Zendikar Vampires call the continent of Guul Draaz their home, and made the cursed jungle-covered and swampy land one of the most civilized places of all Zendikar. Even if present-day vampires were once humans, it could be said that the presence of vampires in Zendikar pre-dates that of humans, at least when speaking of civilized population. They don't mingle very much with the other races, both because the other races are scared of them and because they are often too involved in their own internal politics, which more or less coincide with family wars. The main families, those that have contacts with the rest of the world, are the Kalastria, who define themselves "Highborn", the Nirkana who are famous assassins and explorers of the wild, and the Ghet, a renegade family that suffered "political" defeats and is now trying to find fortune outside the capital city of Malakir, successfully infiltrating Nimana, the "Free City". Families are composed of vampires created by the same Bloodchief. Bloodchiefs are the only truly undead vampires. Simple vampires are just cold-blooded, long-lived blood drinkers, that can only create Null zombies when they kill a humanoid by feeding. Nonetheless, vampires are a powerful race that could benefit from humans' versatility if it wasn't divided into rival families. As they are now, each single family is powerful but very specialized.
NOTES: I tried to differentiate the families with variable ability bonuses (which are needed to cover all their niches), different skill bonuses, and a minor feature. I'm not sure about the Ghet though: there is much less info and coverage about them. All I could think was that they may be cursed by a lack of Charisma that put them at a disadvantage with the rest of the families. I interpreted them as the most pacific vampires, among the few that actually use diplomacy, and gave them a minor feature that may represent a sort of mental control they could have developed against non-vampires, always connected with their "pacific" aura. Which is possibly used deceivingly anyway. The worst part was defining the Ghet's ability scores. I was considering Strength since the only Ghet I could find (but he is their Bloodchief) is a warrior, but in the end I just sticked with a combination that just excluded Charisma. It's what makes the most sense, but it's also quite "useless". So FEEDBACK IS NEEDED! Note that my original idea was a new type of bonus array with two variables: +2 Con or +2 Cha / +2 Dex or +2 Int. It could be the standard for all the families after all, allowing players to create non-standard members of any given family, like a Nirkana wizard or a Kalastria battlemind.
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VAMPIRE
Racial traits
Average Height: 160-180 cm Average Weight: 50-70 Kg
Ability Scores:
+2 Int; +2 Con or +2 Cha (Kalastria) +2 Dex; +2 Con or +2 Cha (Nirkana) +2 Str; +2 Dex or +2 Int (Ghet)
Size: Medium Speed: 7 squares Vision: Low-Light
Languages: Common (?) - [I don't know about how we could treat languages] Skill bonuses:
Death-touched: You have resistance to necrotic damage equal to 5 + one-half your level. Family Trait: Choose one of the following:
Blood Magic (Kalastria): Bloodied creatures suffer a -2 penalty to Saving Throws against your powers.
Brutal Killer (Nirkana): You reroll 1s on your damage rolls against creatures bloodied by you.
Dim Influence (Ghet): You have a +2 bonus to skill checks and a +1 bonus to defenses against non-vampire creatures you haven't attacked yet.
Vampire Glide: You add 2 to the distance of any jump you make and you ignore the first 10 ft. of any fall. Feed On Blood: You have the Feed On Blood power.
Feed On Blood
Encounter Free Action Trigger: You hit an adjacent bloodied enemy. Effect: The enemy is Weakened until the end of your next turn and you can expend Second Wind as a free action. Special: You grant Combat Advantage to enemies other than the triggering enemy until the start of your next turn. 11th level: If you use the power on the killing blow against a non-minion enemy, the creature raises after the encounter as a Null Zombie under your control. It becomes a minion with 1 HP and retains its basic melee attack only. It also becomes Blind with Blindsight 5. You can control only one Null Zombie at a timeand it shares your standard action. 21st level: There's no limit to the number of Null Zombies you can control.
FEATS
SATED HUNGER
Blood Feaster You gorge on your prey's blood and gain more energy than a common vampire Prerequisite: Vampire Benefit: When you expend your Second Wind as a result of using your racial power you gain temporary hit points equal to 5 + your Con modifier.
Murderous Hunger After feeding on your prey, you become focused on the kill that is to come Prerequisite: Vampire Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus to Attack rolls until the end of the encounter against the target of your racial power.
