Character Concept

All dhampirs are young, without exception. The thin-blooded themselves have appeared only within the last 20 years. Most likely, a dhampir character will be the first of his kind, at least in his vicinity. Neither he nor anyone else will know what powers and pitfalls he may expect. Any dhampir may expect a turbulent adolescence, though. Many parents think that their teenager is a beast. A dhampir carries a real Beast in his soul, even if it isn't as strong as the raging Beast of a vampire.

Family Background - What circumstances led to your conception? Did a one-night stand result in pregnancy, greatly suprising all concerned? Or did your parents try to maintain a normal marriage dispite one of them being a vampire? Who raised you and how? Was your childhood happy, troubled or horribly tragic? Are your parents... human or vampire... still around? Discovery- How did you learn you had supernatural powers? Have you even figured it out, or do you rationalize your abilities as exceptional but mundane talents? Has your half-vampiric nature caused trouble for you? (Very likely if you have frenzied.) How do you feel about being part supernatural: Is it a curse, a blessing, or taken for granted?

Knowledge - How much do you know of the supernatural world? Assuming your parents still live or exist, did they let you in on the big secret? Or did you just think they acted weird?

The Future - In general, what do you want to do with your life? In particular, what do you intend to do with your abilities? Did you enter the World of Darkness willingly, or were you dragged in screaming? Now that you're in, do you want to escape back into the illusion of a normal life?

After such basic considerations of character, you select the character's Nature, Demeanor and Archetype. (Yes, even a teenager should have an Archetype, based on  her social background and what she expects from life. An Archetype such as "Professional" could  be seen as a statement of intent, if nothing else.)

Traits

Attributes: 6/4/3 for dhampires. That is, of course, amongst their primary class, secondary class, and tertiary class in addition to the one free dot in each Attribute, of course.

Abilities: 11/7/4, once again for primary class, secondary class, and tertiary class. At this stage, however, no Ability can receive more than three dots.

Disciplines: Like ghouls, dhampirs start play with one dot of Potence. They can also have one dot in any other common vampiric Discipline. Character concept should guide the choice: A self-taught dhampir will probably develop a Discipline that fits his or her personality and needs, whereas a dhampir with a vampire Mentor could learn one of the Mentor's Disciplines. At the start of play, a dhampir can have only one dot in each Disicipline.

Backgrounds: Dhampires have 5 dots to spend in backgrounds. Admittedly these aren't very good backgrounds... not many teenagers are millionaires or have powerful political connections. Purely vampiric Backgrounds such as Generation or Herd obviously don't apply, either. On the other hand, players and Storytellers can have fun interpreting Backgrounds in an appropriate youth-oriented way. For instance, popularity in school could justify a dot of influence, or sports success would bring local Fame (even one dot of Potence is lovely on the football field).

Virtues: Just like normal humans, dhampirs receive 1 free dot in the virtues of Conscience, Self-Contol and Courage, and then 7 dots to allocate as they please.

Finally, dhampirs get 18 freebie points to spend on further Traits or Merits. Flaws can add up to 7 more freebie points. Again some Merits and Flaws obviously cannot apply to non-vampires.
 

The Dhampire Ghoul

On her own, a dhampir can never have more than one dot in any Discipline. if a dhampir becomes a ghoul and her sponser (or "Domitor") is of suffficiently low generation, however, she can learn higher-level Discipline powers. The stronger the vitae fed to her, the more powerful her Disciplines my become...given a great deal of time. If the dhampir ceases to be a ghoul, she loses all her higher-level Discipline powers. Even if she later becomes a ghoul again, with a dormitor of sufficiently low generation, the character must re-learn higher-level powers from the beginning (and the player must spend the experience points again, too).

Dhampir Abilities and Weaknesses

Dhampirs have the standard abilities of Ghouls. They can use normal Stamina to soak lethal and bashing damage, but not aggravated damage. They may expend blood points to raise their Strength, Dexterity or Stamina, or to heal wounds. For lethal or bashing damage, each blood point expended heals one health level of damage. A dhampir can even try to regenerate a severed limb, although this requires spending a Willpower point and making a Stamina roll (difficulty 8). If the roll fails, the dhampir can never regrow that limb. The cost to regenerate a body part ranges from merely one blood point, for a finger or eye, to three for an entire arm or leg.

