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r/3d6•
DefconDelta88

Rolling new character for Curse of Strahd using Van Richten's Guide - Dhampir question

D&D 5e

We're a ways out from it, but my next campaign will be Curse of Strahd and I'm planning on rolling a new character for it. I've been tossing around the idea of a Warlock or Monk, and with the new Van Richten's guide out, I was entertaining the idea of playing a Dhampir. But it raised a couple questions I can't seem to find any direct conversation about, so I'm curious what more experienced players would think:

  1. Dhampirs - somebody vaguely mentioned to me in conversation that they thought Dhampirs were vulnerable to Strahd. Is that true? I couldn't find anything on it so I am not sure.

  2. Could a Dhampir be a Sun Sol Monk? It seemed like a potentially interesting combination from a narrative standpoint and I know just from talking to my sis when she was playing CoS, she said radiant damage was pretty helpful. I have an interesting background story idea for it but was NOT sure how this thing would work mechanically.

Any insight you guys have would be great! Basically if I can I'd like to play a Monk, but a Warlock is rivaling that for how much I want to rock one, although I may wind up rolling a Rogue if no one in my group wants to play one because not having a Rogue is no bueno.

Posted May 31, 2021, 2:52 AM UTC

28
rougegoat•
  1. There's nothing in the Lineage listing that would imply this, though it would be a bit of metagaming to then lookup what the Strahd campaign says about it. I wouldn't worry about it though.
  2. There is no limitation on what kind of class you can play when you start as a Dhampir.

It should also be noted that the Lineages in VGR are more designed to be things your DM does to your characters mid campaign rather than things you start as. There are rules for starting as one of them, but it's clearly not the intention. Make sure your DM approves using them before you go too far down that road.

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DefconDelta88OP•

Ok this is super helpful, thank you. And yeah a bit meta but we're all super new so the DM said it's fine if we needed to look some shit up. I was more curious from a narrative standpoint because it might make for some cool writing.

Thank you for the help!

1
AustinDCG•

The one that will be able to answer your questions is your DM. As far as I'm aware, there's no official rule about either instance, so it comes down to what your DM decides is appropriate.

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DefconDelta88OP•

Ok that makes sense, I'll have to ask her about it. Was going to anyways but wanted to put a couple ideas together so we can spitball.

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DrizztBorn•

They are not, it is said they originate from Barovia in the book, but the are not vulnerable to Strahd, and they are immune to any undead-related effects since they are only humanoid

Sun soul monk works fine, having a dhampir seeing the light is a very fun backstory, also your bite scales

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DefconDelta88OP•

Ok awesome that's what I'd kind of picked up on when reading through VR's Guide so I think my friend was just misinformed lol. And yes I feel like it'd be a super fun backstory, I got ideas man, hahaha.

Thank you!

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Adept_Extension489•

I played an Elven Sun Soul Monk in the CoS campaign we just finished. It was really interesting because I joined mid-campaign at level 6. My character was studying at a monastery when he began having nightmares/visions of Barovia, and it became my drive to destroy the evil that lurked there. I left the monastery on a vision quest to find myself, and ended up in Barovia. It was a very fun class to play in the campaign, however somewhat limited by it's lack of RP skills. In combat I was a monster though! Add to that, I found a Staff of Striking (that the DM added as a quest item just for me), and I was an absolute beast!

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Rairaijin•

Way of long death monk is thematic for vampires and dhamphir

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