I'm doing prep for my first time dming in a one shot and I decided to try making my own villain based on the vampire stat block. This is going to be taking place in my DM's pre-existing world and the hook is that a Jack the Ripper style serial killer is roaming the Victorian/steampunk streets and its up to the heroes to find and stop him. I have a character sheet made for him with 6 levels of Warlock/6 levels of Rogue, Vampire abilities, and some homebrew that I'll post here in a sec. The One Shot will consist of 4-5 level 8 PCs. Let me know what you think of these abilities and if you think they're fair or they need some tweaking:
Killer Instinct: When taking the Attack Action, can switch the shape of his hex weapon from a knife to either a rapier, whip, or longbow. Can only do so once per turn. Butcher Bill can make two attacks on their turn when they take the attack action: two with a hex weapon or one with an hex weapon and one bite attack. The bite deals 1d6 + 10 necrotic damage and heals the Butcher equal to the amount of damage dealt by the bite attack.
Path of the Grave: If the Butcher scores a critical hit, he regains a warlock spell slot.
Vampiric Charm (3/day): As an Action, The Butcher can attempt to charm one humanoid. If they fail a DC 17 Wis save, they are charmed and regard The Butcher as a friend and ally, and will follow commands from the Butcher . Any time the Butcher or the Butcher’s allies attack the charmed person or deal damage to it, it can repeat the save. While charmed, the Butcher has advantage on attacks against this individual. Otherwise, the charmed condition lasts 24 hours or if the Butcher ends it as a bonus action.
Reaper of the Chaf (1 charge): As a Legendary Action, The Butcher can cast a spell or make an additional attack capable of smiting and/or sneak attack.
Children of the Hex (2 charges): The Butcher can also summon 1d6 spectres as a Legendary Action. These spectres act on their own initiative and will obey any verbal commands the Butcher issues. These spectres also benefit from Accursed Spectre from warlock abilities.
If the pcs are unable to stop Butcher Bill before he kills his 6th victim, then Butcher Bill will become fused with a devil and gain new powers and legendary actions, at the cost of losing immunity to vampiric weaknesses (i.e., a wooden stake will paralyze him, and the sun deals radiant damage to him).
Screech of the Faithless (2 charges): As a Legendary Action, Butcher Bill can now let out a deafening scream. All creatures within a 20ft sphere around The Butcher capable of hearing must succeed on a Wis 17 saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. Creatures that fail this save can attempt to make it again at the start of their turn to be unstunned.
Vampiric Might: The Butcher deals an extra d8 of fire damage on all weapon attacks and can now make three attacks when they take the Attack Action: two with a hex weapon and one bite attack. The Butcher scores a critical hit on a 19 or a 20. The Butcher is also now resistant to fire damage, can cast cantrips as a bonus action, and gains 30 temp hp and a flying speed equal to its walking speed.
Devilish Charm: Vampiric Charm can now be used as a bonus action, and creatures affected by Vampiric Charm view their allies as their enemies so long as they remain charmed.
Wrath of the Grave (1/day): As an Action, The Butcher can cause all spectres currently summoned to erupt in an explosion of flames. Any creature with 5ft of a spectre when it detonates must make a DC 15 Dexterity Saving Throw. On a failure, they take 3d6 fire damage and are blasted back 10ft. On a success, they take half damage and are not blasted back. The explosions happen simultaneously, so any creature caught in multiple explosions will take more damage but will only need to make a single Dex Saving Throw.
Personally, I'd back up and not bother making a full character sheet for the NPC. A few things jump out to me: first, vampiric charm is extremely powerful. A character gets one save, or they're dominated for a day. The vampire would be foolish to attack the charmed character, so the only other way to resist the effect would be for some other player to have some counter to the charmed condition. Either way, you're potentially talking about having three PCs out of the game for an entire day. Also, it's not clear what the charges referred to in the Reaper of the Chaf, Children of the Hex, Screech of the Faithless are based on. Usually magic items have charges. Is this based on something like that?
