Dhampirs: A half vampire homebrew race

[FishBot]

In every DM's career they'll come across a player that really wants to play a vampire. In an attempt to solve that solution, I present to to you the dhampir! They're half vampires, created when a humanoid and a vampire breed or if a woman is bitten while pregnant, a la blade. They can also be flavored as lesser vampires if your player still isn't satisfied.

Dhampir

Ability Score Increase
Your Charisma, Dexterity, and Strength scores all increase by 1.

Age
Dhampirs age strangely; in theory they could live forever if they continued to consume the blood of humanoids at a regular rate. If a dhampir does manage to fight their bloodlust, they age at the rate of a normal human. A very old dhampir who gives up blood will begin to show their age very quickly in the coming days, until their eventual and soon death.

Alignment
Dhampir do not hold the adherence to evil of their parents, but the the actions they may be forced to take for survival makes them somewhat partial to chaotic and neutral alignments.

Speed
You have a base walking speed of 30 feet.

Size
Dhampir's are more muscular than most humans, but they still appear slender and svelte. Your size is medium.

Languages
You can speak, read, and write Common, and an additional language of your choice.

Darkvision
You're eyes are accustomed to the dark places you live in. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Night Stalker
You have proficiency in the Perception and Stealth skills.

Bite
You are proficient in your fangs, which are a melee weapon that deals 1d4 piercing damage. You can only attack creatures with your fangs that are allowing you to bite them, grappled, restrained, or incapacitated. On a hit, the creature must make a constitution saving throw. The DC equals 8 + your proficiency bonus + your constitution modifier. If the creature fails it takes 1d6 + your character level necrotic damage and has its hit point maximum reduced by the amount of necrotic damage they took, until they take a long rest. If the creature's hit point maximum is reduced to 0 the creature dies. If the creature succeeds the saving throw, it takes half as much necrotic damage, and its hit point maximum isn't reduced. If the target of this ability was a humanoid, you regain a number of hit points equal to the amount of necrotic damage dealt after using it.

Half Life
You have advantage on saving throws against poison, and you have resistance to poison damage.

Sunlight Sensitivity
You disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target if your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.

Blood dependency
You must consume at least 30 ounces of blood a day. You can go without blood a number of days equal to 3 + your constitution modifier (minimum 1). At the end of each day beyond that limit you automatically suffer 1 level of exhaustion. You cannot remove any levels of exhaustion till you consume enough blood. After consuming at least 30 ounces of blood the count of days without blood to 0 but does not remove exhaustion if you've already gained any. When you use your bite feature you are considered to consume an number of ounces of blood equal to the necrotic damage dealt.

To better define a Dhampir character, try rolling on this table to determine a personality trait or other oddity of your character

Dhampir Quirks
1. You get seasick exceptionally easily
2. You refuse to enter buildings without express permission from an occupant
3. You have an overpowering phobia of needles and other such pointy objects
4. You only eat your meat raw
5. Your skin is ice cold
6. You prefer to sleep in very unconventional positions, such as upside down, and you do it with your eyes open
7. Your irises of your eyes turn to a deep crimson red when angry
8. You attract animals such as bats, rats, and wolves

I've taken great pains to make sure that this race isn't overpowered. It's roughly a 6 (I rated bite as 2) on the scale detailed in this https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/2j6xbo/5e_guide_to_homebrewing_races/ Reddit post.

I hope you'll be a able to find a use for this race

[Balyano]

Interesting, I was thinking about this exact same thing yesterday. I didn't fully stat out the idea, just daydreamed a bit. The way I did the bite was ''1d4+Con Piercing damage. You regain use of one spent hit die. If you roll a 4 on the d4 you instead regain the use of two spent hit dice.''

[JNAProductions]

Bit too much. Two skills, +3 ASIs, and Poison Resistance is... Hm... Actually okay. Maybe my gut was wrong.

However, bite is OP as hell. First off, fails the sack of rats test.

Second off, even without egregious abuse, let's say you fight 8 goblins, and when the fight is over, 4 of them are dead outright. You will then heal for, at a minimum, (assuming, say, level 3) 4d6+12 HP. For reference, if you have a 14 in Con, you have anywhere from 20 HP (Wizard) to 32 HP (Barbarian). So, unless you're a Barbarian with max Con who's down to 5 HP or less, you will, on average, be back to full health. Assuming each goblin dies instantly when you drain them. Combine this with, say, Spare the Dying, and you could, in theory, drain a goblin nearly infinitely. (Well, up to their Max HP, since it does reduce their cap.)

