In Dave Arneson's dungeon Blackmoor (original D&D), there existed a vampire who had been polymorphed into a rose bush, and then stuffed upside down in a large pot. A paladin came by one day, and seeing the upside down rose bush, he attempted to repot the plant, right side up. Unfortunately, he was picked by the rose's thorns. This caused the paladin to unknowingly start the change into a vampire. The paladin was killed by the guards at the exit of Blackmoor dungeon who were responsible for making sure no evil influences escaped. The clerics detected the vampiric influence, and hosed the paladin down with holy water, which killed the paladin, much to his surprise.
@@sjrii8665 This was at a mini-con at the university of Minnesota in 1981 or 1982, with Dave Arneson actually the DM. Afterwards he passed out certificates for "surviving".
Man, I grew up in the 80s (AD&D 2nd), and I love hearing these kinds of stories that become lore. Whenever I hear something like this, it makes me go "So THAT'S where that came from!"
The whole "sexy vampires" trope is how I see vampires infiltrating society. Let's just say there's a lot of blood flow below the waist, so it would make a lot of sense for them to take a page from the succubus playbook.
I have known of the pleasure of a vampire’s 'kiss' thanks to a different system, the World of Darkness, where most vampires, except for the clan and bloodlines of death, their bites being just that: pleasurable. Their spit is also able to hide/heal the bite wound
It's called the "lick". A neat bit of lore I would probably adapt. I've played a ton of WoD, more than any other tabletop RPG. I was in one campaign that lasted 15 years. And it was huge, there were 13 of us at one point. The storyteller ended up having to rope me in to help him run the game. Not the biggest though. In was in a LARP for years in downtown Palo Alto (mostly Stanford students), 150 people in that one. We really freaked out the police when we descended on all the nightclubs and bars on Saturday nights.
I mean it makes sense, Strahd is based on the original Dracula who was a VERY generic Vampire. Strahd is very much a case of the legend ecclipsing reality sure he is incredibly powerful but hes not some nigh unkillable demigod like lots of players seem to think he is supposed to be and he has never been depicted that way its just Curse of Strahd is such a famous adventure that people expect more from the final boss
If you can find them, bust out the Van Richten's Guides to the various undead from Ravenloft in 2nd Edition, the RR series. They have lots of alternate information easily adaptable to 3rd, 4th or 5th edition. Really throws the players for a loop when that Patriarch vampire, very very old, is actually much more powerful than what they memorized out of the MM.
To add on to that, Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey from 3rd edition is also excellent for getting into the alien headspace of the fey and is a downright creepy read, too.
I think the current lore is that a Vampire Spawn can survive indefinitely without blood. They just go insane. IIRC, Astarion mentioned that he was buried for a year with nothing but his hunger to keep him company.
I'd love to see a video that tackles undeath as a whole topic. The difference between soul and spirit in necromancy. Which undead still posses their soul. I never was sure about souls in vampires. Perhaps touch on the nature of the Negative energy plane there too? I have this odd idea about Vampires. What happens if you have a clone spell active and die to a vampire. Are there two copies of you now out in the world? One vampire one not? I'd love to hear more about it!
In my setting, all intelligent undead, including vampires, are mortal souls tethered to a body, or to the phylactery in the case of liches, by negative energy, while unintelligent undead are just bodies animated by negative energy with no soul attached. In the case of a creature with an active clone spell that gets turned by a vampire, I'd either flip a coin, for npc's, or, if a PC wants to shift to the clone body, I'd let them make a charisma check against the vampire that turned them. If they succeed, their soul goes to the clone and their old body is animated as an unintelligent version of a vampire.
@@wyvvernstone the Cha stat generally represents force of personality. In my mind, this scenario is less about resisting the vampire's influence taking root, that's already happened because of the bite, and more about breaking away from the influence that's already there. Also, the system I play in most often is Pathfinder first edition. The general pattern, in that system, is wisdom is the stat you use to keep foreign influence out of your mind, but, all other things being equal, charisma is the stat your mind uses to attack. An example of this is in the case of two casters, we'll say a wizard and a cleric, who have cast dominate monster on the same creature and given contradictory orders. Despite the wizard's casting stat being intelligence and the cleric's casting stat being wisdom, and the spell dominate monster rewiring a will (aka wisdom) save in Pathfinder, determining which order is followed is done by an opposed charisma check between the two casters.
Vampires are simple. If played correctly you will fear them, if not you will mock them. Sadly it's really hard to do them justice in that regard. I'll always remember my first Curse of Strahd; my pocket wizard (gnome who lived inside a bag of holding using an artificial lung to keep the air fresh.) got kidnapped and turned against us. RIP little dude.
One creature I’d love to see you cover are the Grell. 5e paints them as just clever cave ambushers, but they have their own pan dimensional society and even a unique form of magic.
This is useful since I’m working on a campaign right now that has two bosses that are vampires. I’m try to figure out how to use the Monster Manual’s entry on vampires as a template for them and I’m getting there but it still needs some work. Also, I do hope the Rite of Profane Ascension does get discussed in the future. Although I do doubt that given it’s only shown up in BG3.
This is going to be very informative for me. I created a vampire Yuan-Ti Pureblood Warlock, so learning what I should know about what they don’t tell me about vampires will go a long way.
As soon as I get to the gym and do the stationary bike this gem shows up! Happy to have something to watch. Also love the little animations you have added. Great work! Would love to see you talk about 3.5 content as well. Learn more about the older days of dnd.
I'm pretty sure that while all his videos begin with the 5e lore, they nearly always go back and include lore from all previous versions (if the edition had anything on the subject matter). Especially 2e & 3.5e. But you do have to listen very closely to work out which edition the various bits came from, as it often feels like "ancient lore" rather than "current lore" as of an earlier edition.....if that makes sense.
Im doing a session 0 of a strahd campaign later today. i might use a Dhampir as a backup character, swarmkeeper ranger with a bunch of bats under his cloak as his swarm, and really wants to shake the transalvania accent escpecially when he's counting.
