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Well so far we have Hexblade, Black Guard, Necromancer, and now Vampire.

That is right. Vampire as class, not race. This is very different than 3/3.5but not so different from monster races in earlier editions.

At first it seemed a bit odd but the more I thought about it the more it makes sense. This is playing off the classic vampire and not just treating it like a virus you give to seasoned adventurers. What class was Dracula? Vampire. What class is LeStrade? Vampire. I think the idea is that, much like how both those characters started as Vampires in the stories so does your character; you fill in the background as to how and when you become a vampire. At level 1 you are still learning your powers and as you level you gain greater mastery. Walking on walls, calling swarms, hypnotizing people, turning into fog...all sorts of fun stuff. I don't know if will work out but it could be a fun experiment. I'm sure when they release more info than just that it is a class it will make more sense.

3 and 3.5 had the 'third system' of templates that could be applied, but applying them to characters always seemed a bit potentially unbalancing. Doing it as a class does seem an interesting route.

How would playing as a Half Demon/half angel/half dragon Fighter/mage/gunslinger/pop tart that 3.5 would allow unbalancing?

Just because 3.5 had options doesn't mean it was broken. Any DM who allowed that was a moron. Granted it could get silly very quickly if one decided to not pay any attention to the characters and you played with douchebags.

I think this is a very interesting idea, and from a role-playing physics standpoint it "makes sense." I'm curious if they'll have options to pick from to make significantly different genres of vampires since people seem to get so picky that their flavor is best.

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Just because 3.5 had options doesn't mean it was broken.

I know, it was a joke. Though that is an odd way to phrase it; all of the editions had options.

My bad I also should have had the word "many" somewhere in there XD

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Just because 3.5 had options doesn't mean it was broken. Any DM who allowed that was a moron. Granted it could get silly very quickly if one decided to not pay any attention to the characters and you played with douchebags.

The bad side of this philosophy is that it means a lot more work for the GM. The GM already has to keep track of a bunch of NPCs (And 3.0 was such that a monster was not really mechanically different from a player character, so potentially a lot of complications) and handle the overall story. Needing to review templates for new characters was yet another burden.

4.0 has often been said to be about 'kick-in-the-door dungeon crawls' due to being very fast character generation (Pick 1 from column A, 1 from column B, etc.) but it feels like it can also be surprisingly good for storyteller GMs because it keeps the RP and the tactical so separate.

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:I think this is a very interesting idea, and from a role-playing physics standpoint it "makes sense." I'm curious if they'll have options to pick from to make significantly different genres of vampires since people seem to get so picky that their flavor is best.

Since it's a class, I'd hope they make the various class paths (or whatever the proper terminology is) follow the various standard Vampire cliches. much as WHFB does for the vampire bloodlines... (At least in the older Army Book I have for them..)

Vampire is a class?

AWESOME! This is a very compelling development and despite having small interest in playing 4E I will probably buy this book. Very good to hear!

I guess the important thing to consider is just how 'iconic' classes are meant to be in 4th edition. 3.0 was much more about multi-classing, and most 'power builds' seem to involve 2-3 classes, often even before prestige classes.

In 4.0, being a Fighter (or Weaponmaster or whatever it's called) is much more of a 'big deal' than even last edition (which had some Expert Classes for NPCs, including at least some sort of generic 'warrior').

Being a Fighter is a big deal, just like being a Wizard or Paladin or whatever. Obtaining a character class is a life-changing-event, and you don't stop being your Class, ever, even if you're doing something else. Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies are just extensions of this.

In this context, Vampire as a class makes a reasonable amount of sense. Depending on how it's written, I don't know if it would make sense in all campaigns, but it seems like a perfect fit for those going for a game where undead are common and people have a tolerance for weirdness.

[Insert obligatory Twilight joke about sparkly vampires here]


I've never had any real interest in D&D, but the addition of classes like Vampire certainly make the game more than what you'd expect it to be about.

I'm a bit curious how they'll bring in the traditional vampiric weaknesses. Vulnerability to Radiant is pretty easy to handle (Maybe even invert the common resistance rules so it scales a bit as the Vampire levels) but will they put in some sort of sun allergy? Problems crossing running water?

Update: Apparently after explicitly denying it, WotC are now changing their story and Assassin will be in Heroes of Shadow instead of staying a DDi exclusive.

One theory about Vampire is that it was designed for the now shelved Ravenloft Campaign setting for 4e. They aren't happy with it yet and so are putting it on hiatus for the time being.

Now shelved??? Wow, bad news to offset the good . . .