Café de Nuit

Have vrykolaks been replaced by Nosferatu in this edition?

De Montour wrote:Have vrykolaks been replaced by Nosferatu in this edition?

Yes. The only variant vampires in the book are the Jiangshi, which replaces the original Chiangshi and has been redesigned to be more like the actual "Hopping Vampire" and less "AD&D Oriental Vampire", and the Nosferatu, which has gone from the "Novel Dracula/Varney the Vampire" strain to the "deformed, ghoul-like, borderline feral" strain. It's a hideously ugly, ghoul-like creature with an appearance closer to Count Orlock, and very few abilities outside of ripping with claws and teeth, and vomiting blood.

Vomiting blood? I do recall some old folklore that said vampire's blood was toxic to the living, which made killing the juicier specimens even more dangerous, but vomiting blood up sounds like wasting perfectly good food for a vampire.

Rock wrote:Vomiting blood? I do recall some old folklore that said vampire's blood was toxic to the living, which made killing the juicier specimens even more dangerous, but vomiting blood up sounds like wasting perfectly good food for a vampire.

I know it sounds strange, but it's true; the nosferatu's new fluff is that it's perpetually starving for blood, forcing it to remain closer to sources of living prey, and it gorges itself incessantly - it can regain its former sapience for brief periods of time after feeding, but the hunger quickly takes over again. It's a Challenge 8 monster with the Regeneration (Radiant), Spider Climb, Sunlight Hypersensitivity and Unusual Nature traits, and its attacks are Claw, Bite, Multiattack, and Disgorge Blood, a Recharge 5+ attack that has it vomit a 15ft cone of blood that does necrotic damage and also nullifies healing the targets for 1 minute on a hit.

...
I prefer the PF 1E Nosferatu.
This sounds like a vrykolaka with the serial numbers filed off.

Rock wrote:...
I prefer the PF 1E Nosferatu.
This sounds like a vrykolaka with the serial numbers filed off.

Keep in mind the book was written by a former Paizo employee who probably took the opportunity to port Pathfinder nosferatu into D&D.
They're not much like the 3e vrykolaka or the 4e vrykolaka at all...

Jester of the FoS wrote: Keep in mind the book was written by a former Paizo employee who probably took the opportunity to port Pathfinder nosferatu into D&D.
They're not much like the 3e vrykolaka or the 4e vrykolaka at all...

Since 4e didn't have vrykolakas, I'd be very surprised if they were! 4e had vrylokas, which, aside from the missing vowels, have an entirely different background lore that can be crudely summed up as "4e-tiefling-style pseudo-vampires".

I haven't heard anyone mention her, is Merilee Markuza in the book? If so, I'd be very curious about the treatment they gave her character.

I hadn't noticed anything mentioning her so far.

Most of the domains have a list of one sentence scenario hooks tucked away in an 'Adventures in X' section of a domain's description. A lot of NPCs are popping up on these lists, although not always with a ton of context. One of the Barovian ones, for example is something very much like ... you find a tomb, and inside there is a guy who says he is Duke Gundar ... and the Duke does not like Strahd very much.

Now, I'm passing familiar with the major NPCs of the setting so it is neat to see some of these names/places/items get used (although I admit, I do not have every sourcebook, so some of the references are lost on me).

A few of the adventure hook references are oblique enough, however, that I'm sure I am missing the connection to previous material.

SkiBird wrote:I hadn't noticed anything mentioning her so far.

From what I hear, it sounds like it would be best if they did leave her out, as the new setting doesn't seem as ripe for complex characters.