I've tossing around a new Vampire Character in my head, but I can't decide what special abilities to give him and how many? I wanted to know what others thought and what you would suggest.

So far the stats are;

Strength- 3

Craft- 3

Lives- 4

Fate- 3

Now for the special abilities I am undecided, but I do know there will be at least three of them! Here is my list of possible Vampire special abilities;

When you attack another character, you may choose to make the attack psychic combat. You may not do this when you are attacked by another character.

You may hypnotize one follower to follow you instead from a charcater you land on except for the maiden, princess and unicorn.

Whenever you defeat another character in battle and choose to take one of his lives, add it to your own.

You may drain the blood from one of your followers to heal one life. The follower's spirit then drifts off to the discard pile.

You do not loose any lives on the Vampire castles space.Or;

you loose one less life than what is rolled. ex. 1-2 no loss, 3-4 one life, 5-6 2 lives?

When you kill an enemy in battle, you may raise it from the dead and keep it as a follower instead of a trophy. You may have one of your raised followers add it's strength to yours for one battle, after which it disintegrates to the discard pile. You may only use one raised follower per battle.

Most of these are taken from other characters but they make sense for a Vampire to have. WHich ones should I use or does anyone have an ability suggestion completly different?

Looking forward to reading the posts,

Thanks,

Vince

Vampire character actually exist in Talisman 2nd Edition, to be more exact from only in Polish expansion to Magia i Miecz (Polish name for Talisman) - Jaskinia (The Cave):

Anyway, tell me, why Your Vampire cannot hypnotize Maiden, or Princess (but can Prince) or Unicorn, but can St. Josephine? I would remove the part about Followers.

Thanks for the post Nemomon! The part about hypnotizing another charaster's followers is taken from the Sorceress's special ability to take another character's follower except for; maiden, princess and unicorn. I wanted to keep the Vampire's special abilities in line with the other characters because I was worried about making the Vampire too powerfull. I now realize that that is not the case and I was wrong. I did think of starting the Vampire out with one spell, but I thought that being able to attack another character with psychic combat would be better. I really like that second edition card! I will use it as is.

Thanks alot Nemomon and I really appreciate it!!

Obviously, refer as above to the Vampire as written.

Personally, if I had to do it from scratch, I would do…

ST-4
CR-4
Life-6
Fate-1

Evil. Starts at the Graveyard.

Every single Turn, you lose a Life, unless you fed (see below).

If you win in battle or psychic combat against any Creature or Player, you may feed on them Heal to Full or Gain a Life (Vampire’s choice) if you take a Life.

You may drain one of your followers or a stranger (discard) before the latter meets you. Feed on them to Heal to Full or Gain a Life (Vampire’s choice).

In Vampire Tower, GAIN the amount of lives rolled.

Lose D6 Lives in any space where you can pray except the Graveyard.

Of course, this is with, like, 10 minutes of thought, not necessarily really balanced. But I wanted a superior character (hence the 4/4 starting stats) but I wanted the “pressure to feed” of vampires, hence the ‘lose 1 Life per turn”.

The Chapel / Temple thing is the closest thing to holy item vulnerability I could get. If there was more room on a card, I’d put in “Can only cross the Storm River at the Sentinel. Cannot use a Raft, Tavern Ferry, etc…” “You cannot attack a character with the Cross.” “If you win a battle or psychic combat against another character, you can Mesmerize one of their followers” "You may SIRE any Follower into becoming a vampire. That follower adds +1 in Battle or Psychic Combat. However, that follower can no longer be fed on." and so on. But a card with 4pt fonts to put all the folklore stuff… would be too much.

You are gonna to hate me..

Losing a life mechanics was in The Cave expansion as well. While I like the Morlok itself (and only I), he was dying very quick... I'm playing with him in my newest 4th Revised Edition, and he is a little better but again not the best. Losing a life is very painful for a player, and even 4/4 stats are not making him better. If he will not draw anything good under 6 turns, he is dying. On CoC as well. He basically has no possibility to gain more life, so at least he would be alive for a little more turns. In Inner Region that means instant death for him. Additionaly, he really needs something, which will increase his Life value. Maybe he would be collecting trophy for a Life gaining, eventually increasing Life value?

