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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Wolves
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Wolves are real animals and have been part of the game since its beginnings. Here, they are both in the Monster Manual and in the Monster Vault’s animal appendix.
The Lore
Real-world wolves are pack hunters, and the ancestors of modern dogs. If I recall correctly they mostly stay away from people and only attack when cornered or really desperate. There are enough stories about wolves attacking sheep and other farm animals that it must have happened in the past, but it’s not really a common occurrence any more. And that’s partly because there are very few wolves left in the real world.
D&D wolves are of course a lot more common and a lot more willing to attack people, since a pack of wolves is a classic low-level wilderness encounter. They can be found across a wide variety of climates and terrains. Mountains? Check! Forests? Check! Plains? Check! Deserts? Why not?
This being D&D, there might be some natural landscapes where your reasonably realistic grey wolf might have trouble competing with the more fantastical and powerful monsters common to the game. Instead, these places might feature dire wolves, which are a larger, smarter and more dangerous variety. As of 3e, they’re also spikier.
In addition to being found in the wild, both common and dire wolves might be trained by humanoids such as goblins or shifters, who have a knack for taming wolves directly without having to spend centuries turning them into dogs. Other creatures might also control large packs of them through magic: vampires are famous for this.
The Numbers
Wolves are obviously Natural Beasts, even the dire variety. They have low-light vision, and their other acute senses are represented by Trained Perception. They run at speed 8, attack with bites and usually do something interesting when they have combat advantage.
Gray Wolf (Both)
Gray wolves are Medium, and Level 2 Skirmishers with 38 HP. As far as natural wolves go, it seems to me these would be on the large end of the scale, which might explain why they’re more eager to attack humans than you’d expect a mundane wolf to be.
Their sole attack is the bite, which does extra damage against prone targets. The bite in the MV version also allows the wolf to shift 4 squares as an effect, so these critters will never stay still if they can help it.
If a wolf has Combat Advantage against a target, its bite will also knock the target prone on a hit. This means a group of wolves has a lot of incentive to flank a specific PC. One of them knocks the victim prone with its first bite, the others pile on with that bonus bite damage. All of them keep moving around with those free shifts. And now you know why they call this “wolf-pack tactics”!
Dire Wolf (Both)
Dire wolves are Large, which means each is roughly horse-sized. They’re Level 5 Skirmishers with the Mount keyword and 67 HP.
Dire wolf bites have larger numbers due to them being higher level, and also do increased damage to prone targets. They also knock the target prone if the wolf has combat advantage against the target, and the monsters have more ways to get that other than plain old flanking.
The text for “combat advantage” in the MM version says the dire wolf has CA against any target who has at least one other ally adjacent to it. No flanking required. This could be interpreted to mean that a dire wolf with a rider always has CA against any enemy adjacent to it! The MV version of this trait, named Pack Harrier, says it only works when the wolf has two or more allies adjacent to the enemy. So the rider still counts, but you need a second ally to get the bonus.
They also have a trait called Pack Hunter, which grants their rider combat advantage if an ally other than the mount is adjacent to the target. So if you go with the MV text, the rider would get CA whenever the wolf got it, and vice-versa.
I’m guessing that the MV version is the “correct” one in all aspects here. A wolf that got permanent combat advantage against everyone would be a little overpowered due to that knockdown effect on the bite.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
We have two sample encounters here:
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Level 3: 3 gray wolves, 2 hobgoblin archers, and 1 hobgoblin warcaster. Your standard hunting party.
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Level 5: 3 dire wolves, and 2 longtooth shifter hunters. A mounted hunting party.
Werewolves are also quite likely to be leading dire wolf packs, and Count Strahd in the original Ravenloft module quite famously commanded a literal army of dire wolves he could send after the PCs every night until they entered his castle.
Dire wolf-riding goblins are also a classic image, though the levels are a little mismatched as printed. It would be easy enough to level the goblins up or the dire wolves down, and it’s quite plausible for the Small goblins to be riding Medium gray wolves instead of the Large dire ones.
These days “you’re attacked by a pack of wolves while on the road” strikes me as a little uninspired, though I think they’re OK when used as muscle by sapient opposition.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Wight
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Wights have been in the game since its beginnings, part of the original Undead Power Ladder. Here, they are present only on the Monster Manual.
