Firstly I wanna say hi to everyone as this is my first post on here, so... "Hi"

I wanted to ask a question or two about the Dawnguard DLC as I will hopefully be getting it soon.

My main question is regarding the main questline in Dawnguard, what I would like to know, is it possible to join the Vampires and become a VampLord and play through some, half or even the whole of the main VampLord questline, can you cure your Vampirism and become a Werewolf again and play through the Dawnguard questline from the start or as near as to the start, or vice versa Dawnguard then switch to Vamps???

One other quick question, I did see that someone asked this yesterday but I didn't see a definitive yes or no answer.
If you side with the Vampire Lords can you still buy, loot and/or smith crossbows and bolts???

Thanks everyone really appreciate your input.

I can only answer the first one, and that is that no you cannot change sides after deciding which side to join. I won't spoil it for you, but there is only one chance to pick sides and that's final.

What you do is make a save just before you accept/refuse Harkon, and keep that save. What ever you do, when you load up the save, do the opposite, and play the two sides of the coin with the same character.

Chosen sides are final after the Vamp/dawngaurd decesion point.

You can become a vamp lord after beating and during the Dawnguard questline, too.

If you complete the Vampire questline, then you can obviously cure yourself the old fashioned way.

Oh ok, in that case I think the idea of creating a save game before I start the DG questline and playing one side, then loading the old save game and play as the other side sounds like the best plan.
Thanks to Larson, Artist of War, DTH & Miko19 for your help

I would still like to know about the Crossbows and Bolts if you side with the Vampire Lords. I read that if you become a Vampire Lord you can "Loot" Crossbows & Bolts but can you smith them or improve them???

Yes you can loot them. But I'm almost certain you can't forge/improve them!

Its really Volkihar vs Dawnguard.

You can be a Vampire Lord after completing the DQ MQ cuz of a NPC follower.

Granted you are a significantly weaker than you would be if you became one from the Volkihar quest line, most people don't tell you that part when they promote the Dawnguard side as better. =P


...and no theres a part in the quest to choose your side, can't switch after that.

You can only loot steel crossbows and bolts if you side with the vampires and they will not be forgeable.

Ohhh right, nobody had said anything about being weaker.... Interesting

Curiosity, what do you mean by "Significantly weaker VL", do you mean that you can't learn the new spells like Vampire Grip, or do you mean that you are just weaker as in less health???

Thanks for your reply appreciate it

You can get various upgrades on the volkihar side that makes the VL beastly and gives very nice health or magicka boosts in your human form. For example blood of ancients makes the vampire drain skills drain magicka, health and stamina and this carries over into the vampire lord drain ball skill.

Wow ok that's good to know, thanks shinros. So I'm guessing from what you said you can't obtain those upgrades you mentioned if you side with the Dawnguard at any point, you have to side with the Vamps to get them?!?! Hmmm interesting.
So it's a choice of either Vampire Lord and getting some new spells/powers or Dawnguard and getting the crossbows plus the ability to craft and upgrade/enchant them. Oh but I want both lol

Oh well I guess I can't be greedy Thanks

Have two characters then and do both sides, I would wait till any new character was a reasonable level before starting the Dawnguard questline.

I've been researching about this to because I want to be an assassin with bows/crossbows but also be a vampire lord ! But the Vampire Lord is already badass withtout the upgrades, you can still fill the perk tree and have as many spells as you would get on the Volkihar side !

For me the Volkihar side wins.

The artifacts carry over to your normal form so they not only make your VL form 100x better than the VL form you can get if you side with the Dawnguard but also makes your normal form OP.

=P

If you're a Khajit the +100 health and +20 claw damage, claw damage carries over so it makes unarmed a lot more valid for them.

Yeah but why not just enchant your own rings and amulets ?

If you side with the dawnguard can you buy the magic's on the vampire side?

But the rings and amulets give you buffs to your human form and unique perks to the VL form.