Ghoul savage progression (ghast)

[Shadowscale]

If I were to take all the savage progression levels of ghoul from the book of the dead until you become a ghast at the capstone would it be possible to still build an effective character as it would seem fun to play? If so what type of character would be best to make for the class levels after the monster levels are done? Any feats or abilities a benefit to undead, I think there may be some prestige classes?

[Shadowscale]

Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. ^^

[Urpriest]

In general, I'd advise using Gravetouched Ghoul instead.

That said, if there was something about the level progression itself that interested you (and I have no idea what that would be...)...you have pretty good Str, Dex, and Cha, but not enough of either to balance out four levels of crap BAB and four levels of no BAB, so melee isn't really an option, and even archery's not exactly a strong suit...three natural attacks with paralysis, but the DC isn't going to scale well and there's the melee issue again...there's a smattering of natural armor, and a disease that I have no idea how to optimize (if there are ways of optimizing diseases at all that would be cool to learn about, though)...stench just sickens and similarly the DC won't scale. You've got too many levels lost to be a caster and not enough HD for something that scales with HD, and you suck at Meldshaping because you're undead.

I think your best option is Warblade, to try to catch up in hp and BAB. Stack as much damage on your natural attacks as possible via things like Punishing Stance and eventually maybe Stormguard Warrior, and just tough it out. Maybe some Barbarian at the beginning for similar purposes.

But really, just use Gravetouched Ghoul.

[12owlbears]

Maybe you can convince your dm to let you gestalt with a lower tier class like fighter. You'd get all the cool abilities of a ghoul but you wouldn't be useless in a fight. In one game I was in I played a gestalted savage progression umber hulk/(dungeon crasher)fighter and it never really became unbalanced.

[Runestar]

If I were to take all the savage progression levels of ghoul from the book of the dead until you become a ghast at the capstone would it be possible to still build an effective character as it would seem fun to play? If so what type of character would be best to make for the class levels after the monster levels are done? Any feats or abilities a benefit to undead, I think there may be some prestige classes?

Bottom line - no. You would be crippled by taking too much LA and racial HD to be effective at anything. As suggested, go with the gravetouched ghoul template instead.

[Shadowscale]

Thank you everyone.

Ur priest and everyone else, are some of the other undead from that book like wight and mummy at all usable?

[Urpriest]

Thank you everyone.

Ur priest and everyone else, are some of the other undead from that book like wight and mummy at all usable?

They've all got about the same problem, really. Functionally, you're talking quarter BAB and half hp with "class features" that only benefit melee, and the special abilities don't scale well enough to matter. Energy Drain on the Vampire Spawn and Wight has the most promise since the save doesn't matter in the short run, but it's still on a single natural attack with no good ways of multiplying it. Plus, for the most part all of these can be better done for players with templates.

[Shadowscale]

They've all got about the same problem, really. Functionally, you're talking quarter BAB and half hp with "class features" that only benefit melee, and the special abilities don't scale well enough to matter. Energy Drain on the Vampire Spawn and Wight has the most promise since the save doesn't matter in the short run, but it's still on a single natural attack with no good ways of multiplying it. Plus, for the most part all of these can be better done for players with templates.

Would you be willing to help me optimize a wight despite it's shortcomings?

[Urpriest]

Would you be willing to help me optimize a wight despite it's shortcomings?

I guess?

First, at least consider the Wight template from Savage Species. You'd need to do a bit of work to update it to 3.5, but not that much, and it would save you four levels.

If you don't want to do that, though...

Like I said, the main thing you want to optimize is the Energy Drain. Some of the Energy Drain-based feats in Libris Mortis are useful here, especially the Cha-based ones since you've got a good bonus to Cha.

Necrotic Focus weapons are essential here, they're the only way you're going to get more than one Energy Drain attack in a round.

Once you've got that up and running, try to get more (and more solid) attacks. Much like the ghoul discussed earlier, I think Warblade is your best bet there. Use Tiger Claw maneuvers for more attacks, various defensive maneuvers to shore yourself up. Might want to dip something that puts your Cha to use if you want to focus on it, check out the X stat to Y bonus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?125732-3-x-X-stat-to-Y-bonus) thread for that kind of thing.

Succubi are one of the better "monster class for a PC" options out there, and they've got a substantial Cha-focus. If you want to do the Cha route, googling Succubus advice should prove helpful.