I've never tried being a vampire, but I think with my new mage character and Dawnguard I'll give it a try. Don't really know anything about it, though.. What are the ups and downs of being a vampire?

Better sneak and illusion.

For the stat buffs it gives anyway, if that is what you were asking.

Other than that its...sneak around and sink your fangs into the unwary (Vampire's seduction has to be used before feeding on the unwary/awake) or sleeping.

If you are on the PC, I recommend getting one of the Vampire overhauls, adds a lot more too them though admittedly the things they add tend to make you focus more on feeding and surviving than doing quests so nothing really gets done.

Its awesome, you don't have to play the Sneaky Illusionist type if you don't want to, but it is a bit of a waste of a good bonus. With necromage, anyone gets a bonus from being a vampire, 25% increase in the effect of all things that fall under active effects, so enchantmens, potions, even Altmer's racial bonus, and you get a 50% increase in duration. Its an unintended effect that worked out beautifully in my opinion, it makes vampires the powerful beings they should be.

As far as vampire lord goes, there is nothing like stalking around skyrim with the sun blotted out, or going out at night, VL is crazy powerful. They are perfect for mages as they make use of magicka and the more the better. Also, the rings of blood magic you can get are the best rings , well, the ring of namira may be better than the Ring of the Beast, due to it being essentially a triple enchant, but the Ring of Erudite is hands down the best ring for mages and is enough on its own to justify going the Vampire Lord route in my opinion. 100 extra magicka and faster regeneration, and the way it applies its regeneration is unlike other apparel. If I understand it correctly, it actually works better when you have other magicka regen apparel. It adds 2 points to your base magicka regen rate, the base rate as 3, and it sets it to 5. You will be regaining magicka insanely fast with it, I love it. Oh, and magicka regen in Vampire Lord form is already set to 10% rather than the normal 3.

Oh and Vampiric Grip is the most overpowered thing in the game, lol. More ridiculous than even a paralyze spell, or even stun-locking enemies, in my opinion.

I agree and also bump BigRobb on his comment above.

If you're thinking about being sneaky and utilizing illusion spells, then you'll love being a vampire. Even if you're not going to do either, I think your mage can still benefit, if only from the Vampire Lord form.

As for a downside. Use to be that if you let your vampiric stages advance that you would take sun damage, which would increase depending on your vampiric stage (1-4). You would also take a penalty to your base stats for being in the sun which would make you a bit more squishy. The penalty also scaled with the vampiric stage. Also if you let yourself go to full stage 4 vampirism then everyone would attack you. Guards, merchants, everyone. The only way around this was to feed continually (once a night), but you only had the option to feed on those sleeping.

With Dawnguard, they've taken out the sun damage and stage 4 attacks. You still take a large ding to your base stats (health, magicka, stamina), and their regens will be stopped at lower levels, and slowed at higher. It also scales with your vampiric stage, but you can still feed to lessen those effects. The NPC attacks at stage 4 have also stopped, so if you wish you can run around never feeding and always be at stage 4 (like I do...most of the time). Your Vampire Seduction is really handy for feeding on anyone at anytime, especially while they're awake.

There are a number of benefits to letting yourself go, but I'll save space and point you to this http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Vampirism. It lists all the pros and cons for you, plus all the spells and effects you gain per vampiric stage. It also lists the perk tree and gives a pretty good run down on how it affects your Vamipre Lord form (fyi, the perk tree does not affect your "human" vampire form).

One of the bonuses mentioned was the Vampire Lord form. If you've played as a Werewolf before then the basic idea is the same, if not then be prepared from something totally different. I for one love it, but you may have a different opinion. If you choose to fiddle with the form, just stick with it long enough to figure out how the form works. It'll take a little to figure it out, but once you do, you may never want to go back!

When all is said and done however maybe keep this one thing in mind. IMO, mind you, the Vampire is meant to be played by those who are sneaky and/or like to manipulate people (or rather the NPCs). You can certainly play as a raging - spell casting - berserk vampire, but again the construction of its bonuses and penalties are centered around being sneaky and manipulative.

