I'm playing my first vampire and some of my old immersion behaviors (like eating, sleeping, warming by an inn's fire pit) don't feel 'natural' for a vampire.

Consequently, my PC no longer carries any food and only consume the most expensive alcohol available. I don't tend to have her sleep during the days, just dungeon dive or wait for sunset. Also, there's no incentive to feed - that just strips you of your powers and you gotta build them back up! Feeding made more sense if you couldn't interact safely with NPCs, but now you can (even at Stage 4).

I'm working toward Harkon and becoming a VL but I don't believe that'll make much difference in the PC's lifestyle.

Any thoughts - how do you play your vampire?

I think it's appropriate to adjust your behavior when you make the transition from a regular PC into and undead character. My necromancer currently eats, drinks the finest alcohol, sleeps, etc ... but all of that will go away when he becomes a lich. I'd do the same for a vampire character, though I would continue sleeping and obviously only "eat" blood.

What a great question, thanks for asking. I handled my sole vampire (so far) in a very specific way, actually. I did some things that you also do, kami12, like not eating mortal food, sleeping during the day (or at least waiting in a shady spot, if there's no indoor location nearby when sun's coming up).

I was dismayed to find that Dawnguard changes vampirism, so that NPCs only freak out when our character is in Vampire Lord form. I liked it the old way, the way TES4 handled it: NPCs freak out if our character makes it to Stage 4. I like that there is some pressure to get feeding done, that there is an actual reason to feed (beyond pure roleplay). So I actually disabled Dawnguard for her game, and only her game.

I also never liked how 'soft' the method of feeding is, in TES4 or TES5. If a human or elf is getting their blood svcked, there should be some level of drama. Maybe I've been spoiled by what I see in movies, but I can't buy somebody just laying there while they are being fed from. They should either (1) attack, (2) resist the feeding, somehow, or (3) totally freak out and flee. Nobody is going to just lie there asleep during this process, or merely stand around (as they do in Skyrim with Dawnguard activated).

So what I did to 'fix' this is sort of bizarre. Here is how I did it, step by step.

1). My vampire would usually break into somebody's residence.

2). She would feed, if possible.

3). She would either attack or cast some sort of non-lethal spell (this is to simulate the NPC struggling).

4). The NPC awakes. Oftentimes, there is some reaction ("Get out of here") or attack.

5). My vamp would 'hypnotize' her vicitim, as vamps often do in lore, to calm him or her down. (This got simulated by casting the Voice of the Emperor spell. My vamp was Imperial).

It's kind of fudgey, I know, but it worked for me. After hynotizing the victim, that victim would typically go right back to sleep, or some other mundane activity which suggested he/she had just forgotten exactly what happened. I like to think that when this NPC awoke the next day, they'd have some vague recollections of a terrible dream, and wonder why there were strange marks on their neck.

Wow - now that's how to play a vampire! I'll have to adopt some of your practices, because it doesn't quite feel right as it stands now.

So, I believe, I've got the option to un-install or not use particular DLC on my Xbox. Are you saying that without Dawnguard, the NPC reaction to Stage 4 vampires is the 'attack-on-site' variety? Hmm, if it wasn't for the ferry service from the Dawnguard plugin, it would almost be worth trying. At least then, I'd really have a reason to feed (other than immersion).

It depends on what kind of Vampire it is. I try to make each strain play differently (as different as i can get with Skyrim's generic system) which i tend to do via spells and interactions with people.

My Cyrodillic Vampire uses illusion spells to manipulate people and stealth to kill others, Volkihar uses lots of Frost Magic and Frost enchantments, my Pureblood Hemomancer uses many different spells but the main one is the VL's Drain via the glitch which lets you use it in normal form, and lastly my Pureblood Royal Altmer uses all the Vampire Magics available to them but prefers to use his Silver sword to fight 1v1 with his opponents

Mine has taken over the Dark Brotherhood - though they don't know it. They relive everyday since my arrival as if it is the first day I arrived. I use the sancuary as home for its resources and for food. She rarely feeds though. She remains at stage 4 to remain at full strength, feeding only when she desires to head into town.

My game is pre-dawnguard so I have less options. Played on novice, all level-ups into health, skilled only in Enchanting, she uses only her vampire skills, primarily vampiric drain for offence. She enjoys 80% magic resistence and 100% cost reduction in destruction, the latter allowing her to use her vampiric drain without limit. She is a seductress who spends her days lavishing in the pleasures her abilities afford.

This is one of the reasons I'm thankful for the Better Vampires mod. With it you can have your vampire strongest right after feeding. Makes more sense to me.

Correct. I would uninstall Dawnguard from her game, and re-install it for other characters' games. Only takes a few minutes either way. And once DG is not in the game anymore, NPCs will go nuts if they see a Stage 4 vampire. It was actually kind of neat because sometimes she would choose not to feed (or maybe I had just forgotten to do this) and my vamp would be walking in some town, and then all at once, any NPCs nearby would start going crazy because they could see that the lady who had been so societal and civilized a moment ago, has some sort of evil amongst her. That's how I would RP it, anyways.

Oh, one other thing. I had Kinect on Xbox, and I would also RP that my vampire could 'shapeshift' things. She could either shapeshift herself, or shapeshift some sort of object. So I used one of the Kinect voice commands to instantly change the dark, smelly necro-robes she usually wore into a normal middle-classed set of clothes, whenever she found herself in the company of ordinary, law-abiding people. I used a second voice command to change back from clothes to robes. I liked to RP that her necro-robes smelled like death (since she often conjured dead things), but when she shape-shifted into normal clothes she would now smell much more pleasant, like lavender, or something.

Yeah, I had a lot of quirky little things to complete the vampire RP, since Bethesda's way is rather half-baked, in my opinion.

For me it depends on the character in question and how they deal with this certain affliction.

How do y'all go about using illusion and conjuration (assuming you do)? I've yet to create a vampire and actually play because I find myself grinding a little bit with Muffle and Bound Sword to level up so I can actually utilize each skill. But I get bored and give up.

I'd prefer to be a vampire that sneaks and summons those from the Dawnguard DLC and uses Bound Dagger. I'd also like to utilize invisibility and fear spells.

Any suggestions?

I had my current PC practice and level Illusion, Conjuration, and Sneak before becoming a vampire (she's now progressed to Vampire Lord).

There's no connection between what your PC can do before turning into a VL. As a VL, you're pretty much limited to the VL Blood Magic abilities (see the wiki page which describes VL powers and the special perk tree). So your Sneak, Conjuration, and Illusion skills could be at 15 or 100 and it would make no difference to your VL abilities. The VL abilities build up entirely separately. In fact, you can do a ton of stuff as a VL and not level your PC at all. I was a little surprised by this - you have to choose whether you want to level your PC or your VL because you can't do them simultaneously.

However, having strong Illusion, Conjuration, and Sneak skill make a tremendous difference once you become infected with Sanguinare Vampiris and reaching stage 4.