Damphyr

Poised between the worlds of the living and the dead, dhampirs retain their grip on life yet are endlessly tested by vicious hungers. Their ties to the undead grant dhampirs a taste of a vampire’s deathless prowess in the form of increased speed, darkvision, and sometimes a life-draining bite. With unique insights into the nature of the undead, many dhampirs turn to the lives of adventurers and monster hunters. Their reasons are often deeply personal. Some seek danger, imagining monsters as personifications of their own hungers and instincts. Others pursue a life of violence to slake their. Still others embrace the solitude of the hunt, striving to distance themselves from those who’d tempt their hunger. 

Damphyr are generally rare, but among the damphyr their typical mortal heritage tends to be humans, dwarves, and elves. Often they manifest parts of their heritage like pale skin, pointy ears, red eyes, and fangs. They may even have all of them. What every damphyr has is an incredibly slow heart beat and colder then normal skin.

Dhampir Hungers

Every dhampir knows a thirst slaked only by the living. This desire is a whisper in the mind, a tinge to the sight, a reflex constantly needing to be suppressed. 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 it 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 some their hunger manifests differently, your character might gain other sustenance from the living. Roll on or choose an option from the Dhampir Hungers table to determine what tempts your character to feed.

Roll a d8 for Hunger

1. Blood
2. Flesh of raw meat
3. Cerebral spinal fluid
4. Esoteric humors
5. Psychic energy
6. A color from one's appearance
7. Dreams
8. Life energy

Damphyr 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. One parent was a Vampire or Damphyr. Potentially, both parents had some form or lineage from vampirism.
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 inhabits your body. You indulge your hunger to sate it.
5. You loved an immortal and were willing to be transformed into a vampire to join them, but tragedy interrupted the transformation.
6. You are a diminished manifestation of an otherworldly being. Slaking your hunger hastens your renewal.
7. You don’t know your origins, but you were raised by vampires or other monsters.
8. A radical experiment changed your body, making you reliant on others for vital fluids.

Dhampyr traits

Ability Scores.
You can increase any ability score by 2 and any other score by 1.

Size.
Varies

Speed.
30 ft.

Type.
Humanoid

Size.
Medium or Small (choose when you gain this lineage)

As a Damphyr you gain some common ability from your heritage.

Half dead.
You are resistant to disease and cannot contract any form of lycanthropy, vampirism, or similar curse. For the purposes of spells you do not count as undead.

Vampiric Weapon.
You have incisors, sharp nails, or some other unnatural strength like your vampire kin, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. You can make an unarmed attack and if you hit you deal piercing damage equal to 1d4 + strength, dexterity or charisma. You may choose to sate your hunger with this attack. You must permanently choose one ability modifier that best matches the thirst you may attempt to slake.

Superior Darkvision.
Your blood-red eyes pierce through the darkness. 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. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Damphyr Curse.
Each Damphyr feels the hunger of the beast always trying to escape. Constantly trying to take control. Whenever you fail a saving throw or roll a natural 1 make a wisdom savings throw, DC 12 + your proficiency bonus. On a failed save, reduce your constitution by 2 and satisfy a compulsion. In addition, the DM may call for a save if they feel it appropriately triggers your hunger.

Compulsion.
As a damphyr when the beast wins over your humanity you'll feel compelled to feed the beast. If your constitution is below 8 you must feed your hunger, otherwise you may satisfy your compulsion with one of the following: 

• Feed your hunger, restore any lost constitution points
• Assert dominance over another and gloat about it
• Incapacitate, destroy, nullify, or repel opponent(s)/object(s).
• Spend an hour or so in a place one feels safe in

Languages.
You can speak, read, and write Common and one other language that you and your DM agree is appropriate for your character.

Vampire heritage.
You gain a semblance of your vampiric heritage that helps you fit in with your kin or helps you to fight them. You may pick one ability from the Vampire heritage table.

Vampire heritage Abilities:

• Spider Climb. You gain a climbing speed equal to your walking speed. At level 3, you can move up, down, and across vertical surfaces and upside down along ceilings, while leaving your hands free. This ability lasts for 1 minute. You cannot use this feature again until you complete a short or long rest.
• Vampiric Feeding. When you slake your thirst you may experience a surge of vitality once per long rest. Your speed increases by 10 feet, and you gain advantage on Strength and Dexterity checks and saving throws for 1 minute.
• Damphyr Sight. You activate your power and your eyes glow. You may see the true form of any shapechanger or creature concealed by illusion or transmutation magic while the creature is within 30 feet of you and within line of sight. This ability lasts for 1 minute. Once you use this feature, you must finish a short or Long Rest before you can use it again.
• Damphyr Regeneration. You have an unnatural healing speed. As a bonus action, you may spend a hit dice. You can use this feature twice before you must finish a Long Rest before you regain any uses.