The Vampire
Awakened to an endless night, vampires hunger for the life they have lost and sate that hunger by drinking the blood of the living. Vampires abhor sunlight, for its touch burns them. They never cast shadows or reflections, and any vampire wishing to move unnoticed among the living keeps to the darkness and far from reflective surfaces.
Dark Desires. Whether or not a vampire retains any memories from its former life, its emotional attachments wither as once-pure feelings become twisted by undeath. Love turns into hungry obsession, while friendship becomes bitter jealousy. In place of emotion, vampires pursue physical symbols of what they crave, so that a vampire seeking love might fixate on a young beauty. A child might become an object of fascination for a vampire obsessed with youth and potential. Others surround themselves with art, books, or sinister items such as torture devices or trophies from creatures they have killed.
Born from Death. Most of a vampire’s victims become vampire spawn — ravenous creatures with a vampire’s hunger for blood, but under the control of the vampire that created them. If a true vampire allows a spawn to draw blood from its own body, the spawn transforms into a true vampire no longer under its master’s control. Few vampires are willing to relinquish their control in this manner. Vampire spawn become free-willed when their creator dies.
Chained to the Grave. Every vampire remains bound to its coffin, crypt, or grave site, where it must rest by day. If a vampire didn’t receive a formal burial, it must lie beneath a foot of earth at the place of its transition to undeath. A vampire can move its place of burial by transporting its coffin or a significant amount of grave dirt to another location. Some vampires set up multiple resting places this way.
Undead Nature. Neither a vampire nor a vampire spawn requires air.
The Vampire
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Vampiric Combat | Unarmored Movement | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | 1d6 | +0 | Blood Points, Drain, Vampiric Weakness, Vampiric Combat, Unarmored Defense |
| 2nd | +2 | 1d6 | +10 | Vampiric Arts, Unarmored Movement |
| 3rd | +2 | 1d6 | +10 | Slow Fall, Charm |
| 4th | +2 | 1d6 | +10 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 5th | +2 | 1d8 | +10 | Extra Attack |
| 6th | +3 | 1d8 | +15 | Magical Strikes |
| 7th | +3 | 1d8 | +15 | Evasion, Opportune Strike |
| 8th | +3 | 1d8 | +15 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 9th | +4 | 1d8 | +15 | Blood Shield |
| 10th | +4 | 1d8 | +20 | Misty Escape |
| 11th | +4 | 1d10 | +20 | Frenzy (3x) |
| 12th | +4 | 1d10 | +20 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 13th | +5 | 1d10 | +20 | Tainted Soul |
| 14th | +5 | 1d10 | +25 | Shapechanger |
| 15th | +5 | 1d10 | +25 | |
| 16th | +5 | 1d10 | +25 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 17th | +6 | 1d12 | +25 | Embrace |
| 18th | +6 | 1d12 | +25 | Frenzy (4x) |
| 19th | +6 | 1d12 | +30 | Ability Score Improvement |
| 20th | +6 | 1d12 | +30 | Transfusion |
Class Features
As a vampire, you gain the following class features.
Hit Points
- Hit Dice: None
- Hit Points: 3 * your Charisma modifier * Levels of vampire
Proficiencies
- Armor: None
- Weapons: None
- Saving Throws: Wisdom, Dexterity
- Skills: Choose two from Acrobatics, Athletics, Perception, Insight, Religion, Persuasion, and Stealth
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- a trinket
- (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
Blood Points
At 1st level, your vampiric nature begins to take hold, and hunger begins to set in. You can hold a reserve of blood up to your blood pool maximum.
Bite. You are able to gain blood points by biting with your Vampiric Combat feature. This may also be done outside of combat on a willing or charmed target. This would not constitute taking damage to break the charm.
Undeath. You are no longer required to eat, drink, or breathe. These functions are replaced with a need to consume blood from living creatures. (See Hunger under Vampiric Weakness)
Undead Fortitude. You are Immune to poison and disease, and have resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
No Constitution score. You use your Charisma score in place of their Constitution score when calculating hit points, Constitution attack rolls, ability checks, saving throws, and any other ability that relies on Constitution (such as when calculating a breath weapon’s DC).
