Pathfinder RPG Bestiary pg. 1
Acquired/Inherited Template Acquired
Simple Template No
Usable with Summons No
Creating a Vampire
“Vampire” is an acquired template that can be added to any living creature with 5 or more Hit Dice (referred to hereafter as the base creature). Most vampires were once humanoids, fey, or monstrous humanoids. A vampire uses the base creature’s stats and abilities except as noted here.
CR: Same as the base creature + 2.
AL: Any evil.
Type: The creature’s type changes to undead (augmented). Do not recalculate class Hit Dice, BAB, or saves.
Senses: A vampire gains darkvision 60 ft.
Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +6.
Hit Dice: Change all racial Hit Dice to d8s. Class Hit Dice are unaffected. As undead, vampires use their Charisma modifier to determine bonus hit points (instead of Constitution).
Defensive Abilities: A vampire gains channel resistance +4, DR 10/magic and silver, and resistance to cold 10 and electricity 10, in addition to all of the defensive abilities granted by the undead type. A vampire also gains fast healing 5. If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, a vampire assumes gaseous form (see below) and attempts to escape. It must reach its coffin home within 2 hours or be utterly destroyed. (It can normally travel up to 9 miles in 2 hours.) Additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect. Once at rest, the vampire is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 5 hit points per round.
Weaknesses: Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from mirrors or strongly presented holy symbols. These things don’t harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against that creature. Holding a vampire at bay takes a standard action. After 1 round, a vampire can overcome its revulsion of the object and function normally each round it makes a DC 25 Will save.
Vampires cannot enter a private home or dwelling unless invited in by someone with the authority to do so.
Reducing a vampire’s hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn’t always destroy it (see fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. Each round of immersion in running water inflicts damage on a vampire equal to one-third of its maximum hit points—a vampire reduced to 0 hit points in this manner is destroyed. Driving a wooden stake through a helpless vampire’s heart instantly slays it (this is a full-round action). However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the head is also severed and anointed with holy water.
Speed: Same as the base creature. If the base creature has a swim speed, the vampire is not unduly harmed by running water.
Melee: A vampire gains a slam attack if the base creature didn’t have one. Damage for the slam depends on the vampire’s size (see Natural Attacks). Its slam also causes energy drain (see below). Its natural weapons are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Special Attacks: A vampire gains several special attacks. Save DCs are equal to 10 + 1/2 vampire’s HD + vampire’s Cha modifier unless otherwise noted.
Blood Drain (Su): A vampire can suck blood from a grappled opponent; if the vampire establishes or maintains a pin, it drains blood, dealing 1d4 points of Constitution damage. The vampire heals 5 hit points or gains 5 temporary hit points for 1 hour (up to a maximum number of temporary hit points equal to its full normal hit points) each round it drains blood.
Children of the Night (Su): Once per day, a vampire can call forth 1d6+1 rat swarms, 1d4+1 bat swarms, or 2d6 wolves as a standard action. (If the base creature is not terrestrial, this power might summon other creatures of similar power.) These creatures arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the vampire for up to 1 hour.
Create Spawn (Su): A vampire can create spawn out of those it slays with blood drain or energy drain, provided that the slain creature is of the same creature type as the vampire’s base creature type. The victim rises from death as a vampire in 1d4 days. This vampire is under the command of the vampire that created it, and remains enslaved until its master’s destruction. A vampire may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than twice its own Hit Dice; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit become free-willed undead. A vampire may free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.
Dominate (Su): A vampire can crush a humanoid opponent’s will as a standard action. Anyone the vampire targets must succeed on a Will save or fall instantly under the vampire’s influence, as though by a dominate person spell (caster level 12th). The ability has a range of 30 feet. At the GM’s discretion, some vampires might be able to affect different creature types with this power.
Energy Drain (Su): A creature hit by a vampire’s slam (or other natural weapon) gains two negative levels. This ability only triggers once per round, regardless of the number of attacks a vampire makes.
Special Qualities: A vampire gains the following.
Change Shape (Su): A vampire can use change shape to assume the form of a dire bat or wolf, as beast shape II.
Gaseous Form (Su): As a standard action, a vampire can assume gaseous form at will (caster level 5th), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.
Shadowless (Ex): A vampire casts no shadows and shows no reflection in a mirror.
Spider Climb (Ex): A vampire can climb sheer surfaces as though under the effects of a spider climb spell.
Ability Scores Str +6, Dex +4, Int +2, Wis +2, Cha +4. As an undead creature, a vampire has no Constitution score.
Skills Vampires gain a +8 racial bonus on Bluff, Perception, Sense Motive, and Stealth checks.
Feats Vampires gain Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, and Toughness as bonus feats.
Vampire SpawnA vampire can elect to create a vampire spawn instead of a full-fledged vampire when she uses her create spawn ability on a humanoid creature only. This decision must be made as a free action whenever a vampire slays an appropriate creature by using blood drain or energy drain. A vampire spawn’s statistics are identical to those of a wight, save for the following changes.- It gains the blood drain and dominate vampire special attacks.
- It gains channel resistance +2, DR 5/silver, resist cold and electricity 10, fast healing 2, and the vampire qualities listed above (gaseous form, shadowless, and spider climb).
- It does not gain the Create Spawn ability.
- A vampire spawn gains all of the standard vampire weaknesses.
- A vampire spawn is CR 4.
Vampire TemplatesSource Monster Codex pg. 236
Game statistics for vampires are created by using vampire templates. Each template creates a different kind of vampire. Other types of vampire exist, some of them arising from rare or even unique circumstances, but the following are the most notable types.
