Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Astarion is a Vampire?

I didnt think Elves could be vampires.

He just walks around in daylight?

He heals from eating food?

He's a vampire?

Do you want the spoiler answer or do you prefer to play and find out yourself?

Sure drop it on me, I've about done lost faith in this title anyway.

He's Vampire Spawn.... I mean... Did you see his teeth?

The tadpole

Elves can be vampires in D&D, it just depends on the edition I guess. I remember reading about a drow vampire in 3.5 ed book about dark elves, there is a vampiric sun elf Jander Sunstar + they exist in Ravenloft rulebooks: http://www.mojobob.com/roleplay/monstrousmanual/v/vampelf.html

I'm not very familiar with 5 ed, but I assume they didn't change this.

I'm gonna have to read some 5E rules because I was almost certain Elves couldn't be affected by vampirism.

Elves can be Vampires, there are several examples in Forgotten Realms lore. However, more importantly and relevant to BG3, is that Bodhi from BG2 was an elf and a vampire

Yes, I've been reading. Apparently this is rare and they lose all connection to being an Elf. They lose their spark of divinity. I think the Lore gets a little muddy. I always thought Elves were immune to being raised as undead. The fact the "tadpole" allows him to walk in day and eat food is very, very convenient.

Humans also lose a lot, I mean they become undead bloodsucking monsters bounded to the place they were buried in after all.

Other humanoids also can become vampires. I think one of Drizzt's friends turned into one? And he is a dwarf.

The thing about Elves is that they are divine in nature and nearly immortal already, they don't have "souls" like other races.

I don't remember a Dwarf Vampire, it's probably been 20 years since I read Salvatore's books though.

Bodhi, Irenicus's sister is an example of this from BG:2, before 3e, it was a profane act that, I think, meant she was no longer an Elf whatever that means, but still reason enough not to find Astarion so offensive. Personally I don't think a strict adherence to the ruleset is really a reason to have 'lost faith' in a game, especially one so open to modification/interpretation like D&D.

It's not just that... on top of the tadpole twist allowing him to disregard his vampirism... kinda lame. Theirs not even a day / night cycle in this game, LOL! The blew money trying to create a big budget movie. All I wanted was a solid modern D&D game.

1. All of the flashy cut scenes and animated dialog is just flash, waste of money. I see it once, after that it's an inconvenience /skip. I would have kept the camera top down and spent the money elsewhere, like solid voice acting and the best D&D writers I could afford. An array of simple model emotes could have told the player everything they need to know during dialog.

2. Interface and Menus don't even try to replicate a BG layout. I should feel back at home when I sit down to play this game.

3. Relationships are written horribly, characters throw themselves at you for no reason, it's just weird.

4. Give me Core Rules Mode / Iron Man mode and I can possibly look past everything else and enjoy this game, probably.

The elves can't be vampires rule hasn't been around since 2nd ed and as others have said, that rule was broken back then.

I was a little disappointed when 5th edition eliminated the "healing harms undead" rules because I liked the light / dark -- positive plane / negative plane dichotomy but because 5th is so much better than 4th I forgive its flaws

Oooh, and I was wondering why Astarion can drink healing potions. Now I'm disappointed too :P

If I'm the DM, Healing harms Undead. I don't care what edition we are playing, LOL!!!

Mostly agreed on the criticisms, though I still haven't given up hope. Time will tell if it's reasonable or naive of me.

That said, may I recommend Solasta (currently also in EA)? Haven't played it yet myself, but from what I can see it looks like a great 5e game. Not very similar to BG, I think it's closer to IWD with faithful 5e mechanics. It's small-scope and not very "shiny", but seems to do a great job of keeping the "spirit" of D&D.

Whaat? I didn't know that. Add another soul to the disappointment pile.

Holy mother of God....this ^^

So freaking true. It seems so plain and obvious but no one takes this route?
Imagine the following a company would have if they would just keep to the basics. *Shrugs*