[3.5] Death Knight from Dragonlance CS

[Chrizzt]

Hello!

What do you think of the Death Knight Template from the Dragonlance Campaign Setting for 3.5? It is quite similar to the Death Knight from MM2, except that the Dragonlance DK gets the powerful Symbols and Power Words per Day (the more Level he has the more powerful he has available. Until say Level 13 he has only Power Word Blind, when he has a Character Level of 17 he can even use Power Word Death). In addition he has some Minor Spell-Like abilities. In the following I refer to the DL-CS-Deathknight, because I like the old-school-Deathknight Concepts with Powerwords and Symbols.

The problem with them is, however, that both versions have LA +5, which is quite problematic for a Melee Template that also loses it's HP-CON-Bonus due to being undead. The +5 LA makes the template extremly bad (at least if you want to play it as a PC). The bunch of resistance's can save many HP on one occassion, and none on the other...

I have thought about switching the LA+5 with 5 Racial Undead Hitdice. Undead Hitdice are quite weak compared to Dragon or Outsider, and the weak Base Attack Progression helps balancing it out for a melee character, who on the other hand needs the HP from the racial dice very badly.

The Problem with this is, however, that many abilities of the Death Knight (like access to more powerful Power Words or Spell Resistance) do greatly benefit from the HD-increase. On the other hand, once a Death Knight gets access to, say, Power Word Kill, he has a total Level (Class Levels and Hit Dice) of 17, when every full caster easily outshine any normal melee build. So, is it really unbalanced compared to other, even core-only, full caster builds?

What would you say?

[Morph Bark]

You could give it Improved Toughness as a bonus feat, or Unholy Toughness as an extra ability: Cha to hp instead of Con, like some powerful undead have.