Vampires are powerful undead creatures that feed upon the blood of the living, granting them strength and formidable supernatural abilities. Their physical attacks can inflict a Level drain effect.
Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn[]
During the main questline, vampires periodically appear in scripted events around Athkatla. During some encounters, they seem to be attempting to turn some Shadow Thieves to their cause. Sometimes they succeed, other times the vampires can be slain by the Shadow Thieves if Gorion's Ward and their party assist them. Most notably, they appear as the members of the unnamed guild, or group that tries to overthrow the Shadow Thieves on behalf of Bodhi's orders. For article page linking purposes, this organization is titled Bodhi's Vampire Coven by the wiki, as the game doesn't have a consistent title for these vampires. Even Bodhi herself has no name for it. It could be described as a rival "Guild".
The game files indicate 34 vampire creatures just titled "Vampire". This excludes vampires with names like Del, Parisa Shyressa. Some of these creatures are associated with questlines involving Bodhi, and others have nothing to do with her.
You may encounter the following types of vampires in the game saga, that are basically in five varieties (with minor variations in each type):
- Fledgling Vampire
- Standard Vampire
- Vampire (Elder)
- Vampire (Ancient)
- Vampyre (Vampire Sub-type)
- Fledgling Vampire are newly formed metamorphic vampires, recently able to use vampire abilities. They have both male and female appearance. They are generally the weakest variety. The first vampire encountered in the game is Ulvaryl, who is based upon this variety.
- There are the "Standard" Vampire with 8 or 9 Hit Dice versions - which is what is displayed in the Info Box. These are the supporting vampires found with some of the named vampires in Athkatla at night, such as with Del or Tanova. They can have a male or female appearance.
- Vampire (Elder) are a more experienced and thus more powerful variety and are introduced further into the saga. These are both Male and Female vampires in appearance. Some will be encountered in Bodhi's Lair. These creatures will have more Hit Dice and better stats/abilities. Elder Vampires can be found as part of groups of vampires generated by certain "spawn points" in dungeons (Such as in Firkraag's Maze).
- Vampire (Ancient) are a more experienced and thus more powerful variety and are introduced further into the saga. They have only a female appearance. Ancient Vampires can be found as part of groups of vampires generated by certain "spawn points" in dungeons (Such as in Firkraag's Maze).
- Vampyre (Vampire Sub-type) is a rarer variety only in one spot in the saga, although they also included in various mods. They appear as a male vampire. You may encounter one in the Southern Dungeons, and possibly as part of Help Korgan Recover the Book of Kaza questline. Vampyres have their own Race and Class identifiers in the game files but share the vampire items and scripts and are more Vampire-like in the game than some other kind of unique non-vampire creature.
- And finally, there are the "Named" vampires - many of which are associated with Bodhi who have dialogue of some kind. Some of these creatures are displayed and linked on the Bodhi's Vampire Coven page, and others are linked separately if they are unaffiliated with Bodhi.
Vampire Abilities[]
- A melee attack weapon (see VAMP.ITM) that inflicts crushing damage and a Level drain effect, usually 2 experience levels.
- Immunity to Non magical weapon attacks, except for Fledgling vampires. All vampires need magical or better weapons with certain mods, see Mod content below.
- Vampires are immune to a number of status effects. See the VAMPREG.ITM page for details. In general, they won't be affected by Poison, Paralyze, Panic and others. See the info box on each creature page for a breakdown.
- Vampires have rapid Regeneration ability healing 1 Hit Point every 2 seconds, and more rapidly in certain other vampire varieties.
- Vampires can morph into Vampire Bat Form when heavily damaged and flee the area.
- Vampires can go into Gas Cloud Form when their Hit point values are reduced to zero, allowing them to depart the battlefield and retreat to their hidden coffin to reconstitute and fight another day (night).
- Vampires employ a Vampire Domination innate ability in combat. Typically, after at least 12 seconds into an engagement.
- Experienced vampires that are more powerful than the standard or regular vampires may use an innate Vampire Fear ability in addition to the Domination.
Gameplay[]
- Standard Vampires typically require magical items or better to hit them. The following weapons are particularly effective: The Mace of Disruption, Daystar, and Azuredge. The latter two are available as soon as chapter 2 in the game.
- Guard against their Vampire Domination gaze attack. A Chaotic Commands spell, Enrage ability or the Helm of Charm Protection will make you immune.
- If you are hit by a melee strike by a vampire, you will suffer a Level drain effect. Protect yourself with the Amulet of Power or the priest level 4 spell Negative Plane Protection. Or prevent them from hitting you at all (high Armor Class, Protection from Magical Weapons, Mirror Image...), they can only apply the level drain effect when they hit you (Stoneskin doesn't prevent the hit, only the damage, and thus can't protect from the level drain).
- Characters utilizing the protected from undead scroll won't be attacked by vampires at all. Thus, a standard tactic against them is to use this scroll on a party member and have them engage the vampires in melee while the rest of the party attacks from afar. It completely trivializes an encounter with them in an unmodified game. While perhaps "cheesy" to do so, it is nonetheless effective.
