[3.P]Types of undead for an Oracle?

[mistformsquirrl]

So after my thread on playing evil I've understandably started working out precisely what kind of an evil character I'd like to play in the future... and that's lead me to the idea of revamping my old Death Knight (WoW-style) concept.

It's an idea I really liked but never got very far off the ground in it's previous incarnation. That said, class-wise I think I was on the right track - an Oracle with the Bones mystery. Previously I'd taken the Curse of the Black Blood to be 'undead-ish', but I think this time I'd rather go whole hog and actually be an undead creature, or at least something that heals from negative energy.

The obvious answer is a Dhampir - since they're basically half-undead; however I honestly feel like I'd rather go beyond that if possible.

Vampire was particularly interesting to me both in terms of abilities and flavor, not to mention I greatly favor a creature that can look human or close to it... but for obvious reasons I don't think it'd fly with most DMs. I also admit, the lethality of so many of their weaknesses is unnerving. They aren't just penalties, it's outright 'You are destroyed' in several cases. Eek. Still, I think if I could get away with it, Vampire would be my creature of choice; I just don't expect it would be easy to get accepted.

There's also Necropolitan from 3.5e; I don't know a great deal about it, but my understanding is by and large it just turns an ordinary creature into an undead creature basically, right? I'd assume that converting it to Pathfinder the big difference would be instead of d12 hit die it'd get d8s or class based, with charisma to HP. Does that sound right? It might be easy-ish to get accepted.

Hrm, beyond that though - any ideas for human or elf-like undead that would be reasonable for a PC to play?

Related:

Any idea if there's a way to make a [url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-weapons/magic-weapon-special-abilities/vicious]vicious[/url weapon that deals negative energy damage rather than untyped damage? I ask because I notice that it requires a negative energy based spell and has a moderate necromantic aura... but does untyped damage. For obvious reasons it'd be pretty awesome to have a sword that healed me while hurting the enemy... but I'd assume it'd require a higher enhancement bonus that a +1 like Vicious.

[deuxhero]

Firstly: Is it 3.5 with backported PF material, or PF with 3.5 material allowed? PF undead use their charisma instead of their non-existant con scores for most things. If you took Noble Scion (War) and Nature, Lore or Lunar (especially the last two) as your mystery, you could pretty much replace your dex score too.

PF is pretty lacking in options for undead PCs (likely because of how SAD it can make you), but because you are 3.P, necropolitan is an option

[mistformsquirrl]

You're right, I should have specified that.

It's Pathfinder with imported 3.5e stuff.

[(Un)Inspired]

The necropolitan is gonna be your best bet. It's easy to disguise yourself as human. Really easy. Like jokingly easy. Plus anything else is gonna cut into your caster levels as an oracle.

If, however, la buyoff is available and you desperately want to be something else then I suggest gravetouched ghoul. It's got a level adjustment of 2 which is... Doable. It gives you pretty hefty boosts to you ability scores including the essential charisma. Also the only thing they need to feed on is "flesh". Flesh is all over the place. The world is lousy with flesh. You won't have any trouble finding some. I want to say that either pathfinder or savage species has a feat that lets ghouls pass for human also.


I would suggest against vampire. If you DM allows it he's either tricking you into a level adjustment nightmare that no amount of xp can free you from. Or you'll just be better than ever other party member by a wide margin. Sooooooo many bonus feats AND huge Ability score increases AND extreme invulnerability (unless the DM purposefully triggers one of your over the top role play death scenarios). Plus vampires are trite at this point.

[NotScaryBats]

I imagine you don't have access to the WoW Roleplaying Game? Its a modified 3.0 system, and fairly easily ported into 3.5 or PF.

The book "Dark Factions" has a 10 level Death Knight Prestige Class, kinda like a Blackguard, which gives you a Vampiric Runeblade that grows in power along with your levels in the class, and some spell like abilities. It isn't super powerful, but I thought I'd mention it.

Also in the main book, it has Forsaken Undead.

So, probably not the answer to your question, but...

[mistformsquirrl]

@NotScaryBats - Sadly I do not have access to those books, it'd be worth giving a look to get ideas if nothing else.

@(Un)Inspired - Yeah, necropolitan seems like it's most likely to be both accepted and functional. I would disagree that vampires are trite however - and I certainly have no intention of sparkling!

[(Un)Inspired]

I you like vampires then ignore what I said about them being trite. Do you mind if I ask, what kind of image do you have in mind for the character. Undead covers a lot of ground personality and motivation-wise.

Do you want your character to be a ravenous monster whose remaining humanity barely overcomes his/her viciousness and insatiable hunger?

An eternal watcher that simply plans on living forever and saw their humanity as an impediment to that goal?

A metaphor for venereal diseases and a tween movie icon?

Which ever angle you want you're character to fit into would probably a be good place to come from when it comes to picking what kind of undead you want to be. In this regard, necropolitan certainly isn't you're only option.

[stack]

Could brew something with the race creation guidelines in the ARG. Undead and half-undead are both types I believe.

[mistformsquirrl]

Hrm, that is indeed a possibility stack; and what I may do if necessary. Taking Undead traits with no other bonuses is a 16 RP creature, but adding Sunlight Powerlessness or a similar flaw brings it down to 14, which is one less than an Aasimar.

Still powerful with the huge number of immunities, but probably playable as a sort of "lesser vampire". Though annoyingly there seems to be no blood drain property in the race creator. < . .> So that's unfortunate.

Another option in the same vein that I may see about pursuing is to use Vampire Spawn rather than a full fledged Vampire. You use the Wight template, add a small number of additional qualities (but also the Vampire weaknesses). Importantly you don't get the massive stat bonuses a full fledged vampire gets. And most important of all - it still has Blood Drain.

Also technically it can spawn wights by killing things since you use the wight template - though I suspect most DMs would disallow that. Doubly so since the wight's spawning method doesn't require anything special to spawn another wight - as long as you kill it, you spawn it. They spawn pretty darn quickly too - 1d4 rounds. Which would be awesome for the PC, but in all probability a nightmare for the DM. There's also no cap on how many wight spawn you could have under your control - so... raze a village, raise an army <,< I think I'll suggest banning that feature myself to be honest.