Hey pointy hat I had an idea for a beholder race where a beholder has a nightmare of becoming a human and so it gives birth to a half human half beholder creature The half beholder half human would look like a Medusa with all the eye stalks but I was wondering what racial abilities should the half beholder have that still make it a balanced race
Hello, fellow who has the same name as me. I looked at the doc in the description, and the vampires of pride, sloth and other 2 are missing, did you make statblocks for them ? Thanks!
@@damianmorningstar3150 You know, it's funny that most Dracula media makes him weak to sunlight. We decided he was too powerful and needed a way to stop him
@@genericname2747 Fun fact; in the novel Dracula was actually thought by Van Hellsing to be much more powerful then he showed, but even Dracula himself didn't know the limits of his own power. Because in the hundreds of years he spent locked in his castle, he never bothered to test his upper limits. This put the protagonists against the clock because now that Dracula was expanding into England he started getting curious, and the longer they waited to deal with him the bolder he got as he started to realize just how much more powerful he was compared to the average person.
My favorite D&D vampire story was about a vampire who was turned into a goat by a druid. She believed that this negated all of his powers and left him with a goat mind, but his personality survived and his powers began to redevelop. He covertly turned her other goats into vampire spawn and then used them to overpower and kill the druid, turning her into a vampire as well. Enter the PCs, investigating missing travelers or whatever. They follow clues to the druid's farm, where goats keep watching them until they get too close in and are attacked by a herd of vampire spawn goats! They fight through that and reach the vampire druid, who has druid spells in addition to vampire powers. They emerge victorious only to be confronted by her true master - a powerful vampire with all of his abilities and stats except for shapechanging, as he is still stuck in goat shape. (The druid put some condition on the polymorph curse that he hasn't been able to break yet.) I think the result is a VERY memorable final quest boss.
Fun fact: "Running water" is supposed to mean rivers and streams, not just any old spilled bucket. My understanding is that they were supposed to be a sort of mystical barrier.
In medieval times, people thought sickness was caused by evil spirits. Since they noticed you'd fall ill after drinking from stagnant water but not running water, they concluded that the demons and other dark beings were afraid of running water. Same reason for salt, silver and garlic having anti-evil properties.
Running water purifies in witchcraft and folk lore. So undead/ unholy things cannot cross. It's water version of salt circle. Salt purifies. By that standard I would say that a ring of fire and a circle of incense smoke should keep them out too! All 4 elements should have a way to do it in my opinion, but you have to remember, in the words of Jerry Danrisge "YOU have to have FAITH!"
@@blackfox2973 In Vampire the Masquerade Faith, specifically True Faith can ward off or even kill vampires. The person's faith does not have too be in God or any specific deity so long as they have True Faith in the object that represents their faith. An amazing example is how a man was able too drive off a Vampire with nothing but his credit card because he held true faith in power of money.
My husband ran a game where different types of undead were associated with different deadly sins. Pride for Liches, gluttony for ghouls, and list for vampires. It was a fun concept.
Cool idea. In my games the Sins are Different kinds of demons but I like your version too. Also in my game ghouls are a type of subo undead. There magically muntated corrupted cannulas that feel the rule of smart fast zombie's that only die if you destroy there head. Think 30 days of night 28 Days later resident evil 4 or the hills have eyes. Zombie work on reanamater rules. Aka every part of the zombie is animated independently. No head no problem. The only way to stop a zombie for good in my world is to complete destroy them. Defeat zombies in combat only real immobilizes them.
Dhampirs were vampire hunters in Eastern folklore. The lore is that actual vampires were invisible, and only a dhampir could see them, so if you have an invisible vampire messing your #*$% up, you could get a dhampir to deal with it. Kinda like the Frighterners, but with vampires instead of ghosts.
@@navilluscire2567 It's too cool to leave out. But lets make it, say, ghostly green fire, and have it to do necrotic damage as it rapidly decays stuff instead of burning them. Or we could keep it blue but have it be really cold instead of hot.
Also i play a game called Darkest Dungeon who have a DLC (Crimson Court) who make vampires to the game but the in game the "Vampires" have a very interesting and scary apperence. They are not the bat cliche one They are creatures who 100% fed on blood like mosquitos
7:33 In Poland we call this type of vampire "Bezkost" litelary "Boneless". Its just human shaped monster made from skin, muscles and stolen blood. Protecting agains it is very hard, because it can squish itself under closed doors or window.
@@kzik3635 Its called "Strzygoń" if Im correct. I personaly prefer version where person with two souls becomes possesed by this second one when the first one goes to afterlife. But thing with teeth and hearth's is "correct" for me.
That's a literal DnD monster too, pointy hat forgot that one (tho it's not considered a vampire in DnD, so maybe didnt forget and just purposely left it out)
A vampire of lust as a bard would be terrifying. Also I’d be a vampire of gluttony, man’s love to eat. Also also, the thought of stunning Strahd for a turn because you threw some seeds in front of him gives me a good chuckle.
I'm currently making a character that is a dhampir that would be a bard and have the qualities of a vampire of lust All he knows is be gay and do crimes yes its terrifying
I'm glad someone mentioned this. The fact that it is specifically stated as a simple melee weapon makes it a decently powerful gimmick. Imagine getting a crit with it as a high level monk with the piercer feat. You could basically get an average +20 to your next ability check.
while being based on constitution. now add in 1 level or barbarian and you are fully dex and con based thus having amazing HP and AC, now add kensai monk subclass for extra damage on your bites, and you got a mobile, tanky and ok on damage monk that gets better at hitting when they are below half HP.
I had a vampire in my game who used to be a librarian and loved showing off rare books to friends and colleagues, and now hoards books for his own selfish desire.
@@Geese3 A regular vampire, more like a 1960's Hammer film character, Supporting Actor, not Christopher Lee, but he had levels in Wizard because of studying. CR 7, smarter and more capable than a Spawn, but not a full Vampire Lord.
@@richardsmith2719 He kind of recreated the Camarilla with this video: Wrath - Brujah, Envy - Nosferatu, Gluttony - Gangrel, Sloth - Malkavian, Lust - Toreador, Greed - Tremere, Pride - Ventrue. I'm more shocked he did a 20 minute vampire video without a Blade reference? Or did I miss one?
precious lil hat, 20 min is NOT too long. Would have loved to hear you talk about the jiangshi. Please know that longer videos are super welcomed on my part!
To be fair, the whole "killed by sunlight" thing was popularized by the Dracula movie *but* was nowhere to be seen in the original book. There, Dracula only lost most of his powers during the day, but sunlight didn't have any effect on him.
Personal headcanon, Vampires tend to all be schmexy in portrayal because lookin' schmexy gets prey flustered and flushed, meaning more blood when the time comes for the big succ. _Interpret this as leg crossingly as you wish, vamps probably find the euphemism of blood sausage as darkly amusing as you do._
Part of the “vampires are beautiful” lore comes from how corpses decay. People didn’t use to burn the dead. They would bury them whole. As a corpse decomposes, the skin shrinks back because it’s drying out, but hair doesn’t decompose. On a corpse, hair and nails will look longer, and if beauty is marked by long hair, a corpse could look “more beautiful” in death because of the hair.
To put a reason for Legendary Resistance. Its required because of the action economy. if you have 6-7 players at your table and 3 of them are spell casters like a cleric, bard and a warlock or wizard. You need the big bad monster to be able to survive the first round or the whole encounter at the end of the campaign just completely falls flat and looses that epic-ness.
Hey, I understand 5e DnD, so I looked up the stats for a vampire (mastermind, Elite 10) in Pf 2e. I see it has (what looks to me as a 5e-person) some very high bonuses to saves, and immunity to paralysis type conditions, which I assume includes Hold Monster/Person etc. Tangentially, what would an average player DC as well as a min mixer DC look generally like going up against p2e Strahd? But mainly, is the immunity to paralysis and a few other effects all it really needs to not get one round lock-downed against a decent party? Or are there some extra mechanics in p2e coming into play to run that kind of fight. (Not that a vampire mastermind should really be alone, they would have some spawn and some bats at minimum in their lair)
@@SweetPeteInTheBackSeat some of these I don't know off the top of my head, but I can say it's not just the immunities, but also game balance and mechanics of PF2e as a system, especially how some of the conditions work differently than 5e, the degrees of success (crits being +/- 10 and often being accounted for in various spell effects and abilities), and the design elements that include that, plus the three action economy to some degree. For example, a lot of commonly accessible and used status effects and spells use conditions that apply a bonus/penalty to some or all d20 rolls (checks, attacks, saves) and/or DCs, and usually only by a few points. Like Frightened as a base condition in pf2e usually has an associated value with it, and applies that value as a penalty to all d20 rolls and DCs (including spell DCs and AC). Like, Frightened 1 reduces everything by 1, frightened 2 by 2, and so on. On the one hand, because the base math for mechanics are so tight on encounter balancing basis, a +/- 1 can make a huge difference on its own, especially when applied to so many stats at once. But, it's also not as swingy or detrimental as advantage/disadvantage, which can make a huge difference too. Plus, using the example of Frightened, your frightened value decreases by 1 at the end of each round, so it's detrimental, but doesn't just shut you down indefinitely. Sickened is similar, reduces a some values by a numerical amount, but instead of it reducing it automatically, you can choose to spend an action to wretch and try and reduce it. Other things, like slow or haste, and just automatic combat stoppers. They give or take away actions, which in the 3 action economy is, again, substantial, but it doesn't lead to entire turns being wasted (usually). Stun works similarly. You have a stun value, and lose a number of actions on your turn up to that value.... BUT, that value is reduced by your next turn as well (ex, stunned 4, lose 3 actions this turn, next turn reduces to stunned 1, lose 1 action that turn, then no longer stunned). All that to say, a lot of the general balance of pf2e is about making an impact, but not letting either side really completely lose their turns (to a certain extent). You lose things, you are forced to make hard choices, but more often than not the choice or ability to choose isn't taken away. And that usually applies to both player characters and enemies. And on that thought, Higher level challenges are balanced to have higher saves and succeed those saves against players spells and abilities more often than not, and certainly more often that players should mathematically succeed. BUT, spells and abilities have effects for critical failures, failures, successes, and critical successes. So even if an enemy succeeds it's save against your effect, it will still do something to them. A failure? Even better, but it usually doesn't shut them down. A critical failure? OK, this is where the tide often turns, players feel the surge and feel awesome, but enemies usually still aren't entirely shut down, can still do *something* and the players still have to be smart.