Oddly this could explain why Astarion (a high Elf by all Rights) hated the idea of drinking the Drow Potion makers blood. While still considered Elfs, Drow are quite removed from their family tree to the point their almost their own Species, rather than a Sub race of elf in player character creation, not to mention considered their complete opposites in a way. Though I imagine her chugging her own brews when testing them probably didnt help either xD
Actually no, it's not the drow part that made her repulsive to him. Her house, Oblodra, were doing a bunch of experiments to their bloodline and they mixed illithid in there, and that's what made it so utterly *repulsive,* since illithids are a whole alien empire and all. Otherwise, he would find a lot of drow and the idea of being born one utterly repulsive as well in dialogue and throw away lines.
@@vallaslin7690 Huh so that would fall close to the latter theory I put forward, though you could argue being part illithid and the like adds to the former theory of her being further removed her from the Elven Bloodline that'd he might find more desirable. Nice Catch!
@painlord2k This is why a vampire is particularly dangerous, yes, but I was talking about a particular note in the video: "The neck [and inner thigh] because these are areas people don't usually wear armor there". Realistically, you protect those vital areas first when armoring. Torso, head, neck, extremities. Even today, a gorget (or at least a very high-collared jacket) is considered standard PPE for HEMA fencing. D&D just doesn't have granular rules that cover armor pieces, so it's normally just listed in armor sets for the sake of fantasy imagery.
@rtechie They have to get a grip on it, first. For passing swipes, though, it should give at least some protection against a hit or two before becoming problematic. Still more preferable to just going bare-necked.
I'm excited to see, if you bring up, or at least mention, the reason, why Vampires have no reflection/don't show up in mirrors, and possibly how it is connected to them not showing up on photographs.
Also wondering if vampires have a soul or only a shard of it. Some lores say they are soulless while others say their souls are trapped in their undead bodies
Undead always lack something - a body, memories or a soul, the latter being the case with a vampire. An undead's hunger tries to fill the void left by what they lack.
The spell magic jar in third edition reads: "Only sentient undead creatures have, or are, souls." So... Vampires have at least a soul. If it's the original creature soul or the vampire has it's own that is not said, but since usign magic jar to exchange soul you take control of the body we have the understanding that that soul controls the vampire's body and is not trapped by it. Postdata: Honestly, the last place I expected to find that information.
If a vampire don't have a soul, the soul of the deceased could be resurrected by a high level priest with Resurrection (body not needed) or reincarnated
Man, I'm loving these episodes lately! I just wish I could apply it in my games (please do one or two Pathfinder episodes, the lore is quite neat and just like the rules it's quite easy to get into if you're familiar with DnD)!
I jumped over to Vampire: the Masquerade after the whole OGL incident, so it's really interesting to see how D&D handled the same subject as one of their biggest rivals.
I've played a ton of WoD, more than any other tabletop RPG. I was in one campaign that lasted 15 years. And it was huge, there were 13 of us at one point. The storyteller ended up having to rope me in to help him run the game. Not the biggest though. In was in a LARP for years in downtown Palo Alto (mostly Stanford students), 150 people in that one. We really freaked out the police when we descended on all the nightclubs and bars on Saturday nights.
The picture at about 8:25 has someone hunting a vampire with a birch wood stake. As a tree nerd, thats fuckin ridiculous, unless it's freshly cut and green, which it wasnt, and even then it would be pretty bendy. Birch is second only to balsa wood in its toughness.
So one thing that I Miss from 3E/3.5E/PF1 is that Undead, including Vampires, Didn't have a Constitution Score, it just said "-" in the box. Which means that they were pretty much immune to all Fortitude based effects that couldn't affect Objects, and they were also immune to Precision damage (That's Dex Based Dmg, Sneak attacks and Crits, among other things. Pathfinder Removed this trait, But I disagree with that call, so I run undead as still being immune to precision damage, They're Dead, they don't HAVE Vital organs, Precision damage Represents hitting the target some place Vital that tends to Kill a target extra fast, Hard to do when the thing you're stabbing is basically a Magically Animated Sack of Blood or Bones or Ectoplasm that doesn't actually use any of it's organs or muscles). For the purposes of anything that Constitution WOULD be used for(Such as HP Per Level), instead they use Charisma. Which means that for a Vampire, the More Charming they are, the TOUGHER they are. And it Makes Sense, since Charisma is meant to represent force of Personality and generally your ability to impose your will upon reality, which would include holding your Entirely Supernatural Body Together. This also leaves room for abuse for Min-Maxing.... Make your Build with low Con, Build yourself entirely around maxing out your use of Charisma, Then get yourself Turned into a Vampire(Or any Undead really, But Vampires are generally the Prettier ones with the least extreme drawbacks), Your Dump Stat of Con just goes away, and your HP gets turbo Charged while still giving you a LOT of bonuses for all your class features. If you can Get Cha Monk and Paladin(Which isn't impossible, it's possible to live ethically as a Vampire, just don't STEAL Blood, Feed off animals when you can't find a willing Donor, sure it's Disgusting, but being a Monk OR a Paladin is SUPPOSED to come with Self-Imposed Hardships), and not loose either features from turning into a Vampire, you can use your Charisma Mod for HP, AC, all Saves, Attack Bonus(Though Smite) on top of it's usual uses... It can even funnier if you Mix in Barbarian, since Cha now becomes the Ability Score that Determines your Rounds per day of Rage, Yes, it's THAT Silly and that Awesome.
Probably not. In traditional lore, this aversion is related to creeks and rivers. Though I suspect vampires wouldn't much like lakes and oceans either as the water is very much in motion. What explicitly does NOT work is that you can't splash a bucket of water directly on the vampire or kick a bucket over to create a "barrier". The Decanter of Endless Water may be an exception to this due to the sheer volume, as it can create a massive geyser of water.
