Who here thinks Vampires should not be effected by drowning seeing as they are dead and do not realy need air to stay alive?

So why does Bethesda make it so a vampire will drown if underwater ?

You could take it even further and say they should burn through stamina significantly slower than werewolves and normal people since they don't breath..downside could be it takes longer to refill the stamina without magicka?

Aye, most games have undead characters not requiring Waterbreathing - but I like it, because in my role play Vampires are not dead (I don't remember having to die to become a Vampire, just catch a disease), so needing Waterbreathing suits how I play.

If I could have the game completely as I'd like, Vampires would be a playable Race choice that you could be born as. 'Vampires are born not made'. Not that TES has ever had vampires play like this that I'm aware of, so to change it now would make vampires even more at odds with the lore than they are already. Anyhow, back to my RPing...

Agronak Gro Malog in Oblivion was born a vampire.

Serana occasionally breathes the fresh air.

Vampires do sweat.

Aye, but wasn't it because of something about his mother being pregnant with him? I like the mythology that has vampires as their own race with no diseases or conversions, and the whole thing about Vampires being able to turn people was just a manipulative invention of Vampires to either terrify people or to entice the thrall types who wanted to be Vampires. Not that this mythology fits in with TES, like I said, but needing Waterbreathing is still an aspect of gameplay that's heading away from the 'undead' thing, so I like it.

I'd be interested to know how many players actually role play that they die and rise again as an undead after they are vampirised - since the game mechanics don't give you anything like a death scene, you just get an update while you're running around or whatever.

I think thier heart stop beating or else they wouldn't be classed as undead. Which according to the Dawnbreaker weapon they are undead as it hurts my vampire character. And as far as I know undead do not need air to breathe.

The disease does kill you. It is part of the process of becoming a vampire in ES. Look http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Vampire.

"Vampires can enter the soul cairn without any problem because they are NOT counted among the living." =D

But yeah..the process of becoming a Vampire in TES is unless you get personally turned like you did with Harkon/Serana where its instant, you get infected...wait three days your heart slows each day and eventually stops on the third and you die, all bodily functions stop then you awake with awesome new fangs to make feeding in your new state easier and an all new pale skin tone because well..bodily functions stopped and what not and the eye color changes depending what vamp clan infected you and such. =P

I think Vampires can breath since Serana did it but they don't HAVE too since they are dead, I just think if they don't breath they can't speak. lol


If it wasn't obvious you are a walking intelligent corpse with an insatiable appetite for blood..which is why in TES games Vampires are usually regarded as some of the deadliest and most cunning enemies you can face in the night. (Only surpassed by the Lich in older TES games)

If you want to take it one step farther, Vampires shouldn't burn Stamina at all. Considering that they're dead, Vampires don't have a metabolism and therefore lactic Acid doesn't build up in the muscles. As we all know from Biology, Lactic Acid is what causes fatigue in muscles. Eliminate the lactic Acid, muscles don't get tired. Ever.

I have proof of Serana sweating, if you know what I mean.

But I think vampires should be able to breathe underwater, or make it so that they take longer to drown.

The which is an interesting term. "Undead". I've always been kinda fascinated by it because if you're not alive, then you're dead. But if your not dead, then your alive.

It bottles the mind

My thoughts on "undead" I just think of it that by all accounts you should be dead and buried but your not.

In terms of OP the topic should be not breathing air/water as a vampire, guess you could draw air to speak but then that's your choice to talk and I can't see the point in trying to talk underwater and fill lungs with water.

Yeah, it seems even moreso that Vampires only breath if they wish to speak.

That's pretty interesting. I hadn't previously considered that you could die without knowing it, but if your heart could just stop while you're running around and you technically 'die', I guess it is possible to die without knowing.
I still prefer my own RP where I don't 'die' though.

I think you probably die while you are sleeping, during those nightmares. So it would not be too obvious. I certainly do not mind that you play it differently. It is your game, it is your right to make whatever of it that you want. That is one of the joys of single-player games. We can change anything we want.

Yep so true about it being a single player game.

I like to think that you only "technically" die. Your blood still pumps, but everything works on Molag Bal's magic, rather than your organs. Organs still remain "intact", but are tertiary and only remain "alive" due to magic. If the link between you and Bal got severed without starting your organs up again, you'd die, as in the case of Hassildor's wife. That's my theory, anyway.

That's a pretty cool theory.

-makes a ring/amulet/circlet of waterbreathing- here you go, problem solved. Yes I DO infact realise it's not quite what you're getting at, but as with all things TES the option is there to use, abuse or not as you see fit.
Now then, how about something actualy useful for vampires like sneaking up on people and feeding on them without the need for Vampiric Seducton? Or possably even killing them that way?!
Curse you Dawngaurd teaser trailers and your misleading preveiws!

Yeah, I was dissapointed to see the " Volkihar" having vampiric seduction, since its mostly a Cyrodiilic power. I expected some paralysis spells that " freeze the blood of victims", and then feeding on them.

I vaguely remember hearing/reading somewhere that Vampires can only feed on the blood of the living, freezing the blood would technically make it dead blood which is deadly to Vampires.

I may be getting several lores of Vampirism mixed up now that I think about it. D=

It'd make the lore friendly Volkihar clan a pretty bad option if you were looking to become a Vampire, since everything they do according to Lore is freeze the blood of their victims, it would explain why they are lore wise crazy though.

Agreed. I like this theory. The blood maybe playing some part in the link to Bal? Kind of a neat way to look at it.

I see it as the head is the seat of the soul and all your organs other than the stomach and heart are now defunct. Which is why most vampires go into torpor when steaked through the heart as it disrupts their energy flow and decpitation is the final end as without a soul its going to be final death. But your body does not need air to surivie as its dead so your oonly going to need air if you wish to talk or give the illusion of life.

TES vampires don't need stakes to be killed, pretty much everything but poison and illness will kill them.

In older games iron/steel weapons did nothing to them if I recall correctly, they obviously changed that in the newer games because it would have made the game way too easy for low level character since everyone uses iron/steel weapons and becoming a Vampire is much easier than how it used to be, it was like a 10% chance of getting Vampirism..and 90% of catching an instant death in a day or two disease if you didn't make it to a temple from them.


One can only imagine how things would have been if iron/steel weapons still did nothing to Vampires since even at level 81 I find bandits and random enemies using iron/steel weapons, rarely I find an ebony weapon or such among them.

...and if I recall only silver weapons did actual damage to werewolves/wereboars, while granted they did make it so silver weapons do double damage to werebeasts.

Ah, if only.