yeah, well. maybe i'm just being difficult.

for my current character, becoming a vampire makes a lot of sense, roleplaying-wise. i'm pleased with the removal of stage 4 aggro, since this allows to stay starved and not feed on the population, which adds an element of self-control and "taming the inner beast" to my char (much like what paarthurnax has to say at a certain point).

however, while glowy eyes and split lip is still bearable, the vampire lord form isn't acceptable. i just don't ever want the ability to turn into this... thing... added to my character. not even serana-style (just never do it).

what is more, the volkihar people don't seem to be the nicest bunch to hang out with either, so my only option seems to be the dawnguard if i want to play the dlc (which i do).

now, the dawnguard obviously won't like my being a vampire, at least i recall at some point they tell me to get cured, i recall from an earlier playthrough.

so. my plan to resolve this is this:

stay a (starved population-friendly daisy-picking self-controlled and NORMAL) vampire as long as i can, until they tell me to gtf cured. do that. finish their quests (will enable use of light spells and weapons for a key fight as well) and afterwards getting infected with the blessed sanguine vampiris again. does this make sense? are there alternatives? how best to force re-infection?

wtf. dawnguard actually makes it difficult for me to be a vampire

I don't know if your on PC or not, but if you are there is a mod called 'join the dawngaurd as a vampire' or something to that effect, it's what I use for the character in my sig, if you just get the base disease you will also not have the Vampire lord ability (my character has it but for story reasons).

hi, and thanks for the suggestion. i'm on pc, yes, but apart from graphics enhancing and the big unofficial bugfixing mods, i don't wanna change the vanilla game, unless absolutely "necessary".

i don't mind becoming mortal temporarily again too much, it adds a nice story-twist to the playthrough, i think plus my character can properly say goodbye to his favorite blade (meridia's), which was locked up in lakeview manor's cellar safe for the obvious reasons. is the dawnguard always in "cure or gtfo" mode after a certain point, or does that revert to "shrug, who cares", like in the beginning, at any time again? say, after beating the main dawnguard quest (so i can peacefully solve the remaining sidequests with fangs).

after a certain point, once you are told to get the cure, if you get vampirism again they won't speak to you (don't think they attack you but you cannot do any quests for them as a vampire, unless of course you use the mod I mentioned then the only thing that changes is they don't react to you being a vampire).

Also if you are going to become mortal again then become a vampire again make sure you don't get infected by serana as you will end up with the vampire lord ability.

hm, okay. i think i can live with that.

after the main quest i'll likely not hang out in fort dawnguard too much anyway, hm.

edit:

oh, yes, i'll just roam the land, seeking vampire caves to get infected. or is there an "elegant" way to get infected?

if you want to avoid the Vampire Lord form not really, your only choice is to get infected the old fashioned way.

As far as I know there really isnt an elegant way to contract it. Just go searching caves until you find some.

On the other hand, you being on PC, you could ask serana to turn you (once the option is available) then use the console command "player.removespell [spell ID]" (without the quotes or brackets] and you will no longer have the Vampire Lord ability.

hm, out of curiosity, what would happen if i joined the volkihar clan, cured myself of the giant ugly bat form vampirism and then got infected again with sanguine vampiris?

would that count as being one of them, so i can advance on the vampires' site?

I dont think that counts. IF you have sanguine vampiris on your first trip to castle Volkihar, Harkon will tell you that what you have is a disease. Might be the same in that if you sided with the Dawnguard and you're a vamp, they'll tell you to cure yourself

probably depends on how it's detected in the relevant scripts i guess.

if i find the time, i'll run a test later when i get home. kinda wanna know now

I would have played like this if Isran wasn't such a zealot. (I also don't use mods and don't use the VL form).

I did do a branched save like this - (and then went and did the save I kept where I joined the Volkihar) - and in it I got cured and for my re-infection I used Movarth Piquine. I thought since he's something of a legend, and was once a Vampire Hunter, it was more elegant (as you put it) and more memorable than just some feral Vampire in a cave. I've never killed him, but if you do he respawns, so he'll always be there for you every time you need your true nature returned to you.

I think the logic behind a socially functional Vampire wanting to be a Vampire Hunter and wipe out all the corpse chewing troglodytes was sound, but I guess it was too much work to make all the necessary variations.

Edit: I just did some checking, and apparently you can cure Harkon's Gift and become a regular Vampire without it damaging your standing with the Volkihar court. Wish I'd known this sooner.

