Let’s Play D&D With ‘Resident Evil’s Lady Dimitrescu
Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters are the sort of vampire-like monsters your characters will love/hate if you add to a Halloween D&D session.
When it comes to introducing a little horror into our leisure time, Resident Evil just may be one of the best. This video game franchise has been getting us to scare our own pants off by playing (sometimes alone and in the dark) for years, and I don’t see any reason to think this will end any time soon.
2021’s Resident Evil Village introduced Lady Dimitrescu. And it would be an understatement to say that this one-time villain became an instant fan favorite. Sometimes a baddie comes around who you like so much, you’re a little okay with them kicking your ass a couple of times. So if you’re a fan of Lady Dimitrescu, or just want an excuse to inflict her–and her daughters–on your players, now’s your chance.
The Dimitrescu Daughters
Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters are described as being “vampire-like.” And between paused aging, immortality, intelligence, and a taste for human blood, this seems pretty on track. So when it came to the Dimitrescu Daughters, I pulled a lot from the Vampire Spawn sheets. A few things are a little better, a few are a little worse. But at the end of the day, they’re the less-powerful vampires that do what their vampire-mom asks.
Their ability to turn into a swarm of insects is interesting though, so I was sure to include that. While individually, none of the sisters are terribly difficult, this will add a natural challenge to them. Now they can quickly escape, move across the battlefield, or make themselves a more difficult target. Plus they can use their bug forms to spy, swarm, or just make themselves a more difficult target to hit.
Lady Dimitrescu
Lady Dimitrescu is a much more challenging character, and by the time you get to this encounter, she’s probably learned all of your secrets from her daughters.
Once again, we pulled from the (stronger version of) Vampires. Because once again, they’re sort of perfect. The vampire’s charm is especially on the nose considering the bonkers amount of love people have for this character. Where Lady Dimitrescu gets interesting–and infuriating–though is her dragon’s final form. In video games, this is a pretty common boss battle trope. And while it’s not as common in a dungeons and dragons sort of setting, it’s still pretty fun to incorporate.
So she has a final boss battle dragon-form. We took a lot of the standard dragon moves without a breath weapon–that would have felt like overkill. But she does start over with all of her hit points (for maximum player annoyance) and a few enhanced dragon abilities.
How would you make Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters for a D&D setting? Which Resident Evil game is your favorite? What famous movie, TV show, game, book, or comic monster should we make next week and why is it David S. Pumpkins? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