A good one for Halloween I have some other ideas for ones you can do for Halloween Werewolves Oblex Scarecrow Brain in a jar Star Spawn Emissary The Bagman Sibriexes
Me currently playing a vampire in a curse of strahd campaign: „you’re telling me, you had a full vampire class I could have played instead of making a blood hunter subclass?! Neat.“
@@erikbojorquez3363 ironically in this video I learned I unintentionally made her a tiny little bit more lore-friendly than I would have thought with vampires lusting after the blood of their "former selves" and all that. She came in as a Dhampyr, born of a Vampire mother (definitely not how that should work) and a mortal. Her dark hunger was blood, especially that of vampires (so my Dhampyr stuff was made to work on vampires). The Idea was, to make a blood manipulating monster hunter. Then in Barovia, while in a blood-drunken state (long story) was turned through Strahd's blood into something a bit more then a vampire spawn. As in a few new powers as well as increases to what I already had, the MHB stat increases to my already very well rolled character (lowest is now a 13 in Int), while getting many of the weaknesses and also the whole Strahd could snap his fingers and I die part. We're currently in the Amber Temple and just learned what has to be done to defeat Strahd..
Oh really? My homebrew Vampire was slightly difficult to play due to things like Sunlight Hypersensitivity, so you know disadvantage on checks due to sunlight, and Radiant Aversion, basically being vulnerable to Radiant damage among other issues, so it was also apparently also lore-friendly though my Vampire wasn't undead just terminally ill. He got involved in the campaign as a result of seeking revenge for the murder of his wife and manipulated his own blood for his spells, it was Blood Magic so he was a pretty tough guy out of necessity since using his Spells lowered his current hit points and he could sense and track creatures down so long as they had blood flowing through their veins. In Barovia he was able to keep his condition hidden for the most part since he favored throwing knives and was pretty good at sneaking around. But we, the party, encountered Strahd and it was a dog getting into a fight with a wolf. In the end since my Vampire was a living thing with a beating heart Strahd was kind enough to relieve my character of their heavy heart by punching it out. Fun times. 😑
@@erikbojorquez3363 my dm also gave me radiant vulnerability and sunlight sensitivity.. but the sun never actually shines in barovia so yeah. Apart from that I got the full package with str, dex and con becoming 18 if they’re not higher, I kept most dhampir abilities and my dm‘s trademark „giving everyone something op“ he doubled my hemocraft die.. (curse of the eyeless is very funny) I just switched to dual wielding my frostbrand with another weapon that for now is a placeholder. Since the beginning of the campaign I was looking forward to the sunblade, when I asked him after my change I’d we could find a workaround for it affecting me, he told me sure so here’s to hoping I get to wield both As for my character’s motivation, she is all over rn. She wants revenge on vampires and wants her title and noble house back, but also remembers her father/mentors teachings about protecting the weak and all the loss she had to endure For a while now and with her rather „demonically inclined“ party members (the warlock is his own patron now after eating the eye of his old one. Long Story. The paladin wields what is essentially souledge and is slowly being consumed by it and then there’s the suicidal rogue with the devil pistol that he has to feed his hit die), she knows what is right, but fears she has to become a monster to do it. Now with Strahds backstory and the seemingly only way to kill him in front her.. she trembles a little bit. Should we meet a heartless knife throwing vampire along the way, I’ll be sure to put him to rest and avenge his cause 🫡
I have a lycanthrope question for MrRhexx. We know a regular/new lycanthrope cant control their curse nor their beast forms but what if someone casts Awaken on their beast form🤔🙈 also what happens if a caster uses blood from an awakened animal when casting the curse of lycanthropy spell on a target??🙈
@@darksparder6369because -- for example -- in 1e and 2e, when a Vampire would feed, it would permanently drain 2 Levels (loss of XP, spells, hp, everything). Some DMs did stat drain instead --i preferred 1 Con, + 1 random stat per bite. Of course on subsequent editions y'all went for a more temporary effect, but it's still a DRAIN. Which is the in-game effect. Which is why it's relevant.
@archmage_of_the_aether Side note: Van Richten's Guide to Vampires in 2e actually also introduced that kind of stat drain as a possible effect of vampiric feeding. Also, I'm expecting the Negative Energy Plane to come up in a future video.
The problem with Van Richter Guide to Vampire(2e) is that Strahd is described as an Ancient Vampire,but it as the stats of a Fledgling and possibly the Age of an Eminent(because in Ravenloft 1e is said that 500 years has passed from the separation of Tatyana and Sergei that coincide with their Wedding Date and Strahd transformation. (Sorry for my bad English. )
Idk if it was just my DM, but man of man undead in general were ALWAYS such a pain to fight. They always had some sort of extra thing, like forced saving throws on attacks or damage resistances.
In Dracula, and some earlier tales the book was based on, vampires were not destroyed by sunlight. They just lost all their supernatural powers. So being weakened in some way by sunlight is "true" within vampire myth but being destroyed isn't always.
I imagine that Intelligence would increase very slowly with time, and that Intelligence is a measure of how quickly you can increase your Wisdom. Intelligence in how fast you can learn, and Wisdom is what you know.
Amazing video as per usual, your voice was made for this stuff.Is there any chance you could please do videos on the gem dragons at some point in the future? Particularly the sapphire as it is my favourite.
Interesting video! I'm a big fan of vampires and a writer myself, so I find the rules and lore of vampires to be very alluring. I both like and dislike the idea of people becoming slaves with a vampire drinks their blood. I think you can work with that if the victim is separated from their vampire but is connected in some way and is seeking them out, but otherwise, I prefer the idea of the victim not being controlled unless put under a spell or something. I also don't like the idea of the vampire losing their memories by default, I think it makes more sense if they were to forget willingly over time, since they've been alive for so long. I however do like the idea of the stake thing only paralyzing the vampire and not outright killing them. The Batman vampire trilogy did an interesting thing with it to where when he was staked, his body decayed and stuff. I like the idea of being staked also being a way to physically age a vampire, besides by not drinking blood. Or maybe it's an age vs decay kind of thing. The idea of an older vampire needing less blood but getting more hungry is interesting as well! You'd think they would just simply need less blood, but I never considered that their desire for it would be stronger as they age. I like the idea of vampirism being considered a sickness, so in my mind, the desire for blood could be very debilitating. What shocks me the most is that a vampire here would not want to be around other vampires. The World of Darkness TTRPG seems to play on the idea of a vampire community, though since it's in modern day, I suppose it makes more sense.
