Still in the apoca-horror vein (har) today, we crack open Monte Cook’s World of Darkness (aka the McWoD). This one’s a bit of an oddity. It’s an OGL RPG that came out in 2007, a couple of years after the launch of the nWoD. So you’ve got the basic 5×5 organization of kith & subgroups that nWoD used, but it’s laid on top of a “class” & level engine.

I’m not gonna lie here: I was expecting this to be one of the more cumbersome builds of the month considering 3.5’s reputation for complexity & fiddliness, but this went shockingly quickly. That may be partly down to the fact that I was trying to recreate my first oWoD character, so I didn’t faff around a lot when choosing skills & feats, nor give any thought at all to planning out the future course of feat/skill progression. But let’s set that aside & get into it.

The McWoD is oddly coy about how to generate stats. (That may be down to the terms of the OGL, I’m not well enough versed in it to say.) Sure, some people roll 4d6, drop lowest & arrange to taste but, y’know, they’re just throwing that out there, running it up the flagpole & seeing who salutes. Well, heck, sounds good to me. Roll, roll, & it goes pretty well. Stats are 12, 12, 15, 15, 15, 14 (!). The character I’m reconstructing was a murderous schemer, so we arrange thus:

STR 12, DEX 15, CON 12, INT 14, WIS 15, CHR 15

Each McWoD character has a Focus. It’s a broad description of where the PC is developing their strengths. It can change at each level, so don’t be too worried about making a bad choice yet. Your Focus determines what skills are easier for you to learn. Skill ranks cost 1 point for your favored skills & 2 for the rest of them. As mentioned previously, murderous schemer, so we choose the Spirit focus because that’s the one that includes Bluff, Diplomacy & so forth. Your Focus grants a +2 to one of the attributes, but it’s not permanent. If you change type, you lose the bonus you had & take up the other one (which may entail some pain-in-the-ass stat & skill recalculation, fair warning). A Spirit focused character gets a +2 to WIS.

STR 12, DEX 15, CON 12, INT 14, WIS 17, CHR 15

Characters also have a Type. If your Focus is what you do, Type is what you are. You’ve got five choices here: Awakened (Hunters), Demons, Mages, Vampires, & Werewolves. We’re reminiscing on a V:tM character today, so vampire it is.

Each Type gets bonuses to certain stats. For a vampire that’s +2 to STR, CON & CHR. You also get a single +1 to put into whichever stat you like. Schemer, like I say, so into CHR it goes.

STR 14, DEX 15, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 17, CHR 18

Each Type has its own hit die. For vampires that’s a d8. Starting characters get 4HD + (4x CON bonus) hit points to start with. This PC has (roll, roll) … oh dear. We regress toward the mean with a vengeance here; 4, 5, 1, 1 + (4 x 2) = 19. Well, we knew going into this that he wasn’t going to be a brawler.

This is probably a good point to pick your clan. We take a moment to mourn the absence of our inspiration’s original clan (Setite 4 Life) & choose the next best thing, Clan Mekhet. At least their symbol still has an asp in it … *sniff* … Ahem. Anyway. Each clan has an associate penalty & bonus; for the Mekhet it’s +2 DEX & -2 CHR.

STR 14, DEX 17, CON 14, INT 14, WIS 17, CHR 16

Each vampire begins with two feats. Most of them are combat oriented, but a couple look like they’ll come in handy. We go with The Voice (you have an almost supernatural way with words;+1 to Bluff, Diplomacy & Gather Information, +2 on Perform (Oratory)) & Low Blow (stun your melee opponent with cheap shots).

Now skills. Starting characters pick two skill “themes” from a menu of 12, & get three ranks in each of them. Our character chooses the themes Perception & Social.

Listen (WIS) 3, Search (INT) 3, Sense Motive (WIS) 3, Spot (WIS) 3
Bluff (CHA) 3 + 1 = 4, Diplomacy (CHA) 3 + 1 = 4, Gather Information (CHA) 3 + 1 = 4, Intimidate (CHA) 3

A starting character gets six more points to buy any skill with. Skills that your Focus favors cost one point per rank, while everything else costs two.

Listen (WIS) 2 (gets added to the existing 3), Search (INT) 2 (added to the previous 3), Disguise (CHR) 1

A first level vampire has access to one Discipline. Any member of any clan can choose any Discipline, but each clan favors certain Disciplines & use them to greater effect. Certain Disciplines have prerequisites, whether that be character level or previous acquisition of other Disciplines. This is the era of nWoD so there’s no Serpentis (*sniff*), so we go for the next best thing: Obfuscate. One dot …. er, the first level of that is Touch of Shadows, which lets you quickly vanish small objects you pick up. A handy filching tool, plus it opens the door to greater powers of invisibility later on. I mean, I know there won’t be a later on, but still.

Then, all of a sudden, we’re done! Make a note of starting Base Attack Bonus, Defense, Saves, & Vitae (how much blood you’ve currently got in you) & this vampire is ready to rise from his grave & wreak shadowy havoc.

Name: Rook
Level 1 vampire (Mekhet)

STR 14 (+2), DEX 15 (+2), CON 14 (+3), INT 14 (+3), WIS 17 (+3), CHR 16 (+3)

Init +2, Spd 30ft, HP 19, Def 15, Touch 15, Flat Footed 13
Base Attack +3; Grapple +5; Attack/Full Attack +5 melee (1d4 + 4 bite)

Skills (Spirit) & Feats: Bluff +7, Diplomacy 7, Disguise +4, Gather Information +7, Intimidate +6, Listen +8, Search +8, Sense Motive +6, Spot +6, Low Blow, The Voice

Disciplines: Touch of Shadow

Vitae: 12 max; spend 1/round