Need ideas for a death devoted character

[Sqmach]

I'm working on a neutral or potentially lawful neutral character for a campaign and hoping you guys can help me out with ideas. The basic premise is for the character to be devoted to the natural order of things, viewing death as a sacred and natural end to life. He'd be opposed to undead, viewing them as abominations that disrupt the natural order, but he'd also be against resurrection. To him, the dead are meant to stay dead, and bringing them back in any form is wrong. Problem is, I'm not really sure what classes exist to fit the concept other than a cleric of neutral god with the death domain, so I'm open to ideas. I'm not necessarily looking for amazing power (not that I'm opposed to it either), more for flavor, and its a gestalt game so I have two sides to fill. The rules at our table have only one side of the gestalt capable of multi-classing, the other side must be a single class.

Thanks in advance for the help and suggestions!

[Elandris Kajar]

You could do Cleric//Ranger/slayer Of the dead if you want to kill undead.

[Geddy2112]

An inquisitor fits more of the "hunt down and destroy the undead". I once played a pretty grim, 40kesque Inquisitor of Pharasma, was tons of fun.

But a bard who sings songs to give the dead rest and make sure they stay that way fits too. What about a wizard who seeks to learn magic to permanently lay the dead to rest, or stop necromancy altogether? A sorcerer could have a taint of undead in their blood, and in trying to purge the undead from the world, find a cure for themselves? A fighter who watched his former party reanimated in front of him, or learned about how bad people have been ressurected(or both?).

It is a broad concept, that could apply to any class, although some more than others.

[AvatarVecna]

It kinda depends on what power level you're looking for here, and how exactly you want to mechanics to represent the fluff.

Ranger/Hunter of the Dead makes sure undead can't be reanimated anymore...even if they were a lich.

A Cleric of a Death God (or the concept of death being a sacred thing) could simply be somebody whose views on the subject are powerful enough to grant them actual power.

A Favored Soul devoted to death could be hand-picked by Death itself to keep death sacred in the world.

Hell, if you were willing to shift your alignment southwards on both axes, an NE Cleric/Warlock/Eldritch Disciple could very well be a Grim Reaper in training, if you build them right. I did something like that in 5e with a straight Bladelock, but I'm sure caster BS can make an awesome divine gish out of such a build.

[BoutsofInsanity]

Nah, hear me out on this one.

Race: Warforged or Android for Fluff

Weapon of Choice: Scythe or

Mini:https://www.google.com/search?q=Necron+Lord+Scythe&safe=active&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI8aKWtOflxwIVAnceCh0kYApR#safe =active&tbm=isch&q=Necron+Overlord+WarScythe&imgrc=B8s-AXK02RiTZM%3A

Objectives: You are a reaper. A former Necromancer yourself, you pay off your sentence by serving your god. With a tireless body of steel and aracana, you hunt down other necromancers like your former self with unwavering determination and fury. Liches, Undead, Necromancers, and those who defile the natural order of things beware, for the Steel Reaper has come for your soul. And it always collects.

You can swap that fluff around all you want. A holy warrior is inside, serving his god after death for glory. Whatever you want for your character. As for the classes...

You want to be able to stride right through any spells or defenses a Lich or Necromancer might have put into place to protect them. You need excellent saves and the ability to tank through any damage coming your way. Furthermore, to combat casters and such, you need to be a caster yourself. So you need to have at least 1 class be a full caster. Cleric or Sorcerer or Wizard are your best bets. Your second class should be a melee one. This class you can dip into and out of.

If you have excellent stats I recommend the Paladin for a few levels, grabbing that bonus to saves and auras. In Pathfinder you can go straight fighter and grab the feats that let you reroll saves and power attack. If you can make the monk work, pitch the scythe as a monk weapon, you will have excellent saves, stupid fast movement, unarmored defenses, ontop of being a cleric. Better if you can go Tome of Battle and grab Crusader.

