Poll: Skyrim: Dawnguard or Vampires?

[Quirkymeister]

Hello,
I got Skyrim: Legendary edition for the PC on steam a while ago, and I'm just starting the Dawnguard campaign. Just thought I'd ask, which faction should I join: become a vampire lord or join the Dawnguard? My character's a Nord who mostly specialises in one-handed and two-handed weapons; I don't do stealth or archery much.
Thus, should I go vampire lord and float around throwing people around with telekinesis, or join the Dawnguard and have super crossbows and stay a werewolf? Which is best/most fun?
-Quirky

 

[DementedSheep]

I didn't really like the vampire lord form very much (I prefer werewolf) and the dawngaurd have better everything else. You get better spells, stronger pets, the crossbows (which are a good range option for those who didn't invest a lot into archery) plus

Spoiler

a more consistent plot since even as vampire you still have no choice but to agree with Serana and stop the plan to bring about an eternal night

. I'm also not sure but I think you can get Vampire Lord afterwards from Serana anyway though you would miss out on some things to make it stronger.
So I don't think there is a lot of reason to side with the vampires unless you want to play evil or just like the aesthetic.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Reason to join the vampires? Plus One Hundred Magicka ring! Blood potions are a lot better than ALWAYS having to drink blood if you want to be in the sun for some reason. Also if youre Dawnguard you can still get vamp lord but the form is weaker and you get locked out of the place until you go and get cured. Though at the end you can just become a vampire, take Serana as your companion and never go back to the dawnguard headquarters anyway...

If you are powerplaying a melee heavy armour character though Dawnguard would be the better choice.

 

[Battleaxx90]

Vampire Lords? Bah! What use is their powers before the might and glory of a true Son of Skyrim, with an axe in his hand and a fire in his heart?


OT: I don't think I can give an unbiased opinion on this debate, because I've only ever gone Dawnguard. I never saw the point of becoming a vampire; yeah, you become more powerful as a result, but there's a lot of downsides to consider as well. Besides, a high-level, non-vampiric Dragonborn is already an unstoppable force of nature, so why bother?

 

[MiskWisk]

I've tried both. Story wise I'd say Dawnguard. If you're out to fuck around, Vampires. I will say though that there is a very good chance the side missions that the Vampires offer will bug out though and become impossible to complete (or at least they did when I last played it).

Really though, even if you do want to screw around, the Dawnguard only cuts out some of the Vampire content so it isn't too much of a downgrade. I will note though if you have mastered illusions, you should be able to use Harmony to force the Dawnguard into trading with you to get the spells and equipment although because of the bugs that I mentioned I never got the chance to on my playthrough so I could be wrong.

Edit: As an aside, did they ever fix the fortify restoration potion exploit?

 

[Pr0]

Depends on whether you are playing the game stock or modded.

If you're playing the game stock, I would highly suggest Dawnguard over Vampires. If modded, well modders fixed a lot of what Bethesda just did poorly about vampires.

 

[mavkiel]

As Pr0 Stated, it depends on if your using mods. If you liked the game Vampire Bloodlines, you probably want to try vampiric thirst. If you have a more broad view on what a vampire should be, better vampires (Less hardcore depending on what options you pick and powerful abilities)

If you are just playing vanilla, just go the dawnguard route.

 

[Drakmorg]

They're both extremely poorly written and not very fun, especially since the second half of both paths is exactly the same, so I'd honestly just recommended not doing either.
But if you're gonna insist, if say Dawnguard. I never finished that side, only got halfway through, but it can't possibly be any worse than the vampire side.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I was all set to join the vampires, but Dracula called me a mongrel dirty-blooded werewolf. I ended up kill them all then and there, and missing the entire DawnGuard story because the Vampires were all already dead.

 

[Paragon Fury]

The Dawnguard are obviously better. Better armor, Crossbows and better magic.

 

[God'sFist]

For your character I would have to say dawnguard, I look at it from a roleplay perspective so for your char go dawnguard but if you like you could just split your save between two different versions of the same char so one save you go with dawnguard and the other you vampire. If you don't like one of them you can just pick the save you like best and delete the other.

 

[Asita]

I went Vampires myself but that was at least partially because I planned on trying out a vampire mod anyways and generally enjoy playing characters who try to change the corrupt from the inside (So I tend to play light-side Empire on SWTOR, for instance[footnote]And thoroughly enjoyed seeing the various NPCs try to reconcile the brutish and savage Sith Warrior they expected with the honorable and cunning fighter they faced.[/footnote]). The story's workable if you play your character as still finding beauty in mortal lives and values, but siding with the Dawnguard will definitely give you a bit more consistency. The vampire route is also plagued with a few bugs that will halt your progress and require a console command workaround. I'm not sure if the Dawnguard route has similar issues.

