Dhampir

Alucard from Castlevania is a Dhampir, sort of. Here's a hot take: Did you know Alucard is Dracula spelled backwards?

Although the idea of vampires being sexy is generally associated with lore from the Gothic Horror novels of the late 1800s to today, even before that, in the Balkan region of Europe, it was believed that some vampires would come back from the dead and have sex with their wives - sex that could lead to the birth of half human, half vampire offspring. Known variously as Dhampyres, Dhampirs, Dhamphirs or Dhampyrs, these mythological beings were believed to have certain vampiric strengths, which made them excellent vampire hunters, but none of their vampiric weaknesses, such as an aversion to sunlight or need to feed on blood.

In /tg/, dhampyres are a comparatively rare sight; they're considered too much the natural fit for "edgelords" - the kinds of players who usually migrate to drow or tiefling PCs because they think the "dark, brooding, angsty character" is awesome - or else they're seen as too rooted in Gothic Horror. Others even think they're too fantastical to believe in their existence, even by the standards of your typical fantasy world. Or they may simply defy the fundamental rules of a given setting's vampires. But they do survive here and there.

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons has had a couple of attempts at a dhampyre race, but none have really taken off officially; there was a "Katane" race in Dragon Magazine #313, and assorted "Half-Vampire" templates, most notably the Dhampir and Vorlog templates in Ravenloft 3rd edition. Ironically, the closest time D&D got to it was in 4th edition; the Dhampyr as a feat-based "pseudo-template" was one of their earliest racial experiments in Dragon Magazine, whilst the Vryloka of Heroes of Shadow was essentially a Dhampyr with its name taken from another kind of vampire.

The unofficial Ravenloft 5e corebook from the Fraternity of Shadows fansite features a dhampyre race as one of the options.

Pathfinder is the only "D&D edition" thus far to feature a fully supported dhampyre player race, with four sub-variants to reflect the four specific kinds of vampire present in Golarion. Svetochers are descended from classic movie vampires, ru-shi are the children of jiang-shi (Chinese hopping corpses that suck chi), ajibachana are the progeny of vetala (Indian thought vampires), and ancient-born come from nosferatu.

Normally, dhampir have two major weaknesses: they're dazzled in sunlight, like a drow, and, while they are living creatures, they are treated as undead for the purposes of positive and negative energy. This means cure spells fry them and inflict spells heal them. While the various sub-races offer replacement penalties for the former, and it can be removed entirely at the cost of one's racial spell-like abilities, the latter you're pretty much stuck with. A feat can half-fix it: you'll still take damage from stuff that specifically hurts undead, but you can get half-healing from cure-spells and such.

D&D Stats

Ravenloft Dhampir Template

Available Creatures: Humanoid or Monstrous Humanoid.

Type changes to Monstrous Humanoid.

Hit Dice: Increase by one die type, to a maximum of D12.

Speed: Unchanged

Armor Class: +4 natural armor.

Attack: Gain a Slam attack.

Full Attack: An unarmed dhampir can fight with its slam attack or its natural weapons (if any). An armed dhampir typically uses its weapon as its primary attack and follows up with a slam/natural weapon as a natural secondary attack.

Damage: A dhampir's slam attack uses either the damage values for a vampire or the base creature's own, whichever is higher.

Special Attacks: Gain the following, all of which have a Save DC of 10 + 1/2 dhampir's Hit Dice + dhampir's Charisma modifier unless noted otherwise.

Domination (Su): A dhampir that meets the gaze of a creature within 30 feet (treat as gaze attack, except dhampir must take a standard action and it does not affect those looking at the dhampir) can afflict them with a Dominate Person (caster level 12).

Blood Drain (Ex): By successfully grappling and pinning a foe, a dhampir can inflict 1d4 points of Constitution damage each round they maintain the grapple.

Children of the Night (Su): Once per day, a dhampir can call forth either a pack of 4d8 Dire Rats, a swarm of 10d10 Bats, or a pack of 3d6 Wolves. The summoned animals arrive in 2d6 rounds and serve the dhampir for up to 1 hour.

Special Qualities: Gain the following bonus SQs.

Damage Reduction (Su): 10/Magic

Resistance (Su): Cold 10, Electricity 10.