Lastly, the Ranger isn't a bad idea, focused on Undead and hunting. A relentless hunter who you can't escape.

Picture it. This "remorseless, relentless machine coming to terminate your undead life and collect your soul." The reputation is built up.

A hero in black. That if something is terrorizing the natural order of the land, you step in to balance the scales. Peasants whisper your name in their stories. Warning their children of what happens if a creature reaches to high to circumvent death. The metal man comes. He balances scales, gives justice, and disappears into the night. That if you are captured or at siege with undead, pray to the deity of death, and just maybe, the Reaper Man will come and save you.

[Strigon]

Sounds like a really determined Inevitable, crossed with The Doctor...

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'm working on a neutral or potentially lawful neutral character for a campaign and hoping you guys can help me out with ideas. The basic premise is for the character to be devoted to the natural order of things, viewing death as a sacred and natural end to life. He'd be opposed to undead, viewing them as abominations that disrupt the natural order, but he'd also be against resurrection. To him, the dead are meant to stay dead, and bringing them back in any form is wrong.

On a neutral character, this just screams Druid 20 to me. Use Bone Talisman (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20040721a) with Unguent of Timelessness on the spell foci so it lasts 365 times longer than normal, the foci can be reused indefinitely and the unguent never wears off. If you're not into Wild Shaping, consider the Deadly Hunter (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druid) variant, picking Arcane Hunter (CM) and then Undead, and probably Aberrations and Magical Beasts as your favored enemies. You should also trade Ride for Tumble as a class skill (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a), and of course always take the Dead Levels (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20061013a) class features.

For a gestalt character, if you keep Wild Shape then you should probably pick up Warshaper and Master of Many Forms,with a lot of one and two level dips before. One level of this Ranger variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger) will get you Fast Movement, and you can still get the Undead favored enemy. You'll want to dip Cloistered Cleric to power DMM: Persist, the Druid list has Bite of the Werecreature and plenty of other spells to persist. If you only have one Cleric level then the Undeath domain (Extra Turning, Detect Undead at 1st) is easily fitting for an enemy of the undead, and if you're LN the Planning domain is fitting and gets you Extend Spell. Trade your free Knowledge domain for Knowledge Devotion, and put at least one rank in all of those for a guaranteed +1 to attack and damage. I would also dip two levels of (Unarmed) Swordsage or (variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#monkVariantFightingSty les)) Monk for the AC bonus.

If you swap Wild Shape for the Deadly Hunter variant, I would probably go with either Cloistered Cleric 5/ Morninglord 1/ Radiant Servant 5/ Morninglord 9, or Cloistered Cleric 6/ Radiant Servant 5/ Sacred Exorcist 9. This gives you sufficient spells to be a dedicated caster if you want, with plenty of blasting and crowd controls from Druid and your domains (if you get the spontaneous domain casting variant in PH2), and plenty of utility and buffs from both classes. You'll have enough buffs that you won't even need wild shape to be a powerful melee combatant if you want to go that route. You can use Greater Turning to destroy undead outright.

[AvatarVecna]

Worth mentioning: according to the "X stat to Y bonus" thread, Warforged Paladins can take an ACF to change the Will save base stat from Wis to Con; you could also take the Steadfast Determination feat for that for anybody (as well as not auto-failing from a Natural 1 on a Fortitude save).

Also, Warforged Paladins are awesome, especially if they can find a way to either boost their Charisma or base their Divine Grace on something other than Cha.

[Twurps]

The 'death delver' (heroes of horror) has a bunch of fluff and some crunch that would fit very nicely.

It's a 10th level class with it's own progression, but only up to lvl4 spells. So T1 is definitely out the window.

[Andry]

Kelemvor cleric with Doomguide PRC from Faiths and Pantheons.

[Sqmach]

Thanks for the help guys, looking through these options now, but feel free to keep them coming if you have anything to add.

[Valwyn]

Delay Death (SpC) and Hibernate (Frost) could be handy for keeping people alive without resorting to Raise Dead and the like.

