Ighalli wrote
Take all of this with a grain of salt, as I've not actually played as a vampire: I don't think being a vampire right now really carries an advantage or disadvantage. You have to do unarmed attacks to get the bite (right?), but the damage is low (right?). On the other hand, you lose a *tiny* amount of wisdom (but could just pray that away). Am I missing something? Is the impact bigger than I thought?
I haven't actually played as a vampire either
Yeah, you have to sacrifice using a weapon to gain access to the bite special (drain attack). I agonized for ages about what value to give the drain attack, and what it should be influenced by. Agility? Arm strength? The problem was that the stats varied wildly between 10 and 100 points; power players might reach 50+ int for example. Another thing I considered was to use the geometric mean of two stats, say, agility and perception, or arm strength and charisma, and use that figure as the buff.
In the end I opted to apply a bonus bite strength to any vampiric humanoid and simply use the weapon skill level (biting) as a sliding scale for how much hp the bite attack would yield. I felt this would be the most simple way for players to notice an improvement in their investment to be a vampire. Besides, I didn't want another boots of kicking experience (I have a spreadsheet somewhere with about ten different scenarios for improvements and I couldn't make up my mind :\
I figured wisdom is a highly prized stat so I selected this one to pick on. It should deteriorate as quickly as stats do for characters with leprousy, which in my experience is pretty quick, and any stat decrease is a nuisance on the way to better weapon and armor materials.
Ighalli wrote
I think that you should try to make it change the game play more than it does now. Maybe it grants infravision and makes you take acid-like damage based on how much light you're standing in, but in the dark you get fast regeneration. Both the regen and the damage could lower your vampirism counter as they function. In some editions of dungeons and dragons, vampires gain a life force draining slam attack in addition to the grapple only bite. Maybe all unarmed attacks are energy draining and half the time you get to also bite. Mostly, I want playing as a vampire to feel different rather than just being more powerful.
Infravision is a great thing to add on. I'd also like to try making it so that vampires standing in
sunlight definitely take damage. That would be in places like Attnam, New Attnam, and would need to take advantage of the day/night mechanic.
I'm just taking a little bit of a stab in the dark. I don't want to introduce a game-breaking exploit, so I am erring on the side of caution a fair bit. For the same token, I could optimize and model things until I go crazy, and still be way off. I trust the community and I'll be sure to get feedback on the mechanic, and the ways to improve it. Best thing is, it can always be changed.