Since you mentioned you don't like legendary resistance, I would love to see a video proposing alternative ways to do something similar or make a monster harder without using LR. I find that it either results in players being upset that their big spells didn't work, or they meta game and won't use their bigger spells until those are all used up. Love your videos, can't wait to see what you post next.
The problem lies in the "make or suck" mechanic. No critical/normal success or failure. I use LRs not as LRs, i donot nullify effect, but make it less deadly as a debuff or less dmg. Like: "the badguy is not quick enough to avoid your lightning strike, but he uses some kind of a magic to resist it!" The most boring example is to give an effect of Absorb Elements against dmg effect. The more interesting idea is "he steps away from Ki strike, but in a hurry he didn't notice as a fighter gets behind him! Fighter, would you like to make an Opportunity attack?" Or: "He is stunned, but only for a moment before he overcomes it. The exact moment which fighter need to strike!" And that is exciting way. You can trade away the real danger (Force wall, Stunned condition and etc) for a less harmful effect => free attacks, fall damage and breaking his equipment.
Raise all the monster's saves and remove the legendary resistance. Serves the same purpose, but the monster comes across as tough and impressive instead of having plot armor.
Make the use of LR require a cost. Think of an LR use not as a monster's get out of jail free card, but a player-activated phase transition. An outsider forces its minions to die in its place or sacrifices its magic weapon to anchor itself in the plane. An evil wizard breaks free of a player's compulsion by activating an explosive contingency as a distraction. A hydra tears free the head that a devastating spell just struck. A LR is a big monster's panic button, and as such should feel like one.
monster can spend a legendary resistance to add a d20 to save, or to add hit points equal to their cr after they hit 0. It’s what I use most of the time. It’s not perfect but it gets the job done, just gotta effectively communicate it to the players that this monster is bending the laws of fate and story and belief around it.
5:40 That's actually an important trait so your boss doesn't get Polymorphed into a frog and than get planeshifted into the part of the fireplane that's pure fire (or something similar involving a safe).
I run legendary resistance as a "whenever a roll would be made" rather than a "whenever a roll is failed" That way I can narrate some flourish of dark magic that protects the vampire from being sent to the astral plane like raising a shield.
@@whitemink0939 I just saw a comment where the commenter's players turned his boss into a frog and threw him out the window. I decided to make my scenario more surefire since the boss might survive the fall.
I started using the ideas from The World of Darkness, you know the whole White Wolf world with the vampire clans and the different purities of blood that create different ranks or generations of vampires. Really spices up combat when you meet a vampire (if you find out they are a vampire) because you can't tell at a glance if it's a 12th generation or a 9th generation and the difference is immense. Also there is the fact that they prefer to remain hidden and use ghouls (humans with a tiny bit of their masters power) to make their bidding and gather information so everybody is a potential ghoul since they aren't undead. Do you see that priest over there? That bartender? The little kid? Any single one of them might be a ghoul that will tell on you if you know too much about the vampiric secrets and you slip up about it so get ready to be bloodhunted by those vampires! Ooops, would you look at that, your party member Gronk the Stronk is also a ghoul! Sucks to be you!
I did something similar years ago, but I focused more on Clan than Generation. That beautiful vampire who looks like a delicate flower just "took the hit" from your vorpal sword and now he's turning into a wolf? Gangrel. That other beautiful delicate flower of a vampire is seducing your entire party while he/she is painting a canvas? Toreador. The aristocrat....well the last one could command animals and this one can do the same thing, so it must be the same kind of vam....HOLY CRAP it's turning into some kind of chiropterean horror 8 feet tall!!!! Hmm, don't mistake a Tzimisce for a Ventrue. Honestly, in D&D, one can stick with "clan only" Disciplines and still throw the PCs for a loop. That philopher-king vampire? If you win initiative he might not be able to stand much punishment, but if HE wins initiative, the PC's are gonna quickly learn that Celerity and Potence (translated to D&D) can wipe the walls with the heroes. And ghouls, yeah, gotta love the paranoia that ghouls bring to the game :)
@@1005corvuscorax Oh the clans are super cool too. Right now I only have in mind to use Hecata and I'm using Tzimisce for a character backstory (his father is now a Tzimisce) and it's great, adds so much flavor to wats usually a basic enemy
You can meet vampires in Esoteric Enterprises. They are as suppressed by the state as crack dealers, sex traffickers, cults to the dark goat and mob hitmen. You can play one. Then you learn that the the state is still scarier.
I'm currently trying to make Obayifo, African Vampires, as a race. The original Legends have them having glowing armpits and privates, but most modern art changed this into glowing tattoos similar to Aang from Avatar. It's my first Homebrew though, so results may vary. But on DnD Beyond it doesn't currently exist soooo
Here's a fun one: The Dhampir bite attack counts as a simple melee weapon which you are proficient in, which makes it a monk weapon. This makes it so high-level dhampir monks can bite for 1d10+5 damage, then heal the same amount or gain the bonus to your next check. Basically, an average of +10.5 to your next attack with flurry of blows, or 10.5 healing, proficiency times per long rest. Not a broken combo by any means, but it sure makes a nice bonus for monks. Could even be a kensei monk and give some extra benefits to your bite attack. At 17th level, you can reroll one bite attack per turn, give your bite a +3 to attack and damage rolls, spend 1 extra ki per attack to add 1d10 to the damage (which is therefore piercing, still working with the empowered bite), and the damage is magical. So (better) advantage on your bite, +14 to hit, 19 (2d10+8 average) damage and either self healing or a +19 to your next attack, which could also be a bite attack, making that attack a +33 to hit... ...and I accidently powergamed again. Damn.
I like how the reason vampire weaknesses sound so bizarre like "they gotta count everything" or "they cant be seen through a mirror" is so actual vampires gaslight people. to prove they aren't vampires by proving them these fake weaknesses do not affect them 😂
I like this idea to link vampires to the deadly sins. The enneagram proposes nine deadly sins, instead of the traditional seven, and a list of personality traits to accompany that, which is neat. The extra two are Deception (Lying) and Cowardice (Fear). Another feature of the enneagram is that the nine cardinal vices are subdivided into triads related to the three levels of the human self: the mind, the heart and the body (or Id, Ego and Superego in psychology terms). Vices of the Body: Wrath, Sloth and Lust. Vices of the Heart: Pride, Deception and Envy. Vices of the Mind: Avarice, Fear and Gluttony. Each vice is paired with a virtue as well. The idea is that the same person who experiences a vice, once overcoming it, can become a paragon of its very opposite. So a wrathful, vengeful person can become patient and forgiving, etc (Character Arcs?! Amazing!). The definition of each enneagram type may not be immediately intuitive but they do make sense. For example, Type Ones have a short temper, tend to be vengeful and hold grudges, true, but it all stems from a desire to be perfect, so they have less tolerance for perceived mistakes and slights. Therefore, they are called Perfectionists. I think this could play well with the idea that a burning desire is necessary for the transformation. Here's a quick overview of the enneagram types: 1. Perfectionist (Wrath/Patience): desire to be perfect, uncorrupted or to fix what they perceive as an injustice in the world. Quick to anger, hold grudges and can be judgemental. AKA: Reformer, Judge, Crusader, Activist. 2. Helper (Pride/Humility): desire to be loved and cared for, to receive attention. They show affection by caring for the people they love, but expect the same treatment in return. They can become manipulative and domineering. AKA: Giver, Pleaser. 3. Achiever (Deception/Honesty): desire to be succesful and praised. Success-oriented, determined and adaptive. Can become image-concious, ruthless and exploitative. AKA: Performer, Showman. 4. Artist (Envy/Charity): desire to be unique and authentic. Can be original, sensitive and expressive. Can become self-absorbed and temperamental. AKA: Individualist, Romantic. 5. Investigator (Avarice/Generosity): desire to be stable. Open-minded, perceptice, quick-witted. Secretive, isolated, disconnected. AKA: Observer, Thinker. 6. Loyalist (Cowardice/Corage): desire to be safe. Commited, responsible, prepared. Anxious, suspicious, indecisive. AKA: Skeptic, Questioner. 7. Enthusiast (Gluttony/Sobriety): desire for wholesomeness, or fear of boredom. Fun, spontaneous, versatile. Distractable, busy, scattered, erratic, excessive. AKA: Epicure, Adventurer. 8. Protector (Lust/Innocence): desire to be strong and independent, fear of being manipulated or at the mercy of others. Self-confident, decisive, willful. Confrontational, tunnel-visioned, hard-hearted. AKA: Boss, Challenger. 9. Peacemaker (Sloth/Dilligence): desire to keep peace and harmony. Easygoing, receptive, agreeable. Complacent, numb, pushover. AKA: Negotiator, Mediator.
Antonio - "...but this video is too long already..." Me - "dude, we are HERE FOR IT! Keep going!" Antonio - ::lays out an awesome plan for home brewing 7 new types of vampires based on the seven deadly sins and provides the blocks for three of them:: Me - "my apologies. Please go get some rest.😅"
Dhampir Monk, Bite as a Monk weapon ("counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient"). Flurry of Blows with the bite for a ton of healing, and suddenly it doesn't suck anymore. Except literally. Good luck getting this past your DM, though.
Imagine stumbling across a monk temple, known by locals to be friendly and peaceful, only to find that it is secretly a vampire coven. With an ancient and extremely wise leader
I actually like the dhampir's bite attack for use as the opener on a class with second attack (or third attack) and Great Weapon Master, that way you can get a big +to hit. It's mostly for enemies with high AC, but still, it's got uses. I go over this a bit in the Dhampir Barbarian Warlock build I posted on my channel today, as luck would have it. Happy Halloween!