Not sure if this video game b-roll you’ve been adding to vids is all captured by yourself. But I’m loving it, first Spore nor Rimworld; two absolute classics! 👏🏽👏🏽
Yo, you should do one about a vampire that was a dragon slayer and has developed an obsession with drinking dragon blood. Obviously, tying in with your What they don't tell you about dragon hoards product!
The "Bloodline" aspect is very present in the Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver game. 1) All bloodlines are "corrupted", due to their common progenitor being the last corrupted guardian of the realm. 2) The head of each bloodline evolved, and some of those trait appear in their descendents. We have a degenerative bloodline, their form constantly decomposing, their lord a huge mass of corpse he aggregated in an attemps to maintain himself. We have spider vampires, their form closer to driders and able to use web. Love making cocoons for their victims to feed on them longer. A Warrior bloodline, especially strong, but extinct due to their arrogance and vampires hunts targetting them in priority. An Aquatic bloodline, having overcome their weakness to water. A flying bloodline with wings. And a last one which started developping telekinetic powers if I remember well.
Whenever I heard vampire descriptions I wonder how cool it'd be to have an original Dracula-style vampire. Those guys were better in some ways, far worse in others. And didn't help that they didn't burn in sunlight, they just lost all their vampiric powers whenever the son was up and not touching the horizon, aside from a brief period at high noon.
Strahd is waaaaay older than the 5th edition book lets on. Some sources categorize him at 3,000 years old, with the 400 years being only what the dread plane of Barovia has aged, since time works differently there.
I remember on the video about the succubus, if the person had a strong will, it will survive the succubus and it will become a vampire. If you could clarify that it will be amazong. Because it got me confused as to, vampires are born out of holding out agaisnt a succubus kiss.
In my homebrew world vampires come in various forms - but their Progenitors (species name) are more akin to fiends as they possess none of the vampire weaknesses and yet all of their powers across various vampire lore (power over beasts, blood, shadow, etc). They can perform a blood rite to make an undead vampire, this ritual is what draws out the hunger for blood to retain their presence in the physical world after their death. These "true born" are quick to become "vampire lord" level (look up 3rd edition template) and have a master over 1 or 2 of the Progenitor's special powers, and from there it's basically like Vampire: the Masquerade and the clans... for a quick comparison so I don't type a novel lol Lowest form are the "ravagers" (even lower than vampire spawn); more like mindless zombies with fangs - the 'feral' vampire - yet they too can be dangerous when they swarm in packs.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Oh no, he's fallen to Rimworld. Expect next upload next year.
one of us, one of us
Not just that, he used the Warframe symbols for cold and lightning damage when he was talking about they're weaknesses.
what they don't tell you about running a wintertime devilstrand greenhouse and red duster factory
another has fallen to the ravenous grasp of rim world
ONE OF US, ONE OF US
You forgot to mention, that vampires always try to skate uphill.
*ice skate. And sometimes they call them something else besides vampires lol. But love you busted out that line
Ice skate
In Dave Arneson's dungeon Blackmoor (original D&D), there existed a vampire who had been polymorphed into a rose bush, and then stuffed upside down in a large pot. A paladin came by one day, and seeing the upside down rose bush, he attempted to repot the plant, right side up. Unfortunately, he was picked by the rose's thorns. This caused the paladin to unknowingly start the change into a vampire. The paladin was killed by the guards at the exit of Blackmoor dungeon who were responsible for making sure no evil influences escaped. The clerics detected the vampiric influence, and hosed the paladin down with holy water, which killed the paladin, much to his surprise.
That's actually a pretty awesome way to turn.
@@sjrii8665 This was at a mini-con at the university of Minnesota in 1981 or 1982, with Dave Arneson actually the DM. Afterwards he passed out certificates for "surviving".
Man, I grew up in the 80s (AD&D 2nd), and I love hearing these kinds of stories that become lore. Whenever I hear something like this, it makes me go "So THAT'S where that came from!"
Okay, the inner thigh is not at all where I expected a vampire to feed.
That's where I go
That's how they get you
The whole "sexy vampires" trope is how I see vampires infiltrating society. Let's just say there's a lot of blood flow below the waist, so it would make a lot of sense for them to take a page from the succubus playbook.
@@Gregbarlow04A particularly evil vampire who feeds from boners 😂
Once a month they get an extra helping 🤣
Never even played D&D. Watched literally everyone of your videos just for the lore.
this
its a fun game highly recommend it
I recommend you play
The main setting is the Forgotten Realms and it has video games, books, and a movie as well. Not just table top games.
@@noctemic this, this one
I have known of the pleasure of a vampire’s 'kiss' thanks to a different system, the World of Darkness, where most vampires, except for the clan and bloodlines of death, their bites being just that: pleasurable. Their spit is also able to hide/heal the bite wound
I miss WOD
It's called the "lick". A neat bit of lore I would probably adapt. I've played a ton of WoD, more than any other tabletop RPG. I was in one campaign that lasted 15 years. And it was huge, there were 13 of us at one point. The storyteller ended up having to rope me in to help him run the game. Not the biggest though. In was in a LARP for years in downtown Palo Alto (mostly Stanford students), 150 people in that one. We really freaked out the police when we descended on all the nightclubs and bars on Saturday nights.
@@rtechie it’s name completely escaped my mind, thank you for telling me the terms name😊
Yeah I think they borrowed that from Anne Rice's vampires
I can’t believe you stated that last point so casually.
The idea that Strahd is only halfway to his peak physical strength is terrifying.
I mean it makes sense, Strahd is based on the original Dracula who was a VERY generic Vampire. Strahd is very much a case of the legend ecclipsing reality sure he is incredibly powerful but hes not some nigh unkillable demigod like lots of players seem to think he is supposed to be and he has never been depicted that way its just Curse of Strahd is such a famous adventure that people expect more from the final boss
If you can find them, bust out the Van Richten's Guides to the various undead from Ravenloft in 2nd Edition, the RR series. They have lots of alternate information easily adaptable to 3rd, 4th or 5th edition. Really throws the players for a loop when that Patriarch vampire, very very old, is actually much more powerful than what they memorized out of the MM.
