I’ve been playing a lot of Vampire Survivors recently. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s a charming little “bullet hell” style of game based on classic Castlevania titles where you attempt to survive against increasingly more powerful and numerous waves of monsters while gaining experience to increase your own level and earn/upgrade a variety of weapons all while also collecting gold. And then after the run, you can spend that gold to increase your basic stats and go again to push deeper or unlock more characters. It’s a heck of a lot of fun for a mere $3, so if you’re on Steam, make sure to check it.
But the point is – it has been on my brain a lot over the weekend. And I mean a LOT. One of the starting weapons is a whip which can eventually evolve into a weapon called the Bloody Tear. (Like I said, the Castlevania influences are strong.) The Bloody Tear strikes multiple times over a large area, can cause critical damage, and even heals you a small bit, which can make it a very powerful weapon and a great help in surviving later waves. And since I’ve made it something of a mission to start creating unique magical weapons for some lesser used options, this seemed like a no brainer to bring into Dungeons & Dragons. So, how can we translate this weapon to 5th Edition?
Well, it might look a little something like this.
The Bloody Tear is a weapon that was created by a sect of vampire hunters in ages past to strike back against their targets with some of their own powers. “Blessed” by magical rituals that required a willing sacrifice to supply power for the weapon’s purpose, they carry a faint darkness that their wielders must constantly battle and push back against. Luckily, that darkness is tightly focused towards the destruction of undead creatures, so most of the time carrying one isn’t too dangerous for a wielder. The exact number of Bloody Tears created by this order remains unknown, but recently unearthed records show that they were a significant force when they were active.
Much like the Trickshot Darts, this weapon is probably a little bit more powerful than its “rare” price tag would suggest. But there aren’t a whole lot of whip builds out there that I have seen, and it’s not the strongest of options out there (though dripping with flavor if you ask me). And a level or two of exhaustion probably isn’t going to change the course of a battle too much, but it could certainly make things a little easier in the right circumstances. And the ability to heal a little bit can take some pressure off the healer. So I didn’t feel too bad about only pricing this as a rare weapon. Plus there are precious few sentient items outside of legendary items, so I wanted to play around with that idea too.
So there you have it – the Bloody Tear is ready for your campaign world. How about it? Any players you know that would love to get their hands on one of these?
Ben Erickson