The Lore
I might have touched upon this before, but in the implied D&D setting mortal beings are composed of three main metaphysical “pieces”: the body, the soul, and the will. The will is also known by sages as the “animus”, and is the “glue” that holds body and soul together. This is also quite similar to Exalted’s division of the body, “higher soul” and “lower soul”.
What usually happens when someone dies is that the soul separates from the body, and the animus disintegrates. You get undead when something intereferes with this process and the animus sticks around, or when someone introduces an artificial animus into the equation via necromancy. What type of undead you get depends on the final configuration of post-mortem body, soul and animus.
When the soul departs but the animus sticks to the body, you get a wight. Wights are intelligent, since they retain the use of their brain-meats, but they’re not really the same person they were in life. In place of a soul they have this gaping void, which they are compelled to fill by slaying the living and drinking their life force. A wight doesn’t need to do this in order to keep existing, though, so they hang around for a long time in their haunts waiting for a victim to wander by.
Wights typically inhabit the places where they died, though they are not really bound to them. More ambitious wights might take over catacombs and crypts and go about finding victims (and treasure!) in a more proactive way. These can find themselves commanding lesser undead, or perhaps acting as lieutenants for more powerful villains.
The Numbers
Wights are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Undead keyword. As such they’re immune to disease and poison, and have tier-based necrotic resistance and radiant vulnerability. They also have darkvision.
Wights are famously able to drain the life energy of others with a touch. In previous editions this meant they drained levels (in AD&D) or inflicted “negative levels” (in 3e). Here this means they eat your healing surges.
While you can still get them back via a long rest, this does significantly impact your resources, which is a real bummer in those instances where you can’t just plop down and rest for six hours whenever the fancy strikes you.
Deathlock Wight
This one was either a necromancer in life, or learned how to be one after it died. It’s a Level 4 Controller with 54 HP and all standard wight traits. Its speed is 6.
A deathlock wight’s basic claw attack does necrotic damage, and causes the target to lose a healing surge. Their Grave Bolt (ranged 20 vs. Reflex) is a much better attack, dealing necrotic damage and immobilizing (save ends). Their magically-enhanced Horrific Visage (close blast 5 vs. Will; recharge 4-6) does untyped damage and pushes victims 3 squares.
Once per encounter they can Reanimate (Ranged 10; minor action) a fallen non-minion undead ally. The target stands back up with 25% of its HP.
The MM stat block for deathlock wights has pitifully low damage all around. Fixing this is a priority if you want to use them.
Wight
The standard model is a Level 5 Skirmisher with 62 HP and all standard wight traits. Its speed is 7.
The basic wight’s only attack are its life-draining claws, which do necrotic damage, eat a healing surge, and allow it to shift up to 3 squares on a hit. It’s simple, but the shift and the life-draining make it quite dangerous since it can reach your squishies and ruin their day.
Battle Wight
A wight with more formal combat training. It wears plate, and wields a sword and shield. It’s a level 9 Soldier with 98 HP and all standard wight traits, plus speed 5.
The battle wight has learned to channel its dark powers through the sword, and so its basic attack is a Souldraining Longsword that does necrotic damage, eats a healing surge and immobilizes (save ends). It can also attack at range with Soul Reaping (ranged 5 vs. Fortitude; recharge 5-6). This only affects immobilized targets, but deals high necrotic damage and heals the wight for 10 HP.
Battle Wight Commander
A smarter and more powerful version of the Battle Wight, this one is a Level 12 Soldier (Leader) with 106 HP and all wight traits. It has the same gear as the basic battle wight, and speed 5.
The commander’s Souldraining Longsword does everything the battle wight’s does, and also weakens on a hit. A save ends both the immobilization and the weakness. Soul Reaping gets upgraded to Soul Harvest (ranged 5 vs. fortitude; recharge 4-6) which works the same but heals both the commander and 2 undead allies within 10 squares.
Slaughter Wight
Much like the basic wight, this one is a monstrosity in rags that attacks with its claws. It’s just a whole lot stronger and tougher.
Slaughter wights are Level 18 Brutes with 182 HP, all standard wight traits, and speed 7. Their claws do necrotic damage and have a lot of riders: eat a healing surge, weaken (save ends), heal the wight for 15 HP, and a partrige in a pear tree.
When killed, these monsters emit a Death Wail (close burst 5 vs. Fortitude), which does necrotic damage to enemies in the area, and allows undead allies in the area to make a basic attack as a free action.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
We get several encounters here:
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Level 3: 1 deathlock wight, 3 zombies, and 6 zombie rotters.
