Help me build my first character!

[_flint_]

Well, this might be somewhat of a misnomer, I actually want your help RE-building my first character.

How I got to this point
See, when I was a fresh young nerdling I decided that I desperately wanted to be a zombie. A friend who at the time knew more about the rules than I pointed out that zombies are unplayable seeing as they have no intelligence score and instead recommended that I play a ghoul instead.

Following a few google searches and a misunderstanding of how ghoul fever worked, I decided to be a gravetouched (+1 LA DM race) savage species ghoul/fighter (I thought that to make spawn you had to kill the enemy with your bite attack, and what better way to do this than critical hits, amiright?)
No, I'm not

After finding out that this SUCKED I did more research and found the gravetouched ghoul template, which is only +2 LA for the same features of being a ghoul. Also, I realized monk would stack much better with it than fighter.

I am still not satisfied, so I seek your help on a general build for him.


The idea is that he is a human with similar views to Renfield from Dracula- That when you eat something you absorb the power of that creature and subsequently every creature that creature has eaten and so fourth. His only personal goal is to eat his way up the food chain, and to his twisted mind, he sees becoming an undead monster as the best way to do so.

What do you say, guys? Are you up to it?

P.S. That's him as my avatar

[RFLS]

Well, first of all, we'd need to know what sources you have available. Generally speaking, LA is not desirable unless LA buyoff is on the table (an alternate rule from Unearthed Arcana). LESS desirable is taking monk any further than 2 levels. Monks suck.

So, for race, I would recommend Necropolitan from Libris Mortis. They're LA 0 and have the basic Undead stuff. They're pretty good for basic undead ideas.

Next, we have a few options; based on what you pick and what you have available, we'll work from there.

Your character sounds animalistic to me; this makes me think Beast Totem Barbarian (a variant, also from Unearthed Arcana). Around here, it's advised you take the Lion Totem for the much coveted Pounce ability (full attack after a charge), however, given how low-OP your group sounds, you could reasonably take any of them.

For a VERY animalistic feel, you could use the Magic of Incarnum system, specifically the Totemist base class. They get a bunch of abilities that are very animal-centric, and claw and bite attacks are rather central to their being.

If you want claw attacks without the trouble of dipping classes for them, you could always apply the Necropolitan template to the Shifter species, found in the Eberron Campaign setting. They look human, but can (duh) shift a little due to lycanthropic heritage.


I'm going to give you a heads up now- any time you mention melee on these boards, Tome of Battle will be recommended. This is because it is a great, fantastic book that gives melee shiny toys. That being said, if you use it, be VERY careful. It has a high optimization floor, and it does not sound like you're playing with people that optimize in any way, shape, or form. If you use it, I would recommend using it for dips, at the most.

That's my advice for now; I need to get a better idea of what sort of personality the character has and what sort of combat he employs before I can give more useful advice.

[_flint_]

Thanks for the advice!

The group is actually pretty average in power level, I never even got a chance to play the character for more than a few sessions before we switched DMs, so this is more of an intellectual exercise to see what I might have done differently had I known more about character building at the time

In personality he is kniving and ruthless. Not necessarily bestial, more brutally procedural. I have always liked ghouls, so i'd like to stick with the template if at all possible.

For combat, he claw/claw/bites, trying to either capture the enemy to later infect with ghoul fever, or slaughter them and eat them.

All books are available, and LA buyoff is an option.

Hey, just thought of something- Paladin of Tyranny would work pretty well

[Mithril Leaf]

Thanks for the advice!

The group is actually pretty average in power level, I never even got a chance to play the character for more than a few sessions before we switched DMs, so this is more of an intellectual exercise to see what I might have done differently had I known more about character building at the time

In personality he is kniving and ruthless. Not necessarily bestial, more brutally procedural. I have always liked ghouls, so i'd like to stick with the template if at all possible.

For combat, he claw/claw/bites, trying to either capture the enemy to later infect with ghoul fever, or slaughter them and eat them.

All books are available, and LA buyoff is an option.

Hey, just thought of something- Paladin of Tyranny would work pretty well

You'll have to be a bit more specific than "average" when defining power level around here. We've got a wide range that we play at as far as optimization.
Do druids in your game take natural spell by default? Are wizards spending spell slots casting fireball? Is Tome Of Battle considered a good power level for melee?

As far as the character, you'll probably want to go Totemist for class. It gives you the best return on natural investment as far as levels to natural attacks goes. Your base race will probably want to be something with a penalty to constitution, a bonus to strength, and hopefully wisdom. You'll need to spend a feat on undead meldshaper to pull it off, but you'll be a pretty sweet character. Maybe take some levels of Soul Eater later on, it has good synergy with your build.

[RFLS]

Hm...given the template, I would heartily recommend Totemist; it took me a bit to dig up the Gravetouched Ghoul template, but...that's pretty good. Not sure it's worth 2 LA, but that's not as big a deal for melee. Definitely use human for your base race unless you have some reason not to.

EDIT: Swordsage'd

[_flint_]

Well, what I'm pretty much saying is that the groups power level is incosequential. Typically they have an alignment restriction, so I won't be playing this guy any time soon.

When I build characters for myself, I like to try to make them as OP as possible, but I still lack the skills that the Iron Chef folks have.

Anything charisma based you guys can throw at me? I want to have that ghoul fever DC as high as possible

also, I like taking totem barbarian for pounce, the thought had never occurred to me.

[Slipperychicken]

Bards are Cha based, and generally awesome if you can optimize them. Of course, they can quickly become waste-of-space characters if done poorly, so beware. After hanging out with the forum/optimization community long enough, I'm sure you won't have much trouble with that. Google a handbook and you should be good.

High Charisma + Max Ranks Bluff + Glibness = "My Bluff check.. is TOO DAMN HIGH"