I am a little confused (or dense!), A vampire drains a cleric of say 6th level, and the cleric will become a vampire or a spawn right?
If it becomes a vampire, is it a full fledged 6th cleric plus template vampire, and is it still under the creating master's control?
If it is made into a spawn, does it lose all it's cleric levels and just use the stats from the "Vampire spawn" section?
The book seems to use spawn for two different things, full-fledged vampires under the master's control, and a specific wight like lesser vampire. Is this how it is or am I missing something? Here are the passages from the prd:
Create Spawn (Su): A vampire can create spawn out of those it slays with blood drain or energy drain, provided that the slain creature is of the same creature type as the vampire's base creature type. The victim rises from death as a vampire in 1d4 days. This vampire is under the command of the vampire that created it, and remains enslaved until its master's destruction. A vampire may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than twice its own Hit Dice; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit become free-willed undead. A vampire may free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.
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Vampire Spawn
A vampire can elect to create a vampire spawn instead of a full-fledged vampire when she uses her create spawn ability on a humanoid creature only. This decision must be made as a free action whenever a vampire slays an appropriate creature by using blood drain or energy drain. A vampire spawn's statistics are identical to those of a wight, save for the following changes.
It appears that under the Pathdinder rules a vampire has the choice of whether a creature affected becomes a full vampire or a vampire spawn when it kills them.
Thus the 6th level cleric in you post would become a vampire if the vampire that killed him wanted him to (and yes keep his class abilitites and such), assuming that the vampire that killed him had the same base type as him (ei humanoid). The cleric would become a vampire spawn ( loosing all abilities and becoming a wight like creature)if the vampire that killed him wanted him to become one instead of a full vampire, assuming that the cleric is a humanoid in the first place.
That's how I read it, I only wish they had not used "spawn" for two different things. Does everyone agree that both types are under the Master's control? Seems pretty clear cut, but we had some issues in our session.
I would have vampire spawn follow the same rules as normal vampires spawned by a master vampire... ei they are under its control, but count against the total number of HD that it can control.