Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Dhampirs

Because of the knowledge that there are vampires in the game, and one of our companions, astarion is a vampire spawn...could larian be persuaded to add dhampirs into the game? I think if could fit perfectly fine into the story, and astarions story arc..and all it would need is some tweaks on the responses of cazador and his brood, plus other npcs. Am I the only one who has imagined role playing as vampire Hunter D on baldurs gate 3? What are you guy's thoughts on this? It'd be cool if this thread somehow got the attention of larian devs!

What's a dhampir? A vampir who can't afford a nice castle and lives in a damp basement apartment?

Have you heard about Blade?
Thats a Dhampir ...

Basicaly crossbreed between Vampire and Human (or mortal in this case probably, since they would be most likely be compatible with other humanoids aswell) ... there is many ways for them to be created, usualy ways differ across source material, aswell as their powers and weaknesses.

Nice signature. Atlantis fan?

Thanks Rag. So Twighlight's CGI baby essencially.

Nope, just Zelenka.

Yeah ... something like that.

Lol. I was giving this some thought. Isn't Astarion technically very similar to a dhampir? I mean, the tadpole has pretty much made it so that he's not REALLY a vampire spawn anymore, hasn't it?

He can do vampiric bite once per day.
He isn't ruled over by a vampire lord.
He can walk around in sunlight.
He can enter homes without invitation.
He can bleed out and die in combat.

Hmmm. Sounds dhampir-ish to me.

So what's so special about Astarion again?

Given that stabbing him in the chest with a wooden stick kills him... I'm actually warming up to the idea that Astarion is actually just an elven noble who styles himself as a vampire because he thinks it's cool and edge - he's filed his teeth, tried drinking blood, and it all started because he has an acute allergy to most natural water that hasn't been magically purified... and he's pale and pasty, and burns easy. The only trouble is, he's bought into his own charade so hard, he legitimately believes he's a vampire now... but he's really just... not.

In most settings i know Dhampirs are unable to make offsprings ...
(Dunno about DnD tho to be honest. )

Vampire Spawn can still (theoreticaly) become full Vampire and start making offsprings.

I gues that would be main difference.

//Edit:
Oh! And he cast no reflection!
That is also usualy something Dhampirs do.

I agree with this fan theory, because once again we have a situation where a character isn't acting at all like what they are supposed to be. Astarion is, in no way, a vampire spawn. He can't walk on walls, no regeneration, no forbiddance, no place of rest (so stake in the heart anywhere destroys him), no sunlight sensitivity, no claws, and he can't bite more than once a day - oh yeah, and he bleeds to death, has no resistance to necrotic, bludgeoning, piercing or slashing non-magical items. Hmmm.

So, how is he a vampire spawn in any way? Oh. Running water hurts him and no reflection.

Blade is an example of a heroic dhampir.



As for pretty boy dhampirs...Alucard has beaten Astarion by over two decades.

I only like Dankirs

I feel like at some point people missed the "monster" part of a vampire.

Anyway, playing as a vampire feels like a fundamentally flawed gimmick to me - like playing as a Mindflayer, or an Alien from "Alien".

Basically like vampire hunter D.. if you ever read the manga, or watched the movie.

not at all. the reason hes so unusual as a vampire spawn is because of the tadpole.

im assuming youre not very knowledgeable about dungeons and dragons, or even pathfinder even?

you mean dhampirs still leave a reflection, right? i think they still do... im pretty sure vampires dont have a reflection, according to DnD.

I dont know...i still think it would be GREAT if larian at least considers the idea of maybe bringing dhampirs as a DLC in the future..like i mentioned above..the devs are already bringing vampires into the equation anyway...so maybe they'd consider it? its a long shot, but if they make it happen, i think i could die happy ha

Please try to limit your repeat spam posting like that, Melkor, and try to order your responses so it's clearer who or what you're responding to - as it is, this string of one-line separate posts would generally be considered poor posting etiquette.

