Shapechanger. If the vampire isn’t in sunlight or running water, it can use its action to polymorph into a Tiny bat or a Medium cloud of mist, or back into its true form.
While in bat form, the vampire can’t speak, its walking speed is 5 feet, and it has a flying speed of 30 feet. Its statistics, other than its size and speed, are unchanged. Anything it is wearing transforms with it, but nothing it is carrying does. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
While in mist form, the vampire can’t take any actions, speak, or manipulate objects. It is weightless, has a flying speed of 20 feet, can hover, and can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. In addition, if air can pass through a space, the mist can do so without squeezing, and it can’t pass through water. It has advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws, and it is immune to all nonmagical damage, except the damage it takes from sunlight.
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the vampire fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Misty Escape. When it drops to 0 hit points outside its resting place, the vampire transforms into a cloud of mist (as in the Shapechanger trait) instead of falling unconscious, provided that it isn’t in sunlight or running water. If it can’t transform, it is destroyed.
While it has 0 hit points in mist form, it can’t revert to its vampire form, and it must reach its resting place within 2 hours or be destroyed. Once in its resting place, it reverts to its vampire form. It is then paralyzed until it regains at least 1 hit point. After spending 1 hour in its resting place with 0 hit points, it regains 1 hit point.
Regeneration. The vampire regains 20 hit points at the start of its turn if it has at least 1 hit point and isn’t in sunlight or running water. If the vampire takes radiant damage or damage from holy water, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the vampire’s next turn.
Spider Climb. The vampire can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Vampire Weaknesses. The vampire has the following flaws:
Forbiddance. The vampire can’t enter a residence without an invitation from one of the occupants.
Harmed by Running Water. The vampire takes 20 acid damage if it ends its turn in running water.
Stake to the Heart. If a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into the vampire’s heart while the vampire is incapacitated in its resting place, the vampire is paralyzed until the stake is removed.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity. The vampire takes 20 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Multiattack. (Vampire Form Only). The vampire makes two attacks, only one of which can be a bite attack.
Unarmed Strike (Vampire Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage. Instead of dealing damage, the vampire can grapple the target (escape DC 18).
Bite. (Bat or Vampire Form Only). Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one willing creature, or a creature that is grappled by the vampire, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) necrotic damage. The target’s hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and the vampire regains hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0. A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under the vampire’s control.
Charm. The vampire targets one humanoid it can see within 30 feet of it. If the target can see the vampire, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or be charmed by the vampire. The charmed target regards the vampire as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn’t under the vampire’s control, it takes the vampire’s requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and it is a willing target for the vampire’s bite attack.
Each time the vampire or the vampire’s companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until the vampire is destroyed, is on a different plane of existence than the target, or takes a bonus action to end the effect.
Children of the Night (1/Day). The vampire magically calls 2d4 swarms of bats or rats, provided that the sun isn’t up. While outdoors, the vampire can call 3d6 wolves instead. The called creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds, acting as allies of the vampire and obeying its spoken commands. The beasts remain for 1 hour, until the vampire dies, or until the vampire dismisses them as a bonus action.
The vampire can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The vampire regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Move. The vampire moves up to its speed without provoking opportunity attacks.
Unarmed Strike. The vampire makes one unarmed strike.
Bite (Costs 2 Actions). The vampire makes one bite attack.
A Vampire’s Lair
A vampire chooses a grand yet defensible location for its lair, such as a castle, fortified manor, or walled abbey. It hides its coffin in an underground crypt or vault guarded by vampire spawn or other loyal creatures of the night.
Regional Effects
The region surrounding a vampire’s lair is warped by the creature’s unnatural presence, creating any of the following effects:
- There’s a noticeable increase in the populations of bats, rats, and wolves in the region.
- Plants within 500 feet of the lair wither, and their stems and branches become twisted and thorny.
- Shadows cast within 500 feet of the lair seem abnormally gaunt and sometimes move as though alive.
- A creeping fog clings to the ground within 500 feet of the vampire’s lair. The fog occasionally takes eerie forms, such as grasping claws and writhing serpents.
If the vampire is destroyed, these effects end after 2d6 days.
...so I know that I might be imagining things, but I clicked on the little sound icon next to the word Vampire (yes I know how to pronounce it but I was curious) and...
... does that sound like Taliesin Jaffe to anyone else?
only if your both laying in its resting place and the vampire had not killed you yet because it was either saving you for later or intended to let you go when the charm wears off having shown you its resting place.
become a vampire with their own will
where did the magic and great sword alternate rules for the vampire go?
Monster Manual, I think. Which is probably where the descriptions went as well.
in the original bram stoker it was a deal with the devil, but then, most evil things were back then
matt
Since vampires can’t see their own reflection, would a mirror of life trapping work on them? It reasons that it wouldn’t because they have to see their own reflection, but what if through magic it could?
With the mention of spellcaster and swordfighting Vampire variants, I just imagined how powerful and fitting a Swashbuckler Vampire would be
Is the bite to a willing creature something harmful which triggers a saving throw?
I am confused because the charmed creature is willing.
When a creature is bloodied it becomes a vampire if their own free will
I always feel hard done by that a vampire is not damaged by the light emanating from a sacred weapon.
does it every say if a vampire has actual magical power? like can it cast spells like detect thoughts or something like that?
In the monster manual, there are options for vampires as spellcasters. I believe Strahd can cast spells.
A level 15+ Paladin could probably solo a vampire with the right build. Given they have a magical weapon to get past resistance and enough slots to smite the vampire down, and the vampire doesn't have Vampire Spawn to help it, the paladin could disable the regeneration with their radiant damage. Vampires don't have insane DPR, and paladins often have 20+ AC, meaning that the Paladin would simply overpower the vampire. However, if the vampire was smart it could probably use hit and run tactics to wear down a paladin unless they have the right spells/feats to counter this. A level 20 paladin would probably have a pretty easy time doing this because level 20 PCs are comically overpowered. The one thing that would make the fight much harder would be children of the night, idk if paladins get AOE so this might pose a serious hazard (Anyone whose played druid would know how broken it is to have 8+ wolves ganging up on a target).
If you want to see something *really* impressive, see if you can dig up the 3rd/3.5 edition template for the "master vampire". You can easily homebrew this middle-management vampire into a badass BBEG. Give it it's Charisma bonus to saving throws, true domination abilities, telepathy, a rechargeable teleport, a detachable shadow, weather control...the sky's the limit, really.
walter
Wait, not immune to poison and the poisoned condition?
it doesn't say what happens if a vampire is damaged while at 0 hp in mist form.
When it comes to Vampire player characters as a DM who offers said option their are 2 ways to deal with the sunlight issue for PC Vampires. 1 require them to wear a cloak that covers their entire body or 2 Make them Vunerable in Sunlight to which they take more damage when hit. As having a player that can only go out at night and having the party lug around a coffin all the time can be a pain. On the other hand if the player really wants to be like Nezuko and just ride in a box most of the time go for it, could be a funny encounter with random npcs.