Goto [ Index ]

Fang & Fury: A Guidebook to Vampires

For some reason, I've always like vampires. Books and movies, mostly, I never was much of an angsty person, so gothy sort of stuff doesn't do much for me. But vampires have always fascinated me, from trashy pseudo-romance novels to Le Fanu and Varney the Vampire of the 1800s to campy stuff like Blackula to the Hammer films of the 60s with Peter Cushing to the Blade movies. I'm also probably the only one that liked Dracula 2000.

The point is, I like vampires, so I was quite happy when I heard Green Ronin was putting out a book on vampires as player characters in D&D/d20, having been fairly impressed with their Orc book.

It's actually the second vampire sourcebook for d20 (AFAIK), the first being the excellent Lords of the Night: Vampires from Bottled Imp Games (released around March of 2003). But much like witch d20 books, you can never have too many vampire books (there's also going to be another vampire book , "Out for Blood", from Bastion Press in October of 2003).

It's softcover, about 80 pages, and priced at $16.95. Which is pretty good these days, and cheap enough that I bought it new (though at a online retailer for a slight discount). As a very nice touch, they use the inside covers as well, so it's really 82 pages. Small margins, too.

Now, as regular D&D vampires kind of well, suck (pun intended), especially for player characters, they have introduced a new, different (and somewhat lesser) sort of vampire suitable for PCs. They call it the "Vampire Scion", curiously enough. (I say that because Bottled Imp's book also had a "Vampire Scion" in it, which makes me wonder if there was a common source. Scion being a somewhat odd word, and it's used somewhat inappropriately here, since these are not offspring of regular D&D vampires, but something different entirely. Doing a web search, it also turns up in some Buffy: The Vampire Slayer fan fiction, but I really really don't want to go there)

But anyway, the race itself is a bit higher powered than normal, but it only has an Effective Character Level (ECL) of +2. That is, a 1st Level Vampire Scion is the equivalent (in power terms) of a 3rd (1+2) level normal character. +2 is about on par with a Drow or Half-Fiend or Half-Celestial. So that aspect makes it quite playable.

The one thing I didn't like, was that like the regular D&D vampire, the Vampire Scion now gets a d12 for hit dice, no matter what class it is. And as an undead critter, the Vampire Scion doesn't have a Constitution score, so they get no bonus HP. So, why is this a big deal? Well, it's a big advantage to classes that have a low base HD, like the Wizard that only gets a d4. Conversely, fighter types tend to have high constitutions, so not only will they not gain anything from the change from a d10 to d12 (or a Barbarian going from a d12 to d12), they will likely lose hit points from losing their Constitution score.

So what else do they get for their +2 ECL other than the d12 hit dice? Well, they also get claw damage, exactly like regular d20/D&D vampires get. They also get a pretty decent stat bump, +4 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +4 Charisma. But that's about it, other than blood drinking and the ability to create vampire spawn. They also get access to vampire feats and classes. Probably the biggest plus is being changed to "Undead", which makes them immune to a variety of special attacks and such, including critical hits.

On the downside, they have a fairly wide range of vampire vulnerabilities and weaknesses, pretty much the usual - sunlight, garlic, must rest in their coffin/grave), and they take 1d8+1/HD points of damage every day at noon. This can only be restored by drinking blood, point per point. Animal blood only heals it at 1/4 the rate, as well. They can also restore normal damage taken by drinking blood, making this their most likely combat tactic.

I was (and still am) confused by the nomenclature "1d8+1/HD". Do they mean 1d8 divided by the Hit Dice of the Vampire, or 1d8+1 per Hit Dice of the Vampire? I'm guessing it's the former (and that's what I've been using), because otherwise it's too onerous, high level vampires would have to suck down an entire hamlet a day. But the "/" can mean either divide or "per", and it's often used as the latter in d20.

The second chapter provides role playing tips and such for playing a vampire character, including how various classes might react to being a vampire. Also included are several different concepts of Vampire. Such as vampirism not being due to being undead, but something else. Like "Blood Symbiotes" or as a result of a curse or a disease. There are several different concepts, usually with an example of how to alter the vampire tempate to fit the new concept. This is probably the best part of the book, I think.

