Contingent Vampirism?

[Anubis]

Okay, the ELH (Epic Level Handbook) has a spell called Contingent Resurrection that brings someone back to life upon being killed.

Would you be able to do the same thing with the Animate Dead seed, though? Could one make a spell called Contingent Vampirism that raises the subject as a vampire upon its death?

Basically, I'm thinking of all the ways for one to become a vampire. I know about the normal way as well as the ritual spell, but I'd like to find a way someone could turn himself into a vampire.

 

[Faerl'Elghinn]

Okay, the ELH (Epic Level Handbook) has a spell called Contingent Resurrection that brings someone back to life upon being killed.

Would you be able to do the same thing with the Animate Dead seed, though? Could one make a spell called Contingent Vampirism that raises the subject as a vampire upon its death?

Basically, I'm thinking of all the ways for one to become a vampire. I know about the normal way as well as the ritual spell, but I'd like to find a way someone could turn himself into a vampire.

I got lucky, as I had a character who just happened to be carrying an overly powerful Wish scroll (a house rule spell called Unlimited Wish, which vastly transcends the normal spell. My character was 40th level or so at the time, so it was fair game) when he was completely obliterated with no save. The spell cast itself, and he came back as an ancient vampire with very few of the normal vulnerabilities and enhanced ability scores (extra +2 to just about everything). The main difference between this character and a normal vamp is that he only takes 1 hp/min from direct sunlight. Yeah, he's badass. And a Wiz28/Rog5/Asn10/Ftr1/Clr2 to boot.

But anyway, enough about me. As a DM, I would most definitely allow that, provided you had a sufficient Spellcraft score. As long as it follows the Epic Spell Creation rules to the letter, and the DM allows them to the letter, he probably should let you do it. This would be a way to circumvent the situation of being under the complete control of a Master Vampire, which would utterly suck butt as a PC, although if the DM were fairly judicious, it could just be used to compel you to go on quests, which wouldn't be so bad. Keep in mind, however, that you would still have the normal vulnerabilities of a Vampire, which are pretty steep. If you have a high enough Spellcraft score, you might try to work in some kind of permanent protection from sunlight or somesuch, so that you could be a little more versatile. Alternatively, you could develop a separate Epic Spell to take care of this inconvenience, or your DM might allow a Wish (with some careful wording, to be sure) to negate its negative effects. (hehe, double negative... ) Then again, you could just always walk around under an Eclipse spell...

 

[Anubis]

Actually, I am the DM, I was just seeing if I was reading the rules right. As you might assume, I'm looking for a way a player could become a vampire without having to be under the control of another vampire.

Now that you mention it, though, would Wish be sufficient to turn oneself into a vampire?

 

[Faerl'Elghinn]

Actually, I am the DM, I was just seeing if I was reading the rules right. As you might assume, I'm looking for a way a player could become a vampire without having to be under the control of another vampire.

Now that you mention it, though, would Wish be sufficient to turn oneself into a vampire?

Prolly so, yeah, although I'd be very careful about trying that one, making the decision to attempt it highly contingent upon who my DM was, as this type of a wish would be very hard not to botch, and the benefits gained far surpass the suggested guidelines for the power limitations of the spell (i.e., the suggested ability score increase is 1 point, whereas becoming a vampire confers bonuses to several ability scores, a hit die increase, and a multitude of powerful special abilities.)

Honestly, I feel that your original suggestion is more in keeping with the proper power level for such an incredible surge in power for a PC. I would probably not allow a wish to be stretched this far unless the wording was absolutely perfect (we're talking 10-page essay here), and it would be extremely complicated to word something like that. If the PC's wisdom score is high enough, I would suggest informing the player that his character is aware that it would be an extremely dangerous thing to attempt, and probably an outright poor decision altogether.

 

[Anubis]

Yeah, that sounds logical. Thanks for the advice!

 

[iceifur]

Now that you mention it, though, would Wish be sufficient to turn oneself into a vampire?

Actually, I think Savage Species has some info on using wish to change your type and such. IIRC, it's right after the Ritual of Vitality, and there's a chance it won't work properly.

--B--

PS: Sorry about the rant on that other thread, Anubis. I was having a bad day.

 

[Steve Jung]

/snip/
Now that you mention it, though, would Wish be sufficient to turn oneself into a vampire?

Spoiler below

Spoiler

In 1st edition, it could. The main villain of module I2, Tomb of the Lizard King, was a vampiric Lizard King. He used a ring of three wishes in a battle off-screen to "live to drink the very blood of those who had defeated him, and the blood of their offspring through the ages."