Vampire Vs Grave-touched Ghoul

[Rei_Jin]

Greetings all.

I'm currently involved in a RL game where my PC is going to be presented with the option of becoming an Undead. Several different types will be put forward as options, but I've managed to narrow down what I'd prefer to go with to either Vampire or Grave-touched Ghoul.

The DM for this game allows us to pay off whatever level adjustment we have once we hit level 20 (in effect you pay 20,000xp per LA point) so that's not a huge issue, but I'm weighing up the pros and cons of the two options.

My PC is a Human Monk 4/Fighter 3 who is aiming for Order of the Bow Initiate. The class levels came about through RP, and he's the strongest member of the party at the moment (combat wise).

I know the Vampire has a lot of funky powers and abilities, bonus feats, bonuses to skills, etc, but it also has glaring holes in it. Can't go out in daylight, can't go into a building you're not invited into, can't bear garlic or holy symbols, can't cross running water, blah blah blah.

By comparison, the Grave-touched Ghoul has less bonuses, but the stat boost it gets is comparable (and slightly better for my build). No Fast Healing, less Natural Armor, and no Damage Reduction are my only issues, and I can get around the first two of those with a few additions of the Evolved Undead template.

Question is, what would others recommend? This is a low op game, and of the other four players, two are going to go Vampire, one is going Half-Vampire and Savage, and the last is going Lich.

[Alleran]

Mildly cheesy way to get around most of the vampire issues:

1) Go into a quickened time plane. 100 years to 1 day is nice.
2) Have 10+ character levels.
3) After whatever vampire creates you has had you under its control, kill your creator. This may be difficult depending on the vampire in question.
4) Create 10+ vampires, and survive an assassination attempt by one of them. You can probably dominate them to force the attempt.
5) Become a Vampire Lord (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mm/20021018a).

You can dodge the sunlight issue with a magic item that has a continuous enchantment on it of a spell that IIRC can be found in Lords of Darkness. It basically has the effect of treating the target as though it were night. So as long as you wear your daylight ring, you'd be able to avoid one of the most crippling disadvantages.

EDIT: If your DM is willing, be a Necropolitan. You get the best results for the lowest price.

[Gwendol]

Go Ghoul! Vampires are the Drizzt of the undead.

[Jack_Simth]

I'm fond of Ghost, but that's more for casters (especially Charisma-based casters) than melee, and even then, mostly only when you've got some way of avoiding the caster level hit.

In general, though, *especially* for melee, going Undead is bad. Sure, you get a lot of immunities, and you go up to a d10 hit die, but you lose your Con score. That does some mean stuff to your HP. You're currently a Monk 4/Fighter 3, you said? So you've got 4d8+3d10 hit dice. On average, the difference between a d8 and a d12 is 2 hp/level; the difference between a d10 and a d12 is 1 hp/level. If you're con score is 14 or higher, you lose hp from going undead.

[Rei_Jin]

Very true Jack, but I'll be getting bonus hitpoints from (A) being turned into an Undead in a Desecrated area with the right altar, and (B) the person turning me into an undead having the Corpsecrafter feat.

My PC only has a 14 Constitution to start with, and magic items aren't that easy to get, so the loss of Con isn't that big an issue.