Vampire

Vampires are not the fearsome creatures of legend, but rather revered as holy beings by the followers of the Dragon of Shadow. They are seen as vessels of the Shadow Dragon’s power and are believed to be blessed with immortality and superhuman abilities.

Vampires live in a highly structured society, with a strict hierarchy led by the vampire prince. They are a proud and noble race, and they believe in their divine mission to spread the Shadow Dragon’s power throughout the world.

Physical Appearance

Vampires are tall, pale, and gaunt humanoids, with sharp, dark facial features and piercing red eyes. Their bodies are cold and they do not cast reflections, giving them an otherworldly appearance.

Blood Consumption

Vampires are not the mindless blood-suckers of popular fiction. They do, however, require blood to survive. However, they do not kill their human donors, but rather partake in a ritualistic blood exchange that is considered a holy act by the Shadow religion.

Transformation

Becoming a vampire is not a curse, but rather a blessing, bestowed upon those who are deemed worthy by the Shadow Dragon. The transformation is a sacred ritual performed by high-level vampires, and it bestows upon the recipient immortality and superhuman abilities. The freshly turned recipient then start its unlife as a new vampire spawn.

Dark Desire

Whether or not a vampire retains any memories from its former life, its emotional attachments wither as once-pure feelings become twisted by undeath. Love turns into a hungry obsession, while friendship becomes bitter jealousy. In place of emotion, vampires pursue physical symbols of what they crave, so that a vampire seeking love might fixate on a young beauty. A child might become an object of fascination for a vampire obsessed with youth and potential. Others surround themselves with art, books, or sinister items such as torture devices or trophies from creatures they have killed.

Dark Desire Table

This section provides a table for players and Dungeon Masters who want to choose or randomly generate dark desires and where they originated from for vampires. It is recommended that if you are picking a desire for an already made character, that you pick traits that oppose or are the warped version of one of your character virtues.

d8	Desire	Description
1	Greed	Greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth. The hoarding of materials or objects, theft, and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by Greed.
2	Lust	Lust is characterized as an intense longing. It is usually thought of as intense or unbridled sexual desire, which leads to fornication, adultery, rape, bestiality, and other fraudulent sexual acts. However, lust can also mean simply desire in general; thus, hunger for money, power, and other things are also considered lust.
3	Gluttony	Gluttony is overindulgence and overconsumption of anything to the point of waste.
4	Sloth	Sloth is affectectionless, a lack of any feeling about self or other, a mind=state that gives rise to boredom, rancor, apathy, and a passive inert or sluggish mentation.
5	Wrath	It is important to understand that anger isn’t evil nor good, it is a neutral act on the scale of good and evil, however, anger becomes wrath when it is directed against an innocent, when it is unduly, unbending or long=lasting, or when it desires excessive punishment. Anger becomes wrath when it reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound. It is the desiring that someone else may suffer misfortune or evil.
6	Envy	Envy is the need to have better or be better than others. Is it the need to have the goods, possession or even the connection of others. Wanting what others have for yourself.
7	Pride	Pride is considered by some to be the root of all evil and naturally is the most common characteristics for a true vampire to have. The almost stereotypical haughty and self=important vampire lord radiates an aura of superiority as they look down at the foolish adventurers who would dare challenge them.
8		Roll Twice. Rerolling results of 8.

Coffinlike Structure

All vampires are bound to a coffinlike structure, normally some form of large container that usually takes the form of a sarcophagus, casket, or coffin. It is here that a vampires rests and reforms when they’re defeated. They are usually hidden away in areas that are difficult to access by non-vampires and are heavily protected by minions, traps, and thralls. A coffinlike structure is made from the wood of your original coffin, or the stone of your original tombstone in some cases. The structure is large enough to encase your body in and must have an opening to allow mist to enter and exit. If a vampires didn’t receive a formal burial, it must lie beneath a foot of earth at the place of its transition to undeath. A vampires can move its place of burial by transporting its coffinlike structure or a significant amount of grave dirt to another location. Some vampires set up multiple resting places this way.

