Hello everyone, I am planning to get the Dawnguard expansion as soon as it comes out in France on the 10th July, I can't wait for it I have been kind of planning my character buils for the DLC and some questions have come to my mind :

I am planning to use my Khajiit Archer/assassin as a vampire Lord, since beast races look awesome with their fangs in "normal form". I also CANNOT wait for the crossbows , I feel that it's going to work perfectly with my thiefy type character .

However, after reading some other topics, I learned that Vampires cannot craft
crossbows, normal bolts or enchanted bolts (Explosive bolts sounds reaaaally
cool) and can only loot normal bolts from time to time. So my only way to learn
to craft all of those cool equipment is to join the Dawnguard right ?


I looked also on the UESP wiki and read that Serana, at the end of the main Quest
for the Dawnguard faction, can STILL turn you into a vampire lord, and better
still, she can also make arrows to blot out the sun ! If this is true, it would
fit perfectly with my role playing since I want a twisted Khajiit who joined the
Dawnguard just to steal the blueprints of the weapons they use against my kind;
then at the end I will show my true nature and blot out the sun, turn into a
great winged beast and also use my Dwarven Crossbow to sneak kill my enemies by
night .

My final question is : once Serana has made me a vampire lord at
the end of the main quest, can I still go to Fort Dawnguard and get their
miscelaneous quests such as kill such and such ?  and do I necessarily
need to go to the Fort to craft my bolts or can I just go to any blacksmith in
Skyrim once I have the recipe ?


I know they may sound like stupid questions but it is quite important to me I hope you will kindly answer !

Montblanc

There is a spoiler section. You should use it for this topic. You might not mind spoilers but others do.

Thanks for the warning and sorry for spoiling, I edited my post and hid my questions as soon as I could ! Can anyone who has finished dawnguard give me some further information ?

I have only done it as a vampire so far, but I doubt the Dawnguard is going to be giving any vampire lord a quest to do other than cure your self. You would do better to have two different characters try each side. Then decide who is going to end up as what.

Thank you for your answer, I guess that I will keep that build for my Khajiit so that he can fully use the potential of the vampire form as well as the crossbow and archery implements (auriel's bow, mounted archery) . Also , is it really important to have a lot of magicka if one plans to be a vampire lord ? do all powers & spells cost magicka ?

As far as I know you can be a vampire while being on the Dawnguard side, and you still can blot the sun out while having the ability to make bolts and advanced crossbows. The Dawnguard don't notice if you're a vampire even when standing in the main room(on the circle platform to tell whether someone is a vampire or not) during the first part of the main quest.

Ok thanks for the info it's just that I still want some radiant quests once I finished the storyline and it would be a shame if I couldn't get some from either the Volikhar Clan (Since I shall act against them) or the Dawnguard (Since they might refuse to talk to me once I've become a Vampire Lord)

I became a vampire lord (via Serana) after the Dawnguard main quests were over. I found that the members of the Dawnguard recognize you as a vampire and will only offer the side quests after you are cured. So do all the Dawnguard quests and get the armor/weapons that you want before turning into a vampire. Otherwise you will have to get yourself cured if you want to continue.

Thanks for your account , I'll make the most out of the Dawnguard , milk their loot and money before turning my back on them

You can get infected/cured multiple times though ?

Yes after the main quest(or after leaving the Soul Cairn) ask Serana to turn you into one and it's unlimited unless you cure her of her vampirism.

awrite thanks for your help haha you guys are lucky to have dawnguard since the 26 th

Can you craft bolts at any blacksmith in any city or is the craft specific to Fort Dawnguard ?

You can craft Dwarven/steel bolts at any forge but in order to make exploding bolts you'll need to head to the forge at Fort Dawnguard, hope this helps.

Great well at least the normal ones can be crafted anywhere, that's quite cool and practical ! But what happens once I become a vampire lord ? Do I still actually get access to that special forge in Fort Dawnguard for explosive bolts ?

I would suppose but i'm not sure, i'll test it out but I would think it's still usable.

Haha don't worry it's just me being picky about every aspect of the DLC fitting with my role-playing... i'm taking it a bit too seriously (:

The forge is still usable, but the Dawnguard blacksmith won't sell to you, so you'll just have to bring your own supplies. Also, the Dawnguard forge is the only one where you can make the actual crossbows.

Oh ok are the resources difficult to stack ?