As the title suggests, I have made this topic to discuss the possibility of being able to play as a true vampire and how it might fit into the game from a story perspective and a gameplay perspective. I do want to add that I am still quite new to DnD, so I had to research the lore and gameplay. If any of the information is wrong or outdated, or my suggestions don’t fit the lore, please let me know!
(I had some problems submitting this thread so apologies if I have accidentally posted it twice!)
Story
I want to talk about the story first. Now, obviously we don’t know how the encounter with Cazador will play out, so this is all pure speculation, but I am hoping there is one outcome where Astarion can become a true vampire, especially if the tadpole allows him to resist Cazador’s commands. If that happens, then I can see two potential ways that the player can also become a true vampire.
The first would be if you romance Astarion. In a world where all vampires are regarded as evil, why would you want to become one unless you are evil or power hungry yourself, or you fall in love with one? Now, at the moment, Astarion is probably just using the MC as a means of permanently freeing himself from Cazador’s control. We also don’t know how much romancing him means to him. He claims he just wants to enjoy himself, but if you tell him to ‘keep those teeth away from me’ he seems genuinely upset that you don’t trust him, so maybe he is starting to care about you, or at the very least starting to trust you.
However, let’s assume as the romance develops, he genuinely starts to care about the MC. At the end of the day, he is immortal and will eventually outlive the MC, so why wouldn’t he want to keep the one person he cares about around? If he becomes a true vampire, there could be an option for him to turn you too. On the other hand, what if you don’t want to be a vampire? Would he respect that, or, depending on his approval rating, would he still turn you into a spawn out of fear of losing you? Perhaps there could even be a persuasion check for him not to turn you.
The second option I can see, would be to make vampirism a ‘positive consequence’ of taking the evil route. At the moment, there isn’t much incentive to do so. And while you probably wouldn’t learn about this consequence until after encountering Cazador, at least it would be there. Now, from what we know about Cazador, I can’t imagine him offering to turn the MC into a true vampire, even if you hand over Astarion. At the very least, he might make you a spawn, but if the tadpole allows Astarion to resist him, why would he want a second spawn he couldn’t control? (Unless he kills you in the fight, the rest of your party kills him, and then you come back as a spawn the next day?)
Therefore it would rely on Astarion becoming a true vampire. However, there is one dialogue where he tells you that vampires don’t make a habit of making competitors. Perhaps there could be a high persuasion check for Astarion to turn you, which is only if you have at least ‘very high’ approval with him. If he can resist Cazador, then I can’t see him turning you to keep you as a spawn even if you have low approval, because you would still be able to resist him.
Gameplay
The question regarding gameplay is, how overpowered would a true vampire be?
Currently, as a vampire spawn, Astarion doesn’t take damage from sunlight, but he also doesn’t regenerate. Perhaps a true vampire could also have tradeoffs, especially since it also needs to fit into a video game.
Firstly, stats. I don’t know what level we will be when we encounter Cazador, but perhaps stats could remain as they are without vampirism, or scale with your level, or perhaps have the option to add one point to one of your abilities, or to base AC?
A true vampire can transform into a bat or mist form. Perhaps the transformation can be an action, while the flight granted from it can be a bonus action. Perhaps it only lasts two or three turns, and if you revert early (eg to heal yourself), then you can’t use the ability again until your next long rest.
‘Misty escape’ could possibly be implemented into the game, if the campsite is considered your ‘lair.’ At the moment, if any of your party is knocked back into a river or bottomless pit, they end up dead at the campsite, so the same could potentially happen if a true vampire’s HP is dropped to 0. The only downside is that it means you can’t actually die since you cannot be attacked at the camp, which would make the ability too strong for a game. Without regeneration to restore HP, presumably you would just wait at the camp until after the fight so you can have one of your companions heal you.
If they implement ‘legendary resistance’ you could potentially get three guaranteed saving throws while downed. Perhaps instead of misty escape, a vampire only needs to pass two saving throws while downed? (But that could only occur once per long rest.) But since legendary resistance covers all saving throws, then they could be used up before you are downed anyway.
Calling animals to fight alongside you could work similarly to ‘find familiar’ or a ranger summoning an animal companion. Again, perhaps this can only be done once per long rest, and you can only summon one animal. Maybe at higher levels you can summon two?
Perhaps becoming a vampire can also automatically give you ‘charm person’. It doesn’t have to be limited to once per long rest, but I personally haven’t used the spell ‘charm’ anyway, so not sure how useful it will be.
Even if there is an option for Astarion to become a true vampire, I doubt we would lose him as a companion, because there is still the problem of the tadpole. He would want to stick around to find someone to control it. The last thing he would want is to get his freedom, only to turn into a mind flayer. Therefore, we would have one true vampire in our party anyway, so why not have two?
