Vampire weapons (SoA and Dark Alliance 2 spoilers)

TethorilofLathander

Do vampires use weapons? I remember in SoA the vampires used charm spells and just punched you to death. I haven't played Dark Alliance 2 but Mordoc is the king of vampires, surely he'd have an incredibly powerful weapon.

If vampires use weapons, what do they favour?

lunar

Vampires have great strength and fighting capabilities, they would use any melee weapon with good skill. However, their most deadly ability is that their touch drains life energy (levels) from their victims. To use this most devastating power they prefer not to use weapons, but slam/claw/bite their enemies. They still do considerable damage thanks to their strength, and their foes are greatly weakened.

Trust me if there was a magical dagger that drained 2 or more levels per hit, every fighter would get grandmastery in it and use it exclusively, it is a that powerful effect!

Skydog

there's a long sword with that effect if i'm not mistaken)

TethorilofLathander

Skydog said:

there's a long sword with that effect if i'm not mistaken)

Isn't it Enserric the Longsword?

10thLich

No, it's Blackrazor. Only attainable during the hell trials in Shadows of Amn.

LadyRhian

In Pen and Paper, there is the Sword +2 Nine Lives Stealer as well.

lunar

Blackrazor is nice, but it only drains with a %15 chance, while a vampire's natural attacks will always drain away the target's levels. You can dominate some tough vampires with control undead necromancer spell, or a very high lvl evil cleric's turn undead ability, and watch how fast they rip most other enemies apart in combat. Vampires are truly scary monsters. (So much so that the game has some items like the amulet of power, daystar, pro from undead scrolls, etc.)

the_spyder

I usually have Viconia using Turn undead whenever I go into the Vamp lair in BG2. I can most times grab a few Vamps to my cause in the process. I don't however notice the level drain effect from the controlled vamps effecting other vamps and the like when I do. It is still a viable tactic though. Makes for a lot more guys on my side and I don't worry if THEY get hit.

TethorilofLathander

10thLich said:

No, it's Blackrazor. Only attainable during the hell trials in Shadows of Amn.

I think Enserric does too, but you have to upgrade it in the Underdark

10thLich

Enserric? Don't remember that weapon, mod added?

Sed

Hordes of the Underdark (NWN) weapon ^^

BaldursCat

Having played both... I don't think there are any stats for Mordoch's sword but it has a life drain rather than a level drain effect and I think too it causes additional bleeding,

still, it's irrelevant as when you win the battle you don't get the sword.

And quite frankly, by the time you reach that stage in the game the way the item creation works you should have yourself some ludicrously powerful weaponry anyway, he's a tough fight on hard/extreme, the other levels, not so much.

lunar

the_spyder said:

I usually have Viconia using Turn undead whenever I go into the Vamp lair in BG2. I can most times grab a few Vamps to my cause in the process. I don't however notice the level drain effect from the controlled vamps effecting other vamps and the like when I do. It is still a viable tactic though. Makes for a lot more guys on my side and I don't worry if THEY get hit.

Yeah most of the times when you fight vampires, there are only other undead around and they can't suck the life out of something already dead.

One trick is, have a low wisdom character casting limited wish and say 'I wish to be protected from undead right now' and the genie will summon a swarm of vampires, Viconia then can turn undead and control them and you can lead them to other kinds of enemies. Fun!

ZanathKariashi

Vampires can use any weapons they were familiar with before becoming a vampire, but unless there's a pressing reason to do otherwise, it's much more in their favor to use their physical attacks. Or better yet, using their high str to grapple targets and not only prevent them from defending themselves, draining 2 levels per round.

Any time a undead creature drains a lvl, it's supposed to recover 1d8 hp (granting temp hp if at full health), and a bonus +1 hit/saves, PER LEVEL DRAINED, for 24 hours by temporarily strengthening themselves with the drained levels. So...yeah...vampires (or Wights or other level draining draining undead) tend to use unarmed melee A LOT.

fighter_mage_thief

Normally, it would be vampirism, and so the weapon of choice would likely depend on the individual in question.

It could be a powerful mage who willingly infected himself with vampirism, for instance, or it could be a fighter or thief who survived a chance encounter with a vampire, either winning or running, but got bitten.

Bodhi for instance had a life before she became a vampire, and I believe your love interest in BG2 can become infected if the story develops enough. There are actually vampire versions of Jaheira, Aerie, and Anomen that you can summon with the CLUAConsole.

Just a thought anyways.

SCARY_WIZARD

ZanathKariashi said:

So...yeah...vampires (or Wights or other level draining draining undead) tend to use unarmed melee A LOT.

Due to a little bit of "lwillful ooking the other way" on the part of one of my GMs, a wight that I played in an undead campaign could turn people that were killed with area spells cast by her. I just went "screw hitting things, I'll just kill them instead!", and...well, that sort of backfired on me when one of my wights spawned a wight, and it turned on me.