I took the vamps in the campaign setting I've been writing in a pretty different direction. For one, it's caused by a magical pathogen/parasite rather than a curse (funnily enough, it's not too dissimilar to The Strain, though I had never heard of the series when I was initially writing it). Vampires in the setting also can only get sustenance from the blood of their own race/species, so a human vampire must drink human blood, elf vampire must drink elven blood, etc. Instead of bats they take a lot more inspiration from blood-sucking insects, in particular instead of just biting and drinking their tongue splits open to reveal a mosquito-like proboscis that slides out and pierces their victim's flesh (they still have sharp teeth, but they're more for clamping down and holding a victim in place). One of their most prominent aspects is that if they go too long without feeding the vampiric parasite starts mutating their body to become more predatory and insect-like, the trouble being that when they eventually do feed it only reverses some of these mutations. As a result, unless they feed pretty regularly they gradually but permanently grow more and more monstrous the longer they live. However, this is all starkly (and purposefully) juxtaposed with a decidedly non-monstrous culture, born from most modern vampires being descended from a small monastic/religious sect who were some of the few vampires who survived an apocalyptic event in the world's past. The members of said sect now openly live as the main political organization of an island city-state. Fortunately for mortals living there, the sect's philosophy essentially revolve around the idea that the sincere and un-coerced trust of mortalkind is extremely vital for the survival of the vampire species. For one thing, feeding directly on a mortal (even a willing one) is one of the only crimes with the penalty of death. Instead the city has a voluntary 'blood tax' mortals can pay to gain certain privileges such as exemptions from monetary taxes, and blood is drawn in the manner a modern phlebotomist would then preserved for later use. And when mortals earn the right to be turned, they spend years training in meditation and self-control before they're allowed to interact with the outside world. Staunch protection and promotion of mortal citizen's civil liberties are also foundational to their society, with the vampire city-state actually being a world leader in democratic ideals. The city-state also trains some of the world's best teams of vampire hunters whose services they freely offer to other nations, due to them seeing rogue vampires as an extremely serious threat to the trust they work so hard to maintain. As a result of all this, in general the more horrifying and monstrous a vampire in the setting appears, the more you can usually trust them to have your back.
There are two kinds of vampires in D&D: Strahd von Zarovich and vampires who aren't Strahd von Zarovich. The vampire lineages are a great idea. Keep the good work.
A fun trick you can do with the dhampir bite attack: Their teeth count as a simple weapon, and you're naturally proficient in using them. Slap the monk class on that, and you can use your monk attack dice in place of the baby d4. It's up for debate if you can use your Dex instead Con for the modifier, but it's still a cool way to make the teeth actually useful! The teeth are meant to be used sparingly anyway, but it's a neat trick for emergency health restoration, or when you need a quick boost. If you go for something like way of the Slow Death, or another sub-class that let's you gain health/temp health, then you can cover your own regen to a certain extent. The sub-class I enjoy is Kensei, since you can supercharge the bite, and add ki bonus attacks on top. And if you multiclass into Gloomstalker ranger, then you can grab that extra edge!
I'd love to play a vampire of sloth that is forcefully made to take action. Then slowly gains ambition throughout the campaign while losing their sloth abilities gains some abilities of the other lineages depending on what they now feel called to do
I went by this comment without reading it carefully and thought you wanted to play a vampire sloth. Then I watched the rest of the video and it made more sense.
excuse me sir, I just want to say that your channel has been a blessing for my campaign. Unique ideas for the twist and a reasonable narrative to back up the homebrew. (not to mention your fantastic sense of humour). Anyway I hope you'll see this!
Another fun way to vary the undead is to have it affect different races in different ways. I did that in a zombie themed game. In that setting elves who became zombies retained their consciousness and lived a tortured undeath, fully knowing what they are.
Hot DAAAAAAAAMN your twisty twist on vampires are incredible. Lust Vampires working in pairs called "Paramours" is legitimately fantastic. I may see about slotting some of these into my Savage Worlds setting! Wrath vampires getting bonuses instead of penalties when injured would be hella memorable.
I have a concept for a level 20 vampire lord named Cock Blockula who can only be summoned when the party gets too frisky (ESPECIALLY the bard) he is an asexual high level enemy who cannot be seduced or charmed and thrives off inflicting harm on those deemed too sexual in nature. I haven’t used him *yet* but ho boy if I ever get a problem player of that type I will be sure to deploy Cock Blockula
Lol nice though my bard is almost celebrate because the church is violent to that and one time he almost did sleep with someone they were a skinwalker.... so yeah lol.
Personally I’m a fan of the Friendly Vampire archetypes. It can be really fun to have one as your party healer. The one thing I dislike the most about D&D vampires is the running water weakness. I do away with it at every opportunity.
Dude, I love you. I love your animations, I love your breakdowns of the subject. I love your homebrew ideas. 10/10 You are one of my absolute favorite content creators!
Since it's halloween I thought I'd make a vampire joke since it fits the video....Be warned it might be bad. You will never see a vampire betting on the horses. They can't handle the stakes.
I discovered your channel about two or three weeks ago and I've already watched everything at least twice. I love lore heavy content, and your use of humor makes it easier to digest, not to mention that you at least seem to like "bending" the rules and outdated sterotypes of DnD. I have a buch of unused characters, (at least one of which has been updated with the help of your content) becaude I haven't had the chance to actually play DnD, which currently is one of my biggest special interests. Anyway, I ramble. Your videos bring me comfort in in knowing I'm not alone in this kind of blending of rules. (Though I have little to none of actual DnD gameplay experience) I thank you for the hard work that you do to make all of your content!
Kinda shocked me that there's someone else who uses the 7 deadly sins in dnd. That person being my favorite dnd content creator! You've done it again! For the who knows how many-eth time you amazed me with your ideas! Just wanted to say that i love your videos and thank you for all your work! 🤗💙 PS: I would be Envy :P
Good question. ... I think it would still count. I am aware of my envyness and I know that it won't solve anything, yet I still (it's a bad trait if mine) sometimes want someone's downfall in order for me to ascend. (I'll correct miself due time but it's still there), an sloth works probably the same way. As for pride, you got me. But if I had to choose, I would say no. They shouldn't be able to claim their sin as pride. Probably would just say that "I'm only stating facts, that's how good I am!" If they have any second thoughts, that wouldn't count as pride. Although, it's a question of perspective, and that's only my humble opinion among the great minds here. 🤗
Our dm of the current campaign is having the 7 sins as almost primordial beings. They have avatars and they are not fun. The sin of lusts avatar is actually my characters father.... and last night another sin's avatar was infused into another player to unlock some new powers since I sorta ruined the other way by banishing the shadow monster we were gonna fight.
I figured I wouldn't be the only one who had been working with the 7 deadly sins. In my current campaign concept, the BBEG handed out 7 magical rings, which grant an increasing amount of power as someone lives up to their corresponding sin, as a way to spread havoc. This video was actually good inspiration for what the owners of those rings would be capable of.
If I hadn't already made a bunch of lvl 20 evil characters as the representatives of the 7 deadly sins, this would be an awesome set of enemies for my campaign. Great job nonetheless. Happy spooks! (also, don't be afraid to make longer videos, we all enjoy them a lot)
Great video and I also want to add, Pathfinder has 5 vampire lineages (one of them being the Jiangshi), you could also use those if you wanted more lineages :D
I love this concept so much! Thank you for your hard work in creating these. I hope there are plans for releasing the other four types. These are so helpful!
Vampire spawn's abilities are just enough to make one a perfect stalker. Imagine a creature that doesn't need any sleep so it can watch you for 24 hours. Additionally, it can grapple you as an opportunity attack in case you try to escape. Moreover, if you stab it while grappled, its wound will heal so it doesn't need to attack back and may just ignor your struggle. There is nothing a 5-lvl character can do to escape such stalker
Antonio D'amico you are one of the most entertaining and best RPG content creators (and by far my favorite). Thanks for the effort and love you put into this videos. That's it, bye! muuua! from Uruguay
Fun Fact! Dhampir’s bite can be exploited for massive healing or check bonuses by combining it with Swords Bards, or reliable damage using the unarmed fighting style.
I love the ambition it feels like you promise more and more video topics each video but the next upload is always something different and instead you mention yet another cool idea for a video. Love literally everything you do and hope you get around to making everything you hope for
You mentioned hating legendary resistance - in the podcast Dimension 20, the DM Brennan came up with a really cool explanation for it that made it work a bit better in the game. He described undead as creatures of pure willpower, clinging to life after death by will alone. Because this willpower is essentially part of their life force, they have a limited amount of times where they can burn through some of this willpower to straight up resist magical effects. When this pool of willpower is gone, it's gone, and they can't regenerate it. I thought that was really cool, and a way better explanation for players than 'uhhhhhh yeah ur spell just doesn't work because I said so lmao'
@@MayHugger yeah no I definitely agree, it's a really annoying mechanic that pisses players off every single time. I just thought that it was a kind of interesting way of incorporating it into the world and making a fight more difficult for super high leveled players instead of just using it w/ zero explanation.
Responding to the end question: I would definitely become a vampire of wrath. Being cut down by a vampire in melee because I just wasn't strong enough? Oh boy.
I was actually the Sin of Sloth (Belphegor, if you're interested in the demonic embodiment of the seven deadly sins) for one Halloween, so that's cool! I love your content, the only criticism I could possibly make would be asking for more of what we already have. I'd love the statblocks for the court hags and pillow Hags, archangels, principalities, virtues, and thrones, as well as the hellish adepts of strength, constitution, and charisma. I know that it's quite a lot of work to make the statblocks for these fantastic twists, as well as putting out content, and all of your gifts are FREE, no less! So I completely understand if you simply do not have time for those ones. Once again, keep up the great work and I hope that you've enjoyed one spooky October! :)
Yet another high quality video! Super funny AND well researched. To top it all of you made all those stat-blocks?! This has easily become my favorite DnD channels, keep it up friend! Just wow!
I have a player who made a vampire blood hunter, and I can't wait to use the vampire transformation rules in grim hollow. But these new lineages will be great for the noble antagonists
One of my favourite twists. I had already decided to centre a campaign around the idea of the sins as demon/shadows after finding a magic item, pyxis of pandemonium, and deciding it was my Pandora's box, held in stasis by The Last King on the Wyrmskull Throne from a time long since past. I had even already settled on having a location somewhere with a trapped vampire who in my head canon was likely a former paladin/warlock. His patron being one of the sins trapped and he knew of the location of a sceptre to release the King thereby giving the opportunity for the box to be opened, either by a player character or by the weakened king, or even the vampire if he was released by the party earlier. Your idea just melds well with the vampire and/or for what might happen to others should the sins be released. Thank you.
