Kobold Vampire Warrior

[Thurb@ne]

Just wondering, what feats would you give an NPC Vampire Kobold Warrior 6 (CR 5) to maximize it's threat to the party?

It will have three feats (1st, 3rd & 6th), plus vampire bonus feats (Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative & Lightning Reflexes)

Wild Cohort to get a Wolf cohort?
Travel Devotion to get up in the PCs faces?
Turn Resistance?
Darkstalker to take advance of a +8 racial bonus on Hide/Move Silently?

Cheers - T

[Rebel7284]

Undead Leadership.

[Keldar]

Or Draconic Reservoir  for Greater Rite of Passage for a 1st level spell 3/d and 1st level Sorcerer casting.

[Demelain]

Or Draconic Reservoir  for Greater Rite of Passage for a 1st level spell 3/d and 1st level Sorcerer casting.

Oh man, my PCs had a time with that one. I ran an eighth level party through a Kobold warren filled with almost nothing but level 1 Kobolds (the boss was level 3). The Kobold Rogues were especially hilarious with Grease. I heartily advocate this.

What does the party look like, in this case? Turn Resistance is thematic, but useless if there isn't a Cleric to worry about. Though if there is, it might not be enough. Turn Undead doesn't get used for turning undead much these days, but it's really good at it.

Vampire is a melee monster in this case, so he needs a way to close the gap with the party. Going first (improved initiative and charging), teleporting in (travel devotion or a level 1 mobility spell with Draconic Rite of Passage), and sneaking are all good options. Only consider Darkstalker if your players actually have touchsight/blindsight/tremorsense/etc.

Then he needs to be able to disable part of the party immediately. One-on-Three+ is bad odds, ya know? This is where Greater Rite of Passage will give you a serious option that most straight-up melee monsters don't have. Grease continues to be a favorite, with the added sweetness of usually being a PC tactic.

Now he just needs to wail on someone with energy-drain. I assume your party is somewhere in the 4 to 6 range. I actually advocate isolating an arcane spellcaster by disabling everyone else - melee dudes probably don't have the DEX to recover from grease quickly, and Divines like to wear heavy armor (Clerics) or dump DEX because lolwildshape (Druid). The benefit of being undead is immunity to many low-level save-or-lose spells, so the Vampire should have a round or three to slam the spellcaster. By that time, the greased party should have time to recover and get themselves in sorts. A credible threat that looks like a close call, but is survivable.

Tacking Precocious Apprentice onto Draconic Reservoir (if that works) can open some hilarious stuff. Glitterdust, ghoul touch, touch of idiocy...

[brujon]

If i might suggest items, a Wand of Blood Wind can be a hilariously useful and surprising tool to spring on your PC's if you spend a few cross-class skills into UMD. A vampire making ranged slam attacks that drain levels from cover, before springing in melee? That will throw them off-guard. A good tactic in this case would be using ranged Slam attacks on the casters to try and make them lose their highest level spells, then, pop out with a Dominate. If it works, then you can come out of hiding as a Dire Wolf and go straight for the weakest non-dominated folk. If it doesn't, then you can keep ranged attacking until the Gaze does work. Then you can go and finish off the rest.

Ability Focus (Dominate) or Ability Focus (Energy Drain) will help overcome high Will saves and give you an edge here. Stacking Irresistible Gaze on top of Ability Focus will get you a base DC 18 on your Dominate. That, plus your CHA, will all but guarantee that at least one of the party members fails the check. Then, hilarity ensues. Quick Change is a good feat from Savage Species as well. Being able to change from Dire Wolf to Bat as a move action can help make sure you get a good AC for next round, or ensure a quick escape to safety.  Pervasive Gaze helps ensure that Dominate works, making that 50% chance not to need making a saving throw into a 25% one.

[dna1]

dodge, mobility, spring attack?

spring in and level drain slam them, then spring off. maybe use gas form as your 2nd move and float around