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    The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

    Game » consists of 31 releases. Released Mar 20, 2006

    Travel the continent of Tamriel, defend the land against Oblivion's Daedra hordes, and help fill the empty throne of Cyrodiil in the fourth installment of the Elder Scrolls series.

    On Vampirism in Oblivion

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    natetodamax

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    Edited By natetodamax

    *This blog will contain slight spoilers*
     

     Just say no!
     Just say no!
    So in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you have the option to become a vampire. This is not a choice you should take lightly, however - becoming a vampire means dramatically changing the way you've been playing, and it adds a whole new set of challenges. The reason I'm writing this is because I recently made the mistake of becoming a vampire. Here's the breakdown:

    Your appearance is altered

    Upon becoming a vampire, your skin gets lighter (or darker in the case of my Dark Elf for whatever reason), your cheeks appear boney, and your eyes turn a violent red. Other NPCs will notice this as well.

    You need to feed regularly

    And by feeding I mean biting the necks of sleeping people. This can be done by breaking into their homes, sneaking up to wherever they're sleeping, and gnawing on them. Doing so restores your appearance to a slightly less eviler look. It probably does something else, but I'm not aware of it. Feeding is something you need to do every day or every other day. If you go a while without drinking any blood, you'll look menacing and eventually people will not want to talk to you. I once had an inn owner in the Imperial City refuse to let me sleep there because I was obviously a blood thirsty vampire. All of the NPCs outside of the city also refused to converse with me.

    The sun kills you
     No, these won't help you.
     No, these won't help you.

    This is the biggest negative about vampirism. You need to avoid the daylight, because it can and will kill you. If you're anything like me, you hate playing at night because you can't see anything. Even worse, all of the stores shut down at 8:00 PM, which is when it is safe to go out. So basically, you can't go outside until all the stores are closed. This means that it's almost impossible for you to sell and buy gear, and very hard to talk to NPCs because they'll usually be inside sleeping. On the contrary, all the stores open at 8:00 AM, and you start feeling the effects of the sun before that time.

    The quest for curing vampirism is probably the hardest thing to do in the game

    I'm not even joking. Basically, this is how it goes: You first need to talk to a priest/priestess at a church, who directs you to the mage Raminus Polus, who directs you to the Count of Skingrad, who directs you to a woman living out in the middle of the woods. If all that fast-traveling doesn't frustrate you, this stupid woman that obviously hates you to death will. First, she needs Grand Soul Gems. But no, not just any Grand Soul Gems. She needs empty ones. So now you need to wander around the towns visiting Mage Guilds so you can grab five of them. Once you get that, she sends you on a massive ingredient fetch quest. You need to find 6 things of garlic, 5 nightshade leaves, and 2 pieces of Bloodgrass. All three of these can be found in The Main Ingredient, which is a shop in the Imperial City. But like I said, the stores open at 8 AM and close at 8 PM, and being outside between those hours means a constant loss of health. But if you manage to get into the shop when it's open, it may or may not have everything you need; you might have to wander our into the wilderness to
     Please turn me back!
     Please turn me back!
    find the rest. Once you get these, you then need the blood of an Argonian and the ashes of a powerful vampire named Hindaril. To get the blood, you need to slash an innocent Argonian with the blade, which will probably get the guards very angry. The vampire is easy to kill, thankfully. After you get all of these and finish throwing the controller against the wall, you then need to wait 24 hours for the potion to finish. However, you can't wait inside her home because you're trespassing at all times, and you can't wait outside because you'll die. So now you must fast travel back to a city, wait there, and then travel back. That's as far as I've gotten so far.
     
    So if you plan on playing Oblivion (or you currently are), do yourself a favor by saying NO to vampirism!
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    natetodamax

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    #1  Edited By natetodamax

    *This blog will contain slight spoilers*
     

     Just say no!
     Just say no!
    So in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you have the option to become a vampire. This is not a choice you should take lightly, however - becoming a vampire means dramatically changing the way you've been playing, and it adds a whole new set of challenges. The reason I'm writing this is because I recently made the mistake of becoming a vampire. Here's the breakdown:

    Your appearance is altered

    Upon becoming a vampire, your skin gets lighter (or darker in the case of my Dark Elf for whatever reason), your cheeks appear boney, and your eyes turn a violent red. Other NPCs will notice this as well.