I really hope you release the other vampire stat blocks because I really love this idea and have been inspired to add these to my curse of straw campaign which I'm planning on doing in the future. I don't know it just seems like such a fun concept like maybe 7 technically eight vampire Lord to rule under strahd. All the same great video and I hope to see more
I like to think that traditional vampire weaknesses could be split between the different types PH listed. For example, maybe Pride vampires can't enter a home without being invited in, as doing so would hurt their pride to genuinely dangerous levels. They will literally take psychic damage if they enter a home they weren't invited into, because not being invited is such a massive blow to their pride and entering without an invitation is essentially admitting that they can't get someone's respect enough to be invited in.
Aversion to sunlight/bright light, repelled by strong smells (garlic), very restricted diet (safe foods/blood), unusual sleeping patterns... Back in the day it could have been autistic people were mistaken for vampires
Beast barbarians actually make for decent vampires if you feel like playing one. Flavor the rage as feeding mode. The bite attack as you extending your teeth to drain blood. The raging and your strength is not visible on your body, you're just strong. You can take the spider climbing trait later on, or just go for the extra jump, but that's often not necessary. With infectious fury you briefly dominate your enemies' minds and your bite just becomes stronger. and call the hunt, can be roleplayed as your friends also getting a thirst for blood. Unarmored defense, Danger sense, Fast movement, feral instinct and relentless rage (flavor it as your undead nature), all are flavorable as vampiric. Then slightly boost your charisma and bam, you've got a compelling vampire. Then just always ask if you may enter a home (vampires in our world usually use Ghouls to invade houses). And avoid rivers and seas. Just add some general vampire roleplaying gimmicks. The only flaw of this, is that you can't give your vampires a class. No magic, no dexyness. I really liked the Dhampyr I played. Wanting to play a vampire comes with a sacrifice to other abilities. If it didn't it would be OP. So a Dhampyr who just gradually drinks more blood and becomes stronger and more in tune with his vampiric side. Is a great compromise for me.
Fun suggestions, thanks for this effort! I'm running Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which has a vampirate captain. He searches for a pearl heart containing blood from his true love, but it doesn't say why. I'm making this minor random encounter into a central component to the story, with the finding the blood allowing him to resurrect/free his love, and will probably use the lustpire stats you shared. I imagine him in an advanced state of yearning as you laid out, perhaps in some dessicated, lichlike appearance with skin receding as he craves sustenance - and if he reunites with his love, the party will witness health and youth return to his form to reflect the regeneration. Also, I can see vampires transitioning to different types as well depending on circumstances and story development. These sins are temporary states after all, so make one-dimensional personality traits in immortal creatures. Greed begets gluttony if successful or envy if not, lust begets envy if one-sided, envy can often lead to wrath, gluttony often begets sloth, and so on.
Great video! About legendary resistance - the small change I’ve made in my games is that NPC’s are AWARE that a given monster has legendary resistance, a sort of magical warding stamina that can resist spells. When my players have seen it in this light there’s been this really cool balancing act for their powerful spells, they don’t want to use their biggest spells first until they know they’ll land… but the monster, if intelligent, knows not to waste their energy on smaller spells. I totally get if it’s not for you, but on the off chance it sparks an idea I thought I’d share :)
For legendary resistances: Perhaps the flavor can get stale for every high level monster getting it, but short of creating an entire mini system of immunities and resistance based abilities for each monsters that you want to not get rofl stomped by a caster with save/suck spells, legendary resistances are vital as an ability to use against high level players if you want to keep a threat on the board for a decent amount of time I do agree as well that if there aren't many spell casters in the party, it gets hard for them to ever justify using spells other than ones with attack rolls on creatures with L. resistances The solution my table has found? Let legendary resistances be used for not just saving throws, but for ability checks (such as an important perception check against being surprised, or not getting thrown into a volcano by the barbarian), as well as being able to use one to be able to gain immunity to a type of damage until the start of their next turn. This turns legendary resistances from an immunity based wall that barely seem worth it to climb for the casters, into a separate HP bar that the boss isn't going down while its up, and one that EVERYONE can try whittle down
Small correction: Count Orlok is the name of the vampire in Nosferatu Really cool video though. I like how weird and creative the thing that Dhampirs/Vampires need to feed on can be. Your ideas for it are cool, the Seven Deadly Sins feel very overused but they are fitting here. Most interested in how the Greed and Gluttony Vamps would work
I don't know your language backgrounds, but I super appreciate your CORRECT pronunciation of jiang shi. Most people would pronounce it "jee-ang-shee" and it's incredibly annoying.
How are you so creative. I was like, oh vampires, at least the twist will probably only be a little cliché, but then you're all like, naw dawg, 0 cliché.
8:45 fun fact! If you play a ranger most of their abilities apply to the bite attack! Hunter's Mark can add a d6 and then the extra die from Slayer's Prey, Collosus Slayer, or Dread Ambush, can also apply. So you can easily get a 1d4+1d6+1d8+Constitution Modifier bite attack with a three level dip in Ranger
My favorite experience with vampires was when the DM made the emperor of the major city secretly a vampire. The emperor vampire recruited me and my fellow party mates to help him rescue his son. After we did, we helped him with other missions and tasks as his employees. After discovering documents and tracking down an exiled noble we realized the emperor was using us to assassinate his political rivals and people who knew his secret. We confronted and killed him, then after a lich teleported to us and told him that the emperor was his prized pupil and that the Lich in exactly 1 year was going to raise the dead and rid the world of the living with his army of undead. Pretty cool campaign
I usually listen to content like this but I must say your editing and video clips are amazing. I thought we were pretty simpatico already and then you go and through C of Ask a Mortician’s “American mummy!” in your undead video. Great job my friend! (Also love the perfect RDR pulls) Thanks for all your hard work and freely offered content. Some of your creations are really getting my creative gears going, and I am getting tempted to tip-toe towards trying GMing. :)
Legendary Resistance are one time things, so you should prepare reasons for why they are happening. These are the Naruto flashback, the ace-in-the-hole they been hiding, Contingency runes, etched into their skin, ect. You got to be creative as with all things in D&D.
I'm happy to say that I was (partially) ahead of you on sin-based vampires. I was unaware of subtypes of vampires aside from the base vampires and vampire thralls, so I made my Stregoi the big, beefy brawlers that look like transformed Dracula from Van Helsing, and my version of Nosferatu were my gluttony vampires, dropping their physical and magical resistance for total physical damage immunity for normal weapons and half damage from magic melee weapons, and their own combat oriented blood magics.
Tus videos me están ayudando a perfilar muchas partes de la estensa backstory de mi personaje principal (aún por usar en una partida), y me está quedando una telenovela histórica chulisima. muak, un beso en la frente, gracias!
I VANT TO DRINK UR BLOOD AH AH AH 🦇
This is the video of a killer, bella....
I do not dwink vine.
Really love the ideas but still waiting for the devil stat blocks!!
Hey pointy hat I had an idea for a beholder race where a beholder has a nightmare of becoming a human and so it gives birth to a half human half beholder creature
The half beholder half human would look like a Medusa with all the eye stalks but I was wondering what racial abilities should the half beholder have that still make it a balanced race
WHERE IS THE DEVIL STUFF
Hello, fellow who has the same name as me. I looked at the doc in the description, and the vampires of pride, sloth and other 2 are missing, did you make statblocks for them ? Thanks!
Fun Fact: Dracula in the original Novel was not hurt by Sunlight that weakness was added in Nosforatu
It did weaken him though
@@genericname2747 it was like "Ouch a tiny bit of my unstoppable power is gone"
@@damianmorningstar3150 You know, it's funny that most Dracula media makes him weak to sunlight. We decided he was too powerful and needed a way to stop him
@@genericname2747 We wanted to give ourselves some chance of survival, so we made him slightly less terrifyingly powerful
@@genericname2747 Fun fact; in the novel Dracula was actually thought by Van Hellsing to be much more powerful then he showed, but even Dracula himself didn't know the limits of his own power. Because in the hundreds of years he spent locked in his castle, he never bothered to test his upper limits. This put the protagonists against the clock because now that Dracula was expanding into England he started getting curious, and the longer they waited to deal with him the bolder he got as he started to realize just how much more powerful he was compared to the average person.
My favorite D&D vampire story was about a vampire who was turned into a goat by a druid. She believed that this negated all of his powers and left him with a goat mind, but his personality survived and his powers began to redevelop. He covertly turned her other goats into vampire spawn and then used them to overpower and kill the druid, turning her into a vampire as well.
Enter the PCs, investigating missing travelers or whatever. They follow clues to the druid's farm, where goats keep watching them until they get too close in and are attacked by a herd of vampire spawn goats! They fight through that and reach the vampire druid, who has druid spells in addition to vampire powers. They emerge victorious only to be confronted by her true master - a powerful vampire with all of his abilities and stats except for shapechanging, as he is still stuck in goat shape. (The druid put some condition on the polymorph curse that he hasn't been able to break yet.) I think the result is a VERY memorable final quest boss.
That's just chupacabras
What a goated story
I’m so sorry
I gotta run this
😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
😊😊
Fun fact: "Running water" is supposed to mean rivers and streams, not just any old spilled bucket. My understanding is that they were supposed to be a sort of mystical barrier.
In medieval times, people thought sickness was caused by evil spirits. Since they noticed you'd fall ill after drinking from stagnant water but not running water, they concluded that the demons and other dark beings were afraid of running water.
Same reason for salt, silver and garlic having anti-evil properties.
Running water purifies in witchcraft and folk lore. So undead/ unholy things cannot cross. It's water version of salt circle.
Salt purifies.
By that standard I would say that a ring of fire and a circle of incense smoke should keep them out too!
All 4 elements should have a way to do it in my opinion, but you have to remember, in the words of Jerry Danrisge
"YOU have to have FAITH!"
in dnd its represented as the water burns like acid.
@@blackfox2973 In Vampire the Masquerade Faith, specifically True Faith can ward off or even kill vampires. The person's faith does not have too be in God or any specific deity so long as they have True Faith in the object that represents their faith.
An amazing example is how a man was able too drive off a Vampire with nothing but his credit card because he held true faith in power of money.
