Two words, darlin'. Dirge Singer.
*glances around furtively* And yes, I know this reveals me as a complete nerd, but let's be honest with ourselves...who isn't on this site? Those of you raising your hands, put them down. Liars.
The Dirge Singer is a twisted version of your core D&D bard. While most bardic music abilities are centered on bolstering your allies: Inspire Greatness, Inspire Courage, etc... The Dirgesinger's class abilities are more geared toward the darker side of things; i.e., controlling darker emotions and influencing undead (particularly apt for a vampy char, I would think.) For example, the first Song ability they gain, instead of bolstering their allies, will inspire fear and depression in their enemies. They have another Song ability at later levels that can raise a dead body and control its corpsified grossness like some kind of meat puppet.
That's a lot of game mechanics mumbo-jumbo that basically amounts to "Yes, a bard who concentrates on darker, nastier music is more than possible and even supported within the rules system". I played a half-vampire Dirgesinger once. Greatest char combo ever. *tapes mouth shut before the campaign stories can get out of hand.* I think the important bit has been mentioned earlier: you don't have to stick with the system in order to play the character you want. Just with the CoC. But admittedly, I've found it does help to have that grounding in basic D&D structure when you want to relate abilities and effects to other players. Just my two cents on that subject.
