Steal this Setting: Vampires of Zendikar
The vampires in Zendikar have an interesting mechanical theme in that many of them get stronger when your opponent is at 10 life, 10 life being half the 20 life each player starts with in a game of Magic. Once I realized how similar that was to 4th edition’s bloodied mechanic, I realized that I just had to go and stat up some of Zendikar’s vampires!
Flavor wise, I’ll leave you with the description given by the Magic creative team.
Vampires live openly in Guul Draz and are famed for the decadence and perversion of their lifestyle. Bloodchiefs, the progenitors of their race, control the opulent city of Malakir. Vampire society is divided by “family” allegiances, each family beholden to its Bloodchief. Each family controls a small amount of territory and routes through the swamp, although the main currency of any family is in its connections and relationships. The tastes and passions of the Bloodchief tend to be imprinted on the vampires he or she creates.
There are five greater families in Guul Draz: Nirkana, Kalastria, Emevera, Urnaav, and Ghet. Dozens of other lesser families are scattered across Guul Draz, each with a contingent of undead nulls appropriate to their place in vampire society. Whenever a vampire fully drains the blood of a living creature without destroying the husk, a vampire null is created from the body. If nulls are left without orders, they will hunt and kill living things that they can find.
-Magic Creative Team, A Planeswalker’s Guide to Zendikar
Tactics
Nulls swarm enemies, attacking mindlessly and attempting to maneuver to give flanking bonuses to the true vampires. The bloodletter dances through the melee, attempting to keep as many foes bloodied as possible at all times. Lacerators use their claws only as a last resort, prefering to grab and bite their enemies even when the enemy isn’t bloodied. The vampires stay hidden until someone’s bloodied, and then concentrate on the bloodied foe(s).
Excellent! Consider it stolen
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I’ll second that! Totally stolen!!
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Any chance you’d be able to post the .monster xml files for these?
Then we’d be able to import them into the monster builder, rather than having to retype them.
(In the upper right corner to the monster listing are import xml and export xml buttons that create and import these files)
Thanks, was wondering how to export the XML. I’ve posted them, look for links under each stat block.
I do dig this. To the extent I’m wondering how to fit these guys in my current campaign.
Although I notice the vampires lack resistance to necrotic/vulnerability to radiant. Is that intentional?
It’s intentional in that it’s not exactly unintentional… I didn’t even think of that. >_< Yeah, they should probably have appropriate vulnerabilities and resistances.
In my campaign, the PCs are all trapped in Khyber under Xen’Drik. When they escape, they’re going to run headfirst into the Drow, which are going to be these guys. So, not actually vampires, just blood-thirsty dark elves.
Is it intentional that the vampires don’t have a bite or blood drain ability?
Maybe I’m too classical, but that seems odd to me.
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Classical, eh? I don’t remember many classical vampire stories where the vampires fed on someone in the middle of a melee. o_0
Not everything needs to be a power.
Although it’s worth noting that the lacerator does just that.
Images of text should be in PNG format. Otherwise liked it a lot.
Good call. Not sure why I posted them as jpgs, that was a poor decision on my part.
Bloodchief stats would’ve made this better.
I think that they do well as special setting vampires. These are more vicious through smelling blood, but are more in the fashion of cannibals when drinking blood. Yet another reason that I will use them against my zendikar-venturing PCs in mid-heroic (Bloodchief stats I will use either Vampire vizier or regular vamp stats as they are closer to normal vamps.)