We once washing machined a vampire to death with wall of force and control water.
My husband ran a game where different types of undead were associated with different deadly sins. Pride for Liches, gluttony for ghouls, and list for vampires. It was a fun concept.
any dick biting from the vamps?
Cool idea!
Cool idea.
In my games the Sins are Different kinds of demons but I like your version too.
Also in my game ghouls are a type of subo undead. There magically muntated corrupted cannulas that feel the rule of smart fast zombie's that only die if you destroy there head.
Think 30 days of night 28 Days later resident evil 4 or the hills have eyes.
Zombie work on reanamater rules. Aka every part of the zombie is animated independently. No head no problem. The only way to stop a zombie for good in my world is to complete destroy them. Defeat zombies in combat only real immobilizes them.
Nice!!! Great idea!
Ahhhh lists
Dhampirs were vampire hunters in Eastern folklore. The lore is that actual vampires were invisible, and only a dhampir could see them, so if you have an invisible vampire messing your #*$% up, you could get a dhampir to deal with it. Kinda like the Frighterners, but with vampires instead of ghosts.
Me: Vampires aren't scary.
_sees Azula_
Me: I'm terrified...
She'd make for an utterly terrifying vampire of pride. Although would she still keep her firebending as an undead monster?
@@navilluscire2567 It's too cool to leave out. But lets make it, say, ghostly green fire, and have it to do necrotic damage as it rapidly decays stuff instead of burning them. Or we could keep it blue but have it be really cold instead of hot.
@@TheHornedKing You're a genius.
@@TheHornedKing make it crimson red and still burn, but saps blood/health as well?
Also i play a game called Darkest Dungeon who have a DLC (Crimson Court) who make vampires to the game but the in game the "Vampires" have a very interesting and scary apperence.
They are not the bat cliche one
They are creatures who 100% fed on blood like mosquitos
7:33
In Poland we call this type of vampire "Bezkost" litelary "Boneless".
Its just human shaped monster made from skin, muscles and stolen blood.
Protecting agains it is very hard, because it can squish itself under closed doors or window.
Also other polish vampire has two hearts to rows of teeth when the first heart dies the second starts controling the human
@@kzik3635
Its called "Strzygoń" if Im correct.
I personaly prefer version where person with two souls becomes possesed by this second one when the first one goes to afterlife.
But thing with teeth and hearth's is "correct" for me.
@@mateuszbanaszak4671 i know i am polish strzygoń lub strzyga
That's a literal DnD monster too, pointy hat forgot that one (tho it's not considered a vampire in DnD, so maybe didnt forget and just purposely left it out)
can i get a, uhhh...*boneless* vampire?
A vampire of lust as a bard would be terrifying.
Also I’d be a vampire of gluttony, man’s love to eat.
Also also, the thought of stunning Strahd for a turn because you threw some seeds in front of him gives me a good chuckle.
I'm currently making a character that is a dhampir that would be a bard and have the qualities of a vampire of lust
All he knows is be gay and do crimes yes its terrifying
Why would it be terrifying? Because you could make a already generic hottie vampire lady that can also sing very well?
The bite attack gets the buffs from monk's unarmed combat
I'm glad someone mentioned this. The fact that it is specifically stated as a simple melee weapon makes it a decently powerful gimmick. Imagine getting a crit with it as a high level monk with the piercer feat. You could basically get an average +20 to your next ability check.
Bite-fu
Oh, shit.
One of my boss battles has now become WAY more challenging and fun.
And I spiced that up before, that guy is gonna be trouble
And if you don't mind rules shenanigans and animal cruelty you can keep a bag of rats on your belt to get the buff on demand.
while being based on constitution. now add in 1 level or barbarian and you are fully dex and con based thus having amazing HP and AC, now add kensai monk subclass for extra damage on your bites, and you got a mobile, tanky and ok on damage monk that gets better at hitting when they are below half HP.
I love it every time Pointy Hat tells me he loves me and gives me a smooch, it makes me feel like I’m their favourite player ❤
I like the idea of each vampire being based on how they were before they became a vampire.
I had a vampire in my game who used to be a librarian and loved showing off rare books to friends and colleagues, and now hoards books for his own selfish desire.
@@paulcoy9060 neat, were they intelligence based or normal?
@@Geese3 A regular vampire, more like a 1960's Hammer film character, Supporting Actor, not Christopher Lee, but he had levels in Wizard because of studying. CR 7, smarter and more capable than a Spawn, but not a full Vampire Lord.
@@paulcoy9060 Seem like a small dragon =))
Whole video in one sentence: Pointy Hat tries to dodge Vampire the Masquerade for 20 minutes and 41 seconds
Failed at 13:23, but it was great to watch them try.
The comment I was looking for
He could've mentioned it in the first minute an end the video, VtM is peak vampirism.
@@richardsmith2719 He kind of recreated the Camarilla with this video: Wrath - Brujah, Envy - Nosferatu, Gluttony - Gangrel, Sloth - Malkavian, Lust - Toreador, Greed - Tremere, Pride - Ventrue.
I'm more shocked he did a 20 minute vampire video without a Blade reference? Or did I miss one?
@@digitaljanushe didn't outright say it but he mentioned half vampire vampire hunters
precious lil hat, 20 min is NOT too long. Would have loved to hear you talk about the jiangshi. Please know that longer videos are super welcomed on my part!
Here here to hear Jiang shi!
Also, I know this is ouy of their wheel house.... but a VtM video or two would be greatly appreciated ❤
To be fair, the whole "killed by sunlight" thing was popularized by the Dracula movie *but* was nowhere to be seen in the original book. There, Dracula only lost most of his powers during the day, but sunlight didn't have any effect on him.
Prob cuz the makeup looked worse in full light lol
Personal headcanon, Vampires tend to all be schmexy in portrayal because lookin' schmexy gets prey flustered and flushed, meaning more blood when the time comes for the big succ.
_Interpret this as leg crossingly as you wish, vamps probably find the euphemism of blood sausage as darkly amusing as you do._
I think i've heard a point about scaring their prey before attacking them because that too makes the blood run faster.
@@Lilith_Harbinger either way, blood still be flowin
I like to think their regeneration also gives them flawless skin, as it removes any and all impurities, scars etc.
Part of the “vampires are beautiful” lore comes from how corpses decay.
People didn’t use to burn the dead. They would bury them whole. As a corpse decomposes, the skin shrinks back because it’s drying out, but hair doesn’t decompose. On a corpse, hair and nails will look longer, and if beauty is marked by long hair, a corpse could look “more beautiful” in death because of the hair.
We had vampire mosquitos. They lived like shitty poor criminals.
To put a reason for Legendary Resistance. Its required because of the action economy. if you have 6-7 players at your table and 3 of them are spell casters like a cleric, bard and a warlock or wizard. You need the big bad monster to be able to survive the first round or the whole encounter at the end of the campaign just completely falls flat and looses that epic-ness.
To be fair, Pathfinder 2e manages this without Legendary Resistances.
Hey, I understand 5e DnD, so I looked up the stats for a vampire (mastermind, Elite 10) in Pf 2e.
I see it has (what looks to me as a 5e-person) some very high bonuses to saves, and immunity to paralysis type conditions, which I assume includes Hold Monster/Person etc.
Tangentially, what would an average player DC as well as a min mixer DC look generally like going up against p2e Strahd?
But mainly, is the immunity to paralysis and a few other effects all it really needs to not get one round lock-downed against a decent party? Or are there some extra mechanics in p2e coming into play to run that kind of fight.
(Not that a vampire mastermind should really be alone, they would have some spawn and some bats at minimum in their lair)
@@SweetPeteInTheBackSeat some of these I don't know off the top of my head, but I can say it's not just the immunities, but also game balance and mechanics of PF2e as a system, especially how some of the conditions work differently than 5e, the degrees of success (crits being +/- 10 and often being accounted for in various spell effects and abilities), and the design elements that include that, plus the three action economy to some degree.
For example, a lot of commonly accessible and used status effects and spells use conditions that apply a bonus/penalty to some or all d20 rolls (checks, attacks, saves) and/or DCs, and usually only by a few points. Like Frightened as a base condition in pf2e usually has an associated value with it, and applies that value as a penalty to all d20 rolls and DCs (including spell DCs and AC). Like, Frightened 1 reduces everything by 1, frightened 2 by 2, and so on. On the one hand, because the base math for mechanics are so tight on encounter balancing basis, a +/- 1 can make a huge difference on its own, especially when applied to so many stats at once. But, it's also not as swingy or detrimental as advantage/disadvantage, which can make a huge difference too. Plus, using the example of Frightened, your frightened value decreases by 1 at the end of each round, so it's detrimental, but doesn't just shut you down indefinitely. Sickened is similar, reduces a some values by a numerical amount, but instead of it reducing it automatically, you can choose to spend an action to wretch and try and reduce it.
Other things, like slow or haste, and just automatic combat stoppers. They give or take away actions, which in the 3 action economy is, again, substantial, but it doesn't lead to entire turns being wasted (usually). Stun works similarly. You have a stun value, and lose a number of actions on your turn up to that value.... BUT, that value is reduced by your next turn as well (ex, stunned 4, lose 3 actions this turn, next turn reduces to stunned 1, lose 1 action that turn, then no longer stunned).
All that to say, a lot of the general balance of pf2e is about making an impact, but not letting either side really completely lose their turns (to a certain extent). You lose things, you are forced to make hard choices, but more often than not the choice or ability to choose isn't taken away. And that usually applies to both player characters and enemies.
And on that thought, Higher level challenges are balanced to have higher saves and succeed those saves against players spells and abilities more often than not, and certainly more often that players should mathematically succeed. BUT, spells and abilities have effects for critical failures, failures, successes, and critical successes. So even if an enemy succeeds it's save against your effect, it will still do something to them. A failure? Even better, but it usually doesn't shut them down. A critical failure? OK, this is where the tide often turns, players feel the surge and feel awesome, but enemies usually still aren't entirely shut down, can still do *something* and the players still have to be smart.
Since you mentioned you don't like legendary resistance, I would love to see a video proposing alternative ways to do something similar or make a monster harder without using LR. I find that it either results in players being upset that their big spells didn't work, or they meta game and won't use their bigger spells until those are all used up. Love your videos, can't wait to see what you post next.