Passive Regeneration. As long as you have any blood in your blood pool, passively regenerate Hit Points equal to your vampire level at the start of each turn if it has at least 1 hit point and aren't in sunlight or running water. If you take radiant damage or damage from holy water, this trait doesn't function until the start of your next turn.
Blood Point Maximum = Charisma modifier (minimum of one) * Levels as Vampire * 1/2.
Passive Regeneration = Vampire Level / turn
Drain
At 1st level, you are able to drain blood from other creatures. Once per turn as a free action, when you hit a creature that is not a construct, elemental, ooze, plant, or undead with an unarmed strike, you may opt to drain their blood. Drains have the following rules:
- The damage becomes 2d8 necrotic and you gain 1 blood point up to your maximum. The target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.
- A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under the vampire's control, as if by the dominate monster spell.
- When you drain a celestial, you gain 4 levels of exhaustion, (and/but) restore up to your maximum amount of blood points.
- On a successful bite, the creature must make a Constitution saving throw or be stunned until the end of your next turn. If the attack was a critical hit, the creature does not require a saving throw to be stunned.
Draining your target requires them to make a saving throw to resist the feature's effects. The saving throw DC is calculated as follows:
Drain save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier.
Vampiric Weakness
From first level, you have the following flaws:
Hunger. At dawn, you lose a number of blood points equal to your proficiency modifier. If you have an insufficient number of points at dawn, you gain a level of exhaustion for each point you are short. This can prove fatal; vampirism is a curse, not a blessing.
Dead Flesh. You can only regain health through your passive regeneration. No spell, nor other feature, can restore or increase a vampire’s health points.
Forbiddance. You can't enter an active residence without an invitation from one of the occupants.
Harmed by Running Water. You takes 20 acid damage if you end your turn in running water.
Stake to the Heart. If a piercing weapon made of wood is driven into your heart while you are incapacitated in your resting place, you are paralyzed until the stake is removed.
Sunlight Hypersensitivity. You takes 20 radiant damage when you start your turn in sunlight. While in sunlight, you has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.
Vampiric Combat
At 1st level, your practice in weaponless combat gives you mastery of unarmed strikes.
You gain the following benefits while you are unarmed and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield:
- You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes.
- Your unarmed strikes can deal piercing or slashing damage instead of bludgeoning damage.
- You can roll a d6 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike. This die changes as you gain vampire levels, as shown in the Vampiric Combat column of the Vampire table.
- When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.
- When you choose to attack a creature outside your turn, you have advantage on the first attack you make.
Unarmored Defense
Beginning at 1st level, while you are wearing no armor and not wielding a shield, your AC cannot be less than 10 + your Dexterity modifier + your Charisma modifier.
Vampiric Arts
Starting at 2nd level, your training allows you to harness the sanguine energy of your blood pool.
You can spend these points to fuel various vampiric art features. You start knowing three such features: Frenzy, Mist Form, and Dash of Death. You learn more arts as you gain levels in this class.
Frenzy
Immediately after you take the Attack action on your turn, you can spend 1 point to make two unarmed strikes as a bonus action. The number of unarmed strikes increases as you gain levels. At 11th level, this increases to three unarmed strikes. At 18th level, this increases to four unarmed strikes.
Mist Form
If you haven't moved yet on your turn, teleport up to 20 feet per blood point spent to an unoccupied space, and your speed is reduced to 0 until the end of the turn. If the space is occupied, you are not moved, but your speed is still reduced.
Dash of Death
You can spend 1 blood point to move like the wind. Your speed is doubled until the end of your turn, your movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity, you have advantage on any Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks, and your jump distance is doubled for the turn.
Unarmored Movement
Starting at 2nd level, your speed increases by 10 feet while you are not wearing armor or wielding a shield. This bonus increases when you reach certain vampire levels, as shown in The Vampire table (15 ft at 6th level, 20 ft at 10th level, 25 ft at 14th level, and 30 feet at 18th level).
