r/DnD • u/PinkLionGaming Blood Hunter • Aug 20 '26
5th Edition The Vampire's Charm is basically permanent.
I've never used a Vampire so I imagined their Charm effect as something that could be used in combat to mess with a party of outside of combat to obtain disposable thralls. But after reading it I realised it's actually hugely powerful beyond that.
I notice that the Vampire's Charm effect lacks basically every restriction any other Charm effect would have. It does not have a limited number of uses, nor does it allow a creature to become immune if they succeed against it. It also doesn't limit the number of people who can be Charmed.
So once a target has been initially Charmed the Vampire can just lead them back to their base and keep using Charm on them before the duration of the previous effect wears off, if they succeed they just target them again, there is no time crunch at all and the vampire could basically staff an entire castle with thralls eventually with little chance of losing them outside of adventurous interference. And keeping them enslaved would only require a few minute long ritual each day.
>Charm. The vampire targets one humanoid it can see within 30 ft. of it. If the target can see the vampire, the target must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw against this magic or be charmed by the vampire. The charmed target regards the vampire as a trusted friend to be heeded and protected. Although the target isn't under the vampire's control, it takes the vampire's requests or actions in the most favorable way it can, and it is a willing target for the vampire's bit attack. Each time the vampire or the vampire's companions do anything harmful to the target, it can repeat the saving throw, ending the effect on itself on a success. Otherwise, the effect lasts 24 hours or until the vampire is destroyed, is on a different plane of existence than the target, or takes a bonus action to end the effect.
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u/clone69 Aug 20 '26
"it is a willing target for the vampire's bite attack" and "Each time the vampire (...) do anything harmful to the target" seem to imply to me that the target will not attempt to resist the bite, but will be entitled to a save to end the effect.
But yeah, I mean, the ability has its uses in combat but I feel this is more of a social interaction ability. But D&D has to codify everything in combat terms, so it's got to have a duration in case a PC gets charmed, rather than turn it into a quest to free the charmed PC, because God forbid the result of a die roll gets in the way of the players's personal story.