Fang and Fury - Guidebook to Vampires.pdf

Introduction
Introduction
I have made the big decision, I’m gonna try to nullify my life.
—Lou Reed, “Heroin”
The vampire myth is known the world over, and seemingly every civilization has its version of this bogeyman who drinks blood in the dead
of night. In recent years popular movies, TV, and fiction have tackled the vampire phenomenon in many different ways, as a new generation
has retold these ancient stories.
Today the vampire is both more mindless and more sympathetic, a savage killer in films like Blade and From Dusk till Dawn, a noble and tragic
figure in TV shows like Angel and books like Interview with the Vampire. But in the d20 System the vampire has remained opaque and out of
reach. Even the introduction of the vampire template has not brought this race into broad popularity as a villain (where it is seen as too
stereotypical by many writers, Gamemasters, and players), and has not moved it an inch closer to status as a player character (PC) race.
Vampires in the core rules are tough. Really tough. But they aren’t much fun as written. They have solid ability scores, a slew of bonus feats,
and a laundry list of special attacks and special qualities. They also have those legendary weaknesses: to garlic, to sunlight, to running water. It
sounds like a winning combination, but unfortunately, encounters with vampires tend to go one of two ways.
In the first situation, the party is prepared with holy water, stakes, sunbeam spells, and wagonloads of garlic. They encounter the vampire they
were expecting, give it the old one-two, stake the corpse, and pick up the gold. This is old hat—the party certainly isn’t in for any surprises. In
the second situation, a vampire surprises the group while they are out adventuring. It drops in behind them, kills a party member or two, and
slaps the survivors with a half dozen negative levels before escaping back to its coffin in gaseous form. The PCs don’t stand a chance.
Neither of these typical vampire encounters is fulfilling. The challenge is moving these monsters back toward the middle, where fights are
challenging without being overwhelming, and where the players have the opportunity to be truly surprised by novelty.
Vampires are also far too powerful as a PC race for most campaigns. One of the best parts of the d20 System rules is the chance to play a
monster, and vampires seem like they have tons of promise—but the standard vampire is a nightmare for play balance. Although the vampire
template only raises a monster’s Challenge Rating by +2, it bumps effective character level (ECL) by a whopping +8: It makes a creature immune
to half the spells in the rules and to most forms of damage, yet instantly destroyed by mundane sunlight and creek water. The challenge with
making vampires a PC race is to blend all the flavor and character of these creatures in a package that isn’t gimmicky, overpowered, or lame.
This book attempts to solve all of these problems. It presents a new, toned-down vampire called the “vampire scion” that is designed as a
PC race, and it includes tons of new feats, magic items, campaign options, deities, spells, prestige classes, and other goodies to add spice to a
vampire encounter, a vampire PC, or even an all-vampire campaign. I hope that you will experiment with the many combinations available and
have fun reinventing this ancient monster in your own campaign.
Most of the material in this book is usable by characters of any level, within the bounds of class, level, and race. However, there are likely
elements that players and Gamemasters (GMs) wish to incorporate into an ongoing campaign that, had a player been aware of earlier, might
have caused an existing character to make different choices. New material should never punish a player for choices made at early levels.
With that in mind, there is plenty of flexibility in the d20 System for GMs and players to change the requirements for using new material or
even slightly alter existing characters. For example, requirements for a prestige class might be changed slightly to allow a player access to the
class without starting an entirely new character, or GMs might allow an existing PC to become a scion, even if she has never encountered a
vampire “in game.” In all such cases, the GM is the final arbiter of the rules in the campaign. Whenever you integrate this material into your
campaign in an interesting way, please share your ideas on the message boards at www.greenronin.com.
About the Author
Jim Bishop has been involved in the design, development, and/or editing of Wrath & Rage, Hell in Freeport, Freeport: The City of Adventure, Legions of
Hell, Armies of the Abyss, The Assassin’s Handbook, and Skull & Bones. He lives in Edmonton and has a day job at BioWare making computer games.
What is a Vampire?
The “vampire” descriptor is used in many places in this book, most frequently as a prerequisite for feats and prestige classes.
“Vampire” is a category that includes standard vampires and vampire spawn from the core rules, and the vampire scion presented
in this book. At the GM’s discretion, this category can be expanded to include blood puppets, daywalkers, vampiric dragons, and
vampiric thralls (see Chapter Five: Creatures).
Races of Renown: Fang & Fury
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