Astarion is one of the most popular vampires in Dungeons & Dragons after embedding himself in the hearts and minds of Baldur’s Gate 3 players. Naturally, he’d finally bring more varied options to Vampirism into one of the world’s biggest role-playing games, with several new options for players and NPCs to immerse themselves in the species.
From character options to full-on adventures, you can run with Astarion himself. Astarion’s Book of Hungers has a lot to offer as an expansion for your D&D adventures. Whether you’re interested in incorporating Astarion or not, you still have several options to incorporate vampires as players and otherwise in the game.
Vampire Character Backgrounds
Sometimes you want to start your adventure as a vampire, and that means creating a backstory worthy of helping weave a compelling story of what happened to you. Instead of receiving a bite during the campaign, these background options are great starting points for a quick backstory integration.
Some even offer options for dealing with vampires without becoming one. They also work perfectly with the 2024 Player’s Handbook, giving you exactly what you’ll need to get started.
|
Background |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Carouser |
While not exclusively settled around vampires, this background puts you in the heart of a city that will have allowed you to come into contact with vampires at some point. It’s all about interacting with people, granting you skill proficiencies in Deception and Persuasion to help with that. |
|
Vampire Devotee |
Whether charmed by them or given willingly, this background has you providing blood for vampires at their whim. Whether a large group or just a few, you’ve basically been a blood bag for them in some way. Unfortunately, “your time in the den is over,” meaning something has happened that has turned you. This background grants you Persuasion and Stealth proficiencies. |
|
Vampire Survivor |
Giving you the Vampire Hunter feat, this background saw you survive an attack by vampires. While you weren’t turned, you’re forever vigilant against the creatures of the night after this encounter. Insight and Religion are your proficiencies for this background. |
Dhamphir Traits
While you’ve got options available from Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, the 2024 PHB version with more specific build options is available here in Astarion’s Book of Hungers.
You can access everything each species has here, except it’s specifically to build a Dhamphir. While most of the content here isn’t new, you’ll be able to access several species skills such as Vampiric Bite and Spider Climb from the other books; however, you also get the following new options:
- Drain: Regain Hit Points equal to Piercing damage you deal.
- Trace of Undeath: You gain Resistance to Necrotic damage.
- Strengthen: Give yourself a bonus to attack rolls or ability checks for the next minute based on the amount of Piercing damage you deal.
Feats
Astartion’s Book of Hungers introduced feats fit for a vampire, with origin feats and general feats available that’ll work well with your character, helping give them options adapted to their species. There are 16 feats available, with three of them being Epic boons for your character.
Origin Feats
These feats can be chosen based on your background during the character creation process. They coincide with your choices there and help flesh out your character while also giving them a slight buff.
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Origin Feat |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Tireless Reveler |
When an ally uses their Heroic Inspiration within 60 feet of you, you also gain Heroic Inspiration if you don’t already have it. |
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Vampire Hunter |
You can mitigate Necrotic damage and have advantage on escaping non-magical grapples. |
|
Vampire’s Plaything |
While your vampire is on the same plane as you, you can choose to allow them to telepathically connect with you, communicating and seeing through your eyes. You also get benefits such as using the Dash or Disengage action as a bonus action. |
General Feats
Alongside Ability Score increases, these general feats fit the vampire theme rather well. Here’s a brief overview of what these new feats do.
|
General Feats |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Bloodlust |
Sanguine Feast on this ability allows you to regain Hit Points equal to the expended hit dice when you hit a Bloodied character. |
|
Bomber |
You can use the Attack action to throw a flask or other object at another creature instead of just a structure. Long-range attacks also do not impose disadvantage. |
|
Cloying Mists |
You constantly have Fog Cloud prepared, and it can be cast without using a spell slot. You can reduce the speed of creatures within it by five feet. |
|
Delicious Pain |
After taking Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing damage, you can use your reaction to gain resistance to that type of damage. |
|
Light Bringer |
You can cast Light, and as a bonus action within the light, you can use your Hit Dice to regain Hit Points. |
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Love Bites |
After damaging a creature with a melee attack, you can use a bonus action to Charm the creature. |
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Putrefy |
When you deal Necrotic damage on a hit, you can Poison the creature hit with the damage until the start of their next turn. |
|
Rebuke |
When you deal Radiant damage on a hit, you can cause a Huge or smaller creature to have the Prone condition. |
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Vampire Touched |
You always have Spider Climb and another spell of your choice from the Enchantment or Illusion school of magic prepared. |
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Treacherous Allure |
You always have Charm Person prepared, and you can cast it without a spell slot. You also have advantage against Charmed creatures. |
Epic Boon Feats
These are for players who reach higher levels and want to embrace either fighting against vampires or enhancing themselves as a vampire. These boons are meant ot turn you into the ultimate vampire or the ultimate vampire hunter, based on which you pick once you reach level 19.
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Epic Boon Feats |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Boon of Blazing Dawn |
You gain immunity to Radiant damage and can turn your weapon damage into Radiant damage instead. You can also emit Bright Light with this. |
|
Boon of Looming Shadows |
You can dodge as a bonus action, and your weapon attacks reach increases by ten feet. |
|
Boon of Misty Step |
When you would drop to 0 Hit Points, you instead drop to one Hit Point and cast Gaseous Form without spending a spell slot. You can only target yourself when it’s done this way, however. |
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