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Level 11: 1 battle wight commander, 4 battle wights, 1 shadar-kai witch, 2 shadar-kai chainfighters.
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Level 18: 2 slaughter wights, 3 abyssal ghouls, 1 nabassu gargoyle.
Wights are a very distinctly D&D monster, but at the same time they kinda get lost amid all the other similar undead in the game. This might explain why they were left out of the Monster Vault.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Warforged
Copyright 2008 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Warforged are a 3e creation, first appearing as a playable option in the Eberron campaign setting. In 4e they would also become playable characters, but their first appearance was in the Monster Manual.
The Lore
The warforged lore given to us by the Monster Manual has been stripped of all Eberron-specific information, which means it’s extremely terse and generic.
Warforged are living constructs created by magic. The “living” part means they’re gifted with true sapience, and with souls. It also means they’re a little less tough than a golem, but they make up for that with their large numbers.
Warforged are created in magical factories called Creation Forges. They’re sexless and can’t reproduce in any other way. As their name implies, the original purpose of the warforged was to serve as an army. In peacetime, individual warforged often end up working as bodyguards and mercenaries for people who share their individual ideals and disposition.
In Eberron, the secret of building and operating creation forges belonged exclusively to House Cannith, who sold warforged armies to all five sides of the Last War but whose main customer was the nation of Cyre. The treaty that ended the War (signed after Cyre got swallowed by a magical disaster) freed all existing warforged from servitude, and I think it also tightly regulated their creation.
Most warforged PCs from Eberron are going to be veterans of the Last War, which is like a combination between our Hundred Years War and World War One. However, in the ruins of Cyre, a powerful warforged supremacist named the Lord of Blades controls a fully working creation forge and is using it to build an army.
Warforged in the 4e implied setting might have been alive to see the fall of Nerath. They could also have been built more recently by someone operating an Nerathian creation forge, or even assembled by hand by an isolated artificer.
The Numbers
Warforged are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Living Construct keyword. Monster Manual warforged have several signature traits: they get a +2 to saves against ongoing damage, they employ Battlefield Tactics that grant them a +1 bonus to melee attack if any ally is adjacen to the target, and they can use the Warforged Resolve encounter power as a minor action when bloodied to recover a healing surge’s worth of HP.
Playable Warforged would appear in the Eberron Player’s Guide: they’d get the save bonus against ongoing damage and a modified form of Warforged Resolve, along with a few other things.
Warforged Soldier
This is a Level 4 Soldier with 56 HP and all standard warforged traits. It wears plate, and wields a longsword and a shield. Its ground speed is 5, and it’s trained in Endurance and Intimidate.
The soldier’s basic (and only) attack is the longsword, which does average damage for its level and marks for a turn. Its Warforged Resolve heals it for 14 HP when used.
The warforged isn’t too different from a human fighter, but its racial traits give significantly more staying power. You can slap them onto any human stat block to get the warforged version. If you use them in a tight formation then most of them will get the +1 Battlefield Tactics bonus all the time when attacking targets directly in front of the formation.
Warforged Captain
This is a Level 6 Soldier (Leader) with 72 HP and all common warforged traits. Its speed is 5 due to armor and its Warforged Resolve heals it for 18 HP when used.
Captains fight with a Reach 2 glaive, which does average damage and marks for a turn. It can use this weapon to performa Tactical Switch maneuver (recharge 4-6), in which it makes a basic attack that also slides the target 1 square. If this hits, the captain or an ally within 10 squares can also shift 1 square.
Captains excel at fighting from the back row of that warforged soldier formation, since they have a reach weapon. Tactical Switch is good for disrupting enemy formations, or interrrupting flanking attempts by individual strikers.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
We have a single sample encounter: Level 4, three human guards, 1 warforged soldier, and 1 warforged captain. A mixed force that makes it look like warforged make up the command and elite in this particular army.
Mechanically, these Monster Manual warforged are very simple and present little in the way of exciting surprises other than the fact that they will. Not. Stay. Down. If I’m being honest the book might have done without them entirely.
However, I absolutely love the concept of warforged, both as player characters and as NPCs. I love them so much I adapted them to GURPS here. I understand why the first MM included these: the Eberron books were still a little ways away, and the authors might have felt its fans needed a little reassurance.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Vine Horror
Copyright 2012 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
One of the many plant monsters of D&D, I’m not sure where vine horrors first appeared. They look like a 3e thing but could have been in a supplement for an earlier edition. Here, they’re only on the Monster Manual.
