How can I thwart a vampire in the party planning on dominating all of us?

Question

We have a party member in Pathfinder get bitten on purpose where the rest of the party didn't see, so he turned into a vampire and nobody knows in-game. He is pretty much planing on turning the whole party into his slaves, and I wanted to know if there is a way to stop him.

He has left a trail of proof of being a vampire in the past two cities we have been in but covers his tracks well, so without meta-gaming I was thinking of doing something that protects my character against vampires since there is a vampire problem in the last two cities.

My character is a sorcerer. Any suggestions on what to do or should the party and I prepare to lose our characters?

Answer 1

This is a player problem, not a game problem

Specifically, this guy is probably being a jerk. His actions are not merely negative, but would completely remove any player agency that isn't his. In other words, it would become a one-player game. There isn't a problem with backstabbing games and characters, assuming it's within the expectations of your table, but this goes beyond that. This is a campaign-ender if he pulls it off, and even if you do stop him it raises the question why the player attempt such a thing.

I would definitely talk to him and the DM about it, as well as the other players.

Mental Protection

Assuming your character is aware of the dominate abilities of vampires, you should have a number of ways to prevent it.

• Sense motive: It's only a DC 15 check to know that someone was dominated. As soon as he dominates someone, you get to know about it if you can make the check.
• Shadowless: Your DM should really have granted you spot checks to notice that the vampire has no shadow. You spend most of your time this guy, you should be able to notice that sort of thing.
• Mirrors: Similar to the above. You know there are vampires around, you can go around with a mirror without the player claiming its specifically for him.
• Protection from Evil: The guy plans to turn you into a slave, he's definitely evil. Get an item of this spell to be immune to his dominate. If he somehow isn't evil, contest that: he is, and must be due to the template's nature (its alignment limits the vampire character to any evil).
• Dominate Person: Seriously. It lasts 1 day/level, so cast it on yourself. It lets you make opposed charisma checks (due to the stuff about multiple mental influences), and as a sorcerer you should have a higher charisma. It's like an extra saving throw.
• Garlic: When you get around to telling the rest of the party, break into someone's house and lace the area with garlic. VamPC can't follow you.
• If Evil, Burglarize Houses: This one's pretty simple. The vampire can't enter the house without permission, so it's another way to put pressure on him.
• Hide from Undead: You probably don't have the spell, but if you can get an item of this it'll be pretty useful. If 3.5 material is allowed, there's an item in the Magic Item Compendium called the Shirt of wraith stalking that gives continuous hide from undead without a save. It should tip everyone off, and as a bonus he won't be able to target you with dominate.

Answer 2

This should really just be added to Arkhaic's answer (and I think I saw it in a comment on that answer at one point), but by itself is big enough to be a separate answer and not just a comment: SUNLIGHT

Assuming your party didn't previously avoid sunlight like the plague, it's going to be REALLY suspicious that your teammate no longer welcomes the rays of the Daystar. Like, glaringly obvious. As soon as your character notices, given you've had vampire troubles in the last two towns, your character's mind should jump there immediately.

Other things that haven't been mentioned yet: Buff spells. Some of your friendly team-buffs will no longer work on the vampire, because spells like Enlarge Person require a humanoid target, and he's not humanoid any more.

Healing. Cure spells damage the vampire now. If he takes any damage in a fight, when the cleric goes to heal him and he refuses, possibly recoiling in fear, the red flags should be everywhere.

Healing redux. Again assuming a cleric, but Channel Positive Energy will no longer heal him (when channeled to cure the party), or will harm him (if channeled to damage enemy undead). Noticable, though not as much as the cure spells.

Any private residence you enter. You don't have to break into houses to foil the vampire's "can't enter homes without permission" thing. If someone opens their door for you, but doesn't specifically invite the vampire in, guess who's stuck outside while everyone else walks through the door? What about player housing, where it's pretty much assumed party members can come in, so you don't bother specifically offer invitations to your closest friends?

Running water. No seriously, if you cross a bridge, the vampire can't follow you. Go fishing on a lake during your free time, or rescue some lost kids past the old brook. When he sits out the adventure because he can't cross the brook... I get the feeling I sound like a broken record at this point. I looked at the Pathfinder version of the template, and it doesn't look like crossing over running water still affects vampires. However, immersion in running water still does. It's a bit more meta-gamey, but tipping the boat the party is in should do the trick... fatally, if he's not fast on his Mist Form.

His reaction to getting incapped. This one is a stretch, but most players are ok with going down in a fight, assuming someone with a cure spell is nearby. If the vampire goes down, he automatically goes mist form (and must reach his coffin in two hours or less, giving him a nine mile radius to find it or die forever). This applies even AT zero hp, not negative, when most players are still planning to get one last hit in.

Detect evil. Seriously, he's high-tier undead, he shows up to it. Brightly.

