Building a Gish Vampire Hunter

[Zarmina]

I'm trying to build a vampire hunting character, preferably a gish, but I'm having trouble picking feats and classes. I know divine spellcasting is the preferred way to combat undead, but I don't really want to go that route for flavor reasons. I'm looking into the Swiftblade prestige class and I'm hunting through Libris Mortis for feats.

Any suggestions? All books/custom material is welcome.

Edit: The character is a half-vampire human. (I know, really original.)

[The Cat Goddess]

Ranger with Nemisis Feat FTW. Being able to automatically know when the enemy (in your case, undead) is near, even if they're invisible/disguised/what-ever, is very important for a dedicated hunter

[HunterOfJello]

Nemesis is a must.

At least one level of ranger would give you favored enemy and tracking. That'd definitely be a good start.

I'd check out the Magic Item Compendium for special items that would be useful versus undead.

~

A level of Swordsage could get you the Hunter's Sense stance which gives you Scent. You could also grab the boost, Burning Blade, to add fire damage to an attack and Moment of Perfect Mind to roll a concentration check instead of a will save versus Dominate.

[Eldariel]

Interested in arcane spellcasting? 'cause that is indeed quite perfect for Vampire Slaying (and indeed, most things). Detecting Undead is childs' play with arcane magic, and you have lots of excellent offensive options against them. They are extremely weak against Disintegrate, for example. Use Smiting Spell and channel that through your sword for added style points.

But yeah, undead have poor Fort-saves, no Con (so pumping it is hard) and Disintegrate affects objects too and thus works on Undead. And they don't have Con so they don't get all that much HP either, making Disintegrate the perfect Undead Slayer spell. And a dusted Vampire isn't going to be going to gaseous form any time soon.


Indeed, instead of pumping them full of positive energy, just turn them to ash. Who needs you need the opposite power to destroy something? That's silly! All you need is sufficient power.

So yeah, Wizard 6/Swiftblade 9/Abjurant Champion 5 could indeed be excellent.