The Hunter becomes the hunted (race)

[Druid_lord]

Fluff
Orluththe vampire laughed quietly at how easy stalking his prey for the night. THe handsome young human he was stalking noticed him not. He followed his soon to be victim in to a seculded alley and reached out towards his unwitting victim.Suddenly, and without warnig his would be meal whirled around a longsword in his hand blazing bright white, and struck him a mortal blow . As Orluth lay dying he saw his killers face. "Dhampir!" he croaked with his last breath.

A Dhampir is a creature born of a mortal and an undead. The posses some of the strengths of thier unatural parent and have an extrodiany gift for slaying vampires and other undead. THey average about 6ft tall have plae skin, not qiute as much as a vampire and generally raven black hair. The common eye color is grey light blue or firey red.

Crunch
DHampirs gain +2 strength, dex and con -4charisma and -2 wisdom. Dhampirs are strong nimble and hardy, but thier close resembelance to vampires causes suspition and a large amount of biengs view them as abominations. They also tend to make rash deciscions and not think things through
They also have the following abilites.

Smite UNdead (once a day ) A dhampir may smite undead. THis attack functions like smite good or smite evil.level is used to determine the bonus damage.

Hunter: A dhampir makes an automatic search check when a concealed undead is within 30 feet.

Natural slayer: A dhampir gains a +2 bonus to bluff, listen sene motive spot, and survival checks when used aginst undead and a +2 to damage and attack rolls when battiling undead.

Foul origins: Due to thier undead lineage all positive and negative energy spells effect's are reduced by half.

Speed: 35 feet
Weapons : Dhampirs have exotic weapon profiency with bastard swords.Due to thier strength, dhampirs are able to wield bastard swords one handed with ease.
Alignment:Dhampirs or usually chaotic good.
Favored Class: Ranger, the bonuses from the natural slayer ability stack with the bonuses from the favored enemy ability.

I am aware thier is already a Dhampir race in libris mortis but from what i have heard it is just a regular half vamp with no bonus against vamps. THis is my first hombrew so i am ready to accept any suggestions or criticism you have. Also a few questions
IS this over/underpowered? Does it need an LA? and is there anything i should add or fix or remove?

[Twisted.Fate]

I'm not sure why precisely a dhampir would get a bonus to slaying vampires. Being half-vampire does not always a slayer make. I think the half-vampire in Libris Mortis is better balanced; it also takes into account the need for blood. I do like the Foul Origins, although...does the template change the creature's type? That is, when a human becomes a dhampir, does their type change from humanoid to undead? Because if that's true, Foul Origins is null and void - undead are harmed by positive energy, not healed.

[jlousivy]

Fluff question: if these are half undead / half mortal... why are they so keen/good at killing undead and not the mortals?

definitely needs an LA, it gains +1 ability modifiers for the physical stats while only taking 2 away from a stat that.... isn't as useful.

natural slayer--what type of bonuses are these?]

smite undead--this should be 1/day otherwise you'll be stepping onto the paladin's toes (sure he can do it vs all evil creatures, but this person may do it pretty much as much as he so desires)

[Jack Mann]

Dhampirs were originally from Balkan folklore, and were indeed known to be very good at killing vampires.

In the Balkan myths, normal people couldn't necessarily see vampires. Only certain people could. In some areas, only Dhampirs were supposed to be able to see them. Sometimes, a set of boy and girl twins could, if they were wearing the right article of clothing inside out. Dhampirs, though, were often recognized as the only means of destroying vampires.

Of course, D&D vampires aren't a whole lot like the Balkan vampires.

[Druid_lord]

The dhampir aren't a template they are a race. A vampire wouldn't try to make a dhampir. In fact it would probally try to hunt them down before they mature. And on the subject of what type of bonuses they are, I am bad with names, is there anything else i sould call them or are you talking about what they grant? Also should that be one a day per level or just one a day peroid ?right now i tweaked it to one a day per level. I concede to Jack Mann's point about the differnce between Balkan and D and D vamps but felt that it would be nice to have an undead slaying race or class and Dhampirs had a relativly nice fluff reason. As for the question about Foul origins, since Dhampirs are only half undead, instead of positive enrgy harming them, it effects are just halved. That brings to mind the question what type of creature they would be. I was thinking medium humanoid maybe?
I appreciate evryones feedback thus far.

[jlousivy]

you can have it 1 day/level but that will merit at least a +1LA all on it's own assuming you removed everything else. It all comes down to how high of an LA you're willing to make.

[Druid_lord]

I changed the smite undead and added a wis penalty. Is there anything else i need to do to make it have no LA?

