do Master Vampires have a hard time converting weaklings?

[Axelmania]

reviewing VK revised pg 17, master vampire bites do 2d6+4 damage, so that's a minimum of 6 damage per bite and an average of 11 damage per bite.

Pg 26 mentions "bite does 2D6 damage" in bat form, so I don't know if perhaps that might be a means by which a master could avoid incurring the +4 bonus?

It doesn't say anything about whether or not to add the PS bonus that I can see. Nightbane 180/181 did say to:
"Killing bite is 3D6 plus PS bonus"
"Killing bite is 2D6 plus PS bonus"

It would seem weird if vampires did LESS than this in Rifts (the only difference is masters get +4 instead of +1d6) so I figure yeah...

I guess maybe the idea that you don't add PS is something I got from Dead Reign since zombies add PS bonus for headbutts but not for bites.

To slow-kill requires three consecutive bites. The third kills, but this means they need to survive the first two, meaning you at least need to be able to survive 12 damage.

You can only survive in a coma up to PE in negative HP, so if a human had PE 3 and no extra HP/SDC it seems feasible they might not survive the 2nd bite unless perhaps the master had some means of healing them up to full after the 1st.

Could this maybe explain one of the reasons they might delegate the creation of new secondary vampires to other secondary vampires, despite the risk of creating wild vampires? In the case of targets they perceive as weak, it's a better way to avoid killing them?

One other possibility other than healing them after doing damage is perhaps temporarily buffing them before the bite so they're able to survive it. B109's level 5 spell "Superhuman Strength" could be perfect for that since it adds an extra 30 SDC, plus bringing the PE up to 24 should at least allow you to survive more negative damage.

I'm not sure if that's meant to also possibly temporarily buff your HP too.

I guess the downside is this could make a victim more able to fight off a vampire, and possibly even damage them (not sure the ruling there) although casting this spell on a sleeping victim probably wouldn't wake them up, and victims are "incapable of offering any further resistance after the first bite" so you don't really have to worry after the bite wakes them.

Pg 45 gives Secondary Vampires +4 to pull punch (Masters are same, Wild only have +3... surprised they have a bonus at all TBH and Intelligences/Familiars/Heroes get +6 per pg 34/36/60) but I'm not sure if that could be used to attempt to reduce the damage a bite does. Anyone recall if that's specified somewhere?

Pg 211 mentions "+3 to entangle and pull punch/bite" for the Sun Dog RCC, which seems to imply that perhaps it has to go out of its way to mention a "pull bite" is possible? None of the vampires say this though...

"(same as Supernatural P.S. M.D. number point for point)" notes how much SDC the intelligence/familiar does from biting SDC.

I'm not even sure if that's an advantage TBH because even though RUE286 "restrained punch" SDC dice amounts are one or two more than the 'full strength punch' MD dice, it does note that bites usually do half the dice of punches, unless "restrained bite" is not intended to be a standard option.

21-25 for the familiar is per RUE286 is at least 2D6 (equal to wild/secondary) or possibly 3D6 for the 1 in 6 who roll a PS of 26. For the intelligence it's either 4D6 (31-35) or 5D6 (36-40) or 6D6 for the 1 in 36 intelligences who roll a pair of 6s and have PS41.

Intelligences averaging 14 damage would definitely make 'pull bite' very valuable if they could do that...

RUE 341 mentions "with fist or weapon" so clearly it's more than "punches", but I don't know if kicks/bites can be pulled normally since it's unclear if you'd call them weapons.

RUE 346 says "punch, kick, or with a hand weapon" so kicks are opted in, but "hand weapon" is even more specific which makes me wonder if bites aren't included here...

There's also some inconsistency between these pages since 346 says half/quarter/single/no while 341 is "as little damage as the attacker desires (down to one point)". So 341 has the drawback of "no explicit zeros" while 346 has the drawback of "no explicit interstitials".

I don't think a zero-damage bite could work as a slow kill (would not draw blood) so it would at least have to do 1 damage presumably.