RP Build: The Blood Countess, a real vampire

[Madscientist]

Finally a real vampire ( with V ) has shown up in Eora, or maybe its just another fampyr whose big teeth give her problems to talk properly

 

Anyway, after discussing a bit about undead in PoE I thought about making one myself. This is mostly an RP build, but I would still like to know if it is useful.

 

race: death godlike ( for RP reasons, I guess every other race would be better, especially the ones who give status effect resistance )

 

background: A noble from the valien republics, sorry hungary cannot be selected

 

alignment: go for the cruel, deceptive ( shady ) and passionat options

 

class: corpse eater/beguiler

Undead have to eat flesh to prevent decomposing. Fortunalty we have the corpse eater class wich is a must have in this case. To make things better, barbariens have lots of talents with "blood" in their name. I admit that corpse eater is a bad choice so I could use a berserker ( for max damage ) or a barbarien without subclass ( if I care about my other party members ) and pretend to eat my enemies after the fight is over.

Vampires in other games use domination spells and can also drain their enemies stats, so beguiler seems perfect.

 

weapons: Dual wielding axes with bleeding modal on. Use draining axes if you find them, or axes that cause status effects. Best would be an axe with both (draining AND debuff on hit ).

 

barbarien talents: everythinng with blood in their name . So frenzy upgraded to blood frenzy, blooded ( though it will not be there often thanks to my draining weapons, at least I hope so ), 2 weapon style, bloodlust and later threatening presence. A multi class cannot get heart of fury, maybe barbaric blow with cost refund on kill where the death godlike special helps you to finish injured enemies. Leap could be a good way to get in the middle of the action ( vampires can fly in several games ). Savage defience and thick skinned and one stands alone might also be useful.

cipher talents: Domination type spells is a must have. You should be able to cause other status effects too in case enemies are resistant to my charm. Berserker would be great here if it means I damage the charmed enemies too, except when hitting charmed enemies can end the effect earlier, then a regular barbarien would be best. Spells that weaken your enemy and buff yourself fit also the vampire theme. There was a long lasting spell that gives you acc and def while weakening the enemy ( borrowed instincts? I am not sure ). This sounds great.

 

Stats:

Here I do have problems what to chose. Int is a must have for duration and AoE. But the rest is more difficult. Might is importent for barbarien damage and thus focus creation and draining healing. But none of the deception spells causes damage, so its wasted on the cipher part. Maybe I should select some damaging spells too. For the rest I am completely unsure. How much con do I need to keep myself alive with draining weapons? How much dex do I need for my attacks when I dual wield with axe modal and cast some spells? How much per for hitting things? Is res a complete dumb stat?

 

problems: The synergy between barbarien and beguiler does not seem so big.

Barbariens want to go crazy in melee. But except their shouts ( should I learn them? ) and much later threatening presence ( very useful for me ) they cannot cause afflictions. Beguilers need a debuffed enemy to be effective. While some deception powers are fast casts, domination spells are slower so there may be a good chance of being interrupted when you are surrounded by enemies. The increased range of deception spells for beguilers is also completely wasted here.

Maybe I should switch beguiler for another cipher. Ascendent may be useful if I get full focus fast. Sould blade gives you concentration when you kill an enemy which might be good here.

 

Do you have any ideas to make her better?

I like the idea to make an evil char without being a bleak walker.

[Boeroer]

You mean Romania, not Hungary! Dude...

Edited April 20, 2018 by Boeroer

[Madscientist]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_B%C3%A1thorywas a hungarian noblewoman who has killed and tortured several young girls and she became famous as "the blood countess". If she did really torture or kill hundreds of people or if this was a plot to get rid of her is not 100% sure, but at least it makes a good story.

Vlad the impaler was the guy from romania.

 

PS: Do we have an impale skill in PoE?

Edited April 20, 2018 by Madscientist

[Ascaloth]

I'd recommend Pale Elf myself, if only for the fact that they more closely resemble the classic vampire than a death godlike would.

[Skazz]

I'd recommend Pale Elf myself, if only for the fact that they more closely resemble the classic vampire than a death godlike would.

 

 

Best fit if only for the tremendous pun potential.

 

...

 

I feel scared to continue now.

Edited April 20, 2018 by Skazz

[Madscientist]

OK, I make a pale elf out of her.

It looks better and game mechanics wise almost everything is better than death godlike.

 

EDIT: Regarding puns: She is an impale elf

Edited April 20, 2018 by Madscientist

[Nail]

who has killed and tortured several young girls

By several you meant 650 known and many unknown victims?

