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Liber Vampyr Secrets of the Blood

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Liber Vampyr Secrets of the Blood Liber Vampyr Secrets of the Blood Alex Riggs, Joshua Zaback Credits Designers Original Design Alex Riggs, Joshua Zaback Alex Riggs, Joshua Zaback, Justin Holloway Editor Rosa Gibbons Necromancers of the Northwest, LLC 8123 236th St SW, Unit 102 Edmonds, WA, 98026 www.necromancers-online.com Product Identity: The following terms are hereby defined as product identity, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a, Section 1(E), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, etc) dialogue, plot, storylines, location, characters and trade dress. Artwork: All art in this book, besides the Necromancers of the Northwest logo, is either part of the public domain, or is used with the express permission of the creator, or is the property of Can Stock Photo, Inc. Necromancers of the Northwest, LLC claims no special rights or privileges to any art presented herein. Open Game Content: Except for material designated as Product Identity or Artwork (see above), the game mechanics of this Necromancers of the Northwest game product are Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a Section 1(d). No portion of this work other than Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written permission. Compatibility with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game requires the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game from Paizo Publishing, LLC. See http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for more information on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Paizo Publishing, LLC does not guarantee compatibility, and does not endorse this product. Pathfinder is a registered trademark of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility Logo are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and are used under the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Compatibility License. See http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/compatibility for more information on the compatibility license. Table of Contents Tanor’s Awakening, a Short Story.................................................................................................................4 Introduction............................................................................................................................................................5 Chapter 1: Classes.................................................................................................................................................5 Revenant Bloodletter.....................................................................................................................................6 Revenant Infiltrator......................................................................................................................................7 Revenant Occultist......................................................................................................................................10 Chapter 2: Supplemental Rules.......................................................................................................................15 Chapter 3: Feats....................................................................................................................................................19 Chapter 4: Prestige Classes.............................................................................................................................33 Sanguine Aspirant.......................................................................................................................................33 Sweetblood Manipulator.............................................................................................................................36 Vampire Hunter..........................................................................................................................................39 Chapter 5: New Vampires...............................................................................................................................44 Culled One...................................................................................................................................................44 Feral Vampire (Nachzehrer).......................................................................................................................45 Nosferatu......................................................................................................................................................51 Psychic Vampire (Lianashae)......................................................................................................................53 Revenant.......................................................................................................................................................54 Appendix: Steps of the Sanguine Path.......................................................................................................60 OGL.........................................................................................................................................................................62 Foreword In some ways, your first will always be more special to you than anything that comes after it. This is true of a lot of things, and it’s certainly true of game design. Liber Vampyr was initially released in March of 2010, and was the very first thing that Necromancers of the Northwest showed to the world. At the time, we thought it was pretty slick, and were proud of how we had accomplished something that, up until then, had not really been done before: we provided real support for vampire player characters in Pathfinder. Sure, before you could have sacrificed two levels to gain the vampire template...but only if your GM was insane and didn’t mind you completely ruining the game. And what if you wanted to pattern your vampire off of one of the many vampire myths not supported by the template in the bestiary? Blood powers, revenants, and cruomancy were versatile, allowing you to build your own set of vampire powers and weaknesses, and they were designed with things like character progression and game balance in mind. In short, the book was awesome, and the hundreds of thousands of downloads that came later serve as proof of that. On the other hand, with wisdom and experience comes a lot of things, and one of them was the realization that Liber Vampyr may not have been as awesome as we thought. Many aspects of the design were unintuitive or worked at cross- purposes. Blood powers were confusing, and the line between them and feats was ill-defined. There were some balance issues, but not too many. It was a little too hard for a low-level revenant to secure a source of blood to let him use his vampiric powers. Most of all, the layout was atrocious. While we’ve come a long way in a lot of different categories since March 2010, I think the furthest we’ve come is in our layout, and eventually it reached the point where it didn’t even matter if the book’s content was any good, it was too painful for us to look at it. For a while, we decided to ignore it. Liber Vampyr was a thing of the past, why not leave it that way? But, like all good vampires, the book just wouldn’t stay dead. We wanted to do more with vampires, but making a new book that was dependent on one we were too embarassed to look at was...not an option. Besides, it just felt wrong to leave it how it was. So, eventually, we resolved that we were going to bring Liber Vampyr up to date: both the layout, and the design. Those of you familiar with the previous edition will quickly note the changes, as much of the book was written from the ground up. It may be our second take on vampires, but Liber Vampyr will always be number one in our cold, necromantic hearts. ~Alex Riggs Head Designer Tanor’s Awakening Tanor awoke with a start, uncertain where he was. His surroundings were cramped, and it took him a moment to realize that there was no light, because for some strange reason he found he could see perfectly even in total darkness. It took him even longer to realize he wasn’t breathing. And then it all came back to him, in a flood: the woman, Vilmena, with her haunting beauty and unearthly grace, and her soft, porcelain skin. How she had seduced him. Bitten him. Fed upon him. That was the last thing he remembered before waking up in this dark, enclosed space. And then he felt a creeping feeling in the pit of his stomach, as he began to feel the hunger. The terrible, ever-present hunger of the vampire. The hunger was so insistent, so powerful, that he was swiftly lost in it. Who was he? It didn’t matter. Where was he? Not near prey. He needed to find prey. Needed to feed. He was so hungry. Frantically, he began clawing at the walls of his prison, scraping madly, letting out the feral howl of a night beast, until the very earth seemed to quake at his rage and frustration. And then his prison opened, and a wave of pale moonlight washed over him. Standing over him he could see the proud, sensual figure of Vilmena, staring down at him appraisingly. In one hand she held the limp form of what appeared to be a filthy beggar by the back of the neck, his weight apparently no burden for her single hand. She dropped the limp, rank body into Tanor’s coffin—for indeed that was what his prison had been—and immediately, without even realizing it, he had sunk his teeth deep into the man’s throat and was gorging himself on the man’s blood. The man reeked of ale and poor hygiene, the skin tasting of oil, sweat, and filth. But Tanor didn’t care. The blood was so sweet, rushing
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