Otherworldly Patron - Vampire Lord
Though some warlocks pledge to an Undead patron whose abilities embrace death and undeath in general, others form pacts with vampiric lords, and receive far more specialised abilities as a result. Growing vampiric fangs and draining their enemies dry, a warlock whose patron is the vampire lord always seeks to consume more and more to bring themselves closer to their patron - though in truth they will never truly attain such powers beyond the most temporary, save for embracing vampirism themselves.
Occasionally a failed attempt to create a vampiric spawn can spawn a warlock of the Vampire Lord, similar to how dhampirs are sometimes created (and indeed, many a dhampir finds their powers growing in a similar way). These warlocks often struggle against their nature - forever tempted by the taste and power of blood, while understanding how abhorrent it is to feed on others. They may take to adventuring solely to sate their hunger on 'worthy' targets, rather than risk becoming overwhelmed by the hunger in more civilised society.
Expanded Spell List
The Vampire Lord lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following are added to the warlock spell list for you.
Expanded Spell List
| Spell Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Arms of Hadar, Charm Person |
| 2nd | Misty Step, Wither and Bloom |
| 3rd | Bestow Curse, Haste |
| 4th | Death Ward, Shadow of Moil |
| 5th | Dominate Person, Hold Monster |
Vampiric Bite
Your teeth grow into a fanged bite. This is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. As it is magically created, you add your Charisma modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals 1d4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite and can choose to attack with it as a bonus action on your turn.
When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:
- You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
- You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. Your bite is a viable target as a Pact weapon if you take the Pact of the Blade boon.
Variant: Dhampir
If you are a Dhampir, you can choose to use either Constitution or Charisma for your bite's ability score. You also combine your uses of your Vampiric Bite ability, allowing you to Empower it a total of 2x your proficiency bonus.
Vampiric Body
Vampires must be able to lurk in the dark. You gain darkvision out to 60ft, or if you already had this it extends by 30ft. You also add your Charisma modifier to your Stealth ability checks.
Drain Life
At 6th level you learn how to siphon a portion of life from those who you damage. When you damage a creature that is not a Construct or Undead with a spell you cast that turn, you can use your reaction to gain Blood Points equal to the level of the spell slot expended or Mystic Arcanum used (with Cantrips generating 1 Blood Point). In addition, when you hit a creature with your Vampiric Bite, you may expend a use of its Empower to gain Blood Points equal to the piercing damage dealt by that attack.
You lose all accumulated Blood Points on completion of a long rest, and Blood Points equal to your expended pact magic spell slot levels on completion of a short rest. For instance, a 6th level warlock has two 3rd level slots, so they would lose 6 Blood Points when they complete a short rest if they used them both.
Some features require a certian Warlock level to attain; while your Blood Points can continue to grow indefinitely (until you complete a long rest) you must reach the relevant warlock level in order to unlock the corresponding benefits.
Variant: Permanent Growth
Optionally, you may want your Blood Points to form a slow progression on the way to vampirism instead of something that resets regularly. If so, your DM might agree to remove them reducing on completion of a short and long rest, and instead become 'permanent'. If so, increase the number required for each rank by 10x that of the table below - 50 for the first rank, 90 for the second, etc. Rather than being uncapped, the blood poiints should also be capped at the maximum for your warlock level - eg. 130 for 6th level, 250 for 9th, and so on, only allowing you to increase your total as your warlock level increases.
