Homebrew Vampire Race Details
On the outskirts of a rural city perched on a hillside, a cloaked figure watches as a middle aged man staggers out of the local Tavern. The drunk slowly makes his way along the road en route to his home. As the cloaked figure follows the man with sorrowful eyes, Ivory canines begin to protrude past the bottom lip while saliva slowly drips down a pale chin. The next morning, a little girl wakes up to her Mothers shrieks filling the house following urgent rapping on the door.
“Don’t underestimate the allure of Darkness. Even the purest hearts are drawn to it.”
— Niklaus Mikaelson
All seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some embracing darkness, and others fighting it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views.
The Undead
Vampires are pale, humanoid beings who are neither dead nor alive. They are Undead, feeding from the life force of living things. They have dark, even reddish eyes and long, sharp fangs that can be retracted at will. They are known for their strength, speed, and charm, which can be a very deadly combination. Apart from their gained undead appearance, they look very similar to whatever they looked like in life.
Unholy Creation
Humanoid creatures are turned when a Vampire bites it, that creature is buried in the ground, and then rises the next night. The result of this process is a Vampire Spawn, which is not a true Vampire. Vampire Spawn are pawns of the Vampire that turned it, and are completely under the control of their sire. But, if a Vampire Spawn drinks the blood of a True Vampire, it will then become a True Vampire like the one that turned it.
The Vampire
Level Bite Attack Features
1st |
2d6 |
Bite Attack |
3rd |
2d6 |
|
5th |
3d6 |
Healing Blood |
7th |
3d6 |
Blood Manipulation |
9th |
4d6 |
Creatures of the Night |
12th |
4d6 |
Legendary Resistance |
15th |
5d6 |
Multi Attack |
19th |
6d6 |
Flight |
Forsaken Road
Vampires tend to keep to themselves and shy away from others. They choose grand yet defensible locations for their lairs, such as Castles, Manors, or ruins. They then hide their coffins, which they use to spend their sleeping hours beneath the ground. Their resting places are usually well-guarded by traps or other loyal creatures of the night.
Vampire Traits
Vampirism is a curse, however some of the traits that are gained may make one rethink if its really that terrible.Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma, Dexterity and Strength scores all increase by 2.
Age
Vampires are Immortal, and do not age a day from when they were turned.
Alignment
Becoming a Vampire is either by choice, or accident. A pious man seeking immortality, or an Elf desiring power to rule are some scenarios that can turn one into a Vampire. Or even a Half-Orc being in the wrong place at the wrong time could turn into a night of new found immortality. No matter how one came to be a Vampire, after some time of dwelling in darkness, evil might be the easiest thing to cling to. However, with strong enough will, one could maintain their values and remain the alignment they had in life.
Size
There is no change in your size once becoming a Vampire.
Speed
Your base walking speed is 45
Superior Darkvision
You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can discern color in darkness.
Undead
You are an Undead creature. Necrotic damage does not affect you. You also need 1 ration of blood every 5 days or your body begins to cease functioning. On the 5th day without blood, the Vampire is unable to heal and takes 1d20 of damage every hour and rolls disadvantage on everything. If the Vampire drops to 0 hit points from this, they are paralyzed until force fed blood. Then they regain 1d20 hit points taken from loss of blood and no longer roll disadvantage.
Compulsion
The Vampire can control the mind of another simply through eye contact. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or be compelled by the Vampire. Compelled beings usually follow the instructions given to them to the best of their ability, and are willing subjects to the Vampire's bite attack. Some species of naturally occurring herbs can prevent compulsion.
Languages
You know the languages known in life.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity
Because of the corpse a vampire resides in, sunlight burns any skin it comes into contact with. A Vampire takes 20 radiant damage when it starts its turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Forbiddance
Luckily for every living creature, a Vampire can not enter a residence without an invitation from the owner.
