moritheil
2012-06-16, 03:03 PM
LM has the famous Necropolitan, which gets to be undead (dropping hit points but gaining a ton of immunities and a healthy fear of cleric NPCs) for basically 1 level and no HD.
It also has the Deathlock (http://metima.wikidot.com/templates), which is ECL 6 right off the bat. It comes with the ability to slowly heal itself to full, but the undead HD are probably among the worst possible HD you could have, and you take 3 of them. If the Deathlock had casting as a sorcerer or wizard, it might not be so bad, as you could jump right into your casting progression (admittedly at a +3 LA, which would prevent optimizers from ever wanting it), but instead it has spell-like abilities which are mostly pretty useless.
Basically the fluff is all about being an undead mage, but with this setup it'll be impossible to progress as a competent mage.
Now, the SLAs aren't totally useless.
Inflict Minor - useful for out of fight healing
Read Magic, Detect Magic - useful for information
Summon Monster I - useful for setting off traps
Ghoul Glyph - useful for placing traps if you suspect you are going to be attacked fairly soon
But they aren't worth 6 levels on a primary caster. (They probably aren't worth 6 levels of full BAB and hit points, either.) Even if you rule that things like magic missile scale with your overall HD rather than your racial HD, it's still unimpressive at level 10+.
I get that it's giving +4 to 3 different stats, and +2 to the fifth. But if you're trying to be a caster, only one of those stats truly matters, and if you're some kind of MAD fighter/mage build, there are still cheaper ways of getting those stat boosts.
Is there any situation in which the Deathlock shines?
It also has the Deathlock (http://metima.wikidot.com/templates), which is ECL 6 right off the bat. It comes with the ability to slowly heal itself to full, but the undead HD are probably among the worst possible HD you could have, and you take 3 of them. If the Deathlock had casting as a sorcerer or wizard, it might not be so bad, as you could jump right into your casting progression (admittedly at a +3 LA, which would prevent optimizers from ever wanting it), but instead it has spell-like abilities which are mostly pretty useless.
Basically the fluff is all about being an undead mage, but with this setup it'll be impossible to progress as a competent mage.
Now, the SLAs aren't totally useless.
Inflict Minor - useful for out of fight healing
Read Magic, Detect Magic - useful for information
Summon Monster I - useful for setting off traps
Ghoul Glyph - useful for placing traps if you suspect you are going to be attacked fairly soon
But they aren't worth 6 levels on a primary caster. (They probably aren't worth 6 levels of full BAB and hit points, either.) Even if you rule that things like magic missile scale with your overall HD rather than your racial HD, it's still unimpressive at level 10+.
I get that it's giving +4 to 3 different stats, and +2 to the fifth. But if you're trying to be a caster, only one of those stats truly matters, and if you're some kind of MAD fighter/mage build, there are still cheaper ways of getting those stat boosts.
Is there any situation in which the Deathlock shines?