So one of my players is a Dhampir Warlock (Hexblade) who's patron is an Ancient Vampire. The patron is tempting the PC to feed I on andblood needideas on how to handle it mechanically.
What I'm thinking is the PC has to make daily Con checks to resist the urge to feed (if he chooses not to). If he goes an entire week without feeding then the DC will increase by 1 for the next week and he'll suffer a level of exhaustion. After 2 weeks 2 levels etc. Instead of just dying at exhaustion level 6 his powers will be gone
The patron gets stronger each time the PC feeds so there has to be a consequence for not feeding (the PC side of the pact was that he'd feed in exchange for power). Now the PC has a potion that turns water into blood, because it doesn't have the life force of actual blood drinking it doesn't empower his patron but holds off the effects of not feeding. Once he runs out of the potion though he'll have to start feeling some effects
Make it daily (nightly?) start DC10 CON, fail +1 to DC and disadvantage on next roll, fail by 5 or more same + exhaustion, pass is just pass, pass by 5 or more (or nat 20) remove 1 exhaustion lowers DC by 1 (min 10, advantage on next if already 10). When exhaustion reaches 4, make CHA checks every hour to not start feeding involuntarily against the current DC. Feeding counts as 1-2 crits for each "serving".
I agree with DxJxC that a tiered system is a good idea, though daily is a bit harsh. That would mean this PC needs to kill somebody or at least some beast every night in order to drink. This makes some dungeon delves deadly for this character. Perhaps every 3rd or 4th day would work. You might also consider keying the "urge to feed" off of CHA and make a separate CON check for when the character suffers from Not feeding. This character might become more ghastly and suffer a CHA penalty as a result of going 6 or 8 days without a blood meal, which would A) be fun for RP purposes when this character starts looking like a dried up corpse and B) make it gradually more difficult for the character to resist those sanguine urges.
I agree with DxJxC that a tiered system is a good idea, though daily is a bit harsh. That would mean this PC needs to kill somebody or at least some beast every night in order to drink. This makes some dungeon delves deadly for this character. Perhaps every 3rd or 4th day would work. You might also consider keying the "urge to feed" off of CHA and make a separate CON check for when the character suffers from Not feeding. This character might become more ghastly and suffer a CHA penalty as a result of going 6 or 8 days without a blood meal, which would A) be fun for RP purposes when this character starts looking like a dried up corpse and B) make it gradually more difficult for the character to resist those sanguine urges.
I made the DC start low to compensate for the daily checks. They need to roll a 4 or less on the first night to get exhaustion, 5 or less (with disadvantage) the second night, etc. And if they pass, DC doesn't go up. And the main drawback (the exhaustion) is only on the worst fail tier.
Depending on how good their rolls are, they may need to drink every 2-3 days (like a normal person needs water), or they could go weeks.
Plus, I never said anything about not recovering from exhaustion magically, although in such a situation, I think they should get the exhaustion back in addition to their rolls. Could still help though.
You don't need to kill someone in order to feed from them and not feeding wouldn't be "deadly" as he's only half vampire, that's why I was thinking the final tier of exhaustion removes his power instead of killing him (as normal exhaustion does).
To me I see the check either being a strength of will or their physical ability to resist so Con or Wis saves make sense to me but not Cha. I like the tier idea but at the moment the warlocks patron is just now starting to exert his influence over the PC so I may start it out as the DC increases every week that he resists and then when he's resisted for x amount of time turn it into a daily DC increase as the pressure to feed becomes stronger.
My main trouble is finding consequences for resisting in the early stages of "withdrawal" (the PC has had a couple of instances of feeding already which is what's kick-started the Patron for MORE) and for finding "carrots" that the PC will get for feeding.
For drawbacks in thinking 3 stages with stages escalating the longer he resists
Stage 1: (minor effects, need ideas)
Stage 2: Physical transformation resulting in penalties to Charisma as he starts to starve (affecting his spell casting and skills)
Stage 3: Begins suffering levels of exhaustion and failing could lead to involuntary feeding (maybe something similar to a barbarians raging)
I already have some ideas for carrots, obviously the warlocks power (and benefits he gains from leveling) is the big one but once he reaches certain milestones he'll receive little gifts as a reward from his patron (the more he feeds the more it empowers his patron who is trying to break free from a prison). I've got some additional spells that he'll gain access to as well as 1 or 2 other vampire related abilities
For minor effects think about limiting a few of the recovery mechanics or increasing save DCs. For instance, subtract 1 die from HD recovery during short rests. Or impose disadvantage on saving throws related to 1 type of magical or non-magical damage, like radiant or piercing. Or perhaps this PC receives a 10% chance of being unable to make Attacks of opportunity.
First, what is your goal, exactly, with this urge to feed the patron is pressing onto the character. Is your long term goal, specifically, for the player to eventually fall victim to the thirst and become a vampire? Or do you have plans for the player to overcome it somehow? In either situation, how would the patron react? How would the character react? A tiered system like DxJxC suggests would give you more options for how to handle the fickle nature of the dice gods, as well as sudden veering turns on the part of your player. You can be as harsh or as forgiving as you want to, in order to better align with your long term goals.
