Homebrew Classic Vampire Species Details

A blood sucking creature of the night, with a complex array of advantages and disadvantages based on how often you feed.

Classic Vampire Traits

Drinking blood has various effects on a vampire

Vampirism

Immutable Traits

Ability Score Increases. Gain a +2 to Charisma, and a +1 to Dexterity or Strength.

Abomination. Good and neutral aligned deities typically abandon vampires once they've transformed, and often stop answering prayers, and stop granting celestial boons. This breaks the oaths of most paladins, and revokes the abilities of most good and neutral aligned clerics. Their natural gift with Charisma leads most to becoming Sorcerers.

Bloodsucker. You have a series of supernatural abilities, which vary based on how often you drink blood. These are Sated, Fed, and Starving. Most vampires spend most of their time “Fed”.

Deathless Nature. You no longer need to breathe, eat, or sleep. Sleeping is replaced by spending 4 hours in total darkness in a trance like state.

Sunlight Sensitivity. Disadvantage on perception checks while in direct sunlight.

SATED

Feeding. If you drink 4oz of blood directly from a living humanoid creature whose level or CR is twice your level, you become "Sated" for 24 hours. This drops to “Fed” after the 24 hours expires.

Vampire Lord. You ignore the typical negative effects of becoming a vampire, with the exception of taking radiant damage from Sunlight.

Sunlight Vulnerability. As soon as you are exposed to sunlight, and if you begin your turn in direct sunlight, make a DC 12 CON save. On a failed save, take 1d6 radiant damage.

Darkvision. You can see in non-magical darkness out to 90 ft., you cannot discern colors and can only see in shades of red and gray.

Entry. You have no issues entering homes. See "Starving".

Natural Weapons. You may use your action to make an attack with your bite, or with your claws. Your bite becomes a melee attack that deals 1d12 Necrotic damage, which heals you an amount of HP equal to half the damage dealt. Your claws do 1d6 Slashing damage. If your claw attack hits, you may use a bonus action to make a contested Athletics check against the target. If your roll is higher than theirs, you may pull them in for a bite attack as part of that bonus action.

Regeneration. At the end of each of your turns you restore 1d8 HP. This does not work if you end your turn with the any of the one following conditions. Having taken radiant damage within the past minute, during a holy prayer, end your turn in running water, or have a stake driven through your heart. 

Tracking. You can detect a creature you have smelled before within 120 feet by sense of smell. When a creature detects a scent, the exact location of the source is not revealed, only its presence somewhere within range. Garlic does not effect this ability.

Turning. Humanoid creatures who survive a bite attack from you must pass a DC 12 CON save on the next dusk, or permanently change their race to Dhampir. A Remove Curse spell reverses this effect.
Creatures you drop to zero HP with a Bite attack, and are buried within Desecrated Ground before the next dusk, will rise as Vampire Spawn at the next dusk. Vampire Spawn are Charmed by you for 24 hours. While charmed in this way, they obey your every command. Once a Vampire Spawn is reduced to zero HP, they die, and cannot be summoned or raised again without a Wish spell.

FED

Feeding. If you drink least 4 oz of fresh humanoid blood, you gain the "Fed" status condition. Blood preserved in vials stays "fresh" for 1 week. 
If you go 24 hours without fresh blood, you lose the "Fed" condition, this drops to "Starving" after 24 hours.

Holy Symbol. When confronted with the symbol of a good or neutral aligned god or religion you believed in before becoming a vampire, you are forced to confront the monster you have become. You must pass a DC 12 WIS save against the Frightened condition. If you believed in an evil aligned religion prior to becoming a vampire, this has no effect. 

Radiant Vulnerability. Take 2x damage from radiant damage. When first exposed to sunlight, take 2d6 radiant damage, or half as much on a successful DC 12 CON save. Take an additional 1d6 radiant damage at the end of each turn, or no damage on a successful DC 12 CON save. Do not apply vulnerability multiplier to sunlight damage.

Silver Vulnerability. You are vulnerable to attacks made from Silvered Weapons, taking double damage from them.

Stake Vulnerability. You do not regain HP while impaled by a wooden stake.

Darkvision. You can see in non-magical darkness out to 60 ft., you cannot discern colors and can only see in shades of red and gray.

Entry. You have no issues entering homes.  See "Starving".

Natural Weapons. You may use your action to make an attack with your bite, or with your claws. Your bite becomes a melee attack that deals 1d8 Necrotic damage, which heals you an amount of HP equal to half the damage dealt. Your claws do 1d4 Slashing damage. If your claw attack hits, you may use a bonus action to make a contested Athletics check against the target. If your roll is higher than theirs, you pull them in for a bite attack as part of that bonus action.

Regeneration. At the end of each of your turns, you restore 1d4 HP. This does not work if you end your turn with the any of the one following conditions. Having taken radiant damage within the past minute, during a holy prayer, end your turn in running water, or have a stake driven through your heart.

Tracking. You can detect a creature you have smelled before within 60 feet by sense of smell. When a creature detects a scent, the exact location of the source is not revealed, only its presence somewhere within range. If at least 1 clove of garlic is within 120 ft of you, the smell of garlic immediately overpowers and disables your tracking ability. If at least 10 cloves of garlic are within 5 ft of each other, they also disable your darkvision within a 60 ft radius.

Turning. Humanoid creatures who survive a bite attack from you must pass a DC 12 CON save on the next dusk, or permanently change their race to Dhampir. A Remove Curse spell reverses this effect.

STARVING

Feeding. If you go 24 hours without fresh blood, you gain the "Starving" condition. This drops to "Comatose" after 1 week.

Holy Symbol. When confronted with the symbol of a good or neutral aligned god or religion you believed in before becoming a vampire, you are forced to confront the monster you have become. You must pass a DC 12 WIS save against the Frightened condition. If you believed in an evil aligned religion prior to becoming a vampire, this has no effect. 

Radiant Vulnerability. Take 2x damage from radiant damage. When first exposed to sunlight, take 2d6 radiant damage, or half as much on a successful DC 12 CON save. Take an additional 2d6 radiant damage at the end of each turn, or half as much damage on a successful DC 12 CON save. Do not apply vulnerability multiplier to sunlight damage.

Silver Vulnerability. You are vulnerable to attacks made from Silvered Weapons, taking double damage from them.

Stake Vulnerability. You do not regain HP while impaled by a wooden stake. If you begin your turn impaled by a wooden stake, you must make a DC 12 CON save at the beginning of your turn. On a failed save, you are paralyzed for the duration of your turn, and may not reroll against this paralysis until the start of your next turn.

Darkvision. You can see in non-magical darkness out to 30 ft., you cannot discern colors and can only see in shades of red and gray.

Entry. You cannot enter a sentient creature's home without the spoken permission of at least one of its residents. A resident is defined as any sentient creature who has slept in the same enclosed space for 7 consecutive nights, and has slept at least 1 night a week in that enclosed space since.

Natural Weapons. Your bite becomes a melee attack that deals 1d6 Necrotic damage, which heals you an amount of HP equal to half the damage dealt. Your claws recede, and no longer deal damage.

Tracking. You can no longer detect creatures by smell. If at least 1 clove of garlic is within 60 ft of you, the smell of garlic immediately overpowers and disables your Darkvision. Requires a DC 12 Perception (smell) check to locate the garlic.

 COMATOSE

If you go 1 week without fresh blood, you slip into a coma, and are Unconscious until someone feeds you fresh blood.

Comments

Posts Quoted:
Reply
Clear All Quotes