Buufreak
2016-09-05, 04:45 PM
So, I have been gradually homebrewing all kinds of M:tG Multiverse creatures, settings, and the like. However, I run into the Vampires. Not a single example of Vampire from Magic fits perfectly into the mold set in MM1. So this is what I am working with, currently, and would greatly appreciate a critique or ways to improve upon it, based on assumptions made by observing the cards and reading the backstory and lore from http://magic.wizards.com/ and various card flavor text. I'm also reading heavily into the lore gathered on http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Main_Page and in the newly released Planescape: Innistrad book.
So, without further adieu, we have a race of creatures that started as Human, but was transformed by an ancient blood ritual given to them by a demon lord. This forever changed 12 noble families into immortal, blood thirsty, although incredibly sophisticated and aristocracy based creatures. Now, centuries later, 5 major bloodlines remain (although a few others can be extrapolated from flavor text) and they all continue to sire more members for each clan. It is also important to note that power comes gradually to these Vampires, and as they age they become more patient and cunning, but also begin to master different abilities, such as spellcasting (necromancy based spell-like abilities) supernatural flight, and others. So this means that as a race, it can progress somewhat similarly to true dragons, and their age based abilities vary by their particular family (all vampires can learn any ability, but each family has tendencies and favorites).
Another important thing to note is while strong compared to Humans (a standard Human is a 1/1, and the youngest of Vampires is a 2/1 with the ability to feed and grow stronger), but somewhat weaker than their rival Werewolves (the weakest non-mutant Werewolf is a 2/2). That roughly translates to, at the point of transformation, a Vampire is as physically destructive but as a Werewolf without being capable of taking as much damage (I won't say half as much, because assumptions aside that feels too general.)
So, crazy card reading and math aside, I want to compare these young Vampires to a Werewolf, stat to stat, and see where it gets me for a base template to build onto as they age. So a Werewolf (straight from MM and SRD) gets 2 HD, 2 STR, 4 DEX, 4 CON, 4 NA, and DR 5/silver. A Human (using my variant rules derived from Planescape: Innistrad) gets at most +2 to a single ability, a feat, and skill points. A Vampire, which is logically undead (unlike most Vampires in M:tG), has a Con of -. Good, handled. If I give them equal Str of a Werewolf, that would be a +2. So, applied on top of Human (as all these creatures of the night are, because that is all Innistrad has) you have an additional +2 and undead traits. Is that justifiable, or should they receive an extra nudge starting out?
Now we look into the mind of the Vampire. They are, at time of creation, a bit crazed. So much so that the example 2/1 Vampire used above is forced to attack every turn. Would this be best represented by a flat Wis penalty, or using a more strict version of the Undead Hunger: Diet Dependent rules found in Libris Mortis until they age further?
Okay, I think that is enough for a start, if I am missing anything blatant, please make mention and I will address it ASAP. I think I can make something rather good here without being the bag of Level Adjustments that the MM has, which is one of my ultimate goals. I humbly await input as I continue my research!
Edit the first: Alright, reading further, we can extrapolate more information. As a standard, Vampires had a DR of 10/silver and magic. However, it is listed in PS:I that a vampire is particularly weak to a weapon cut from living wood, but any weapon is capable of harming them. They are also incapable of crossing any running water that reflects the moon, a weakness to holy water, and take great effort to avoid any reflective surface made of silver. That is literally it for weaknesses, although setting-based superstition says otherwise. So, sticking with our idea of apples to apples with the base Werewolf, a DR of 5/wood is acceptable for the starting "neonate" Vampire. Otherwise, stats are pretty plain and basic for the young blood sucker. This roughly means fleshing out the age categories is a need much sooner than I thought. I will get started on that tomorrow, when I figure out the formatting of tables for this site.
So, without further adieu, we have a race of creatures that started as Human, but was transformed by an ancient blood ritual given to them by a demon lord. This forever changed 12 noble families into immortal, blood thirsty, although incredibly sophisticated and aristocracy based creatures. Now, centuries later, 5 major bloodlines remain (although a few others can be extrapolated from flavor text) and they all continue to sire more members for each clan. It is also important to note that power comes gradually to these Vampires, and as they age they become more patient and cunning, but also begin to master different abilities, such as spellcasting (necromancy based spell-like abilities) supernatural flight, and others. So this means that as a race, it can progress somewhat similarly to true dragons, and their age based abilities vary by their particular family (all vampires can learn any ability, but each family has tendencies and favorites).
Another important thing to note is while strong compared to Humans (a standard Human is a 1/1, and the youngest of Vampires is a 2/1 with the ability to feed and grow stronger), but somewhat weaker than their rival Werewolves (the weakest non-mutant Werewolf is a 2/2). That roughly translates to, at the point of transformation, a Vampire is as physically destructive but as a Werewolf without being capable of taking as much damage (I won't say half as much, because assumptions aside that feels too general.)
So, crazy card reading and math aside, I want to compare these young Vampires to a Werewolf, stat to stat, and see where it gets me for a base template to build onto as they age. So a Werewolf (straight from MM and SRD) gets 2 HD, 2 STR, 4 DEX, 4 CON, 4 NA, and DR 5/silver. A Human (using my variant rules derived from Planescape: Innistrad) gets at most +2 to a single ability, a feat, and skill points. A Vampire, which is logically undead (unlike most Vampires in M:tG), has a Con of -. Good, handled. If I give them equal Str of a Werewolf, that would be a +2. So, applied on top of Human (as all these creatures of the night are, because that is all Innistrad has) you have an additional +2 and undead traits. Is that justifiable, or should they receive an extra nudge starting out?
Now we look into the mind of the Vampire. They are, at time of creation, a bit crazed. So much so that the example 2/1 Vampire used above is forced to attack every turn. Would this be best represented by a flat Wis penalty, or using a more strict version of the Undead Hunger: Diet Dependent rules found in Libris Mortis until they age further?
Okay, I think that is enough for a start, if I am missing anything blatant, please make mention and I will address it ASAP. I think I can make something rather good here without being the bag of Level Adjustments that the MM has, which is one of my ultimate goals. I humbly await input as I continue my research!
Edit the first: Alright, reading further, we can extrapolate more information. As a standard, Vampires had a DR of 10/silver and magic. However, it is listed in PS:I that a vampire is particularly weak to a weapon cut from living wood, but any weapon is capable of harming them. They are also incapable of crossing any running water that reflects the moon, a weakness to holy water, and take great effort to avoid any reflective surface made of silver. That is literally it for weaknesses, although setting-based superstition says otherwise. So, sticking with our idea of apples to apples with the base Werewolf, a DR of 5/wood is acceptable for the starting "neonate" Vampire. Otherwise, stats are pretty plain and basic for the young blood sucker. This roughly means fleshing out the age categories is a need much sooner than I thought. I will get started on that tomorrow, when I figure out the formatting of tables for this site.