Sorry! I've been busy and haven't been on site for awhile. Thanks for the feedback, I'll address your points below however.
This is totally awesome and I may steal it, or portions of it.
But it's also too complicated for my tastes. For example, I would ditch Dark Gifts altogether and divvy those powers up amongst the bloodlines. Mayyyyybe leave a few Dark Gifts here and there, but make them minor. Here they are more like warlock Invocations, but I am thinking something along the lines of a Fighting Style, where there's like 6 to choose from, and they all do fairly minor or passive things (like permanent spider climb is a good one). That psychokinesis gift is much too huge: ditch it.!
While it may be too complicated, it did hit all the notes that a PK hits. I wanted the vampire class to have shades of
Legacy of Kain, Anne Rice's
Vampire Chronicles, and
World of Darkness. And 2/3rds of it's inspiration has vampriric PK. I'd like to keep it, but concede the system used is possibly too complicated.
As for stripping the class, and modifying it for your use, go for it. I'd love to see how it looks at the end.
I love the flavor of your 3 bloodlines and would emphasize them over the Dark Gifts. I think there's a temptation to make it so every vampire character can acquire all the classic vampire moves, but I don't think it needs to be that way. Things like domination and turning into a swarm are actually pretty powerful so I'd leave those for the bloodlines and maybe have weaker versions available as Dark Gifts. Actually looking at Subsume the Lesser Mind and its prerequisite-tree, that is screaming "subclass" to me.
I have been woefully undecided on WHAT to do for Bloodlines. On one hand, gating most of the abilities behind the Subclass can cut off the feeling of vampiric power, on the otherhand, the Dark Gift system nearly makes the subclasses redundant.
In the early drafts, there was no dark gift system, and there was a lack of things to interact with Vitae (so that it'd be consumed) and the I had want to add in more abilities, without jsut gating all of them behind the bloodlines.
I'm confused about the relationship between Claws and Bite, Blood Drain, Blood is Life, and Vampiric Fury. I'll be honest, it was a blob of text and I didn't read it very thoroughly. I'd streamline the heck out of that. I like the way claws are described, but I'd combine bite with Blood Drain and just make it one thing that you can do against a grappled, restrained, incapacitated, or willing character. I'd definitely give the vampire regular old Extra Attack at 5th level, since this clarifies how the ability stacks with other class abilities. I'd recommend giving Blood is Life at 2nd level, since that is a powerful ability and many classes have their powerful ability kick in at 2nd level to prevent one-level dips into the class (examples: rogue's Cunning Action, paladin's Smite, druid's Wild Shape, fighter's Action Surge, cleric's Channel Divinity).
As it is, Bite is basically apart of Blood Drain. You can only bite while grappled (unless you are using Vampiric Fury) and can only apply Blood Drain to a Bite (Unless you have PK, in which case you can Blood Drain WITHOUT a bite, by drawing the blood out of the target)
As for Blood is Life, I agree. It is a good fit at 2nd level.
Also the language about "exceeding your maximum Vitae" is a little weird. I'd just make maximum Vitae = level, and then find other subtle ways to drain Vitae faster. For example, maybe a long rest costs you half your current Vitae? I actually really like the mechanic -- where you can exceed the set-point and gravitate towards it -- just the language could be better.
The thing about Vitae equalling level is it doesn't, and shouldn't, scale based on every level gaining a point. At lower levels you need more than 1, and the mid-levels are fine with a little less, and then it hits 'half level' by the end where you need it. Now, I could see losing to your Maximum after a short or long rest, and may end up doing that. So if you have more than your maximum after a short rest, it resets, where as on a long rest, it'd reset to maximum (if you had more) and then you would lose one. In the end, both achieve the effect I was going for, while what I have is more granular, so you can track your blood loss, the other way may be more intuitive. Thoughts?
This class also seems slightly overpowered. The damage exceeds monk damage, and the blood drain is a really sweet ability. With all of the class's other benefits, I don't see why they need d10 hit dice and 3 skills, either. I'd reduce that to d8 and 2 skills, since the vampire will probably be getting abilities to make up for it (like resistances and healing instead of d10 hit points, and charm/climb/stealth/speak-with-animals stuff instead of skills). The proficiency list is needlessly complex; just give them "all simple weapons and short swords" and be done with it. I think you could give them light armor proficiency too; it's a matter of style, but it allows characters to dump Cha and still achieve a decent AC, if they want.