| Blood Points | Warlock Level Required | Boon |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 6th | Your movement speeds increase by 5ft |
| 9 | 6th | You gain a climb speed equal to your Walking Speed. |
| 13 | 6th | Your Vampiric Bite's damage die is increased to 1d6. |
| 17 | 9th | As a bonus action you can cast Misty Step, at will, so long as you are in Dim Light or Darkness. |
| 21 | 9th | Your Darkvision now sees through Magical Darkness, but only to half its usual distance. |
| 25 | 9th | You become partially undead, granting immunity to detrimental affects that target Humanoids (such as Hold Person) but still allowing you to benefit from positive effects. |
| 29 | 12th | You can now Hide as a bonus action on your turn. Your Vampiric Bite's damage die is increased to 1d8. |
| 33 | 12th | You no longer need to breathe, have resistance to Poison damage, and advantage on saving throws against the Poisoned condition. |
| 37 | 15th | Your jump distances are tripled, and you reduce any falling damage you take by an amount equal to your Warlock level plus your charisma modifier. |
| 41 | 15th | You have Immunity to the Charmed condition, and Resistance to Necrotic damage. |
| 44 | 17th | Your movement speeds are increased by a further 5ft. Your Vampiric Bite's damage is increased to 1d12. |
| 47 | 17th | You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. |
| 50 | 20th | While you are below half hit points and conscious, you regain 1 hit point at the start of each of your turns. You also regenerate any lost body parts at the same rate as the Regenerate spell. |
Vampiric Grip
From 10th level your vampiric magic manifests itself as a way to pull enemies closer to you. As an action you conjure up a storm of blood or bats (your choice) and use it to wrench a target you can see within 30ft towards you with stunning force. The target must make a Strength and Constitution saving throw. On a failed Strength save, they are pulled adjacent to you. On a failed Constitution save, they are Stunned until the end of your next turn.
If they fail either save, you can immediately use your Vampiric Bite as a bonus action, even if you are above half health.
Vampiric Grip can be used once, refreshing on a short or long rest. Once you have expended it you can expend a pact magic spell slot to use it again.
Hypnotic Allure
At 14th level you can use your action to target one humanoid you can see within 30 ft. If the target can see you, the target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against this magic or be Charmed by you. The charmed target regards the you as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn't under your, it takes your requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and it is a willing target for your Vampiric Bite attack.
Each time the target takes damage, or you or your companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 1 hour or until you die or take a bonus action to end the effect. Once a creature has succeeded on a saving throw against your Hypnotic Allure, they become immune to it for 24 hours.
Vampiric Invocations
Blood Boil
Requires 9th level
When you a creature fails a saving throw against one of your non-damaging spells (such as Hold Monster) you can choose to boil the target's blood as part of the spellcast. The target takes acid damage equal to your Charisma modifier whenever they fail a saving throw against the spell (including the initial save). You can choose to invoke Blood Boil after seeing the creature's initial saving roll, but before the DM confirms a success or not.
Blood Boil can be used a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, refreshing on a long rest. Blood Boil's damage counts as the spell dealing damage for the purpose of allowing Drain Life's reaction activation.
Detect Life
Requires 5th Level
As an action, you can open your awareness to detect the life of other creatures. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any living creature that is not a Construct or Undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You do not know their type, nor their strength, merely their location.
Draining Bite
If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with your Vampiric Bite you can choose to expend a use of your Vampiric Bite's Empower to immediately kill them and drain them dry. You regain hit points equal to the damage rolled plus the enemy's total hit dice. Any excess healing becomes temporary hit points.
Enhanced Bite
Requires 5th level
The magic of your invocation enhances your Vampiric Bite, turning it magical for the purposes of damage resistance and immunity, and granting it a +1 to attack and damage rolls.
Once you reach 10th and 17th levels in this class, the bonus increases to +2 and +3 respectively. These bonuses stack with magical items, but only to a maximum of +3.
Grappling Bite
When you hit with your Vampiric Bite and Empower it, you immediately grapple the target while you know this invocation. So long as the target is grappled by this, your Bite has advantage on any subsequent attacks, but attempting to bite another creature immediately ends the grapple.
Night Cloak
Requires 15th level
As an action you can surround yourself in a cloak of flittering spectral bats. Creatures who move adjacent to you or start their turn there take 2d6 piercing damage. You can end this effect as either an action or bonus action, but it otherwise has no time limit.
Raise Thrall
Requires 9th level
You learn the Summon Undead spell. Once per long rest you can cast this if from a 5th level spell slot, without expending a spell slot.
You can optionally target a humanoid corpse with this spell within 90 feet, and if you do so you do not need to provide a material component, raising the humanoid (as a ghost, putrid, or skeleton) from where it lays to serve you. Once a humanoid's corpse has been used for Raise Thrall, it cannot be used again.
Vampiric Blood
Requires 6th level
As an action you can consume your own Blood Points to heal yourself, healing 1d8+your charisma modifier hit points for every two Blood Points you choose to expend.