[jlousivy]

you may wish to clarify the smite-undead, is it based on HD? or total class levels or what?

natural slayer-- maybe model this after 'giants' for dwarves

also-- foul orgins-- it reduces positive energy- but does it reduce negative energy?

what is their favoured class? (i'm quazi-sorta thinking ranger for favoured enemy undead) what are their languages? does it matter what mortal race they come from?

im not too sure on LA's but that'll probably reduce it down to a LA+1 or maybe LA+0

[EvilElitest]

Fluff
Orluththe vampire laughed quietly at how easy stalking his prey for the night. THe handsome young human he was stalking noticed him not. He followed his soon to be victim in to a seculded alley and reached out towards his unwitting victim.Suddenly, and without warnig his would be meal whirled around a longsword in his hand blazing bright white, and struck him a mortal blow . As Orluth lay dying he saw his killers face. "Dhampir!" he croaked with his last breath.

A Dhampir is a creature born of a mortal and an undead. The posses some of the strengths of thier unatural parent and have an extrodiany gift for slaying vampires and other undead. THey average about 6ft tall have plae skin, not qiute as much as a vampire and generally raven black hair. The common eye color is grey light blue or firey red.

Crunch
DHampirs gain +2 strength, dex and con -4charisma and -2 wisdom. Dhampirs are strong nimble and hardy, but thier close resembelance to vampires causes suspition and a large amount of biengs view them as abominations. They also tend to make rash deciscions and not think things through
They also have the following abilites.

Smite UNdead (once a day ) A dhampir may smite undead. THis attack functions like smite good or smite evil.

Hunter: A dhampir makes an automatic search check when a concealed undead is within 30 feet.

Natural slayer: A dhampir gains a +1 bonus to attack and damage and +4 AC when battiling undead.

Foul origins: Due to thier undead lineage all positive and negative energy spells effect's are reduced by half.

I am aware thier is already a Dhampir race in libris mortis but from what i have heard it is just a regular half vamp with no bonus against vamps. THis is my first hombrew so i am ready to accept any suggestions or criticism you have. Also a few questions
IS this over/underpowered? Does it need an LA? and is there anything i should add or fix or remove?

I am not famlier with this race, as I know little about the there orgins. Fluff please?
from,
EE

[Druid_lord]

In the Balkan legends vampires were fascinated with mortal women. The result was a dhampir, a creature that could see vampires and destroy them far better than a mortal could.In balkn legends vampires were invisible. Modern images of Dhampirs includ, Blade from the blade trilogy, Alcurd from CAstlevania and Vampir hunter D.

For favored class i was thinking tweaking the paladin class a bit to make it more undead fighting based than fighting plain ole evil.I would probally replace smit evil with an extra smite undead, make int not charisma boost the amoun of turn undeads and make the other charisma based stuff with int based .I took the suggestion for the foul origins, and only for appearances a quess would the mortal parent matter.(envisions a wave of halfling sized vamp slayers) On that thought i'll say only medium or large creatures can produce dhampires with vamps and the mortal half only matter for appearance maybe? (edit) On second thought maybe i could reduce the mortal parents bonuses and penalties and add them to the dhampirs? or would that make them too overpowered and give them an LA?

[Druid_lord]

I have added a base speed and a weapon profeincy is giving a race profiency with bastard swrods as exotic weapons overpowered?

[jlousivy]

i can't say it's overpowered but it is highly unusual, most races when implementing exotic weapons instead allow them to be concidered as martial weapons.

[Druid_lord]

The reason is a bastard sword used as an exotic wep is one handed, if its used as a martial wep it's two handed.

[jlousivy]

yes, yes, but i'd just say that if the character gains martial weapon prof(bastard sword) he can wield it in 1 hand at no penalty

[Druid_lord]

I changed the wep prof to what you suggested, and i wan to thank you for all your advice thus far it has been extremly helpfull. (Edit I fixed that as well and chose to use HD)

[jlousivy]

I'm glad i could be of help :-)
--on the proficiency, did you mean to give that to them? or that they may treat it as a martial weapon 1h (weapon familiarity). See the dwarf description, a dwarven wizard doesnt gain proficiency in that axe, but a fighter does gain the free 1 handedness

you may still want to say if you use your HD or class levels for the bonus damage on smite undead
also state what type of bonuses those are to fighting undead.

[Druid_lord]

i decided on a favored class, The Hunter of the Dead. Its basiacally a paladin with smite undead instead of evil , int instead of charisma bonunses, no mount, but the only alignment restrictions is no evil The spells are also changed to have more affect against undead, for example protection against evil becomes protection aginst undead. Any suggestions for the class or any aspect of the Dhampir so far? I am also considering having the mortal parents bonuses and penalties diveded in half and added to the dhampirs. Is that a good idea, or does it giv eit an LA?

