#The vampire combat manual#
#The vampire combat plus#

Since it’s limited, you can assume that it’s preferred and that the vampire spawn will use it whenever it can however, a precondition of the bite attack is that the victim be grappled, incapacitated, restrained. They have a high Stealth skill, along with Multiattack in two possible combinations: claw/claw or claw/bite, with bite limited to one of the two actions. They can’t enter someone’s home without an invitation.

#The vampire combat plus#

They’re resistant to physical damage from normal weapons, plus necrotic damage, and they regenerate hit points each turn if they aren’t in sunlight or running water.

They receive bonuses to Dexterity and Wisdom saving throws, which combined with their high Constitution means they’re hard targets for any spell resisted by one of the “big three” saving throws, but especially Dexterity. Vampire spawn have exceptional physical abilities, plus above-average Charisma. Try this sort of variation out-if not with a vampire, then with some other monster whose powers players assume they already know.īefore I examine the vampire, which is another boss-level undead creature only slightly less powerful than the mummy lord, let’s look at the less powerful vampire spawn, the minion of a full-fledged vampire.

#The vampire combat manual#

The vampire in the Monster Manual is the conventional burned-by-sunlight variety, but what if you removed that weakness and substituted one that merely disabled the vampire’s special features in daylight? It’s so taken for granted in our popular culture that vampires are burned by sunlight, the thought of a vampire who’s merely weakened by it, not hurt-let alone destroyed-would never occur to most of us. (You may already be aware that this version of the troll originated with a scene in Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson.) Trolls, for example, are great for this: use the variant that allows severed limbs to keep moving and even fighting independently, and have the troll periodically pick up its limbs and stick them back onto itself, and watch your players wig out.

One of the best ways to spice up a D&D game is to take familiar monsters and give them unfamiliar powers, or have the familiar powers manifest in unfamiliar ways. One of the crucial elements of horror is exploiting the fear of the unknown: we’re most afraid of a monster when we’re not sure what it is, what it can do or how far it can pursue us. I thought that was an interesting spin on vampire abilities. Oh, sure I can, Dracula says it’s just that I don’t have any of my supernatural powers when I do. although I don’t think I’ve read it since I was in college, so take that with a grain of salt.Īnyway, there’s one bit of that novel that sticks in my mind as being particularly cool: At one point, Dracula walks right into Holmes’ room, in the middle of the day, and Holmes expresses surprise that Dracula can go out in broad daylight. It was written by Loren Estleman in the style of Arthur Conan Doyle, and as I recall, it was less cheesy and far more entertaining than you might assume. Dracula: The Adventure of the Sanguinary Count.

I’m going to begin my discussion of vampires with a digression: Years ago, I read a book titled (I swear I’m not making this up) Sherlock Holmes vs.