Vampire, Nosferatu (template)
Vampire%20Nosferatu.png
Icon%20-%20Creature%20Type%20Undead.png
Icon%20%28Subtype%29%20-%20Templated%20Undead.png
Icon%20%28Race%29%20-%20Vampire%2001.png
Nature: Creature template
Type: Becomes Undead
Base: Any living creature with 5 or more HD.
Most were once humanoids, fey, or monstrous humanoids.

Alignment: Any Evil
Size: As base creature
CR: Base creature +2

First Encountered: 26.3 "The Bride of the Necromancer"

Description: "This somberly dressed but feral-looking gaunt man has yellowed, rat-like fangs and ragged, clawed fingers."

Information: Nosferatu are savage undead who may be the progenitors of the common, more refined vampires. The curse of the nosferatu lacks the elegance and romance of its modern form, harkening to a forgotten age of verminous hunger and eerie powers. Granted immortal life but not immortal youth, nosferatu are withered, embittered creatures unable to create others of their kind, as they somehow lost that ability long ago.

Their ancient sensibilities still reflect the cruelty of epochs past, and their age-spanning plots are untethered by the modern affliction of morality. Nosferatu resent common vampires (which they call "moroi," an ancient term from a lost language) for their beauty, whereas the modern vampires in turn scorn the nosferatu as bestial relics of an earlier age, best hidden away in remote ruins so as not to sully the charismatic reputation of "true" vampires.

Be cause nosferatu can't create spawn, any nosferatu in existence are very old - created long ago in a time before they lost the ability to infect others with their undead curse. As such, most of them are of goblinoid origins, which has in part contributed to their reputation as being more ugly and "monstrous" than more recent bloodsuckers. That being said, there are also a few elven and even dwarven nosferatu, but it's notable that despite the orcs having been contemporaries of the great goblinoid civilizations, an orcish nosferatu is entirely unheard of.

Most nosferatu live in isolated places with few visitors, and a nosferatu could be a thousand years old and yet have fewer than a dozen character levels be cause it lacks sufficient foes to challenge it, the initiative to train itself, or is simply too cautious and hidebound to go out into the world and learn and grow.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License