Vampires

[Muawijhe]

I was creating some vampires that instead of sucking blood, literally sucked the souls out of their victims (with cool special effects and all). Having some troubles balancing it right, it's either insanely powerful or just plane useless. I don't mind powerful...but...yeash!

I want it ranged, but not more than an 1" or two...other than that I'm not picky, but still can't get it right. Anyone have some nifty suggestions?

[keithcurtis]

A little more definition would be helpful. What are the effects ofhaving your soul sucked out? Do you die? Become an automaton? Shrivel into dust?

What is the defense? Are 'good' people or 'holy' people more immune?

An NND Killing attack (Defense = holy protection) might be apropriate, with the SFX that all body loss is loss of soul. You may want to tack on invisible power effects. You don't show any wounds, you just eventually keel over dead.



Keith "Fearless Vampire Killer" Curtis

[Muawijhe]

Soul sucked out kills you and your body rises as an automaton (zombie). Basically, the "vampire" sucks your soul...stores it inside of it to continue it's existience...so, if you can kill the vampire before too long, the soul is let loose (either up die peacefully/whatever or possibly re-inhabit the body, but that's pretty much up to the story).

Not much of a defense. Vampire forces it's will upon you, wins the roll (maybe power vs EGO or something) with bonuses for the number of classical preventions you've taken...ie, crosses worn/held, garlic, chanting prayers to whatever higher being, etc.

The NND killing attack is a good idea...like temp BODY damage. Once it's all reduced, the soul's actually sucked free (think of Shao Khan's finisher from Mortal Kombat 3 for visual effects, but just from the vamp's mouth).

[keithcurtis]

Sounds like a classic Transformation attack (albeit a powerful one.) Figure out how many points a person gets for being a vampire and add 1/5 of them to the body score for the purposes of the target number of the attack. That covers the increase in power.
It will probably require multiple attacks to succeed. 3 nights?

Keith "I do not drink... blood" Curtis

[Muawijhe]

The vampire is more of a unique opponent, rather than a run of the mill enemy. In my setting, only one exists for his sins...simulated from the Dracula story (Stoker), but altered some.

Instead of crosses, the severed and dried legs of chickens can be worn around the next (must be in plain sight) to repulse the vampire. As for the attack, the vamp just open his mouth, takes in a deep breath and the target's soul is sucked in (no more than one or two attacks, otherwise even the most powerful enemy will be cut down by then). Decided to scrap the zombie idea for the victims.

Maybe a super-powerful DRAIN attack, targetting BODY instead of STUN?

[Markdoc]

Sounds like you simply want an RKA, unranged NND, 1 hex area effect, does body (not vs people displaying dried chicken legs) at (gasp!) 45 points per d6. You might also want to add personal immunity, so he can use it in his own hex, without doing himself a nasty injury.

A 1 +1 d6 attack would cost 60 points, and drop your average peon in 3 attacks (basically , just a few seconds). It might take as long as 30 seconds to wipe out a really tough guy, but high dexterity would be of no use - you would have to dive away from the vampire to avoid the attack.

I would be inclined to let people hold their breath and block their nostrils (but use the drowning rules while they are doing this) to avoid this attack, since it's a) true to the asian source material and b) I'm not sure that dried chicken legs count as a "common defence" :-)

If you did that, the chicken legs could be dropped as defence and instead allow them to simply repulse him (physical or psychological limit) - that way he could not get close enough to use his attack if you were wearing them.

cheers, Mark

[Syberdwarf2]

IDHBIFOM, but what about
Conditional Power: Only works at night (-1/2)?

[Muawijhe]

Wow...I really do have to thank all you guys for the wonderful input. Markdoc, you pretty much just etched out the last bugs (and so will have something if your screen name written into a part of the plot in honor, hehe).

And the only useable at night limitation sounds good too, Syberdwarf! Thanks again. Once I get this all worked out I'll post the final stats for everyone to see, if they're interested.