Van Richten's Monster Hunter's.pdf - Askadesign.com

unable to enter a private dwelling
without invitation (although the
creature's charm-gaze can frequently
make up for this).
The skills of the bard and the gypsy
seem to suffer the most from the
transition to vampirism. Of course, a
vampire-bard or vampire-gypsy gains
similar enhancements to its roguish
skills as does a normal thief, but bards
who could cast wizard spells while
alive invariably lose this ability when
they become vampires. Opinions are
divided on why this is. I believe it is
because bards, unlike true wizards,
rarely if ever understand exactly why
their spells work, casting them only by
rote. Changes occur with the transition
to vampirism, and the bard
underdands too little of magical
tradition to properly alter the spell's
components and cast it as a vampire.
An even greater change occurs in
the bard's ability to inspire and sway
the opinions of mortals. Vampire-bards
always lose this ability. This may, on
the surface, be very surprising. It is
true that a vampire's ability to mimic
behavior allows the creature to play
instruments, to sing, even to recite
poetry with superhuman virtuosity. But
there is something missing from the
vampire's performance that forms the
core of a similar performance by a
bard: the understanding of the
thoughts, fears, hopes, and desires of
the mortals in the audience. The
transition to undeath so distances the
vampire-bard from the emotions of
mortality that it is incapable of forming
the emotional connection with its
audience that a mortal bard can create
instinctively. Thus, while the musical
performance of a vampire may be
technically perfect, it lacks ''soul;'' the
performance of a mortal bard may be
less perfect, but it touches the
emotions. Of course, the creature's
enhanced force of personality
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