Jiang-Shi: Created when a restless spirit does not leave its corpse at the time of death, a jiang-shi (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 278) more closely resembles a rotting corpse than other vampires do. Instead of feeding on blood, jiang-shi siphon chi from their victims' breath. Marked with a runeinscribed parchment affixed to its head, a jiang-shi has different drawbacks than moroi and nosferatu.
Moroi: The standard vampire template (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 270) creates what most people would consider a “common” vampire. They sometimes call themselves “moroi” to distinguish them from other kinds of vampires, which are inferior in their estimation.
Nosferatu: Said by some to be the progenitors of all vampires, nosferatu (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 4 268) are immortal but lack the eternal youthful beauty of the moroi. Resentful of their more attractive offshoot race, nosferatu tend to be hermits, keeping their hideous, withered visages out of mortal sight to avoid suspicion. Nosferatu cannot create others of their kind, thus their numbers are dwindling. Vampire Minion Simple Templates Source Monster Codex pg. 236
Vampires can change mortals that they frequently come into contact with. The following templates are indicative of such phenomena, and are available to creatures associated with or victims of vampires. Addle-Minded (CR +0) A creature that remains dominated by vampires for long stretches begins to lose touch with his sense of identity. The creature no longer knows exactly what his own desires are anymore and he becomes easily confused. Should that mortal ever be the target of a mind-affecting spell, that mortal is just as likely to babble madly to himself as he is to lash out and strike anyone nearby. An addle-minded creature's quick and rebuild rules are the same.
Rebuild Rules: Saves –2 penalty on all Will saves.
Special Qualities Gains the addled defensive ability.
Addled (Su): Whenever the addle-minded creature fails a saving throw against a mind-affecting effect (other than dominate person, dominate monster, or any other spell or spell-like ability with “dominate” in its name), it becomes confused as the confusion spell, and it must roll on that spell's table to determine its behavior. Instead of acting normally on a roll of 01–25, the creature is instead normally affected by the spell or effect that round. Repeatedly Drained (CR –1) A creature from which a vampire routinely drinks blood usually adapts to the rapid and repeated blood loss, but a thirsty vampire can push too far, physically weakening her prey. The victim's skin turns pale and her eyes become listless; others describe the victim as “wasting away” or “a walking corpse.” Few mortals realize that these descriptions are accurate, and the victim is, in fact, courting death.
Quick Rules: –2 on all rolls based on Con or Cha and to the DCs of all special abilities based on Con or Cha, –2 hp/HD, +2 on saving throws vs. energy drain.
Rebuild Rules: Defensive Abilities resist drain special ability; Ability Scores –4 Con, –4 Cha. Resist Drain (Ex): After having its blood sucked out over and over again by a vampire, the repeatedly drained creature becomes used to the effects and builds a natural tolerance for energy drain. The repeatedly drained creature gains a +4 bonus on saving throws against energy drain attacks and the saving throw to overcome negative levels. It suffers no penalties from negative levels, though it still dies if its negative levels equal or exceed its Hit Dice.Variant Vampiric AbilitiesSource Classic Horrors Revisited pg. 50
Just as various breeds of vampires exist, so too does diversity exist within regional or otherwise related groups of such undead.
Ancient Youth (Su): A vampire with this ability transformed into one of the undead at a very young age, and has been trapped within an adolescent body for an existence possibly measuring in centuries. Vampires with this ability are size Small and gain a +4 bonus on all Bluff checks. (+0 CR)
Mastermind (Su): Vampires with this ability can have a number of enslaved spawn totaling four times its total Hit Dice. In addition, the vampire chooses one of the following three abilities: clairaudience, clairvoyance, or telepathy. Depending on the ability chosen, the vampire can hear what its spawn hears, see what it sees, or communicate telepathically with it. The vampire may exercise or end its use of this ability as a standard action and maintain its connection to its spawn for as long as it wishes. A vampire may only use this ability with one spawn at a time. The vampire and vampire spawn must be on the same plane for this ability to function. While using this ability, the vampire enters a catatonic state similar to its daily rest and is treated as helpless, though it is alerted to any jarring noises, the presence of any visible creature within 5 feet, or any damage that befalls its body. (CR +0)
Noble Dead (Su): A vampire with this ability possesses an ancient and legendary bloodline. He gains a +2 bonus on all Diplomacy checks, which increases to +4 if being utilized against another undead creature. In addition, he gains channel resistance +6, and the DC of his dominate ability increases by +2. (CR +0)
Sunlight Resistance (Su): This ability provides a vampire a measure of resistance against sunlight. On the second and all later rounds of exposure to direct sunlight, the vampire takes damage equal to one-third of its maximum hit points and is destroyed if this brings it to 0 hit points. The vampire is staggered on any round it is exposed to direct sunlight. (CR +0)
Swarm Form (Su): As a standard action, a vampire with this ability can change into a bat swarm, centipede swarm, rat swarm, or spider swarm. The swarm has a number of hit points equal to the vampire, and any damage done to the swarm affects the vampire's hit point total. While in swarm form, a vampire cannot use any of its natural or special attacks, although it gains the movement, natural weapons, and extraordinary special abilities of the swarm into which it has transformed. The vampire also retains all of its usual special qualities. While in swarm form the vampire is still considered to be an undead creature with its total number of Hit Dice. A vampire can remain in swarm form until it assumes another form or retakes it original form (a standard action), or until the next sunrise. (CR +0)
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