JoeGKushner
Adventurer
The vampire is a classic monster in fantasy role playing games. Green Ronin covered the creature in Fang & Fury. Bottled Imp Games had a Children of the Night volume which I’ve heard has been expanded and updated in a PDF format. For the new edition of the game, 3.5, Bastion Press presented Out for Blood. As the vampire is an old myth, there are many takes on it and many options. With that in mind, Goodman Games comes out with the Complete Guide to Vampires.
This is a medium sized book, written by Mark Charke at 64 black and white pages for $14.99, a fair price and on the low end of today’s mammoth tomes both in page count and price. Art and layout are fair.
The problem I have with the Complete Guide to Vampires is its player focus. In my opinion, the whole effective character level (ECL), is a broken measure. For low adjustments, say +1 or +2, it’s not bad. The character can work through those power issues especially if the GM is using some variety to buy off or reduce the penalty. For something like a vampire with seven levels for a ECL of +7 and a CR of +2, there are going to be some problems.
Racial levels, much like the monstrous progression from Savage Species, are provided for the following:
Standard Vampires: Pretty much states it all. The vampire spawn starts off weak and go through seven levels to advance to the standard vampire per the Monster Manual.
Inferno Vampire: Those who drink the blood of a red dragon can become inferno vampires whose mastery of magic changes their favored class to sorcerer among other changes.
Lymphatic Vampire: Instead of drinking blood, this breed drinks lymphatic fluids.
Magebane Vampire: An arcane spellcasting vampire who holds no others as rivals and as he advances in vampire levels, continues to gain in spellcasting levels.
Moglet Vampire: Undead music lovers and performers.
Sukko Vampire: Vampires of the frozen north.
Veldrane Mold Vampire: Created through intense concentrations of negative energy, plant vampires spontaneously arise to spread terror.
Each one is a full seven levels. Is each one necessary? Is each one balanced? It’s a hard thing to judge since I believe that the whole ECL thing is broken. For example, the Magebane seems overpowered when looking at their arcane advancement, but no hit points or skill points unlike a regular advancement. Still seems a little over the top. The Lymphatic and standard vampire are very similar and probably could’ve been covered with a few paragraphs on adapting the standard vampire.
In terms of the GM or a bold player advancing his vampire, the author provides the standard tools starting with prestige classes. Want to follow the path of a certain count? Take the Arch-Vampire. Want to go the route of a certain doctor? The GM can use the Lighting Zombie, an undead augmented with mad science, most often a zombie, but suitable for any undead. Want to spread the word of undeath to the animal kingdom? The Necrologist is your choice. Looking to expand the energy drain ability? Take the Soul Stealer.
The nice thing about these PrCs is that the author doesn’t try to fit each of them into a ten level progression. The arch vampire, an old idea and popular part of fiction, gets the full treatment. Others, like the lightning zombie, are meant for a specific augmentation and clock in at three levels. Would that work better as a template? Hard to say as the level progression allows the player to determine when to end his progression.
Not everything is for the vampire though. The Veldrane Hunter is a specialist whose goal is the eradication of the vampire menace.
After PrCs, we get the new uses for skills and new feats. These range from knowledge checks on the undead and survival skill checks for vampires to do everything from find shelter during daytime to determining when they’ll have cloud cover.
For feats, most of them work on building the vampires powers or attitude. For example, Augment Spawning provides a +4 bonus to your spawn’s strength as long as they’re under your control while fanged lunge allows blood drain without a grapple on multiple targets.
Not everything is aimed at the vampire. Feats like Greater Turning allow you to turn as if you were two levels higher than you normally are while others like Necrotic Chaneller allows you to take a turning attempt and transform it into a dangerous touch attack.
After mechanics, we get some new equipment including cloaks for vampires as well as needles and syringes to drain blood from victims.
Of more use to the GM are the sample undead. These include creatures with the template applies and the modifications already calculated. The advice on running a vampiric campaign is short, but to the point. In terms of outside utility, one of my favorite aspects of the book are the vampire demi-gods, beings who’ve moved past the limits of standard negative energy application and have become divine in and of themselves. Vlad the Immortal is the god of glory and conquest while Suthrikorn the Red is the lord of cunning and secrets. Domains and other information are included for those wishing to use them in a standard campaign.
Due to the heavy focus on player use and the extreme difficulty of taking a seven level monster class, the Complete Guide to Vampires has gone unused at my table as a player tool. Due to the different approach, that of vampires created through negative energy, and the plots of the vampires to expand their dominion into heaven itself, as a GM tool, it’s seen some use.