 

Words from wiki: she owned land in the Kingdom of Hungary (now Hungary and Slovakia) and Transylvania (now Romania)

 

Yeah, those were the times...

 

[Madscientist]

The numbers about her victims range from 36 to 650, according to the english wikipedia. The number 650 comes from a witness who saw the number in her diary, but the book was never found and the number was never confirmed. The wiki is full of "citation needed". The only thing thats sure: In the trail she was accused of killing 80 people, she was found guilty and came under house arrest for the rest of her life.

 

But even if we assume the lowest number, torturing and killing 36 people for your personal pleasure is very extreme.

Most of the stuff we "know" has been written centuries later. Most likely she did not bath in or drink blood and she did not do it for satanic rituals.

[Madscientist]

OK, I thought about a backstory for her:

Animancy is wide spread in the valien republics. She hired an animancer who performed some experiments on her and she became a fampyr. Thanks to her power and money she has no problems to get lots of fresh flesh. That means she looks very good, not rotten at all. The ducs really like her because she gets the job done. She is send as a spy to Dyrwood to increase the power of the valiens. In PoE1 she supports animancy, helps the Domoels and the skean cultists, makes the trade deal with the tribes and finally destroys all souls for Rymgard, so that the Dyrwood does not profit from them. She inspires others to do whatever they want, especially if it involves killing people or seeking vengeance.

 

In the deadfire she still supports the valians. She tries to convince others to join her goals by whatever means necessary. If they do not join her, they all die under myterious circumstances.The ducs have investigated the events and came to the following result:

All of our enemies have committed suicide when they realized how superior we are. The fact that most of their bodies disappeared and the bodies that have been found are missing most of their flesh is easy to explain: They committed suicide by eating oneself alive. The fact that she visited all of our enemies before their death and the fact that all of their successors support us is a complete coincidence. She is absolutely innocent and all rumors about her are complete nonsense.

[George_Truman]

I thought vampires were from Pennsylvania.

[Heijoushin]

I thought vampires were from Pennsylvania.

 

Hey, even ancient China had their own vampire myth. The infamous jiangshi (僵尸).

 

To this day, I find corpse eater a very odd subclass for a barbarian. I wonder what train of thought lead them to make it. Some old barbarian culture that devoured the eyes of their enemies? Vicious tribes of cannibals?

[dunehunter]

 

I thought vampires were from Pennsylvania.

Hey, even ancient China had their own vampire myth. The infamous jiangshi (僵尸).

 

To this day, I find corpse eater a very odd subclass for a barbarian. I wonder what train of thought lead them to make it. Some old barbarian culture that devoured the eyes of their enemies? Vicious tribes of cannibals?

Jiangshi = zombie in Chinese lol.

[Heijoushin]

It's often translated as "hopping vampire" or "Chinese vampire". The characters are 殭 (stiff) and 屍 (corpse) if you want to get technical.

[Yosharian]

You mean Romania, not Hungary! Dude...

Vampires are generally quite 'hungary' for blood, though

[neotemplar]

I've been replaying Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines lately, and I am also eager to try smth resembling one of the clans or at least one of the common stereotypes.

 

My ideas so far

 

Gangrel (animal shifters) are my favs and they are well enough represented by Life Giver druids, where animal form is animal form, fortitude is rejuvenation and animalism is recreated via picking up animalistic spells (insect swarms, charm beast, firebug, beetle shell). The easiest way around.

 

The more classical "social vampire", avoiding massacres via active brainwashing can be represented with Rogue+Cipher.

 

Draining spells of wizard and necromantic summons of chanter also add some flavour to any build.

 

And surprisingly priests of Berath or Skaen may fit. There may be certain cults among vampires, so "a priest" may be seen very widely.

 

But I agree that supernatural growth in stats aka bloodbuff is better presented by berserker or helwalker monk. And the corpse eater is the only one who actually represents physical consuming of vitae. The description of the eater presumes you may also get certain public reaction.

 

Pale elves may be pale, but they get additional resist to fire. And vamps are usually afraid of it.

 

Anyway, the number of options is huge. 

Edited April 21, 2018 by neotemplar

[dunehunter]

It's often translated as "hopping vampire" or "Chinese vampire". The characters are 殭 (stiff) and 屍 (corpse) if you want to get technical.

 

Nah I'm Chinese, Jiangshi is equal to Zombie and vampire = Xixuegui in Chinese

[Tommy1984]

I've been replaying Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines lately, and I am also eager to try smth resembling one of the clans or at least one of the common stereotypes.

There is only one way to play Bloodlines ... the Malkavian way! :biggrin:

 

Quotes:

 

Trader: "Do you want to buy a weapon?"

