Fang and Fury - Guidebook to Vampires.pdf

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Player’s Option: This combination epitomizes the antihero, a real
roleplaying challenge for those who are up to it. Possible hooks
include creating a vampiric thrall mount (see Chapter Five:
Creatures) as an echo of your lost warhorse, striking deals with
villains you used to oppose, and continuing to protect a church that
now views you as an abomination to be destroyed.
Ranger
Vampires make superb rangers. They have great Strength, good
Dexterity and Wisdom, natural darkvision, and the instincts of born
hunters. Scions who take levels in ranger often take advantage of the
class’s two-weapon expertise by fighting with two claws. Although
most scion rangers choose PC races as favored enemies, those with
ambitions of power within the vampire hierarchy might specialize in
undead instead. They gain no damage bonus against fellow undead
creatures, but the bonuses on Bluff and Sense Motive alone make up
for this drawback.
Player’s Option: Nonevil scion rangers who choose undead as a
favored enemy offer great roleplaying opportunities. Such a character
may be motivated by deep ambivalence or a desire for vengeance
against the creature that stole her life from her and cursed her to
unnatural existence.
Chapter Two: The Way of Blood
Rogue
Races of Renown: Fang & Fury
With bonuses to Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma and
immunity to poison, scions make some of the best rogues (and
assassins) around. They have the potential to excel as sneak thieves,
backstabbers, confidence artists, smugglers, or any number of
other rogue specialties. Scion rogues also transition nicely to the
nighthawk’s path (see Chapter Four: Prestige Classes).
Player’s Option: Consider taking the new Spider Climb and Improved
Blood Drain feats to improve your already potent class abilities.
Sorcerer and Wizard
The scion’s bonuses to Intelligence and Charisma make them good
wizards and exceptional sorcerers. Arcane spells improve vampires’
natural abilities and help avoid dangerous situations, and with their
larger Hit Dice and racial bonuses to Dexterity and Strength, they are
more survivable than most spellcasters.
GM’s Option: Normally a spellcaster who becomes a vampire loses
his familiar and can call only a rat or bat as a replacement. Consider
allowing the player to keep his old familiar by turning it into a
vampiric thrall (see that entry template in Chapter Five: Creatures).
- Alternative Racial Concepts -
The popular view of vampires and how they operate has been
heavily influenced by mass media. Many movies, books, and
games have established a "standard view" of the bloodsuckers of
legend. Despite the potential flexibility of And possibilities for
the race, they have been largely typecast as either one-dimensional
bloodsuckers or ultra-cool, nihilistic club kids. Here are some
alternative portrayals of vampire scions to help you, the GM,
paint an entirely new and unique picture of these creatures in your
campaign world.
These descriptions are not necessarily exclusive; you can easily
combine two or more concepts to suit your vision. Alternatively, the
vampire race might have unique strains or even multiple competing
tribes, each with a different background. The following suggestions
also include ideas for modifying the race in minor ways to embody
each theme.
Blood Symbiotes
In this option vampires are not truly undead—their blood is.
Vampire blood is itself sentient and partially empathic, and contains
the accumulated wisdom of millennia of vampire existence. When a
new scion is created, the undead blood surges through her veins and
changes her body into its new form. It consumes its host’s natural
blood and replaces it entirely, and then gives her a bottomless craving
for more fresh mortal blood.
This is a very different vision of the vampire race, and it has serious
implications for vampire PCs. Because the personality of every
vampire is split between her core self and this invading blood entity,
most are at least partially schizoid and unbalanced—many are
completely insane. Their blood speaks to them and forces them to
perform horrific acts of cruelty and violence, and they are completely
unable to resist, seek help, or even to find release in death.
Encounters
An encounter with a blood symbiote vampire is terrifying in the
extreme. The creature displays sharp contrast between her speech and
actions, shouting warnings or sobbing even while she rips into her
victims, as her rational brain attempts to fight against the impulses that
come from her veins. Aside from these roleplaying differences, blood
symbiote vampires hunt and fight just like their conventional cousins.
Alternative Racial Abilities
Because they have access to the symbiote’s accumulated knowledge,
blood symbiote vampires gain Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge
(vampire lore) as class skills, with 4 free ranks in each (to the
maximum normally allowed). Additionally, each time a blood
symbiote vampire kills another of her kind with blood drain, she
gains 1 free rank in both skills.
Natural Hunters
Perhaps the most radical reassessment of the vampire is to place
it outside the undead type completely. In this option, vampires are
actually monstrous humanoids that breed true—not undead, and not
even a template. These creatures need blood to live, but they lack the
supernatural powers that legend associates with vampires. Traditional
vulnerabilities are absent or replaced by mere sensitivities, and the
monster of fable is revealed as merely a nocturnal race with its own
history, customs, and culture.
These “natural” vampires are far easier to integrate into a campaign
than the undead variety, and may be the perfect choice if you have
concerns about a whole party of deathless PCs. They are also a
perfect way to highlight the uniqueness of your campaign setting.