Homebrew Dhampyr Species Details

While evil, vampires are intelligent and charming creatures who, for any number of reasons may produce offspring with mortal races, generally whatever race the vampire was in life.  Dhampyr may be created other ways, such as dark rituals or vampiric blood transfusions during gestation, or, most rarely of all, as the offspring of two dhampyr parents, but most dhampyr are born to mixed, often complicated parentage. They boast an ageless sort of grace with pale skin free of flaw or wrinkle, but what usually gives away their nature are their piercing nocturnal eyes (usually gold) and their long, sharpened canines.

Dhampyr are neither fully mortal nor truly undead, and display a more limited amount of strengths than their undead, fully vampiric parent, but they pay far less of a price for those boons, including not giving up their free will and humanity, though their dark heritage is often hard to hide, leaving few places to call home as few good folk willingly associate with such creatures.

Of Night and Day

Similar to half-elves, half-orcs, and other mixed races, dhampyr blend some of the best parts of both their mortal and vampiric lineage into one package. Similar to their vampiric parent, they tend to prefer the night to the day,  but like their human parent, daylight, even direct sunlight, is not painful or damaging to them.  Likewise, as they are not creatures of inherent evil, they have no vulnerability to holiness and are not inhibited by flowing water, nor do they require an invitation to enter the homes of others (though they may well feel uncomfortable in such places). 

Conversely, unlike mortals, they are naturally super-humanly gifted, boast a seemingly complete immunity to the effects of aging and, while they do not need mortal blood to survive, they retain their vampiric parent's ability to strengthen themselves by feasting on fresh blood.  Similarly to those cursed by lycanthropy, some dhampyr actively abstain from giving in to their innate blood-lust, whereas others indulge as freely as any full vampire, though most do not fully commit to either extreme.

A Lonely Existance

Dhampyr tend to fall into one of two camps: they are either the offspring of a willing necromancer and their vampiric spouse or consort, or they are the chance offspring of an innocent or unwilling mortal and a charming vampire.  The former almost always produces evil dhampyr who live lives similar to that of a full vampire (though occasionally such dhampyr rebel against their nature), while the latter generally leads to lives of isolation or on the run.

Even in the best situations, involving a loving mortal parent and a vampiric parent who is either absent or able to avoid exposing their nature, dhampyr children are rarely able to hide their heritage, marking them as evil or, at least, dangerous in the eyes of most common folk, even those who live alongside other stereotypically dark races such as tieflings and half-orcs.  In cases where dhampyr are not outright killed or driven out of town, they are usually treated with fear, suspicion, distrust, and outright loathing.

Living with their vampiric parents is rarely a much better living situation as vampires, not being mortal, do not live mortal lives, often living in complete isolation treating mortals as cattle. A longing for social contact often leaves dhampyr living such an existence feeling that their life is hollow.  Worse still are situations where a dhampyr is born to a mortal parent unaware of their vampiric heritage until later in the child's life, at which time they are often abandoned or worse.

As there is no known village, much less a city or kingdom, of dhampyr which exists in the world, most dhampyr lead lives on the fringes of society.  Often transient and solitary, they limit their contact with others and generally keep their true nature a secret, often resorting to covering their skin with darker makeup and even possibly filing down their canines, and tend to relocate if their secret is ever discovered.

Dhampyr Names

Dhampyr generally have names common of the race of their mortal parent, but, in the case where they were raised by their vampiric parent they may be given a more baroque name with titling denoting their membership to a particular vampire clan.  

Dhampyr born to evil parents who rebel against their upbringing may choose to take their own name in defiance of their heritage which generally is of important symbolism to the dhampyr, but may follow any number of naming conventions.

Dhampyr Traits

Your Dhampyr character has the following traits and abilities, regardless of what race their mortal parent is.

Ability Score increase

Your charisma score increases by 2 and two other ability scores of your choice each increase by 1

Age

Dhampyr mature at the same rate as mortals of their same racial heritage, but otherwise age extremely slowly, often doubling or tripling the normal lifespan of their fully mortal counterparts

Alignment

Dhampyr feel the pull of the dark impulses of their vampiric parentage, but are not bound by it and so, may be of any alignment.  Those who were raised by their vampiric parents, especially, are likely to be evil, and even those raised by their mortal parents tend to be nudged toward evil by society, but dhampyr are ultimately capable of being of any alignment.

Size

Dhampyr are the size of others with their same racial heritage.  The default dhampyr is Medium, but variants of small folk may, instead, be Small

Speed

Your base walking speed is 30 feet (except for dhampyr of small-folk who have, instead, a base walking speed of 25)

Language

You can speak, read and write common as well as one extra language of your choice.  Dhampyr are likely to know the language of whatever other peoples they are most likely to have dealings with, but depending on the  situation, that could be virtually any other language.

Superior Darkvision

The nocturnal, night-stalking nature of your vampiric parentage has blessed you with superior ability to see in dark conditions.  You can see in dim light within 120 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light.  In total darkness you cannot discern color, only shades of grey.

Sunlight Sensitivity

You have disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight whenever you, the target of your attack target or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight

Touched by Undeath

The cursed blood which flows through your veins contains the taint of undeath, granting you an unearthly vitality in the face of death.  You are resistant to necrotic damage and have advantage on death saving throws.

Vampiric bite

As an action, you can use your fangs to make a bite attack against a willing target, or a target that is grappled, restrained or otherwise incapacitated.  You are considered proficient with your fangs for the purpose of attack rolls.  On a successful attack, the target creature takes 1d6 + your strength modifier in piercing damage and 2d6 necrotic damage. The target's hit point maximum is reduced by an amount equal to the necrotic damage taken, and you regain hit points equal to that amount. The reduction lasts until the target finishes a long rest. The target dies if this effect reduces its hit point maximum to 0.

Vampiric magic

You know the glamour cantrip.  When you reach 3rd level you can cast the charm person spell once per day.  When you reach 5th level you can also cast misty step spell once per day.  Charisma is your spell-casting ability for both of these spells.  Creatures under the influence of a charm by you are considered "willing" for the purposes of your vampiric bite attack.