Buffy-verse campaign

I believe he's basically saying if you use a piercing wooden weapon your staking it, and if your using an edged slicing weapon your decapitating it (or decaffeinating it as Cheri would say).

I guess it's a big advantage to carry archaic weapons than to carry guns. I assume energy weapons (radiant) would, but how about:

Cold (I can see that freezing a vampire and having it shatter into pieces when it hits the ground)
Fire (burning them up)
Necrotic (able to damage them but couldn't kill them)
Lightning (similar to fire)
Force (severing a head with a force blade, or piercing the heart with a magic missile. I would say piercing wouldn't kill them though as the attack isn't wooden.
Poison (once again, incapacitate, but not kill)
Acid (of course it should work)
Thunder (incapacitate, but not kill)
Psychic (incapacitate, but not kill)
Holy Water (yes, it should kill)

Note: very few vampires turn to mist when brought to zero hits now, and only a few can fly.

Dwarmaj wrote:Which part?

bradly wrote:
Wooden projectiles and edged slicing weapons damage will both drop and dust the Vamps when you've dealt enough damage.

That part. Ross got it right. Wooden projectiles, such as arrows, wooden bolts, spears, etc, with enough damage can be assumed to penetrate the heart. Edged slicing weapons, such as axes, swords, etc. can be assumed to decapitate the head with enough damage.

(Should I have used an ampersand to make it more clear that was 2 seperate objects?)

Note: metal tipped wood is okay, but if you somehow had a wooden stake encased in metal, that wouldn't work.

Ross wrote:I guess it's a big advantage to carry archaic weapons than to carry guns. I assume energy weapons (radiant) would, but how about:...

Vampires are still Undead, so I might not load up on posion or necrotic... "Force Blades" will work, but I'm going to assume unnamed 'force' effects are blunt damage.

Hmm, so going with a monk using an unarmed fighting style may not be the best way to go...

Dwarmaj wrote:Hmm, so going with a monk using an unarmed fighting style may not be the best way to go...

That's basically how Buffy fights Vampires...

bradly wrote:

Dwarmaj wrote:Hmm, so going with a monk using an unarmed fighting style may not be the best way to go...

That's basically how Buffy fights Vampires...

Yes, but this is D&D...

Having to spend extra actions to make sure they stay down is less efficient than using the proper weapon that will put them down.

Will you be treating all Vampires as having regeneration like a troll?

Troll Healing Healing

If the troll is reduced to 0 hit points or fewer by an attack that does not deal acid or fire damage, it rises on its next turn (as a move action) with 10 hit points.

Does radiant or fire turn the regeneration off? Or is it that they have no regeneration but you have to slay them with a wooden stake or energy (not sure if acid/fire/radiant all work). What about lightning and thunder?

Say a fighter uses a warhammer and knocks a vampire to 0hp. Do we know how long before its up again?

Dwarmaj wrote:Yes, but this is D&D...
Having to spend extra actions to make sure they stay down is less efficient than using the proper weapon that will put them down.

"...but this is D&D". It's okay in D&D to not be uber optimized too...

Or you can burn a feat, making coup de grace only a minor action.

bradly wrote:
Or you can burn a feat, making coup de grace only a minor action.

...thematically, I think that'll look really cool.

Anyway, If Ken can come over some time & show me how all the map tools stuff works, what do you guys think of posting your characters and playing the first 2 levels of the 'Buffy-verse' campaign online? That might time out well with the end of the Dragonborn campaign (unless we go on into Epic).

Campaign INTRO: (Note: This is a modern setting, but not THIS modern setting... some things are different...)

All the living races live either in cities or in rural areas and their day to day, for the most part, consist of mundane labor or other activity. It pleases the Undead secret overlords to 'play with their food', gaining delight from the fear & misery of the living. This is only part of the reason why the Vampire nation a thousand years ago changed the history books and made practice, use, or mention of magic a punishable by death offense for 3 generations of Man. Several centuries later all of the stories of magic and Vampires, while pervasive still, are laregely believed to be only myth.

The Vampire Covens hunt their prey very carefully, getting the requisite invitation for all of them to enter somehow, then jamming phone, internet, & communications for those within. They typically wait until 5 minutes to dawn (the Undead 'witching hour') to feast. They then spend the day inside (with all of the drapes/blinds closed) removing all trace of the previous night's feast within the home waiting for the sun to set again.

In initiative order, once everyone finishes making their PCs,...

You wake hearing commotion from the other room, then screams, then fighting. Your bedroom door opens, and down the hall you see a couple dozen Undead monsters in the other room and can hear more checking the rest of the house as a Vampire stands before you. You for the first time see & believe that Vampires are real, and first hand discover that the lore of their super Human(oid) speed & strength are true.

Fight or flight instincts kick in and you choose fight, but you handily lose, about to loose conciousness when suddenly your assailant poofs into a cloud of dust, and standing before you holding a wooden stake where the Vampire's heart used to be, is a hooded figure of what you think is a tall adult male Deva. Since Devas are well known to be part of the criminal underworld, you've all seen images of them on tv, but have never met one in person.

Before you pass out, he quickly wisks you away, stealthily passed a perimeter of Vampires outside the house, to a subtle vantage point where you safely watch the old life you knew gone in a night. Sometimes hurriedly, sometimes leasurely, you travel with the Deva Giles, across the continent, saving school age youth from the same fate.

Along your travels he trains you and the other youth (PCs) that Vampires are real, magic is real (though can show you none), and that you all are 'Zodiac Slayers', prophesised champions of the end times battle. His race, Devas, have been prosecuted by the Undead for generations for remembering the secrets of the Myocyne prophesies, and pledging to find and help prepare these chosen Slayers.

The beater transportation you all travel in tells you that Giles is not a wealthy man and that a millenia on the run from the law is not a particularly profitable occupation. This is of note because looking around you see that each of you in the car escaped with 1 change of clothes, wallet (w/1d4*$50) and 2 hand carry size items that you were able to grab from your room on your way out. Not much to both start a new life and learn to fight Vampires.

Once Giles picked up the last Slayer, he speeds you all to a fairly new coastal casino. He doesn't go near but drives past into the woods about a mile past. By the time you arrive it is getting dark. He gives each of you a wooden stake and $100 to eat, drink, gamble, relax before your training begins...