High powered template/race/? recommendations.

[frogglesmash]

I'm currently running a vampire heavy campaign for some of my friends and I intend on eventually offering them the opportunity to be turned into vampires themselves. Two of my three PCs will probably accept the offer without hesitation however the third -who is playing a Half Giant Psychic Warrior- has already made it clear that he has no intention of turning into an "undead abomination." This leaves me with the problem of needing some sort of method of giving him a power boost on par with that of the vampire template. This would preferably this would be in the form of a template or perhaps having him be transformed into another race (i.e. turned into a mind flayer yet somehow keeping his original mind).
The best ideas I've come up with are the half golem template, or turning him into some sort of celestial being (though I can't think of any good justification for the second one). Any and all suggestions are welcome up to and including third party/homebrew content.

[defiantdan]

Since he is aiming for beat stickery being a psywarrior why not give him the feral template + half-minotaur(sadly dragon magazine) template. The LA isn't as high as vampire but I would argue that the benefits are better and more powerful. other powerful templates would be saint (or heretic if you want to refluff as an evil creature), Dark Creature, and if you want more templates check out minmaxboards. Uncle kitty's guide to template based shennanigans.

Failing that you could offer him gestalt. Let him pick something like psion to offer him up some juicy egoist powers and some more pp to fuel his psy beattery.

[Bulhakov]

The only thing with a level adjustment comparable to vampire is "Greenbound Creature" (Lost Empires of Faerun) - which would basically turn his character into the Swamp Thing.

[ExLibrisMortis]

The phantom template (MM5) has a listed LA of --, but it's a pretty nice template, if you're not into grappling. It doesn't change your type, but you get a sort of hybrid incorporealty. Adding a template like 'dark' (Tome of Magic), you get hide in plain sight and some nice hide/move silently bonuses, and a speed increase.

The air and water half-elementals (Manual of the Planes) boost wisdom and constitution, and as half-air elemental, you get the ability to cause tornadoes.

[VariSami]

I generally shy away from recommending 3rd party publications but Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary contains nothing but templates. Since 1st party sources have so few comparable boosts with similar amounts of level adjustment, I would suggest skimming through it.

[Red Fel]

A powerful combination that can't be emphasized enough is Dragonborn Warforged. Take the Wings aspect. You now have Warforged immunities - and there are so many of them, and you keep them because they come from the Living Construct subtype which remains intact - plus (Ex) flight and the Dragonblood subtype.

Those immunities, by the way, include poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain. They're kind of the perfect anti-"undead abomination," because they can resist energy drain, a common undead weapon.

If you want to do more, you can tack on Half-Mino. Or Half-Ogre. Or both. Heck, you could go Half-Mino, Half-Ogre, and then Primordial Giant, if you're a bit sadistic. But be aware that template order matters, and Dragonborn will likely come last - which means wiping a lot of stuff away.

Another option is to give free Bloodline (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm) levels, which would basically give him neat ability boosts at each level. Major Celestial is an option, or Major Storm Giant or Major Titan. If you want to add a touch of the bizarre, give him Major Vampire; he has it in his blood, but he refuses to succumb. Makes for some interesting character drama.

[torrasque666]

If you want to do more, you can tack on Half-Mino. Or Half-Ogre. Or both. Heck, you could go Half-Mino, Half-Ogre, and then Primordial Giant, if you're a bit sadistic. But be aware that template order matters, and Dragonborn will likely come last - which means wiping a lot of stuff away.
Do note that Half-Minotaur/Ogre can't be applied to a Warforged, but can be applied to say, a Halfling or a Gnome. And gets the most benefit from being applied to those two(or anything small)

[Red Fel]

Do note that Half-Minotaur/Ogre can't be applied to a Warforged, but can be applied to say, a Halfling or a Gnome. And gets the most benefit from being applied to those two(or anything small)

Technically, they can be applied to a Warforged. But it makes no sense, because a Warforged isn't born. (One could argue that it constitutes a bizarre imperfection in the Forge, a la Professor Utonium accidentally adding an extra ingredient to the concoction, but that's between you and the DM.)

On the other hand, if you're taking a Half-Giant and changing him into a completely different race/remplate, I'd say the sky is the limit on the transformation.

[torrasque666]

Technically, they can be applied to a Warforged. But it makes no sense, because a Warforged isn't born. (One could argue that it constitutes a bizarre imperfection in the Forge, a la Professor Utonium accidentally adding an extra ingredient to the concoction, but that's between you and the DM.)

No I meant that a Warforged doesn't qualify. They aren't Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid, nor Giant.

[Red Fel]

No I meant that a Warforged doesn't qualify. They aren't Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid, nor Giant.

... Oh, crumbs, you're right. I forgot. For a moment, I thought they were "any living creature" templates. Good call.

[Rama]

I don't have a copy in front of me to verify it's a perfect fit, but Primordial Giant might do what you need.

[Red Fel]

I don't have a copy in front of me to verify it's a perfect fit, but Primordial Giant might do what you need.

Primordial Giant is useful for a caster race, but it actually takes penalties to physical stats, so it's not great for a combat-oriented race unless you take templates to offset those penalties. The at-will SLA choice is nice, though.

[Ruethgar]

Human Heritage is a broken feat and has a fully fluffable prerequisite(oops spilled human blood in the Forge again). That with the Savage Species rituals would allow a Warforged/Dragonborn/Half-Ogre/Half-Minotaur, in that order too so you keep more.

[Flickerdart]

The main power of Vampire isn't really combat-based - the forms and abilities it grants are actually fairly mediocre. The true power of the template is that it allows you to control a second character with double your HD. And then he can control another character with double his HD, but even the first doubling is all kinds of silly.

In order for the psychic warrior to not get left out once the rest of the party starts trying to Catch 'Em All, he needs strategic-scale abilities which "+beef" templates will not provide. Consider something like Entomanothrope (can dominate twice its HD in vermin) instead.

[Story]

No I meant that a Warforged doesn't qualify. They aren't Humanoid, Monstrous Humanoid, nor Giant.

You could be an Incarnate Construct Warforged. IC isn't just a (debateable) LA-2, it's also useful for making Warforged qualify for humanoid only templates. You do lose most of the benefits of being Warforged though.

[Crake]

You could be an Incarnate Construct Warforged. IC isn't just a (debateable) LA-2, it's also useful for making Warforged qualify for humanoid only templates. You do lose most of the benefits of being Warforged though.

Except that the half-whatever templates are all inherited and incarnate construct is acquired, so it still doesn't help qualify


Human Heritage is a broken feat and has a fully fluffable prerequisite(oops spilled human blood in the Forge again). That with the Savage Species rituals would allow a Warforged/Dragonborn/Half-Ogre/Half-Minotaur, in that order too so you keep more.

Same reason why this doesn't work, inherited templates come before feats.

I will also use this moment to shamelessly plug my optional gestalt homebrew as a means of a) not resulting in the vampires either having to deal with a whopping +8 LA, or you having to give it to them for free, and b) letting the psychic warrior instead choose to use the opportunity to gestalt (perhaps even rebuild with gestalt rules, letting him gestalt as a ToB class and psion, to keep the idea of a psychic warrior, but just better all around).