Dhampirs

[Blorpy]

A player race that could be fun to play! Lemme know what you think!

Edit: I did another editing pass and uploaded R3 to Showcase for playtesting.

https://basicfantasy.org/showcase.cgi?sid=205

[teaman]

This could really be fun for a player. I'm going to look and see if I can adapt any of my artwork to give you and image for this.

No promises, but let me see.

[teaman]

And here's what I came up with. Use it in good health (if you like):

dhampir.png (17.35 MiB) Viewed 3275 times

[Blorpy]

Works for me. I’ll include it in the next release. Thanks again!

[teaman]

Works for me. I’ll include it in the next release. Thanks again!

GREAT! Thanks!

[TrickyNikki]

Hey Blorpy,
It’s me again, your nemesis!

So… I get a feeling that this dandy Dhampir is pretty underpowered, considering the Stat requirements and the many negatives associated with the Day (funny that they are called Daywalkers in the lore, more like Day crawlers ).

So firstly I would make a caveat that you could cover your skin entirely, so that those negatives would not apply (This can be explained in an Appendix). I’d make it that such a suit is extremely uncomfortable if bought cheaply, and that it can be worn for 4 hours without providing the same negatives. A version that costs 10x of whatever the cheap version will cost, should be much easier to wear and provide full cover hassle free.

Another thing mentioned in the Appendix could be how the Dhampir would go about obtaining blood. Mentions of illegal markets that they could use or perhaps get friends in the Apothecary guild. The section can have blood types and how much would they cost. This could also introduce different qualities of blood with cool effects or nice bonuses. I can handle this side of the Appendix if you like.

Maybe also give them a wolf/bat form?

With these changes, the race should become a little more appealing (though it already is in some areas).

Overall, great job, just a few tweaks here and there!

[Blorpy]

Ha haha, I always wanted a nemesis.

Well, you've given me some things to think about. I mean, I gave this race a bunch of restrictions because they easily outclass any of the other races for abilities. Just being able to heal fast, run fast, jump far, and hypnotise people by looking at them seems like it'd have a lot of utility! Not to mention that they get almost all the same bonuses elves do, plus some innate tracking skills. I was more worried that the race was OP TBH, but you've quelled some of my fears on that end.

I have mixed feelings about giving them ways to beat the sun, given the balance issues I mentioned. I kind of imagined they'd be cloaked up in the sun anyway. Plus it could create an interesting strategic dynamic where they might need lure opponents indoors or underground as well.

I like your idea for flavour descriptions about illegal bloodmarkets and such. I imagine a dhampir would have to have at least a bit of shady underground stuff going on, making for great roleplaying opportunities. The idea of different blood giving varying buffs is neat too. I had thought of that with regards to say, elf blood, but nixed it at the time for simplicity, but I'll definitely reconsider that. I incorporated a bit of that with regards to goblinoid/animal blood only tiding them over. Though if I make special effects for each creature/race I'll likely need a whole chart. lol. Maybe it could be as simple as draining someone's blood temporarily grants their racial abilities. IDK.

Wolf/bat form was another I'm still thinking about. Obviously some dhampirs like Alucard do that in their respective fictions, but then others like Vampire Hunter D never do IIRC. And then of course the balance perspective needs to be weighed. Popular fiction dhampirs are pretty damn powerful, but this race in a BF context needs to be able to fit in with normal level 1 human PCs without outclassing them. The more powerful I make them, the more needs to be taken away in the form of XP penalties and such. It would be easier to manage all that in a race-as-class system, but BF is divorced from all that, so gotta work within this paradigm where race is a relatively minor factor.

As always, thanks for the feedback.

[teaman]

And they are at -4 on all Saving Throws against Kristen Stewart!

[TrickyNikki]

Blorpy, so -10% to XP is a lot already. You have to qualify for this class in four different statistics. They get negatives in the sun, they have minuses to some saves. In return… they get not so much tbh. A dwarf is way stronger than a Dhampir atm. So is the classical elf. They both get dark vision as well as great saves and special abilities.

Healing one more HP means nothing ultimately. The speed is nice. Charming is… fine? A first level wizard can do that way better.

This is why I called Dhampir under powered. I’ll make a list of blood types and benefits, as well as where to acquire them and how much they should cost. I’d ask you to think about additional abilities you wanna give to the race

Teaman, make that a auto fail.

[Seven]

To have to qualify for a class with high stats is not a negative.
That just means the character will have abnormally high stats.
To balance a powerful character, you require some of the stats to be low, not the other way around.

Darkvision is only useful if you're in a party in which everybody has darkvision.
If the guy behind you is carrying a torch, you see the same thing as everybody else.

A Magic User's Charm spell is mostly a utility spell with very limited use in combat.
Not the same thing at all.

Having said that, I use the Dhampir as an NPC class.
They are rare and they are loners.

Cannibals make a better player class, although it's all a matter of taste.