Spider Climb (Ex): A dhampir can scale sheer surfaces as if under a Spider Climb (caster level 12th) spell.

Fast Healing (Ex): A dhampir regains 1 hit point per round so long as it has not been reduced to -10 hit points.

Blood Requirement (Ex): A dhampir must consume humanoid blood at least once per week or it cannot use its supernatural special attacks or special qualities until it does.

Vulnerability to Sunlight (Su): A dhampir in natural sunlight cannot its supernatural special attacks or special qualities.

Restless (Su): Unless its body is destroyed as per vampire methodology, a dhampir will rise from its grave 1d4 days later as either a vampire spawn (if Hit Dice were less than 5) or a vampire.

Saves: As base creature plus character class.

Abilities: +4 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +4 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +4 Charisma

Skills: +6 racial bonus on BLuff, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, Search, Sense Motive, and Spot.

Feats: If it meets the prerequisites, a dhampir gains Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Improved Initiative and Lightning Reflexes.

Environment: Any land.

Organization: Solitary

Treasure: Double standard

Alignment: Any

Advancement: By character class

Katane Template

Cursed with a thirst for living blood and possessed of awful powers befitting creatures of the night, katanes are some of the more common half-undead. The human-like appearance and social behavior of vampires and their spawn result in ample opportunities for half-breed creation, and some vampires retain enough human sentiment to care for the child, improving the katane's chances of survival.

Katanes are pale and slender, with jet-black hair and red, black, green, or yellow eyes. They have pronounced canines that extend for feeding and slightly pointed ears. Some of the less fortunate (those with a Charisma score of 7 or below) have batlike features.

A katane has certain qualities it shares with all of its fellow "Half-Undead"; the Fetch, Ghul and Ghedan. These traits are listed as the Half-Undead Super Template, meaning these special qualities are common to all four racial templates.

Abilities: +2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma

Skills: +4 racial bonus to BLuff, Hide, Listen, Move Silently, and Spot.

Feats: Improved Initiative as a bonus feat.

Challenge Rating: +1

Level Adjustment: +1

Environment: Same as Base Creature

Alignment: Often Chaotic Evil

Organiation: Solitary, Gang (2-4 base creatures or vampires + 1 katane) or Party (2-8 base creatures or vampires + 2-4 katanes)

Special Attacks:

Blood Drain (Ex): By making a successful Grapple check and pinning its target, a katane can inflict 1d4 Constitution drain on its target each round it sustains the pin.

Charm Person (Sp): A katane can cast Charm Person by locking gaze with a humanoid creature. This Charm spell has a caster level equal to the katane's Hit Dice and a Save DC of 10 + Katane's Hit Dice + Katane's Charisma modifier. A katane can use this ability a number of times per day equal to its Charisma modifier (minimum of 1).

Special Qualities:

Blood Hunger (Ex): A katane must use its Blood Drain at least once every three days. If it does not feed, it must make a DC 15 Will save (DC + 1 cumulative with each extra day it goes without feeding). On a failure, the katane suffers a cumulative -1 morale penalty to its attack rolls, ability checks, skill checks and saving throws until it finally uses its Blood Drain.

Damage Reduction (Su): 5/Silver

Vampire Kin (Ex): Katane have none of the weaknesses of the Vampire template, and are immune to the Domination power of vampires.

Light Sensitivity (Ex): A katane is Dazzled when exposed to bright sunlight or the Daylight spell.

Resistances (Ex): Cold Resist 5 and Electricity Resist 5.

Sense Vampires (Su): A katane can automatically determine if there is a vampire, katane or any other undead that feeds on blood within 200 feet. This ability only warns the katane that such creatures are there; it does not inform them of their numbers nor their power, and is not accurate enough to aid in blindfighting or otherwise pinpointing a target.

Spider Climb (Ex): A katane can climb any surface, as if under a permanent spider climb spell.

Half-Undead Super-Template:

Call of Undeath (Ex): A half-undead has a 3% chance per Hit Dice that it will rise as a full undead of its progenitor type upon its death.

Darkvision (Ex): A half-undead gains Darkvision 60 feet, unless it already has a better range of darkvision.

Detection (Ex): A half-undead registers as an Undead creature of half its actual Hit Dice for spells/abilities that detect the undead.

