Vampire Slayer
After days of tracking, Duffy had finally located the vampire’s place of rest. She readied a stake as she pried off the lid of the coffin, only to find it empty. “Now, now, you didn’t expect it to be that easy, did you?”, sneered a voice behind her. Duffy smiled, gripping the stake, “On the contrary, I was hoping you’d be awake…”
Duffy, Vampire Slayer
Vampire slayers are rangers who wander remote forests, haunted hills, and fog-bound moors, protecting the common folk of farming villages and cabins at the edge of civilized lands from the creatures of the night. Moving unseen through woodlands, your specialized training allows you to hunt vampires, ghouls, werewolves, and other monsters that prey on the innocent. Although you are most at home in the wilderness, as your skills improve, your attention might turn to older vampires that rule entire baronies, or that command dark keeps and sprawling manors closer to civilization.
Building a Vampire Slayer
Vampire slayers, as their name suggests, are particularly skilled at killing vampires. But that expertise extends to other undead as well, as illustrated by their abilities:
Favored Enemy becomes undead, but you can also choose hags or lycanthropes from the standard list when selecting additional favored enemies.
Empowered Strike allows you to bypass resistance to nonmagical damage when fighting undead and lycanthropes once per turn, or if you are using a magical weapon, allows you to deal additional damage instead.
Ranger’s Resilience grants you advantage on saving throws against paralysis and effects that reduce your hit point maximum, often used by the undead.
Straight Through the Heart lets you strike at your favored enemy’s most vulnerable spot, dealing a massive blow…assuming you can get close enough.
With these abilities, you will become the bane of any undead or lycanthropic foes that the party might face. Empowered Strike is particularly powerful for low-level characters who may not yet have access to magical weapons. And Ranger’s Resilience could make the difference between life and death (or undeath), when facing the paralyzing claws of a ghoul or the life draining capabilities of a wraith.
As with all classes, any race is suitable for playing a Vampire Slayer, certain races may mesh particularly well with their capabilities. Spindrift Dwarves’ ability to walk on water could come in handy when battling vampires, who are particularly vulnerable to running water, and a clever player might be able to use this ability to lure an unsuspecting vampire to their doom. The natural resistance to magic enjoyed by both Shoal Gnomes and Wyrd Gnomes, when combined with Ranger’s Resilience, makes for an especially hardy vampire hunter, able to shrug off all sorts of magical effects.
Roleplaying Tips
While some other rangers may call the undead their favored foe, Vampire Slayers likely have a personal vendetta for why they specifically focused on vampires, those most cunning and deadly of the undead. Perhaps a loved one of theirs was killed by a vampire, or worse, turned into one themselves. If the latter, ask yourself how your character might deal with this lost loved one, when face to face with their new vampiric nature. Would you play a merciful ranger, incapacitating the vampire until you could find a way to reverse the transformation, or would you grit your teeth and drive a stake through their heart? Either way, when playing a Vampire Slayer, you are likely someone accustomed to hunting at night, often the first to volunteer to stay on watch, and never far from your weapon. You might look upon strangers in the night with suspicion, carefully looking for any signs that they might be a vampire in disguise, or possessed by a ghost. When choosing a background, the first that comes to mind is likely a hunter, but your particular specialty could have led you to become a recluse or an outlander, hunting down vampires, lycanthropes, or hags in the wilderness. You might also be a darkling, fighting the darkness within you by vanquishing evil wherever you can find it. Whatever your background, consider asking yourself what brought you to seek out the aid of an adventuring party, whether it be for love, greed, or a common enemy, and use that to inspire your roleplaying.
How to Access this Content
The Vampire Slayer was created by our partners at Kobold Press, and it is one of the many subclasses available to subscribers, along with others like the Soulspy or the College of Entropy, as well as races such as the Shade or Spindrift Dwarf. Build your own Vampire Slayer and tell us about it in the comments below or on any of our social channels. Join us on on Discord, Reddit or Facebook to meet other members of the community and take your game to the next level, or follow us on Twitter @shardtabletop for regular updates.