DEADLY AERIALIST
Ghostly Dive Your supernatural movements while you leap effortlessly in the air are so fast that enemies do not have the time to retaliate. Prerequisite: Vampire Benefit: You don't provoke Opportunity Attacks when jumping. You are always considered to have a running start when you jump.
Predatory Pounce Your tap into the predatory essence that your Nirkana bloodline possess and become able to perform aerial assaults of rare ferocity Prerequisite: Vampire, Nirkana family trait Benefit: You can jump as part of a charge instead of moving normally. You gain a bonus to damage for the charge attack equal to the number of squares you would have exceeded your target's position.
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Vampire Glide (Nirkana): You add 2 to the distance of any jump you make and you ignore the first 10 ft. of anyVampire Glide (Nirkana): You add 2 to the distance of any jump you make and you ignore the first 10 ft. of any fall. fall.
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It was constantly under my nose, an article with extensive background info about the vampire Anowon, one of the main NPCs of the canonical Zendikar's setting: Consortium Report: "The incident At The Eye". And guess what? He is a member of the Ghet family, and he even supposedly slayed his bloodchief, although I found controversy in that a bloodchief of Ghet exists under the name of Kalitas, while the bloodchief that Anowon killed was named Tenihas.
Anowon, the Ruin Sage.
However, the important thing is that we can now more easily define the Ghet's characteristics. About skills, I'd say I had nailed them out, and the feature is also quite representative, seeing how Anowon inspires a certain trust in many, and is the betrayer type at the same time. But speaking of the dubious ability score bonuses, I could now see Anowon as being rather clearly a Str/Int character. A brutal warrior AND a scholar. So I'd propose a + 2 Str; +2 Dex or +2 Int. This way all the families would have something in common, and the Ghet would be like an off-spring of Kalastria and Nirkana, with a different primary ability, but a choice of secondary abilities taken from the pool of the two "main" families' primary abilities.
Besides, many vampires give the impression of being very strong, so it's good to have an option for Strength-based vampire characters.
With this approach though, it is unlikely that we return to the +X or +Y; +Z or +K model I had first devised, because it would become a rather "bulky" +A or +B or +C; +X or +Y... And 2hile the "double couple" seemed quite an elegant solution, resorting to this 5 abilities choice is nearly like saying +2 to Any; +2 to Any Other (except Wis), and I don't like it.
Feedback is needed!
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And guess what? He is a member of the Ghet family, and he even supposedly slayed his bloodchief, although I found controversy in that a bloodchief of Ghet exists under the name of Kalitas, while the bloodchief that Anowon killed was named Tenihas.
I was sure I read that Kalitas replaced the murdered Tenihas in a Wizards article somewhere. But it doesn't seem to exist.
And guess what? He is a member of the Ghet family, and he even supposedly slayed his bloodchief, although I found controversy in that a bloodchief of Ghet exists under the name of Kalitas, while the bloodchief that Anowon killed was named Tenihas.
I was sure I read that Kalitas replaced the murdered Tenihas in a Wizards article somewhere. But it doesn't seem to exist.
Well, we're going to assume that. Or better yet, we're going to live that a mystery that characters could try to solve!
@Garthanos: Yes, they're both very good combos, but none of them fits for all the families, so I think I'll really stick with this:
INT + CON/CHA
DEX + CON/CHA
STR + INT/DEX
Not randomly color-coded, is made to make sense as some type of vampire genetics, making the Ghet some kind of offspring of Kalastria and Nirkana. It may also be the contrary, and the fact that nobody is sure about that could become just another "plot trigger".
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Vampire Glide was too cool to be an option and since all core Zendikar races are getting a special movement feature, Vampires also needed it as default, so it's now a general trait that all vampires get. Nirkana instead take a cool situational vendetta-like damage boost.
I also updated the racial power to make it able to create Null Zombies since Paragon level, at the cost of making the Weakened condition useless (since it must be used when killing). I think it's balanced since the Null Zombie is practically useless as it is. It will be more useful by taking feats, maybe to make it completely independent when distant enough, like the new animal companion of the Sentinel Druid...
I also created a new feat, the second one.
Of course, comments are welcome!
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