[Pathfinder] Homebrew Races

So the RP on this one are a little more iffy, because there weren't premade options for one of the things. it's anywhere between 14-18RP which is about what I wanted anyway. The Hemophage quality is the one I'm not entirely sure about - Carrion Sense, which is a limited form of the Scent quality, is 2RP, so I put that as the cost for Hemophage, which includes a modified Scent quality similar to Carrion Sense. However, the ability also comes with quite a few drawbacks, so I'm not entirely sure how much that balances it out. Any ideas on the best way to balance this bit of homebrew would be much appreciated. Also, their Vampiric Bite is priced as a spell-like ability of a 3rd level spell (Vampiric Touch) at 3RP, though it requires the vampire to make a normal melee attack rather than a touch attack.

Vampire, Living (14RP?)
Humanoid (Vampire)
Size: Medium
Base Speed 40ft. (Normal 30ft. plus 10ft. racial qualities)
Ability Scores: Flexible (+2 Str, +2 Char)
Languages: Standard; Living vampires start with Common and can choose from an array of seven languages. As my campaign world will have its own languages, you can choose this list to better fit your own campaign. Living vampires can learn any human language.

Racial Traits

Stalker: With bodies built for light, quiet movement and eyes that notice every movment, vampires excel at the arts of stalking and trailing; Stealth and Perception are always class skills for vampires.

Fast: Faster than normal humans, vampires have a +10ft. racial bonus to speed.

Bite: Vampires possess a natural bite attack that deals 1d4 points of damage.

Vampiric Bite: Once per day, a vampire who succeeds at making a bit attack can, before rolling damage, choose to feast on their victim's blood. Unlike normal blood-drinking, this is a supernatural ability that functions as vampiric touch, and deals 1d6 points of damage per every two character levels (max. 10d6); for each point of damage dealt, the vampire gains 1 temporary hit point. Hit points gained in this way last for one hour.

Night Eyes: Vampires have Darkvision 60ft.

Haemophage: Living vampires must drink blood to survive, in addition to consuming normal food and drink. Left without blood for more than one week, if exposed to blood, the vampire must make a Will save at DC15, +1 for every additional day they have gone without blood, or attack the source of the blood with their Bite attack; if they have their Vampiric Bite still left for the day, they must use that. Vampires also have the Scent trait, but only for blood and bleeding creatures. Taking the blood of an unwilling, sentient person, except in self-defense (such as during battle), is an evil act.

Alternate Racial Traits

Object of Desire: Some vampires are especially irresistible to living creatures, exuding an aura that makes it easier to trap their prey. When using charm person or charm monster, the vampire adds one to their caster level when determining the spell's effects. This trait replaces Stalker.

Fluff

Many scholars believe that Living Vampires originally came to be as humans infected with dark magic, due to the race's humanlike appearance and their strange ability to breed completely true with humans. Most of what sets them apart from their human cousins is their need to consume the blood of other species in order to survive, a trait which, unfortunately, makes them the target of much prejudice, suspicion, and fear. In lands where the undead form of vampires are prevalent, living vampires may find themselves subjected to superstitious, hostile behaviours, as many confuse them for their unliving counterparts. However, unlike 'true' vampires, as per their name, living vampires are indeed sttill alive; they are also not susceptible to holy items or sunlight, nor are they capable of transforming humans into more of their kind.

The rumors that living vampires, like true vampires, can curse others with the need to drink blood stem in part from the strange life cycle of the race. When a vampire is born, they are nearly indistinguishable from humans - they do not have fangs or the need to consume blood to survive, and most of them don't have any of the special abilities that come from their vampiric blood. Once a member of the race reaches adolescence, they begin to transition into a full living vampire, after which they have all of the traits listed here.

Another unique trait of the living vampire is that the child of a living vampire and a non-vampire race will always inevitably be a vampire. While most children of vampires grow up in the care of vampires, a few, due to orphaning or abandonment, grow up in ignorance of what they are until the change comes over them.

Physical Description
Vampires look much like taller, elegant humans, with angular facial features and slender builds. Their hair tends to be either pale or desaturated colors, like pale blonde, silver, various shades of grey, or black, though vampires with higher percentages of human blood can have hair of any human color. The eyes of a vampire are usually vivid colors - lavender, purple, bright green, blue, and red are all common - and glow red in reaction to stress or powerful emotional states (like fear, anger, or despair). Vampires can make their eyes glow at will, as well, though this is purely cosmetic and has no in-game effect. Vampire skin has a tendency to the pale side, though vampires with human heritage may have other skin colors.

