Vampires? Ideas wanted.

By charlest, in WFRP Gamemasters

So, the PC's will be encountering a Strigoi vampire soon and my problem is that I've never played Warhammer RP (Have played WFB before) until I started GMing for my group several weeks ago.

Besides being able to turn into a bat, what unique actions should a Strigoi vampire possess? If anyone cares this is for the 10,000 Thrones campaign. I turned back the timeline and used it as a massive event leading up to my own take on the Storm of Chaos.

In the older vampire counts book I have, the only 'active' ability of the Strigoi is " Summon Ghouls", which doesn't really translate into WFRP, save for the vampire being surrounded and served by ghouls.

That said, Curse of the Revenant ( So strong is the desire for some to continue living that they defy death. But this has a price the eternal thirst for the blood of the living , gives the 'Regeneration' special rule in the army book) and Infinite Hatred (give re-rolls to failed to-hit rolls in the book) could be translated into actions, as well as some undead-bolstering powers in lieu of detailed necromancy spells. A Strigoi should also have all the powers of the Crypt Ghoul('No Escape, No Hope' and 'Seized with Bloodlust').

The other bloodline powers in the army book make Strigoi even more powerful physically than other vampires. And let it turn into a bat (I could've sworn that was a von-carstein power).

I'd personally use the Crypt Ghoul as a base line for stats and actions and add features as appropriate. As Ogremindes said, Regeneration (from the Troll rules) is a good place to start. Also, I'd probably use the WFB stat line to improve the Ghoul to: Str 5 (possibly 6 as Strigois had the potential for Iron Sinews, To 4, Ag 6, WP 7 and leave Int and Fel as they are.

Rather than giving a Strigoi the ability to turn into a Bat, I'd probably give it wings instead which grant it the Flight rule and the Strafing Talon Strike from the Daemons page in ToA.

In terms of equipment, I'd treat their claws as being armed with daggers in both hands and their leathery hide as having Soak 1.

That way you've got a fast, strong, frightening, flying, regenerating beastie with three special actions. It should provide a pretty good challenge to your group, but not be impossible to take down as it's vulnerable to lots of damage at once. Dealing with the fact that it can fly away to regenerate should prove a tactical quandry.

Thanks for the input here guys. Exactly the stuff I was looking for.

I think I will use the Ghoul stats and modify. The Encounter will be somewhat brief as the Vampire will flee once seriously threatened.

Also it would appear in the newer fluff that the Strigoi have been "run out" of the vampire clans. They have seem to become more mindless beasts than what they were, but it is just kinda hinted at more than written at great lengths about. So you could have it sorta be like a Hulk or Dr. Jeckel type of situation.

Ogremindes said:

The other bloodline powers in the army book make Strigoi even more powerful physically than other vampires. And let it turn into a bat (I could've sworn that was a von-carstein power).

Bat Form isn't a standard Strigoi Blood Gift, it just happens that the Drak Wald Strigoi in TTT all have Bat Form because they're descendant from the same progenitor. This will be explained in the forthcoming TTT Expansion #2 and eventually elaborated further in Expansion #3.

With campaign are you referring too? Could you post a link.

morganj said:

With campaign are you referring too? Could you post a link.

The Thousand Thrones is a campaign for 2nd edition, so I'm not sure whether it's being sold anymore. It would require a fair bit of modifications to run in v3.