Vampire slayers wander the forests, hills and mountains of the Blood Kingdom, protecting the common folk who live in farming villages and remote cabins on the edge of civilisation from creatures of the night. Moving unseen through the woodlands, your specialised training allows you to hunt vampires, ghouls, werewolves, and other foul monsters that prey on the innocent. Although you are most at home in the wilderness, as your experience grows, your attention might turn to the ruthless Elders in their dark keeps and sprawling manors.

The vampire slayer archetype is a variant of the hunter archetype. It follows all the standard rules for hunters except as noted below.

Favored Enemy

You must choose undead as your favored enemy type at 1st level. At 6th and 14th level, you can choose freely from the standard list, and can also select hags or lycanthropes as an alternative.

Hunter’s Prey

At 3rd level, you can choose the following feature in place of Colossus Slayer, Giant Killer, or Horde Breaker:

Empowered Strike Your expertise in fighting undead and lycanthropes allows you to harm them even when you’re not wielding a magical weapon. When fighting a creature that has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical weapons, you can ignore this resistance once per turn when you hit successfully with your nonmagical weapon. If you are wielding a magical weapon, the creature takes an extra 1d8 damage from one of your successful attacks per turn.

Defensive Tactics

At 7th level, you can choose the following feature in place of Escape the Horde, Multiattack Defense, or Steel Will.

Ranger’s Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against paralysis and effects that reduce your hit point maximum.

Slayer’s Strike

At 11th level, you can choose the following feature in place of Volley or Whirlwind Attack.

Straight Through the Heart. When you use an Attack action, you can choose to make a single melee attack against a favored enemy in an effort to strike a vulnerable spot. If the attack hits, it deals an extra 6d6 damage.

Superior Hunter’s Defense

At 15th level, you can choose the following feature in place of Evasion, Stand Against the Tide, or Uncanny Dodge.

Greater Resilience. You have advantage on saving throws against the spells and abilities of your favored enemies.