The problem lies in the "make or suck" mechanic. No critical/normal success or failure.
I use LRs not as LRs, i donot nullify effect, but make it less deadly as a debuff or less dmg.
Like: "the badguy is not quick enough to avoid your lightning strike, but he uses some kind of a magic to resist it!"
The most boring example is to give an effect of Absorb Elements against dmg effect.
The more interesting idea is "he steps away from Ki strike, but in a hurry he didn't notice as a fighter gets behind him! Fighter, would you like to make an Opportunity attack?"
Or: "He is stunned, but only for a moment before he overcomes it. The exact moment which fighter need to strike!"
And that is exciting way. You can trade away the real danger (Force wall, Stunned condition and etc) for a less harmful effect => free attacks, fall damage and breaking his equipment.
Raise all the monster's saves and remove the legendary resistance. Serves the same purpose, but the monster comes across as tough and impressive instead of having plot armor.
Make the use of LR require a cost. Think of an LR use not as a monster's get out of jail free card, but a player-activated phase transition. An outsider forces its minions to die in its place or sacrifices its magic weapon to anchor itself in the plane. An evil wizard breaks free of a player's compulsion by activating an explosive contingency as a distraction. A hydra tears free the head that a devastating spell just struck.
A LR is a big monster's panic button, and as such should feel like one.
@@Dyneamaeus you ve said it beautifully
monster can spend a legendary resistance to add a d20 to save, or to add hit points equal to their cr after they hit 0. It’s what I use most of the time. It’s not perfect but it gets the job done, just gotta effectively communicate it to the players that this monster is bending the laws of fate and story and belief around it.
5:40 That's actually an important trait so your boss doesn't get Polymorphed into a frog and than get planeshifted into the part of the fireplane that's pure fire (or something similar involving a safe).
I run legendary resistance as a "whenever a roll would be made" rather than a "whenever a roll is failed"
That way I can narrate some flourish of dark magic that protects the vampire from being sent to the astral plane like raising a shield.
Why do I get the impression that this happened to you?
@@whitemink0939 I just saw a comment where the commenter's players turned his boss into a frog and threw him out the window. I decided to make my scenario more surefire since the boss might survive the fall.
Yeah, would you prefer if your final boss monster fell victim the polymorph+power word kill combo?
They’re shapechangers so they can’t be polymorphed
(Any/all)
I started using the ideas from The World of Darkness, you know the whole White Wolf world with the vampire clans and the different purities of blood that create different ranks or generations of vampires.
Really spices up combat when you meet a vampire (if you find out they are a vampire) because you can't tell at a glance if it's a 12th generation or a 9th generation and the difference is immense. Also there is the fact that they prefer to remain hidden and use ghouls (humans with a tiny bit of their masters power) to make their bidding and gather information so everybody is a potential ghoul since they aren't undead. Do you see that priest over there? That bartender? The little kid? Any single one of them might be a ghoul that will tell on you if you know too much about the vampiric secrets and you slip up about it so get ready to be bloodhunted by those vampires! Ooops, would you look at that, your party member Gronk the Stronk is also a ghoul! Sucks to be you!
I did something similar years ago, but I focused more on Clan than Generation.
That beautiful vampire who looks like a delicate flower just "took the hit" from your vorpal sword and now he's turning into a wolf? Gangrel. That other beautiful delicate flower of a vampire is seducing your entire party while he/she is painting a canvas? Toreador. The aristocrat....well the last one could command animals and this one can do the same thing, so it must be the same kind of vam....HOLY CRAP it's turning into some kind of chiropterean horror 8 feet tall!!!! Hmm, don't mistake a Tzimisce for a Ventrue.
Honestly, in D&D, one can stick with "clan only" Disciplines and still throw the PCs for a loop. That philopher-king vampire? If you win initiative he might not be able to stand much punishment, but if HE wins initiative, the PC's are gonna quickly learn that Celerity and Potence (translated to D&D) can wipe the walls with the heroes.
And ghouls, yeah, gotta love the paranoia that ghouls bring to the game :)
@@1005corvuscorax Oh the clans are super cool too. Right now I only have in mind to use Hecata and I'm using Tzimisce for a character backstory (his father is now a Tzimisce) and it's great, adds so much flavor to wats usually a basic enemy
You can meet vampires in Esoteric Enterprises. They are as suppressed by the state as crack dealers, sex traffickers, cults to the dark goat and mob hitmen. You can play one. Then you learn that the the state is still scarier.
I'm currently trying to make Obayifo, African Vampires, as a race. The original Legends have them having glowing armpits and privates, but most modern art changed this into glowing tattoos similar to Aang from Avatar.
It's my first Homebrew though, so results may vary. But on DnD Beyond it doesn't currently exist soooo
Here's a fun one:
The Dhampir bite attack counts as a simple melee weapon which you are proficient in, which makes it a monk weapon. This makes it so high-level dhampir monks can bite for 1d10+5 damage, then heal the same amount or gain the bonus to your next check. Basically, an average of +10.5 to your next attack with flurry of blows, or 10.5 healing, proficiency times per long rest. Not a broken combo by any means, but it sure makes a nice bonus for monks.
Could even be a kensei monk and give some extra benefits to your bite attack. At 17th level, you can reroll one bite attack per turn, give your bite a +3 to attack and damage rolls, spend 1 extra ki per attack to add 1d10 to the damage (which is therefore piercing, still working with the empowered bite), and the damage is magical. So (better) advantage on your bite, +14 to hit, 19 (2d10+8 average) damage and either self healing or a +19 to your next attack, which could also be a bite attack, making that attack a +33 to hit...
...and I accidently powergamed again. Damn.
I like how the reason vampire weaknesses sound so bizarre like "they gotta count everything" or "they cant be seen through a mirror" is so actual vampires gaslight people.
to prove they aren't vampires by proving them these fake weaknesses do not affect them 😂
I like this idea to link vampires to the deadly sins. The enneagram proposes nine deadly sins, instead of the traditional seven, and a list of personality traits to accompany that, which is neat. The extra two are Deception (Lying) and Cowardice (Fear). Another feature of the enneagram is that the nine cardinal vices are subdivided into triads related to the three levels of the human self: the mind, the heart and the body (or Id, Ego and Superego in psychology terms). Vices of the Body: Wrath, Sloth and Lust. Vices of the Heart: Pride, Deception and Envy. Vices of the Mind: Avarice, Fear and Gluttony.
Each vice is paired with a virtue as well. The idea is that the same person who experiences a vice, once overcoming it, can become a paragon of its very opposite. So a wrathful, vengeful person can become patient and forgiving, etc (Character Arcs?! Amazing!).
The definition of each enneagram type may not be immediately intuitive but they do make sense. For example, Type Ones have a short temper, tend to be vengeful and hold grudges, true, but it all stems from a desire to be perfect, so they have less tolerance for perceived mistakes and slights. Therefore, they are called Perfectionists. I think this could play well with the idea that a burning desire is necessary for the transformation. Here's a quick overview of the enneagram types:
1. Perfectionist (Wrath/Patience): desire to be perfect, uncorrupted or to fix what they perceive as an injustice in the world. Quick to anger, hold grudges and can be judgemental. AKA: Reformer, Judge, Crusader, Activist.
2. Helper (Pride/Humility): desire to be loved and cared for, to receive attention. They show affection by caring for the people they love, but expect the same treatment in return. They can become manipulative and domineering. AKA: Giver, Pleaser.
3. Achiever (Deception/Honesty): desire to be succesful and praised. Success-oriented, determined and adaptive. Can become image-concious, ruthless and exploitative. AKA: Performer, Showman.
4. Artist (Envy/Charity): desire to be unique and authentic. Can be original, sensitive and expressive. Can become self-absorbed and temperamental. AKA: Individualist, Romantic.
5. Investigator (Avarice/Generosity): desire to be stable. Open-minded, perceptice, quick-witted. Secretive, isolated, disconnected. AKA: Observer, Thinker.
6. Loyalist (Cowardice/Corage): desire to be safe. Commited, responsible, prepared. Anxious, suspicious, indecisive. AKA: Skeptic, Questioner.
7. Enthusiast (Gluttony/Sobriety): desire for wholesomeness, or fear of boredom. Fun, spontaneous, versatile. Distractable, busy, scattered, erratic, excessive. AKA: Epicure, Adventurer.
8. Protector (Lust/Innocence): desire to be strong and independent, fear of being manipulated or at the mercy of others. Self-confident, decisive, willful. Confrontational, tunnel-visioned, hard-hearted. AKA: Boss, Challenger.
9. Peacemaker (Sloth/Dilligence): desire to keep peace and harmony. Easygoing, receptive, agreeable. Complacent, numb, pushover. AKA: Negotiator, Mediator.
Antonio - "...but this video is too long already..."
Me - "dude, we are HERE FOR IT! Keep going!"
Antonio - ::lays out an awesome plan for home brewing 7 new types of vampires based on the seven deadly sins and provides the blocks for three of them::
Me - "my apologies. Please go get some rest.😅"
Dhampir Monk, Bite as a Monk weapon ("counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient"). Flurry of Blows with the bite for a ton of healing, and suddenly it doesn't suck anymore. Except literally.
Good luck getting this past your DM, though.
Imagine stumbling across a monk temple, known by locals to be friendly and peaceful, only to find that it is secretly a vampire coven. With an ancient and extremely wise leader
I actually like the dhampir's bite attack for use as the opener on a class with second attack (or third attack) and Great Weapon Master, that way you can get a big +to hit. It's mostly for enemies with high AC, but still, it's got uses. I go over this a bit in the Dhampir Barbarian Warlock build I posted on my channel today, as luck would have it. Happy Halloween!
I took the vamps in the campaign setting I've been writing in a pretty different direction. For one, it's caused by a magical pathogen/parasite rather than a curse (funnily enough, it's not too dissimilar to The Strain, though I had never heard of the series when I was initially writing it). Vampires in the setting also can only get sustenance from the blood of their own race/species, so a human vampire must drink human blood, elf vampire must drink elven blood, etc. Instead of bats they take a lot more inspiration from blood-sucking insects, in particular instead of just biting and drinking their tongue splits open to reveal a mosquito-like proboscis that slides out and pierces their victim's flesh (they still have sharp teeth, but they're more for clamping down and holding a victim in place). One of their most prominent aspects is that if they go too long without feeding the vampiric parasite starts mutating their body to become more predatory and insect-like, the trouble being that when they eventually do feed it only reverses some of these mutations. As a result, unless they feed pretty regularly they gradually but permanently grow more and more monstrous the longer they live.
