Dawnflower Dervish (Bard) Dhampir with crossblooded sorcererdip

[Doktor Sanguine]

Hello, I am attempting to make my first Pathfinder character and I want a particular feel. I am using Dhampir, and I want a dex based fighter so it was a toss up between kensai and DD Bard, in the end I think I'll go bard because it seems more intuitive for a virgin gamer and the fluff of a seductive, selfish "Vampire Lastat" kind of guy seems more fun.

The issue is the Dhampir in Pathfinder is not bloody enough. I want to bite and drink blood (or rather have my character do it). So I thought a level of Undead sorcerer bloodline (sanguine version) would get me blood drinking right off the bat. Now, I still need a bite as the Dhampir's alt race trait bit is a weak thing, so I'm wondering if I can take cross blooded and get the Serpentine bloodlines bit along with the sanguine blood drinking, THAT would be very much more my kind of vampire... dhampir. Can someone explain, in noob terms, how the crossblooded thing works? (just for level 1)

Any other advice for vampireque powers, wands or whatever let me know!

Also, starting out will be level 4 or 5, roling for points when the time to make this beast comes.

[Doktor Sanguine]

Man I'm getting ignored, ain't I?

[K177Y C47]

Well for crossblooded it works like this:

At level 1 you gain both Bloodline Arcanas
You have to PICK which of the two bloodline powers you want.
You get no bonus to saves (the Crossblooded take a flat -2 to will.. so pretty much your saves at level 1 are 0/0/0)

Your best bet may be to be a Jiang-Shi Born Dhampir (+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis) and go Hexcrafter Magus. The Hexcrafter has the nice ability to use hexes, which creates for a some interesting and cool vampire-esque abilities. If you are playing a home-game and not PFS, then ask your DM about getting the Fiend Flayer archetype. Normally it is limited to Tieflings so you have to technically get your GMs approval to use it. It effectively gives you an arcana that lets you create a blade from your blood. You can just reflavor the whole "demonic" part to being from the unholy taint of the vampire. The archetype is not overly strong, but it has some cool flavor and can be quite visually awesome if you are the type to vividly imagine things.

[Doktor Sanguine]

K177Y C47 wrote:

Well for crossblooded it works like this:

At level 1 you gain both Bloodline Arcanas
You have to PICK which of the two bloodline powers you want.
You get no bonus to saves (the Crossblooded take a flat -2 to will.. so pretty much your saves at level 1 are 0/0/0)

Your best bet may be to be a Jiang-Shi Born Dhampir (+2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Wis) and go Hexcrafter Magus. The Hexcrafter has the nice ability to use hexes, which creates for a some interesting and cool vampire-esque abilities. If you are playing a home-game and not PFS, then ask your DM about getting the Fiend Flayer archetype. Normally it is limited to Tieflings so you have to technically get your GMs approval to use it. It effectively gives you an arcana that lets you create a blade from your blood. You can just reflavor the whole "demonic" part to being from the unholy taint of the vampire. The archetype is not overly strong, but it has some cool flavor and can be quite visually awesome if you are the type to vividly imagine things.

Well, I actually think they are going to let me play a "danse macabre bard" it is my own hybrid of the dirge bard and dawnflower. The only conflict I can see is that they both swap lore master, so I just pick one and there we go. Now, I still have to convince them to let me worship a death god rather than whats her name. Shouldn't be a problem though.

Any advice on a death god who is not sooo evil?

Also, the sanguine bloodline level dip would give me a boost to necromancy spells, but cost me my bard spell progression.

I'm picturing a a weird combination of Tom Waits, Jack Sparrow and The Vampire LeStat.

Any thoughts people? Any ideas of how to build this beast?

[Doktor Sanguine]

Oh and your idea is cool, but I have to have charisma. I'm going to mess with people a lot.

[Damir]

Feat: Unusual Heritage (Dhampir) from the Bastards of Golarion book gives a 1d4 bite attack (plus a once per day 1d4 bleed damage tacked on to that).

That's probably the best you can get for a bite attack. Better than the racial trait, and it doesn't replace your spellcasting racial trait.

You'll have to pick up the blood drinking part by a dip into sorcerer (Sanguine) or a later feat - but you can still drink blood before that (you just don't gain as sweet of bonuses with it).

For the feats, Skill Focus (Knowledge [religion]) and then Eldritch Heritage (Sanguine) would get you that power at level 5, without any levels of sorcerer (technically Sanguine is wildblooded, but most people would allow it to be used with Eldritch Heritage - especially when you have such a good reason).

Also, there's the Dhampir specific blood drinking feats (all from the Advanced Race Guide):

Blood Drinker: allows you to gain a bonus when you drink the blood of a living creature* of a particular subtype**. The bonus is perhaps better than the Sanguine Bloodline (lots of temporary hit points, a bonus to CON checks, and you deal CON damage to the person you bite)

(then Blood Feaster to get better bonuses if you can bite people multiple times, Blood Salvage to use it on recently dead people [although, consider*], Diverse Palate to use it on a second type of creature - even a monstrous humanoid type like centaurs or something)

(the need to grapple might be an issue for you if you're a DEX based fighter - Agile Maneuvers, Improved Unarmed Strike --> Improved Grapple might help... but that's a lot of feats. Other people can grapple them for you, though. Paralysis [from spells - Hold Person is a second level bard spell] or Unconsciousness [scour the battlefield after the fight is over to look for anyone who's bleeding out but not dead yet] are other ways you can get a bite in.)

* Generally by grappling and biting them (dealing damage as normal along with the drinking bonuses). However, not every enemy that falls unconscious in a fight dies...

** So you only get the nourishment from "humans" or "elves" or "goblins", rather than any creature. This is a bit of an issue - but talk with the GM. Some adventures tend to be in areas dominated with a certain humanoid enemy. Others... you might never find humanoids to feast on (aside from your own party, which is a valid possibility if you have a way to compensate them for their blood donations).