Vampirism DLC

Vampirism DLC

	One addition to Skyrim Online that will not be available at first is being a Vampire. It is not implemented immediately so more attention to other aspects of the game can be completed, and also to add a new feature later to increase the lifespan of the game. Vampirism gives the player extra perks and disabilities that increase with each stage of vampirism. There are five stages, which increase on kill and decrease on feeding.

Becoming a Vampire: There are two ways to become a vampire: the item Bloodstone Chalice or by contracting the disease when being attacked by the Vampiric Drain attack. The item becomes available with the dlc, and will make the current class a stage 1 vampire. This allows players to equip the Vampiric Drain spell. That said spell has the effect to spread vampirism to enemies, with a 5% chance per second of dealing damage. Once an enemy is afflicted, they become a stage one vampire. Vampirism is considered a poison, and thus is affected by poison resistances and weaknesses.

Vampire Appearance: Vampires have more obvious features as they increase in their vampiric stage. Vampires at stage 1 only have minute differences, while vampires in stage 2 and 3 have more glaring features. In stage 4, the vampire will have completely full body features as well as slight purple glow. In stage five, the vampire will have a more obvious and brighter glow.

Vampire Effects: The additions of being a vampire are both positive and negative, and increase with the stages of vampirism (except for a 100% poison resistance, which stays at 100%). They are multiplied by the stage of vampirism they are at, thus a stage five vampire will have five times the potency of his effects as he had on stage one.
>100% Poison resistance
>20% Frost resistance
>+10 Max magika
>10% Faster magika regeneration
>20% Fire vulnerability
>20% Slower stamina regeneration
>20% Slower health regeneration
>Vampiric Drain: A novice destruction spell that becomes available in create a class with the Bloodstone Chalice. This spell is also able to be equipped in a primary slot; the only novice spell that can do this. Vampiric Drain is casted continuously, and its power increases as the stage of vampirism increases. It drains (4, 8, 16, 20, 25) health from the target and heals the user at the cost of (8, 14, 20, 34, 46) magika per second. It also has a 5% chance to spread vampirism per second. This chance is affected by poison resistances or weaknesses.
>Vampire's Servant: This power mimics the revive dead conjuration spells, and increases in potency with each stage of vampirism. It revives a dead body to fight for you for 30 seconds, and each stage has its own spell affect it copies: Raise Zombie for stage one, Reanimate Corpse for stage two, Revenant for stage three, and Dread Zombie for stages four and five. This power takes up the first slot of the power command.  Vampires only have a remaining two slots to buy items with at the shop, and if they had all their item slots full and became a vampire, the item in the first slot is replaced with this ability. Because it is a power, it does not count as a spell. It can be used once per spawn, and will be able to be used again on respawn. At stage five, this power is upgraded to recharge every 60 seconds.

Increasing/Decreasing Stages and Looting: When a vampire gets a kill, they will increase in a stage of vampirism. It takes four consecutive kills to reach the final stage of vampirism. To decrease a stage of vampirism, a vampire must feed on a dead enemy body that can be looted. When looting as a vampire, an extra animation is played of the vampire feeding on the body. This still counts as looting the body, but the vampire will also lower in a stage if possible. At stage five, feeding no longer lowers stages, and instead adds a 150% faster health and stamina regeneration effect for 10 seconds.

Stage Five "Master Vampire": At stage five, the vampire will be deemed a master vampire. The vampire will be unable to lower the stage of vampirism, and cure poison potions will fail. Besides being at full effect from the attributes that scale with level, additional effects and abilities are added.
>Champion of the Night: Illusion spells have a 25% greater chance of working
>Nightstalker's Footsteps: You are 25% harder to detect while sneaking.
>Undead: At this stage, the vampire is no longer considered alive, and is instead undead. This hides the user from Detect Life Spells, and makes them immune to illusion spells (the expert illusion skill overrides this). This also makes them vulnerable to banish dead restoration spells and enchantments.
>Looting - Because feeding no longer lowers the vampire stage, it now adds 150% faster health and stamina regeneration effect for 10 seconds.
>Vampire's Servant: Now recharges in 60 seconds.
>Embrace the Shadows: Replaces the power in the second slot, makes the vampire invisible and have night vision for 30 seconds. Recharges 60 seconds after the affect wears off.
>Vampire Lord: Replaces the power in the third slot, transforms the player into a vampire lord. Recharges 60 seconds starting when reverted back.

