Introduction

Vampire flavor without vampire complications, the Dhampir offers some iconic vampire abilities in a playable package. Mechanically, the Dhampir’s signature feature is Vampiric Bite, which allows you to heal yourself or empower an attack roll or ability check a few times per day by biting another creature.

This guide is for the 2024 version of the Dhampir. For the 2014 version published in Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, see our 2014 5e Dhampir Guide. The 2024 version of the Dhampir was published in Astarion’s Book of Hungers, which is a digital-only supplement available on DnDBeyond.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the 2024 DnD Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows. Also be sure to check for errata periodically.

Changes from the 2014 DnD 5e Rules to the 2024 DnD Rules

A few changes were made between editions:

  • Ancestral Legacy was removed
  • Deathless Nature was removed
  • Trace of Undeath was added
  • Vampiric Bite is no longer a simple weapon and is instead an unarmed strike, it no longer provides Advantage on attacks while you’re below half hit points, and the attack/check bonus now expires after 1 minute

Dhampir Traits

  • Size: Your choice of small or medium. There are nearly no meaningful distinctions between Small and Medium size. Small characters can be swallowed whole more easily and have lower carrying capacity, but can ride smaller mounts.
  • Speed: Slightly better than normal.
  • Darkvision: Essential.
  • Spider Climb: The next best thing to flying.
  • Trace of Undeath: Only situationall useful, but I’ll never complain about a permanent damage resistance.
  • Vampiric Bite: See below.

Vampiric Bite

Vampiric Bite is an unarmed strike and follows most of the normal rules for unarmed strikes, but applies your Constitution modifier to damage instead of Strength. The damage won’t be fantastic, but the primary function of the bite is to apply one of the two rider effects.

Drain lets you heal yourself. The more damage you do, the more healing you can get. The normal damage of 1d4 + Con won’t have a big impact beyond low levels, unfortunately, unless you find ways to improve your damage.

Strengthen lets you give yourself a bonus to your next attack or ability check within the next minute. 1d4 + Con is already a really nice bonus, but with a critical hit and sources of additional damage, you could get the bonus high enough that you can’t fail the roll. If you’re outside of combat and want the bonus on checks, pretend you’re Astarion and eat a rat.

The Piercer feat is very useful here, as it provides both a die reroll and additional damage die on crit. If you can guarantee a critical hit somehow, this can make Vampiric Bite’s effects considerably more useful. Magic items like Wraps of Unarmed Power are similarly useful.

Vampiric Bite’s rider effects only care about the piercing damage dealt by the attack. Common damage boosts like Divine Smite (Radiant), Hex (Necrotic), and Hunter’s Mark (Force) won’t help here.

It’s not totally clear how Vampiric Bite interacts with other mechanics that change your unarmed strike damage, such as Monk levels. I think the intent is that you can only use Drain and Strengthen if you stick to the 1d4 + Con bite damage, but your DM might allow you to use your Martial Arts damage die.

While changing the damage of Vampiric Bite is unclear, changing the attack appears to work like any other unarmed strike. The wording of Vampiric Bite allows to choose to bite “when you hit and deal damage”, so it has no interaction with the attack roll mechanic. This means that you’re free to take a level of Monk to change your Unarmed Strikes to use Dexterity instead of Strength.

Dhampir Classes

Artificer

The Artificer makes a lot of the Dhampir’s traits redundant. You can use Infusions to deal with breathing, to see in the dark, to walk on walls (or fly, preferably), to heal, and to buff your skill checks (Enhance Ability). The Dhampir may enable you to skip over some options for Infusions and spells, but the Artificer’s class features can often handle those challenges better, so your racial traits may feel redundant and will gradually become obsolete as you gain levels.

Barbarian

Vampiric Bite is a great complement to the Barbarian’s abilities, offering a way to heal yourself in combat and to boost your attacks and checks to overcome significant challenges. With Reckless Attack you’ll be able to hit with Vampiric Bite reliably when you need to use it in combat.

Beyond that, the Dhampir provides a lot of things that Barbarians can’t replicate. Darkvision, Spider Climb to get over obstacles, and a damage resistance.

