You get -50 fire resistance (easily offset) and negative stats on the sun.. whoopy frikinh do, the abilities given are worth the negligible increase of power and number of special powers.

That said I never played a vampire before but on paper it seems like a clear choice never to feed.

Are you trolling or have you never watched vampire movies before?

Vampire movies are utterly irrelevant to this conversation - what matters are the mechanics of vampirism in vanilla Skyrim and the advantages and disadvantages to not feeding.

This is why I vastly prefer the standard vampire; don't feed - you die. Go into the sun - you die. Go into a temple - you slowly die. In exchange you're vastly more powerful.

There's not that much of a point, I really preferred the Vampirism in Oblivion where you actually burned in the sun.

It used to be that stage 4 vampires were attacked on sight and got 100% weakness to fire. Dawnguard changed it, so yeah, if you don't mind sun-induced stat debuffs and a bit of fire weakness, then I guess you can stop feeding.

Indeed. It's counterintuitive that feeding makes you weaker.

Could a vampire be called a vampire if it didnt have any of the signature traits of a vampire from folklore, books and movies? Same thing with werewolves.

Are you asking what is the purpose of it in game? or are you asking why is it even in the game? AFAIK if you dont feed in the game you advance through different stages which buff/debuff you in certain ways.

EDIT: i'm about to start my first vampire. But i'm hoping that the lack of feeding debuffs you in such a way that you want to feed. If it is like you say 'on paper' not worth to feed because the pros outweigh the cons then i'm going to be disappointed.

You're right, with the right enchanted gear you can offset most of the negatives of vampirism so feeding becomes less of an issue. That said, it's much harder playing a vampire in the earlier levels before you're all kitted out (especially on expert or above) where fire effects can snuff you blindingly fast, and the reductions in stats and the no stat regen make surviving in the sunshine very challenging. So venture out only at night, or feed to offset the penalties. Also, it's a roleplaying thing.

I feed because the negatives of the disease along with the increased ugliness gets old after a while lol.

Edit: Also feeding because of roleplay purposes is why I do when I do.

What I meant is that the OP is concerned about the lack of disadvantages over advantages of not feeding in the game, that whatever those disadvantages are in all the various myths and more contemporary tales, it's what the game makes of its chosen disadvantages that matters most to this particular conversation.

Poor gameplay mechanics and representation of vampires in Skyrim aside, I like the approach TES has on vampires. When you feed you don't really become weak, you become more "normal". Therefore you loose your vampire characteristics as long as you feed. You become an addict for blood and when you don't feed you are going through a blood feeding withdrawal. Making you more monster-like, your powers of illusion grow, you are "stronger", more vicious, more dangerous. Maybe because psychologically you are a mess, this blood addiction is making you go into a frenzy and the powers growing stronger is a representation of that. Anything that can help you get your fix faster. You are a junkie.

Gameplay wise I think it should be reflected in your character. You look like a normal nord (for example) when you feed and by the second stage maybe your eyes go orange, third stage your face begins to transform into this monster thing and stage four, automatic vampire lord. You burn in the sun, you need to hide in some cave 'till it's dark and then you prey on some innocent victim.

Sort of like Michael Morbius:

Feed or normal: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120212092359/marveldatabase/images/6/61/Michael_Morbius_%28Earth-92131%29_001.jpg

Stage 2 and 3: http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080805220936/marvelanimated/images/2/26/Morbius.jpg

Stage 4: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120212092447/marveldatabase/images/5/57/Michael_Morbius_%28Earth-92131%29_005.jpg

When i first read about the stages i thought it sounded kinda lame. The disadvantages of becoming a vampire werent severe enough imo, although i can understand why they did it that way. Insta-death in sunlight would be a pain...so they just messed around with resistances. My issue though is lack of feeding giving you additional abilities (just like the OP mentioned) and also how you can just feed on a follower. Though when i play my vampire i may feed to stay at stage 1 just to keep it a bit RP-ish. I may also try out solo play as well and not feed on my follower, but other people.

Yea, I agree that initially you may be boned a bit - but you can pick Dunmer (incidentally my preferred race) and never feel any negative effects. I was just reading through the effects and I was like.. so.. what's the acutal disadvantage? Hell, in morrowind, you couldn't speak to 90% of the people if you were a vampire. I wouldn't want it to be THAT bad but something in-between would be good.

I actually like the way they've done the whole 'feeding makes you more normal' variation on vampirism. At stage 4 you're a monster, so feeding back to stage 1 is your 'human disguise' to let you blend back in to hide in society. Granted this was moreso the situation before Dawnguard, as at stage 4 everyone was aggressive. If you wanted to do any interacting in town, you were pretty much forced to feed first. Also, as noted earlier, fire weakness was at 100% pre Dawnguard so you really were walking flash paper ready to go up at the least spark.

I haven't played as a vampire in skyrim, I hated it in oblivion because it felt too much like a disease, it was only a negative as far as I could tell. You burned in the sun (which is kind of everywhere) and you were obligated to take your medicine, that's it. I mean thats all I noticed. Yay? What is good about that? In skyrim it seems you also look like you have aids, awesome?

Yes, I am aware that was all before but there isn't really much point in talking about it since that's gone now. I just can't fathom how beth thought it was smart to have no REAL incentive to feed now.

The stat debuffs can be a little annoying at the later stages when out in sunlight. I like to keep it at stage 1 because I get the full effect of my necromage perk without really having much drawback

It is a disease, Vampirism isn't supposed to be something you want, and you better be incinerated in the Sunlight.

Yes, Oblivion didn't do too well with the benefits of Vampirism, but I'd much prefer it over Skyrim's obvious Flashlight eye ball Vampires who just trot in the Sun like it's nothing.

If he wants disadvantages to not feeding then theirs a mod which pretty much means you need to feed constantly or you will burn to death even at stage 1 you will smoulder an lose health constantly let alone stage 4 were you will be dead in seconds even with spamming health poitions it wasn't better vampires before someone asks but I do believe both gopher an broadual made vids on it.

RP

As a vampire necromage, negative effects get boosted as well as positive effects.

That 50% becomes 62.5% and since I only have 150 health max, that goes down to 85 at stage three and higher.

This vampire has a lot of reason to feed on bandits.

I tend to agree. Before Dawnguard, using Arthmoor's Live Another Life mod to start at level 1 as a stage 4 vampire made for a very challenging playthrough. As much as I enjoyed the Dawnguard content, I do miss the more extreme stage 4 penalties.

I'd rather have a version of vampirism where feeding makes you stronger AND looks more normal, giving you incentives to feed, because feeding already has its negative social consequences (attacked on sight)

That's what i was thinking too

Take out the ability to feed in your stead or your homes. Take out the ability to feed on followers or housecarls. Do that and now you have to go out and feed. Vulnerability should increase if you are not feeding, and you should also get weaker offensively. But you should also get something to help out with your defenses as well. Something like a travel form, mist form or increased stealth i dunno.