I'd also be careful using Exhaustion for something like this, unless you track it as a separate form of Exhaustion, that does not stack with normal "I avoided rest" Exhaustion. If taken together, you may run into the situation where the character is killed by another level of Exhaustion from physical stress, when most or all of their current Exhaustion is from not feeding. The 2 are very different forms of stress, and would not have that kind of cumulative effect.
So one of my players is a Dhampir Warlock (Hexblade) who's patron is an Ancient Vampire. The patron is tempting the PC to feed I on andblood needideas on how to handle it mechanically.
What I'm thinking is the PC has to make daily Con checks to resist the urge to feed (if he chooses not to). If he goes an entire week without feeding then the DC will increase by 1 for the next week and he'll suffer a level of exhaustion. After 2 weeks 2 levels etc. Instead of just dying at exhaustion level 6 his powers will be gone
The patron gets stronger each time the PC feeds so there has to be a consequence for not feeding (the PC side of the pact was that he'd feed in exchange for power). Now the PC has a potion that turns water into blood, because it doesn't have the life force of actual blood drinking it doesn't empower his patron but holds off the effects of not feeding. Once he runs out of the potion though he'll have to start feeling some effects
I might go with a more tiered success rate.
Make it daily (nightly?) start DC10 CON, fail +1 to DC and disadvantage on next roll, fail by 5 or more same + exhaustion, pass is just pass, pass by 5 or more (or nat 20) remove 1 exhaustion lowers DC by 1 (min 10, advantage on next if already 10). When exhaustion reaches 4, make CHA checks every hour to not start feeding involuntarily against the current DC. Feeding counts as 1-2 crits for each "serving".
I agree with DxJxC that a tiered system is a good idea, though daily is a bit harsh. That would mean this PC needs to kill somebody or at least some beast every night in order to drink. This makes some dungeon delves deadly for this character. Perhaps every 3rd or 4th day would work. You might also consider keying the "urge to feed" off of CHA and make a separate CON check for when the character suffers from Not feeding. This character might become more ghastly and suffer a CHA penalty as a result of going 6 or 8 days without a blood meal, which would A) be fun for RP purposes when this character starts looking like a dried up corpse and B) make it gradually more difficult for the character to resist those sanguine urges.
I made the DC start low to compensate for the daily checks. They need to roll a 4 or less on the first night to get exhaustion, 5 or less (with disadvantage) the second night, etc. And if they pass, DC doesn't go up. And the main drawback (the exhaustion) is only on the worst fail tier.
Depending on how good their rolls are, they may need to drink every 2-3 days (like a normal person needs water), or they could go weeks.
Plus, I never said anything about not recovering from exhaustion magically, although in such a situation, I think they should get the exhaustion back in addition to their rolls. Could still help though.
You don't need to kill someone in order to feed from them and not feeding wouldn't be "deadly" as he's only half vampire, that's why I was thinking the final tier of exhaustion removes his power instead of killing him (as normal exhaustion does).
To me I see the check either being a strength of will or their physical ability to resist so Con or Wis saves make sense to me but not Cha. I like the tier idea but at the moment the warlocks patron is just now starting to exert his influence over the PC so I may start it out as the DC increases every week that he resists and then when he's resisted for x amount of time turn it into a daily DC increase as the pressure to feed becomes stronger.
My main trouble is finding consequences for resisting in the early stages of "withdrawal" (the PC has had a couple of instances of feeding already which is what's kick-started the Patron for MORE) and for finding "carrots" that the PC will get for feeding.
For drawbacks in thinking 3 stages with stages escalating the longer he resists
Stage 1: (minor effects, need ideas)
Stage 2: Physical transformation resulting in penalties to Charisma as he starts to starve (affecting his spell casting and skills)
Stage 3: Begins suffering levels of exhaustion and failing could lead to involuntary feeding (maybe something similar to a barbarians raging)
I already have some ideas for carrots, obviously the warlocks power (and benefits he gains from leveling) is the big one but once he reaches certain milestones he'll receive little gifts as a reward from his patron (the more he feeds the more it empowers his patron who is trying to break free from a prison). I've got some additional spells that he'll gain access to as well as 1 or 2 other vampire related abilities
For minor effects think about limiting a few of the recovery mechanics or increasing save DCs. For instance, subtract 1 die from HD recovery during short rests. Or impose disadvantage on saving throws related to 1 type of magical or non-magical damage, like radiant or piercing. Or perhaps this PC receives a 10% chance of being unable to make Attacks of opportunity.
First, what is your goal, exactly, with this urge to feed the patron is pressing onto the character. Is your long term goal, specifically, for the player to eventually fall victim to the thirst and become a vampire? Or do you have plans for the player to overcome it somehow? In either situation, how would the patron react? How would the character react? A tiered system like DxJxC suggests would give you more options for how to handle the fickle nature of the dice gods, as well as sudden veering turns on the part of your player. You can be as harsh or as forgiving as you want to, in order to better align with your long term goals.
I'd also be careful using Exhaustion for something like this, unless you track it as a separate form of Exhaustion, that does not stack with normal "I avoided rest" Exhaustion. If taken together, you may run into the situation where the character is killed by another level of Exhaustion from physical stress, when most or all of their current Exhaustion is from not feeding. The 2 are very different forms of stress, and would not have that kind of cumulative effect.
Steeeeeal it. Steeeeeeal it. Muhahahaha.
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Vampirism_(Skyrim)