Vampires

Vampire is a template that may be added on to an existing character. Applying the Vampire template to a character costs 50 XP.

A new Vampire is considered a Rating 2 character. Sometime around a century of existence a vampire, they are considered an Elder, and become a Rating 3 character, and must purchase the difference normally. A Vampire may purchase powers based on its Rating. To transition to a Rating 3 character, a vampire’s player must spend back all extra experience gained from being Rating 2 as opposed to Rating 3.

A vampire gains a Thirst track. Each evening when it awakes, it moves one step down on the Thirst track. Each time it successfully feeds, it moves one step up on the Thirst track. Successfully feeding includes a successful Bite attack during a grapple, drinking from a willing human host, drinking a pint of stored human blood, or drinking at least a quart of animal blood. Animal blood may not move a vampire above Thirsty, and human blood stored long enough to lose the natural warmth of the human body cannot move them past Sated.

Thirst Track:

-Gorged: the vampire is flush with power. It gains a +3 to all Finesse-based rolls and after dividing to determine defenses, and a +6 to all already successful Might-based rolls and before dividing to determine defenses. The vampire heals as if it possessed 1 rank of Regeneration 3. This does not stack with a normal purchase of the Regeneration power. At the end of any encounter in which the vampire is Gorged, it moves down to Sated.

-Sated: The default state maintained by most vampires. It gains +2 to all Finesse-based rolls and raw totals and +4 to all already successful Might-based rolls. The vampire heals as if it possessed 1 rank of Regeneration 2. This does not stack with a normal purchase of the Regeneration power.

-Thirsty: The vampire feels a powerful urge to feed. It gains a +1 to all Finesse-based pools and +2 to all already successful Might-based rolls. This bonus doubles in situations where the vampire is actively trying to feed, including attempts to seduce a target into becoming a willing victim. The vampire heals as if it possessed 1 rank of Regeneration 2. This does not stack with a normal purchase of the Regeneration power. It takes a -2 penalty to all attempts to Bite a target while only dealing Hit damage.

-Ravenous: The vampire’s motivation is reduced to an all-consuming hunger, and it has trouble relating to humans beyond a predator-prey relationship. It feels weakened and desperate, though remains capable of bursts of vicious energy at the merest possibility of blood. It takes a -2 penalty to all die pools not directly related to actively trying to feed. In situations where it is actively trying to feed, it instead gains +2 to all Finesse-based pools and +4 to all already successful Might-based rolls. Seducing a target to become a willing victim of feeding is no longer considered actively trying to feed, as the vampire has lost much of the self-control necessary to coerce a victim. It takes an additional -5 to all attempts to bite a target without dealing Wound damage. It heals as if it possessed one rank of Regeneration 1.

-Desiccated: the vampire enters a near-comatose state, appearing dead, as its body does not decay, but slowly desiccates in a fashion easily recognizable as abnormal decay by anyone with a Mental Might + Medicine Max result 5 or better. It is effectively incapacitated, and cannot move or speak. If presented with a fresh blood supply, it may move feebly toward the source of blood, its motion almost imperceptibly slow.

Special: A Vampire does not move down from Ravenous to Desiccated until a number of days have passed equal to the maximum result of its Resilience (do not count bonuses or penalties from its Thirst track for this calculation).

Special: The vampire may voluntarily gain the benefits of Gorged for one encounter, or roughly five minutes. Afterward, it moves one step down the Thirst track. It cannot do this if it is already Ravenous.

Spec: Extra Reservoir 2, 3 Prerequisite: Vampire
The vampire gains an extra slot on its Thirst Track. At Rating 2, it gains an extra Thirsty slot in between Thirsty and Ravenous. At Rating 3, it gains an extra Sated slot between Sated and Thirsty. A vampire may purchase this Spec up to a number of times where the cumulative rating of all purchased instances is equal to its maximum Resilience result.

Other Advantages:

-A Vampire’s unarmed attacks, whether a bite, strike or grab, deal base Wound damage, and do not subtract a hit per normal Unarmed attacks.

-It gains +2 on all Grab rolls.

-Bite: When a Vampire maintains a Grab, it has the option of initiating a Bite as an action. The vampire rolls Physical Might + Unarmed. On a successful attack that deals damage, the vampire moves up one on the Thirst track. Alternatively, if the target is willing or helpless, the vampire may roll Mental Might + Resolve vs. DC 5. On a success, the vampire still moves up one on the Thirst track, but the target only takes a single unpreventable Hit of damage. If he fails this roll, the target takes Wound damage as if the vampire had beaten its defense by the amount by which he missed the target number +5. Certain penalties may apply to this roll. A target bitten in this way to avoid damage may only do so once per Encounter.

-It may use its Physical Might + Resilience to calculate a Passive defense vs. attacks that deal base Wound damage.

-Vampires may apply one damage downgrade against any one attack which is not a Vital Strike or that deals base Maiming damage. This effect does not stack with Invulnerability or Immunity.

