QtR19 - Vampire Cat

[High Priest Mikhal]

@High Priest Mikhal:
well, since I'm no citizen of the US of A and have not been there for the last 25 years or so, I'm only in touch with that bits of american culture that crosses the Atlantic. For all I know, Bunnicula hasn't. But I will certainly look into it.

I'm pretty sure it has crossed the pond. The series is nearly thirty-years-old. If anything they'd likely be available as digital downloads (I prefer actual physical books myself; I guess I'm just old fashioned).

[Kadarin]

Age Categories

Age Category	Fledgling	Mature	Old	Very Old	Ancient	Eminent	Matriarch
Age (yrs)	0-9	10-18	19-27	28-36	37-45	46-98	99+
Hit Dice	3+6	4+1	4+1	4+2	4+2	4+3	4+5
Salient Abilities	0	1	2	3	5	7	9
Weapon to hit	Enchanted	Enchanted	±1	±1	±2	±2	±3
Regeneration/rnd	1	1	1	2	2	2	3
Magic Resistance	5%	10%	15%	20%	25%	30%	33%
Rnds sunlight	0	1	2	3	4	6	9

Salient Abilities is the total number of salient abilities the vampire cat possesses.
Regeneration/rnd means the hit points per round the cat regenerates.
Rnds sunlight means the number of rounds a vampire cat can stand sunlight without being harmed.
Note that due to the chaotic nature of vampire cats, all those values are at the discretion of the DM.

[Kadarin]

Fair enough, If you need me, I'll be over in the corner kicking the cat.

rotfl. I'll get you for that.

[Kadarin]

Salient Abilities
Note: It is strongly recommended that the DM chooses appropriate Salient abilities instead of rolling dice. See also the guidelines for Salient Abilities in Van Richten’s Guide to Vampires.

3d6	Salient Ability
3	Innate Magic†
4	Passwall†
5	Invisibility: The cat may become invisible 1×/night for 9 rounds; it is then also immune to any detect spells. Reroll: The cat may turn invisible 3×/night, each time for 9 rounds.
6	Transport†
7	Bloodlust†
8	Undead Control: The vampire cat may control one small feline undead (e.g. a small cat zombie, a small cat skeleton, a sceletal cat, or a normal crypt cat). Reroll: The vampire cat may either control a total of 9 HD of small cat undead or one greater cat undead (the cat must not decide this on getting this salient ability, but can choose in every case).
9	Superior Energy Drain: The chance of draining a level or a HD rises to 50% per attack. Reroll: The chance rises to 67%.
10	Aura of Silence: The cat can, at will, project an aura of silence with a radius of 15’. Reroll: The radius of the aura of silence is 33’
11	Vampiric Rage: Once per night, for nine combat rounds, the cat gains a bonus of +1 to both attack and damage rolls. Reroll: The AC of the vampire cat is improved by one (AC 3 becomes AC 2).
12	Improved Saves†
13	Superior Regeneration: The vampire cat regenerates one more hp/rnd. Reroll: The cat regenerates 2 more hp/rnd.
14	Extra Feeding†
15	Shapechange: The vampire cat can grow a pair of bat-like wings, gaining a Movement score of 12, Fly 18 (A), once per night for a maximum of 9 turns. Reroll: The cat can use this ability two times per night or change into mist-form (like a normal vampire) for 9 rounds.
16	Coloration: The fur of the vampire cat turns totally black (like that of a midnight cat), and its eyes take on a sickly green (or, in case of a mage, sickly blue) color. Reroll: The fur of the cat turns white, almost translucent, while its eyes become misty white (as if it were blind, which it isn’t). Note that with that Salient Ability, it cannot longer be told if a vampire cat is a mage or not.
17	Summon Great Cat: The vampire cat may, once per night, summon one great cat (e.g., a tiger, a lion, or a mountain lion) within a radius of one mile. The creature will appear after 9 rounds, and return to the place from which it came after another 9 rounds, probably deeply confused and irritated. The vampire cat cannot control the great cat. Reroll: The vampire cat may control the great cat for 3 rounds; after that, the great cat is free-willed (and may attack the vampire cat).
18	Golem Control: The cat may, once per night, summon and control one small feline golem, like a doll golem in form of a cat or a porcelain figurine. Range of summoning is 1 mile; the creature will appear within 9 rounds and will be under control of the vampire cat for further 9 rounds. Note that there must be an appropriate creature within the summoning radius. Reroll: The cat may animate one small cat-like doll or porcelain piece, turning them into a doll golem or porcelain figurine. After 9 rounds, the golem becomes inanimate again, although some do have an evil glint in their eyes afterwards, especially at night.

†: see Van Richten’s Guide to Vampires

[riMkrad]

@High Priest Mikhal:
well, since I'm no citizen of the US of A and have not been there for the last 25 years or so, I'm only in touch with that bits of american culture that crosses the Atlantic. For all I know, Bunnicula hasn't. But I will certainly look into it.