The Lore
Like shambling mounds, vine horrors are created “naturally” through an unlikely sequence of events. If an evil person dies in an area touched by the Shadowfell, their blood might end up soaking the earth and infusing the local plant life, which animates as a new vine horror. They’re undead-adjacent, but not undead themselves.
Vine horrors are humanoid plant masses who bear a vague resemblance to the dead person whose blood gave them life. Some times they even display some of that person’s abilities: for example, a vine horror who rises from a wizard might be able to cast a few spells.
Personality-wise, they display human level intelligence and tend to be cruel serial killers. The books say they like to ambush and kill passing sapients, but doesn’t make any mention of them needing to do it. It would make sense if they needed to keep draining blood to live, but it also fits to say that a vine horror feeds on soil and sunlight just like any other plant and just kills people because it likes to.
The Numbers
Vine horrors are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Plant keyword. They have blindsight, a land speed of 6 with both swamp and forest walk, and a swim speed of 6.
A vine horror’s humanoid shape isn’t a constant - they’re Malleable enough to squeeze into any 1-inch or wider opening without slowing down at all. They have claws, and can also partially uncoil to strike their victims with vines whose exact effects vary by stat block.
Vine Horror
The basic model is a Level 5 Controller with 67 HP. Aside from its basic claws, it can use its Vicious Vines once per encounter. This Close Burst 5 vs. Reflex restrains and does 10 ongoing damage on a hit (save ends both).
Its Stealth training, varied movement modes and malleability ensure the horror will be a in a good position to use Vicious Vines as a fight-opener. After that, it and its buddies can go to town on the weakened party.
Vine Horror Spellfiend
An example of a wizard-derived horror who can cast some spells. It’s Level 7 Artillery and has 65 HP. It can only use claws in melee, but has a lot of ranged options.
Shock Orb (ranged 10 vs. Reflex) does lightning damage. Lashing Vine of Dread (ranged 5 vs. Reflex; fear) does physical damage and pushes the target 5 squares on a hit. Caustic Cloud (area burst 1 within 10 vs. Fortitude) does immediate and ongoing acid damage, and also blinds (save ends both).
Looks like spellfiends pair wonderfully with shambling mounds, since their at-will lightning powers can heal the mounds. They can also use their fear vines to herd the party into position for Caustic Cloud, a process that’s a lot quicker if you have a pair of spellfiends in the encounter group instead of just one.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
The book does mention the possible shambling mound partnerships, but the example encounter it gives is a little less synergistic: Level 9, 2 spellfiends, 1 bog hag, and 2 trolls. A clever party might be able to turn those caustic clouds to their advantage.
Story-wise vine horrors don’t do much for me. They’re just one creepy plant monster among many others. Mechanically, I’d like to see how an encounter featuring spellfiends and shambling mounds would go.
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Let's Read the 4e Monster Manual/Vault: Vampire
Copyright 2012 Wizards of the Coast This article is part of a series! Click here to see the other entries.
Legend has it that vampires were an even earlier addition to D&D than the cleric class - the first cleric was designed specifically to counter Sir Fang, a vampire PC. As monsters, they were the second most powerful rung in the Undead Power Ladder, below liches. As expected of a creature with such a long history, they are present in both the Monster Manual and the Monster Vault.
The Lore
Vampires in media and folklore are an incredibly varied lot. Each source has a slightly different type of vampire than the rest, including D&D.
As the Monster Vault says, vampires “rule the night”. They’re powerful sapient undead with an insatiable hunger for the blood of the living, which gives them a big incentive to interact with the living often. A lich will stay in its lair and perform experiments for years on end. A ghoul is content to squat in its hole and brood hungrily until someone wanders by. A vampire has to hunt. A particularly ambitious vampire will get itself a “flock” to rule over, and extract blood as tribute.
I imagine that the scholars who study the subject always argue over whether a vampire is the same person it was in life. They retain their memories and intelligence, and they answer to the same name; however, the baroque curse that propels them also makes them wholly evil, no matter what they were like when alive. And while it also imbues them with great and terrible power, it takes away some of the abilities they had in life.