Stake to the Heart
If a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into the Vampires heart, the Vampire begins to desiccate and is paralyzed until the stake is removed. However, if this happens when a Vampire is at 0 hit points, they spontaneously combust and are destroyed. The soul of the Vampire leaves the burning corpse and seeks its final resting place. It may be captured and used as a component to a spell.
Vampiric Feats
Vampires learn these as they become better acquainted with their new Immortal form.
Bite
At 1st level, you can use your sharp fangs to inflict damage. One willing creature, or a creature that is grappled by the Vampire, incapacitated, or restrained. Hit: 2d6+DEX piercing damage plus 2d8 necrotic damage. The amount of bite damage increases as you gain levels. 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. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. You may use your bonus action to drink their blood dealing 1d12 damage. This also satisfies your need for blood. A humanoid slain after being bitten, and then buried in the ground will rise the following night as a Vampire Spawn.
Healing Blood
Starting at 5th level, your immortal nature is imbedded in your blood, making your Vampire blood able to heal any living creature by 1d20+CON.
Blood Manipulation
When you reach 7th level, your knowledge of organic processes and experience with your victims life blood grants you the dark magic ability to siphon out your targets blood (if they have an open wound) and mold it into any solid construct. This action deals 1d12 damage. The construct becomes liquid if the target dies.
Creatures of the Night
Beginning at 9th level, your relation to dark creatures gives you power over weaker creatures of the night. As an action you can call 2d4 swarms of Bats or Rats at night time, or 3d6 wolves if outside. The creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds and obey your spoken commands.
Legendary Resistance
When you reach 12th level, because you are king of the night, if a you fail a saving throw, you can choose to succeed instead. 3/day
Multi-Attack
At 15th level, the deadly and frightening reputation that proceeds you gives you the ability to make two attacks, only one of which can be a bite attack.
Flight
At 19th level, you gain the ability to Fly. No creature is safe anymore. Your Flying speed is 60 feet.
You are trying to justify yourself.
This is completely unbalanced but if you are the type of player who likes to fight big bad from the get go. Then go for it. But on a site like this one... The last thing people want is to be overpowered.
Be in denial as much as you want. Its your choice.
This does need some tweaking, but I'm going to use a much more watered down version of it for a Blood Hunter I'm making. Blood Hunter's are pretty crap as a class anyway so it could use a couple of these "race" features instead of the 10 ability score increases it gets for it's higher levels. It's more for roleplay purposes, but having a new vampire feature every 5th level instead of an ability score or a normal feat sounds like an interesting idea though.
Being a vampire has certain limitations, but it can also be a ton of fun. Your extra strengths and abilities can make you successful in almost every endeavor you participate in and before you know it the money and acquaintances will come streaming in. You can build wealth and gain prestige and notoriety and attempt things you may never have even considered as a human. One thing you will definitely have more of is time. Beef up your education and learn all you ever wanted to. Travel the world to see things most people only ever see on TV This is going to be especially fun if you turned to share your life with one of us. Let us show you the wonders of the world. Learn new languages, go skydiving or scuba dive with sharks, visit the African safari. You no longer need to be scared of nature or wildlife you will have become the worlds strongest predator. Have fun with it and your life as a vampire can be more fulfilling than you ever dreamed. Explore, experiment, experience and get excited. There’s a big world out there with lots to see and do and as a vampire, you can do it all, if willing and ever ready to be a full blooded vampire with powers and mighty great skills then these is the opportunity for you to get transformed and turned into a vampire, contact the mighty hindu priest and also he is a vampire lord, find him on his email and lay your request and heart wishes to him, trust me you will find him on: Vampirelordtransformerchanging@gmail.com or you can as well find me on kaithbradon@gmail.com
