Would vampires ally themselves with other monsters?

Question

As the title says really. My party are currently sneaking into a keep infested with vampires via an abandoned escape route. One of the suggestions I've heard on why the tunnel would be abandoned is that some thing lives in there and the vampires decided to make an uneasy truce with it, rather than try and exterminate it themselves (after all, it makes for a good guard dog whatever it is).

So, has there ever been any indication in D&D (preferably 5e, but any edition will do) that vampires ally themselves with other monsters? If so, what kind of monsters? i.e Beholders, Demons, Abberrations in general, etc.

Answer 1

Vampires are intelligent, so they can (and will) ally with any other party that benefits their agenda.

So, has there ever been any indication in D&D (preferably 5e, but any edition will do) that vampires ally themselves with other monsters?

In the D&D 5 stereotype flagship adventure Hoard of the Dragon Queen there are vampires in alliance with other intelligent beings.

If so, what kind of monsters?

Potential Spoiler for HotDQ:

In Hoard of the Dragon Queen, they live on a floating ice-castle that is inhabited by Giants and a Dragon and is occupied by the Cult, including a Red Wizard of Thay.

Answer 2

I would use Curse of Strahd as an example here. Strahd, the vampire lord, rules over Barovia and lords over the people there. He dominates the natural animals there (wolves, bats, rats, etc...), but he still has to contend with the other "creatures" of that land. I would call this an uneasy truce. They don't mess with Strahd and he doesn't mess with them.

Answer 3

1 name: Strahd von Zarovich

Big-man S has a lot of living and unliving allies forming a network of informants allowing him to know everything that happens in his domain. (Here I am focused on the original Barovia, before the full Ravenloft setting). He has bandits, worgs, undead, Vistani, among a myriad of other allies.

Yes, they can do so. And they do it.

Answer 4

If you are willing to look at some of the book series as DND canon (especially since the basic setting comes from these books) there are a LOT of examples of this sort of occurrences.

In one of RA Salvatore's books, there is a dwarvern vampire who is helping the good guys to clear out other evil creatures from an old dwarvern home. I spent some time looking for the exact book and ran into issues remember which one it is. I did in fact read it last year.

There is another book that explicitly goes over events happening in Thay (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Thay). Again I can't remember the exact book but vampires and lots of type of intelligent undead actually live alongside living humans in the current Thay. Many are given important places in the lich's hierarchy of the country.

When you think vampire, think of a normal person who is evil, stronger, more charismatic, and has a thirst for blood that can be controlled at most times. Don't think of it as another unthinking monster. When vampires become vampires, they don't leave everything of their old life behind. Initially they may have issues of control but older vampires typically won't have this issue.

Answer 5

You are working under a huge misapprehension here. As a result you are asking the wrong question.

Done well Vampires are people too. As are any intelligent NPCs. Even unintelligent ones for that matter usually have at least some purpose or reason for being.

So the correct question isn't "would vampires ally with X" it is "would this specific vampire, with this specific set of abilities, goals, personality quirks, etc ally with X".

You idea sounds great. There is something living there tough enough that it isn't worth the time and effort to deal with since it isn't hurting the vampire any. In fact perhaps the vampire deliberately encouraged it to live there in order to defend the tunnel.

For example you could reinforce that by having some sort of beast in the tunnel, and then when they reach the far end they find a spot where food has obviously been left for it occasionally. It has got lured into the tunnel and encouraged to stay there by food getting dropped in from time to time.

Here is a great article by The Angry GM on this subject.

Answer 6

They would probably have lesser undead to guard them during daylight hours. But there is always a reason for them to form an alliance if you want one. I had a party run into a Lawful Good vampire wearing a helm of opposite alliance once so literally anything is possible if you want it to be.