At 9th level, you gain the ability to move along vertical surfaces on your turn without falling during the move.
Slow Fall
Beginning at 3th level, you reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to five times your vampire level.
Charm
Starting at 3th level, you gain the ability to charm humanoids with a glance. You targets one humanoid you can see within 30 feet that sees you. They make a Wisdom ability check. You then pay a blood point cost as shown below. If you don't have enough points to spend, you expend all your remaining blood points and the charm fails. Either way, the target does not know you attempted to charm it. The charmed target regards you as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn't under your control, it takes the vampire's requests or actions in the most favorable way it can.
If you or your companions do anything harmful to the target, the charm ends. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until you are destroyed, on a different plane of existence than the target, or choose to end the effect as a free action.
Blood Point Cost = Wisdom Ability Check Result - PB - your Charisma modifier
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can’t increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Using the optional feats rule, you can forgo taking this feature to take a feat of your choice instead.
Extra Attack
Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Magical Strikes
Starting at 6th level, your unarmed strikes count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage.
Evasion
At 7th level, your instinctive agility lets you dodge out of the way of certain area effects, such as a blue dragon’s lightning breath or a fireball spell. When you are subjected to an effect that allows you to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, you instead take no damage if you succeed on the saving throw, and only half damage if you fail.
Opportune Strike
Starting at 7th level, whenever you may make an opportunity attack, you may expend a blood point to make one unarmed strike against that target. You may only do this once per turn.
Blood Shield
Starting at 9th level, you may expend a number of blood points to create a crimson haze around your body. Any creature that lands a hit on you takes damage equal to your Charisma modifier for each point spent.
Misty Escape
Starting at 10th level, you may bind yourself to a place of rest, be it a coffin, crypt, or gravesite. Whenever you drop to 0 hit points outside your resting place, you may transform into a cloud of mist instead of falling unconscious, provided that you aren't in sunlight or running water. If you can't transform, you are destroyed.
While at 0 hit points in mist form, you can't revert to your vampire form, and you must reach your resting place within 2 hours or be destroyed. Once in your resting place, you reverts to your vampire form. You are then paralyzed until it regains at least 1 hit point.
Tainted Soul
Beginning at 13th level, your mastery of life grants you proficiency in all saving throws.
Additionally, whenever you make a saving throw and fail, you can spend 1 blood point to reroll it and take the second result.
Shapechanger
At 14th level, while you aren't in sunlight or running water, you can use its action to polymorph into a Tiny bat or a Medium cloud of mist, or back into your true form.
While in bat form, you can't speak, your walking speed is 5 feet, and you have a flying speed of 30 feet. These speeds are unaffected by Unarmored Movement. Your statistics, other than size and speed, are unchanged. Anything you’re wearing transforms with you, but nothing you’re carrying does. You reverts to your true form when you die.
While in mist form, you can't take any actions, speak, or manipulate objects. You’re weightless, have a flying speed of 20 feet, can hover, and can enter a hostile creature's space and stop there. In addition, if air can pass through a space, the mist can do so without squeezing, and it can’t pass through water. You have advantage on Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma saving throws, and are immune to all nonmagical damage, except the damage taken from sunlight.
Embrace
At 17th level, you gain the ability to embrace someone’s body. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike and bite, you can spend 5 blood points to use this free action, the creature must make a Constitution saving throw. A creature may choose to fail this save. If it fails, it is reduced to 0 hit points. If it succeeds, it takes 10d10 necrotic damage.
A humanoid slain in this way and then buried in the ground rises the following night as a vampire spawn under your control. By allowing one of your vampire spawn to drink your blood it becomes a full vampire with free-will, and gains a level in this class.
Transfusion
At 20th level, you gain the ability to draw the blood from those around you. If you start your turn with no blood points, you may drain blood from one target within 30 feet. When you end your first turn in combat, you drain blood from all enemies within 30 feet.
When you drain blood from an enemy in this way, they take damage equal to your Charisma modifier, and you gain 1 BP for each target that took damage.