Society
As vampires cannot survive on the blood of their own kind, vampire-only societies are almost impossible for them to form. Instead, they often form small communities within the cities and towns of other races, mostly in predominantly human or mixed-racial areas, though how welcome they are depends largely on the existing population of the town. Their various strengths make vampires good laborers, and they can often be found doing menial night labor on docks or in other professions that need nocturnal muscle. Living vampires rarely kill the donors who provide them with blood unless the vampire is starving, an ideal which is enforced by most of their communities' laws and customs, which is the only reason most places keep them around; the idea of a blood-drinker in their midst, no matter how 'harmless', puts most races on edge. Vampire communities are varied, with many different laws and customs influenced by the race or culture which dominates their area, and they are often started, policed, and therefore populated by individuals with common goals or similar alignments.

To vampires, the first change from human-like 'unturned' to full vampire is both the most dangerous and most important period of their lives, and is celebrated almost universally in vampire culture. When a child is growing up, they are taught by their vampire parent(s) about the life they will have to lead after the change, and educated on laws and customs their community has about managing the bloodlust, most of which have been in place as long as the community has existed as a compromise between the vampires and their host city. After the change begins, during the turning period, the 'fledgling' is mentored and assisted by an older, already-turned vampire who continues their education and helps them adapt to their changing body and needs - this is usually a parent or older sibling, but can also be a respected member of the community, depending on the customs of the group. The change (which can start anywhere between the ages of 12 and 16) takes 2d4 weeks; afterward, the fledgling, starved with blood, is compelled to attack the first living creature or source of blood it comes across. Usually, the community provides a sacrificial animal for the purpose, as vampires are fully capable of surviving on animal blood (though not as well as human blood), in order to prevent serious harm by the fledgling. For the next few weeks, the mentor completes the fledgling's education by teaching them how to safely feed and to control their urges, at the end of which is usually a large celebration to commemorate the new adult's coming of age, though in the case of early turnings, the fledgling may not reach full adulthood until they reach a certain age. The ritual itself is designed to help the fledgling integrate better into society, and more easily coexist with other races, a practice which vampires depend on in order to survive.

Relations
Most societies, as mentioned, are more than a little leery of those who must feed on the blood of others for their survival, and so vampires have relatively few allies. Often they survive, as mentioned above, on uneasy truces with their host communities, which most often comprise of humans. Vampires are at their most comfortable around humans, since those who are inclined to hide their true nature can most easily pass themselves as humans or half-humans; the same cannot necessarily be said for the humans, and in some places, a vampire pretending to be anything else is a crime. Still, vampires can generally be found among most humanoid races.

The race that gets along perhaps the best with vampires is the tieflings, who face similar prejudice for their heritage that vampires do for their habits, and tieflings can be found sheltering in many a vampire community as long as they agree to abide by the vampires' rules. Fetchlings and the genie-kin (oreads, sylphs, ifrits, and undines) also deal fairly well with vampires, due to their shared experience of feeling set apart from the rest of the world, and living vampires are known to take pity on the occasional dhampir, the half-human offspring of their unholy counterparts, the undead from which they get their name.

Alignment and Religion
Like most human-derived races, living vampires have a diverse and varied outlook on life, though most who are raised by vampire communities tend towards either good or lawful alignments, depending on whether they were raised specifically to hold their community's customs as a standard in itself or whether they were taught to focus on what the right thing to do is. Most develop personal codes regarding their bloodlust, often derived from their community's rules, whether that code is as simple as 'don't do it without asking' or a complex system of rules and regulations. Evil vampires often rebel against their community's upbringing, or simply do not care, revelling in their bloodlust and taking what they can when they want it. Most vampires tend towards the extremes of alignment, the nature of their condition forcing them to take a personal stand in some way.

Living vampires tend to venerate deities of the moon, nighttime, hunting, and blood, depending on their alignment, though deities of travel and change are also not uncommon.

Adventurers
For vampires, who are often distrusted simply on principle, adventuring is a valid career choice, allowing them to travel from place to place before they can wear out their welcome in any one town or city, trading the uneasy peace of their hometowns with the relative freedom of the road. A life spent on dangerous quests and hunting rare monsters appeals to the predatory nature of the vampire, while adventuring as a lifestyle often suits both the solitary vampire, who prefers to stay out of the way of the other races, and the social one, who craves contact with others but is often rejected on principle. Adventuring, as a rule, draws the misfits and the odd ones out of any society, and vampires often feel that way in every soceity except their own.

Vampires raised outside of the communities, without the assistance of their race to guide them through the change, often take to the road because they simply have nowhere else to go. After they change, many lose their friends and family, and a few are even wanted criminals due to the unstable nature of their bloodlust. Some of these eventually find their way to new homes in vampire communities, while others simply travel with no aims or goals.

Vampires, due to their natural dexterity and affinity for nighttime work, make excellent rogues and rangers, and many an adventuring party has been willing to overlook a new teammate's dietary habits for the skills a vampire trap handler/locksmith or wilderness scout can provide. Interestingly enough, many vampire adventurers follow the way of the monk, finding the discipline they exercise to keep their thirst in check serves them in good stead when pursuing the martial arts, with the added bonus of following a combat style that does not draw blood to tempt or distract them in the middle of combat.

Sweeeeet! I'd love to see some of your stuff!