Quote from SilverReefXD >>

How can I make this an option to make a character of this species?

The option is called a Dhampir, and it comes from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. I believe you can purchase the species individually for dndbeyond if it's all you're interested in.

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Quote from Bluesnake462 >>

 I am noticing that they took away the Vampires regeneration ability

 

Looking at other creatures with self-healing abilities, this seems to be a conscious design choice this cycle. As here, they remove self-healing abilities and increase each relevant monster's health accordingly (e.g., Devas and their healing touch). It makes sense given that Wizards is trying to remove unnecessary text from stat blocks wherever possible (and healing abilities just mean more health, so cutting out the middleman and just adding the health to the stat block via more hit dice lets them get rid of the text without changing the monster's challenge rating).

Personally, I'm a fan (it lets monsters do cooler things in combat than heal themselves)

 It will probably change how the monster plays though, as previously you could stop the vampire from healing using radiant damage (or holy water or sunlight or running water). Now there isn't that option, which I'm not sure I like.

Also, to your point about the monster doing cooler things, vampire healing didn't use their action, it just happened, so the vampire could still do the cool things.

Probably. The important change is that a vampire can't step away for 1 minute and return with all of its Hit Points. Change isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But if you'd prefer vampires to have some sort of weakness to Radiant damage, then make it so. There are several ways. You could reintroduce Regeneration that can be stopped by Radiant damage. Simply subtract 3 times the Regeneration amount from the vampire's Hit Points to keep the vampire at the same Challenge Rating. Alternatively, you could give vampires vulnerability to Radiant damage (while also increasing their hit dice—else the vampire will be drastically weaker). But again, all you're really doing under the hood is fiddling with the vampire's Hit Points.

You can always still role-play that without a Regeneration trait. For instance, you can telegraph how the players' attacks grievously injure the vampire but then note how "you watch as the vampire's injuries begin to heal: flesh knitting back together, arrows expelling themselves, and burns giving way to pink skin." You can even role-play how Radiant damage does not heal. The players aren't the ones managing the vampire's Hit Points—their experience will be the same regardless of whether the vampire is actually regenerating.

If your concern is an inconsistency with roleplaying Regeneration without actually regenerating Hit Points (such as the vampire fleeing but being encountered later), then you can telegraph to players that the Regeneration is not infinite: "You watch as the vampire's wounds try to reverse themselves as they did before, but the wound reopens—you get the sense that the vampire's ability to regenerate has run its course." I'll also note that any monster may recover somewhat if the group stops to take a rest.

I personally find these changes useful because they reduce the number of things a DM has to consider and track during combat.

As a note, my point about monsters being able to do cooler things than healing in combat was referencing self-healing abilities that required an action, not passive traits like Regeneration.

Quote from TheOtherRyan >>

Quote from Panda_lorian >>

Quote from TheOtherRyan >>

Quote from Bluesnake462 >>

 I am noticing that they took away the Vampires regeneration ability

 

Looking at other creatures with self-healing abilities, this seems to be a conscious design choice this cycle. As here, they remove self-healing abilities and increase each relevant monster's health accordingly (e.g., Devas and their healing touch). It makes sense given that Wizards is trying to remove unnecessary text from stat blocks wherever possible (and healing abilities just mean more health, so cutting out the middleman and just adding the health to the stat block via more hit dice lets them get rid of the text without changing the monster's challenge rating).

Personally, I'm a fan (it lets monsters do cooler things in combat than heal themselves)

 It will probably change how the monster plays though, as previously you could stop the vampire from healing using radiant damage (or holy water or sunlight or running water). Now there isn't that option, which I'm not sure I like.

Also, to your point about the monster doing cooler things, vampire healing didn't use their action, it just happened, so the vampire could still do the cool things.

Probably. The important change is that a vampire can't step away for 1 minute and return with all of its Hit Points. Change isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But if you'd prefer vampires to have some sort of weakness to Radiant damage, then make it so. There are several ways. You could reintroduce Regeneration that can be stopped by Radiant damage. Simply subtract 3 times the Regeneration amount from the vampire's Hit Points to keep the vampire at the same Challenge Rating. Alternatively, you could give vampires vulnerability to Radiant damage (while also increasing their hit dice—else the vampire will be drastically weaker). But again, all you're really doing under the hood is fiddling with the vampire's Hit Points.

You can always still role-play that without a Regeneration trait. For instance, you can telegraph how the players' attacks grievously injure the vampire but then note how "you watch as the vampire's injuries begin to heal: flesh knitting back together, arrows expelling themselves, and burns giving way to pink skin." You can even role-play how Radiant damage does not heal. The players aren't the ones managing the vampire's Hit Points—their experience will be the same regardless of whether the vampire is actually regenerating.

If your concern is an inconsistency with roleplaying Regeneration without actually regenerating Hit Points (such as the vampire fleeing but being encountered later), then you can telegraph to players that the Regeneration is not infinite: "You watch as the vampire's wounds try to reverse themselves as they did before, but the wound reopens—you get the sense that the vampire's ability to regenerate has run its course." I'll also note that any monster may recover somewhat if the group stops to take a rest.

I personally find these changes useful because they reduce the number of things a DM has to consider and track during combat.

As a note, my point about monsters being able to do cooler things than healing in combat was referencing self-healing abilities that required an action, not passive traits like Regeneration.

 You aren't wrong that a vampire can be described as healing without any hit points being regained mechanically, due to the increase to the total hit points. It will play somewhat differently now that dealing radiant damage is no more effective than any other damage type, but probably not noticeably.

Personally I would probably run it modified to have the Regeneration trait similar to its 2014 version, as I think it's fun when monsters have weaknesses to exploit. That said, vampires are not lacking in those.

I definitely agree with the principle of streamlining statblocks to make combat run more smoothly, I'm not against change in general. Removing the Children of the Night action, for example, is definitely a good decision. 

And yeah, I did think you were talking about monster healing more broadly than just about vampires. I was just saying that point doesn't apply to vampires in particular.

It's not a species. Basically, you have to have a character get infected to become a vampire. But any species (iirc) can become a vampire.