Kelemvor from the Forgotten Realms setting is a LN god of death with the Repose domain (similar to the Death domain but less Evil).

Bone Knight is a nice class from Eberron (Five Nations) that could fit the flavor. Paladins even get some bonus stuff.

Ranger 6/Death Delver 6/Bone Knight 8 lets you be any alignment except Good (but you wanted to be LN, so that's not a problem) and gives you a bunch of goodies. A human with Int 10 can meet all the skills requirements if he takes Knowledge Devotion (Religion) at level 3. Other than that, all your feats are free, so you can take the build wherever you want. If you focus on Cha, you can use your rebuke attempts to power divine feats (Animal Devotion for buffing, Divine Metamagic (Persist) for 24/7 Death Ward/Freedom of Movement). Your spell selection is rather limited, so be warned of that. (This is actually a build I've been toying with, but never really tested. It's probably pretty weak in power terms, but I like the fluff.)

[The Viscount]

I'm also for druid, especially working off of the Children of Winter sect in Eberron. There are some related things for it, it's definitely death centered. Wee Jas is a prime example of a god of death who does not like undead, and Ruby Knight Vindicator is a solid choice. If you're interested in the roguish avenue, assassin and skullclan hunter are good.

Deadgrim's another class dedicated to hunting undead, but it's got some weirdness.

[Thurbane]

Crusader (or whatever) into Death Delver, then PrC into an undead slaying PrC?

Knowledge Devotion and pump ranks in Knowledge Religion.

Libris Mortis has a few decent "Undead Slayer" feats.

[TheBrassDuke]

Nah, hear me out on this one.

Race: Warforged or Android for Fluff

Weapon of Choice: Scythe or

Mini:https://www.google.com/search?q=Necron+Lord+Scythe&safe=active&biw=1366&bih=667&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI8aKWtOflxwIVAnceCh0kYApR#safe =active&tbm=isch&q=Necron+Overlord+WarScythe&imgrc=B8s-AXK02RiTZM%3A

Objectives: You are a reaper. A former Necromancer yourself, you pay off your sentence by serving your god. With a tireless body of steel and aracana, you hunt down other necromancers like your former self with unwavering determination and fury. Liches, Undead, Necromancers, and those who defile the natural order of things beware, for the Steel Reaper has come for your soul. And it always collects.

You can swap that fluff around all you want. A holy warrior is inside, serving his god after death for glory. Whatever you want for your character. As for the classes...

You want to be able to stride right through any spells or defenses a Lich or Necromancer might have put into place to protect them. You need excellent saves and the ability to tank through any damage coming your way. Furthermore, to combat casters and such, you need to be a caster yourself. So you need to have at least 1 class be a full caster. Cleric or Sorcerer or Wizard are your best bets. Your second class should be a melee one. This class you can dip into and out of.

If you have excellent stats I recommend the Paladin for a few levels, grabbing that bonus to saves and auras. In Pathfinder you can go straight fighter and grab the feats that let you reroll saves and power attack. If you can make the monk work, pitch the scythe as a monk weapon, you will have excellent saves, stupid fast movement, unarmored defenses, ontop of being a cleric. Better if you can go Tome of Battle and grab Crusader.

Lastly, the Ranger isn't a bad idea, focused on Undead and hunting. A relentless hunter who you can't escape.

Picture it. This "remorseless, relentless machine coming to terminate your undead life and collect your soul." The reputation is built up.

A hero in black. That if something is terrorizing the natural order of the land, you step in to balance the scales. Peasants whisper your name in their stories. Warning their children of what happens if a creature reaches to high to circumvent death. The metal man comes. He balances scales, gives justice, and disappears into the night. That if you are captured or at siege with undead, pray to the deity of death, and just maybe, the Reaper Man will come and save you.

I love that.

But why not just go Druid?

[mastermisha1]

First thing that comes to mind is knight of the raven