Yeah, Isran's initial attitude is a bit of a suspension of disbelief hurdle but I usually come up with my own head cannoned dialogue to make sense of it, in my own personal story Rose knew Isran and though he is by no definition of the word welcoming when she comes walking into Fort Dawnguard he also isn't stupid enough to simply attack her on sight or blindly turn away experienced help when the Dawnguard is so vulnerable.

nice, thanks for this

still, i think with all the corpses on a plate and death-hounds in the dining hall, not really my style :/

i didn't find isran too likeable either. i smiled when i read this:

Yeah it's not for everyone. Im just a big fan of the glowing eyes

It's installing Dawnguard that causes the glowing eyes, and I wish I didn't have them. It would have been very cool if you could keep the old eyes by staying a regular Vampire and not becoming a VL.

Are you going for the get cured and do the Dawnguard quests then? If you do this, something I'd recommend is trying to get the Vampire sold spells on your first visit to the castle with Serana. I'm not sure if it's possible for a player who refuses the Gift to ever get the spells, but I think trying on your first visit will be your only option if you want them.

I don't regret choosing the Volkihar side, even with the couple of Vampires that sit in the hall chewing on living cattle who seem brain dead. The main Vampires left after the MQ are reasonable and sane, and I would never give up the option to

still didn't start dawnguard content, too busy exploring all the cities atm

i'll get cured once isran tells me so. i hope it's not too soon

okay, i'll try and talk to the volkihar ppl on my first visit once i'm there. what spells exactly?

[OT]

got rid of the split lip, was rly just copying and renaming two textures:

http://imageshack.us/a/img689/7701/clipboard01nai.jpg

i actually like the face morphing

did anyone find a nice replacer (just textures) for the robes? should stay true to the original, especially the red one.

[/OT]

Heal Undead and Necromantic Healing are both sold by Ronthil. They both heal undead, but may not be that useful. I wanted to know all of the spells which is why I have them, and if you really want them, you can always give yourself the tomes with the console.

And I like the red line! It's pretty unique, and I haven't seen this used anywhere else. My vanilla character looks much better http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/17/withouthandprint.png it as a Vampire than http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/21/velvlynposthelgen.png Really, her face colour all changed for the better.

What you can do, if you do not want any mods, (I play on xbox), is to contract basic vampirism and join the Dawnguard. You will be able to go as far as recruiting, and then get cured. Continue the quests for the Dawnguard. When you get ready to go into the soul cairn, contract the vampirism again. Then continue on, and get cured before the final battle. After all is said and done, go and contract vampirism again.

The spells that the Dawnguard have to sell are

All the spells are under the restoration tree.

Hope this helps

so, for maximum vampire time on dawnguard side, i actually need to get cured twice? ew. maybe i should reconsider volkihar after all...

yes, especially the aura spell seems powerful as well as visually appealing. but also quite contradictory as a vampire i think. they should take damage from merely casting it. a certain sword makes no exception for the wielder either

btw, does it stack with cloak of ~element~ ?

@abrinth

i agree, looks much better.

here's a before-shot:

http://imageshack.us/a/img69/4206/clipboard02zhs.jpg

hm, actually it's not so much the red line, more the general ugliness. thing is, i use fine face textures for males (one of my favorite mods - finally sixy dark elves well, at least mine is), but the vampire textures are from xce dawnguard.

Now see, I like the 'Before' pic better. If I changed anything for my own character, I'd keep the red line and change the headlight eyes. And since when was there ever such a thing as a male Dunmer who wasn't sixy?

For the spells, if you join the Vampires you can get them all in game. The 3 sold by the Dawnguard don't hurt me as far as I can remember. You only miss out on spells if you join the Dawnguard. On the other hand the Dawnguard side adds a dungeon with 2 Named NPCs and some unarmored huskies that will not be in the game if you choose the Vampire side. I haven't cast any cloak type spells much, so I have no idea what stacks. Although I have all of the spells, so I could check next time I play.

As I said in my earlier post I would always choose the Volkihar just to get what's in the spoiler. I just love that feature, and the snippets of cool, unclichéd dialogue that comes with it.

I agree with what ashleyclark said about the two cures. There are some stipulations about re-entering the Soul Cairn, and if you want to be a permanent Vampire after the MQ this would probably be safest. I think you could just visit Movarth a couple of times without the VL, but I guess the only way to know for sure would be to try it.

If u want all the goodies from the dawnguard radiant quests u cant be any type of vampire when asking a member of the dawnguard for the next quest. Otherwise u will be going to morthal a lot