At high levels, the Barbarian’s Brutal Strike can add additional damage to Vampiric Bite, allowing you to heal more or get a bigger attack/check bonus. Piercer is also an easy choice for the Barbarian, offering additional damage with weapons like tridents and pikes.

Bard

For caster Bards, the ability to walk on walls and ceilings is a great way to stay out of reach of enemies without spending expensive spell slots on flight. Vampiric Bite won’t be useful in combat, but it’s great for the boost to ability checks.

Cleric

For caster Clerics, the ability to walk on walls and ceilings is a great way to stay out of reach of enemies. Vampiric Bite won’t be useful in combat, but it’s great for the boost to ability checks.

Druid

None of the things that make the Dhampir interesting function in Wild Shape, and the Druid can replicate most of the Dhampir’s exciting features with some combination of spells and Wild Shape.

Fighter

A Strength-based Fighter is perfectly equipped to make Unarmed Strikes, which is all that you need to benefit from Vampiric Bite. Darkvision is great, Spider Climb provides mobility that most Fighters can’t replicate, and you get a damage resistance.

If you want to fight at range, the ability to walk on walls/ceilings without the aid of spells or magic items is a great asset, and you can relegate Vampiric Bite to empowering ability checks outside of combat.

Monk

Relying on unarmed strikes makes it very easy to slip Vampiric Bite into a turn. Spider Climb works with the Monk’s crazy speed. Darkvision and a damage resistance are always nice.

Because of the way Vampiric Bite is worded, you make the attack roll before you decide to bite, which means that you can definitely use Martial Arts to attack with Dexterity. However, it’s not totally clear if your Martial Arts die can replace the 1d4 damage die on Vampiric Bite. Generally, when you have multiple options to change a value, you get to choose which to use (ex: Unarmored Defense), but the wording on Vampiric Bite sounds like you need to decide to use 1d4 + Con to use the rest of the feature. Talk to your DM.

If your DM allows you to use your Martial Arts die for Vampiric Bite, the Monk is blue.

Paladin

A Strength-based Paladin is perfectly equipped to make Unarmed Strikes, which is all that you need to benefit from Vampiric Bite. Darkvision is great, Spider Climb provides mobility that most Paladins can’t replicate until your steed can fly, and you get a damage resistance.

Ranger

Strength-based Rangers are weak, so Vampiric Bite isn’t useful in combat unless you multiclass into Monk. Darkvision, Spider Climb, and a damage resistance.

If you want to fight at range, the ability to walk on walls/ceilings without the aid of spells or magic items is a great asset, and you can relegate Vampiric Bite to empowering ability checks outside of combat.

Rogue

Vampiric Bite doesn’t qualify for Sneak Attack, which is disappointing because I’m sure there are legions of players hoping to play an edgy dhampir rogue. Darkvision and the ability to climb walls and ceilings solves a lot of problems which often require magic, and Vampiric Bite can still be used to empower attacks and ability checks, so there is still some value here, though you almost certainly won’t use Vampiric Bite in combat.

Sorcerer

The ability to walk on walls/ceilings makes flight less crucial, but at that point, a race with flight is significantly more effective, or you can cast Spider Climb. Vampiric Bite may be helpful for ability checks outside of combat, but eating rats in the middle of social situations may be frowned upon.

Warlock

The ability to walk on walls/ceilings makes flight less crucial, but at that point, a race with flight is significantly more effective, or you can cast Spider Climb. Vampiric Bite may be helpful for ability checks outside of combat, but eating rats in the middle of social situations may be frowned upon.

Wizard

The ability to walk on walls/ceilings makes flight less crucial, but at that point, a race with flight is significantly more effective, or you can cast Spider Climb. Vampiric Bite may be helpful for ability checks outside of combat. Eating a rat for a skill bonus before making knowledge skill checks can be very useful.

Unfortunately, Vampiric Bite won’t be useful for Bladesingers since Unarmed Strikes are Strength-based. You could multiclass into Monk to make them Dexterity-based, but it’s not worth that cost.