Would you let a player be a vampire starting from 1st level?

Would you let a player be the mayor of a small town starting from 1st level?

>>49851129
>game where the players are the mayor and secret council of a small town
>most sessions involve them dealing with a civil issue as well as a magical bullshit issue.
>special election year two part session
I'd run the shit out of that.

>>49851094
Yes, BUT only under the following circumstances:
>Every other player has a similar boon
>Encounters are scaled to these benefits
>Campaign is carefully structured so nothing happens like a vampire walking out into sunlight at a level that would instagib him

>>49851129
Yeah. The plot hooks just write themselves.

Keeping in mind that major does not have authority of absolute dictator and if they push people too hard they might get revoked or perhaps even lynched.

Yes but only after writing a custom progression for it. Having all the benefits of a vampire at level 1 might be a bit strong, but using its LA as written is pretty crap. Besides having the character unlock more vampire powers as they near their goal of removing all their vampire powers is an interesting conflict of interest for the character.

>>49851094
No. Primarily because I like vampires to be calculating and deliberate between bouts of debauched bloodlust, and no vampire would waste their time and pride on turning a level 1 smuck. That sort of thing is reserved for more promising and proven individuals, outside of extreme circumstances. If you manage to convince or cajole a vampire into turning you at level one, you've earned it, but I I'm not handing that out in chargen.

>>49851231
What if it was like a Twilight/ scenario?

>>49851259
I have minimal knowledge of the actual circumstances at play in that story, so I'll give you one minute to clarify just what aspects you're referring to before I douse your character sheet in lighter fluid.

>>49851281
Basically the vampire fell in love with them, brainwashed them, and turned them.
Now, the PC is out to drink goblin blood and kick ass, and they're all out of hemogoblins

>>49851281
Girl moves to a town where it rains a lot. She and a local guy are crushing on each other, but there's some complications before the relationship comes to fruition. Also the guy is a vampire.

>>49851094
Yes. Then follow along their epic quest to become the mythical Quadruple Vampire

>>49851327
Falls under "more promising and proven individuals". You're level 1, you don't even register as a person yet. Come back when you've accomplished something that an inhuman centennial+ might care to notice.

>>49851350
>fwoosh

I allow my players to do whatever they want, since I don't view the game as a competition. If they're having fun, then I'm succeeding. And it's self-policing anyway, since they inevitably get bored of any decisions that lead to degenerate gameplay and decide to do things differently.

>>49851516
More like
>Sploosh
Amiright?

>>49851094
I'd advise them against it. The Vampire class is pretty bad.

>>49851094
4th ed had some dhampir rules that were very flavourful. As the character rises in level they gain more vampiric powers.

Sure, so long as everyone else gets an equivalently huge power spike, and it won't really be a "1st level" campaign in that sense.

File: shesaidshewaseighteenthousandyearsold.jpg (167KB, 640x360px) Image search: [Google]

167KB, 640x360px

>>49851094
Absolutely. I would let someone play a vampire even if they weren't looking for a cure.

Vampire as Player Characters are really cool because, while strong - they can have a variety of strange and obtuse weaknesses that players have to think around.

It isn't too difficult to make up a reason as to why the vampire is lvl1. Maybe their power has been sapped, maybe vampires just work differently in your world for gaining powers..etc etc.

>>49851094
Everybody has to start at level 1, even Dracula. The bigger issue is I wouldn't let him have a lady that fine at level 1. At best the chubby barmaid everyone says has a great smile - and that's it.

>>49852181
There's lots of fun ways to be a vampire in 4e.

>Vryloka race
>Vampire class
>Dhampir bloodline feat

Triple Vampire at level 1 was a reality. You could climb to even more ridiculous heights with more stuff.

>Take Revanent race instead, pick Vryloka as past life
>take Avenging Haunt as your Paragon Path
>At some point multiclass into an arcane class, or hybrid from the start. Any is fine, pref Sorcerer since it goes decently with Vampire.
>Take Arch-Lich Epic Destiny

Put it all together and now you're the ghost of the zombie of triple Dracula Lich.

twist: the PC must live in the dungeon, coffin and all.

>>49851129

No, by virtue that becoming a mayor would cause them to level up due to prerequisite adventures.

>>49852554

Dracula didn't become a vampire until he was at least the equivalent of level 3, though - at least.

>>49852797
I'm pretty sure Vlad Tepes was still level 1 when he was cursed. I mean sure he was a warlord and all that but he didn't even impale those dudes himself, he had others do it for him. He didn't even get the experience points.

>>49851094
Depending on the system/setting, sure. Vampirism doesn't have to break the game in half, especially if they're looking for a cure.