[Vadin]

Do I smell someone who reads Least I Could Do? :smallbiggrin:

[Druid_lord]

"The hunter cannot find his skiis"
"Rayne i can't go see "300" with you in the middle of the day! This is madness!"
"THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
i am actually going to go with the ranger=favored class idea. The only possible problem is the wisdom penalyt, would that be too big a penalty for a ranger?

[jlousivy]

it's only a -2 and a ranger only needs a 14 in order to cast all of his spells, easily obtainable by an item or attribute bonuses by the time he needs it.

On the ride home this all came to mind and i thought 'hey... why not change natural slayer to being the exact same as a favored enemy? (but not concidered a favoured enemy for multiclass purposes and it stacks with favoured enemy) granted that wouldn't give them the +4 ac but it's an idea

[Druid_lord]

i took you up on the suggestion , but was thinking of tweaking the ranger class to be more combat oriented. Maybe remove or lessen the spellcasting give them medium armor profincy and D10 Hd , remove the animal comapoin, and get rid of combat stlye or change it a little. And rename it the Hunter or something similair. Do you think that would work?

[jlousivy]

if you give him medium armour he can't use evasion.
combat style is fine, it's basicly free feats that forces you TWF or Ranged, if you want THF u just pick up ranged and take your other feats as THF.
+ if you want TWF you can get it with as low of a dex as you want

basicly for medium armour(w/ losing evasion) + an average of 1 hp per level isn't worth losing your animal companion and spellcasting(which i hear is pretty decent if you include non-core stuff)

at the same time it could prove an interesting endevour (just try not to get too combat oriented where you do a fighters job better than he does)

[Druid_lord]

i would probally change combat stlye to alow med armor and maybe i was thinking,replace the divine spells with adding the element or type of energy your favored enemy is weakest too to your attacks?

[jlousivy]

that'd be wierd.... maybe that you overcome 5, 10, 15, 20 damage reduction to favoured enemies? (depending on how many times you selected it)

[Druid_lord]

that would work and maybe for each time you choose something as a favored enemy you gain a extra ressaintce against them say your first choice is undead(vampires) you gain immunity to thier dominance ability.

[jlousivy]

hmm, maybe have extra favoured enemies in place of spellcasting and an animal companion.... and in place of a 'favoured enemy' you can choose to instead become immune to one of their (su) abilities (requires having them as a favoured enemy)
that way you can gain more dominanace over a favoured enemy, but you can still benefit from taking like favoured enemy:humanoids(human) -- since they don't have any su abilities... you can just become extra good against them instead

[Druid_lord]

that sounds perfect! It definitly is what I am looking for. maybe one extar favored enemy when you gain them ,so at first you can choose 2 favored enemys are choose one twice, and after the next time you gain favored enmy's you have four total, and so on.Would that work?

[jlousivy]

i definitely don't agree with the damage being tent to all of his spawns and creatures since.. they aren't physically connected with them. you already get bonus damage versus them so that seems kinda redundant.
However, after a certain mastery (5 times?) your weapons are concidered Bane?

and if you go the special attack route: either a: this class is vs vampires only, or you gotta find special attacks versus every single other favoured enemy route

[jlousivy]

im sure no-one on the forums would say that it's too overpowered seeing how next to bard... ranger is one of the worst classes (at least in my opinion)
however i think it should be more spaced out, why not-- 1 favoured enemy every odd level, it gives you the same number of favoured enemies but spaces them out a bit more

[Druid_lord]

that would work well.I was thinking of adding a third option for combat style, Two handed weapons. Maybe a+1 to attack and damage at 1st level +2 at 6th, +3 at 12 and +4 at 18th, seeing as how This is more combat oriented than the ranger

[jlousivy]

if you do that, you effectively make the ranger better than a fighter at combat. the ranger/hunter already has same bab, better saves, more skills. the fighter gets weapon focus and greater weapon focus for +to hit but that's only with a single weapon equalling +2.

[Druid_lord]

true but the fighter class has been underpowered for a while butBears with lasers fighter fix gives them more feats and special bonus fighter feats such as the provoke no AOP when charging, they can delay the effect of a spell they failed a save on for one round and so one. this is nowhere near better than that. If you want to look at it just search the boards for figjhter fix (this one actually does something.)However i think you are right about it being a little to strong. Also for the race i was thinking of giving them a +3 to natural armor because the vamps get +6 a Dhampir would recive half of that? And for the class maybe reducing armor penalty checks to hide and move silently by half?