Scaling a vampire ala savage species rules?

[flamewolf393]

So a player will be slowly turning into a vampire (both for in game reasons and for metagame balance) and I was wanting some help designing a level progression for it. Part of the issue is how front loaded vampires are due to the undead template and the *you cant easily kill it* problem, I feel like there still needs to be a base +LA even without any of the further vampire powers. A total +LA of 8 should make about 10 character levels right? Not really sure how to split up the rest of the abilities.

*Edited for dumbass moment. Confused LA and CR -.-

[JyP]

Check here : http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030824a - gaining vampire template in mid campaign

[Malimar]

So a player will be slowly turning into a vampire (both for in game reasons and for metagame balance) and I was wanting some help designing a level progression for it. Part of the issue is how front loaded vampires are due to the undead template and the *you cant easily kill it* problem, I feel like there still needs to be a base +LA even without any of the further vampire powers. A total +LA of 8 should make about 10 character levels right? Not really sure how to split up the rest of the abilities.
A total LA of +8, with no RHD, is 8 monster class levels, not 10. I don't know why you would think 10, you maybe should reread the philosophy behind monster classes in Savage Species -- once you're done with a monster class, you should be identical to a character who had simply started as that monster.

No need to create one for yourself, JyP linked to the official one.

But vampire is probably the single most famously over-LA'd creature in the game. My house rule is to halve all LAs above 1, which seems to result in much better balance with class levels. (Inevitability went even further and pegged vampire at a proper LA of +3 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=22477494&postcount=564).) So if you wanted good balance, you'd compress that monster class down into 4 or 3 levels (4 is easier to compress to from 8, just give two WotC-levels worth of features each actual level).

I also allow characters to take class levels interspersed with monster levels so long as they never have more class levels than monster levels until their monster progression is complete, which somewhat eases the obnoxiousness of not being able to really customize your character much.

[NomGarret]

You can also tack undead racial HD onto those levels if you want to spread it out over a larger percentage of the character. It’s still a worse chassis than whatever other class they’d be taking, but it keeps most of the base numbers in line.