Vampire (PC Template)

Vampire is an acquired template that can be added to any living, corporeal humanoid, fey, or monstrous humanoid (hereafter referred to as the base creature). A vampire uses the base creature’s stats and abilities, except as noted below.
To create a vampire, the base creature must first be slain by a vampire’s bite attack, then buried in earth or soil. At the next new moon, the vampire which slew the base creature may sacrifice XP sufficient to reduce his level by 1, placing him at the minimum XP needed for that level (vampires with only 1 level cannot create vampires).

Creating a Vampire

Challenge Rating: +1

Senses: The base creature gains darkvision 60 ft. or increases its existing darkvision by 30 ft.

Alignment: The base creature’s alignment moves one step towards evil. Its alignment on the law-chaos axis is unchanged. Like other undead, vampires detect as evil when subjected to detect evil and similar effects, regardless of their actual alignment.

Size and Type: Change the base creature’s type to undead. Recalculate racial hit dice. Do not recalculate hit dice based on class levels. Do not alter its base attack bonus, skill points, or class skills. Its size is unchanged.

Special Attacks: The base creature gains the following special attacks:

  • Vampire Fangs (Ex): The vampire gains a bite natural attack that deals 1d6 damage (damage given is for medium creatures). If this attack damages a living corporeal creature (excluding constructs, elementals, oozes and undead), the vampire gains gains temporary hit points equal to 1/2 the damage dealt and also slakes his thirst (see the thirst ability, below). At the GM’s discretion, some creatures – such as a golem made of animate blood – may also permit the vampire to gain temporary hit points in this manner. These temporary hit points stack with themselves, up to a maximum equal to 1/2 the vampire’s full normal hit point total, and last for up to 1 hour.

Channel Resistance (Ex): The vampire benefits from +4 channel resistance.

Vampiric Power: Vampires display a variety of powers; the vampire chooses one of the following abilities upon acquiring this template. The vampire gains the chosen ability. Once made, this choice may not be changed:

  • Familiar Stranger (Sp): The vampire may cast disguise self as a spell-like ability up to three times per day, with a caster level equal to his character level. Starting at 6th level, the vampire may communicate telepathically with any creature within 100 ft. that has a language. At 10th level, the vampire benefits from a constant detect thoughts effect at a caster level equal to his character level.
  • Hypnotic (Sp): The vampire may cast charm person and charm animal as spell-like abilities up to twice per day, with a caster level equal to his character level. At 6th level, the vampire may also cast charm monster up to twice per day as a spell-like ability with a caster level equal to his character level.
  • Servitor Beast (Ex): The vampire gains an animal companion. His effective druid level is equal to his character level minus three, which might mean that the vampire does not attract a companion immediately. If the vampire would gain an animal companion from another source (such as druid levels), he instead possesses a single animal companion at his highest effective druid level, plus one.
  • Undying Ferocity (Ex): The vampire gains 2 claw attacks that deal 1d4 damage (or increases the base creature’s existing claw damage by 1 die step; damage given is for medium creatures) and gains temporary hit points equal to 1/2 the damage dealt with these claws (but does not slake his thirst). These temporary hit points are treated as though gained through the vampire’s vampire fangs ability for the purposes of stacking, and last for up to 1 hour.

Special Qualities: The base creature gains the following special qualities:

Shadowless (Ex): A vampire casts no shadows and shows no reflection in a mirror; in a room with shadowy or better illumination, or with one or more mirrors, creatures gain a +5 circumstance bonus on their Knowledge (religion) checks to identify the vampire.

Thirst (Ex): A vampire must feed to sustain themselves. If the vampire does not gain 10 temporary hit points through his bite attack before sunrise each morning, he becomes hungry, suffering a -2 penalty to all D20 rolls, as well as a -1 penalty to the vampire’s save DCs. After three days without feeding, these penalties increase to a -4 to all D20 rolls, -2 to the vampire’s save DCs, and a -2 penalty to the vampire’s caster level, initiator level, and manifester level. These penalties vanish after the vampire has gained the required number of temporary hit points. Vampires that are cut off from the sun (such as by living underground) must meet their feeding requirements every 24 hours.

Vampiric Weakness (Ex): The vampire is vulnerable to sunlight; it becomes exhausted (ignoring immunity) when exposed to direct sunlight and suffers a -4 penalty to its level-based variables (such as those calculated based on caster level, initiator level, manifester level, or character level, among others) while so exposed. Additionally, choose one of the weaknesses listed below. The vampire gains the chosen weakness (once made, this choice may not be altered):

  • Accursed Being (Ex): The vampire is vulnerable to holy symbols of good-aligned religions; if confronted by such a symbol (wielded by a member of its faith as a standard action or used as part of casting a divine spell) the vampire suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls and saving throws for 3 rounds. In addition, the vampire cannot cast spells with the evil descriptor that target creatures bearing such symbols, nor include those creatures in the area of spells with the evil descriptor.
  • Arithmomania (Ex): Some vampires develop an obsession with counting objects. The vampire suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls, skill checks, and concentration checks while in the presence of a group of small objects (such as a bowl of rice or a pile of coins) that he has not yet counted. This penalty does not stack with itself, and persists as long as the vampire can see the container or pile, or until he spends a fullround action doing nothing but count the objects (the vampire may count up to two groups of objects with the same full-round action, such as a pile of coins and a bowl of rice). If there is more than one grouping of small objects nearby, the penalty lasts until the vampire has counted them all (spending at least one fullround action per grouping).
  • Foot in the Grave (Ex): The vampire’s body has been weakened by the transition to undeath. The vampire gains a -2 penalty to its Strength and Dexterity whenever it is subjected to a critical hit or sneak attack. This penalty stacks with itself and lasts until the vampire can rest for eight hours.
  • Purification (Ex): The vampire’s corruption is especially susceptible to fire; it suffers an additional 25% damage (rounded down) from fire damage. A vampire that is immune to fire may not select this weakness, and a vampire that selects this weakness may not gain fire immunity or fire resistance; attempts to do so simply fail.
  • Spilled Blood (Ex): The vampire is not immune to bleed damage or damage to its Strength and Dexterity scores.
  • Unclean Being (Ex): The cleansing touch of water is enough to hinder the vampire. While standing in water at least an inch deep, the vampire is slowed. When the vampire is affected by a spell of the water descriptor, they must succeed at an additional Reflex save (DC equal to the spell’s save DC) or suffer 1d6 damage per two caster levels of the spell’s source (items typically have their own caster level).

Ability Score Modifiers: Strength +2 and increase the base creature’s Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma by +2. As an undead creature, the vampire does not have a Constitution score.

Skills: Bluff +2, Diplomacy +2

Section 15: Copyright Notice

Lords of the Night, © 2017, Dreamscarred Press, LLC; Author: Matthew Ryan Medeiros, Jade Ripley, based on material by Owen K.C. Stephens.

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