There are as many superstitions surrounding vampires in D&D’s implied setting as there are in the real world, and very few people know which are true and which are not. You know all of them: garlic, running water, fear of holy symbols, and so on. Aside from a vulnerability to sunlight (and other radiant damage, to a lesser extent), most of these are fake. Perhaps these falsehoods are even spread by the vampires themselves. The good news is that you can still fight and even kill them with the usual adventurer arsenal of weapons and magic, it’s just really hard.
The other true vampire fact is that they’re tied to their grave or place of death. Vampires need to rest during the day, and they must do so either inside their coffins or crypts, or under the earth of the place where they died if they didn’t get a formal burial. A vampire who’s prevented from resting in this way will become less and less rational as the days pass, until it enters a self-destructive feeding frenzy that lasts until it’s either slain or finally manages to get some shuteye.
All of the above applies to what Fourth Edition calls vampire lords, which are the typical sophisticated vampires of editions past. You also have vampire spawn, which tend to be weaker and have a personality that can be summed up as “angry and snarly”. Spawn are created when a vampire spawn drains someone dry - the corpse rises a day later as a spawn under the complete control of its sire. A victim incapacitated by blood drain but not killed will enter a coma and rise as a spawn in the same way.
Creating another vampire lord requires an elaborate magic ritual. This ritual is named “Dark Gift of the Undying”, and must be performed by a vampire lord on a mortal victim. There’s an exchange of blood before the victim is killed, and then the corpse must be buried and numerous prayers and invocations to Orcus recited over it. A day later, the victim will rise as a new vampire lord. This process is draining for the sire, so it’s not done lightly. The MV adds that it’s also possible, but rare, for someone who would rise as a spawn to become a full vampire instead.
In both cases, the turning can be prevented with a casting of Raise Dead before that one-day interval has elapsed. If the victim is merely comatose instead of dead, Remove Affliction will also work to prevent the transformation and allow the victim to be healed normally.
The concept of vampire player characters has enjoyed enduring popularity ever since a certain other game introduced it in the early 90’s. So when Heroes of Shadow came out late in Fourth Edition it added like three or four different ways to play a PC who could call themselves a vampire (including a full Vampire class). Unlike the Monster Manual/Monster Vault varieties, these didn’t have to be evil. I’d be inclined to say the Orcus-worshipping ritual described here only produces evil vampires, so the non-evil ones in your setting are likely to have other origins.
The Numbers
Monster Manual Vampires are built using templates, in a way similar to death knights and liches. By the time of the monster vault the concept of rigid monster templates had been dropped, so vampires there are built from scratch following similar guidelines.
Both types of vampire are Medium Natural Humanoids with the Undead keyword. They have Darkvision and the usual undead traits: immunity to disease and poison and resistance to necrotic damage (10). Most also have some vulnerability to radiant damage as well. They also tend to have a high running speed, and a climb speed with Spider Climb.
I think it’s fun to point out that back in the AD&D days, vampires didn’t actually drink blood, or even bite. Instead, they drained your life energy by punching you in the face. Around the time the Ravenloft setting became popular, they published a variant that behaved more like you’d expect from a horror movie vampire.
Here, the Monster Manual vampires do explicitly drain your blood, but this isn’t described as a bite in their stat block. The Monster Vault vampires eliminate this remaining ambiguity, and have bite attacks.
Vampire Spawn Fleshripper (Monster Manual)
These Level 5 Minion Skirmishers are fairly basic. They have the usual undead immunities and resistances, darkvision, a speed of 7, and a climb speed of 4. They attack with a claw that does necrotic damage, with a small damage bonus against bloodied targets.
They’re also Destroyed by Sunlight: a spawn that starts its turn in sunlight can only perform a single move action that turn. If this isn’t enough to get them out of the light, they are destroyed at the end of that same turn. So you get a dramatic slow death out of them instead of having them pop like soap bubbles.
The MM also has a Vampire Spawn Bloodhunter which is level 10 and exactly the same with bigger numbers.
Elder Vampire Spawn (Monster Vault)
This Level 10 Minion Soldier is a little more interesting than the MM spawns. It has everything they have, but its attacks are a little different.
The claw does physical damage and grabs on a hit (escape DC 18). The spawn can then bite the grabbed victim. A hit does more damage than the claw and dazes the target until the grab ends - and bites against a dazed target hit automatically. So after the first bite hits, there’s no need to make another attack roll for a while.
Vampire Night Witch (Monster Vault)
As a Monster Vault vampire, the Night Witch is built from scratch and doesn’t use the template rules. It’s a Level 10 Controller with 98 HP and all common vampire traits, plus Vulnerable 5 Radiant.
