Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Are any good alighment companions in plans?

The vulnerabilities and weaknesses, however, are just boons to those who wish to destroy them; they aren't the be all and end all, or the only way. Vampires are not some special monstrous thing that is immune and immortal to all harm and death except by these means – Realms vampires aren't like that. They can't “only” be killed in these ways, as in generic vampire lore – Realms vampires aren't like that.

So, what happens if you explode one? It dies, of course. What happens if you rip one's heart out entirely or cut off its head? It dies, of course. It dies just as anything dies when you subject it to an effect that would kill it.

these are important conditions that tie into the creature's background lore in the forgotten realms specifically

You could even kill them that way, if you reduced their hit points to zero ^.^

That aside, yeah – generally the whole 'while at rest' clause remains there because that IS when they are the most vulnerable and weakest; invoking the weakness of their curse directly is not generally going to destroy a vampire who is active and fighty, but when they are vulnerable, and their guard is down, they are more susceptible too having that element of their curse invoked and turned against them.

How about this instead:

“Person A: "So the player is threatened by Astarion after they try to drink from them"
Person B: "Well ... how about give them option to grab one branch, snap it to make it sharp, and stake him?"
Person A: "Wouldn't that kill him instantly?"
Person B: "Yup."
Person A: "We should probably check that and make sure it works that way, just in case."
Person C: “Oh, actually, it turns out it wouldn't... this might be a really cool spot to show the players that Vampires work a little differently in the Forgotten Realms. It would give Astarion a chance for one last snarky line, too, before they kill him off properly?”
Person B: “Huh, I didn't know that.”
Person A: “Sure, that sounds cool, work on something like that.”

Resulting scene:

Plays as normal, up to the point of the player attempting to stake Astarion
PLAYER: [Lunges/thrusts/surprises (depending on point in the dialogue or bite), and stabs Astarion successfully]
ASTARION: [Staggering back and away] “Oof! Why you little...” [He extracts the stake and we see the PC shocked that this didn't work.]
ASTARION: “Looks like you've been reading too many stories, darling...” [Now snarling and ready to fight] “I think you'll find that the real thing is So much nastier than any fairy tale...”
[Combat begins; other party members wake, but are surprised. They make hostile voice barks about the revelation of Astarion's vampire nature, and join in on the player's side.]

Honestly the fact that he dies when you stab him in the chest, that he meditates rather than sleeping under earth, that he can't spider-climb and that he doesn't burn in sunlight just makes me lean more strongly to the idea that he's really just an elf who sharpened his teeth because he thought it was edgy, but has drunk his own cool aid to the point that he really believes he's a vampire now, when in reality, he's just a guy.... I'd believe that more readily than I'd believe that the tadpole suddenly made him *more* vulnerable to being staked than he was before, while it was removing his other weaknesses.