Homebrew Ancestral Dhampir Species Details
Dhampirs are living people who possess vampiric prowess but are cursed with macabre hunger. Most dhampirs thirst for blood, but some gain sustenance from dreams, life energy, or other vital sources. Dhampirs must choose whether to fight to control their hunger or give in to predatory urges.
Dhampirs often arise from encounters with vampires; some are the descendants of a powerful vampire, while others are partially transformed by a vampire’s bite. All manner of macabre bargains and necromantic influences might also give rise to a dhampir. Regardless of their origins, dhampirs exhibit their vampiric nature in various ways, including increased speed and a life-draining bite.
Dhampir Hungers
Every dhampir knows a thirst slaked only by the living. Those who overindulge their thirst risk losing control and forever viewing others as prey. Those who resist might find exceptional ways of controlling their urges or suppress them through constant, molar-grinding restraint. In any case, temptation haunts dhampirs, and circumstances conspire to give them endless reasons to indulge.
While many dhampirs thirst for blood, your character might otherwise gain sustenance from the living. Roll on or choose an option from the Dhampir Hungers table to determine what tempts your character to feed.
| d6 | Hunger |
|---|---|
| 1 | Blood |
| 2 | Flesh or raw meat |
| 3 | Cerebral spinal fluid |
| 4 | Psychic energy |
| 5 | Dreams |
| 6 | Life energy |
Dhampir Origins
Dhampirs often arise from encounters with vampires, but all manner of macabre bargains, necromantic influences, and encounters with mysterious immortals might have transformed your character. The Dhampir Origins table provides suggestions for how your character gained their lineage.
| d8 | Origin |
|---|---|
| 1 | You are the reincarnation of an ancestor who was a vampiric tyrant. |
| 2 | Your pact with a predatory deity, fiend, fey, or spirit causes you to share their hunger. |
| 3 | You survived being attacked by a vampire but were forever changed. |
| 4 | A parasite lives inside you. You indulge its hunger. |
| 5 | Tragedy interrupted your transformation into an immortal. |
| 6 | You are a diminished form of an otherworldly being. Slaking your hunger hastens your renewal. |
| 7 | One of your parents was a vampire. |
| 8 | A radical experiment changed your body, making you reliant on others for vital fluids. |
Dhampir Traits
Creature Type: Humanoid
Size: Medium (about 4–7 feet tall) or Small (about 2–4 feet tall), chosen when you select this species
Speed: 35 feet
Ancestral Legacy
If you replace a race with this lineage, you can keep the following elements of that race: any skill proficiencies you gained from it and any climbing, flying, or swimming speed you gained from it.
If you don’t keep any of those elements or you choose this lineage at character creation, you gain proficiency in two skills of your choice.
Darkvision
You have Darkvision with a range of 60 feet.
Spider Climb
You have a Climb Speed equal to your Speed. When you reach character level 3, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and along ceilings while leaving your hands free.
Trace of Undeath
You have Resistance to Necrotic damage.
Vampiric Bite
When you use your Unarmed Strike and deal damage, you can choose to bite with your fangs. You deal Piercing damage equal to 1d4 plus your Constitution modifier instead of the normal damage of an Unarmed Strike.
In addition, when you deal this damage to a creature that isn’t a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways:
Drain. You regain Hit Points equal to the Piercing damage dealt.
Strengthen. You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make within the next minute; the bonus is equal to the Piercing damage dealt.
You can empower yourself with this trait a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a Long Rest.
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