rules in the stat block as has been explained.
It doesn't need to, given you can't go below 0 hit points, taking damage at 0 does nothing if you're not making death saving throws, and the misty escape overrides dying when they initially reach 0.
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