I am surprised there isn’t a slew of comments about the stake…seems to be a big thing lately, "A stake in the heart would kill a normal person!", so as a pre-emptive strike against those, a steel sword in the heart would also kill a normal person, but not a vampire! I had a holy mithril +1 or +2 sword the first time I fought a vampire in D&D, character had to fight it alone because the rogue wanted a vampire companion and he was the only one with me at the time, (the cleric was trapped in a chamber that was about to be full of water, while the hexblade was trying to leave the castle we were in (and since the rogue had placed a bunch of traps near the entrance to slow anybody stalking us, and the hexblade failed to notice any, since only I was there with the rogue as he did it, the hexblade made it to the final trap and was left at 0 hp), somehow we managed to beat the vampire, get the cleric out, and get the hexblade on his feet… (I actually knocked the vampire out a window using the rogue as a club…needless to say we had to fight him later, but we were actually capable of it that time…)
Curse me and my monologues…that story totally wasn’t the point of this post…
Okay, so… did you want to tell us that it’s more of that stake is one of the few weapons that actually can kill a vampire rather than that dying from being staked is special somehow?
The general point of "stake to the heart kills humans, too", as I understand it, is for vampires who can have ANYTHING to the heart kill them, meaning that a character saying that means, "Well, DUH, it kills us, it’d kill anyone."
Of course the stake to the heart comes from nailing the body down in the grave. The vampire can't kill if it can't leave the grave, right? So originally it wasn't meant to kill directly (the body is dead, remember?) but to cause the vampire (or other form of restless dead) to starve.
Unless you have one of those who doesn't have to leave the grave to feed.
One of my characters found that an ashwood arrow with a vial of holy water instead of an arrowhead works well. If you’re a bit short on holy water, juice squeezed out of the bud of a garlic clove will suffice too. At the very least, it forces a vampire to change into mist form.
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I am surprised there isn’t a slew of comments about the stake…seems to be a big thing lately, "A stake in the heart would kill a normal person!", so as a pre-emptive strike against those, a steel sword in the heart would also kill a normal person, but not a vampire! I had a holy mithril +1 or +2 sword the first time I fought a vampire in D&D, character had to fight it alone because the rogue wanted a vampire companion and he was the only one with me at the time, (the cleric was trapped in a chamber that was about to be full of water, while the hexblade was trying to leave the castle we were in (and since the rogue had placed a bunch of traps near the entrance to slow anybody stalking us, and the hexblade failed to notice any, since only I was there with the rogue as he did it, the hexblade made it to the final trap and was left at 0 hp), somehow we managed to beat the vampire, get the cleric out, and get the hexblade on his feet… (I actually knocked the vampire out a window using the rogue as a club…needless to say we had to fight him later, but we were actually capable of it that time…)
Curse me and my monologues…that story totally wasn’t the point of this post…
Sounds like a fun session 😀
Okay, so… did you want to tell us that it’s more of that stake is one of the few weapons that actually can kill a vampire rather than that dying from being staked is special somehow?
The general point of "stake to the heart kills humans, too", as I understand it, is for vampires who can have ANYTHING to the heart kill them, meaning that a character saying that means, "Well, DUH, it kills us, it’d kill anyone."
to quote a hunter game i played "a stake to the hart kills about every thing, if a stake to the hart doesn’t kill something, you should run"
Of course the stake to the heart comes from nailing the body down in the grave. The vampire can't kill if it can't leave the grave, right? So originally it wasn't meant to kill directly (the body is dead, remember?) but to cause the vampire (or other form of restless dead) to starve.
Unless you have one of those who doesn't have to leave the grave to feed.
Forget the story. Someone get to engineering the UniBunny!!
One of my characters found that an ashwood arrow with a vial of holy water instead of an arrowhead works well. If you’re a bit short on holy water, juice squeezed out of the bud of a garlic clove will suffice too. At the very least, it forces a vampire to change into mist form.
Reminds me of a children’s horrorstory by a Dutch author where the vampire ended up staked by an arrow completely made of wood
Cross? what’s a cross?!
A torture/execution implement. I guess it could work against vampires but it's idiotic to use it as a weapon.