So I was starting up a new 1e Pathfinder game with myself as a player, and I referenced the SRD and saw that Dhampirs had a starting age equivalent to Humans. I thought that a bit strange as when I ran a game I recalled them being a long lived race, but it's been a few years so I chalked it up to an error on my part... However after doing some digging into something else I saw they had errat'd the ARG to change them and other races as well. That's fine, I guess but then while looking into it I saw that in 2e they changed back!
Despite being living creatures, dhampirs respond to positive and negative energy as if they were undead, making them unwelcome in many holy communities and often driving them toward necromantic arts. Dhampirs aren't immortal, but age far more slowly than most mortals, with a lifespan similar to that of an elf. Dhampirs have difficulty producing children of their own, and those few born to a dhampir are never dhampirs themselves.
With conflicting rules and errata I figure this isn't a rules question as much as asking people's opinion, but what do people decide Dhampir's lifespans should be these days? Go with the newest source(2e) and the original ruling for their lifespans or go with the last 1E errata? Or does it just vary depending on parentage or some other metric? Let me know what you think.
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I don't know what others would choose, but to me it would depend on how i'd envision my dhampirs to be. Both option are compelling.
Long Lived: Offspring of an immortal undead creature, they are cursed with unnatural longevity. They are destined to see those they cherish fall under the spell of time, a constant reminder that they are not part of the natural cycle.
Short Lived: Dhampirs are gifted with dark powers but still mortal, they are destined to die like the rest of the kine. They can choose to live like a mortal forsaking their immortal destiny or join their evil progenitor into undeath for eternity.
Gifting them with longevity based on their mortal parent race also make sense if you use the ''short-lived'' version. Although, an elf damphirs wouldn't really feel it as badly i guess.