Jackal Lord (I have a real soft spot for these guys as opponents when I DM):
- Medium Monstrous Humanoid (8 RHD - full BAB, 2 good saves, 2 skill points/level)
- 30 ft speed: OK.
- +4 natural AC: OK-ish.
- Bite 1d10, 2 claws 1d4: quite high bite damage for medium creature.
- Alternate form: Polymorph into a wolf at will - not bad; useful for a 50ft movement rate, if nothing else.
- Curse of the jackal: 1/day save or suck which can only be undone by limited wish, miracle or wish. Decent attack option.
- Dominate animal: very situational, but not bad if you can pull it off.
- SLAs: at will - cat's grace, change self (disguise self?), detect magic, detect good, suggestion; 3/day shadow walk. Decent set of SLAs - mostly low level, but some good ones there.
- Spells: cast as a cleric equal to your RHD. You don't get turn/rebuke (at least until you take a cleric level) and your domain choices are restricted, but still great.
- Summon jackals: 3/day summon 8HD of dogs; not great at your level of play, but can be used to spring traps etc.
- Darkvision 60 ft.
- DR 10/magic: very commonly overcome, but still useful against some monstrous/animal foes.
- Str +2, Dex +4, Con +4, Int +2, Wis +8, Cha +6: net +26, no penalties , and +8 to your casting stat!
- Decent racial skill list (mostly social and perception), but notably lacking Concentration for a caster.
- Proficient with medium armor, and MWP with the scimitar.
Humanoid in form, and can speak - no issues with gear or class progression.
I don't think there can be much argument that these guys are better than an 8th level cleric: you miss out on ACFs/sub-levels, domain choice, and tuen rebuke (but you get a turn/rebuke pool with your first level of cleric). You get a bunch of additional attacking, utility and defensive abilities, and great ability mods, including +8 to your casting stat.
How much is all of that worth? The books says +4. I'm happy to still be able to get 9ths by ECL 20, so I'll say LA +3 for now...