Vampire Lord: When the user is at stage five of their vampirism, they can turn into a Vampire Lord. When in this form, new abilities and powers are unlocked. The vampire lord cycles through two forms of combat, with the levitating form where the vampire casts spells, and the grounded version where the vampire attacks with unarmed damage. These forms are cycled with "Q," or the same way primary and secondary load outs are cycled. While in vampire lord form, all effects from armor and enchantments are gone. The stage five vampire effects either still stay or are upgraded, and new effects are added. The effects of being a vampire lord are here:
>100% Poison resistance
>100% Frost resistance
>+100 Max magika
>+50 Max health
>+50 Max stamina
>50% Faster magika regeneration
>50% Fire vulnerability
>50% Slower stamina regeneration
>50% Slower health regeneration
>Looting - Feeding on corpses now adds a +100 health restored as well as the 150% faster health and stamina regeneration effect for 10 seconds.
>Undead: At this stage, the vampire is no longer considered alive, and is instead undead. This hides the user from Detect Life Spells, and makes them immune to illusion spells (the expert illusion skill overrides this). This also makes them vulnerable to banish dead restoration spells and enchantments.
>Poison Talons - Unarmed attacks do 30 points of additional damage, and 10 points of poison damage.
>Bats - Replaces the power in the first slot, turns the vampire lord into bats that fly forward a short distance. This power is equivalent to the Whirlwind Sprint spell. Recharges for 10 seconds after use.
>Mist Form - Replaces the power in the second slot, the vampire lord becomes ethereal for 6 seconds. Recharges for 30 seconds after the affect wears off.
>Revert Form - Replaces the power in the third slot, reverts the player back into a stage five vampire.
>Summon Gargoyle - Summons a gargoyle to fight for you for 60 seconds. 304 magika cost.
>Levitating Form - When levitating, the vampire lord wields Vampiric Drain (at stage five power) in the right hand slot and Summon Gargoyle in the left.
>Grounded Form - When grounded, the vampire lord is unarmed in both hands.

Curing Vampirism - Vampirism is treated as a poison, and can be cured when at stage 4 or lower with a Cure Poison potion. This can be helpful when the player is at risk of an enemy using fire attacks or when their health is too low and needs faster regeneration.

Vampire Strategies - Vampires have great magical bonuses that can be abused with a proper mage class. Increasing the stage of vampirism increases the bonuses, and vampires should focus on their bonuses and avoid weaknesses like not using stamina draining attacks. As their health recharges slowly/not at all, health potions should be used at lower stages and at higher stages the vampiric drain will be strong enough to recover most of the vampire's health. Because of the increased regeneration and max magika, the player can put more stat points into health rather than magika. If players want to increase their stages, they cannot feed, which means they gain no extra gold from looting. Staying in stages three and four allows players to have the vampiric bonuses to an average extent, as well as having two slots for items from the shop. Staying in stage three and four prevents the player from going into the incurable, most extreme stage five.
	 Stage five makes the player a master vampire, which has the greatest bonuses and weaknesses, and the most/strongest powers of the prior stages. Players that use illusion spells gain a 25% higher chance of working, which takes the odds of working and increasing it by 25%. Master vampires also gain a 25% sneak bonus. While these two active effects take at least four kills to reach, players can still build classes to adjust to this later bonus. Because all three slots are taken, gold has no use for the vampire at this point.
	While in stage five, the master vampire can turn into a vampire lord. This form offers a static set of abilities, and switching between forms can be advantageous. When the master vampire is low on health or an enemy using fire attacks appears, he can transform into the vampire lord to gain the +50 health, half the normal health regeneration (which is better than no health regeneration at all), and only a 50% fire weakness. The vampire lord may want to revert to take advantage of the player's original load out, as well the stealth bonuses like Embrace the Shadows and Nightstalker's Footsteps.
	The vampire lord is the most evolved form of the original vampire. The vampire lord has no armor, and thus gains no bonuses from any armor rating or enchantments that the user was wearing. The vampire lord still has many set active effects to take advantage of. The +100 max magika works well, but the only 50% magika regeneration is much smaller compared to the normal 100% or higher increase (especially when combined with the prior stage five vampire bonuses). The powers the vampire lord can use are helpful for his surroundings; Bats gives a jolt of speed, and Mist Form allows the vampire lord to be invincible in so that they can avoid damage and regenerate stats. Their unarmed attacks do an additional 30 points of damage, which bypasses all armor ratings, and an additional 10 points of poison damage. With the base melee damage of 20, the total damage is 60 per swing. This is similar to the base damage of the sword, and unarmed attacks are even faster and have the armor ignore bonuses, but lack the smithing upgrades/enchantments and most of the one handed skill to benefit from (adept one handed will increase the swing time for dual wielding unarmed attacks).

Meta Analysis: Frost spells/enchantments are predicted to be the most common of all the elements, as they have the added affect of slowing the target. Being able to slow enemies is vital, giving the player control and an upper hand when attacking, and the target cannot easily escape or dodge attacks. By adding vampires, frost spells see an eminent counter. Banish undead spells/enchantments are low costing and highly powerful, but only because there are not many undead targets besides when an enemy uses raise dead conjuration spells. By making the stage five vampire undead, the banish dead spells can find more use to instantly deal huge amounts of damage to higher leveled vampires.