Once, long ago, there was a noble named Kain. This powerful warrior met his fate and became a vampire. After great fights and decades of travel, Kain realized that, as far as he was concerned, he had achieved the maximum potential that his state had to offer. A defeat at the hands of a paladin showed him that this maximum was not enough. For years, Kain pondered how to become stronger. Then, an ill-fated adventure revealed the mothod to him. While wandering in search of a powerful weapon, Kain accidently bumbled into the Far Realm, and lost the ability to get out again. Exposure to this plane of utter chaos and entropy began to alter Kain, which amazed him greatly, his undead state and all. After a decent quantity of alteration, Kain finally found a way out of this terrible place. He had made a decision while he found his exit, and now sought out powerful hunters. He killed his enemies and then transformed them into vampires. To go even further, he then took these spawn to the portal he used, now exposing them to the energies of the Far Realm. After a great many centuries, they have all evolved rather significantly, and some not for the better.
"Far Realms Vampire" is a template that can be added to any humanoid or monstrous humanoid (referred to hereafter as the base creature), provided it can become a vampire in the first place, and then find a site of exposure to the Far Realms:
Hit Dice: increase to d12
Speed: Same as base creature
AC: +6 natural, or the base creature's natural, whichever is higher.
Damage: Slam attacks. See Monstrous Manual, p.221.
Special Attacks: The creature retains all of their special attacks, plus gains the additional ones below. Saving throw DCs, where appropriate, are 10+1/2 vampire's hit dice+vampire's Charisma modifier. Note that these vampires, their forms and powers mutated, do not possess the standard vampire attacks and qualities of Children of the Night, Gaseous Form, Spider Climb, and Alternate Form. A few may mutate some of these powers in, and Kain might have some. They gain Clan Gifts to make up for this, though.
Domination (Su): See Vampire template, p.221.
Energy Drain (Su): See Vampire template, p.221.
Blood Drain (Ex): See Vampire template, p.221.
Create Spawn (Su): See Vampire template, p.221, but these spawn will also have the Clan Gift special quality.
Special Qualities: The Far realms vampire retains all of the character's special qualities, plus those listed below, and it gains the undead type.
Turn Resistance: A Far Realms vampire has +4 turn resistance.
Damage Reduction: A Far Realms vampire has damage reduction of 15/+1. Some few may have higher DR.
Resistance (Ex): Far Realms vampires have cold and electricity resistance 20.
Fast Healing (Ex): See Vampire template, Monser Manual, p.222.
Clan Gift (Ex): This is one of the signs of the exposure to the Far Realms. Each type of Far Realms vampire has a different gift or set of gifts, as shown below, and often one weakness, as well:
-- Lieutenant: The possibilities for the Lieutenants of Kain are vast. They can mutate much easier than their progeny, due to the concentration of powerful blood they have.
-- Razalhim: The few remaining children of Raziel are extremely rare, as their brethren have made a concerted effort to destroy them. Raziel was Kain's first Lieutenant, and his most beloved. As the Lieutenants mutated and evolved, Raziel grew wings. Kain felt that Raziel had gone to far, and attempted to destroy him (see below). After supposedly destroying Raziel, Kain ordered his minions to destroy all of Raziel's progeny. Most perished, but a few escaped out into the rest of the world. The Razalhim are roughly the most attractive of the Far realms vampires, and they have large bat-like wings sprouting out of their shoulders, giving them a flying movement rate of twice their land movement rates, and they do not become ugly. They are hunted creatures however, and both the humans familiar with the Far Realms Vampires, and the Vampires themselves, still hunt these creatures ceaselessly.
-- Dumahim: Dumah left the Far Realms and became trapped within Limbo. For decades he pitted his physical might against the plane itself, becoming trully mighty. He also grew armored plates over his body. The children of Dumah are much similar, gaining incredible strength and benefiting from plates of chitin that act as a permanent suit of field plate armor. However, they are freakishly ugly and attack virtually anything that moves, as they are none too bright.
-- Malchiam: Malachia was the least of the Lieutenants, and as such, his progeny are weak, especially by vampire standards. They possess fast healing, but it only operates every other round. However, to compensate for this, the Malchiam have learned the arts of guerilla warfare. They can walk through stone and earth as if it were air, and they possess tremorsense while they are underground. Also, because their flesh is rotting, these creatures infect opponents as if they were mummies. Also, they may wrap themselves in flesh to hide their tain much like the skin devil. However, their somewhat imperfect vampirism only allows them to perform partial actions, like a zombie.
-- Zephonim: Zephon liked to spy on his brothrs, but he could not fly to the rafters and hide from view to do so. He most envied Raziel for his powerful wings. Not having wings, Zephon evolved a somewhat similar ability, and though he can no longer make use of it, due to his current form, his progeny can and do. The Zephonim are repulsive to look upon, tall, painfully thin, and white, and their limbs all have more joints then are normal. These arachnid-like vampires have regained the standard vampiric ability of spider climbing, and in fact they can move at double speed while climbing a surface other than the ground, and move siliently. Also, they can spin webbing.