I loved Bunnicula as a kid. I've read it to my youngins and they love it too. Only been as far as the next book The Howliday Inn (murder mystery.. almost.. with a werewolf??). There are maybe 4 or 5 books, aimed at the elementary school age. If you have a kid, I'd recommend getting the first one and reading it. Has a lot of umm "cannon" vampire lore.

[Kadarin]

Other Salient Abilities
Control Cats: The cat may control any small cat within 90’, 1×/night, for 9 turns. It may only control as much HD as it has itself.
Improved: The cat may control one great cat, 1×/night, regardless of HD, for 9 rounds.

Create Illusion: The vampire cat can use, 1×/ night, an illusion spell (which one is at the discretion of the DM).
Improved: The creature may use one phantasm spell, 1×/night, instead of an illusion spell, at the discretion of the DM.

Curse: The cat may, once per moon, lay a curse on one creature. The curse may be embarassing, frustrating, or troublesome. Vampire cats prefer to cast their curses on nights of the dark moon.
Improved: The cat may cast dangerous or even lethal curses.

Dominate Victim: The vampire cat may dominate (as per spell) one human, demi-human, or humanoid 1×/night for 9 rounds if the victim fails a save vs. paralyzation.
Improved: The cat may dominate three victims for 9 rounds, or one victim for 27 rounds, or one victim for 9 and another for 18 rounds.

Familiar: The cat may choose one human, demi-human, or humanoid familiar. It prefers magic-users, especially witches. The other normal rules for familiars apply.
Improved: The cat may choose either three witches or one hag as a familiar.

Retain Salient Abilities: Even when destroyed in the proper manner, the vampire cat retains half of its Salient Abilities (rounded down). Since it starts again as a fledgling, a cat with this ability may gain much more Salient Abilities than a normal vampire cat could. For example, if a cat in the “Old” category with this ability is destroyed, it keeps one SA, and will gain another after reaching the “Mature” category again.
Improved: The cat keeps two-thirds of its Salient Abilities (rounded down).

Special Mode of Destruction: The cat must be destroyed in an unusual matter, e.g. with an echanted wolf bone.
Improved: The cat must be destroyed in a special matter, e.g with an enchanted werewolf bone.

Suffocate: 1×/night, the vampire cat may attempt to suffocate a victim (if the victim needs to breath, of course). Those failing a save against paralyzation and are not removed out of the area of effect (9’ radius around the cat) will die according to the rules on suffocation.
Improved: The cat can use this ability 3×/night, and the effect has a radius of 27’.

[Kadarin]

Ecology
As undead creatures, vampire cats have no place within the natural order of living beings; they are things of the darkness that only exist to spread evil and chaos.
All vampire cats are female. It is not known how they proliferate, since they are also undead. Some sages believe that they can infect domestic cats, like human vampires, but do so only during a lunar eclipse. It is, however, very unlikely (and unobserved) that the newly-created fledglings become slaves to their “creator”. Fortunatly, it seems like vampire cats cannot infect great cats; just imagine a vampiric sabre-toothed tiger!
Another theory states that some cats just turn into vampire cats, without any apparent reason.
The first vampire cats are said to be created by the insane vampire-mage Radič the Fair.
The powdered claws, teeth, and preserved tongues of vampire cats can be used for spells and potions affecting blood, although this is not recommended.

[Kadarin]

Vampire Cat Mage
As noted above, vampire cat mages look like silver-grey siamese cats with blue eyes, but without the distinctive markings. Unlike most other vampire cats (or cats in general), they have an innate ability to cast spells – and do not seem to be limited as to which spells (except for levels); that is, they can use wizard and/or priest spells from any school or sphere. None of them has, however, been observed to use healing spells.
Vampire cat mages have usually a higher intelligence score (genius, 17-18) than other vampire cats. All of them have the ability to curse (see Salient Abilities above), but this does neither count against their number of salient abilities nor against their number of spells. Note that the Salient Ability “Innate Magic” also doesn’t count against the number of spells. Individual vampire cat mages may have more (or less) spells than given in the table below, at the discretion of the DM.

Age Category	Spell Level
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Fledgling	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
Mature	1	1	-	-	-	-	-
Old	2	1	1	-	-	-	-
Very Old	2	2	1	1	-	-	-
Ancient	2	2	2	1	1	-	-
Eminent	3	2	2	2	1	1	-
Matriarch	3	3	2	2	2	1	1

[Kadarin]

The Mistress & Other Vampire Cat Myths
There are rumors among sages (and some say, even among vampire cats themselves), that there exists a vampire cat queen, called the Mistress, or sometimes Nith, mightier still than the most powerful mage matriarch. Given the chaotic nature of these monsters, however, this is highly unlikely.
The tale of the only male vampire cat, named Krvich, seems even more unbelievable. It is told that it was a marine cat on board of a pirate ship, turned into a vampire cat and killed the whole crew. Later, it appeared in Zosopol, a small village in Barovia, where it terrorized the citizens. There is also its grave, said to exist to present day, with only its name engraved on a stone, and protected by powerful spells against its return.

I wanted to write about Bunny the Vampire Cat Slayer (aka Manofevil) but it's just too silly. Any ideas for other vampire-cat related myths, please?