Vampire fun 101!

[eXodus]

the folks here have always rocked my socks off when it comes to building good npcs for my games.

the current game i am running has an upcoming villian that is a vampire. gotta love those guys! the party is HUGE so i have been able to throw in some good encounters and not worry too much about CRs. everyone is fifth level. the party is as such: dwarf fighter, halforc barbarian, halfling druid, human cleric, elf fighter, human wizard.

our villian will be a human fighter 6. his pre-vampire stats are as follows: str 17 dex 14 con 12 int 14 wis 14 chr 16

he will be accompanied by as many vampire spawn as he can have and a number of mundane goons. i think i really want him to have a keen scythe +1. that will strike fear into the party, really play up his desire to lay down some death.

anything else is up to you guys.

thanks a whole hell of a lot! impress me, as per usual!

 

[shilsen]

Does he have to be a fighter? Vampire monks are fun

Incidentally, don't forget that he will be a CR8 critter and each spawn (he can have three enslaved ones) is CR4, so that's an EL 9.5 encounter without any other goons. Your six 5th lvl PCs have an exactly 50% chance of defeating an EL 10 encounter, so there is a very significant possibility that many will die (if at least one doesn't, with that kind of encounter, it'll be a miracle) in this fight. If I ran something like this, it would definitely be a TPK.

 

[eXodus]

Does he have to be a fighter? Vampire monks are fun

Incidentally, don't forget that he will be a CR8 critter and each spawn (he can have three enslaved ones) is CR4, so that's an EL 9.5 encounter without any other goons. Your six 5th lvl PCs have an exactly 50% chance of defeating an EL 10 encounter, so there is a very significant possibility that many will die (if at least one doesn't, with that kind of encounter, it'll be a miracle) in this fight. If I ran something like this, it would definitely be a TPK.

the cleric with his high charisma and turning ability should take care of the spawn rather easily. the party is rather well organized as well. besides i expect everyone to be one level higher before taking on mister vampire and his brood. that lowers the el a bit. the players expect hard battles from me. it is just what i give them.

no monks, our game has had a few bad experiences with monks so no one plays them and i do not throw them in as npcs.

 

[kaigrass]

our villian will be a human fighter 6. his pre-vampire stats are as follows: str 17 dex 14 con 12 int 14 wis 14 chr 16

Just a short note: Which sane fighter has con as his lowest ability score? (Besides the one intending to become a vampire )
Further more the stats are way more than average. That bumps the CR up by a bit as well ...

I'd say, tough fight.

 

[eXodus]

i am not sure who has the lowest con. it is not the wizard. she has an 18! the dwarf and half orc are high as well. i think it is the elf fighter with a 12.

it will be a very tough fight, but that is what my players expect from me. it has been my trademark for years. the domination power will be really nasty. he uses that on the half orc and we have real big problems. with his great axe he does a whole lot of damage. scary stuff.

six sixth level characters will easily destroy all of the vampires goons. it is the vampire himself that will be the real issue.

 

[shilsen]

Couple of suggestions:

I'd give him Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Unarmed Strike, and use a one-handed weapon and the slam attack. Energy drain is a lot scarier than simple damage.

With high AC (minimum of 24 with a non-magical chain shirt), DR which few will penetrate and fast healing, he's very durable, so I'd take a couple of hits if needed and dominate either the fighter or the barbarian first.