-- Rahabim: The children of Rahab discovered that they took twice the damage from the sun that their brethren did, and so they fled. To escape the sun, they learned to overcome their weakness to water. The rahabim gain the ability to swim, and at double their land movement speed. They can also spit a magic missile each other round, but they still take double damage from sunlight.
-- Turelim: Turel was the second most powerful of the Lieutenants, and when Raziel was dishonored, he became the top one. His feeling of supremacy, however, caused him to detest his brothers, and so he was often gone from their base camp. Turels progeny, of which there never were many, are the most powerful of the group. They possess fire resistance 20, cold and electricity immunity, and can handle 2 rounds of exposure to sunlight before it begins to hurt them. The Turelim are also very powerful physically, looking much like some demon or devil. Turel himself has not been seen by anyone other than Kain for at least a century, and his current form and powers are unknown.
Saves: Same as character.
Abilities: A lich gains +2 to Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. It has no Constitution score.
Skills: The lich gains +8 racial bonus to Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot checks. Otherwise same as the character.
Feats: Same as the character.
CR: Same as the character +2
Treasure: Standard coins, double goods, double items.
Alignment: Any evil.
Advancement: By character class.
The State of Change
In order to mutate, Far realms vampires must expose themselves to the radiations of the Far Realms. While here, the vampire erects a field of energy around itself, to protect it from becoming a mound of slime and tentacles. After an unspecific time has passed, the vampire makes a Fortitude save (DC 20 + 10 for each previous mutation they have gained). A success means that they gain a power, while failure ruptures the field, exposing their bodies to the full powers of the Far Realms, which results in madness, ooze for a body, and other terrible things beyond mention. Obviously, during the State of Change, the vampire is rather incapable of fighting.
Raziel, the Reaver of Souls
Medium-sized Undead
Hit Dice: 10d12+17 (100 hp)
Initiative: +7(Dex)
Speed: 60 ft.
AC: 18 (+5 bracers, +3 Dex)
Attacks: Quarterstaff +9
Damage: Qarterstaff 1d6+2 or by spell
Face/Reach: 5 ft. by 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Spells
Special Qualities: Invulnerable, pleasing illusion
Saves: Fort, Ref, Will
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 15, Con 18, Int 25, Wis 17, Cha 21
Skills:
Feats: Combat Casting, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Leadership, Maximize Spell, Malign Spell Focus
Climate/Terrain: Any
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 9
Treasure: Double standard
Alignment: Always lawful evil
Advancement: 10-16 HD (Medium-sized)
Some men are gifted by the Gods with the gift of arcane knowledge. Many of these powerful souls become advisors to great Kings, and use their powers to defend life, king, and counry. Sometimes, however, these gifted men and women fall victim to the corruption that awesome power can create. Where once they used their art to defend and advise, now they use this same power to corrupt, confuse, and destroy.
Like most Unhallowed, fallen wizards hide their true forms behind a guise of elderly, yet vital men, or beautiful, unaging women. They use their power to worm their way into places of power and, once there, tear it all down to bring about chaos.
COMBAT
The fallen wizard surrounds himself with loyal acolytes, and if they need, with demons. They are all armed with staffs of power. Whether or not they ever actually use them is a different matter. Often, they use their minions as defense, and use their spells to back up and reinforce. If they actually need to fight, then they have a good amount of spells at their disposal.
__Invulnerable (Ex): Raziel is now the minion of a powerful entity of unknown origins (possibly Kelemvor). Through the powers of this sntity, Raziel cannot die. If he is reduced to 0 hp in the Material Plane, he shifts back to the Ethereal Plane to recover. If his hit points are somehow able to be reduced to 0 here, he disappears, reappearing sometime later at the Temple of the Elder, somewhere in the Deep Ethereal Plane.
__Hunger (Su): In order for Raziel to function, he must feed on the energies of living beings and vampires. Obviously, he prefers vampires.
__Ethereal Jaunt (Su): Raziel can step between the Material and Ethereal Plane at will, and he can step back through to the Material Plane as long as he has full hit points. These moves are as a free action.
__Soul Reaver: This mighty sword was sought out by Kain when he originally died. Later, he recovered it, and it served as his symbol of authority for centuries. More recently, he attempted to destroy Raziel with it, but for unknown reasons it shattered, and its spirit energy was absorbed by Raziel, who now uses it on his opponents. This weapon counts as a brilliant energy undead bane (double bane to vampires) flamberge sword. It emantes out of his left palm. It can also release a sonic lance (see yrthak, MM p. 189) each round.
Note: I would rather not get in trouble with Eidis Interactive, even though no one really goes to my site anyway. So, Soul Reaver and most of the names here are copyright of Eidos, and are presented here only to give a fun twist from a great game to D&D.
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