One thing I love doing is sneaking through a hide out of bandits, picking their pockets and looting chests, then finding a dark corner where I can hit one with a frenzy spell and watch the battle ensue. If I'm out at night and I get jumped, I'll usually hit one or two with a fear spell, cast invisibility and sneak, then hit another with frenzy. While they're busy chasing each other around, I'll pick and choose who I'm going to kill first...or, if I'm feeling kind, I'll just skulk away and let them live so I can kill them another day. The calm spell is super handy as well. Can't tell you how many times I've hit a guard or charging bear with it, just so I can stop and heal or decide which weapon I'm going to use in this fight. Very handy

I love being a vampire. It has some nice buffs to illusion and sneak and resistance to frost. RP wise I enjoy being a vampire but I still want the stage 4 hostility back. But like a previous poster said, if your on PC you should get some of those vampire overhaul mods.

I didn't like being a vampire personally. Having to feed got into the way, as I kept forgetting I was a vampire. lol

I watched Bram Stokers Dracula, Then it was clear what i had to do next.

Its great for a mage character but if you are into cqc and all of that it isn't the way to go. Poison claws aren't super wonderful, they are sufficient but not really like a good sword swing.

I went Van Helsing on the vampires. Albeit it was in wolf form but still. I kept tradition up by killing them with silver swords and glitching telekinesis/Unrelelenting force on logs to serve as stakes. Too bad I couldn't find garlic.

I love being a Vampire It really makes you feel immortal and a higher being then the common rabble as a earl would put it.Walking around in Castle Volkihar also really feels boss!But i also do feel very evil on my character and always think another hero needs to rise and kill my main character lol!Its just he deserves to have his power stripped!

My Main Vampire Character, who's a Breton, is actually a good guy. I Marched through the DLC, on the Vampire's side, Mostly doing good things, apart from the Side Quests where you had to do some evil stuff...
Apart from the little evil things which had to be done, I havn't killed anyone I didn't have to. The only thing I have killed accidentally was a Stray Dog. He kinds got in the way of a Vampire Lord's Vampiric Drain...

I am enjoying the Vampire Lord abilities as a Nord thief. I only use the VL form if stealth fails and it all goes noisy. Vampire Grip is awesome pull someone close and hit them repeatedly with drain.

Also when you are in vampire lord form you can move a lot faster and use wings to instead of running. You still use stamina though but at night it regens fast.

I rarely use the vampire lord for even though ive been a vampire since level 15, and im now level 56. I enjoy instead using two vampire dead thralls as well as Serana and benefitting from the necromage perk. Currently i have one volkihar vampire dead thrall and a nightstalker vampire thrall. Along with Serana, they destroy most opponents with spells. At one point there was a fight in Whiterun and in front of me was a cluster of an attacking Master Vampire, two guards and Amren all fighting it out. From behind i heard the sound of the Ice Storm spell and then it passed through the npcs killing them all and whisking them away..... I love moments like that.

So basically, Vampire is like a big "win" button?

In essense. Yup!

Melee as a vampire (even with the perk) is incredibly weak on everything except novice difficulty, and the raise dead is underpowered because of level restrictions. Not to mention, vamprism has negative effects on regular form in the daytime.

A waste, IMHO.

Oh yeah after I watched that movie(I think it was the 1992 version) I went to skyrim and made a new vampire character. In that movie dracula seemed like a mix of the cyrodil and volkihar clan which is awesome. Since I like them both but I just like volkihar more.

Werewolves are were its at.

Nothing like having a bandit come around the corner and happen across you gnawing on their friends rib cage, just to scream 'WEeerRreeWWOollFF!' before shooting you in the shoulder with an arrow to which you backhand the bandit killing them instantly and smearing the wall behind them with blood.

The "ragdoll" effect that werewolves cast off makes them ridiculously OP.

Not to mention, the fact that they can choose between fearing everything around them or spawning two werewolves as powerful as them.

Screw the Volkihar, Shrinos!

If you are on the PC I suggest getting the http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/9717 mod. It enhances every aspect of being a vampire and makes it a lot more fun. Also, I agree with everything Amedeus said.