[Help] How to Make a undead Character

[Bnox]

Hello fellow Giants, as my first post on this forum I decided to ask for some help.

Me and some mates are starting a campain soon, where we are gonna try to play "the other side". Meaning we have always played the "standard Races" from players handbook, well mostly because that we only had the core books, plus 2 Complete books (warrior and divine) but in some look we had a freind there decided to sell us all his dnd 3.5 books (since he is way into Dark Heresy and 4.0). so we kinda bought all he had :)
reading though it we decided it could be fun to try to play the other side, as in undead or monsters and so on.

well I decided to see if I could make a Undead Ranger/rogue'ish thingi. wanna be a lurking stealth dude, so here is what I can tell you of info.

32 point buy
Level 1 start
Level 6 end (thats a ish, we might go further)
ehm more or less every REAL DnD 3.5 book is open, anything none Core need to be allowed but yeah..

my ideas for the character:
either use a bow or his claws / bite.

I must say I dont know that much about Dnd and not that much about Undeads, but if you would help me I would appriciate it, ill try to link what I build with myth-weavers so you can tell me what I do wrong.

So in short, sorry the the bad gramma, and hope you can help me build an undead rogue/ranger. (oh we don't aim for Uptimized builds, but have a feeling some will be out after an Undead)

the race of undead dont REALLY matter, but need to be able to act on its own will (like a Vampire - Lich - Ghoul) and would be awesome if I could do it from level 1-2 or 3

[hamishspence]

Necropolitan from Libris Mortis is one of the simplest undead templates- only LA+1, and you could take it at first level- it's gained via a ritual- but you'd take longer than the rest of the party to reach 2nd level.

[Keneth]

You can't become a Necropolitan at lvl 1, creatures with 1 HD are destroyed by the ritual. :smallconfused:

Edit: And they're also LA +0, they just lose a level +1000XP, which is entirely different and becomes irrelevant pretty soon.

[Bnox]

I can see I forgot something really important, we are allowed a +1 race or +1 template for free

[Feralventas]

Bringing up Libris Mortis also allows you to take on the Savage Species progressions for things like Vampire Spawns, Ghouls and Wights; 8 levels before you can start taking class levels, but they work alright for their purpose.

If you'd like to be a Ghost, there's also the online supplement for a savage progression on those as well, but alternatively there's the Eidalon and Eidaloncer classes in Ghostwalk's Campaign Setting book.

Elans are pretty much psionic liches if it's allowed to be fluffed as such.

Half-Vampire template isn't great, and might not count as undead, but IIRC it's only +2 level adjustment.

Dread Necromancers gradually become undead.

[hamishspence]

Ah- haven't checked the book recently.

On checking- since losing a level takes you to the midpoint of the previous level- and you lose 1000XP on top of that- you need to be 3rd level to "survive" the ritual.

[Bnox]

Bringing up Libris Mortis also allows you to take on the Savage Species progressions for things like Vampire Spawns, Ghouls and Wights; 8 levels before you can start taking class levels, but they work alright for their purpose.

If you'd like to be a Ghost, there's also the online supplement for a savage progression on those as well, but alternatively there's the Eidalon and Eidaloncer classes in Ghostwalk's Campaign Setting book.

Elans are pretty much psionic liches if it's allowed to be fluffed as such.

Half-Vampire template isn't great, and might not count as undead, but IIRC it's only +2 level adjustment.

Dread Necromancers gradually become undead.

Dread Necromancers? where are they from.

okay someone build me a Ghoul with 1 Ranger level, or tell me what level it requires, and why? please explain the HD cost and ECL and so on (kinda new)

[hamishspence]

Dread Necromancers are in Heroes of Horror.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Ghouls have 2 RHD, I think LM gave them LA +1, which you would ignore. With one level of ranger you would have 2 undead HD, one Ranger level with a d12, and ECL 3.

[Bnox]

meaning if I wanted it as a level 1 character I could do it with a +2 "template"

[hamishspence]

If you start at 3rd level, and you want something Ghoulish, but without racial hit dice and big LA- you could be a 1st level ranger of any of the LA +0 races and take Gravetouched Ghoul template instead- that has LA +2.


