Vampire bats and their giant vampire bat cousins were species of flying living creatures that fed on mammalian blood, unlike their fruit and insect feeding relatives. Vampire bats were often associated with lycanthropes and vampires.[3]
Abilities[]
Like other bats, vampire bats relied on echolocation rather than sight when flying and hunting in the night skies. Echolocation was a type of auditory radar sense what was achieved by bats screeching and receiving echoes of the sound bouncing off objects and obstacles. Because of reliance of hearing, vampire bats had a weak eyesight which made them virtually immune to spells and abilities that blinded the targets or affected them via light. However spells such as silence effectively crippled and "blinded" vampire bats.[3]
Giant vampire bats' bites had a chance of rendering their targets unconscious for 1-10 minutes, allowing the creature to feed freely. Even though giant vampire bats were not undead themselves, the victims who perished from being drained by them had a chance of raising as undead 24 hours after their death.[3]
Behavior[]
Most vampire bats fed exclusively on non-humanoid mammalian blood, however, oftentimes their presence fueled panic and paranoia in fear of true vampires.[8]
Ecology[]
Werebats could take on a form of a vampire bat or a hybrid of a humanoid and a vampire bat.[9] Vampires had affinity for vampire bats, they were able to summon individual and swarms of creatures that included vampire bats and bats often could be found within their lairs.[10]
Occasionally, wizards were able to use vampire bats as familiars. The vampire lord Cazador Sharr was able to summon swarms of vampire bats by using the spell vampiric swarm.[11]
Some sages speculated that stirges were closely related to vampire bats due to both species sleeping while hanging upside down. Furthermore, exceptionally large species of stripes were known to inhabit dense tropical jungles and they often intermingled with giant vampire bats.[7]
Habitats[]
Vampire bats were often spotted in the night skies over Waterdeep and in the vicinity of the Dragon Tower of the wizard Maaril in the 14thcentury DR.[4]
Outside of Toril, vampire bats could be found in the land of Barovia in the Domains of Dread.[6]
Notable Vampire Bats[]
- Gothma: the fabled giant vampire bat of Gillian's Hill that many believed dwelt under the town's graveyard and was surrounded by its undead servants. The vampire bat was believed to be behind a plague of 1372 DR.[5]
Appendix[]
Appearances[]
Novels & Short Stories
Sword Play
Gamebooks
Video Games
Neverwinter Nights: Darkness over Daggerford
Board Games
Card Games
AD&D Trading Cards
Notes[]
- ↑ The Monstrous Compendium Volume One and Monstrous Manual do not distinguish in statistics between vampire bats and other bats, nor between giant vampire bats and giant bats, which are described as "giant versions of the carnivorous version of the ordinary bat", and are also called large bats.
References[]
- ↑ David "Zeb" Cook, Steve Winter, Jon Pickens (June 1989). Monstrous Compendium Volume One. Edited by Bill Connors, Gary Thomas. (TSR, Inc). ISBN 0-8803-8738-6.
- ↑ Doug Stewart (June 1993). Monstrous Manual. (TSR, Inc), p. 15. ISBN 1-5607-6619-0.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Aaron Allston (1991). Rules Cyclopedia. (TSR, Inc.), p. 159. ISBN 1-56076-085-0.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Allen Varney (May 1989). Knight of the Living Dead. (TSR, Inc.). ISBN 978-0880385985.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ossian Studios (June 2018). Neverwinter Nights: Darkness over Daggerford. Beamdog.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Claudio Pozas (October 2012). “Fair Barovia”. In Kim Mohan and Miranda Horner ed. Dungeon #207 (Wizards of the Coast) (207)., p. 69.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 David "Zeb" Cook, et al. (August 1989). Monstrous Compendium Volume Two. (TSR, Inc), p. 125. ISBN 0-8803-8753-X.
- ↑ David "Zeb" Cook, Steve Winter, Jon Pickens (June 1989). Monstrous Compendium Volume One. Edited by Bill Connors, Gary Thomas. (TSR, Inc), p. 10. ISBN 0-8803-8738-6.
- ↑ Rick Brown, James Ward (1991). AD&D Trading Cards 1991 series, #383, "Werebat". TSR, Inc..
- ↑ Len Lakofka (October 1979). “Leomund's Tiny Hut: Good Evening - Are You Wild About Vampires?”. In Timothy J. Kask ed. Dragon #30 (TSR, Inc.), p. 9.
- ↑ Olivar Diaz (March 2006). “Familiar Flavoring”. In Erik Mona ed. Dragon #341 (Paizo Publishing), p. 89.
Connections[]
Magical bats: Deep bat (Azmyth • Night hunter • Sinister)
Planar bats: Shadowhunter bat
Humanoids: Bainligor • Desmodu
Lycanthropes: Werebat
Outsiders: Fire bat • Bat-people • Varrangoin
Undead bats: Bonebat