To add on to that, Van Richten's Guide to the Shadow Fey from 3rd edition is also excellent for getting into the alien headspace of the fey and is a downright creepy read, too.
There is that (actual) niece of Strad that can drain 5 level with one hit. Plus a lot of other weakness and strengths.
I think the current lore is that a Vampire Spawn can survive indefinitely without blood.
They just go insane.
IIRC, Astarion mentioned that he was buried for a year with nothing but his hunger to keep him company.
Yes, they go insane and become emaciated. It is unclear what is the exact time limit when a spawn becomes irrevocably insane from bloodthirst.
I'd love to see a video that tackles undeath as a whole topic. The difference between soul and spirit in necromancy. Which undead still posses their soul.
I never was sure about souls in vampires. Perhaps touch on the nature of the Negative energy plane there too?
I have this odd idea about Vampires. What happens if you have a clone spell active and die to a vampire. Are there two copies of you now out in the world? One vampire one not?
I'd love to hear more about it!
didn't he already do one like that?
In my setting, all intelligent undead, including vampires, are mortal souls tethered to a body, or to the phylactery in the case of liches, by negative energy, while unintelligent undead are just bodies animated by negative energy with no soul attached. In the case of a creature with an active clone spell that gets turned by a vampire, I'd either flip a coin, for npc's, or, if a PC wants to shift to the clone body, I'd let them make a charisma check against the vampire that turned them. If they succeed, their soul goes to the clone and their old body is animated as an unintelligent version of a vampire.
Why a Cha check and not Wis?
@@wyvvernstone the Cha stat generally represents force of personality. In my mind, this scenario is less about resisting the vampire's influence taking root, that's already happened because of the bite, and more about breaking away from the influence that's already there. Also, the system I play in most often is Pathfinder first edition. The general pattern, in that system, is wisdom is the stat you use to keep foreign influence out of your mind, but, all other things being equal, charisma is the stat your mind uses to attack. An example of this is in the case of two casters, we'll say a wizard and a cleric, who have cast dominate monster on the same creature and given contradictory orders. Despite the wizard's casting stat being intelligence and the cleric's casting stat being wisdom, and the spell dominate monster rewiring a will (aka wisdom) save in Pathfinder, determining which order is followed is done by an opposed charisma check between the two casters.
@@TheStartrek99 this was verified in 4th edition.
22:05 An older vampire seeking to demean a younger one might call them...
"....Little Godbrand"
Glad to see videos covering vampires. I like how they mirror dragons with age categories. The idea that the danger magnitude increases with time.
As someone who's read the book that chart comes from (Van Richten's Guide to Vampires from 2nd Edition Ravenloft), patriarch vampires are no joke.
Vampires are simple. If played correctly you will fear them, if not you will mock them. Sadly it's really hard to do them justice in that regard.
I'll always remember my first Curse of Strahd; my pocket wizard (gnome who lived inside a bag of holding using an artificial lung to keep the air fresh.) got kidnapped and turned against us. RIP little dude.
Rest in peace, Steve Rothenstein, pocket wizard.
I was just rewatching your video on ghouls, not realizing it was spooky month and should be anticipating another undead video from you
3:50 actual start time.
Seeing you use rimworld for ab intro was a surprise, but a welcome one
what a coincidence, I'm wearing my thrumbofur parka right now
Bro, Rimworld? You really are one of us.
One creature I’d love to see you cover are the Grell. 5e paints them as just clever cave ambushers, but they have their own pan dimensional society and even a unique form of magic.
This is useful since I’m working on a campaign right now that has two bosses that are vampires. I’m try to figure out how to use the Monster Manual’s entry on vampires as a template for them and I’m getting there but it still needs some work.
Also, I do hope the Rite of Profane Ascension does get discussed in the future. Although I do doubt that given it’s only shown up in BG3.
18:17 ok vampire survivers I see you! Sidenote THIS GAME IS FUN AND ADDICTIVE
This is going to be very informative for me. I created a vampire Yuan-Ti Pureblood Warlock, so learning what I should know about what they don’t tell me about vampires will go a long way.
Percent timing! We just had our first session of a new campaign where I'm playing a dhampir
As soon as I get to the gym and do the stationary bike this gem shows up! Happy to have something to watch. Also love the little animations you have added. Great work! Would love to see you talk about 3.5 content as well. Learn more about the older days of dnd.
I'm pretty sure that while all his videos begin with the 5e lore, they nearly always go back and include lore from all previous versions (if the edition had anything on the subject matter).
Especially 2e & 3.5e. But you do have to listen very closely to work out which edition the various bits came from, as it often feels like "ancient lore" rather than "current lore" as of an earlier edition.....if that makes sense.
@Wintermute909 Right. I didn't clarify, my bad. I mean rules from players handbook, DM guide, player subclasses etc.
Im doing a session 0 of a strahd campaign later today. i might use a Dhampir as a backup character, swarmkeeper ranger with a bunch of bats under his cloak as his swarm, and really wants to shake the transalvania accent escpecially when he's counting.
Oddly this could explain why Astarion (a high Elf by all Rights) hated the idea of drinking the Drow Potion makers blood.
While still considered Elfs, Drow are quite removed from their family tree to the point their almost their own Species, rather than a Sub race of elf in player character creation, not to mention considered their complete opposites in a way.
Though I imagine her chugging her own brews when testing them probably didnt help either xD
Actually no, it's not the drow part that made her repulsive to him. Her house, Oblodra, were doing a bunch of experiments to their bloodline and they mixed illithid in there, and that's what made it so utterly *repulsive,* since illithids are a whole alien empire and all. Otherwise, he would find a lot of drow and the idea of being born one utterly repulsive as well in dialogue and throw away lines.
@@vallaslin7690 Huh so that would fall close to the latter theory I put forward, though you could argue being part illithid and the like adds to the former theory of her being further removed her from the Elven Bloodline that'd he might find more desirable.
Nice Catch!
I was hoping you'd cover vampires this spooky month
"Most people don't wear armor on their necks."
**Laughs in properly-kitted Fighter/Paladin**
"Gorget says, 'NO...'."
Armor is not a problem when the vampire can just tell the victim to take it off.