A dhampir may also frenzy, however. Dhampirs resist frenzy more easily than vampires can (their difficulties are reduced by three), but it still happens from time to time. The Storyteller decides what situations might provoke a frenzy: Living in the thick of human society, with all its frustrations, a dhampir risks frenzy far more often than most vampires ever will. As usual when frenzy threatens a character, the dhampir's player must make a Self-Control roll; the difficulty depends on the circumstances that angers or frustrates the character. For the character to overcome frenzy completely, the player must accumulate five successes. Each success rolled delays the frenzy for one turn. The player may not roll more dice than there are points of vitae in the dhampir's Blood Pool.

In theory, Caitiff vampires and dhampirs can learn any Discipline as readily as any other. In practice, it's not so easy. For many Disciplines, one needs a teacher... and again, Caitiff are no exception. Thus, even though dhampirs and Caitiff of the Last Generations pay the same point cost for every Discipline, some Disciplines are easier to justify than others.

Physical Disciplines - The "physical" Disciplines of Celerity, Fortitude and Potence are the easiest to learn. After all, they merely extend the vampires intrinsic ability to boost its Physical Attributes by using the blood. Any vampire (thin blooded or not) can learn then through instinct... even if they are easier for some clans than others. It's just a matter of really really wanting to be stronger, quicker or tougher... and of practice.

Other Common Disciplines - The common "psychic" Disciplines of Auspex, Dominate, Obfuscate and Presence are pretty easy to learn too. They do not require special justification. Since many vampires know these Disciplines, one can easily find a teacher. Indeed, many of these powers are familiar from popular portrayels of vampires... thanks to ancient legends and occasional breaches of the masquerade. A dhampir or Caitiff won't actually learn a Discipline from watching cheesy vampire movies, but she might take them as inspiration, try to imitate what she sees and eventually succeed. Protean does not require a special tutor either. Although the Gangrel remain its masters and chief practitioners, many vampires of other clans have learned the shape shifting art. Perhaps more importantly, knowledge of Protean has seeped into legends and popular culture. Even the most ignorant childe knows that some vampires can change into animals. Once again, repeated effort might lead to success. Practice at mortal skills might help a character develop a Discipline. Books on hypnosis might help one learn Dominate; spending lots of times with animals could lead to Animalism. Most of the standard Disciplines require traiinng at mundane Abilities to use them well. To some degree, the psychic Disciplines merely add supernatural force to natural Abilities... for instance, magnifying persuasion or command into Dominate, or unobtrusiveness into Obfuscate.

Magical Disciplines - On the other hand, one does not casually acquire Necromancy or Thaumaturgy. These Disciplines do require instruction from a vampire who already knows them, for they depend as much upon complex occult theories as upon the power of the Blood. Unfortunatly, the vampire clans who specialize in such magic hold these Disciplines jealously. Nothing less than a life boon... and maybe not even that... could persuade a Tremere to teach Thaumaturgy to a vampire outside the clan. Which is not to say that the thin-blooded can never learn magic. They can read grimoires and practice occult rituals, just as a mortal can. The innate magic of Blood makes hedge magic even easier for vampires than it is for mortals. An occult-minded Caitiff or dhampir might learn Hedge Magic Paths or invent their own quirky Disciplines of magic. Learning such magic, however, follows the rules for creating "personal" Disciplines.

"Unique" Clan Disciplines - Chimerstry, Serpentis, Vicissitude and other Disciplines associated with a single clan are virtually impossoble to learn without a tutor. Again, the clans that know these Disciplines seldom teach them to others. It's not impossible... no clan is truly a monolith... and for that matter, these clans might sire Caitiff themselves. who carry the Discipline in the Blood. In general, though, a Caitiff would need a mentor to teach them an exotic Discipline. Such mentors are very rare, and they generally demand favors in return.

Personal Disciplines - Nevertheless, the Last Generations (Caitiff and otherwise) have one source of Disciplines denied to all other vampires: themselves. For all other vampires, creating a truely new Discipline is labor of centuries. Even most Methusulahs can't do it... only the few who found new bloodlines. The thin-blooded however, can create a Discipline in mere decades... in just a few years, if they really work at it. Not every thin-blooded invents a new Discipline, but it is something they can do. Dhampirs cannot create new Disciplines. They can however, learn "unique" Disciplines created by the thin blooded, if they can find a teacher.

