if you're happy with the buffs and debuffs you get at stage 4, there's not really any problem staying there. With BV I could turn back on being hated at stage 4, but that's not really the same thing that's just becoming obviously monstrous because of your hunger (as an aside, I thought it was awesome that vampires in the movie Daybreakers basically worked like Elder Scrolls vampires ). It only falls short in one area: enforcing an actual necessity to feed. Skyrim with Dawnguard and Better Vampires is pretty much my idea 'play as a vampire' game.
I'm feeling tempted to learn how to mod Skyrim to I can create a patch for one of the needs mods to handle vampires better.
