This article is about NPCs who are vampires. For the disease's effects on the player, see Vampirism.
Vampires
Vampires are NPCs in Skyrim afflicted with Sanguinare Vampiris. The disease causes them to physically change, giving them supernatural powers and making them immune to poison, but vulnerable to sunlight and fire. Vampires are undead and therefore susceptible to magical effects aimed at the undead but unaffected by Illusion spells unless the perk 'Master of the Mind' has been unlocked. Since they are NPCs rather than creatures, all vampires have black souls.
Vampires usually make their lairs in caves and other dark places, and may also be found gathered around ritual sites in the wilderness. They are often accompanied by mortals called Vampire's Thralls. Vampires usually attack on sight, even if you are also a vampire. If struck by a vampire's Vampiric Drain spell, you can be infected with Sanguinare Vampiris, which, if not cured within three days, will transform you into a vampire.
While most vampires encountered will have the tell-tale signs of vampirism, such as black and red eyes, some have no outward displays of vampirism and can only be discovered with use of Detect Dead - or through lack of aura from Detect Life (like Sybille Stentor and Alva, for example). All generic vampires are female; only boss-level vampires are male. The only exception to this is the vampire that appears in the "Vampire Trick" world interaction: this vampire uses the same data as the generic vampires below, but is always male instead of female.
When the Dawnguardadd-on is installed, in addition to several new vampires being added, changes to the physical appearance of vampires from the base game will be seen. Most vampires will have glowing yellow eyes and distorted faces, with bat-like noses, a red line from nose to chin, and ridges above their eyes (similar to Dark Elves). During the events of the Dawnguard quests, vampires will attack some towns or cities. Dawnguard also introduces the powerful Vampire Lords and the Volkihar vampire clan as a fully fleshed out faction.
All vampires have a Drain Life spell which can drain health, stamina, and magicka at a rate of a few points per second. Low-level vampires can drain only health, mid-level vampires can drain both health and stamina, and the highest-level vampires can drain health, stamina, and magicka.
Vampires also have an ability called "Chill Touch," which creates an ice hazard that deals 10 points of frost damage on forward power attacks. All vampires of level 12 or higher have a leveled ability called "Vampire Touch", which grants a constant Fortify Unarmed Damage bonus. The "Vampiric Invisibility" spell allows vampires to become invisible for 20 seconds.
Vampires may carry miscellaneous items, including lockpicks, potions, gems, jewelry, and books, and have a 50% chance to carry a small amount of gold. On death, vampires drop vampire dust and have a 15% chance to drop a leveled potion or poison.
The male vampire that appears during the "Vampire Trick" world interaction carries a leveled dagger (steel, orcish, dwarven. or elven) and may also carry some gold and a random scroll.
Vampires are sometimes accompanied by a few monsters, which will vary depending upon your level. The monsters will be the same level as the minimum PC level listed in the table below (so at levels 6-11, the Frostbite Spider companion will be level 6, and so on).
Vampire's Thralls are often encountered along with vampires, though they are not actually vampires themselves. All of the thralls are based off the data used for bandits (one-handed melee fighters, two-handed melee fighters, archers, and mages), so they use many different combat styles and can vary greatly in terms of strength, level, equipment, and known spells. They have their own faction and are considered friends to vampires. Note that with one exception, thralls can never be "freed". Killing all of the vampires in the area will not make their thralls become non-hostile. However, if you are a werewolf and you encounter a vampire and its thrall while you are in beast form, you can kill the vampire, change back to human form, then draw and sheathe your weapon as if you were surrendering. This will cause the surviving thrall to cease hostility.[verification needed — Is this true, or even notable?]
Regular vampires have a morality of "Any Crime", which means they're willing to commit any crime, but boss-level vampires have a morality of "No Crime," which means they are unwilling to commit crimes of any sort. Because of their aggression, however, they will still attack you on sight.
Not only vampires' forward power attacks inflict the chill touch effect, but they also do 3x the damage of a normal attack, instead of 2x.
Chill Touch may never disappear and continue afflicting you until you die. ?
Use console commands to remove the effect.[verification needed — which commands?]
With Dawnguard installed, the Voice of the Sky blessing will prevent vampires (and their animal companions) from turning hostile. Thralls and Gargoyles remain adversarial, however.
Nightmaster Vampire bosses might add to their combat dialogue that from the "MaleOldGrumpy" voicetype, such as "I've fought colds tougher than you!" ?
When sneaking in vampire lairs (even if you're undetected), one or more might "know" you are there and warn you of "trespassing" and that they will call for guards, as if they were regular NPCs. ?