Vampire Enchanter

[asdu]

Vampire Enchanter is a combo I've been obsessing over for a while. The main thing I find attractive about them compared to the good ol' SpEn is that spell hunger is not only pretty meaningless for them, but being hungry makes their sneaky shenanigans even easier.
With Spriggans I typically die before I even dare casting haste or invisibility (tbh I realize I'm overly paranoid about spell hunger when playing spriggans, I alawys end up with whole truckloads of unused food); when playing vampires, on the other hand, I always die before I even have a decent shot at learning >4 lvl spells. Until now, that is.

I currently have a lvl 15 VpEn of Makhleb who is past the easy part of the midgame (Mines, Lair, Hive and up to D:18 or so). Finally being able to spam haste against anything remotely threatening is very nice indeed (too bad I'm playing 0.8 though)
However, while it's a slightly more versatile combo than SpEn, I'm really missing the spriggan's ultra-specialized aptitudes, and I'm starting to feel starved for XP.

So, here are my current skills:
+ Level 9 Fighting
- Level 10 Short Blades
+ Level 10 Long Blades
+ Level 12 Dodging
+ Level 12 Stealth
+ Level 13 Stabbing
- Level 2 Traps & Doors
+ Level 4 Unarmed Combat
+ Level 11 Spellcasting
- Level 14 Enchantments
+ Level 1 Translocations
- Level 5 Ice Magic
- Level 1 Air Magic
- Level 7 Invocations
+ Level 1 Evocations

My main question is: how should I prioritize my weapon skills? I've taken up long blades when I found a randart +3/+3 katana of freezing with +1 int (a bit underwhelming for a randart and probably not endgame-worthy, but, hey, it's a freaking katana ). I'm tempted to just turn off short blades for the remainder of the game even as I still keep using them to stab, basically transitioning to a more crusader-ish style, if only as a backup plan: is that a good idea? Do the to-hit and damage bonuses from weapon skill matter that much when that weapon is only used to stab (lvl 10 already maxes out dagger speed which seems to me the most important trait)?
Likewise, I've trained unarmed a bit for confusing touch: how much is good to have to hit end-game monsters (not that I'm implying I'll make it to the endgame ). Ideally I'd keep training it for the whole game to improve attack speed, but I'm already spreading myself way too thin. Incidentally I find it pretty weird that unarmed combat speed maxes out at 5 like daggers, but that happens at skill lvl 25 as opposed to the dagger's 10. I can see however how it would make transmuters ridiculously powerful if they could max their attack speed before they hit the bottom of the lair.

[cganya]

i'd like to point out that if you want to avoid feeding as a vampire, do not train unarmed. your bite attacks will drain blood and feed you.

[galehar]

Like minmay said: turn off short blades. If you found some good books, you might to learn a bit of necromancy, vampires have good aptitude.

[raalph]

Vampire Enchanters are a fun class.

[asdu]

cganya: good point, although I doubt it would be a problem until one reaches very high levels in unarmed combat. As it is, I may occasionally go from near bloodless to very thirsty for a couple dozen turns, which doesn't bother me at all. Could be important to keep it in mind though, should I find myself relying on torment immunity from being bloodless.

galehar: I'd kill for a Book of Necromancy, but the dungeon is not coughing up one. I've had great luck with enchantment books on the other hand.

raalph: I think so too, but until this game they've only been a source of frustration This one is doing considerably better than his predecessors. Best moment so far was sneaking up on Norris and stabbing him (though it also took a few hasted katana swings to kill him)

[danr]

Why not go with Kiku to get the necro spellbooks if they are hard to find?