@painlord2k This is why a vampire is particularly dangerous, yes, but I was talking about a particular note in the video: "The neck [and inner thigh] because these are areas people don't usually wear armor there".
Realistically, you protect those vital areas first when armoring. Torso, head, neck, extremities. Even today, a gorget (or at least a very high-collared jacket) is considered standard PPE for HEMA fencing. D&D just doesn't have granular rules that cover armor pieces, so it's normally just listed in armor sets for the sake of fantasy imagery.
A vampire is usually easily strong enough to just pry it open.
@rtechie They have to get a grip on it, first. For passing swipes, though, it should give at least some protection against a hit or two before becoming problematic. Still more preferable to just going bare-necked.
I used the original Grimhollow books too make a dark fantasy world inspired by Castlvania my players really enjoyed it
5:12 EMOTIONAL DAMAGE
I don't know how many times I've lost to that card....
I think without knowing i always imagined a vampire to act like astarion from bg3
I like when these videos credit the artists, fair play!
I'm excited to see, if you bring up, or at least mention, the reason, why Vampires have no reflection/don't show up in mirrors, and possibly how it is connected to them not showing up on photographs.
Bout to be a cozy, spooky episode… I can feel it 🎃☕️
Also wondering if vampires have a soul or only a shard of it. Some lores say they are soulless while others say their souls are trapped in their undead bodies
Traditionally speaking, their lack of a soul is the reason they don't have reflections or cast shadows.
Undead always lack something - a body, memories or a soul, the latter being the case with a vampire. An undead's hunger tries to fill the void left by what they lack.
The spell magic jar in third edition reads: "Only sentient undead creatures have, or are, souls."
So... Vampires have at least a soul. If it's the original creature soul or the vampire has it's own that is not said, but since usign magic jar to exchange soul you take control of the body we have the understanding that that soul controls the vampire's body and is not trapped by it.
Postdata: Honestly, the last place I expected to find that information.
If a vampire don't have a soul, the soul of the deceased could be resurrected by a high level priest with Resurrection (body not needed) or reincarnated
@@painlord2k That would be interesting, would the vampire and the resurrected person work together and act like twins🤔
Always a good day when MrRhexx drops a video.
I see that the art from the various MtG Innistrad related sets was of great help to you.
Man, I'm loving these episodes lately!
I just wish I could apply it in my games (please do one or two Pathfinder episodes, the lore is quite neat and just like the rules it's quite easy to get into if you're familiar with DnD)!
Excellent video! “I am a vampire..this cape is giving me a rash.” Grampa Simpson vampire
I jumped over to Vampire: the Masquerade after the whole OGL incident, so it's really interesting to see how D&D handled the same subject as one of their biggest rivals.
V20 I hope ? (Not a all my favorite)
@@Froma__l V5 for about 6 months. Then I realized my horrible mistake.
@@AnakinTheWeird at least you realized it, congratulations to you
I've played a ton of WoD, more than any other tabletop RPG. I was in one campaign that lasted 15 years. And it was huge, there were 13 of us at one point. The storyteller ended up having to rope me in to help him run the game. Not the biggest though. In was in a LARP for years in downtown Palo Alto (mostly Stanford students), 150 people in that one. We really freaked out the police when we descended on all the nightclubs and bars on Saturday nights.
The picture at about 8:25 has someone hunting a vampire with a birch wood stake. As a tree nerd, thats fuckin ridiculous, unless it's freshly cut and green, which it wasnt, and even then it would be pretty bendy. Birch is second only to balsa wood in its toughness.
So one thing that I Miss from 3E/3.5E/PF1 is that Undead, including Vampires, Didn't have a Constitution Score, it just said "-" in the box. Which means that they were pretty much immune to all Fortitude based effects that couldn't affect Objects, and they were also immune to Precision damage (That's Dex Based Dmg, Sneak attacks and Crits, among other things. Pathfinder Removed this trait, But I disagree with that call, so I run undead as still being immune to precision damage, They're Dead, they don't HAVE Vital organs, Precision damage Represents hitting the target some place Vital that tends to Kill a target extra fast, Hard to do when the thing you're stabbing is basically a Magically Animated Sack of Blood or Bones or Ectoplasm that doesn't actually use any of it's organs or muscles). For the purposes of anything that Constitution WOULD be used for(Such as HP Per Level), instead they use Charisma. Which means that for a Vampire, the More Charming they are, the TOUGHER they are. And it Makes Sense, since Charisma is meant to represent force of Personality and generally your ability to impose your will upon reality, which would include holding your Entirely Supernatural Body Together.
This also leaves room for abuse for Min-Maxing.... Make your Build with low Con, Build yourself entirely around maxing out your use of Charisma, Then get yourself Turned into a Vampire(Or any Undead really, But Vampires are generally the Prettier ones with the least extreme drawbacks), Your Dump Stat of Con just goes away, and your HP gets turbo Charged while still giving you a LOT of bonuses for all your class features. If you can Get Cha Monk and Paladin(Which isn't impossible, it's possible to live ethically as a Vampire, just don't STEAL Blood, Feed off animals when you can't find a willing Donor, sure it's Disgusting, but being a Monk OR a Paladin is SUPPOSED to come with Self-Imposed Hardships), and not loose either features from turning into a Vampire, you can use your Charisma Mod for HP, AC, all Saves, Attack Bonus(Though Smite) on top of it's usual uses... It can even funnier if you Mix in Barbarian, since Cha now becomes the Ability Score that Determines your Rounds per day of Rage, Yes, it's THAT Silly and that Awesome.
I just started dming a new campaign with vampires as the enemies, the timing could not be more perfect
A little known fact about vampires. They hate eating without a table
Smoothskin astarion isn't real and can't hurt me
As someone currently running a vampire and werewolf campaign I'm subscribing and buying that Grim Hollow book!! I'm so glad I found you 🎉🎉
Will you be returning to the Nine Hells series? I was super interested by that! I'll keep watching everything you make, regardless lol
considering the symbolism... would a waterlemental that uses its dash action count was running water?
Probably not. In traditional lore, this aversion is related to creeks and rivers. Though I suspect vampires wouldn't much like lakes and oceans either as the water is very much in motion.