Exceptional DR, resistance to cold and electric, and fast healing. These abilities are normally considered to be obvious when witnessed. If at any point he gets struck for any damage, you will either witness him ignore it entirely, resist it like a complete boss, or suffer a wound that quickly knits like he was somehow stacking five rings of regeneration.

Holy symbols, aka Cleric the third. When the cleric, if there is one, casts most of his spells or uses his channel energy power, he must strongly present his holy symbol. The vampire, if within 5 ft, is forced back. Even if not within 5 ft, he is not unaffected, and he doesn't even get a save until the second consecutive turn the symbol is presented.

This wall of text is getting out of hand, so I'll end it here. TL;DR: Vampirism is a harder condition to hide than leprosy and lycanthropy combined. It would probably be less obvious if flags sprouted from his ears that said "I AM A VAMPIRE I AM GOING TO KILL YOU". You don't have to go out of your way to uncover him. A mirror, a cross, a pizza topping, a pond, a cantrip, THE DAY/NIGHT CYCLE, a cure spell, a closed door, or just getting hit can all give him away.

Answer 3

Are you all ok with this?

Some games allow (or even encourage) plotting, back-stabbing, and pitting the PCs against each other - if this is how everyone in your group wants to play, then skip ahead. The problem with your vampiric colleague is that if he succeeds - you all lose your characters (without even the option of resurrection) and whatever campaign your DM was planning basically goes down the drain, so the price of letting that player go on with his plot is very high.
Discuss this off-play and if your group members are not ok with losing that much just so one player can have his fun - don't do it. Plan together a different outcome and go on with your game.

You are ok with it? Good, read on!
There are several things which may help you and your party:

Detecting that your partner has turned into a vampire

Even if the party didn't notice that the character died and has risen as a vampire 1d4 days later you still should have noticed something was amiss with any of the tell-tale signs listed below. You've been to two towns since he "turned", and seen some evidence of vampiric activity - so it's only reasonable to ask your DM to roll perception, sense motive, knowledge religion, heal etc. and see if any character noticed something's was not right...
Knowing is half the battle.

• Vampire weaknesses:

  • Garlic - Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it.
  • Mirrors and holy symbols - Vampires recoil from these.
  • Shadowless - no shadow, no reflection.
  • Trespassing - a vampire can't enter uninvited to a home.
  • Sunlight - Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. Even a vampire with the Sunlight Resistance dies after 5 rounds of exposure.
  • Running water - Each round of immersion in running water inflicts damage on a vampire equal to one-third of its maximum hit points.
  • Under the control of its creator - if his creator was not destroyed and did not release him, then he is still under his master's control (allowing you a sense motive check to sense enchantment)

• Vampire powers:

  • Fast healing - he heals 5 hp per round, pretty obvious if you've seen him injured.
  • DR 10/magic and silver - again, pretty obvious if you seen him (not) take damage.
  • Gaseous form - if reduced to 0 hp, he'll instinctively transform (while a normal character will just become disabled/unconscious)

• Undead traits:

  • does not breathe, eat, or sleep - he can fake these, but it's tough to keep the act impeccably for so long.
  • Powered by negative energy - healing magic will harm him, he won't be included in a cleric's healing channel energy (and will be hurt by the undead-damaging channel energy).
  • Animals shun undead - most animals will fear and try to avoid him (including horses, cats and dogs, which surly were present in the towns...)
  • Vulnerable to holy water - perfect way to expose him if you become suspicious (they are harmless to any other PC...)
  • Evil aura is detectable using Detect Evil (even if he was evil before - unless he was a cleric of an evil faith - the change will be enormous)
  • Affected by Hide from Undead if your party use this spell to hide from other undead - he won't be able to see you.

Protecting yourself against mental control

• Protection from Evil - gives another save to someone already controlled, and prevents new domination attempts.
• Improve your Will saves - many spells, from the meager Owl's Wisdom to powerful stuff like Spell Resistance and Mind Blank can buff your Will save against spells.
• A mind sentinel medallion will also improve your odds at avoiding domination.
• A scarab of protection - will really protect you
• Stay away - he can only try to Dominate you from 30 feet or less.

Misc. anti-vampire stuff

Use the weaknesses above to your advantage, in addition:

• A symbol of sanguine protection will make for a nasty surprise if he tries to drain any of you...

If all Fails

Keep in mind that the group can still turn this around - that vampire may release you from domination, turn you all into vampires etc. you don't have to lose the campaign and your characters if you decide (around the table) to make it work...

Final Note - This answer is based on Arkhaic's excellent answer, and is written in an attempt to aggregate other ideas from the comments together with my own - everyone is encouraged to add and improve this answer rather than creating a new one. Similarly, if Arkhaic or anyone else who gave an answer edits their answer so it contains the ideas presented here, I'll happily delete it to avoid duplicates.