Fortification (Ex): A half-undead has a 50% chance to negate critical hits and sneak attacks. If granted Fortification from a suit of magic armor, use the superior change.

Immunity to Energy Drain (Ex)

Necrotic Life: When attacked by a spell or effect that deals hit point damage with negative energy, a half-undead takes half-damage on a failed save and no damage on a successful save.

Slow Aging (Ex): Upon reaching maturity, a half-undead ages at one quarter (1/4th) the normal rate for its living race.

Turn Kind (Ex): A half-undead Cleric gains a +2 bonus on checks made to turn, rebuke, command or bolster undead of its progenitor type.

Vulnerability to Holy Water (Ex): A half-undead takes 1d4 damage per flask of holy water it is hit with.

Vulnerability to Turning (Ex): Clerics can attempt to turn or rebuke the half-undead as if it were truly undead. If the attempt would be powerful enough to affect an undead of equivalent Hit Dice, the half-undead suffers a -4 penalty to all attacks, saves, skill checks and ability checks for 10 rounds or until the cleric who turned/rebuked it attacks the half-undead. If the attempt would be powerful enough to command or destroy an undead of equivalent Hit Dice, the half-undead is Stunned for 2d4 rounds instead.

Saves: +2 racial bonus on all saves against fear, poison, disease, paralysis and necromancy spells.

4e Dhampyr Feat Chain

Core Feat: Vampiric Heritage (Vampire Bloodline)

Prerequisite: Living Humanoid Race

Benefit: You gain Blood Drain as a Racial Encounter Power, as well as a +2 bonus to Perception and Insight checks made to sense & recognize dhampyrs and the undead.

Special: You are considered a vampire for the purpose of effects that relate to vampires.

Heroic Tier Feats:

• Vampire Alacrity: +1 feat bonus to Speed.
• Mist Form: Swap one 10th level or higher utility power for the Mist Form utility power. You must be at least 10th level to take this feat.
• Night's Sight: You gain Low-Light Vision.

Paragon Tier Feats:

• Blooded Regeneration: Swap one 10th level or higher ultility power for the Bloodied Regeneration utility power.
• Dominating Gaze: Swap one 15th level or higher daily attack power for the Dominating Gaze attack power. You must be at least 15th level to select this feat.
• Savage Bite: You can use Blood Drain on targets that grant you Combat Advantage as well as one targets you have grabbed.

Epic Tier Feats:

• Scent of Blood: You have Combat Advantage against living enemies that are Bloodied.

Dhampyr Racial Powers: Blood Drain: Vigor rushes through your body as you drain life energy from your victim.

Encounter, Healing, Standard Action, Melee (Touch), Targets 1 living creature you have grabbed. Attack is Ability + 2 vs. Fortitude and on a hit you inflict 1d4 + Con modifier damage and can spend a healing surge. Increase the bonus by +2 and damage by +1d4 at each tier shift (+4/2d4 damage at level 11, +6/3d4 damage at level 21). You choose whether this attack keys off of Strength, Constitution or Dexterity when you first select Vampiric Heritage.

Mist Form: Your form dissolves into an eerie, billowing mist.

Daily, Polymorph, Standard Action, Personal. You become Insubstantial and gain a Fly speed of 8 (Hover), but cannot make any attacks. This lasts until the end of your next turn, but can be sustained as a Minor Action.

Bloodied Regeneration: Your wounds call to your immortal blood, which surges to repair your body.

Daily, Healing, Minor Action, Personal. Only available if you are Bloodied. You gain Regeneration 5 until the end of the encounter or until you are no longer Bloodied, whichever comes first.

Dominating Gaze: The authority in your piercing gaze demands utter submission.

Daily, Charm, Minor Action, Ranged 5, Targets 1 creature, Attack is Ability + 4 vs. Will (bonus increases to +6 at 21st level). On a hit, the target is Dominated (save ends) and as an aftereffect the target is Dazed (save ends). On a miss, the target is Dazed (save ends). When you take the Dominating Gaze feat, you determine if this attack keys off of Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma.

Pathfinder Dhampir

Generic Dhampir Stats:

+2 Dexterity, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution

Humanoid (Dhampir)

MEdium

Base speed 30 feet

Darkvision 60 feet, low-light vision.