Chapter Three is on feats. Many are for vampires only, and are perhaps a bit too powerful, often emulating spells. For instance, "Sense Alignment" lets the vampire sense alignment (figure that!) by making a sense motive skill roll. That's probably not overpowered, but "Gaseous Form", which lets the vampire assume gaseous form, is a bit powerful for a feat.

But for the most part, they're pretty good.

Chapter Four introduces several vampire prestige classes. This is where the book starts to lose focus a bit, branching out into the "Unseelie", a sort of evil fey. Apparently there is some sort of dark fey/vampire scion connection.

Anyway, that's only for one of the prestige classes, the "Foundling". There are some regular vampire classes, the most interesting is that of the "Nighthawk", which is sort of a vampiric thief. Also notable is the "Reveler", a vampire that specializes in preying on other vampires.

Chapter Five introduces new creatures.

The most interesting for me are the Daywalker and the Blood Puppet.

The Daywalker is the offspring of a vampire and a human. Historically, they were called "Dhampir", and historically, they have the power to detect vampires, and an increased ability to destroy them (though how is somewhat vague). Blade (of movie and comic book fame) is perhaps the most famous example, though he is almost a half vampire in that he apparently needs to drink blood (at least in the movies) and he apparently didn't have a vampire father, his mother was just bitten by a vampire while pregnant.

The Daywalker is somewhat like Blade (who is also called the Daywalker in the movies), in that has to drink blood like a vampire There is some stat increase, and they can heal by drinking blood, but there are no special abilities to combat vampires like the historical version.

There are a couple more "Unseelie", neither of which did much for me.

Next up is a chapter on Vampire gods. There are a surprisingly large number of them, 7, though one is for "Unseelie", and not really vampire related.

The main vampire god is "The Beast", sort of the embodiment of a vampire's bloodlust. There's also Adiemre, whose audience seems to be Byron-ish poets; Brand, who seems a killing machien akin to Jason Vorhees; Djorl, an evil high priest; Jejua, a god of cannibalistic banquets, clearly inspired by Martha Stewart; MHKH, sort of a mysterious, occult style god. And the Unseelie god, which seemed more demonic than faerie like.

The last chapter is on equipment. Most is pretty unremarkable, I thought, but not bad, either.

There is a highlander-ish idea, called the Dusk Crown (though it's not actually a physical crown, or even an object, just an idea). Basically, the last vampire on a given plane of existence will inherit some sort of great and powerful prize (apparently the elimination of all vampiric penalties, and the ability to cast spells like a 20th level sorcerer. Which must suck if you were already one, or higher level than that).

The art is excellent, for the most part. Interestingly, the vampire lady on the cover shows up a couple times in interior illustrations, all done by different artists. Kind of a neat twist, I thought, and added to the cohesiveness of the product (I guess she's the iconic vampire scion, I don't know her name). There is one piece that is in a style I hate - really really stretched out, so they are out of proportion (the vampire in it also looks too much like Edgar Winter, I think. Or was it Johnny? One of them.)

Ultimately, it's a very good book, and definitely worth buying if you like vampires and d20. I think the Bottled Imp book is a lot better, in terms of overall playability, depth, and style, but this is closer to regular d20 rules. I also wish they had left out the "Unseelie" stuff because I really didn't think it fits the vampire genre. B+

I've run a couple of "Vampire Scion" characters in both D&D and Call of Cthulhu d20. In both cases, it worked pretty well, although, these vampires do suffer from the same problems that all vampries suffer from (mostly sunlight) which can be a big deal (more so in low-tech games, like D&D, in which travel is slow). Due to their blood sucking the Vampire Scion is much better at melee combat than ranged, so its not as good in high tech games as low tech.

If you want to run an all-vampire d20 game, get the Bottled Imp book, if you want to run a single vampire PC, then this one is probably the best. Heck, get both, there's a lot from one that can be used with the other and vice-versa.