Statistics

Class Vampire Hunter (Paladin) 1

Background Investigator (Investigation, Perception, Thieves’ Tools, Disguise Kit)

Armor Class 16 (heavy duster (studded leather armor))

Hit Points 13 (1d10 + 3)

Speed 40 ft.

STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA

10 (+0) 18 (+4) 16 (+3) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 9 (-1)

Saving Throws +4 Wis, +1 Cha

Skills +4 Religion, +4 Insight, +4 Investigation, +4 Perception

+6 Thieves' Tools, +1 Disguise Kit

Senses passive Perception 14, passive Investigation 14

Languages Common

Traits

Feats. Mobile

When you use the Dash action, difficult terrain doesn't cost you extra movement on that turn.
When you make a melee attack against a creature, you don't provoke opportunity attacks from that creature for the rest of the turn, whether you hit or not.

Divine Sense (3/long rest). As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the Hallow spell.

Holy Whisper (Lay on Hands; paladin level x5). As an action, you can touch a creature and draw power from the pool to restore a number of hit points to that creature, up to the maximum amount remaining in your pool. Alternatively, you can expend 5 hit points from your pool of healing to cure the target of one disease or neutralize one poison affecting it. You can cure multiple diseases and neutralize multiple poisons with a single use of Lay on Hands, expending hit points separately for each one. This feature has no effect on undead and constructs.

ACTIONS

Whip. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to attack, reach 10 ft., one target.

Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) slashing damage.

Silvered Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to attack, reach 5 ft., one target.

Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage.

Dagger. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to attack, reach 5 ft. or thrown 20/60 ft., one target.

Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) piercing damage.

Hand Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to attack, range 30/120 ft., one target.

Hit: 6 (1d4 + 4) piercing damage.

Equipment. Whip, shortsword (silvered), dagger, hand crossbow with 20 bolts, 1 vial of holy water, 1 potion of healing, reinforced duster (studded leather), trinket (vampire fang necklace), trinket (burnt holy book with a crucifix on the cover), priest’s kit, common clothes

Personality Traits

Harrowing Event (Background Element). A child-survivor of a vampiress who massacred the inhabitants of a monastery.

Case (Background Element).

Background Feature (Official Inquiry). You're experienced at gaining access to people and places to get the information you need. Through a combination of fast-talking, determination, and official-looking documentation, you can gain access to a place or an individual related to a crime you're investigating. Those who aren't involved in your investigation avoid impeding you or pass along your requests. Additionally, local law enforcement has firm opinions about you, viewing you as either a nuisance or one of their own.

Personality Trait. I refuse to become a victim, and I will not allow others to be victimized.

Ideal. I like to know my enemy’s capabilities and weaknesses before rushing into battle. I kill monsters to quell my own deep fears and to cauterize the terror I felt as a child, and savor bearing the legacy of the hero.

Bond. I keep my thoughts and discoveries in a journal. My journal is my legacy. I secretly wish the Outer Gods could hear us and save us.

Flaw. I find it difficult to balance hope and ruthlessness with handling victims of my enemies. One murder is all it takes to cross the threshold from victim to target.

Backstory

Gabriel is an orphan raised in an isolated monastery that seeked the return of the gods and their deliverance from the cursed land of Ravenloft.

This seemed to have offended the Dark Powers that looked over Barovia, as a savage vampire struck the monastery one rainy night after apparently seeking shelter from the rain. When the she-vampire was invited in, she spoke to each of the monks and priests in turn, clad in a veil that hid her vampiric features, to inquire as to their purpose. The head priest spoke to her over dinner, and she rose to stoke the fires.

They explained that they take in orphans who survive the raids and attacks of evil beings, and she asks with a small smile whether they can actually protect the children, or if all they do is just end up gathering all the sheep in one place. The priest feels the wrongness of the question, and attempts to channel goodly energy to himself, but the vampire is too quick, stabbing the priest's arm with the fire-poker, soon tearing into his flesh and twisting his neck brutally when he called for help. The vampire gave herself up into a blood craze, and ravaged the temple, murdering any who stood by her.

Gabriel was told to hide by his matron-priestess, and was told to not speak a word. She tried to hide the children and ran away loudly to distract the vampire, but the vampire caught her, tearing her fist into the priestess's back and out through her front, cracking her spine. Several of the children cried in fear as the vampire approached, but Gabriel was stunned into silence, instead creeping back in silent horror as the vampire walked in. She smelled the human children.

She stormed into the room, killing the helpless children relentlessly, until her bloodlust was sated--only feet from the hiding Gabriel. She wiped her nose, trying to smell more children, but turned as she heard the distant horses of the night's watch of the nearby town, who seemed to have been spurred to pay a surprise visit. The vampiress escaped before they neared, and Gabriel was discovered by the night's watch captain.

The monastery was abandoned, and the shivering young boy (and whatever few survivors lived through the black events of the night) saw the night's watch captain regard a stranger with high respect. The captain told the children that they will live in the nearby city, and it was thanks to the vampire hunter that they survived the night.

The stranger wore a breastplate but was otherwise lightly armored and armed--but with strange gear. He bore a gleaming silver shortsword, a chain-whip with a censure-head, and bore dozens of potion vials and holy symbols, and a black cloak and high hat.

On the way back, the survivors were shocked into tearful silence. The stranger saw Gabriel notice him. The man gave a small smile back, but noticed Gabriel was looking at a necklace around the hunter’s neck—that bore a white vampire fang. The man smiled, and handed the boy the necklace, saying, “The best thing that extinguishes fear is knowledge.”

When the survivors reached the town, and were set to sleep in the inn’s common room, Gabriel spoke for the first time in the night, and told the vampire hunter “I want to go with you.”

It was that night Gabriel became a Belmont, as he joined the vampire slayer Graham Belmont. With memories of his robbed childhood, slain friends, and mother-figure brutally killed, and with nightmares of the vampire--appearing as a dark figure with gleaming red eyes, he promised his life to the vampire killer if only he could stop him from feeling fear.

In the coming years, Gabriel learned some secrets of the destroyed monastery from his quest in trying to hunt down the vampiress who slew his second family: the Holy Whisper, a Word of Power that bears healing potential, but Gabriel uses it sparingly where enemies abound.