-Vampires do not die when their health levels fill with Maiming. A vampire only dies when its heart or head is removed from its body, or when engulfed in Fire or Sunlight while their health track is full of Maiming levels of damage. Vampires automatically stabilize, and do not need to roll when wounded or maimed to avoid taking additional damage.

-Powers: A Vampire may purchase powers thematically appropriate to its vampiric nature, subject to storyteller approval, with the following conditions:
-Vampires must obey Rating restrictions as per normal.
-Bonuses and effects gained from a Vampire’s Thirst track do not stack with purchased powers, including bonuses from Super Stats and Skills.
-A Vampire may only use non-Permanent powers while Thirsty or better.

Recommended powers include:

Armor
Attack: Representing Mental domination or physical prowess
Detection
Invisibility
Invulnerability
Jumping
Mental Discipline
Movement
Regeneration (effects do not stack with Thirst bonuses)
Shapeshift (bats, wolves, mist)
Super Speed
Super Stats (bonuses from these do not stack with Thirst bonuses)
Telepathy
Tough

All Vampires automatically gain the adaptations:
Breathless
No Appetite
Ageless

Drawbacks:

-Sunlight: whenever a Vampire enters or starts its turn in direct sunlight, it takes a -5 penalty to all actions, loses all Thirst bonuses, cannot use non-permanent powers, and is shocked, all until the end of its next turn. It also takes one unpreventable Wound. This damage is mystical, so the vampire cannot avoid it by wearing heavy or reflective mundane clothing.

-Garlic: Garlic causes something akin to a severe caustic reaction to vampires. A vampire that makes physical contact with garlic takes one unpreventable Hit of damage as its skin bubbles and peels where it made contact, and takes a -2 penalty to all actions and is shocked until the end of its next turn. A Vampire may only suffer these effects once per each of its turns.

-Stake through the heart: A wooden stake through the heart instantly Incapacitates a Vampire and makes all of its non-permanent powers cease to function, making it effectively dead so long as the wood remains within the heart. In order to stake a vampire, a character must deal Maiming damage during a Vital Shot made to strike the heart with a wooden weapon, such as a fire-hardened stake, a wooden arrow or crossbow bolt, or even a splintered piece of wooden furniture, though the latter is considered an improvised weapon. Thus, it is much easier to stake a vampire when they are unaware or already incapacitated.

-Creatures of Stasis: A vampire does not age, and its physical appearance will remain a pale, cold reflection of the human it was on the night it became a vampire. While still recognizable as its former self and usually able to pass as human, it clearly has undergone some sort of transformation which marks it as inhuman to the careful observer. It cannot procreate sexually, though it may certainly go through the motions, and often finds it as pleasurable as a human might, though the experience pales in comparison to feeding. A Vampire’s natural prowess conferred upon it by blood continues to increase as it ages, though as an otherwise static creature, it has trouble acquiring new skills. A Vampire may purchase Super Stats per its Rating, but may not purchase Super Skills.

-Procreation: If a Vampire drains a human of all of its blood to the point where its health track fills with Wounds, then feeds a portion back to the human from its own veins, the human begins a painful transformation that takes place over the space of a day, becoming a newly minted Vampire itself.

-Blood: A human that feeds on Vampire blood gains a +1 to all Finesse-based pools and +2 to all already successful Might-based rolls, and heals as if it has one rank of Regeneration 1. These benefits do not stack with the human’s powers. A human that has drunk a particular vampire’s blood also feels a powerful affinity for that vampire; any Mental or Social defenses of that human’s take a -5 penalty against actions by that vampire, including being targeted by the vampire’s psychic abilities and attempts to find him.

-Holy Water, Holy Symbols, Running Water, Grave Dirt, Mirrors: All vampiric associations with these things remains no more than myth, and they react to them the same way a normal human would.

Werewolves:

A werewolf is a Rating 2 character.

-A werewolf gains the Alternate Form power.

-Werewolves may only buy Rating 1 powers outside of the Alternate Form power.

-A werewolf that comes into contact with Silver takes one unpreventable Hit of damage and is Shocked until the end of its next turn.

-A human bitten by a werewolf that survives becomes a werewolf on the next full moon.

Zombies:

Zombies are not characters so much as mindless animated corpses, usually with a hunger for human flesh, and often with a bite which infects a target with its condition.

-Zombies have automatic scores of 2 on all Stats except for Physical Might. It possesses no skills beyond Unarmed and Resilience.

-Zombies gain a +6 on all already successful Physical Might-based rolls and raw totals before dividing.

-Zombies may calculate a passive Resistance-based defense against Wounds. In addition, Zombies do not take wound penalties from Hits or Wounds, and are not Incapacitated until their health track fills with Maiming.

-A successful Vital Strike made to target a zombie’s head with a Wounding or Maiming attack automatically kills the zombie.