Manipulative: +2 racial bonus on Bluff and Perception checks.

Undead Resistance: +2 racial bonus on saving throws against disease and mind-affecting effects.

Light Sensitivity: Dazzled when exposed to bright sunlight or a Daylight spell.

Negative Energy Affinity: A dhampir is harmed by positive energy and healed by negative energy.

Spell-Like Ability: Detect Undead 3/day with caster level equal to the dhampir's character level.

Resist Level Drain (Ex): A dhampir suffers no penalties from negative levels (although they can still kill it) and all negative levels are automatically removed 24 hours later without the need for an additional saving throw.

Svetocher (Moroi Dhampir):

Change Ability Modifiers to: +2 Str, +2 Cha, -2 Con

Replace Manipulative skill bonuses with: +2 Diplomacy, +2 Knowledge (Nobility)

Change Spell-Like Ability (Detect Undead) to: Obscuring Mist

Replace Light Sensitivity With: -1 penalty on saves against effects that deal positive energy damage.

Gain the following new traits:

• Mind Trapper: +2 trait bonus on Charisma checks made to convince enchanted allies to do what you want.
• Sensual Grace: +2 trait bonus on BLuff checks made against creatures attracted to you.

Ancient-Born (Nosferatu Dhampir):

Change Ability Modifiers to: +2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Con

Replace Manipulative skill bonuses with: +2 Climb, +2 Survival

Change Spell-Like Ability (Detect Undead) to: Doom

Replace Light Sensitivity With: -1 penalty on saving throws against effects that damage/drain/reduce Physical Ability Scores.

Gain the following new traits:

• Old Before Your Time: Creatures trying to discern your true age must make a Perception or Sense Motive check, which you oppose with a Bluff check with a +5 trait bonus. You also gain a +2 trait bonus on Disguise checks made to make yourself look older, ignoring the check penalty for disguising yourself as a different age category whilst doing so.
• Thrall Spotter: +5 trait bonus on Sense Motive checks made to determine if a creature is under a Charm or Compulsion effect.

Ru-shi (Jiangshi Dhampir):

Change Ability Modifiers to: +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis

Replace Manipulative skill bonuses with: +2 Acrobatics, +2 Knowledge (Engineering)

Change Spell-Like Ability (Detect Undead) to: Erase

Replace Light Sensitivity With: -1 penalty on saves against sonic effects and spells.

Gain the following new traits:

• Linguistic Genius: +1 trait bonus on Linguistics checks, Linquistics is always a class skill for you, gain +1 bonus language at character creation.
• Numerological Gift: At character reaction, roll 3d6; the number you roll becomes your Number Totem, which can never change. Once per day, when you roll your totem number on a D20, you may treat that roll as if you had rolled a natural 20.

Ajibachana (Vetala Dhampir):

Change Ability Modifiers to: +2 Dex, +2 Wis, -2 Int

Replace Manipulative skill bonuses with: +2 Escape Artist, +2 Use Magic Device

Change Spell-Like Ability (Detect Undead) to: Comprehend Languages

Replace Light Sensitivity With: -1 penalty to Caster levle when in sanctified ground, such as that created by Consecrate or Hallow.

Gain the following new traits:

• Half-Forgotten Secrets: Choose one Knowledge skill; you gain a +1 trait bonus to this skill and always treat it as a class skill. Then choose a second Knowledge skill; you gain a +1 trait bonus to this skill.
• Unidentifiable Appeal: +1 trait bonus to Disguise, +1 trait bonus on Diplomacy checks made to influence those who would be attracted to you.

The Races of Pathfinder
Player's Handbook:	Dwarf - Elf - Gnome - Half-Elf - Half-Orc - Halfling - Human
Advanced Race Guide:	Aasimar - Catfolk - Changeling - Dhampir - Duergar Drow - Fetchling - Gillman - Goblin - Grippli - Hobgoblin Ifrit - Kitsune - Kobold - Merfolk - Nagaji - Orc - Oread Ratfolk - Samsaran - Strix - Suli - Svirfneblin - Sylph Tengu - Tiefling - Undine - Vanara - Vishkanya - Wayang
Bestiaries:	Android - Astomoi - Caligni - Deep One Hybrid - Gathlain Gnoll - Kasatha - Munavri - Naiad - Orang-Pendak Reptoid - Rougarou - Shabti - Trox - Yaddithian
Adventure Paths:	Being of Ib - Kuru
Inner Sea Races:	Ghoran - Monkey Goblin - Lashunta - Skinwalker Syrinx - Triaxian - Wyrwood - Wyvaran
Ultimate Wilderness:	Vine Leshy
Blood of the Sea:	Adaro - Cecaelia - Grindylow - Locathah - Sahuagin - Triton
Planar Adventures:	Aphorite - Duskwalker - Ganzi