Notable vampires[]
- Bodhi – Sister of Jon Irenicus and the secondary antagonist of Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. She is the leader of the organization that competes with the Shadow Thieves. Gorion's Ward may choose to either help or oppose her. There is another choice if you install the Alternatives mod.
- Dace Sontan – Unwilling minion of Bodhi, forced to guard the means of escaping Spellhold.
- Ulvaryl – The first vampire encountered in the game. She is found taunting some Shadow Thieves in the second part of Irenicus' Dungeon.
- Tanova – Tanova may be found fairly early during a random encounter. She is inevitably destroyed later during the attack on Bodhi's Hideout.
- Hareishan – Met during a random encounter in Athkatla.
- Shyressa is an Elder Vampire and member of the Twisted Rune in the Twisted Rune Hideout.
- Phlydian is an Elder Vampire found in the Saradush Prison.
Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition – Shadows of Amn (2013)
This icon indicates content from the Shadows of Amn campaign of the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. Dragomir - Vampiric fighter within Dragomir's Tomb.- Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition – Shadows of Amn (2013)
This icon indicates content from the Shadows of Amn campaign of the Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition. Hexxat – A vampire thief and potential companion who provides many side quests. - Baldur's Gate:
Enhanced Edition
Siege of Dragonspear (2016)
This icon indicates content in the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition campaign that's only available if Siege of Dragonspear is installed. Tsolak - Vampire encountered in the Coast Way Forest, hounded by the two vampire hunters Isabella and Ikros.
Gallery[]
Mod content[]
- This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.
The Sword Coast Stratagems mod has an optional component for Vampires, as follows:
Improved Vampires (BG2, BG2EE, BGT, EET)
This component upgrades vampires' intelligence and abilities, roughly in line with pen-and-paper Dungeons and Dragons. They should target their magic more effectively, pick on people vulnerable to their level drain, and so forth. The component also standardizes vampire statistics a bit (usually increasing vampire ability scores slightly). It allows vampires to summon wolves, bats, or rats (the bat summoning was present in earlier versions but has been toned down), to drink blood (which drains Constitution) as well as draining levels, and to make much more use of their various shapeshifting abilities (bat, rat, wolf, gas cloud form).
The vampire can also turn into a mist and regenerate, and then return to vampire form later in the battle - as well as can summon bats, rats or wolves. They can also transform into bat form or wolf form and "hide" amongst the similar looking summoned bats and wolves (SCS calls this 'vampire tricks" in the AI script).
While in bat or wolf form, the vampire has all of its original immunities as well as hit points, but a different attack. In the bat form, the base armor class is -8 and movement rate is raised (to 288% of normal movement). The bat can bite plus strength bonus, but it does not level drain or drain blood. As a wolf, the vampire will also have an increased movement modifier (288% over normal) and a 22 Strength. The wolf bite inflicts a 2d8 piercing damage plus strength bonus, but also does not level drain or drain blood.
SCS vampires have two equipped weapons in their "quick weapon slots". The first is the standard Level drain attack, and the other is a "Blood Drain" attack that temporarily reduces Constitution on the target and provides some healing to the vampire. Both attacks bypass magic resistance, spell level protections and have no saving throw. The vampire will choose the most effective attack based on the target's vulnerability to level drain. It knows if you are immune or not. SCS has assigned these weapons as Backstab eligible attacks.
Some SCS vampires are provided with a mod only innate ability to attain Invisibility with a Dimension Door animation.
Some SCS vampires can employ the innate ability "Cloud of Bats" (SPIN182.spl) which actually launches a Summon Insects spell directed at a target.
All SCS vampires have a potent Vampire Domination ability, that allows a save with a penalty, and can be used every round. It can recognize if a party member is protected from Charm Creature effects by item, spell or if the target is an elf. How often this is attempted is determined by the AI's opponent vulnerability assessment of targets in detection range and the game difficulty settings selected.
Some SCS vampires can use an alternate form of Vampire Domination called "Mesmerism" (SPIN182.spl). It behaves in nearly identical fashion to the Vampire Domination innate ability, except it has a -4 Save and induces an 8-round Feeblemindedness effect. It can be dispelled. The SCS script may use this instead of the other ability if the target is protected from Charm effects. How often this is attempted is determined by the AI's opponent vulnerability assessment of targets in detection range and the game difficulty settings selected.
Most SCS vampires are revised and given a Fighter/Thief class, and of course, remain racially a vampire. This means that the vampire will get at least half to one extra APR. Should they attack from a hidden or invisible state, SCS has changed the .2DA files in the game to allow their attack weapon to count as an eligible Backstab weapon. They will do at least triple damage and sometimes quadruple with a backstab hit, depending on the creature's thief XP level.
This component does affect Bodhi, but only if you don't install the "Improved Bodhi" component (in other words, if you want Bodhi to use her original-game abilities more effectively but don't want to give her the extra powers of that component, install Smarter Vampires but not Improved Bodhi).
Mod gallery[]
External links[]
- Vampire on the Forgotten Realms Wiki, a wiki for the Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting Forgotten Realms.