Homebrew Dhampir Species Details

Poised between the worlds of the living and the dead, dhampirs retain their grip on life yet are endlessly tested by vicious hunger. Their ties to the undead grant dhampirs a taste of a vampire's deathless prowess in the form of increased speed, darkvision, and a life-draining bite.

With unique insights into the nature of the undead, many dhampirs become adventurers and monster hunters. Their reasons are often deeply personal. Some seek danger, imagining monsters as personifications of their own hunger. Others pursue revenge against whatever turned them into a dhampir. And still, others embrace the solitude of the hunt, striving to distance themselves from those who'd tempt their hunger.

Dhampir Hunger

Every dhampir knows a thirst slaked only by the living. Those who overindulge in 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.

1d6 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.

1d8 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 in the Domains of Dread

When creating a dhampir, ask your DM if it makes sense for your character to have ties to one of the following Domains of Dread (detailed in chapter 3):

 

Barovia.

In the shadow of Castle Ravenloft, tales flourish of those who love or descend from vampires. You might have such a connection, but dread what would happen if others in your insular community found out.

Darkon.

The Kargat, this shattered domain's secret police, supposedly know the secret of immortality. Perhaps you joined and advanced through their lesser ranks, known as the Kargatane, and were rewarded by being transformed into a dhampir.

I'Cath.

At night, the starving city of I'Cath is overrun by vampiric jiangshi (described in chapter 5). You were left with a cold hunger after an encounter with one of these unquiet ancestors.

 

 

 

Dhampir Traits

As an dhampir, you have certain traits in common with your kind. Being able to regain hit points or get bonus on ability check or attack roll starting at 1st level is exceptionally effective in certain circumstances and exceedingly dangerous in others. As a result, playing an aarakocra requires special consideration by your DM.

Ability Score Increase

When determining your ability scores, you increase one of those scores by 2 and increase a different score by 1, or you increase three different scores by 1. You follow this rule regardless of the method you use to determine the scores, such as rolling or point buy.

Your class's "Quick Build" section offers suggestions on which scores to increase. You're free to follow those suggestions or ignore them. Whichever scores you decide to increase, none of the scores can be raised above 20.

If you are replacing your race with a lineage, replace any Ability Score Increase you previously had with these.

Languages

Your character can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for the character. The Player's Handbook offers a list of widespread languages to choose from. The DM is free to add or remove languages from that list for a particular campaign. If you are replacing your race with a lineage, you retain any languages you had and gain no new languages.

Creature Type

Every creature in D&D, including every player character, has a special tag in the rules that identify the type of creature they are. Most player characters are of the Humanoid type. A race option presented here tells you what your character's creature type is.

Here's a list of the game's creature types in alphabetical order: Aberration, Beast, Celestial, Construct, Dragon, Elemental, Fey, Fiend, Giant, Humanoid, Monstrosity, Ooze, Plant, Undead. These types don't have rules themselves, but some rules in the game affect creatures of certain types in different ways. For example, the text of the cure wounds spells specifies that the spell doesn't work on a creature of the Construct type.

Size

You are Medium or Small. You choose the size when you gain this lineage.

Speed

Your base walking speed is 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 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 discern colors in that darkness as shades of gray.

Deathless Nature

You don't need to breathe

Spider Climb

You have a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. In addition, at 3rd level, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free

Vampiric Bite

Your fanged bite is a natural weapon, which counts as a simple melee weapon with which you are proficient. You add your Constitution modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with this bite. It deals ld4 piercing damage on a hit. While you are missing half or more of your hit points, you have advantage on attack rolls you make with this bite.

When you attack with this bite and hit a creature that isn't a Construct or an Undead, you can empower yourself in one of the following ways of your choice:

  • You regain hit points equal to the piercing damage dealt by the bite.
  • You gain a bonus to the next ability check or attack roll you make; the bonus equals the piercing damage dealt by the bite.

You can empower yourself with this bite a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
VKennedySA

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