However, this is all starkly (and purposefully) juxtaposed with a decidedly non-monstrous culture, born from most modern vampires being descended from a small monastic/religious sect who were some of the few vampires who survived an apocalyptic event in the world's past. The members of said sect now openly live as the main political organization of an island city-state. Fortunately for mortals living there, the sect's philosophy essentially revolve around the idea that the sincere and un-coerced trust of mortalkind is extremely vital for the survival of the vampire species. For one thing, feeding directly on a mortal (even a willing one) is one of the only crimes with the penalty of death. Instead the city has a voluntary 'blood tax' mortals can pay to gain certain privileges such as exemptions from monetary taxes, and blood is drawn in the manner a modern phlebotomist would then preserved for later use. And when mortals earn the right to be turned, they spend years training in meditation and self-control before they're allowed to interact with the outside world. Staunch protection and promotion of mortal citizen's civil liberties are also foundational to their society, with the vampire city-state actually being a world leader in democratic ideals. The city-state also trains some of the world's best teams of vampire hunters whose services they freely offer to other nations, due to them seeing rogue vampires as an extremely serious threat to the trust they work so hard to maintain.
As a result of all this, in general the more horrifying and monstrous a vampire in the setting appears, the more you can usually trust them to have your back.
My friend had those weirdos. We mugged them.
There are two kinds of vampires in D&D: Strahd von Zarovich and vampires who aren't Strahd von Zarovich.
The vampire lineages are a great idea. Keep the good work.
Man these Vampire Lineages are soooo good.
This 7 deadly sin vampire idea is actually amazing and super original.
Not me skipping the Strahd spoilers because I genuinely want to run that someday 👀
(Thank you for giving us the option to do so!)
A fun trick you can do with the dhampir bite attack:
Their teeth count as a simple weapon, and you're naturally proficient in using them.
Slap the monk class on that, and you can use your monk attack dice in place of the baby d4.
It's up for debate if you can use your Dex instead Con for the modifier, but it's still a cool way to make the teeth actually useful!
The teeth are meant to be used sparingly anyway, but it's a neat trick for emergency health restoration, or when you need a quick boost.
If you go for something like way of the Slow Death, or another sub-class that let's you gain health/temp health, then you can cover your own regen to a certain extent.
The sub-class I enjoy is Kensei, since you can supercharge the bite, and add ki bonus attacks on top.
And if you multiclass into Gloomstalker ranger, then you can grab that extra edge!
I'd love to play a vampire of sloth that is forcefully made to take action. Then slowly gains ambition throughout the campaign while losing their sloth abilities gains some abilities of the other lineages depending on what they now feel called to do
I went by this comment without reading it carefully and thought you wanted to play a vampire sloth. Then I watched the rest of the video and it made more sense.
@@georgecook83 Well... Now I want to play a vampire sloth.
@@CapnAlces drinks through the huge claws.
@@georgecook83nightmare fuel
excuse me sir, I just want to say that your channel has been a blessing for my campaign. Unique ideas for the twist and a reasonable narrative to back up the homebrew. (not to mention your fantastic sense of humour). Anyway I hope you'll see this!
Another fun way to vary the undead is to have it affect different races in different ways. I did that in a zombie themed game. In that setting elves who became zombies retained their consciousness and lived a tortured undeath, fully knowing what they are.
Vampire of Wrath is exactly what I need for the next part of my campaign! Can't wait to run it
I really love your videos, dude. It really gives me motivation to be a DM and do interesting stories for my players.
Hot DAAAAAAAAMN your twisty twist on vampires are incredible. Lust Vampires working in pairs called "Paramours" is legitimately fantastic.
I may see about slotting some of these into my Savage Worlds setting! Wrath vampires getting bonuses instead of penalties when injured would be hella memorable.
I have a concept for a level 20 vampire lord named Cock Blockula who can only be summoned when the party gets too frisky (ESPECIALLY the bard) he is an asexual high level enemy who cannot be seduced or charmed and thrives off inflicting harm on those deemed too sexual in nature. I haven’t used him *yet* but ho boy if I ever get a problem player of that type I will be sure to deploy Cock Blockula
Lol nice though my bard is almost celebrate because the church is violent to that and one time he almost did sleep with someone they were a skinwalker.... so yeah lol.
December must've been his favorite month
manslayer much?
oh my goodness I love this
This is when a succubus/incubus is great to use. Can come up with lots of ways to fuck with the horny bard
Personally I’m a fan of the Friendly Vampire archetypes. It can be really fun to have one as your party healer.
The one thing I dislike the most about D&D vampires is the running water weakness. I do away with it at every opportunity.
Dear Antonio, I subscribed yesterday and I'll admit, I've already binged everything you have! Love the content! Keep it up!
I watched quite a few of your videos. Your ideas for the vampires twist is probably the best I've seen so far. Really brilliant ideas.
If only he'd waited and could have talked about our precious baby boy: Astarion Ancunin
I dont even play DND anymore but I watch your videos for entertainment... Keep the same energy and you will make it far with your videos
11:09 I played a bard and in one encounter I came up with a song about his unrequited love. He was not too pleased with the lyrics.
2:22 in an old dracula films franchise the vampire had this flaws but also an appropriate rainman-level counting capacity
Dude, I love you. I love your animations, I love your breakdowns of the subject. I love your homebrew ideas. 10/10 You are one of my absolute favorite content creators!
Since it's halloween I thought I'd make a vampire joke since it fits the video....Be warned it might be bad.
You will never see a vampire betting on the horses. They can't handle the stakes.
Why do so many vampires hang out at restaurants? Because they're always looking for their next bite.
I discovered your channel about two or three weeks ago and I've already watched everything at least twice.
I love lore heavy content, and your use of humor makes it easier to digest, not to mention that you at least seem to like "bending" the rules and outdated sterotypes of DnD.
I have a buch of unused characters, (at least one of which has been updated with the help of your content) becaude I haven't had the chance to actually play DnD, which currently is one of my biggest special interests.
Anyway, I ramble. Your videos bring me comfort in in knowing I'm not alone in this kind of blending of rules. (Though I have little to none of actual DnD gameplay experience)
I thank you for the hard work that you do to make all of your content!
Kinda shocked me that there's someone else who uses the 7 deadly sins in dnd. That person being my favorite dnd content creator! You've done it again! For the who knows how many-eth time you amazed me with your ideas! Just wanted to say that i love your videos and thank you for all your work! 🤗💙
PS: I would be Envy :P
Would Envy know the're Envy? And for that matter, would Pride be too prideful to admit the're Pride?
Good question. ... I think it would still count. I am aware of my envyness and I know that it won't solve anything, yet I still (it's a bad trait if mine) sometimes want someone's downfall in order for me to ascend. (I'll correct miself due time but it's still there), an sloth works probably the same way.
As for pride, you got me. But if I had to choose, I would say no. They shouldn't be able to claim their sin as pride. Probably would just say that "I'm only stating facts, that's how good I am!" If they have any second thoughts, that wouldn't count as pride.
Although, it's a question of perspective, and that's only my humble opinion among the great minds here. 🤗
Our dm of the current campaign is having the 7 sins as almost primordial beings. They have avatars and they are not fun. The sin of lusts avatar is actually my characters father.... and last night another sin's avatar was infused into another player to unlock some new powers since I sorta ruined the other way by banishing the shadow monster we were gonna fight.
I figured I wouldn't be the only one who had been working with the 7 deadly sins. In my current campaign concept, the BBEG handed out 7 magical rings, which grant an increasing amount of power as someone lives up to their corresponding sin, as a way to spread havoc.
This video was actually good inspiration for what the owners of those rings would be capable of.
If I hadn't already made a bunch of lvl 20 evil characters as the representatives of the 7 deadly sins, this would be an awesome set of enemies for my campaign. Great job nonetheless. Happy spooks! (also, don't be afraid to make longer videos, we all enjoy them a lot)
Great video and I also want to add, Pathfinder has 5 vampire lineages (one of them being the Jiangshi), you could also use those if you wanted more lineages :D
I love this concept so much!
Thank you for your hard work in creating these. I hope there are plans for releasing the other four types. These are so helpful!
Vampire spawn's abilities are just enough to make one a perfect stalker. Imagine a creature that doesn't need any sleep so it can watch you for 24 hours. Additionally, it can grapple you as an opportunity attack in case you try to escape. Moreover, if you stab it while grappled, its wound will heal so it doesn't need to attack back and may just ignor your struggle. There is nothing a 5-lvl character can do to escape such stalker
Antonio D'amico you are one of the most entertaining and best RPG content creators (and by far my favorite). Thanks for the effort and love you put into this videos. That's it, bye! muuua! from Uruguay
I respect Bia’s ability to use OUAT references in every episode 😂
Fun Fact! Dhampir’s bite can be exploited for massive healing or check bonuses by combining it with Swords Bards, or reliable damage using the unarmed fighting style.
This must have taken so much editing time! Your videos bring me so much joy! Thank you! Happy Halloween 👻
I love the ambition it feels like you promise more and more video topics each video but the next upload is always something different and instead you mention yet another cool idea for a video. Love literally everything you do and hope you get around to making everything you hope for
You mentioned hating legendary resistance - in the podcast Dimension 20, the DM Brennan came up with a really cool explanation for it that made it work a bit better in the game. He described undead as creatures of pure willpower, clinging to life after death by will alone. Because this willpower is essentially part of their life force, they have a limited amount of times where they can burn through some of this willpower to straight up resist magical effects. When this pool of willpower is gone, it's gone, and they can't regenerate it. I thought that was really cool, and a way better explanation for players than 'uhhhhhh yeah ur spell just doesn't work because I said so lmao'
Reflavour it all you like, it’s still lame and uninteresting when something just gets to choose to succeed.
@@MayHugger yeah no I definitely agree, it's a really annoying mechanic that pisses players off every single time. I just thought that it was a kind of interesting way of incorporating it into the world and making a fight more difficult for super high leveled players instead of just using it w/ zero explanation.
