Ideas for a lvl 5 zombie apocalypse character (3.5)

[fracas]

Great options guys. I like the PH2 ACF for cleric, but what the point of applying it to the healing domain? I can convert my spells to heals anyway.

EDIT: you did link me to the item familiar rules. My bad. Request deleted.

I'm also wondering about favored soul vs cleric. Seems to me like cleric's defining advantage is DMM/persistent buff abuse, which is nice but won't be horribly powerful until later levels. Also, at the moment we can't buy any items over 800gp due to limited resources (we can start with better equipment using WBL but not purchase in-game) - so no crazy nightstick shenanigans.

Favored soul, on the other hand, meets or beats the cleric in pretty much everything aside from casting and DMM. Spontaneous healing isn't that much better than carrying a wand of cure light until I get Heal for massive undead nuking. FS also gets that huge pile of spells per day which are actually useful with the amount of combat we routinely see between rests. Tack on Pal2 and Mnk1 and it'll have ridiculous defense against everything but touch attacks. Actually... does the Monk AC/Wis to AC bonus apply to touch attacks? Air race template would keep me from drowning but no need for armor would actually make me decently mobile. Tempting. I don't suppose there's any way to get those crazy save bonuses and such without losing caster levels via ACFs or whatnot?

EDIT: Warforged vs Air race. Hmm... Warforged is obviously less cheesy since the air race is something for nothing whereas warforged makes you lose the human feat in exchange for nice defenses. I'd lean toward warforged if for no other reason than to avoid cheese. Also, we may be hitting the underdark soon and I don't really want -2 saves vs duergar or umber hulks or whatever is waiting for us there...

What book is Binder in?

If you want a really weird tank, what about a Tomb-Tainted monk/dread necromancer with Ascetic Mage? Charisma to AC instead of full plate is not a bad thing, and Tomb-Tainted Soul means that you are healed by negative energy like an undead, so Charnel Touch pulls you back to full HP out of combat no problem.

Is this a forum game or a real life game?

Real life game. Where do I find Tomb-Tainted Monk and Ascetic Mage? Cha to AC sounds great - like I said, I'd like to avoid the heavy metal approach if possible. What's Charnel Touch?

Where is Dragonfire Adept? If the invocations are cha-based perhaps it would mesh well with Favored Soul/Paladin?

Thanks all!