Draft:Vampire lord
A vampire lord is a powerful, initially invisible undead creature with life-draining touch attacks. Its visible symbol is a V. The nonhostile specimens in Rampart's cemetery are an unusual opportunity to encounter one without immediately having to fight it.[1]
| Level | HP | Attack strength | Armor class | Base damage | Kill XP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 750 | 70 | 50 | 50 | 1,000 |
Generation
Each of the cemetery's four greater-undead sites chooses equally between a vampire lord and a lich. Cemetery occupants begin asleep and nonhostile. A vampire lord elsewhere is normally hostile and can occur in high-difficulty random-monster generation, the Astral Plane and summons. It is not included in the ordinary wilderness encounter's unrestricted random slot, whose selection stops below its monster tier.
The vampire lord carries no fixed starting object or random treasure. Its valuable potential product comes from its remains instead.[2][3][4]
Combat and detection
A vampire lord flies and uses spirit movement to pass through obstacles. It begins invisible, with a surprise ability that can reveal it after attacking and cost an unalert victim an action. Truesight or Alertness addresses this surprise, but does not stop the attack itself.
Its tactical sequence contains three attacks and three defensive actions. Each successful spirit touch deals ordinary damage and attempts life drain with strength 9. Without negative-energy immunity, the drain either removes nine current Strength and Constitution or removes nine character levels together with associated HP. Armor and ordinary-damage protection do not replace immunity to the drain.
The vampire lord's attack selection does not provide a working distant life-drain attack: its spirit touch is only executed at adjacent range. Remaining distant is therefore useful, although walls and doors do not reliably keep the creature from closing that distance.
It is immune to poison, fear and sleep, but not innately immune to ordinary physical damage or the common elemental damage types. Its immense HP and armor still make an early fight a poor trade.[5][6][7][8]
Remains and strategy
An ordinary vampire lord has a chance to leave vampire dust. Ambrosias can transmute this into a +9 cloak of negimmunity for 400 Au, providing protection against later life-draining opponents. This is not a carried cloak guaranteed to drop from every kill. The dust itself is not food and grants no direct protection by being eaten.
In the cemetery, preserve the initial peace and account for invisible occupants when choosing a route. Before deliberately fighting, prepare negative-energy immunity, a way to see or locate the target, and enough space to avoid repeated touches. A cloak obtained after the fight cannot protect you during that first encounter; spectre remains offer another source for the same alchemical product.
Surrender is unreliable against this evil-speaking opponent and can strengthen it after taking your cash and best item. Its name does not imply a special conversation, office or player succession reward.[9][10][11]
References
- ↑ minit.h in Omega 0.90.4, line 281.
- ↑ city.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 596 (
make_major_undead). - ↑ lev.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 317 (
make_creature). - ↑ mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 12 (
m_pulse). - ↑ mspec.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 220 (
m_sp_surprise). - ↑ mmelee.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 55 (
monster_melee). - ↑ mon.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 389 (
monster_strike). - ↑ effect3.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 1167 (
drain_life). - ↑ item.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 63 (
make_corpse). - ↑ itemf1.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 662 (
i_corpse). - ↑ site1.c in Omega 0.90.4, line 805 (
l_alchemist).