Quote Originally Posted by Jeivar View Post
Say, I had a quick question: Is vampirism worth it? Worth the downsides, I mean? I'm playing a greatsword-swinging, bow-shooting, stealthy Nord, if it makes a difference.
I'm playing a stealthy vampire khajit assassin. Since I'm basically just running through the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves' Guild questlines, I haven't had to do much open combat. My motto is "If I get hit, I've done something wrong." I've been able to clear most dungeons and missions without anyone noticing me, let alone hitting me. I wield two daggers and get x30 with my sneak attack, so there's nothing I haven't been able to one shot yet. However, when I do screw up, I get murdered very, very quickly, although I'm not sure how much of that is because of my incredibly low skill level in armor, the fact that I generally don't wear armor, or the drawbacks to vampirism.
So here's what it boils down to:

If you're prepared to sneak through all of the dungeons, and put in the extra time to prepare rather than just rushing in to each room, then it's worth it.

The lack of regeneration and weakness to fire would be a pain, but my playstyle doesn't rely on either of those, so I haven't particularly noticed it. If you do a lot of running around outside, the lack of regeneration likely will kill you though.

Feeding isn't that big of a deal. You just need to remember to do it before reaching stage 4 (unless, of course, you want to reach stage 4. I do that occasionally for certain missions.) If you do hit stage 4, just port to the Thieves' Guild or the Dark Brotherhood and feed on one of them. Neither groups are hostile to a stage 4 vampire, if, of course, you're a member. If you're not a member of either group, then it might be a little more difficult. But it should be easy enough to sneak into an inn or house, especially with your invisibility power.

The powers: Really the only one I've used is the invisibility one. A lot of the time it's not strictly necessary, as my sneak (with the handy vampire bonus) is high enough to run circles around enemies, but it's come in handy. If you want to eliminate a boss character without dealing with his minions, invisibility comes in handy for your escape. It also negates much of the problem of being hunted on sight as a stage 4, meaning that you can move around a town without being killed. It's a better invisibility than the Shadow Stone and the Thieves' Guild power, as you can interact with certain objects without losing the invisibility and it lasts much longer. It is only once per day, but when you play as an assassin you take quite a long time to complete each mission.

As for the other powers, I never really use them. The frost resistance is nice, it makes killing frost mages much easier (but of course, you should be one-hitting them with a sneak attack anyways). I don't use destruction, so I don't know about the "drain health" power, but it looks nice. You also get a bonus to illusion (which I'm still considering whether or not I want to dabble in), and a calming power. I haven't used either.

So if you're a sneak attack player, it's definitely worth it. But since it sounds like you're using a greatsword, I'm not sure how much this would line up with your playstyle. And since the drawbacks are pretty immense, I wouldn't recommend going vampire unless the benefits are exactly aligned with your playstyle of choice.