What explicitly does NOT work is that you can't splash a bucket of water directly on the vampire or kick a bucket over to create a "barrier".
The Decanter of Endless Water may be an exception to this due to the sheer volume, as it can create a massive geyser of water.
3: Inner thighs are much more demonitizable.
as someone who just started playing a vampire in our most recent campaign, this is incredibly useful!
Your creativity and depth of lore knowledge never fails to entertain and inspire. We salute you.
Good choice of thumbnail. Westgate Regent is such a cool card.
A good one for Halloween I have some other ideas for ones you can do for Halloween
Werewolves
Oblex
Scarecrow
Brain in a jar
Star Spawn Emissary
The Bagman
Sibriexes
Hell yeah! Just in time for our CoS campaign❤ your videos are such help to understand monsters and creatures
0:56 Also, vampires wobble but they don't fall down. That or all Weebles are undead. Either way, frightening.
Dracula dont suck! Dracula scrape then lick! ~~~~~
Would be super awesome to see you do one of these lore videos for creatures/people in Warhammer 40k.
Vampire necromancer...I love it
I think the description of how the vampire bite feels awakened something in me
Me currently playing a vampire in a curse of strahd campaign: „you’re telling me, you had a full vampire class I could have played instead of making a blood hunter subclass?! Neat.“
A fellow vampire player in Curse of Strahd. 👍 Unfortunately the campaign kinda just got dropped but it was fun playing a homebrew vampire Fighter.
@@erikbojorquez3363 ironically in this video I learned I unintentionally made her a tiny little bit more lore-friendly than I would have thought with vampires lusting after the blood of their "former selves" and all that.
She came in as a Dhampyr, born of a Vampire mother (definitely not how that should work) and a mortal. Her dark hunger was blood, especially that of vampires (so my Dhampyr stuff was made to work on vampires). The Idea was, to make a blood manipulating monster hunter.
Then in Barovia, while in a blood-drunken state (long story) was turned through Strahd's blood into something a bit more then a vampire spawn. As in a few new powers as well as increases to what I already had, the MHB stat increases to my already very well rolled character (lowest is now a 13 in Int), while getting many of the weaknesses and also the whole Strahd could snap his fingers and I die part.
We're currently in the Amber Temple and just learned what has to be done to defeat Strahd..
Oh really? My homebrew Vampire was slightly difficult to play due to things like Sunlight Hypersensitivity, so you know disadvantage on checks due to sunlight, and Radiant Aversion, basically being vulnerable to Radiant damage among other issues, so it was also apparently also lore-friendly though my Vampire wasn't undead just terminally ill.
He got involved in the campaign as a result of seeking revenge for the murder of his wife and manipulated his own blood for his spells, it was Blood Magic so he was a pretty tough guy out of necessity since using his Spells lowered his current hit points and he could sense and track creatures down so long as they had blood flowing through their veins.
In Barovia he was able to keep his condition hidden for the most part since he favored throwing knives and was pretty good at sneaking around. But we, the party, encountered Strahd and it was a dog getting into a fight with a wolf. In the end since my Vampire was a living thing with a beating heart Strahd was kind enough to relieve my character of their heavy heart by punching it out. Fun times. 😑
@@erikbojorquez3363 my dm also gave me radiant vulnerability and sunlight sensitivity.. but the sun never actually shines in barovia so yeah.
Apart from that I got the full package with str, dex and con becoming 18 if they’re not higher, I kept most dhampir abilities and my dm‘s trademark „giving everyone something op“ he doubled my hemocraft die.. (curse of the eyeless is very funny)
I just switched to dual wielding my frostbrand with another weapon that for now is a placeholder.
Since the beginning of the campaign I was looking forward to the sunblade, when I asked him after my change I’d we could find a workaround for it affecting me, he told me sure so here’s to hoping I get to wield both
As for my character’s motivation, she is all over rn. She wants revenge on vampires and wants her title and noble house back, but also remembers her father/mentors teachings about protecting the weak and all the loss she had to endure
For a while now and with her rather „demonically inclined“ party members (the warlock is his own patron now after eating the eye of his old one. Long Story. The paladin wields what is essentially souledge and is slowly being consumed by it and then there’s the suicidal rogue with the devil pistol that he has to feed his hit die), she knows what is right, but fears she has to become a monster to do it. Now with Strahds backstory and the seemingly only way to kill him in front her.. she trembles a little bit.
Should we meet a heartless knife throwing vampire along the way, I’ll be sure to put him to rest and avenge his cause 🫡
14:42 i don't know why but that sounds even more scary to have the teeth hollow.
I knew in my soul we were due for a MrRhexx video soon, idk how but i knew it would come today
Still watchimg your Skyrim Content bro, happy to see you still making vids
I have a lycanthrope question for MrRhexx. We know a regular/new lycanthrope cant control their curse nor their beast forms but what if someone casts Awaken on their beast form🤔🙈 also what happens if a caster uses blood from an awakened animal when casting the curse of lycanthropy spell on a target??🙈
You dont mention negative energy anywhere in this vid, yhat is very important to any explanation of the undead in dnd
And once upon a time, they even had energy draining slam attacks
Should he mention positive energy everytime talking about something alive xd why is it so important?
@@darksparder6369because -- for example -- in 1e and 2e, when a Vampire would feed, it would permanently drain 2 Levels (loss of XP, spells, hp, everything). Some DMs did stat drain instead --i preferred 1 Con, + 1 random stat per bite.
Of course on subsequent editions y'all went for a more temporary effect, but it's still a DRAIN.
Which is the in-game effect. Which is why it's relevant.
@@archmage_of_the_aether it is not that relevant, if it's such a big deal people can go to Google for themselves
@archmage_of_the_aether Side note: Van Richten's Guide to Vampires in 2e actually also introduced that kind of stat drain as a possible effect of vampiric feeding.
Also, I'm expecting the Negative Energy Plane to come up in a future video.
Didnt know the age thing and currently running my group through CoS. Love your work!
Whould be so cool if they made a D&D/Baldurs gate game where you playd vampires. Also so many cool and sexy female vampires! =)
I love that some series have vampire variations such as strigois.