Malkavian: "Weapons do not solve any problems ... I take 12!"

 

Bach: "I will destroy you!"

Malkavian: "Wait! Wait! I have to show you something ... your heart!"

 

Beckett: "What do you know about the Assyrians?"

Malkavian: "They tried to take over the world, but then we uploaded that virus into their UFO."

Beckett: "Eh ... no!"

 

[Madscientist]

OK, back to game mechanics.

 

I dicided to go for barbarien/soul blade. I want to bash things in melee. Soul blades can spend their focus for a powerful melee attack and get concentration on kill. They can still cast all spells. With the lower max focus she cannot cast lots of spells in a row, but I want a melee char who uses spells to CC enemies or buff herself when needed, not a caster who uses weapons only to generate focus. I want to use draining weapons to heal myself and axe modal plus blood frenzy to cause bleeding damage. For RP reasons I pretend that the combination of bleeding and draining implies that she drinks their blood. Power gamers will use berserker instead of the standard barbarien, but I am not sure how to deal with confusion.

 

some questions:

Do you think such a char is viable?

I used ciphers in PoE1 and they were very powerful. But I always used them with ranged weapons ( mostly leadspitter) as backrow casters. I am not sure how well they can cast as melee.

I also used barbariens and they were also powerful. Dual wield weapons that cause prone or stunn and have high per and you can CC/interrupt everything around you. But carnage does not cause weapon effects any more and it does not generate focus.

I do not know how good good barbarien and cipher work together.

 

- Were draining weapons + savage defiance + athletics enough to keep a barbarien alive in longer fights?

 

- Which speed bonusses stack ( like frenzy, bloodlust and potion )? Does bloodlust stack with itself? Do all those things reduce casting time too?

Just to be sure: +X% action speed improves attacking, casting and recovery, not just recovery like in PoE1.

 

- The club modal ( minus will defense ) looks perfect in combination with my domination powers.

 

- I just looked into character creation. A female pale elf with head #3 and the hunched pose looks perfectly like a vampire.

 

Regarding spells, I chose whisper of treason, silent scream (not sure), body attunement ( -5 armor rating for the enemy and +5 for me seems very powerful in the current penetration system), Ringleader, borrowed instincts ( sounds very vampiric but I do not know how good it is) and detonate (not sure).

 

When I look at this the char might not be the worst possible choice for soloing ( I do not intend to solo ) if draining weapons can keep you alive.

 

Edit: I think I skip silent scream and detonate. If I want to spend focus for damaging enemies with raw damage and also hitting everyone around me I have soul annihilation+carnage. This needs much less time then casting a spell. If I use spells only for CC and buffs I do not need to care about spell penetration.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Madscientist

[Madscientist]

To show some respect to the undead I will practice my skills in thread necomancy

 

I was thinking about the perfect party for an undead noble:

 

- The bodyguard: mountain dwarf, goldpact knight, either single class or multi classed with fighter

He does not mind working for an undead as long as he gets paid. She points in the direction and he swings his sword that way. He gives cynical comments about everything all the time, but you cannot understand any of his mumbling because of his massive beard. He has only one problem: His boss has forbidden him to sing songs about gold and beer all the time.

 

- The herald: aumaua single class troubadour

Whenever she has an official meeting, she is introduced by her herald who recites her full name with all of her titles and achievements. This takes several minutes because she is obsessed with collecting titles. People who know her never forget to bring some earplugs and they never take them out before her herald stops talking after an eternity or two. She listenes very carefully and she has already killed several former heralds because they have forgotten one of her titles or pronounced part of her name wrong. The new herald has to explain her several times every day: "No, you cannot eat my summons. They dissolve when they die."

 

- The necromant, human single class wizard

He is her "doctor". He made her become undead and he makes sure that she stays in good shape. He is very happy with his work so far. While being alive technically, he used his dark magic to prolong his life ( at the costs of others ) and his goal is to become a lich or even better, a god. He consideres her as a mix between his daughter and his test subject for optimizing his own immortality. While he is half mad, obsessed with power and looking more rotten than she does, he is a very powerful mage who will burn everything to ashes that stands in his way.

 

- The dark priestress: hearth orlan priest of skean, single class or multi class with rogue

She is still young, but she had to work hard as a slave until she killed her master with his own knife when he tried to rape her. She follows this group because she adores their cruelty, deception and the absolute will to destroy everything that stands in their way. In some sense she worships them more than Skean himself. The others are very nice to her and they treat her almost like she is their own child. They do their best to teach her the art of killing, torturing and convincing others to do what you want.

 

Thats it for now. Once the full game is out and I am familiar with the game I will post a full build.