Like all non-minion vampires, the night witch is Burned by Sunlight, taking 5 radiant damage whenever she starts her turn exposed to direct sunlight. Does the vulnerability get added on top of this?
The night witch fights with Claws that also slide the target 3 squares on a hit. She can also cast a Dream Lure (ranged 5 vs. Will) to do psychic damage at range, daze the target, and pull them 3 squares. Against dazed or similarly impaired targets (stunned, unconscious, dominated) she can bite, which does high physical damage and heals her for 15 HP on a hit.
Once per encounter, when the night witch takes damage while bloodied, she can vanish into shadow, becoming invisible until the end of the encounter or until she attacks. This is a nice escape hatch and can allow the night witch to be a recurring opponent.
Vampire Lord (Monster Manual)
Built using the template rules, this is a Level 11 Elite Lurker with 186 HP who used to be a human rogue. It has all the vampire traits mentioned in the Numbers intro, plus Vulnerable 10 Radiant and Regeneration 10 that doesn’t work while the vampire is exposed to direct sunlight. Sunlight exposure doesn’t harm it further than this. Its speed is 8, and it has Spider Climb 4.
This blood-sucking rogue deals extra damage with all of his attacks when he has combat advantage. He fights with a short sword, and what is probably a printing error has also given him a spiked chain. He also has a couple of rogue powers; Deft Strike allows him to move up to 2 squares and make a melee basic attack. Imperiling Strike is an encounter power that does a bit more damage than the basic sword and inflicts a -3 penalty to all of the target’s defenses for a turn.
After that come the template powers. Blood Drain (melee 1 vs. Fortitude) requires combat advantage, does more damage than any of the “rogue” attacks, and heals the vampire for 46 HP. It recharges whenever an adjacent creature becomes bloodied. Dominating Gaze (ranged 5 vs. Will) does no damage but dominates on a hit, (save at -2 ends). As an after-effect, the target is dazed (save ends). Fortunately only one creature can be dominated at a time. And finally, Mist Form is an encounter power that does what the name implies. In mist form, the vampire is insubstantial and has a fly speed of 12, but can’t attack. It lasts for 1 hour or until the vampire ends the effect as a minor action, so it’s another “escape hatch” power.
Any vampire built using the template is going to have all three powers in the preceding paragraph. This one also has a Second Wind that works like the player version, and recovers 46 HP.
Master Vampire (Monster Vault)
A Level 12 Lurker with 98 HP, this monster follows the same concept as the Vampire Lord. It has all standard vampire traits, with no radiant vulnerability.
Of course, it’s still a vampire and is still Burned by Sunlight, taking 10 damage on any turn it starts exposed to it. It also has Regeneration 10, which shuts down for a turn if the vampire takes radiant damage (from sunlight or any other source).
The master vampire fights with claws like a proper monster, and has a Dominating Gaze (ranged 5 vs. will) that dominates for a turn. Its bite is like that of the Night Witch but heals it for 20 HP instead of 15.
It has the Vampire Lord’s Mist Form power, and it can also turn into a Cloud of Bats (though not at the same time). That last ability is at-will, and works very similarly to Mist Form with the following differences: it only lasts for a turn, the fly speed is only 8, and the vampire gains a +5 bonus to Stealth in this form. This is clearly what it uses to “lurk”, though it doesn’t gain extra bonuses beyond CA when it attacks from hiding.
Sample Encounters and Final Impressions
The sample encounter is level 12 and has 1 vampire lord along with an entire undead retinue: 1 battle wight commander, 3 battle wights, and 6 vampire spawn bloodhunters.
I like vampires as monsters. Looks like the vampire lord/master vampire is tough to put down even in its Monster Vault incarnation, where it has both Regeneration and a draining bite. It’s the MM variant that easily crosses over into “annoying” territory, since Blood Drain heals a lot more and it has Second Wind.
5e makes a huuuge deal out of Count Strahd, the game’s Dracula expy, but in his original incarnation he was explicitly described as a vampire who was only a bit more powerful and clever than what’s average for these monsters. You could easily stat him up in 4e by making him an Elite or Solo Controller with the Vampire Master’s gaze, bite, and transformation powers, plus a strong claw/slam attack and some necromancy-themed powers or rituals. He should be part of an encounter of the party’s level +3 or +4, suitable as a final boss battle.
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