Character Concept Tossup

[Fax Celestis]

So right now, I'm considering one of two characters for a game, the first being a Spectral Watcher Paladin and the second being a Ghost Hexblade. Spectral Watchers are basically Deathless ghosts and appear in the BoED.

What I'm torn between is which one has more merit from both a background/story standpoing and a mechanical standpoint. Both are very Cha-centric, deriving the save DCs of their template abilities from their Cha scores. Both receive Cha-to-saves and Cha-to-AC-as-Deflection. Thematically, I find that the hexblade's abilities would work better with a ghost than the paladin's with the spectral watcher: hexblade curse and dark companion both are in-line with your typical ghost's abilities.

Ghost hexblade would also allow me to take some levels in Ephemeral Exemplar (LM), which would boost my ghostly qualities somewhat.

What do I go with?

[Valairn]

Do you have a particular preference? Because it seems to me you are already leaning in the direction of hexblade.

[Fax Celestis]

Do you have a particular preference? Because it seems to me you are already leaning in the direction of hexblade.

If it appears that way, it is because the mechanics appear to support the hexblade more than the paladin. I could be wrong: it could just be my newly-acquired Libris Mortis getting to me.

[Idea Man]

I personally like hexblades better. Cooler spells, more dark warrior flavor. There's a fourth level spell that class gets that is basically a HD per level shadow battle companion, which I've used to great effect in one of my campaigns (hexblade bladesinger; it just had to be done).

It looks like you intend for this to be a foe to fight, so a paladin might be at a disadvantage against a non-evil group (of course, if he's an ally for the group...). Of course, that means you could add a level or two to keep the CR where it should be.

[Lemur]

Ephemeral Exemplar doesn't strike me as being particularly appealing as it doesn't give you anything special, but ghosts seem like they're better than sacred watchers due to their special abilities.

I guess I'd want to know more about what this character is going to be doing, and what sort of things they'd be doing/fighting.

[mabriss lethe]

I'll always root for hexblade over a paladin. they're so much more fun and capable of an astounding level of mayhem in the right hands.