Being a vampire has certain limitations, but it can also be a ton of fun. Your extra strengths and abilities can make you successful in almost every endeavor you participate in and before you know it the money and acquaintances will come streaming in. You can build wealth and gain prestige and notoriety and attempt things you may never have even considered as a human. One thing you will definitely have more of is time. Beef up your education and learn all you ever wanted to. Travel the world to see things most people only ever see on TV This is going to be especially fun if you turned to share your life with one of us. Let us show you the wonders of the world. Learn new languages, go skydiving or scuba dive with sharks, visit the African safari. You no longer need to be scared of nature or wildlife you will have become the worlds strongest predator. Have fun with it and your life as a vampire can be more fulfilling than you ever dreamed. Explore, experiment, experience and get excited. There’s a big world out there with lots to see and do and as a vampire, you can do it all, if willing and ever ready to be a full blooded vampire with powers and mighty great skills then these is the opportunity for you to get transformed and turned into a vampire, contact the mighty hindu priest and also he is a vampire lord, find him on his email and lay your request and heart wishes to him, trust me you will find him on: Vampirelordtransformerchanging@gmail.com or you can as well find me on kaithbradon@gmail.com
I turn to a vampire any time i want to. i become a vampire because of how people treat me, this world is a wicked world and not fair to any body. at the snack of my finger things are made happened. am now a powerful woman and no one step on me without an apology goes free. i turn to human being also at any time i want to. and am one of the most dreaded woman in my country. i become a vampire through the help of my friend who introduce me into a vampire kingdom by given me their number. if you want to become a powerful vampire kindly contact the vampire kingdom whatsApp at +1 4313007649 on their email worldofvampir@hotmail.com
Then make it or put it in the comments
This is more like the monster than a race.
Having read this ai intend to try it out after some serious tweaks. The compulsion be a flat DC17 is entirely unreasonable even if you are a vampire.
Oh that’s an awesome idea!
Without taking into account for dex mod, he could do 40 damage in one round at level one, op?
The only problem here is that you want something that fits inside a normal campaign or fantasy setting.
That is not going to work at all with this class and that is fine. in that case don't let your players play a vampire or just home-brew it further to display what you want vampirism to be like in your adventure, for instance you could add on the part where running water is deadly too. and what about garlic?
Mythologically speaking vampires are things to be feared and avoided at all costs. But with the right approach they can be warded. have holy symbols give them pulsing vision and ringing ears
If you and your player agree on trying a "Augmented" campaign and the player wants to indulge into demonic power you should make it so that the world is equipped to deal with it.
have Paladins, Clerics, Rangers, Druids and other types of Righteous NPC's Attempt to erase their blight from the world.
And have Demons/Devils lay contacts down and orchestrate these hunts from the other side.
In any case I think Overpowered races are not inherently bad design, But if you are allowing these kinds of races you should be prepared to have the entirety of the adventure/campaign to be revolved around it.
To me it would be awesome to have a player contract vampirism as a disease and Discover a underground aristocratic standoff between a couple of vampiric families. and to then have them try to influence things among their now equals.
I do agree with your point. if you mean to say that it would be vastly more difficult and time-consuming to have to reinvent every monster, trap, quest-giver and reward just so they work with the vampire.
I agree. a particularly zealous or vengeful individual could prove lethal to the original vampire.
This might be a fitting premise for playing one.
the reality is, the vasmpire fits any campaign. there is nothing that stops you from doing that. you seem to think that vampires are "exotic" or soemthing, while they are simply a mythos like anything else. of course the world will be able to deal with them. its not like we're playing reality where if vampires did exists we'd not be ready for them. we're talking a fantasy world.
while this race itself is a pretty OP. the goal of the vampire is that it is a ton of weaknesses to overcome !
- sunlight vulnerability is one which players seems to think that putting on a hat is enough to save them. cue, it shouldn't !
- wooden Stake to the heart, pretty straight forward.
- moving water acting liek acid, that means raining days is a nightmare for them... Cue, actually use weather people !
- Can't enter private houses without being invited. just so you know, public places are barely existing, even a tavern could potentially be denied to the vampire.