Btw, I made a lot of Adventure cards with a 3.3pt font size, and they are even readable after printing.

The Morlock doesn't really make sense for the inspiration taken from the H.G. Wells Time Machine . He should essentially operate more like the Troll with some of the vampire thrown in. They were after all not very intelligent and more instinctual (not the same as Craft).

Strength 5
Craft 1
Lives 5
Fate 1
Alignment: Evil
Starting Space: Chasm

• You may not have Followers, though you may eat (discard) any that you draw or find to gain 1 Life.
• If you defeat another character, you may eat one of its Follower instead of choosing any standard victory option.
• You may eat any 7 Strength points of Enemy Trophies to heal 1 Life.
• Your tough hide functions like armor. If you are defeated in Battle and have just lost a Life, roll a die; on a 6 you did not lose a LIfe but still lost the Battle. You may still make this roll even if you have Armour and use it as well.
• You may add 1 to any die roll in the Crags, Chasm, or Mines.

I really like all of the points being made here! Espacially the Morlock character. Really good write-up for an alternative Morlock JCHendee!

Nemomon, would you happen to have cards for the Samarai, Ninja, and Minotaur characters?

JC Hendee :

Your Character is nice, however I would change the text of 3rd ability. Even if Your Morlok starts with high Strength value, I rather doubt, if any player would like to spend 7 S trophy just for healing 1 Life. For gaining it - maybe, but not for healing. I would change it from 7 points to 5. Also, there is an Enemy in the Cave Expansion named Morlok:

_

First card is a translation (but weak, more below) of it, second card is a copy of it from Magia i Miecz, and the third is a copy from Magiczny Miecz.

Second ability is well translated, only the first is not. And Morlok's type. Polish MiM (whole, not only The Cave) has/had a lot, more than Spirits, Monsters and possibly even Dragons combined, of Enemy-Enemy cards, so basically Enemies without a type. Translator however made him as Monster...

As for the first ability, after losing a battle we are not losing all of our Life. We are keep battling him until we will lose all the life or we will defeat Morlok.

Wulfher :

Most (but not all though) of Characters are more or less same as their English version except of an art-image.

Ninja:

As an addition, Polish version of 3rd ability has a note, that we must put the cards face down on the space. Polish 5th Ability don't have the last sentence: "If you win you may choose..."

Samurai:

Polish Samurai is a little different than English.

1: He also can use his bow against Stranger cards, not only Characters and Enemies. Of course Stranger cards has no Strength, so they were automatically killed (others played as Samuurai cannot fire his bow against Stranger cards as they don't have Strength). Also Polish version didn't had a note that we cannot take the Enemy as a trophy - just a text that Enemy is discarded to the discard pile.

2: If Samurai won the "fight" (Polish version don't specify if is it battle or psychic combat), opposing Character may not do anything in his next turn (so basically he is losing that turn).

Minotaur is exactly same as English card (even art-image is same (that happened only to the City Characters and even that is not very true as Master Thief became cutted...)).

I did a vampire character. I think its in my first expansion (see my website or Talisman Island).

She basically healed 1 Life when she killed a creature or took a life from a character. She had some other basic Vampiric powers but that was really it. You may want to check it out?

Nemomon said:

I could see the 5 to 1, or even lower, but gaining Lives should be tougher than healing, always. Perhaps if the 7 to 1 is kept, an inverse would be better... heal upon eating followers and gain upon sacrificing enemies. How does that sound?

As to what players now would play, I am aware of this, though that it is based on more new characters that have been pumped up way too much. This happened in each edition to the point where many of the base characters fell by the wayside as players were looking for more advantages to bypass working for the win. I have very little sympathy in that area, but of course a shared contribution should appeal to as many as possible.

Oh, and i would modify a number of things on the Ninja, most specifically that only its Starting Craft value is deducted from an opponents roll on secret strike.

And if anyone would like these turned into 4ER cards, I can probably find updated illustrations for most of them.

