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I am building a dhampir using the stats from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft (p. 16-17), which has some interesting entries, such as this paragraph under "Dhampir Hungers":

Those who overindulge their thirst risk losing control and forever viewing others as prey. Those who resist might find exceptional ways of controlling their urges or suppress them through constant, molar-grinding restraint.

and this entry in the "Dhampir Origins" table, listed for a roll of 6 on a d8:

You are a diminished form of an otherworldly being. Slaking your hunger hastens your renewal.

I also noticed that the stats on a dhampir's Deathless Nature trait (which only says "You don't need to breathe") is quite underwhelming compared to the reborn's Deathless Nature trait (p. 20-21). Compared to the reborn's version of the trait, the dhampir's version obviously removes things like the need to eat and drink (endless thirst), and the need to sleep (cause coffins) – but also takes out resistance to poison, and advantage on death saves, which I find peculiar. At any rate, as I was doing a Google search for a dhampir's age/lifespan, I came across many iterations of them in other games that link their abilities to their feeding, which got me thinking of the question in the title:

Can a dhampir survive on blood alone?

Mechanically, if a dhampir was not to overindulge, say by consuming only 1 pint of blood a day (which is roughly 1/12th of a human male a day, so say 1 Vampiric Bite), could that satiate the creature's need for food and drink?
Or on the other end, would a vegan dhampir's gnawing of teeth or rumbling stomach cause it disadvantage to stealth checks?

I saw in the post What is a dhampir's max lifespan? that there might be some lore that I have missed, but I have yet to find the answer on this site.

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No

I don't see on the traits any entry that allows you to satiate your need for food and water. The lore section just speaks of a new kind of hunger/thirst, gladly without a mechanical need to indulge it.

Maybe you could bargain your DM the mechanical need to satiate this new hunger for the perk to be fed and hydrated, you could also ask to expand the dhampir life expectancy, because without a trait is the same as a human.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ If I understand you correctly, this would be considered more of an addiction or a flaw than a dietary need? Treating like a sober drunkard's yearning for ale? I get that there's a sandbox of opportunities to work with a DM, especially a dhampir trying to hide their bloody snacks around a life domain cleric, but I can concede that I might have read the suggestion more strict, like a tabaxi's carnivore diet. \$\endgroup\$
    – Victor B
    May 19, 2022 at 18:20
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes @VictorB, I think it is more a roleplay opportunity than a mechanical effect. But the mechanical effect of subsisting with your snacks isn't a game breaker so many DMs will allow it (for free or in exchange of mechanical need to satiate the unnatural hunger). BTW, you chose the "1 pint of blood a day" inspired by the Vampire Masquerade and Requiem games? \$\endgroup\$
    – Federico Matonte
    May 20, 2022 at 11:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah got it. No, actually I dunno those games. I simply overcomplicated things; researched how much of a creature's body is blood (according to Wikipedia, it averages to about 7%, with humans having 1 gallon for females and 1.5 gallons for males), realized that info doesn't help as HP is too inconsistent to calculate the volume of the dhampir's vampiric bite, and then copped out to say one glass of blood daily (using the tankard as the unit of measure). That said, another fun add-on is the Hunger table, with Max HP reduction with option 6, and empathy with option 5 \$\endgroup\$
    – Victor B
    May 21, 2022 at 2:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ Because in both of those systems the vampires need to drink a point of blood per day and a typical human has 10 points, so it is not far from your estimate. Well modeled @Victor B \$\endgroup\$
    – Federico Matonte
    May 24, 2022 at 11:32
  • \$\begingroup\$ Oh wow, I had to check and according to my findings, it would be 8 pints for females and 12 pints for males (so 10 would be in between). So I guess if you wanted to make it just flavour, one could say that 1 Ration=1 tankard of blood. But now that I am only thinking of it as a flavor mechanic, I am strongly thinking of Tokyo Ghoul, where they can only stave the hunger with blood, and "vegans" get it from a special coffee (out of sight, out of mind). \$\endgroup\$
    – Victor B
    May 25, 2022 at 10:54

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