>>49852869
We keep this up and someone will end up reinstalling Vampire the Masquerade.

>>49852922
Too late, I had it installed before the thread. But I already got through act one so there's no reason to keep replaying it.

>>49851094
I'd do it even without them looking for a cure, but I'd make it hard as hell for them starting out. They'd be some quick bang and drain, abandoned and left to either burn in the sun or be killed by the even the most inexperienced of Hunters.

File: BLAM.jpg (293KB, 883x593px) Image search: [Google]

293KB, 883x593px

>>49851667
>BLAM
Blam

>>49853190
You could do it easily enough. Homebrew a class out of it, but the player won't get all the cool tricks till later. I mean there's plenty of systems and vidja that does that. Vamp the Masq has already been mentioned but I'm also reminded of Legacy of Kain. Especially the latter series tendency to eventually overcome their vampiric weaknesses.

Hell unlike >>49852860 and >>49852797 it's like dual classing. Doesn't matter what you were before you're "reborn" as a level 1 bloodsucker and you don't get all the cool toys right at the start. No turning into a wolf or mist, no hypnotic stare, you explode in sunlight, etc.

File: 1470462757668.jpg (200KB, 857x1000px) Image search: [Google]

200KB, 857x1000px

>>49851094
>Using a Point Buy system instead.

They're a fledgling and will have to buy their vampiric powers while others are gaining other character options and features. It'll hopefully result in a coherent and functional party, but that uncertainty is invariably present regardless of the vampiric presence.

In a class system, you'll want to sort out whether you're using the vampire aspect as a template, layering it over class features (at which point the non-vamp players will likely have more class levels to balance out) or if it's being treated as a class itself, much the way there was an Elf class in the old D&D editions. In the latter case, >>49851895 might have a point depending on the system, and so the class might require some tweaks to make sure they're not unwittingly useless. Asking what class they mean to advance with after the vampire levels (unless it's presented as a full and worthy class in its own right) and offering some diminished advancement in that regard might make sense in the situation.

Since it's infamous and reasonably well known, take 3.P for example; you can be a vampire by Template (+8 level adjustment or +2 CR depending on your choice of advancement translation), a Class (Savage species or homebrew) a Feat Selection (Pathfinder Racial Feats) or even a Race (Damphir with racial feats gets pretty close if in a likewise watered down result of vampiric powers compared to the rest.). The Savage Progression is pretty weak until you get all 8 levels, at which point it has a power spike to competence briefly and then gets left in the dust again on a standard class for want of scaling to match any but the least versatile character classes.

So, if you have a Bard (buffs, face), a Cleric (Yin-Yang eastern flavored to be able to heal both living and undead allies, party crafter), and a sorcerer (water themed, transmutation/evocation mix for damage and crowd control) and a Warlord (Heavy hitting frontliner with athletic skill set-.ctd

>>49851094

Vampire PCs are wicked OP, just ask Dave Fant. (a.k.a. Baron Fant of Blackmoor, a.k.a. Sir Fang, a.k.a. the reason that the Cleric class exists, and the early D&D embodiment of "Local Man is Fucking Invincible")

>>49851094
Sure, they'll probably want to hybrid though.

File: 1470463078220.jpg (317KB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

317KB, 1920x1080px

>>49853930
>If the Vamp is thinking Bard in their future.
Grant them bardic spell advancement on each of the levels where they Don't gain hit-dice and skill points, and give them 1/2 vampire HD worth of Bardic Music per day (2/day in 3.x, or 4 more rounds' worth in PF once they get their first Bard level).

>Vampire Zen Cleric
Give them access to their domains, both Ability and Spell Slots as a Cleric of their ECL and Channeling as a cleric of 1/2 their ECL. Once they reach level 9 they'll gain the 1st level casting for the rest of their list, but their Domains continue scaling as if a 9th level Cleric and their Channeling is at ECL. If this proves to be too much an impediment to their healing, let them use spell-completion items like Wands as if the spells were already on their list.

For a Sorcerer, if you're using PF's bloodline, give them access to their bloodline abilities and bloodline spells as a sorcerer of their ECL as per the Cleric, but if you're on a 3.5 sorcerer I'd just give them 1/2 ECL progression on the spell list like the the Bard.

Warlord (if PF kept the ToB rules for multiclassing with martial adepts) actually scales itself, and the Vampire Savage Progression is just a few feats shy of already being a capable combatant as either a very high STR character with single strikes or a high dex finess fighter. Hitting level 9 and having 5th level initiator level is still decent and the rest of the vamp kit is plenty of utility to keep up.

