D.17 Vampire

A vampire is an undead creature that must drink the blood of living creatures to survive. Unlike most undead creatures, vampires appear to be alive and human, allowing them to act normally in society. Vampires have great power, but also many dangerous weaknesses.

The unusual blend of life and death in a vampire comes from the strange disease of vampirism. This blood-transmitted disease attacks the brain of an infected creature. Such destruction is lethal, and it does cause the death of the original creature’s mind. However, the disease also takes over and replaces most of the brain’s autonomous functions. The creature’s heart keeps pumping, it continues to breathe, and so on, giving the dead creature a convincing imitation of life. Vampires are generally pale thanks to their poor circulation, but not impossibly so. If the disease is somehow cured, the vampire immediately dies.

The half-death inflicted by vampirism can be confusing for a creature’s soul. Although most of the soul passes on to its normal afterlife, fragments remain behind and cling to their original body. These give a newly born vampire a hint of its original personality, but only a hint.

A newly born vampire, called a vampire spawn, does not have a full, independent soul. Its will is completely bound to the vampire that created it, called its sire. The sire’s soul invades and replaces the vacuum left behind when the vampire’s original soul was fractured by death and fled to the afterlife.

Over time, by feeding on blood to strengthen its body, a vampire spawn can connect more deeply to its original soul. If allowed and guided by its sire, it can become strong enough to wrest the rest of its soul back from its afterlife. This unifies the creature’s soul and makes it a new entity fully independent from its sire. A fully ensouled vampire is called a true vampire.

Only true vampires can create new vampire spawn. Since each spawn claims a piece of its sire’s soul to sustain its capacity for thought and action, most vampires can create few spawn at once, or else they risk losing their will. Despite this risk, many true vampires do not permit their spawn to become ensouled. Instead, they may prefer to maintain a small handful of spawn to serve them with no possibility of betrayal. A vampire with a soul powerful enough to command many dependent spawn is called a vampire lord.

Creature Type: Unlike most other playable species, vampires are undead instead of humanoids.

Size: Medium.

Attributes: +1 Strength and Dexterity, -1 Constitution.

Special Abilities:

• Climb Speed: Vampires have a climb speed 10 feet slower than their base speed.
• Darkvision: Vampires have darkvision with a 90 foot range, allowing them to see in complete darkness (see Darkvision).
• Fangs: Vampires have a bite natural weapon (see Table 9.6: Natural Weapons). These fangs retract when not in use, so vampires cannot be identified as non-human by their fangs unless they choose to expose them.
• Undead: Vampires are undead instead of living, and they take damage from most healing effects (see Undead)). Since they are not living, they are immune to Poison effects.
• Unnatural Life: Unlike most undead creatures, vampires share some aspects of living creatures. They must breathe air, and they must sleep as much as humans do. They are humanoid, have blood, and visibly bleed when injured.
• Unnatural Charm: Vampires gain a +2 bonus to the Persuasion skill.
• Vampire Archetype: Vampires only gain two class archetypes instead of three. Instead, they treat the Vampire archetype as one of their archetypes, and they gain ranks in it just like they gain ranks in class archetypes.

Vampire Weaknesses ✨: Vampires have a number of specific weaknesses. Many vampire weaknesses trigger on exposure to particular substances or circumstances. These weaknesses trigger immediately upon first contact, and are repeated at the start of each action phase in subsequent rounds as long as the vampire remains exposed.

• Blood Dependence: For every 24 hours that a vampire remains awake without ingesting at least one pint of blood from living creatures, its maximum hit points are reduced by 20. If its maximum hit points are reduced to 0 in this way, it dies and withers away into a pile of ash. This penalty is removed as soon as the vampire drinks a pint of blood. A vampire can enter a torpor to survive without blood. While in a torpor, it is unconscious until it smells blood nearby. It can survive while in torpor for a number of consecutive centuries equal to its rank before it withers away to dust.
• Consecrated Ground: A vampire in consecrated ground takes 20 damage and becomes stunned (-2 defenses) as a condition if it is not already stunned.
• Garlic: A vampire that smells garlic becomes frightened (-2 Mental, -2 accuracy vs. source) by any creatures bearing garlic as a condition. In addition, creatures that have eaten garlic recently are treated as not having blood for the purpose of a vampire’s abilities, so their blood cannot be drained.
• Holy Water: A vampire that touches holy water takes 20 damage and becomes stunned (-2 defenses) as a condition if it is not already stunned.
• Running Water: A vampire that touches or passes over running water takes 10 damage and briefly becomes paralyzed (cannot move). This applies as long as the vampire is within 100 feet of the running water, even the water is underground or under a bridge. It can use the struggle ability to move despite being paralyzed, but only towards the closest shore.
• Silver: Vampires are vulnerable (-4 defenses) to strikes using silver weapons.
• Sunlight: A vampire that touches sunlight takes 20 damage and becomes blinded (50% miss chance, -2 defenses) as a condition if it is not already blinded.
• Unmirrored: Vampires have no reflection in mirrors, including their clothes and equipment. This can allow careful observers to identify vampires.
• Wooden Stakes: If a vampire is injured by a critical strike using a wooden stake, the stake becomes impaled in its heart. The vampire becomes paralyzed (cannot move) until the stake is removed. A wooden stake is a Light improvised weapon that deals 1d4 damage.