[Specter]

I did something similar to this a few months ago.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?520475-Half-Vampire-Race-(input-needed)&highlight=half-vampire

[Wryte]

The bite seems too strong with its added effect. I'd recommend bumping the bite damage to 1d6 + Str as a melee weapon attack, thus disallowing combining it with monk unarmed attacks, then making the extra necrotic damage and drain a 1/rest or even 1/day added effect, and only make the willing/restrained requirements apply to the added effect. I might also recommend making it HP Max drain OR HP recovery, not both, as they're both powerful effects. The healing, for example, is only slightly weaker than a single-class fighter's Second Wind, being a d6 + character level instead of d10 + fighter level, and would be stronger than a multiclass fighter's.

[FishBot]

Bit too much. Two skills, +3 ASIs, and Poison Resistance is... Hm... Actually okay. Maybe my gut was wrong.

However, bite is OP as hell. First off, fails the sack of rats test.

Second off, even without egregious abuse, let's say you fight 8 goblins, and when the fight is over, 4 of them are dead outright. You will then heal for, at a minimum, (assuming, say, level 3) 4d6+12 HP. For reference, if you have a 14 in Con, you have anywhere from 20 HP (Wizard) to 32 HP (Barbarian). So, unless you're a Barbarian with max Con who's down to 5 HP or less, you will, on average, be back to full health. Assuming each goblin dies instantly when you drain them. Combine this with, say, Spare the Dying, and you could, in theory, drain a goblin nearly infinitely. (Well, up to their Max HP, since it does reduce their cap.)

Alright good point, but assuming you're knocking the goblins unconscious then that still would put the goblins to 0 hp. If the goblin's already at 0 hp then the initial bite would kill them and you wouldn't be able to regain hit points. This would probably differ with DM implementation, but it shouldn't end up as a free after combat heal.

[JNAProductions]

Alright good point, but assuming you're knocking the goblins unconscious then that still would put the goblins to 0 hp. If the goblin's already at 0 hp then the initial bite would kill them and you wouldn't be able to regain hit points. This would probably differ with DM implementation, but it shouldn't end up as a free after combat heal.

No, it'd count as a single critical hit (therefore counting as two failed death saves) but they can survive the first bite, if they passed their saves earlier.

In addition, there is no wording there stating they have to survive the bite-only that you have to bite them.

Finally, I do note it passes the bag of rats test (either now, or it always did and I just missed a little)-it requires humanoids to regain HP. So it won't pass the Big Bag o' Commoners test, but that's nearly as big a deal. :P

[FishBot]

No, it'd count as a single critical hit (therefore counting as two failed death saves) but they can survive the first bite, if they passed their saves earlier.

In addition, there is no wording there stating they have to survive the bite-only that you have to bite them.

Finally, I do note it passes the bag of rats test (either now, or it always did and I just missed a little)-it requires humanoids to regain HP. So it won't pass the Big Bag o' Commoners test, but that's nearly as big a deal. :P

Well I could just say that you can't regain more hit points than the creature's current hp

[Wryte]

Making the hit point drain a 1/rest or 1/day ability would solves pretty much all of this. Seriously, it's majorly OP as an unlimited ability anyway, even with the grappling/will requirements. I'm just imagining a half-vampire barbarian with Athletics proficiency. At level 20 that's a +13 grapple attack with advantage from Rage to grapple a victim, followed by a bite attack with a DC 21 Con save that restores an average of 23 HP to the barbarian on a fail, and that's without getting into the shenanigans the path features add to that, let alone any magic items or supporting spells from party members that could further tip that scale.

Compare that to a 20th level fighter's Second Wind, which is a bonus action for 1d10 + fighter level for an average of 25 HP once per rest. You'd be healing for almost as much as a fighter's 1/rest ability on virtually every turn as a natural part of your attack.

[Sariel Vailo]

I know of a place that had the dhampyr already made.talk to the hand of vecna or more specificaly its middle finger