I have three skills, as mainly, a legacy from the 4th Edition class where they were equal to rogues in their skills. While I conceded many of the Dark Gifts may negate, or at lest enhance, skills; I think thematically, it works for vampires to have some skills. (A long life to practice skills, how vampires usually embrace skilled folk, and other such things, most vampires seem to have a dearth of skills.)
As for hit dice, I've wavered back and forth between d8 and d10. Your point is well taken, the class gets some nice survivability so may not need a full d10. As for armor, I don't usually think of armored vampires, but know they happen (what'd I would consider as a multiclass), but don't see the harm in putting there. I will probably not include it though, but will give some thought to it.
You might also point out some of the balancing factors involved with being Undead type. You're immune to charm person, hold person etc., but in my experience those don't occur in play often. However, cure wounds and healing word don't work on you, which is pretty harsh, but spending Vitae as hit dice as an action during combat is quite strong, so maybe that balances out. I don't like the idea of a class with no hit dice; it interacts poorly with other rules that affect hit dice. Instead you might say "spending a hit die requires the use of 1 Vitae" or something. It's also unclear what happens if you have levels in some other class that grants hit dice; can you use them normally and regain them normally during a long rest?
A good point. I should probably point out some of the benefits and weakness of actually being undead. As for other classes hit die... I'd say 'no', you don't get them, but that is MAINLY because how it worked in 4th, and I based it off that. However, I concede it's probably not the best answer. One of the options I've thought of is to have Vitae come from class levels, from any class, and rule that, no you do not get hit dice. You get Vitae, you are a vampire, deal with it. But, again, I am not sure how good of an idea it is.
HUGE important balancing factor: sunlight.
1. Does wearing dark clothing with a hood count as protection against direct sunlight? This is kind of a big deal. What does it take for an opponent to rip off your hood mid-fight? Normally I'd leave this stuff up to the DM but because there is so much damage on the line I think you need to spell it out.
2. 10 radiant damage: does that get further doubled due to vulnerability? Either way, that is a lot of damage. A typical low-level character is going to evaporate in just a round or two. I would change this to 1d6 damage -- it makes it more clear that yes, it does get doubled, and it's easier to deal with -- and I'd make it happen at the END of a round. That way the PC has one round to scramble for cover, pull on their hood, whatever. I wouldn't increase this damage at higher levels -- it makes sense to me that a high-level vampire can shrug off a little sunlight, the way a high-level fighter can jump off a castle and live. I've seen parties avoid adventuring during the day because of a drow's sunlight sensitivity, so I can't imagine what people would do with a PC that is going to take 7 damage per round in direct sunlight. Of course I would keep this vulnerability since that's part of the fun of being a vampire!
Related question: you are vulnerable to Turn Undead, but what about Destroy Undead? It's based on CR; what's a PC's CR? I might actually replace the normal Turn affect with a more straightforward Frightened effect, as that's easier on PCs. Also, are you susceptible to your allies' turning attempts? It's generally frowned upon to create a character that nerfs some other PC's ability.
1) I would consider a full get up, thick cloak, and hood, with probably a mask, depending on how deep the hood is, to be fully covered. I would count it for more than a hood. Something that covers all your unprotected skin would stop it, but it would have to be thick.
2) Yes, the Radiant damage is supposed to be doubled also. Now making it apply at the end of a round is a really good idea, and one I am now keen to add.
As for changing it to a damage dice, I mainly picked a static number to avoid rolling, however a d6 or d8 would be a good dice, and I tentatively agree with your assessment that it will make things more clear.
3) I, honestly, have not considered Destroy Undead, if for the fact I usually build most of my Clerical monsters as, well, NPCs without actual class levels. I'd err on the side of 'No, you can't outright destroy the vampire!" but, mm. I'm not sure. I would hazard to guess you'd use class levels in place of CR (that is what I'd rule anyhow)
4) And no, you are not effect by an allies turn unless they purposefully want you to be affected. That's how I would run it at my table.
So as you can see this class has got me thinking. I feel like at a high level, this is a really good idea, and it is made of smaller really good ideas, but it needs to be cleaned up a bit to be playable. I hope you find my feedback helpful!
The feedback was, indeed, helpful.