D.17.1 Vampire Archetype

Rank 1 – Blood Drain

Whenever you injure a creature with blood using your bite natural weapon, you can increase your fatigue level by one. If you do, you regain hit points at the end of the round. The recovery is equal to the hit points the target lost from the strike, ignoring negative hit points and any damage increase from critical hits.

Unless otherwise specified, all living creatures have blood. Some nonliving creatures, such as vampires, also have blood.

Rank 2 – Gentle Fangs

Whenever you deal damage using your bite natural weapon, you can choose not to reduce the target’s hit points below 0, or you can treat the damage as subdual damage. In addition, damage dealt using your bite natural weapon does not wake sleeping creatures unless you inflict a vital wound.

Rank 2 – Reviving Coffin ✨

You can designate a coffin as your home by resting in it for 24 consecutive hours. When you take a long rest in your home coffin, you recover two vital wounds instead of one. In addition, you can cross running water without penalty while in your home coffin.

Rank 3 – Charming Gaze ✨

Rank 4 – Creature of the Night ✨

Rank 5 – Reviving Coffin+ ✨

You can designate up to three home coffins, rather than only one. This can allow you to travel with one coffin while keeping others safe for emergencies.

Rank 5 – Unholy Resilience

You gain a +1 bonus to your Armor, Brawn, Reflex, and Mental defenses. However, you take a -2 penalty to your Fortitude defense.

Rank 6 – Dominating Gaze ✨

Rank 7 – Blood Drain+ ✨

You can use this ability without increasing your fatigue level. After you do, you briefly cannot do so again.

Rank 7 – Eternal Undeath ✨

Your reviving coffin ability can revive you from any cause of death or severity of vital wound. As long as some part of your corpse, even just a pinch of ash, is placed inside one of your home coffins, you will resurrect after 24 hours. Only the destruction of all of your home coffins or the total annihilation of your corpse can prevent your return.

D.17.2 Base Class Effects

If you choose vampire as your base class, you gain the following benefits.

Level	Rank	Durability	Bonus1	Special
1	1	+0	x1	—
2	1	+1	x1	—
3	1	+2	x1	+1 to two attributes
4	2	+2	x2	HP: 2x durability
5	2	+3	x2	—
6	2	+4	x2	Legacy item: rank 3
7	3	+4	x3	HP: 3x durability
8	3	+5	x3	—
9	3	+6	x3	+1 to two attributes
10	4	+6	x4	HP: 4x durability
11	4	+7	x4	—
12	4	+8	x4	Legacy item: rank 5
13	5	+8	x6	HP: 6x durability
14	5	+9	x6	—
15	5	+10	x6	+1 to two attributes
16	6	+10	x8	HP: 8x durability
17	6	+11	x8	—
18	6	+12	x8	Legacy item: ranks 7
19	7	+12	x10	HP: 10x durability
20	7	+13	x10	—
21	7	+14	x10	+1 to two attributes

1. This bonus applies to your accuracy, magical ✨ power, mundane power, trained skills, and defenses.  

Defenses

You gain a +3 bonus to your Brawn, Fortitude, Mental, and Reflex defenses.

Resources

• Attunement points: 4 (see Attunement Points).
• Fatigue tolerance: 2 + your Constitution (see Fatigue).
• Insight points: 1 + your Intelligence (see Insight Points).
• Trained skills: 4 from among your class skills, plus additional trained skills equal to your Intelligence if it is positive (see Skills).

Weapon Proficiencies

You are proficient with simple weapons and all non-exotic weapons.

Armor Proficiencies

You are proficient with light armor.

Starting Items and Equipment

You can start with the following items and equipment:

• Buff leather
• Any two of the following: club, dagger, broadsword, two handaxes, or spear
• A buckler
• A standard adventuring kit (see Standard Adventuring Kit).
• A rank 0 wealth item (1 gp)

Class Skills

You have the following class skills:

• Strength: Climb, Jump.

• Dexterity: Balance, Stealth.

• Intelligence: Deduction, Disguise, Knowledge (dungeoneering, religion).

• Perception: Awareness, Creature Handling, Deception, Persuasion, Social Insight.

• Other: Intimidate.