Dhampir

A dhampir (the word is both singular and plural) is born of a vampire father and a human mother. By daylight one looks normal if a little pale; after sundown its red eyes glow and its fangs show, though in a lit room at night it may still pass as human. Dhampir are said to be strangely alluring. Each is torn between a hunger for blood and an innocent's horror at that hunger.

Sunlight suppresses every special ability a dhampir has. Otherwise it inherits great strength, the power to command animals and none of a vampire's weaknesses: holy items and holy water do not trouble it, and it needs no invitation to enter a home.

It has no special melee attacks beyond a normal human's, relying on wrestling, punching, hurling heavy objects with its strength, weapons or spells. Like its father, it can be harmed only by spells or weapons of +1 or better.

Against vampires it is a natural hunter. It senses any vampire within 40 feet and, with a Wisdom check, can pick one out of a crowd or find its hiding place. It saves at +4 against a vampire's charm gaze, though normally against other charms. Any vampire that meets its stare must save vs. paralyzation at -2 or freeze for 1d4 rounds. In its hands, ordinary melee weapons (not missiles) strike vampires as +1 weapons, and a vampire wounded by a dhampir cannot regenerate that damage until it escapes and returns to its coffin.

A dhampir can also mentally summon 2d20 domestic animals, such as horses, dogs and house cats in a sensible mix of the GM's choosing, which arrive in 2d4 rounds and attack its enemy.

Dhampir live unnoticed among humans. Their mothers always die in childbirth, so all grow up motherless. They may follow any class or trade but drift toward work that keeps others at a distance. Once aware of their gifts, many turn to hunting vampires, especially those who have met their fathers. Others slide just as easily into evil, embracing the predator's life for the power it offers.

Unless a dhampir drinks human blood at least weekly it cannot use its powers, so many good ones remain powerless until a local vampire forces them to feed. Their children have a 50% chance to be dhampir and otherwise are ordinary humans. Their great tragedy is that they are marked from birth to serve a creeping supernatural evil. Most find it simpler to be wholly wicked, and at death every dhampir rises as a vampire lost to evil forever.