    You need to feed regularly

    And by feeding I mean biting the necks of sleeping people. This can be done by breaking into their homes, sneaking up to wherever they're sleeping, and gnawing on them. Doing so restores your appearance to a slightly less eviler look. It probably does something else, but I'm not aware of it. Feeding is something you need to do every day or every other day. If you go a while without drinking any blood, you'll look menacing and eventually people will not want to talk to you. I once had an inn owner in the Imperial City refuse to let me sleep there because I was obviously a blood thirsty vampire. All of the NPCs outside of the city also refused to converse with me.

    The sun kills you
     No, these won't help you.
     No, these won't help you.

    This is the biggest negative about vampirism. You need to avoid the daylight, because it can and will kill you. If you're anything like me, you hate playing at night because you can't see anything. Even worse, all of the stores shut down at 8:00 PM, which is when it is safe to go out. So basically, you can't go outside until all the stores are closed. This means that it's almost impossible for you to sell and buy gear, and very hard to talk to NPCs because they'll usually be inside sleeping. On the contrary, all the stores open at 8:00 AM, and you start feeling the effects of the sun before that time.

    The quest for curing vampirism is probably the hardest thing to do in the game

    I'm not even joking. Basically, this is how it goes: You first need to talk to a priest/priestess at a church, who directs you to the mage Raminus Polus, who directs you to the Count of Skingrad, who directs you to a woman living out in the middle of the woods. If all that fast-traveling doesn't frustrate you, this stupid woman that obviously hates you to death will. First, she needs Grand Soul Gems. But no, not just any Grand Soul Gems. She needs empty ones. So now you need to wander around the towns visiting Mage Guilds so you can grab five of them. Once you get that, she sends you on a massive ingredient fetch quest. You need to find 6 things of garlic, 5 nightshade leaves, and 2 pieces of Bloodgrass. All three of these can be found in The Main Ingredient, which is a shop in the Imperial City. But like I said, the stores open at 8 AM and close at 8 PM, and being outside between those hours means a constant loss of health. But if you manage to get into the shop when it's open, it may or may not have everything you need; you might have to wander our into the wilderness to
     Please turn me back!
     Please turn me back!
    find the rest. Once you get these, you then need the blood of an Argonian and the ashes of a powerful vampire named Hindaril. To get the blood, you need to slash an innocent Argonian with the blade, which will probably get the guards very angry. The vampire is easy to kill, thankfully. After you get all of these and finish throwing the controller against the wall, you then need to wait 24 hours for the potion to finish. However, you can't wait inside her home because you're trespassing at all times, and you can't wait outside because you'll die. So now you must fast travel back to a city, wait there, and then travel back. That's as far as I've gotten so far.
     
    So if you plan on playing Oblivion (or you currently are), do yourself a favor by saying NO to vampirism!
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    crusnchill

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    #2  Edited By crusnchill

    You could just buy the cheap DLC that contains the vampire's lair. (I forget the name.) 
    And walk into the pool of purity and and be transformed back to normal. 
     
    There's also a coffin if I remember right, that can transform you back. 
     
    Granted it cancel's out your quest for the cure but it's also alot easier and quicker depending on how much money you have and are willing to spend. :-)
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    PureRok

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    #3  Edited By PureRok

    Vampirism is awesome. I purposely never drank blood and it makes you epic strong and you can do awesome sneaky things. Useful for my assassin character.

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    GeneralTurkle

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    #4  Edited By GeneralTurkle

    I hated it, but loved it at the same time

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    natetodamax

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    #5  Edited By natetodamax
    @GeneralTurkle said:
    " I hated it, but loved it at the same time "
    I kinda have to agree with this. I like the idea of having to break into people's homes and feed on them, but having to play the entire game at night is just awful. I can't stand wandering around in the dark.
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    EpicSteve

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    #6  Edited By EpicSteve

    I liked a lot of the positives with vampirism, but the game looked so gorgeous during the day I had to reverse the curse.