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Hey guys,
I'm doing prep for my first time dming in a one shot and I decided to try making my own villain based on the vampire stat block. This is going to be taking place in my DM's pre-existing world and the hook is that a Jack the Ripper style serial killer is roaming the Victorian/steampunk streets and its up to the heroes to find and stop him. I have a character sheet made for him with 6 levels of Warlock/6 levels of Rogue, Vampire abilities, and some homebrew that I'll post here in a sec. The One Shot will consist of 4-5 level 8 PCs. Let me know what you think of these abilities and if you think they're fair or they need some tweaking:
Killer Instinct: When taking the Attack Action, can switch the shape of his hex weapon from a knife to either a rapier, whip, or longbow. Can only do so once per turn. Butcher Bill can make two attacks on their turn when they take the attack action: two with a hex weapon or one with an hex weapon and one bite attack. The bite deals 1d6 + 10 necrotic damage and heals the Butcher equal to the amount of damage dealt by the bite attack.
Path of the Grave: If the Butcher scores a critical hit, he regains a warlock spell slot.
Vampiric Charm (3/day): As an Action, The Butcher can attempt to charm one humanoid. If they fail a DC 17 Wis save, they are charmed and regard The Butcher as a friend and ally, and will follow commands from the Butcher . Any time the Butcher or the Butcher’s allies attack the charmed person or deal damage to it, it can repeat the save. While charmed, the Butcher has advantage on attacks against this individual. Otherwise, the charmed condition lasts 24 hours or if the Butcher ends it as a bonus action.
Reaper of the Chaf (1 charge): As a Legendary Action, The Butcher can cast a spell or make an additional attack capable of smiting and/or sneak attack.
Children of the Hex (2 charges): The Butcher can also summon 1d6 spectres as a Legendary Action. These spectres act on their own initiative and will obey any verbal commands the Butcher issues. These spectres also benefit from Accursed Spectre from warlock abilities.
If the pcs are unable to stop Butcher Bill before he kills his 6th victim, then Butcher Bill will become fused with a devil and gain new powers and legendary actions, at the cost of losing immunity to vampiric weaknesses (i.e., a wooden stake will paralyze him, and the sun deals radiant damage to him).
Screech of the Faithless (2 charges): As a Legendary Action, Butcher Bill can now let out a deafening scream. All creatures within a 20ft sphere around The Butcher capable of hearing must succeed on a Wis 17 saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. Creatures that fail this save can attempt to make it again at the start of their turn to be unstunned.
Vampiric Might: The Butcher deals an extra d8 of fire damage on all weapon attacks and can now make three attacks when they take the Attack Action: two with a hex weapon and one bite attack. The Butcher scores a critical hit on a 19 or a 20. The Butcher is also now resistant to fire damage, can cast cantrips as a bonus action, and gains 30 temp hp and a flying speed equal to its walking speed.
Devilish Charm: Vampiric Charm can now be used as a bonus action, and creatures affected by Vampiric Charm view their allies as their enemies so long as they remain charmed.
Wrath of the Grave (1/day): As an Action, The Butcher can cause all spectres currently summoned to erupt in an explosion of flames. Any creature with 5ft of a spectre when it detonates must make a DC 15 Dexterity Saving Throw. On a failure, they take 3d6 fire damage and are blasted back 10ft. On a success, they take half damage and are not blasted back. The explosions happen simultaneously, so any creature caught in multiple explosions will take more damage but will only need to make a single Dex Saving Throw.
here's the character sheet itself, the health and resistances are all based on vampiric abilities https://ddb.ac/characters/59338327/hNV2mQ
Personally, I'd back up and not bother making a full character sheet for the NPC. A few things jump out to me: first, vampiric charm is extremely powerful. A character gets one save, or they're dominated for a day. The vampire would be foolish to attack the charmed character, so the only other way to resist the effect would be for some other player to have some counter to the charmed condition. Either way, you're potentially talking about having three PCs out of the game for an entire day. Also, it's not clear what the charges referred to in the Reaper of the Chaf, Children of the Hex, Screech of the Faithless are based on. Usually magic items have charges. Is this based on something like that?