Dhampirs or Vryloka; which is the better choice for a Dark Fantasy setting? Dhampirs are half-human, half-vampire, and basically the necrophiliac version of tieflings. Vryloka are humans granted watered-down vampire-like abilities as a result of swearing a pact with a mysterious dark power called the Red Queen.
You can have both. They're different concepts. Do different things with them.
>the necrophiliac version of tieflings
this, being burdened by sins of the fathers (or more likely the mothers in this particular case) is better than becoming >le evul by choice
"I dindu nuthin but I'm oppressed solely because of my appearance" is a shit concept, too
I propose vampire hunters who drink vampire blood to acquire their night powers and fight them evenly matched. And they obviously turn monstrous in the process
Kinda like Witchers, but not the sexy ones
so basically Claymores?
What's that?
Vryloka aren't evil by default. Their ancestors made the pact, they just got the side-effects; the longevity, the fiery passionate temperaments, the vulnerability to ennui and the red hair.
Dhampirs are lame, vampires are corpses and as such should not get to reproduce the normal way.
Both are garbage. Vampires are vampires. If you need trash mobs use other monsters the vampire controls, or make something interesting up. Here's three:
>shapeshifter mimics made of blood the vampire creates with blood magic by sacrificing numerous victims
>vampirized versions of a lower race like goblins that are still weak enough to be trash mobs even after they've been turned
>fragments of the vampire's shadow which are sent forth to do his bidding
Dhampir are gay fuckin snowflakes, Vryloka with aspirations towards full vamp-hood are much more compelling
>half-human, half-vampire
This makes zero fucking sense.
Why does everything need to be fucking half. Why cant we just have fucking vampires and fucking devils
>Why does everything need to be fucking half.
Making a choice is hard. Sitting on the fence is safer.
D&D was invented and is perpetuated by a nation of mutts, blame the great melting pot.
Because full vampires and demons and dragons would be pretty unbalanced, or completely disconnected from their official stats and abilities to the point they might as well be a wannabe quasi-version.
Dhampirs are a real thing from Romanian folklore. If TSR had any brains, we'd have gotten THEM for the iconic Ravenloft race instead of half-fucking-gypsy.
Because D&D players are literal cancer and have always been cancer. They're not okay with being a Vampire class, they want to be like a wizard who is also a vampire which is difficult to deal with in any edition.
Hence you get a bunch of watered down half races and shitty exotic races that function no differently than humans. It's disgusting and creatively bankrupt tbh.
I actually like Dhampirs, I'm a sucker for the whole "cursed lineage" thing. They also work as a bastard analogy if you've got Vampires as Aristocrats.
Both sound kind of gay, but for a real dark fantasy setting I'd prefer Vryloka in this circumstance: the world is almost post-apocalyptic because of all the undead, there are hordes of animalistic vampires as well as intelligent ones. Vryloka are mortals who get some vampire abilities and become clerics of a Vampire entity/God that is one of many.
The Red Queen is obviously evil but some mortals see the choice as being between eaten or throw their lot in with the least worst Vampiric deity.
Both sound gay
Neither
just keep dhampirs and keep Vryloka as a prominent dhampir family like a revenant family from wod, who think the common dhampir is a mutt
Why?
>Dhampirs/half-vampires
Categorically idiotic concept. Vampires are undead, they don't have fucking children. "Dhampirs" in the meaning of "half-vampire" should flat-out simply not be a thing.
Vryloka are at least conceptually sound. It's just a dark pact thing.
>Vryloka Paladin.jpg
Retarded.
Except dhampirs actually ARE a real thing in mythology, "my dad was a vamipire so I have super powers" and all.
Fantasy anime about a world where the only defense humanity has against super-powerful man-eating monsters are "Claymores", an order of female knights given superhuman strength, speed and toughness by surgically implanting them with monster organs, at the price they may one day transform into monsters themselves.