Character Architype

A dhampir is a thing the Cainites believed could never happen: the offspring of a mortal and a vampire. Camarilla and Sabbat, elder and neonate, they all knew their true blood ties came by adoption, through the Embrace. They knew that life never comes from the undead. vampires have childer not children. But then, they never had 15th-generation vampires before either.

Vampires can't have sex... not really. They only go through the motions, usually as a ploy to take the blood while their partner is distracted by passion. Only the taste of blood gives Kindred pleasure. A male vampire does not produce sperm, and a female vampire does not receive it... except in the 15th Generation. These vampires still get no great pleasure from sex, but sometimes the reflexes of life kick in and the reproductive system starts working again. A male vampire might ejaculate... and his seed will be fertile. His surprise, however, is as nothing compared to the female vampire who learns that her mortal male lover has gotten her pregnant. In the Last Generation of Caine, therefore, the curse has taken a final, ironic twist. The weakest of the vampires have a power denied to even the mightiest of their race... the power to create new life. Even under the best conditions, such pregnancies only have a 50 percent chance of carrying to term. Half the time, the fetus miscarries and dies. Surviving children are a mixture of mortal and vampiric traits: a dhampir.

Like a vampire, they convert blood into vitae. Like a mortal, however. they make their own blood. They have Disciplines, although a dhampir cannot normally master them beyond the first level. They can have mortal children of their own; sunlight does not harm them. Although they have a Beast that can drive them to frenzy, their difficulty numbers to resist frenzy are always two less than they would be for a vampire in the same situation.

Similiar creatures already exist in the World of Darkness. When ghouls have children who are themselves ghouled from the womb, after a few generations the power of vitae becomes fixed in their blood. Such "Revenants," however, are confined to a few freakish families... all of then thoroughly dominated by vampires (chiefly the Tzimisce clan). Elder vampires could ignore them, and have done so for centuries. Few in the Camarilla have even heard of revenants. Most revenants grow up surrounded by vampires, ghouls and other revenants. They barely know the mundane world exists. Dhampirs, on the other hand, usually grow up on relatively normal surroundings, in the company of mortals.

Quite possibly, the dhampir knows nothing of the secret World of Darkness. but she'll find out.... Few things could surprise an elder more, by its mere existance, than a dhampir. The withered tree of Caine has borne living fruit. Is it a sign from God? Will dhampirs develop abilities no one can guess, like their thin-blooded parents? Will they breed true and spread vampiric powers throughout the mortal populace? The World of Darkness will never be the same.

Role - To the Kindred, dhampirs are the ultimate x-factor. Millinnia of Kindred tradition says that such creatures could not exist.  Dhampirs are still so rare that most vampires have never heard of them, unless one actually shows up in the neighborhood. even then, the vampires might take a long time to recognize the dhampir for what it is. At first, they may well mistake it for a masterless ghoul. Thus, dhampirs have no steriotyped role among the clans and sects.

One can easily predict some common reactions to dhampirs, though. Some vampires will hate and fear them, as they might hate and fear any new thing. (This reaction seems especially plausible for Sabbat vampires. A dhampir challenges their belief in their absolute seperation from humanity.) Other vampires might react with awe, perhaps seeing a dhampir as a sign of Gods forgiveness: The dead have given birth; the child has the powers of the Damned without their weaknesses (or so it might seem upon casual insepction).

No doubt, many Kindred will insist that any dhampir is a fraud, just a ghoul with a hidden dormitor, or some elaborate Malkavian deception. No doubt, others will completely miss the strangeness, and simply ponder how to exploit this new resource. Character Creation- The only hard-and-fast rule to keep in mind when creating a dhampir is that they are all young. Fifteenth-generation vampires have existed only for about 20 years. Any dhampir character will be one of the very first of her kind. For all any dhampir character knows, she is the first and only one of her kind. Dhampirs vary as much as mortal teenagers.

Weaknesses - Unlike ghouls or revenants, dhampirs have no favored clan Disciplines that are especially easy to learn.