The Ghoul as a PC - ideas?

[Moe Ronalds]

There's two ghoul stereotypes that I can think of:
the ravenous ghoul and the blue blooded ghoul.

The blue blooded ghoul can be much more sinister. These
guys are essentially nobility that feast upon the homeless,
the unwanted, or criminals. Unlike the ravenous ghoul, these
guys are much more likely to use silverware on their meals
and/or prepare the meals intricately. It is not unusual for
paralyzed victims to sit at the table as dinner is served in
multiple courses. Sometimes this ghoulishness
comes in the form of a family curse, and sometimes new ghouls
are created by the blue bloods inviting guests over for dinner.
These creatures are generally well-fed, and do not succumb to
the irrational behavior of their ravenous cousins, but they do require
a steady supply of food to 'live'.

Though not officially a ghoul, Hannibal Lecter is a good example of this
stereotype. He even does the paralyzing trick at one point...

There was a Tales from the Crypt episode at one point
about this sort of ghoul as well. They formed an interesting (but not
very intelligently named) organization for taking street people in and
finding them new homes: the Grateful Homeless, Outcasts, and Unwanteds
Layaway Society.

Dag nabbit. Now I really really *really* wanna run a low-magic victorian campaign with a line of ghoul nobles. Bad simplicity! Bad bad! No cookie!

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Not quite on-topic, but you might want to look over the 3.5 Ghoul and adjust the ECL for your PC.

They lose four Charisma from 3.0 and no longer get control over Ghouls they create. There's one in my campaign now that I have set at 2 HD + 2 LA.

 

[diaglo]

ghouls are undead.

i think you are confusing this idea with the Ghoul Nation notion from the 2ed era. some adventures appeared in Dungeon Magazine and iirc an article in Dragon.

 

[AnthonyJ]

First: 'depravity' of having no soul.

This could mean any of several things; the only thing it definately means is that if you're killed that's it, you're dead. Unfortunately, most other mythology about what lack of a soul might mean basically boil down to 'the character is an evil monster with no free will'. Even if ghouls are normally soulless, a PC ghoul should not be.

As for the hunger, depends on how generous you want to be. I'd say a will save, DC 10 +1/day without eating (a substantial amount of a sentient creature), to avoid going berserk and attacking available food sources, where 'food sources' are sentient creatures.

Yes, this means a ghoul will have to eat people. It doesn't necessarily have to kill them, but it's pretty hard to be a ghoul and avoid being evil.

 

[Farland]

THat sounds like an awesome idea for a campaign. I am fascinated by ghouls and think that it would be cool but extremely difficult to play one as a PC. Sorry I didn't amswer the question; just wanted to chime in.

 

[Savage Wombat]

I had a ghoul NPC in my game recently chatting with another PC about "what it was like".

Note that the transformation from "normal human" to "normal ghoul" gives one STR +2, DEX +4, INT +2, WIS +4, and CHA +2, along with everything else.

So I had the ghoul explain that in addition to being stronger, faster, tougher, and more deadly - the expansion of their mind was inhumanly wonderful. An "unripened fruit" (thanks Lovecraft!) just can't imagine what being a ghoul feels like.

And then there's the whole "eating carrion" thing ...

"All things are designed by their creation to most enjoy doing what they were designed for. Humans are designed to reproduce. Ghouls are designed to feed."

Vampires aren't the only ones who can enjoy being undead...

 

[Aeolius]

There is also the added benefit of being able to dwell where many cannot. Add the aquatic subtype you your ghoul and suddenly you have a lacedon.

 

[Kaji]

Another interesting angle if you use the 3.5 template and treat the PC as undead is all the great problems with clerics and holy symbols this presents. You may wish to give the PC a bonus feat to resist turning (I think something like this already exist, don't recall where I saw it) so that he/she won't be destroyed everytime the villian is a cleric, but WILL be susecptible to cowering in fear when presented with the might of the gods. I can see a scenario where the character spends a healthy amount of paranoid energy protecting himself from those "blasted holies", even more amusing if you have one on the party.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Ghouls have Turn Resistance +2-- basically, you turn as a critter with HD equal to your total character level.

Unless you're way out of your league, there's no way an enemy Cleric will destroy you, and being forced to cower should be relatively rare.

 

[glass]

Ghouls are Intelligent and IMC not 'actually' undead (they are soul-less) and mostlt insane and driven by unrelenting hunger.
However some Ghouls have strong enough will to control their hunger and these I've used as NPCs in the past (point buy is great when Con is a dump stat!)

Sorry if I am being obtuse, but if they are not undead, how is Con a dump stat?

Same applies to Kaji's turnng question.

glass.