Alternatively you can give them bonus Fighter feats 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th levels and Martial Weapon/Medium Armor proficiency.

>>49853970
Grognard storytime!

>>49854021

I wish I could find the links, it's late here and I'm sure to fuck it up if I try to recount it myself. Still, here goes.
Dave Fant was Baron of Blackmoor in the early Blackmoor campaign. (This is before it had a dungeon, and before Arneson showed it to Gygax. Dave's campaign was largely a PvP good vs evil campaign in this period.) At the end of an invasion storyline involving the Egg of Coot, a mysterious creature or artifact, an evil wizard played by Jim Abler did something to the Baron, and some adventurers were sent down into the dungeon below the castle (the first time this trope appeared in proto-D&D) to find the wizard and kill him.
The Baron retreated into his quarters for a time and disappeared shortly after that, no one knows when. But soon a vampire appeared named Sir Fang. He looked rather like your Nosferatu with a bit of Hammer horror added on, and grew in power as time went on and he killed more PCs, gaining new Hammer-vampire styled powers as things went on.
He wandered the deeper parts of the dungeon, and his appearance would be creepily foreshadowed by increasing numbers of rats, watching the players from the dark, until finally Sir Fang himself appeared to taunt the players and often to kill them. The good guys tried to kill Sir Fang many times, but much like Christopher Lee's Dracula in the movie, it never seemed to take -- I know I've heard he had some henchmen who revived him at least once after the good guys thought he had been "killed." That happened less often as Fang leveled up to the point that nobody could touch him.

Enter Mike Carr (who would later be a TSR editor) and Bishop Carr, a vampire hunter character modeled at first on Peter Cushing as the Hammer film's Van Helsing. Some folks at the table brought up the need for some way to cure disease, and that healing would be nice, and hey, presto, you've got the cleric class.
I believe they finally put Sir Fang down with the more knowledgeable Bishop Carr on their side.

File: Vote Strayd.jpg (528KB, 1920x1040px) Image search: [Google]

528KB, 1920x1040px

>>49851094
>Would you let a player be a vampire starting from 1st level?
Yes.

>provided they were looking for a way to reverse the curse
No. I hate that shit. Go heavy or go home.

>>49851327
I think that's going to be the best pun I'll to see read or hear all week. Well done anon.

>>49851094
>4e
Only if it's a Vryloka or Vampiric Heritage OR they really, REALLY know what they're doing and accept all consequences of actually going Vampire.

>>49851516
1st level characters are more than smucks, anon

>>49851159
>18th century New England town under constant threat by Lovecraftian entities
>important roles of the mayor are fighting horrors and rooting out witches

Depends on the player.

>New player who wants to be a vampire because he wants to be better and edgier than everyone else
I'd be hesitant and tone it down a lot, giving them more of the abilities as the charactee grows.

>Oldhat player who undestands group dynamics and is aware of everyone else needing to have fun too
Sure, why not. Could build a campaign around it where the other players are his vampire spawn that are weaker but have other benefits such as none of the vampires weaknesses and the ability to return from the dead to make up for the power difference.
As long as everyone agrees, that might sound like something fun to try.

>>49851094
Perhaps.
I can see it working as a "I despise what I have become" character, refusing to use his powers except in the most drastic of circumstances, when otherwise I would need to use GM Fiat to save their asses.

But I'd REALLY need to trust the player.

>>49851094
>Reverse the curse
What would Antivampire be like?

>>49855822
Strange unliving beings to whom fire is life, and night anathema.
To live, they must feed living beings their vital essence.
Those they feed, they grow to truly love.

>>49855880
>Phoenixes are anti-vampires

That's cool.

I remember reading part of a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure fan comic where instead of testing the stone mask, Dio just used it on Jonathan immediately and so it was Zeppeli and Dio hunting down Jonathan, who was looking to destroy the stone mask. It was quite interesting but sadly I've lost it.

>>49856341
I'd read that

File: 1419545167320.png (234KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

234KB, 600x600px

>>49851094
evil only campagin, focuses on skullduggery an assassinations, vamp guy needs the other partymembers to protect him during the day, perhaps use the immortal thing to play the noble politics/ who is the legal sucessor when you are technicly dead angle.

>>49851094
Yes.

>>49851129
Yes.

>>49852556
Welp I know my next character.

>>49852529
Plot twist, the character has lost his power
and has memory loss

Assuming all of this is D&D:

>>49851094
Yes, but he will have all the weaknesses of a vampire too, and hunters on his ass.

>>49851129
No. 1st level players should start poor and down on their luck.
I guess it's okay if they start as a mayor with no money, the town hating him and election season coming up.