Chronicles of Darkness

Dhampir in the original World of Darkness were introduced in the Time of Thin Blood sourcebook. Full-on kindred couldn't have kids at all. But "thin bloods," fourteenth or fifteenth generation vampires whose connection to Cain is extremely tenuous can, though the pregnancy is long and difficult because undead bodies aren't well suited to carrying kids.

The result is a dhampir, a creature mechanically all-but-identical to a revenant, or hereditary ghoul that produces its own vitae. Dhampir are living creatures, and have a pool of vitae separate from their normal blood, though they do get tired if they exhaust it. They suffer frenzy like a vampire, but can resist it much more easily, and like ghouls can go out in the day light and so on. Because thin-bloods have only started showing up in the last twenty or so years, no one knows what happens to an old dhampir.

Dhampyres were introduced to the New World of Darkness in the Vampire: The Requiem sourcebook Night Horrors: The Wicked Dead. Born of either blasphemous occult rituals or deep, sincere, obsessive love between a vampire and a mortal, dhampyres are cursed creatures who are hypnotically alluring to vampires, but whose blood is not only devoid of nutritional value for them, but exposes the vampire to a powerful curse if they share the same clan.

They're also mildly infamous for the fact that, because they're born of unnatural magical origins, they don't adhere to the standard rules of baby-making. So, you can get a dhampyre from a homosexual coupling, a female vampire could impregnate her male human lover, and a male vampire could fall pregnant by a female human lover, depending on what rituals are used to make the dhampyre in the first place.

2e revised them significantly, making them technically human but tainted by their vampiric parent's Vitae. They retain their ability to do strange things to the vampires who drink from their blood, but they also possess a unique connection to the workings of fate and a curse based on their vampiric parent's clan. As most dhampir are treated only slightly better than ghouls by their vampiric parents (if the vampire doesn't simply abandon them and leave them ignorant of their half-damned heritage), it is unsurprising that some of them end up becoming vampire hunters.

Monstergirls

The MGE Dhampir, ready to lay some vampires and save some cute guys! No, that's not a typo.

Ironically, despite the sexual appeal of vampires, the dhampir rarely gets the same treatment. Whilst this may be partially due to the dhampir's relative obscurity, another issue may be that they don't really have anything going for them that the standard vampire-as-monstergirl doesn't (aside from not having to worry about that "lack of bloodflow" joke). After all, in most depictions, the dhampir is basically a "tamed" vampire, with less raw vampiric power and without the pesky problems of sunlight or needing to worry you'll be eaten alive by one. But most monstergirl depictions of vampires tone down the need for blood and make their vampires "safe", meaning that without any real fear of dying from your vampire lover, a dhampir just looks like a poor man's imitation. Still, in more honest Dark Fantasy-leaning settings, dhampirs may get the credit they deserve.

And there is one montergirl setting where dhampirs are embraced: in the Monster Girl Encyclopedia, dhampirs are born on those rare occasions when a vampire gets pregnant without having come to truly love/respect the father of her child. This results in the offspring being a "half-vampire", with her own entirely unique set of powers. MGE Dhampirs are basically non-arrogant, non-tsundere vampires in terms of sex. In fact, they think that true vampires are stuck up bitches who need to be taken down a few pegs. Thusly, they like to roam the world and fight vampires, breaking their arrogance by basically dom-sexing them until their mind breaks and they become more submissive. They especially like going after vampires who have a guy they're being all tsundere-bitch to and simultaneously breaking the vampire down and building the guy up, with lots and lots of vamp-subbing threesomes. Sometimes the dhampir will stay with the couple if she really likes the guy, other times she'll move on and leave them to what, in her eyes, is a happier relationship.