Vampire Weaknesses

Although vampires can be incredibly strong, their curse still comes with several notable drawbacks. Regardless of if you are a vampire spawn or a true vampire, you are affected by the following weakness unless specified otherwise:

Running Water: Your flesh is torn apart in the presence of water, you take 5 physical stress when you end your turn in running water. This damage may not be reduced in any way.
Stake to the Heart: If a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into your heart while incapacitated in your coffinlike structure, you become paralyzed until the stake is removed if you are a true vampire. However, if you are a vampire spawn, you are instead destroyed.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity: You sear and burn in the light of the sun, your flesh immolating. If you end your turn in direct sunlight, you take 5 physical stress. You also have disadvantage on any skill check when in direct sunlight.

Vampire Spawn Traits

Only a handful of mortals that achieved greatness in the short lives are chosen become vampire spawn - ravenous creatures with a vampire’s hunger for blood, but under the control of the vampire that created them. If a true vampire allows a spawn to draw blood from its own body, the spawn transforms into a true vampire no longer under its master’s control. Few vampires are willing to relinquish their control in this manner. A vampire spawn becomes free-willed when their creator dies but may seek to become true vampires via drinking from another true vampire or making a pact with some otherworldly entity.

Inhuman, merciless, and uncaring about their earlier life. Vampires are undeath and evil manifest of inversed good and paradox.

Speed: Your base walking speed is 10 meters.
Undead: Your creature type is considered to be both humanoid and undead.
Unholy Body: Dark magic sustains you, making you resistant to necrotic damage. To heal you must either drink blood, or finish a long rest.
Blood Drinker: Even though you are undead, you still require sustenance in the form of blood to sustain your unholy existence. You are immune to diseases. You do not need to eat or breathe, but you can ingest food and drink if you wish, though this food is always bland and stale to you. If you go for longer then seven days without drinking at least one ration of blood, at the midnight of the seventh day and every midnight on days thereafter, you suffer one level of exhaustion, which can only be removed by drinking a ration of blood. After consuming one ration of blood, you recover all levels of exhaustion caused by this trait.
A ration of blood is a vial, roughly 4 ounces and while that is just enough to sustain you each week, you still feel the urge to drink and may still appear twitchy or ravenous in the heat of battle or when treating a wounded ally. A pint, such as that contained within a flask is considered a healthy amount, enough to keep you sustained while also suppressing your less civilized behavior. Each ration of blood heals you for 1d4 + 1 stress point while a pint will heal you for 2d4 + 2 stress points.
Darkvision: You can see in dim light within 20 meters of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can’t discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Bite: All vampires have sharpened teeth capable of tearing flesh from bone and draining blood from the body. If a willing, charmed, paralyzed, incapacitated, or restrained creature within 1.5 meters of you has blood, you may use your action to Bite them dealing 1 physical stress and draining their blood dealing additional necrotic damage equal to your Vampirism modifier. Drinking blood this way is equal to consuming a ration as per your Blood Drinker trait. When you use your Bite, you can choose to not deal damage.
Claws: As a vampire you have a set of claws, your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal physical damage equal to Nd4, where N is your Vampirism skill level.
Spawn: You are a vampire spawn and as such your will is circumvented by that of your true vampire master. There is little you can do in the way of resisting your master and can’t take actions to harm them, however, you can pervert the intent of their commands by exploiting their poor wording. The knowing perversion of such a command though will often lead to your destruction if their master believes it to be so. Any attempt to go against you masters will or pervert their command requires you to make a Vampirism skill check contested by your vampire master’s Vampirism skill.

Vampire Stunts

Vampires have some impressive abilities and it is only the truly ancient and powerful vampires that can utilize them all. As a vampire you have access to the following list of stunts.

You gain a number of Vampire stunts equal to your Vampirism skill level.

