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[Urist McWhatTheHellGuys?]

I was thinking, instead of simply having the vampire locked away for levers couldn't you set up a squad of marksdwarves (all vamped) inside their own little chamber, give them a quantum bolt stockpile fed by trapdoors, and then if you've locked your fort down correctly sieges would eventually be killed off by the eventually legendary marksdwarves who will never die of old age.

Also would a similar setup be doable with ballistae

[BlackFlyme]

You could probably do that. Though you would also want a sniper's nest designed to keep them close enough to the fortifications to fire through, and some archery ranges for them to train at as well.

Ballistae may not be as easy to set up, as siege engineers have a habit of trying to run when they see the enemy, but it should also be possible.

[Urist McWhatTheHellGuys?]

I figured it would be a permanent set of defences without the complexity needed for most traps nor the need for the enemy to walk directly on them. Line of sight would be enough.

[nordak]

I usually only have a single vamp at a time, accidents happen.  You still need some sort of limited firing arc, so that enemy master+ archers won't be able to wound / Kill your Immortal warriors.

  I would recommend a 90 degree range over a pass with a second tower facing the same way. With the tower and pass blocking all exterior LOS to your sniper holes. 
I would not use this as a primary defence, but as a part of a trapped mantrap it may be feasible.

[Covenant Ringthane]

Quoting myself feels weird, but I'll do it:

For example, I've created a vampiric marksdwarf squad, to be eternally stationed on the walls - the Ancient Granite, a guard that never sleeps, eats or drinks, renowned throughout the dwarven mountainhomes and human towns etc. etc. long-winded in character explanation of things

I've personally found it best to make a batch of vampires, outfit them with the best armour available, then kill off their families one by one pre-training to avoid Urist McBadass killing all my other vampires. If he tantrums, he can be put down with little fuss. In any case, because I have quite a few, the loss of an individual isn't that bad. Plus, it's sealed, so they can't kill any civvies.

As to the design, I've never been one for efficiency. I have a sort of courtyard, where the walls are essentially this for three z-levels and several :

W
D
F

W = Wall
D = Marksdorf
F = Fortification

It's facing inwards (the wall is the bit exposed to the elements), which you might think is a bit stupid, but these days (i.e. long after the death of that fort) I employ what I think of as a dual portcullis design. Essentially, the entrance to the courtyard and mountainhome itself is made of vertical bars, which slam down when all the seigers are inside. The people on the mountainhome side are slaughtered by men with pointy sticks/spear minecart shotguns at the end of the passageway. Anyway, the interesting property of bars is that you can shoot through them like there's nothing there. Remember the minecart shotguns? Alternatively (i.e. when I'm to lazy too reload them) I send marksdorfs to each portcullis (secret entrances are great) and essentially create a killing field.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent there...

[Rum]

Watch out for marksgoblins

[slothen]

Also would a similar setup be doable with ballistae

ballistae are practically worthless.

[Melting Sky]

It would be fun to do this with a squad of 10 vampiric melee dwarves just for the added challenge and brutality. Basically you would have to add a drawbridge door to your main fortress if you don't already have one then create a seperate prison/barracks to keep your vampire melee dwarves stationed inside. You would want to put a drawbridge door on this building as well.

The basic idea is that the vampires spend all eternity training with each other in their nice little comfy prison barracks behind a locked door that only opens when sieges show up. Since you don't want vampires shirking their duty during battle to go suck your still living dwarves dry you would of course want to seal the fortress any time you let the immortals out to play. I've been considering doing this myself since I have a vampire hammerlord I already use in this manner occasionally, but the main thing that is keeping me from doing it is that I don't want to deal with the mess of keeping the tainted water supply out of the reach of my other dwarves. I can imagine with how contaminants work in this game that what started out as a nice contained pool of vampire blood tainted water would end up literally everywhere. I guess a magma purge would be sufficient for removal. Maybe I will give this a try after all.

A quick related question: I know when you turn a dwarf into a vampire they gain a considerable bonus to some of their physical attributes. If a dwarf is already approaching their natural maximum will becoming a vampire allow them to exceed their natural limit?

[Covenant Ringthane]

A quick related question: I know when you turn a dwarf into a vampire they gain a considerable bonus to some of their physical attributes. If a dwarf is already approaching their natural maximum will becoming a vampire allow them to exceed their natural limit?

Vampirism (well, any transformation into one of the undead, barring becoming a necromancer) doubles and then "locks" the physical attributes of the sufferer, preventing decay or gaining of said attributes. Yes, it will cause them to exceed their natural limit. It's one of the reasons vampires in Adventure mode are powerhouses.

As to your melee-vamp idea, I have tried it, and it is rather fun, but I recommend giving them training in every weapon type and changing their weapon choice to suit each siege - you don't want to send them out against colossi with maces, for example. It's main reason I use marks-vamps, as they're pretty much all-purpose. Although, in saying that, I do give them advanced hammer training, so should my normal military fall, I can release the vampires to try and fight it off with a silver crossbow to the face, rather then cheese it and keep them as an insurance policy (something that can't happen with your setup).