A word of advice though: Between the time you start the Dawnguard questline and the time you finish it do not enter the holds any time between dusk and dawn. Your NPCs can and will die if you do.

 

[karkashan]

I also always go with Dawnguard (just like I always kill Paarthurnax), but that's just my preference. It's just the gameplay story-decision that always makes the most sense to me. Also a good quest-line to do after the Dark Brotherhood so my character feels a bit more like a "hero" again before she finally ends the Civil War and heads off to face Alduin.

grimabepraised

 

[RJ 17]

For the record: they straight-up give you a crossbow before you have to officially make your choice...so you don't have to worry about missing out on the new weapon.

That said, considering the fact that you're more straight-melee, I'd say Dawnguard would probably be the better/more useful faction to join up. Personally I always preferred being a vampire though.

Oh! If you do decide to go vampire, let me suggest a couple mods for you:

1: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/16506/?
Makes it so you don't get quite as fugly after you become a vampire.

2: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/9717/?
This one is really sweet, it adds a whole new level of playing as a vampire. You actually grow stronger the more you feed, increasing your vampire rank and unlocking new vampire abilities.

 

[FirstNameLastName]

I'd say the vampire lord form is worth it, since you no longer need a mount and can fly across water.

For the record: they straight-up give you a crossbow before you have to officially make your choice...so you don't have to worry about missing out on the new weapon.

It's not the crossbow that's the problem, it's the crossbow bolts that are difficult to acquire. Without joining the Dawnguard there is no where to buy them or craft them, so as a vampire you are more or less left with picking them off dead Dawnguard members. Although, I'm pretty sure there's an exploit with illusion spells that allows you to craft them as a vampire.

 

[GabeZhul]

In vanilla the vampire lord is a disk one nuke that, if you get it at low level, will make your character much more powerful but it will quickly lose its edge as you level up. In modded versions however playing as a vampire can be a lot of additional fun. In the end though I still recommend playing as Dawnguard on the first playthrough, as it makes more sense and you don't need to vary up your playstyle.

 

[RJ 17]

For the record: they straight-up give you a crossbow before you have to officially make your choice...so you don't have to worry about missing out on the new weapon.

It's not the crossbow that's the problem, it's the crossbow bolts that are difficult to acquire. Without joining the Dawnguard there is no where to buy them or craft them, so as a vampire you are more or less left with picking them off dead Dawnguard members. Although, I'm pretty sure there's an exploit with illusion spells that allows you to craft them as a vampire.

Hmmmm....it's been a good long while since I've played, but I don't recall running out of crossbow bolts ever being a problem. That said, as a vampire I did end up killing a lot of Dawnguard...the fact that they randomly spawn in towns (and on your front doorstep, so to speak) was likely what kept me well stocked.

So yeah, either join the Dawnguard and get a replenishable stock, or become a vampire and kill the crap out of every Dawnguard you see (of which there will be plenty). I don't really see the problem.

 

[IceForce]

Not sure if this is helpful to anyone, but if you want to test out the Vampire Lord form before you even get to the point of making the decision, you can (on PC at least).
Just bring up the command console, and type in "setstage dlc1radiant 10". This removes your lycanthropy (if you have it), makes you a vampire (if you aren't already one), and adds the Vampire Lord ability.

After you've finished playing around, reload a save from before you entered the above code, because the above code is a debug code and probably not something you want burnt into your save file (especially since it has the potential to break both quest lines ... with you being a Vampire Lord before you're actually supposed to be one).

 

[Strelok]

Was turned to a Vampire 3 game days into starting Skyrim, the same thing happened in Oblivion strangely. I role played that for what maybe 120 hours of gameplay. Was great, villages would attack me if I didn't feed for long periods, I would sneak into towns at night to feed. Loved it, chose Vampire lord thinking it could only improve on that... Nope, don't have to feed at all now, people react to me strangely but they don't attack. I really miss role playing it, Hell I had forgotten what Skyrim looked like during the day.

 

[Dandark]

Dawnguard has better characters and I prefer fort Dawnguard over castle Volkihar.

If you have some good vampire mods then it can be fun but otherwise i'd recommend going with the Dawnguard. They just tend to be pretty fun.