To the topic - The existence of Dhampir as a suggested racial lineage as of Van Richten's Guide would, indeed, suit Astarion far better in terms of his capabilities, than being a spawn. Dhampir still actually retain their capacity for empathy and emotion (spawn do not), they have most of the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities that any other playable-race mortal creature does, but they have a few special perks - such as good darkvision, faster running speed, and a bite attack. This all sounds far more like the Astarion we have, than a spawn does. A dhampir would, in fact, die if you stabbed him in the heart with a long pointy object (regardless of the material it's made of), just the same as any other elf, human or dwarf would (this is not true for spawns), so that fits Atarion as well.

To continue to call Astarion a spawn means they have to run the argument that having the tadpole has, quite literally, stripped Astarion of nearly every single strength and benefit that he ever has as a vampire spawn, and that it has drastically reduced both his capabilities as a combatant, and also his survivability; it's functionally taken everything from him, with the exception of a very infrequent access to one fraction of his old powers (a weak bite)... and yet Astarion goes on about all the benefits it's granted him, and never once bemoans being unable to do lots of things that he could do before (and, let's be honest here: Astarion would definitely complain about not being able to do things that he once could, that's exactly his personality and behaviour type).

One issue with making the switch, of course, is that Dhampir aren't beholden to a master in the first place, so they'd need to really rework his personal story.

Example portraits of Dhampirs. Im using those in Pathfinder: Wotr.
Another reason why I love art portraits in Crpgs...you can really dial in the kind of character you imagined. Instead of bland and boring <everyone looks similar> 3D renderings . Totally different feel.

As long as you can add custom portraits… I can’t stand it when the portrait doesn’t match the in-game model, and don’t really want to be building my character off a preset portrait.

Thats something Larian could of innovated upon! 3D models based on kick ass portrait art

This was unfortunately a common issue for me in DoS2 as well - the portraits were often straight up terrible, even when the character was at least semi-good looking. I always prefer the traditional fantasy portraits, BUT - I believe that ship might have sailed when it comes to BG3. :[

Yet, I see absolutely no reason why they shouldn't give us a better version of DA:O's portrait style. Alternatively, take a look at the character lobby photo-alternatives in any korean game (Vindictus, BDO, Lost Ark etc). Just using and improving either one of these features, or both, would result in much better portraits than the ones we currently have. I'd love for the portraits to at least have some sort of personality, like the emotion-sliders in DA:O where you could add a slight smile, gritting teeth or just a neutral expression. Being able to change background - or at the very least the color of it - and the angle of the picture (so that we can avoid the awkward straight-forward position) would be really nice as well.

Wow those are rad portraits, I'd love to use them in my WotR games sometime, could you point me to the full versions? Or even versions already prepped to load into the game?

As for the topic, given how much weaker than a vampire spawn he is, making Astarion a Dhampir actually would make more sense. Obviously they might have plans for his character that require him to be a spawn, but from what we've seen so far, I think having him be a Dhampir that's been emotionally abused by his father, with the tadpole granting him not the capacity for independence, but more power, potentially more power than his father, would be a more interesting route to take him. Sure, Dhampir don't NEED to drink blood, but you could say that his sire raised him to be reliant on blood and now when he can't get it he's weaker. Having him be a dhampir would let the tadpole give him MORE power rather than taking powers he should have had.

Its part of a huge portraits set mod <Heroes of Stolen land> released for the Pathfinder games a couple of years ago (last update in 2021) . There are over 300 portraits for ALL classes many races, including Dhampir, Aasimar, Orc, Goblin, Tiefling, and Kitsune. But it looks like it was removed recently from Nexus due to copyright issues?? Im sure its still out there...though the latest version added Kitsune and Dhampir I think.
95% of the portraits are basically ALL amazing, which is rare for such quantity Im even using them for my BG2 play through (needs some editing).