- undead type which means a lot of things in 5e. can't receive healing, most healing spells not working on undead. turn undead, divine senses. you name them. tons of spells affecting undead, thus affecting the vampire.
with all that said, a ton of stuff can be added because it has so many weaknesses. but that doesn't mean the vampire should be godly. for my part, i think the race can be simply given the template. i think the template is already balanced as is. and people seems to think that the bite should implicitly say that a vampire will die if he doesn't drink blood. let me tell you this much... aside from a long rest, nothing will heal the vampire except highly costly healing potions or goodberries. so unlike any others, the only way to heal is from their bites. which imply drinking blood to survive. it is already in it, so adding another weakness by making them drink or die. is redundant !
Don't change a thing. Its awesome. D&D should be rewarding and if a DM can't upscale the difficulty of the game by adding some very epic style character classes and races then he's not a creative DM. Also, this character class may outclass the others in the group, but that's why you reward them and create or invent things to help them feel on par. You don't cater to the lowest common denominator. If you fail, you fail upwards, not down. I love this class. Should include super speed though. Like +15 or 20 for character movement. And maybe make them weak to silver and werewolf attacks. Just to throw some wrinkle into the mix.
I was a vamp class similar to this and I DID carry my group, they all died, more than once and the team would have had a tpk almost every week if it wasn't for me. The DM did not pull his punches. It was actually annoying, cuz I didn't want to carry everyone in battle, but wanted to play the RP aspects of being a vampire Tabaxi rogue that uses a bow and stays at a distance from all fights. It didn't work out that way cuz the DM was an A-hole. He made it a goal to kill every one of his player's characters at least 3 times... creating ways that they were always brought back. But the 4th time they had to make a new character. I was the only one who didn't die ever, cuz Vampires cannot come back if they die even once and I was always playing really defensively and distant from battle. Well, he made up his mind to kill me, forgetting that I didn't have the grace of dying even once in his system of character deaths, so he made up some crap in a game and broke the rules a bunch/metagamed and had me get knockout out, swallowed and killed. And after that he's like, they revive you, and I was like, no, no they can't. I'm undead and a vampire. I can't be revived, I'm dead! He just said, "oh shit!" So I quit the game cuz he was a murder hobo DM.
My point was, I BARELY carried everyone within this high end scaled up game till the DM became determined to kill me off. Almost every one has left the game since. Including this class in a game is purely up to the DM and if he can fix it up to work.
Yeah, You get it Sofiasdad. It only doesn't work if the game is a very strict, by-the-book numbers game and no one else gets anything more powerful than the basic stuff. My suggestion to the DM is, make everyone feel relevant and valid by making them all decently powerful and also scale up, "within reason", the entire game. Problem solved.
I do not know if the class was tweaked but when to play around with the race and noticed NONE of it's ability score increases pop up in the character builder. I can use the override to fix it, obviously, but it is a tad annoying to have to use the override.
Wow... there is a lot of anger over this. I hope to provide the definitive review:
1. This is way overpowered, even with most features waiting till higher levels
2. That does not diminish that this is a freakin awesome vampire race
3. a lot of people argue over facts one and two, and brought up facts 3 and 4
4. paves the way for a homebrew vampire class, like in 4e
High risk, High Damage
The problem with scaling up the campaign to fit for the power fantasy pla- I mean, for the vampire, is that the other players who are playing more balanced races will be at an extreme disadvantage. I can see the entire table getting seriously ticked off at the DM because he was stupid enough to allow this race.
People have said this before, so I’ll say it again, don’t put this in a normal campaign, this race has NO balancing whatsoever. Stake to the heart? How would that work? You wouldn’t just have it that whenever the vampire takes piercing damage from a wooden weapon he’d be stuck, would you? As for the sunlight, that’s avoidable, easily. As the player would clearly not give a darn about balancing, they’d probably just say that they have a magic hat or whatever.
My point is, never allow this in a serious campaign, this race is probably the most broken race on D&D beyond, and that’s really saying something.