Vampire Spawn

Stat block

Grabs a victim with its claws, bites to heal itself, and disengages freely; shuns sunlight.

• Saving throws: DEX +6, WIS +3
• Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +6
• Resistant: necrotic
• Senses: darkvision 60 ft; passive Perception 13
• Languages: Common, one other language

Traits

• Spider Climb. The vampire can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down along ceilings, without making an ability check.
• Vampire Weakness. The vampire has these weaknesses. Forbiddance: it can't enter a residence unless an occupant invites it in. Running Water: it takes 20 Acid damage if it ends its turn in running water. Stake to the Heart: it is destroyed if a weapon that deals Piercing damage is driven into its heart while it has the Incapacitated condition. Sunlight: it takes 20 Radiant damage if it starts its turn in sunlight, and while in sunlight it has Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks.

Actions

• Multiattack. Makes two Claw attacks and uses Bite.
• Claw. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) Slashing damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it has the Grappled condition (escape DC 13), held by one of the vampire's two claws.
• Bite. Constitution Saving Throw: DC 14, one creature within 5 feet that is willing or has the Grappled, Incapacitated or Restrained condition. Failure: 5 (1d4 + 3) Piercing damage plus 10 (3d6) Necrotic damage. The target's Hit Point maximum is reduced by the Necrotic damage it took, and the vampire regains that many Hit Points.

Bonus actions

• Deathless Agility. The vampire takes the Dash action or the Disengage action.

Where you meet it

• Castle Ravenloft, the Catacombs: The coffins are empty because their sleepers are already standing, and they have been waiting for you.
• Castle Ravenloft, Strahd's Tomb: He is standing beside his own coffin with his hands behind his back, like a man waiting for a late carriage.
• Castle Ravenloft, Strahd's Tomb: Two pale shapes rise from behind the dais, and the ceiling comes loose and becomes bats.
• Castle Ravenloft, the Chapel: Someone is kneeling at the altar. He finishes whatever he was saying, rises, and turns. In the front pews,…
• Castle Ravenloft, the Rooms of Weeping: Ludmilla closes her book. Volenta claps her hands. Anastrasya turns her face to the wall and does not move.
• Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon: His hand closes on the nearest throat, and two more shapes drop from the vault above the passage.
• Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon: He laughs, and two more shapes unfold from the vault above the passage.
• Castle Ravenloft, the Dungeon: The chain falls. For a breath he is only grateful. Then the hunger reaches you first.
• Castle Ravenloft, the Main Floor: Count Off · Up the servants' stair comes Corporal Vell, two of the company at his back. 'Sergeant,' he says. 'You're…
• Castle Ravenloft, the Main Floor: Count Off · Every panel in the hall stands open. Four of Kestrel Company come out of the walls in step, and their captain…
• Castle Ravenloft, the High Tower: Two shapes unfold from the underside of the stair above and drop onto the steps, and the well fills with bats.
• Castle Ravenloft, the Tower Rooms: Escher's smile goes long in the teeth. The bats in the canopy of his bed come down like a dropped curtain.
• The Hill Trail above Lake Zarovich: The count's fowlers drop out of the dead pine, and the bats come down after them like a black sheet shaken…
• The River Ivlis Crossroads: Count Off
• The Tsolenka Pass: The Last Egg · The stone birds come down on the shelf with a sound like a quarry falling, and the falconer lands among them,…
• Vallaki: Black Roses · Two more girls come over the rooftops at Catalina's call, barefoot, in nightgowns, their arms full of black…
• Vallaki: Black Roses · The lids come up slowly. The three of them climb out into the grey daylight blinking and slow, like children…
• The Coffin Maker's Shop: The Bones of St. Andral · Crate lids lift on their own, slowly, the nails squealing out one by one. What climbs out has been waiting in…
• St. Andral's Church: The Bones of St. Andral · Glass bursts inward along both walls of the nave. Pale shapes come through the windows head first, like…
• Van Richten's Tower: Something is waiting where the causeway meets the shore: two pale figures standing very still, and above them…
• Village Church: Doru drops from the ceiling without a sound. Whatever was left of the priest's son is gone behind his eyes.
• Village of Barovia: The Polite Caller · The carriage lamp stops at the end of the lane. Its door opens on nothing, and a tall shape in a coachman's…