Blood Magic, Demon Knights, and Vampires

[Autochthon]

thejeff said:
Mistform would be more thematic, though it doesn't really work the way traditional vampire mist abilities do.

Hmm, i'd either work that into the Immortality abilty or give them a Glamour ability to simulate the "stealthy" nature of Mistform.

However, what makes Ethereal so powerful is the fact that it allows the caster to fight, which doesn't match the idea of Mistform rendering the caster impotent for the duration.

[Wick]

How about having vampires shape shift on death into a form that is effectively invulnerable and harmless. Give that form negative regeneration and shape shift on death back to the first form. Maybe only in the dark?

[Tiavals]

While vampires surely aren't ghosts, Etherealness also denotes the fact that vampires are usually impervious to normal weapons, which is essentially what etherealness does. While the name might be wrong, the effect is right. If you shoot a vampire with a normal gun, he is unfazed by it. In dom3, he would be dead but back in a month, which seems contrary to most vampire lore, where magic weapons harm them normally but normal weapons rarely do much unless used in a ritualistic manner(cut the head off or stake the heart).

[Reverend Zombie]

Tiavals said:
While vampires surely aren't ghosts, Etherealness also denotes the fact that vampires are usually impervious to normal weapons, which is essentially what etherealness does. While the name might be wrong, the effect is right. If you shoot a vampire with a normal gun, he is unfazed by it.

Well, lots of depictions show a vampire being wounded by a normal weapon, then healing quite rapidly.

Maybe they could have their regen boosted to 50% or so to reflect this, without making then ethereal again.

[Morkilus]

I know we have had this discussion before, but I too am sad about the state of vampires. They were scary in Dom2 like they should be, and now they're just a laugh. I'd rather have ethereality back and have an occasional VQ rush than have pathetic vampires.

[Archonsod]

Tiavals said:
which seems contrary to most vampire lore, where magic weapons harm them normally but normal weapons rarely do much unless used in a ritualistic manner(cut the head off or stake the heart).

Only in Hollywood lore. It was the same with Werewolves and silver. According to the original Vampire lore (in most of the West at least) a vampire could be killed in the same way as anyone else. It was keeping them in the grave which was the problem - they'd rise up at the next full moon. Over here in England traditional practice was to bury those suspected of vampirism with the coffin facing downwards, which would mean that any awakening vampire would find themselves tunneling the wrong way once they woke up. The French were more practical - they would dig up the corpse, behead it, stuff the head with garlic and bury it at a crossroads, while the body was cremated and the ashes scattered in a churchyard. Not much coming back from that one.

Course, in most Vampire lore they actually were walking corpses, not dapper gentlemen in evening wear. Blame Bram Stoker for that one.

[Lazy_Perfectionist]

Don't forget the vampiric squash. Hollywood's overlooked that one as well.