Here is my take on a possible 4ER Ninja

Strength 3
Craft 3
Lives 4
Fate 2
Alignment: Evil
Starting: Forest

1. If you have Followers of any kind, you may not use any Special Ability.
2. You may choose to evade Characters or Enemy and Stranger Adventure cards in the Outer or Middle region by rolling a die below you Craft.
3. You may make a secret strike in the Outer or Middle region when you attack a Character or Enemy in Battle. You may not do so when you are attacked, including an Enemy card just drawn or any creature generated by a board space or other card. Battle is resolved normally, but your opponent subtracts your Starting Craft value from its total. If you win, you may only take a Life.

...or you could just use the one that greets you as you open a new Character card in the Talisman extension for Strange Eons!

Well, slap me... there you have it from Jon. Here's my take on the Samurai (including correcting a longstanding error that should have never happened).

Strength 4
Craft 2
Lives 4
Fate 3
Alignment: Good

[NOTE: Personally, missle weapons have never been handled correctly in Talisman. Space to space firing is against all forms of interpretation for the layout of the land... and 3 spaces is excessive.]

1. You begin the game with a bow and 5 arrows; place 5 tokens on this card. Once an arrow is fired, discard a token. You may purchase upto 5 arrows for 1G at the Blacksmith; you may carry no more than 5.
2. Instead of movement, you may fire your bow at a Character or face-up Strength-based Enemy upto 2 spaces away in the same Region (Outer or Middle only). Battle is resolved normally, except that you use your Craft instead of your Strength. If you win, the target Enemy is discarded and you gain no trophy, or the target Character loses 1 life.
3. You may use Jiu-Jitsu when you attack another Character, but not when one attacks you. Use your Craft instead of your Strength in Battle. If win, you forfeit any reward, but your opponent is stunned, loses 1 spell, and must choose when to miss a turn before regaining use of spells or any special abilities (including drawing a spell).

NOTE: Talisman does not have any equivalent for the rule of laws and societal codes of conduct. Those governing samurai are very strict and closest equivalent is GOOD, not neutral (which doesn't fit even by Talisman's standards). Someone obviously mistook a ronin ("wave man") for a standard samurai, and even that didn't necessarily reclassify alignment.

NOTE: Jiu-Jutsu ("the art of softness") is the unarmed (and sometimes armed) art of the samurai... not Karate. By its name and focus, it is much more mental than most Battle skills, hence that Craft would be a better choice for its basis.

I may slap together a card for this one sometime today, since Jon already has one for the Ninja.

There is so much great material here for use in my games! Thanks for all of the posts guys! I began this post talking about creating a new Vampire character for my Talisman games and instead I ended up with 4 new characters!

Thanks again

I would choose for the third edition vampire with a little twist.

-When you attack another character, you may choose to make the attack psychic combat. You may not do this when you are attacked by another character.

-Whenever you defeat another character in battle or psychic combat, and choose to take one of his lives, add it to your own.

- You may drain the life-force of your followers. To do this, discard the follower and you gain a life.

- When you defeat a monster, you may raise it from the dead. The monster becomes your follower,
and add it's strength to yours for one battle. It will disintegrates, but you may keep it as a trophy as proof that you defeat it once.

- You are always evil. Ignore all effects that change your alignment.

Hey V... The 3E vampire your quoting, if the same, violates one of the standards of all other characters. When a defeated Enemy is raised, subdued, whatever to gain its full Strength for one combat, its trophy is always forfeited for that benefit. I see no reason why the Vampire should get this exception.

Here is my take on the Samurai with a little further refinement and simplification based on my previous post. You can download an archive with print resolution version and a matching token HERE .

Hi JC,

I know that other characters don't have this sort of ability.

This is the problem with trophy 's.

I don't like the ability from the ghoul, and his ability is a waste..

I was seeking for a option to get both points for level up and making the enemy a follower. ( same as third edition)

Otherwise, the vampire can better skip that ability..

----------

I think that i would delete that ability, and add the hypnotize ability to the vampire.

- Instead of attacking another character, you can hypnotize)bite?) one of his followers, and you can take the follower.