For GMs who don’t mind information aimed at players, the Complete Guide to Vampires is another 3.5 sourcebook that can help expand your options when creating one of the most ancient and deadly adversaries that a party can battle against.
This is a medium sized book, written by Mark Charke at 64 black and white pages for $14.99, a fair price and on the low end of today’s mammoth tomes both in page count and price. Art and layout are fair.
The problem I have with the Complete Guide to Vampires is its player focus. In my opinion, the whole effective character level (ECL), is a broken measure. For low adjustments, say +1 or +2, it’s not bad. The character can work through those power issues especially if the GM is using some variety to buy off or reduce the penalty. For something like a vampire with seven levels for a ECL of +7 and a CR of +2, there are going to be some problems.
Racial levels, much like the monstrous progression from Savage Species, are provided for the following:
Standard Vampires: Pretty much states it all. The vampire spawn starts off weak and go through seven levels to advance to the standard vampire per the Monster Manual.
Inferno Vampire: Those who drink the blood of a red dragon can become inferno vampires whose mastery of magic changes their favored class to sorcerer among other changes.
Lymphatic Vampire: Instead of drinking blood, this breed drinks lymphatic fluids.
Magebane Vampire: An arcane spellcasting vampire who holds no others as rivals and as he advances in vampire levels, continues to gain in spellcasting levels.
Moglet Vampire: Undead music lovers and performers.
Sukko Vampire: Vampires of the frozen north.
Veldrane Mold Vampire: Created through intense concentrations of negative energy, plant vampires spontaneously arise to spread terror.
Each one is a full seven levels. Is each one necessary? Is each one balanced? It’s a hard thing to judge since I believe that the whole ECL thing is broken. For example, the Magebane seems overpowered when looking at their arcane advancement, but no hit points or skill points unlike a regular advancement. Still seems a little over the top. The Lymphatic and standard vampire are very similar and probably could’ve been covered with a few paragraphs on adapting the standard vampire.
In terms of the GM or a bold player advancing his vampire, the author provides the standard tools starting with prestige classes. Want to follow the path of a certain count? Take the Arch-Vampire. Want to go the route of a certain doctor? The GM can use the Lighting Zombie, an undead augmented with mad science, most often a zombie, but suitable for any undead. Want to spread the word of undeath to the animal kingdom? The Necrologist is your choice. Looking to expand the energy drain ability? Take the Soul Stealer.
The nice thing about these PrCs is that the author doesn’t try to fit each of them into a ten level progression. The arch vampire, an old idea and popular part of fiction, gets the full treatment. Others, like the lightning zombie, are meant for a specific augmentation and clock in at three levels. Would that work better as a template? Hard to say as the level progression allows the player to determine when to end his progression.
Not everything is for the vampire though. The Veldrane Hunter is a specialist whose goal is the eradication of the vampire menace.
After PrCs, we get the new uses for skills and new feats. These range from knowledge checks on the undead and survival skill checks for vampires to do everything from find shelter during daytime to determining when they’ll have cloud cover.
For feats, most of them work on building the vampires powers or attitude. For example, Augment Spawning provides a +4 bonus to your spawn’s strength as long as they’re under your control while fanged lunge allows blood drain without a grapple on multiple targets.
Not everything is aimed at the vampire. Feats like Greater Turning allow you to turn as if you were two levels higher than you normally are while others like Necrotic Chaneller allows you to take a turning attempt and transform it into a dangerous touch attack.
After mechanics, we get some new equipment including cloaks for vampires as well as needles and syringes to drain blood from victims.
Of more use to the GM are the sample undead. These include creatures with the template applies and the modifications already calculated. The advice on running a vampiric campaign is short, but to the point. In terms of outside utility, one of my favorite aspects of the book are the vampire demi-gods, beings who’ve moved past the limits of standard negative energy application and have become divine in and of themselves. Vlad the Immortal is the god of glory and conquest while Suthrikorn the Red is the lord of cunning and secrets. Domains and other information are included for those wishing to use them in a standard campaign.
Due to the heavy focus on player use and the extreme difficulty of taking a seven level monster class, the Complete Guide to Vampires has gone unused at my table as a player tool. Due to the different approach, that of vampires created through negative energy, and the plots of the vampires to expand their dominion into heaven itself, as a GM tool, it’s seen some use.
For GMs who don’t mind information aimed at players, the Complete Guide to Vampires is another 3.5 sourcebook that can help expand your options when creating one of the most ancient and deadly adversaries that a party can battle against.
