Skills for a vampire

I have started running an undead warband. Naturally, the vampire is the star of the warband. He has had 3 advances so far - a skill (resilience), +1 initiative, +1 wound. Skill advances are the most common so what skills would you suggest he take next? Sprint might be fun or jump up. He's primarily a melee fighter and most combat, strength and speed skills seem useful for him. I've never played undead before so it would be good to know what skills players have found most useful.

Our group tends to go Resilent, Step Aside, Sprint, Leap, Mighty Blow, Strike to Injure. Strike to Injure should go before Sprint... If you are fighting high T enemies Strong Man is also usefull.

Jump Up is not too usefull from my experience. 1-2 on the injury roll never seemed to happen once I took the skill. Most Vampire hunters seem to get Strike to Injure...

Thanks, that's helpful. I should have said I'm mostly facing Averlanders, witch hunters and skaven (ie all T3).

Isn't Mighty Blow a bit overkill since a Vampire can go to S7. Unless of course this doesn't happen.
I'd say it's more useful than Strongman though - atleast I'd rather have the Gromril + Shield or Gromril + Extra Sword (we play with re-roll parries for dual swords) and Mighty Blow or the high strength he can get. Again, depends on increases of course.
I find Scale Sheer Surfaces fun as well, and very realistic for a Vampire. Plus, crawling 12" up to pick off snipers kicks ass. But it also more useful with our rules, since you don't have to start in base contact with what you want to climb, so he can move to the tower/building from a distance and the climb up.
Dodge if you face a lot of Crossbows in the early games. Combined with a Lucky Charm, they won't even bother.

At Strength 6 you cannot be parried by anyone that is S3. At S7 you cannot be parried by anyone that is S3 even if they have Resilient. At S8 you cannot be parried by anyone that is S4. At S9 you cannot be parried by anyone S4 even if they have resilient. At S10 you cannot be parried by anyone that is S5.

If Mighty Blow puts you in the next bracket that is valuable to you, then it is not wasted. Also, it is +1S before you roll the stat, so it is useful until you max out your strength too.

In the base rules it is really only the dwarf Trollslayers that can get their parry to levels that you have to worry about, but in my group we are buffing parry to make it actually something worth using.

If you are playing with additional rules i would go for skills like "mist form" and "embrace" or "mantle of shadows"
however if not playing with the additional vampire skills, " jump up" and "arcane lore" are always good choices, if your vampire is going to be a close combat specialist "expert swordsman" and "weapons training" are a good combo.
in our gaming group we have many vampires in warband's and all of them have dodge, step aside and resilient

Aye, Lord 0, you have a point - we've buffed parry in our group as well, making it possible to parry one attack, and re-roll with buckler or an additional sword, so yes, Mighty Blow is not wasted at S8 with those rules.
However, with normal parry rules, I wouldn't worry too much about parry, since there are good chances a 6 is rolled to hit with a Vampire's many attacks. So it all depends on your house rules

Where are the additional rules for "mist form" etc? I haven't heard fo those before.

TC#11 had rules for Mist Form in an article titled "Lords of the Night'. But I think Aipha's referring to something different.

Thanks Von Kurst, I'll dig out my TCs.

our gaming group uses these skills as well from the http://www.killershrike.com/
our campaign in up to game 700 so we have monstrous warbands, otherwise these may be a little unbalanced

Vampiric Skills
The Embrace The Vampire is powerful enough to sire progeny; that is to say make Lesser Vampires. The Vampire may turn any and all Dregs in his force into Lesser Vampires. These Lesser Vampires keep thier current statistic profiles and abilities, but gain the following new attributes:
6" Move
Vampire Profile Maximum
Cause Fear
Immune to Stunning
Access to the Vampiric Skill List
Are True Undead (and are no longer living creatures)
If any of the Lesser Vampires Leadership values ever equal that of the Master Vampire (the Vampire possessing this skill), the Master Vampire and the Lesser Vampire will fight one another for control of the warband. It is assumed that one or the other succeeds; the Undead player must choose one of the Vampires to keep and remove all others with an equivalent Leadership value from their roster; they may keep any Equipment the slain Vampires possessed and redistribute it among other members of the Warband.
Alternately the Lesser Vampire can leave the warband and form a new Undead warband, keeping any Equipment they have but counting against the 500gp starting gold of the new warband (and taking the place of the normal Vampire Leader, obviously).

Mist Form The Vampire may choose to disperse himself into a misty non-corporeal form during his own Recovery phase. While in Mist Form the Vampire is immune to non-magical attacks, may leave any HtH combats he is engaged in without being struck, and can ignore terrain and height. However, he can not run or charge, use any other abilities that affect corporeal models, or use any equipment that he might be carrying.
Additionally, no other models may use his Leadership Value. He may stay in this Mist Form for a maximum of 2 of his own Turns at a time. The Vampire resumes his normal form in the Recovery Phase at will or after the time limit has expired.

Mantle of Shadows The Vampire can mystically cloak himself in shadows and darkness. The Vampire gains the Infiltrate Special ability. Further, all foes targeting the Vampire using thier BS suffer an additional -1 penalty in addition to any other penalties that apply.

Lure The Vampire is able to exert his will over his foes. If any foes taken out of action by the Undead force recieve the Captured result the Undead have an additional option beyond those printed: The captured Hero may be Lured into service by the Vampire, filling a roster slot as if they were a Dreg. The vicitm keeps all of thier abilities and skill access options EXCEPT the learning and casting of Spells, as the Vampire's control of thier mind inhibits their Spellcasting ability. Sisters of Sigmar and Warrior Priests loose any Special Skills and access to thier Prayers, and may no longer use Sigmarite Warhammers or Holy Relics.
Normal limitations on the number of Dregs in the band apply.

Hypnotic Gaze At the begining of every HtH Combat Turn before charges are resolved the Vampire may attempt to transfix a single foe already in HtH with the Vampire with his Hypnotic Gaze. The target must make a Leadership roll or freeze, captured by the Vampires will. Hypnotized models may not fight in the ensuing phase of HtH combat and all HtH attacks against them automatically hit. They recover from being hypnotized at the end of the HtH phase.

Eerie Presence The Vampire exudes such an unnerving aura that all foes fighting with him in HtH must make All Alone tests every single turn even if they are not actually fighting alone. This does not work versus foes that are Immune to Psychology, All Alone Tests, or Fear.

Bloodsucker If the Vampire puts a foe Out of Action by any means in HtH combat and is more than 2" away from any other enemy then he sucks the foes blood and thereby gains a Wound in addition to taking the foe Out of Action. This power can take the Vampire over his normal Wounds limit for the duration of the battle.

Blood Magic The Vampire may choose to use any one of the Strength or Speed Skills that he does not already possess for the remainder of the game, but looses a Wound for each skill he uses. The Vampire must currently have 2 or more wounds to use this ability.

I really like Mantle of Shadows. The Embrace, Lure and Bloodsucker may be a bit OP.

The Embrace and Lure are two that combo well together so that will be two precious skills your vampire could of taken to make him/her more powerful instead it makes the warband as a whole become stronger. but has very little effect during the game where as i cannot count the times one of my vampires skills has saved their life. Oh in our gaming group we have had people spend 3000gp on a possessed in order to balance out this i allowed the group to have OP skills like those found in the additional fan made rules