D&D 3E/3.5 Alternate Vampires. A Dragon article.

Gorg · Tuesday at 1:31 AM

I was thumbing thru an old issue of Dragon, today, when I found a highly intriguing article. Alternate vampires!

There were 3 templates, with examples of each:

Savage vampire

Shadow vampire

Terror vampire.

The first caught my eye- as they used an Ogre as the base creature. As I read thru the template, I had a terribly evil idea- one that had me grinning with malicious glee:

A Hill Giant savage vampire. These things differ from the norm in that they have Wildshape, the ability to summon ravenous animals, rather than the usual wolves, bats, etc Things like bears! AND creatures slain by them rise as zombies in 1d4 hours. When reduced to 0 hp, they automatically wildshape, and attempt to flee. They are not tied to a coffin, either.

When I applied the template, I actually felt bad about the results, lol. this thing is broken af... +19/ +11 melee attacks, +14 to damage. blood drain, energy drain, fast healing, damage resistance 10/magic. energy resistance 10 cold, acid, fire. Plus, it can chuck and catch rocks, as a giant. 40' speed, so good luck running away. Results in a hill giant that's absolutely, well, savage. AND it's only a CR11. (seems off- adding all of this only bumps the CR up 2 points...)

I mean, my buddy- one of my players- DID complain about how weak modern high level monsters were, sooooo. One of my favorite parts of 3.x was always the monster templates, and the way they made advancing them easy. Still, I wouldn't want to meet this thing- or, even worse,a shadow vampire- in a dark alley.

Simon Miles · Tuesday at 2:29 PM

I remember that White Dwarf magazine in the UK doid a feature on Vampires, way bakc in issue 40 or 50-something I think. It was for 1st ed D&D but had a different slant on the classic vampire, making them more in keeping with the culture that created them. For instance, rather than a stake through the heart, a permanent kill or suspend was achieved with a different method - the one I remember is silver pins in the eyes. This meant a little research was necessary before going vampire hunting...

Mustrum_Ridcully · Wednesday at 8:41 PM

I haven't been playing 3.x since forever, basically, but CR 11 doesn't sound that outlandish. DR, fast healing and energy resistance aren't that impressive against a Level 11 (moderate challenge) party or Level 8 party (serious challenge). They will have magic weapons, and a fireball will deal 8 to 11d6 which will regularly overcome D 10. Also without the template, its attack bonus is already +16 at CR 7, so increasing it to +19 is only 3 points better - which is about what a Rogue or Cleric gets automatically from base attack bonus over 4 levels (without accounting for ability increases from leveling and gear).

I don't know the details of the template, but if the summons are regular summoning spells, the short duration would require the Hill Giant to cast them during combat, which costs valauble actions. Is the spell good enough to cast a Dire Bear (CR 7 creature?). Unless the template makes it particularly powerful version of the spell, it might not be as significant as you'd hope it to be.

Wild Shape could be useful, if it's limited by his hit dice, he could become a Dire Bear which might be an overall improvement. Not sure if he gets to keep his Vampire special benefits in bear shape, but if, it would be good for Improved Grab and being able to presumably reliablye drain blood once he grabbed something. Of course, then you have to do with the Grapple rules. And the awkward thing with Wild Shape is how all your stats change and you need to look careful which ones apply and which don't. I played a Druid/Shifter in a long-lasting campaign and I basically had a double sided paper with matrixes to determine my attack bonus in various forms (with various buff spells and gear benefits that might apply or not apply.) That's definitely something that could be headache inducing for a GM.

I think one of the nastiest things is probably the energy drain, but energy drain in 3E was so nasty that the party Cleric at that level would usually prepare a Death Ward (even if the campaign at that time isn't very undead-heavy, we had encountered too many save or die death effects and energy drain over several campaigns that we knew it to be almost mandatory. Maybe your group is different, though).

I still wouldn't want to meet it in a dark alley, but I am just some low level Commoner/Expert my Level 3 at best wouldn't want to meet most D&D monsters in any dark alleys.

Templates were a pretty intersting concept in 3E, some were more broken than others, I guess. But the hardest part of 3E was that there was a lot of math to get right when applying templates and their abilities. And god forbid you had a spellcasting NPC or monster.

Orius · 2025-03-13T02:48:38+0000

Sounds like just the thing to throw at a party with a duskblade, factotum, and archivist.

Not that I have anything against 3.5's out of control power creep, mind you.

Gorg · 2025-03-13T04:43:04+0000

Mustrum_Ridcully said:
I haven't been playing 3.x since forever, basically, but CR 11 doesn't sound that outlandish. DR, fast healing and energy resistance aren't that impressive against a Level 11 (moderate challenge) party or Level 8 party (serious challenge). They will have magic weapons, and a fireball will deal 8 to 11d6 which will regularly overcome D 10. Also without the template, its attack bonus is already +16 at CR 7, so increasing it to +19 is only 3 points better - which is about what a Rogue or Cleric gets automatically from base attack bonus over 4 levels (without accounting for ability increases from leveling and gear).

I don't know the details of the template, but if the summons are regular summoning spells, the short duration would require the Hill Giant to cast them during combat, which costs valauble actions. Is the spell good enough to cast a Dire Bear (CR 7 creature?). Unless the template makes it particularly powerful version of the spell, it might not be as significant as you'd hope it to be.

Wild Shape could be useful, if it's limited by his hit dice, he could become a Dire Bear which might be an overall improvement. Not sure if he gets to keep his Vampire special benefits in bear shape, but if, it would be good for Improved Grab and being able to presumably reliablye drain blood once he grabbed something. Of course, then you have to do with the Grapple rules. And the awkward thing with Wild Shape is how all your stats change and you need to look careful which ones apply and which don't. I played a Druid/Shifter in a long-lasting campaign and I basically had a double sided paper with matrixes to determine my attack bonus in various forms (with various buff spells and gear benefits that might apply or not apply.) That's definitely something that could be headache inducing for a GM.

I think one of the nastiest things is probably the energy drain, but energy drain in 3E was so nasty that the party Cleric at that level would usually prepare a Death Ward (even if the campaign at that time isn't very undead-heavy, we had encountered too many save or die death effects and energy drain over several campaigns that we knew it to be almost mandatory. Maybe your group is different, though).

I still wouldn't want to meet it in a dark alley, but I am just some low level Commoner/Expert my Level 3 at best wouldn't want to meet most D&D monsters in any dark alleys.

Templates were a pretty intersting concept in 3E, some were more broken than others, I guess. But the hardest part of 3E was that there was a lot of math to get right when applying templates and their abilities. And god forbid you had a spellcasting NPC or monster.

The summoning replaces a vampire's ability to summon children of the night. I don't think it's a spell, rather a supernatural ability. I don't have the magazine in front of me... Also, They don't appear immediately, so it's not really a combat ability.

Dannyalcatraz · 2025-03-14T05:03:28+0000

If the vampire is smart enough, he might summon the critters first and use them to tenderize the party.

D&D 3E/3.5 Alternate Vampires. A Dragon article.

Gorg

Explorer

Simon Miles

Creator of the World of Barnaynia FRPG setting

Mustrum_Ridcully

Legend

Orius

Unrepentant DM Supremacist

Gorg

Explorer

Dannyalcatraz

Schmoderator

Similar Threads

Trending content