Dawnguard's actual problem is the pacing, not the story

[ScrollsOfTamriel]

Been replaying the DLC and I keep hitting the same wall: the questline front-loads everything. You get Serana, you get the vampire/Dawnguard choice, you learn about Harkon's plan, you fight Harkon, and then it's basically over. The Soul Cairn stuff happens in the middle but it feels disconnected from the main plot.

Compare that to something like the Thieves Guild where you're slowly building toward Trinity Restored, or even the Companions where you're doing jobs before the Kodlak stuff pays off. Dawnguard just dumps the whole conflict in your lap in the first two quests and then the rest is... what, exactly? Fetch items for Auriel's Bow? Kill some vampires?

I think if the questline had been structured so you didn't meet Harkon until like halfway through, and the Dawnguard/Volkihar choice came later, it would've felt way more earned. Right now it's front-loaded tension that deflates because you already know everything that's going to happen.

Anyone else feel like the pacing kills what could've been a genuinely great DLC?

 

[DragonbornVet]

Yeah, I get what you're saying, but I think you're conflating pacing with revelation. The issue isn't that you learn too much too fast - it's that the quests themselves don't have enough meat between the story beats.

Like, the Thieves Guild works because you're doing actual jobs. Loud and Clear, Dampened Spirits, Scoundrel's Folly - those are self-contained missions with their own flavor. Then Speaking with Silence happens and it recontextualizes everything. Dawnguard doesn't really have that. After you pick a side and grab Serana, you're basically running fetch quests for alchemy ingredients and soul gems. The Soul Cairn section is cool but yeah, it feels tacked on because mechanically it's just "go here, loot stuff, come back."

The real problem is that there's no mid-game conflict that builds tension toward Harkon. You already know his plan from Serana's exposition dump. Compare that to Mercer Frey - you don't know he's the traitor until Hard Answers, and then the entire endgame reframes everything you've done. Dawnguard tells you the ending before you've done anything.

That said, I don't think restructuring when you meet Harkon would fix it. The DLC's just too short and the quest design is too linear. You'd need actual side objectives that matter, not just radiant vampire/vigilant jobs. More stuff like the Forgotten Vale section where you're actually exploring and uncovering lore instead of following waypoints.

Still better than Dragonborn's opening though, ngl.