Ghouls have 2 RHD, I think LM gave them LA +1

Was closer to LA +3, since you didn't gain Ghoul Fever till 5th level.

[Feralventas]

Dread Necromancers? where are they from.

okay someone build me a Ghoul with 1 Ranger level, or tell me what level it requires, and why? please explain the HD cost and ECL and so on (kinda new)

If we build it for you, you might not know how to Play it.

Most undead start out with an Effective Character Level (ECL) higher than 1, so you probably don't want to deal with Level Adjustments (which raise your ECL past your actual class levels) or Racial HD (which stack on your class levels as well).

The Savage Progressions I've mentioned start at level 1 with a diminished version of the creature, and allow you to slowly gain its full abilities as you level up. If you're only going to 6, then most of the ones I've mentioned will take up all of the levels you get before the end (Vampire Spawn, Ghoul, and Wight are all 8 levels each in total.)

Dread Necromancer has been pointed out as being in Heroes of Horror, and might work well for you, though you will not actually Become an undead creature until 20th level, your abilities and spells make it sensible for you to be hanging around with a bunch of them none the less.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Was closer to LA +3, since you didn't gain Ghoul Fever till 5th level.

I am AFB so I could not check. I remember it got a little confused because they made becoming a ghast mandatory so it is hard to disentangle the two.

[hamishspence]

The Bone Creature template in BoVD does not affect the creature's Challenge Rating at all. This might equate to a LA of no more than +1.

Note that it was written when skeletons got half-damage from piercing & slashing weapons- since in 3.5 they get DR 5/bludgeoning instead, Bone Creature should probably be revised to reflect that.



I am AFB so I could not check. I remember it got a little confused because they made becoming a ghast mandatory so it is hard to disentangle the two.

The Savage Species template (which didn't continue into Ghast) went up to level 5 (2 HD) so it does fit.

[Preaplanes]

"Beware all Clerics" sounds like a start.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Who actual uses turn undead to turn undead? Between PrC features and Divine feats I never time to turn actually turn undead. Also most templates offer resistance.

[Keneth]

NPCs, that's who. :smallbiggrin:

[ZamielVanWeber]

Curse you wacky NPCs.

[mattie_p]

You should really get clarification from your DM in advance of making an undead character, specifically necropolitan, as by RAW, only past hit dice become d12s. See if they rule future hit dice become d12s as well. Otherwize, wiz necropolitans with d4s and no con mod become extremely squishy.

[ArcturusV]

It'll get used when it comes up.

To quote a Magic Player that I totally decimated after he was being a jerk by playing a single card... "NO ONE PLAYS WITH FOG!"

Similarly, Turn Undead will come into play if you try to throw your Undeadness around. Similarly I had a guy playing a Vampire who thought he was hot **** and started bullying peasants, torturing and killing publicly and taunting them, etc. So the next day they ran to the local temple. The clerics there blessed a crapton of Water and gave them Holy Water Flask (Free, because Charity in the face of mortal danger). He came back the next day to try and terrorize them. They threw a volley of Holy Water in his face, annihilated him in one round.

Options are options, and will be used as you give them a reason to be used. :smallwink:

[Fan67]

You can't become a Necropolitan at lvl 1, creatures with 1 HD are destroyed by the ritual. :smallconfused:

Edit: And they're also LA +0, they just lose a level +1000XP, which is entirely different and becomes irrelevant pretty soon.

Actually you lose half level in terms of XP and 1000xp on top.
The ritual is described to function like Raise Dead spell, and that spell places you half-way between levels.

Example: you are level 3 character with 3000xp.
Raise Dead makes you level 2 character with 2000xp and ritual costs another 1000, which leaves you with 1000xp - just enough to stay at Level 2.

[Keneth]

Which is exactly what I said and hamishspence further deduced. I don't see what you're trying to achieve here? Unless you're simply offering an example. :smallconfused:

And if we're arguing semantics, when you lose a level, you lose all your superfluous XP in the current level as well as half a level's worth of XP in the previous level.