Vampire: The Masquerade – Bound by Blood - Issues and Support Thread

"When you feed, roll up to your maximum Feed Dice plus your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1). The creature takes Necrotic damage equal to the roll’s total. This damage only reduces the creature’s Hit Point maximum by an amount equal to the roll’s total."

I think this bit should be changed. The "only" makes the whole thing muddy. I'm reading it two ways:

1) this damage only causes max HP loss - this would make sentence two irrelevant. It's also not how regular enemy vampires work.

2) this damage only reduces the creature's maximum HP by the rolled total - as opposed to what? You wouldn't say "this magic sword does only 3d6 damage" unless there's a reason to believe the value would be different. I'm assuming the intent is that the creature takes X necrotic damage (which might be boosted by a buff or they might be vulnerable) and then they take max HP damage excluding any buffs or vulnerability, hence saying "only." But... that doesn't actually make sense. It already says they reduce max HP equal to the rolled total, not the damage taken, so the value doesn't care if the enemy was vulnerable or whatever.

Regardless of the intent, I also just think the third sentence is flawed. So I roll 2d6+2 and manage a lucky 14. The enemy takes half of it because they're resistant, so they lose 7 current HP. They lose max HP equal to the rolled total of the damage - so 14? Why isn't it just equal to the damage taken?

I get that this class is intended to be used by everyone in a party, but it does seem a little silly that giving your blood to a regular person buffs them a ton, except they have disadvantage on being Frightened or Charmed by undead for a year afterwards. Meanwhile if you feed them your blood 3 times with long rests in between, they get advantage against being Charmed or Frightened by other creatures for a year... the only downside for them is they're also Charmed by you for that year, which is more of an in-character ethical dilemma than a mechanical issue.

Quote from HereThereEverywhere >>

"When you feed, roll up to your maximum Feed Dice plus your Constitution modifier (minimum of 1). The creature takes Necrotic damage equal to the roll’s total. This damage only reduces the creature’s Hit Point maximum by an amount equal to the roll’s total."

I think this bit should be changed. The "only" makes the whole thing muddy. I'm reading it two ways:

1) this damage only causes max HP loss - this would make sentence two irrelevant. It's also not how regular enemy vampires work.

2) this damage only reduces the creature's maximum HP by the rolled total - as opposed to what? You wouldn't say "this magic sword does only 3d6 damage" unless there's a reason to believe the value would be different. I'm assuming the intent is that the creature takes X necrotic damage (which might be boosted by a buff or they might be vulnerable) and then they take max HP damage excluding any buffs or vulnerability, hence saying "only." But... that doesn't actually make sense. It already says they reduce max HP equal to the rolled total, not the damage taken, so the value doesn't care if the enemy was vulnerable or whatever.

Regardless of the intent, I also just think the third sentence is flawed. So I roll 2d6+2 and manage a lucky 14. The enemy takes half of it because they're resistant, so they lose 7 current HP. They lose max HP equal to the rolled total of the damage - so 14? Why isn't it just equal to the damage taken?

 

 

I get that this class is intended to be used by everyone in a party, but it does seem a little silly that giving your blood to a regular person buffs them a ton, except they have disadvantage on being Frightened or Charmed by undead for a year afterwards. Meanwhile if you feed them your blood 3 times with long rests in between, they get advantage against being Charmed or Frightened by other creatures for a year... the only downside for them is they're also Charmed by you for that year, which is more of an in-character ethical dilemma than a mechanical issue.

 This thread is for support and issue reporting on the books implementation on DDB, not for the book itself. For that you probably want to reach out to White Wolf