Vampire Prestige classes

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does anyone know any good Vampire prestige classes, other than the Life Drinker? *mutters something about stupid prestige class* Or any evil fallen paladin vampire prestige classes? (or any that would work?)

 

Most obviously, the Blackguard. Shadowdancer, while not an evil class in itself, seems appropriate for a Vampire. Consider looking in the Book of Vile Darkness for some ideas; there might be some Prestige Classes there.

 

Fallen paladin may become a blackguard and then is heavily bonused for the levels he had as a paladin. What you mean is rather a paladin that Falls, dies and wakes up as a vampire desiring to acquire a prestige class, isn't it?

 

I think an assassin is an evil class, and its pretty good for the vampires.

 

Chevalier--
yes, he became a vampire, and when he came to, he was fallen.

 

Somehow right... Couldn't be an undead paladin, I guess. How comes he turned towards vampirism without Falling on the way?

Ah, one curious thing: If it was against his will he's technically temporarily lost his powers and status and can atone So when he finally dies for good, he's a normal pally again, heheh. If we assume the soul's not free. If we treat vampires as bodies only, the soul being free, it's obvious he can't be a paladin soulless.

However, I wonder how an LG undead paladin would perform in roleplay... Could be great if ever be.

 

Ok, this takes some explaining. He lived in a cslte constructed over top of a crag in a mountain to protect the seal placed over it. he lives there with his lady and servants and some priests of his religion serving him, right? (He is a very high up Paladin, I forgot to mention) He loves his wife greatly (who is with child), despite the fact that she worships a chaotic god, which leads to some tension between the wife and the priests. War breaks out, and the Paladin must go battle the forces of evil. Meanwhile, the seal protecting the evil pit is not powerful enough to fully contain the taint of evil. This taint seeps into the minds of the priests, preying upon the doubts and tensions about the Paladin's wife, and they murder her and her unborn child. The paladin returns home to find his wife and child slain, and he kills the preists in a blind rage, before collapsing in grief. The paladin, having broken one of the laws set down by his god (never kill out of passion or rage), was forsaken, and as he lay there, the taint enveloped him, attacking his broken heart and mind, for he was no longer protected by his god's power. The taint corrupted him and destroyed his life force, leaving him empty, requiring the life force of other to sustain him (this is how I propose the first Vampire was created, and how other 'pure blood' vampires are created). This all ties in to the theology of my campaign world, but I wont bore you with the details

 

I see... Well... He had probably Fallen before he became a vampire. Depends on the deity, I believe. Doesn't necessarily have to turn towards evil... Blackguard just doesn't fit in my opinion. Anti-paladin definitely not. First of all he doesn't serve any evil deity, so those are impossible. I think you really need something vampire-specific.

edit: What about his seeking atonement as a paladin (naturally die for good the very moment as well)? He broke the law of his god, right... Circumstances were quite special... Deities always have special plans... Besides d&d it's possible that once paladin fallen after committing an evil act (maybe not 100%) knowingly and willingly may regain paladinhood. Generally it's divine intervention and close before his death if he for example chooses to die for what is good and right. Like he decides that he's fallen from grace and no longer a paladin, but this doesn't matter and he still cannot allow the evil that is happening all around him. Thus he goes to fight for what is good and right regardless of his (former) deity. It's likely that the deity will return his powers then. Or during the fight. Or after.

[ January 15, 2003, 13:00: Message edited by: chevalier des Trois-Tours ]

 

He believes that his god is responsible for taking his wife, so he commits himself to fighting against this god, and does so for a number of centuries, until he encounters the party of characters I am DMing, at which point he gives them some grief until they defeat him (with the help of some Paladins of his former god, because he has created a huge undead army, yadda yadda SMI-TING) Anyway, he is informed of the truth, he repents, but he has since commited unrectifiable atrocities, so he gets destroyed.

So, any prestige classes fit the bill?

 

Blackguard if he were alive, Anti-Paladin more suits vampires. Yes, Anti-Paladin would be very much in-character.

 

A question: can vampires and such have phylacteries?

 

Vampires don't have soul phylacteries because their soul is still bonded with their body.

Assuming "and such" means Ghouls, Morghs, Ghosts, etc., no. Sentient undead have a soul that is bonded with its body. Unintelligent undead have no soul; they are simply animated flesh matter.

You can't have a Lich Vampire, nor a Vampire Lich (The rules in the Monster Manual state that the Lich or Vampire template must be applied to a humanoid (or monstrous in a Vampire's case).

 

This may be both on and off topic but I have never heard of vampires in D&D besides monsters...
I would have thought of them as races not classes... may just be how i run my campaign hehe.. ~shrug~

Lucian

 

Sounds like the Death Knight template with a few levels of blackguard thrown in (assuming he is now serving the evil beneath the seal).

 

C'Jakob: the Hells you can't have a Vampire Lich. The DM can do damn well whatever he pleases, I tell you what. I can see how a lich couldn't exactly become a vampire, but what is to stop a vampire wizard to ascending to lichdom? The fact that he's already undead?

Limiting yourself to these things eliminates the flavor of say, a Vampiric Wolf. Think about it, a Dire Wolf Vampire, who can call other wolves [Children of the Night], makes for a really interesting and challenging opponent.

As far as the topic- Fallen Paladin/Blackguard. That's just a pure description of it. He broke his gods laws, his god turned his back on him, he became tained and resentful of his god, and whether or not he assumed a new patron deity, he is fueled by his taint.

It depends really on the character in question- is he still true to his word? Is he LE or NE/CE? If he were still honorable, but just didn't believe in doing good, because hey, that got his wife and child killed, I'd say Anti-Paladin. But if he were now totally bent out of shape and just went on a killing frenzy and hates life now, Blackguard.

Amon-Ra

 

Allow me to clarify: The Monster Manual says that you cannot have a Vampire Lich.

The Vampire template must be added to a Humanoid (or Monstrous Humanoid). It then becomes undead.

The Lich template must be added to a Humanoid. It then becomes undead.

If a DM wants to stack the two templates, he's basically breaking the rules of the Monster Manual. But since he's the DM, he can do as he pleases.

 

Precisely, a good DM is a DM that realizes that the core texts are guidelines, rules are meant to be broken in favor of flavor. I mean, the rules also say you can't have a Lawful-Neutral paladin of Helm [you see them everywhere], even though Helm himself is Lawful-Neutral. There is no "can't" in a DM's vocabulary, except when it concerns players- he can make flying monkeys with scythes for tails and are constantly under the effects of Blur. I speak from experience...

Amon-Ra