Reducing a vampire's hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn't always destroy it (see fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. Each round of immersion in running water inflicts damage on a vampire equal to one-third of its maximum hit points—a vampire reduced to 0 hit points in this manner is destroyed. Driving a wooden stake through a helpless vampire's heart instantly slays it (this is a full-round action). However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the head is also severed and anointed with holy water.
Beheading a vampire will just turn it gaseous and retreat to it's coffin.
So you either :
1)stake it and behead it while stuffing his mouth with holy wavers or something similar
2) sunlight
3) running water
4) if it doesn't reach it's coffin within 2 hours after being 'killed'
number 2 and 3 are probably easier after you stake it too.
Note: Vampires are vulnerable to beheading unlike some other undead, though it will not 'kill' them instantly, basically you have to stake it to prevent it going gaseous.
Some good ideas there steelfiredragon, most come down to the vamp not reaching it's coffin within 2 hours, disintegrate is a pretty good one..
something to consider though about vampires.
though they are undead, they are living dead.
no head on shoulders means no movement....
you have his head right??? throw it in a river.... submerge his body in clear casket full of holy water and wait for sunrise
Personally I'd assume all of it's body will turn gaseous, his head included. In the end it is a GM's call though, I do not think the gaseous vampire is very cool, and potentially frustrating for players, so I do not use it except for older vampires.
In the past, playing 3.5, I've ruled it that beheading will effectively stop the creature but it's not permanantly dead unless they do the steps listed in the entry (fill the mouth with holy wafers, etc). Otherwise, if the head is re-united with the body, it'll reanimate. As written though, anything reducing it to 0 HP just makes it go gaseous. Was the vampire meant to be a long term foe or a generic baddie at the end of an adventure? What do you need it to do for your story?
As far as i know, it would simply force the vampire gaseous, and it would retreat to it's coffin. Does CDG even work on undead in PF? They are already dead, so it seems like a save that it would be immune to. I think it would still grant an autocrit, but that's about it. Hmm. Off to look.
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Mechanically you can't say you cut off something's head just because you are performing a coupe de grace, the game doesn't support called shots unless your using either the rules out of Ultimate Combat (which stops before decapitation), house rules or some other variant rule source. What happens is that you hit an opponent automatically and deal a critical hit. Normally there would also be a fort save involved afterwards, however as a vampire is of the undead type, it is immune to that effect as it is "Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless)." You can't coupe de grace a lamp, and it certainly isn't harmless.
So it gets crit and then assuming you do enough damage it mists and gets away. It's how vampires work. It has other weaknesses that are very easy to exploit (garlic, holy symbols, mirrors...) and for that same full round action you can drive a stake into its heart and kill it (with some ceremony afterwards required of course), or drag it into a river and hold it there until it dies, or bring it out into natural sunlight for a bit.
•Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
From the SRD: Bolded the important part.
Coup de Grace
As a full-round action, you can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace (pronounced "coo day grahs") to a helpless opponent. You can also use a bow or crossbow, provided you are adjacent to the target.
You automatically hit and score a critical hit. If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die.
Vampires are immune to Coup de Grace. HOwever if you allowed it the vampire would simply drop to 0 HP in my opinion. Unlike normal undead they are not destroyed at 0 HP. A vampire will just turn it gaseous including its head and retreat to its coffin. His coffin can be anywhere. Under a slab of rock with no entrance. He simply goes gaseous form to enter and leave. There he will form back up (with head intact) and simply Fast heal back to full HP.
The players should have staked him while he was helpless... then they could have cut his head off.
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Honestly, I think the vampire would eventually come back. How fast it comes back should be determined by how fun it would be for your players. Straight away if they don't mind having to face an implacable foe, or after a few levels, so they can just re-kill him for a laugh(perhaps this could become a running gag).
You could even wait until some later game, where the players are playing the descendants of their current characters and have the vampire return to take revenge for what their ancestors did to him.
It really depends on how you think your players will react. Safest bet is just to leave it dead, but it's not the most fun.
I don't think undead are immune to CdG's. "You automatically hit and score a critical hit." Only creatures immune to crits would ignore this.
The second part, "If the defender survives the damage, he must make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + damage dealt) or die." is additional to the first, and undead would ignore that.