Well, I can understand... but I've always been of a mind that an excessive advantage (even temporary) should not be compounded with a gain. Most other characters gain for defeating an Enemy through exchanges for token. Those that can use a defeated Enemy for a greater gain later should have to pay for it. If one character defeats a Strength 4 Bandit, then later uses it to take down something even larger, why should it get to keep both when others don't? Better that its other unique abilities are modified than to breach standard adherred to among other characters. Even the ridiculously overpowered Orge Chieftain has to forfeit the gain of trophies to use acquired enemies.

Hypnotize is better, though one might twist it about a different way. Perhaps if he defeats an adventurer in Psychic Combat, he may choose to kill a Follower (and gain a Life) instead of taking a Life from his opponent. I'm not keen on automatic abilities any more than overpowered characters. Adventurers should have to DO something and take a risk if they are to gain something AND hobble another adventure. Anything else is just cowardly and lacks guts... too much of that already in the PVP vs CVC slant of the game.

But as always, when it comes to custom made characters or retro refits, do what's going to make you happy. You bought the game, and now its all yours.

And there's nothing wrong with more than one variation of character based on differing tastes.

JCHendee said:

It was just a idea, but you are right, that it is not fair vs other characters who don't get experience+enemy follower (as the ghoul)

I know that you can keep it, to use it against a stronger enemy, but i don't like this mechanic. Especially, if the follower will disintegrate..

Luckily, the Minstrel is not the same. those animals will stay with him as long as he want..( i like that.)

-

Anyway, this are some idea's for (wulfher), so i hope he will like it.

Great Samarai card JC! Thanks. Heres a thought I just had; if the Samarai has the ability to use a bow to attack enemies and characters two spaces away, then wouldn't this ability also be given to other characters such as the Elf and a Ranger character, but especially the Elf? When I add the Samarai to my games, I am going to seriously consider giving the same ability to the Elf.

Velhart, thanks for the input! Your Vampire is pretty much what I had in mind to begin with, but I really like that second ed. Vampire!

Wulfher said:

oke.

I would only add the psychic attack ability and that he is always evil ( for 4th revised edition)

It would be weird if the vampire change to good and is healing his lives at the chapel...( i think he must stay evil..)

Wulfher said:

Well, certainly if you want to. For me, it is the different between a race (Elf), and generic lifestyle (Ranger), and a specific profession with a specific set of skills (Samurai). Not all Samurai were fully proficient with a bow, though most were to a basic degree. Firing at a target multiple terrains away is a bit ridiculous (only one dimension of why range weapons don't work in Talisman), but it can be a rare skill... if it is truly a skill as part of extensive training.

Being born an Elf, by race or culture, doesn't give you a trained skill. Being part of a lifestyle like a Ranger might, but not necessarily to the degree of the ludicrous for ranged attack in Talisman. Being part of a profession where that skill is trained as a standard might provide such an (annoying) advantage. But that's just how I would reason it. And there are some other ways to use ranged weapons in Talisman that are not about firing all the way across half or even a fourth of the Land.

Velhart said:

I believe in 2E he only got one for the whole game, so he had to pick and choose carefully. Also, he had to take and Animal and not just any Enemy. Again, sacrifice and limits to balance the advantage.

Velhart said:

Hmmm... well, knowing a bit of the history of undead... the whole thing with vampires and holy this or that is questionable. But what could also added (if one wishes) is that the Vampire always loses lives in the Chapel... perhaps 2. Maybe even the Shrine as well.

Of course there's still the problem with the Temple, an uber-holy ground, where he still isn't affected at all by alignment. Gamewise, I guess he shouldn't be, considering the 4ER Temple (like the witch and other theurgical randoms) has been tilted dominantly positive (moreso, slightly, with Fate). He'd be at a inequitable disadvantage if not able to go there.

Simplest solution: He always loses a life in the Chapel; he never loses a life in the Graveyard.

Then one doesn't have to worry about Alignment issue (which isn't really Alignment in Talisman).

JCHendee said:

It's a good solution, but i think that a vampire will not choose for the good side..

Staying evil and ignore all alignment effects, is good enough for me.

Velhart said:

Well, there is a precedent, and likely more but this is the best known one...

Gotta say it and please don't hate me...

Angel of Buffy the Vampire Slayer lore.

(ducks for cover)