Race originating unarmed attacks can be used with the monk martial dice, but keep damage type and special effects, so each attack has advantage.
YESSS
This is what I needed for Halloween 🎃
Responding to the end question: I would definitely become a vampire of wrath. Being cut down by a vampire in melee because I just wasn't strong enough?
Oh boy.
I was actually the Sin of Sloth (Belphegor, if you're interested in the demonic embodiment of the seven deadly sins) for one Halloween, so that's cool!
I love your content, the only criticism I could possibly make would be asking for more of what we already have.
I'd love the statblocks for the court hags and pillow Hags, archangels, principalities, virtues, and thrones, as well as the hellish adepts of strength, constitution, and charisma. I know that it's quite a lot of work to make the statblocks for these fantastic twists, as well as putting out content, and all of your gifts are FREE, no less! So I completely understand if you simply do not have time for those ones.
Once again, keep up the great work and I hope that you've enjoyed one spooky October! :)
The Gluttony Vampire reminds me of the enemies in the Foetor in Darkest Dungeon II. They'd eat each other to regen health.
Yet another high quality video! Super funny AND well researched. To top it all of you made all those stat-blocks?! This has easily become my favorite DnD channels, keep it up friend! Just wow!
I have a player who made a vampire blood hunter, and I can't wait to use the vampire transformation rules in grim hollow. But these new lineages will be great for the noble antagonists
One of my favourite twists. I had already decided to centre a campaign around the idea of the sins as demon/shadows after finding a magic item, pyxis of pandemonium, and deciding it was my Pandora's box, held in stasis by The Last King on the Wyrmskull Throne from a time long since past. I had even already settled on having a location somewhere with a trapped vampire who in my head canon was likely a former paladin/warlock. His patron being one of the sins trapped and he knew of the location of a sceptre to release the King thereby giving the opportunity for the box to be opened, either by a player character or by the weakened king, or even the vampire if he was released by the party earlier.
Your idea just melds well with the vampire and/or for what might happen to others should the sins be released.
Thank you.
"Count Strahd Von Incelbitch"
I'm dying
I love that you used clips from The Vampire Lovers, Blacula, Lust for a Vampire, and Universal horror classics.
I really hope you release the other vampire stat blocks because I really love this idea and have been inspired to add these to my curse of straw campaign which I'm planning on doing in the future.
I don't know it just seems like such a fun concept like maybe 7 technically eight vampire Lord to rule under strahd.
All the same great video and I hope to see more
I like to think that traditional vampire weaknesses could be split between the different types PH listed.
For example, maybe Pride vampires can't enter a home without being invited in, as doing so would hurt their pride to genuinely dangerous levels. They will literally take psychic damage if they enter a home they weren't invited into, because not being invited is such a massive blow to their pride and entering without an invitation is essentially admitting that they can't get someone's respect enough to be invited in.
I heard the counting example of vampires and went “vampires… are autistic???” (I am autistic myself)
Imagine a math teacher vampire
Aversion to sunlight/bright light, repelled by strong smells (garlic), very restricted diet (safe foods/blood), unusual sleeping patterns... Back in the day it could have been autistic people were mistaken for vampires
Honestly I'm so happy you mentioned Ghanaian vampires because they are so interesting and don't get talked about enough.
YES. Now do furrys- I mean, werewolfs 👉👈
Same difference
@@wasabilover1293 ikr
Liking to get pointy hat to see this, not for the furry thing, but because werewolves are cool as fudge due to their amazing story utility
underrated comment here
That's next year's Halloween special
Beast barbarians actually make for decent vampires if you feel like playing one. Flavor the rage as feeding mode. The bite attack as you extending your teeth to drain blood. The raging and your strength is not visible on your body, you're just strong. You can take the spider climbing trait later on, or just go for the extra jump, but that's often not necessary. With infectious fury you briefly dominate your enemies' minds and your bite just becomes stronger. and call the hunt, can be roleplayed as your friends also getting a thirst for blood. Unarmored defense, Danger sense, Fast movement, feral instinct and relentless rage (flavor it as your undead nature), all are flavorable as vampiric. Then slightly boost your charisma and bam, you've got a compelling vampire. Then just always ask if you may enter a home (vampires in our world usually use Ghouls to invade houses). And avoid rivers and seas. Just add some general vampire roleplaying gimmicks. The only flaw of this, is that you can't give your vampires a class. No magic, no dexyness. I really liked the Dhampyr I played. Wanting to play a vampire comes with a sacrifice to other abilities. If it didn't it would be OP. So a Dhampyr who just gradually drinks more blood and becomes stronger and more in tune with his vampiric side. Is a great compromise for me.
The Dnd for Goths! Love it!
Fun suggestions, thanks for this effort! I'm running Ghosts of Saltmarsh, which has a vampirate captain. He searches for a pearl heart containing blood from his true love, but it doesn't say why. I'm making this minor random encounter into a central component to the story, with the finding the blood allowing him to resurrect/free his love, and will probably use the lustpire stats you shared. I imagine him in an advanced state of yearning as you laid out, perhaps in some dessicated, lichlike appearance with skin receding as he craves sustenance - and if he reunites with his love, the party will witness health and youth return to his form to reflect the regeneration.
Also, I can see vampires transitioning to different types as well depending on circumstances and story development. These sins are temporary states after all, so make one-dimensional personality traits in immortal creatures. Greed begets gluttony if successful or envy if not, lust begets envy if one-sided, envy can often lead to wrath, gluttony often begets sloth, and so on.
*RAW EXCITEMENT*
The lineages part of this video was honestly such a refreshing take on Vampires! Thank you for it
You could just base your different type of vamps on the different courts of vamps in the Dresden files. Red, white,black, and jade
Great video! About legendary resistance - the small change I’ve made in my games is that NPC’s are AWARE that a given monster has legendary resistance, a sort of magical warding stamina that can resist spells. When my players have seen it in this light there’s been this really cool balancing act for their powerful spells, they don’t want to use their biggest spells first until they know they’ll land… but the monster, if intelligent, knows not to waste their energy on smaller spells.
I totally get if it’s not for you, but on the off chance it sparks an idea I thought I’d share :)
It would be sick for a party to get trapped in a battle between all the sins
For legendary resistances:
Perhaps the flavor can get stale for every high level monster getting it, but short of creating an entire mini system of immunities and resistance based abilities for each monsters that you want to not get rofl stomped by a caster with save/suck spells, legendary resistances are vital as an ability to use against high level players if you want to keep a threat on the board for a decent amount of time
I do agree as well that if there aren't many spell casters in the party, it gets hard for them to ever justify using spells other than ones with attack rolls on creatures with L. resistances
The solution my table has found? Let legendary resistances be used for not just saving throws, but for ability checks (such as an important perception check against being surprised, or not getting thrown into a volcano by the barbarian), as well as being able to use one to be able to gain immunity to a type of damage until the start of their next turn.
This turns legendary resistances from an immunity based wall that barely seem worth it to climb for the casters, into a separate HP bar that the boss isn't going down while its up, and one that EVERYONE can try whittle down
Spooky 🎃
Month 💀
I honestly love this idea for Vampires and offers so much variety, would you consider releasing stats for gluttony, sloth, and pride?
Small correction: Count Orlok is the name of the vampire in Nosferatu
Really cool video though. I like how weird and creative the thing that Dhampirs/Vampires need to feed on can be. Your ideas for it are cool, the Seven Deadly Sins feel very overused but they are fitting here. Most interested in how the Greed and Gluttony Vamps would work
Omg this video is just what I needed! Making my own homebrew CoS but with a twist. This had helped me so much with great ideas!!
I don't know your language backgrounds, but I super appreciate your CORRECT pronunciation of jiang shi. Most people would pronounce it "jee-ang-shee" and it's incredibly annoying.
How are you so creative. I was like, oh vampires, at least the twist will probably only be a little cliché, but then you're all like, naw dawg, 0 cliché.
I assume everyone knows why I'm here
8:45 fun fact! If you play a ranger most of their abilities apply to the bite attack! Hunter's Mark can add a d6 and then the extra die from Slayer's Prey, Collosus Slayer, or Dread Ambush, can also apply.
So you can easily get a 1d4+1d6+1d8+Constitution Modifier bite attack with a three level dip in Ranger
Just minding my business taking ideas for my campaign and then BOOM! You put some Carmilla clips. That made me like the video more heheh
My favorite experience with vampires was when the DM made the emperor of the major city secretly a vampire. The emperor vampire recruited me and my fellow party mates to help him rescue his son. After we did, we helped him with other missions and tasks as his employees. After discovering documents and tracking down an exiled noble we realized the emperor was using us to assassinate his political rivals and people who knew his secret. We confronted and killed him, then after a lich teleported to us and told him that the emperor was his prized pupil and that the Lich in exactly 1 year was going to raise the dead and rid the world of the living with his army of undead. Pretty cool campaign
man, this channel is great. not much else to say, its just really good
I usually listen to content like this but I must say your editing and video clips are amazing. I thought we were pretty simpatico already and then you go and through C of Ask a Mortician’s “American mummy!” in your undead video. Great job my friend! (Also love the perfect RDR pulls)
Thanks for all your hard work and freely offered content. Some of your creations are really getting my creative gears going, and I am getting tempted to tip-toe towards trying GMing. :)
The best DND content creator right here
Legendary Resistance are one time things, so you should prepare reasons for why they are happening.
These are the Naruto flashback, the ace-in-the-hole they been hiding, Contingency runes, etched into their skin, ect. You got to be creative as with all things in D&D.
I'm happy to say that I was (partially) ahead of you on sin-based vampires. I was unaware of subtypes of vampires aside from the base vampires and vampire thralls, so I made my Stregoi the big, beefy brawlers that look like transformed Dracula from Van Helsing, and my version of Nosferatu were my gluttony vampires, dropping their physical and magical resistance for total physical damage immunity for normal weapons and half damage from magic melee weapons, and their own combat oriented blood magics.
Tus videos me están ayudando a perfilar muchas partes de la estensa backstory de mi personaje principal (aún por usar en una partida), y me está quedando una telenovela histórica chulisima. muak, un beso en la frente, gracias!