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    GeneralTurkle

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    #7  Edited By GeneralTurkle
    @natetodamax said:
    " @GeneralTurkle said:
    " I hated it, but loved it at the same time "
    I kinda have to agree with this. I like the idea of having to break into people's homes and feed on them, but having to play the entire game at night is just awful. I can't stand wandering around in the dark. "
    That's how I felt.  I also got too lazy feeding on people too lol
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    addictedtopinescent

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    If you are fully fed the sunlight will do nothing to you, pretty sure of that
    If you need a place to feed, go for the assassin's as they don't mind you drinking their blood, also the priests in the assassin's guild city are easy prey  
     
    As for me I loved playing as a vampire, I found adding this sort of ``handicap`` to your character made him more fun to play 
    And dude, I congratulate you on finding the time for some more Oblivion in these times, I fear going back to that game, but I want to start a new character and do the knights of the nine stuff I haven't touched yet. 

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    emkeighcameron

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    #9  Edited By emkeighcameron

    How has nobody mentioned the fact that vampirism (in vanilla ES4) was an infinite source of money?
     
    You could get the cure for it, and sell it over and over and over to the quest giver guy as many times as you wanted!
     
    Maybe that was only on the PC version......I know they patched it out eventually, which made me rage.

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    Manatassi

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    #10  Edited By Manatassi

    Dude I went totally Kajiht Vampire Assassin with night vision and a mean shot with a bow. 
     
    Playing the whole game stealth at night is hard but the Assassins guild is totally the best quest chain :) 
     
    I tried creating a powerful mage and then going stealth Vampire but that was way too easy lol being able to disappear and reappear at will and unlock any door I wanted with a wave of my hands kinda broke the game. 

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    Suicidal_SNiper

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    #11  Edited By Suicidal_SNiper

    IIRC the sun doesn't hurt you if you feed every night and you'll still keep your vampiric strength. Although it was a it of hassle I found the strength gain quite useful.

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    Claude

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    #12  Edited By Claude

    I think it was day 30 for me a Dark Elf. I slept in a cave and thus made a big mistake. When I woke, my life of of dealing with Vampirism had begun. I found the cure the old fashioned way... gamefaqs, but that shit was still hard and hard to deal with.
     
    My second character I made, High Elf... I picked Atronach and made him a Vampire. I liked him, but never finished. He was a good strong mage.

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    c1337us

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    #13  Edited By c1337us

    I was made a vampire in my first play through and I quickly sort out the cure and did that whole tedious thing because I didn't like it. But on another character I started I did purposefully choose vampire as a career choice and got a fair bit of enjoyment out of it.

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    The_Ish

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    #14  Edited By The_Ish

    I downloaded a Vampire's mod that I believed made it worth being a vampire. 
     
    It retains the basic idea; the longer you go without blood the stronger you become. But I was weaker than normal at the first level of vampirism, and all the side effects were more realistic and dangerous.
     
    This wouldn't have been so bad, if I hadn't put the difficulty to the highest possible level and downloaded a bunch of other mods that make the game much harder. These were the kind of mods where the rats in the Imperial prison could kill you if you fought normally. I also got a mod that makes the night pitch black, so when I did have to go out, I would always be sneak-running to my objective and fighting for my life (I was a assassin/mage sort of character). The reason I kept using this mod was because it gave you a powerful reward if you could maintain this playing style and avoid drinking blood for 2 or 3 game months: It made you completely immune to sunlight, increased your magic points and your magic regeneration to the point where I never had to worry about running out of magic again, and gave you several spells that allowed you to go on a frenzy or terrify a large number of opponents. It also gave large permanent skill increases, and made you look like a normal person.
     
    I believe they called that level of vampiricism "Alucard". It made me feel like a total badass.

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    Xandurson

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    #15  Edited By Xandurson

    I became a vampire by accident as well but after a while I started to enjoy it because I knew exactly who to feed on and how to sell stuff in the shops during the day without dying. I also did the quest to get rid of vampirism and I didn't mind because it was just another thing I could do to experience the game. It is a bit of an annoyance though.

