Nosferatu [Savage Coast]

A nosferatu is a dangerous undead much like a vampire, but it does not drain levels and is not harmed by sunlight. Though always feared, not every nosferatu is evil; many are victims of a cruel fate, caught between thirst, pain and self-loathing, and some still show mercy. One can blend in among mortals, revealing its monstrous face only when it attacks. Like a vampire it casts no shadow or reflection.

Undeath leaves it with at least 16 Strength, or its living score if higher. With no level drain, it relies on weapons and spells. Its stare charms as charm person (save at -2), after which it may plant a suggestion, as the spell, which helps it slip past guards quietly.

Only +1 or better weapons hurt it, and it regenerates 1 hit point per round. At 0 hit points it turns to gas and flees to its coffin, reforming after eight hours there; if it fails to reach the coffin within 12 turns, it dies. Sleep, charm, hold, poison and paralysis do not affect it, and cold and electrical spells deal half damage.

At will it can become gaseous, immune to physical harm, turn into a large bat by night or a raven by day, and spider climb. It can summon 1d100 bats or rats underground, or 3d6 wolves outdoors, arriving in 2d6 rounds.

Strong garlic keeps it back. Holy symbols and holy water mean nothing to it, and only clerics of opposite alignment or undead-hunting specialists can turn it. Three straight rounds immersed in running water destroy it, as does a stake through the heart, though pulling the stake lets it start regenerating. To finish a staked nosferatu, behead it and fill its mouth with earth from ground sacred to a good deity; even a good-aligned one is vulnerable, since the god acts against the curse rather than the creature.

It cannot enter a home uninvited, but once asked in it may come and go; an invitation won by charm or trickery still counts.

A humanoid it drains rises as a nosferatu three days later only if its slayer wills it and the body was not burned or destroyed. The new one obeys its maker until the maker dies, then becomes free-willed.

A nosferatu keeps the memories, class skills and restrictions it had in life. Levels are adjusted to the monster's Hit Dice range: a 12th-level mage returns as a 9 HD nosferatu with 9th-level spells, while a 5th-level cleric rises as 7 HD with 7th-level spells. It can keep advancing, but needs triple the normal experience. A cleric's spells keep coming from its old divine patron only if their alignments match. Constitution no longer matters, warrior and cleric nosferatu may wear armor that does not improve their AC, and weapons must suit the former class.

They can live anywhere but are especially common in the eastern city-states, often as people of standing: a gallant noble, a reclusive wizard, a local lord. They feel no need to haunt graveyards, preferring to live among the warm-blooded people they feed on. They act faster than vampires, scheming for a decade where a vampire broods for a century. Because they never age, they must regularly change identity, disguising their apparent age, posing as their own heirs, or simply vanishing for ten years.

They like each other's company. Evil and neutral ones enjoy toying with mortals, while good ones meddle only to survive or protect loved ones.

Each keeps a hidden refuge among the living. Evil nosferatu behave much like vampires; good ones live as unhappy victims and create spawn only with consent, such as a loved one's, preserving that person's alignment. Evil ones usually bend a victim's alignment to match their own, but may preserve it as a torment. Good-aligned victims often try to destroy themselves or their makers.

All crave blood. After a week without it, pain twists the body and every ability score drops 1 per day, down to a minimum of 9. Draining at least 9 hit points of mortal blood a week prevents this, and each 1d4 further hit points of fresh blood restores lost points. Animal blood only numbs the pain for a day and restores nothing.