The Fragment of the Shadow Dragon

In the shadowed sanctum of our lineage, we are not mere spellcasters; we are conduits for the very essence of the Shadow Dragon. Its obsidian scales, bathed in moonlight, whisper secrets to us—secrets that transcend time and mortality. These magic techniques, bestowed upon us by the ancient god, are not mere tricks; they are blessings from the shadows itself:

Bloodbound Spell (1 Mana): When you cast a spell that forces a creature to make a skill check, you can impose a -2 penalty to its roll.
Veil of Shadows (1 Mana): When you cast a spell that has a range specified, you can double that range. If the spell lacks range, its range becomes 10 meters.
Sanguine Resonance (1 Mana): When you cast a spell that deals damage, you can deal Necrotic damage equal to your Vampirism skill level in addition to the spell’s damage.
Eternal Twilight (1 Mana): When you cast a spell that has a duration specified, you can double that duration.
Cursed Whispers (X Mana): When you cast a spell that targets only 1 creature, you can target 2 creatures instead. To do so, you must spend extra mana equal to your the spell’s level.
Swift Bloodsong (X Mana): You can choose to cast a spell as a minor action. To do so, you must spend extra mana equal to your the spell’s level.
Silent Veil (1 Mana): You can choose to cast a spell without any verbal or somatic components, making it almost undetectable. When you do so, make a Stealth skill check contested by Notice skill check of any creature in the immediate area.

You can only choose 1 option per spellcast.

Superior Body

You can use your vampiric reflexes to dodge attacks and move with an unearthly grace and ease, gaining the following benefits:

You can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
You have an additional 1 physical and 1 elemental defense in addition to your equipment’s.
Your base movement speed increases by 2 meters.

Shapechanger

Vampires are known for their ability to shift from form to form. You gain the shapechanger tag and if you are not in sunlight or running water, you can use your action to polymorph into a Tiny bat or a Medium cloud of mist for 1 minute, or back into your true form.

Bat Form: While in bat form you can’t speak, your walking speed is 2 meters, and you have a flying speed of 10 meters. Your statistics, other than your size and speed, are unchanged. Anything you are wearing transforms with you, but nothing you are carrying does. You revert to your true form if you die.
Mist Form: While in mist form, you can’t take any actions, speak, or manipulate objects. You are weightless and have a flying speed of 6 meters, can hover, and can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. In addition, if air can pass through a space, the mist can do so without squeezing, and it can’t pass through water. You have advantage on Physique and Athletics skill checks, and gain a number of temporary hit points equal to twice your Vampirism level, and are immune to all non-elemental damage, except the damage you take from sunlight.

Once you transform this way you cannot do so again until you complete a short or long rest.

Animating Bite

You can suffuse your unholy lifeforce into creatures you drain. When you reduce a creature to 0 hit points you can choose to animate it, causing it to rise at the next midnight as a zombie under your control. This zombie can take simple commands from you and you may have a number of zombies equal to your Vampirism skill level under your control through this method at a time. If you already have your maximum number of zombies under your control other corpses which rise due to your bite are not under your control are hostile towards you and others.

Children of the Night

As an action, you may magically call 1d4 swarms of bats or rats, provided the sun isn’t up. While outdoors, you can call 1d6 wolves instead. The called creatures arrive in 1d4 rounds, acting as your allies and obeying your spoken commands. The beasts remain for 1 hour, and can be dismissed as an action. You may not call on more than one swarm at any time, and you may not summon creatures with this stunt more than once every hour.

Unnatural Charm

As an action, you can target one humanoid you can see within 10 meters. If the target can see you, it must succeed a Will skill check contested by your Vampirism skill level. On a failure, the target is charmed. The charmed target regards you as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn’t under your direct control, it takes your requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and it is a willing target for your Vampire Bite.

Each time you or one of your companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the skill check, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts for 24 hours, until you are destroyed, until you on a different plane of existence than the target, or if you take an action to end the effect. You can only have one creature charmed this way at once and you can use this trait a number of times equal to your Vampirism skill level before you must complete a long rest before using it again.