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    breadfan

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    #16  Edited By breadfan

    I got bitten by a vampire on my very first play through and ended up just starting a new game.

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    natetodamax

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    #17  Edited By natetodamax
    @Br3adfan said:
    " I got bitten by a vampire on my very first play through and ended up just starting a new game. "
    lol, really? If you had prayed at a church you could have gotten rid of the disease before it even turned you into a vampire.
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    breadfan

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    #18  Edited By breadfan
    @natetodamax said:
    " @Br3adfan said:
    " I got bitten by a vampire on my very first play through and ended up just starting a new game. "
    lol, really? If you had prayed at a church you could have gotten rid of the disease before it even turned you into a vampire. "
    I was so lost when I first played Oblivion that I was just like 'screw this' and started over.
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    Bigandtasty

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    #19  Edited By Bigandtasty

    Yes, I too got vampirism and hated it. I eventually took the easy way out by buying the Vile Lair DLC (it costs 150 MSP and I had 200 in my account), which gives you an easy cure for vampirism - the Font of Renewal.
     
    So remember, if you contract Porphyric Hemophilia, use a potion of cure disease or hit up a church within three days (preferably after killing all the vampires in the dungeon you're in, so as not to get immediately reinfected)!

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    Dan_CiTi

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    #20  Edited By Dan_CiTi

    I hated it, I wish I played it on the PC to just get a mod to remove it.

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    deactivated-61665c8292280

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    This "you can only play the game during night time hours" business is completely bogus.

    As long as you can resist the urge to use the wait feature, you never have to worry about sleep (and, concordantly, never have to worry about sun damage) until you have to level up. Which basically means you can reap all the benefits of Vampirism without any hassle. Depending on how you play, you can go whole game weeks without having to sleep.

    Honestly, the perks of Vampirism heavily outweigh the pitfalls. And they give you a free Night Eye/Detect Life spell for dark areas. So, win/win.

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    FiestaUnicorn

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    #22  Edited By FiestaUnicorn
    @emkeighcameron said:
    "How has nobody mentioned the fact that vampirism (in vanilla ES4) was an infinite source of money?  You could get the cure for it, and sell it over and over and over to the quest giver guy as many times as you wanted!  Maybe that was only on the PC version......I know they patched it out eventually, which made me rage. "

    No it was on the 360 as well.  There are even cheats that you can use to get all of your attributes well past 100.
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    aaox

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    #23  Edited By aaox

    You've contracted Hemoraphic Vamparillia! 
    "Oh Bullshit!" You exclaim.

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    InfiniteGeass

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    #24  Edited By InfiniteGeass

    When I became a vampire in Oblivion I did the quest to cure it as fast as possible. Not being able to go in the sunlight was very frustrating.

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    trophyhunter

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    #25  Edited By trophyhunter

    I wish the marrowind werewolf stuff was in oblivion

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    sopranosfan

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    #26  Edited By sopranosfan

    It seemed to me like being a vampire really ending up causing me a lot of trouble in the final boss battle.  I can't remember exactly but somehow i ended up fighting him in the sun and I had to run and hide and heal.  It has been so long I can't remember the exact details but after that I remember I will not be a vampire again.

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    mikemcn

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    #27  Edited By mikemcn

    Awesome post, i feel sorry for you though.....
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    Strongbadman47

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    #28  Edited By Strongbadman47

    When I played, I became a vampire after being bitten while sleeping. I couldn't play the game if I didn't get the cure. So I did the quest and eventually got back to normal. Next time I'll sleep with a dagger under my pillow.

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    #29  Edited By AndrewB

    You forgot to mention the stat boosts and abilities that come with being a creature of the night, which is one of the main reasons you'd want to do it. But yeah, none of that is really worth it because of the whole dying in sunlight thing. It's especially painful for fast traveling. Travel far enough, and you'll have used up all of your night time, which means you die when you reach your destination. Unless I'm misremembering it, that is.
     
    I remember Vampirism being a lot better in Morrowind, though it still came with the heavy, unacceptable penalties. Installing a mod is an option, but at that point, you're pretty much cheating and you may as well just open up the console and max yourself out.

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