Thank you once again for an outstanding video!
I'm waiting enthusiastically for the Githzerai video!!! Can't wait!!!
The problem with Van Richter Guide to Vampire(2e) is that Strahd is described as an Ancient Vampire,but it as the stats of a Fledgling and possibly the Age of an Eminent(because in Ravenloft 1e is said that 500 years has passed from the separation of Tatyana and Sergei that coincide with their Wedding Date and Strahd transformation.
(Sorry for my bad English. )
The whole "Van-Richtens Guides" are rpg gold. They changed my way to DM my sessions for the better.
I would say that the bite of a vampire feels like when you poke your bruise and it hurts but your brain tells you to do it again.
Taking a break from watching Hurricane Milton to watch my guy MrRhexx cook.
Idk if it was just my DM, but man of man undead in general were ALWAYS such a pain to fight. They always had some sort of extra thing, like forced saving throws on attacks or damage resistances.
In Dracula, and some earlier tales the book was based on, vampires were not destroyed by sunlight. They just lost all their supernatural powers. So being weakened in some way by sunlight is "true" within vampire myth but being destroyed isn't always.
I like how the vampires are in the Witcher 3 I've never played D&D before but BG3 is the only D&D I've had experience with.
I imagine that Intelligence would increase very slowly with time, and that Intelligence is a measure of how quickly you can increase your Wisdom. Intelligence in how fast you can learn, and Wisdom is what you know.
Intelligence is what you know.
Wisdom is how you use it.
I been waiting for this one xD
Despite their flaws, they're my favorite undead
Amazing video as per usual, your voice was made for this stuff.Is there any chance you could please do videos on the gem dragons at some point in the future? Particularly the sapphire as it is my favourite.
Damn, I LOVE THE USE OF RIMWORLD HERE
Interesting video! I'm a big fan of vampires and a writer myself, so I find the rules and lore of vampires to be very alluring. I both like and dislike the idea of people becoming slaves with a vampire drinks their blood. I think you can work with that if the victim is separated from their vampire but is connected in some way and is seeking them out, but otherwise, I prefer the idea of the victim not being controlled unless put under a spell or something. I also don't like the idea of the vampire losing their memories by default, I think it makes more sense if they were to forget willingly over time, since they've been alive for so long. I however do like the idea of the stake thing only paralyzing the vampire and not outright killing them. The Batman vampire trilogy did an interesting thing with it to where when he was staked, his body decayed and stuff. I like the idea of being staked also being a way to physically age a vampire, besides by not drinking blood. Or maybe it's an age vs decay kind of thing. The idea of an older vampire needing less blood but getting more hungry is interesting as well! You'd think they would just simply need less blood, but I never considered that their desire for it would be stronger as they age. I like the idea of vampirism being considered a sickness, so in my mind, the desire for blood could be very debilitating. What shocks me the most is that a vampire here would not want to be around other vampires. The World of Darkness TTRPG seems to play on the idea of a vampire community, though since it's in modern day, I suppose it makes more sense.
The sun thing is way overstated
He's back, our master has returned
Not sure if this video game b-roll you’ve been adding to vids is all captured by yourself. But I’m loving it, first Spore nor Rimworld; two absolute classics! 👏🏽👏🏽
Yo, you should do one about a vampire that was a dragon slayer and has developed an obsession with drinking dragon blood. Obviously, tying in with your What they don't tell you about dragon hoards product!
The "Bloodline" aspect is very present in the Legacy of Kain : Soul Reaver game.
1) All bloodlines are "corrupted", due to their common progenitor being the last corrupted guardian of the realm.
2) The head of each bloodline evolved, and some of those trait appear in their descendents.
We have a degenerative bloodline, their form constantly decomposing, their lord a huge mass of corpse he aggregated in an attemps to maintain himself.
We have spider vampires, their form closer to driders and able to use web. Love making cocoons for their victims to feed on them longer.
A Warrior bloodline, especially strong, but extinct due to their arrogance and vampires hunts targetting them in priority.
An Aquatic bloodline, having overcome their weakness to water.
A flying bloodline with wings.
And a last one which started developping telekinetic powers if I remember well.
Also in VtM
Astarion count: 6.
Anyone catch how many Strahds there were in the art?
Thank you so much for making a video about what I suggested.🙂
This is great for my Strahd campaign that im running right now.
I got a got surprises seeing the warframe damage icons for cold and lightning.
i've been waiting for this video for 2 years
Whenever I heard vampire descriptions I wonder how cool it'd be to have an original Dracula-style vampire. Those guys were better in some ways, far worse in others. And didn't help that they didn't burn in sunlight, they just lost all their vampiric powers whenever the son was up and not touching the horizon, aside from a brief period at high noon.
gorget are very common and basically one of the first bits of armour you get
Uploaded right on my lunch break
Hurrah, finally you covered Vampires !
Strahd is waaaaay older than the 5th edition book lets on. Some sources categorize him at 3,000 years old, with the 400 years being only what the dread plane of Barovia has aged, since time works differently there.
I remember on the video about the succubus, if the person had a strong will, it will survive the succubus and it will become a vampire. If you could clarify that it will be amazong. Because it got me confused as to, vampires are born out of holding out agaisnt a succubus kiss.
This was a particularly awesome video nicely done.
In my homebrew world vampires come in various forms - but their Progenitors (species name) are more akin to fiends as they possess none of the vampire weaknesses and yet all of their powers across various vampire lore (power over beasts, blood, shadow, etc). They can perform a blood rite to make an undead vampire, this ritual is what draws out the hunger for blood to retain their presence in the physical world after their death. These "true born" are quick to become "vampire lord" level (look up 3rd edition template) and have a master over 1 or 2 of the Progenitor's special powers, and from there it's basically like Vampire: the Masquerade and the clans... for a quick comparison so I don't type a novel lol
Lowest form are the "ravagers" (even lower than vampire spawn); more like mindless zombies with fangs - the 'feral' vampire - yet they too can be dangerous when they swarm in packs.
the irony of strahd having been insulted in life by honorifically being called old one by tatyana
With the mention of ravenloft I'm still holding out for a starspawn video.