Undead Characters

[Corlon]

I had some gift certificates from christmas, and was looking through the D&D books, and found Libris Mortis.

I like the book as a whole, and their explanations for how undead could work in a party are good, but when I hit the running of an undead PC there's just one problem: pretty much the lowest ecl (ghoul) is 8!

the 4 Hd and abilities would obviously have to take up 4 levels, maybe a tad more, but is eight levels really necessary?

What abilities do they get that would make it overpowered?

Are there any undead that we can use with lower, or possibly no ECL, as ECL's are really debilitating to spellcasters, making undead spellcasters pretty much a worthless endeavor.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Necropolitans from LM make good PCs. You must sacrifice a level to become one, but after that there's no ECL.

 

[Deset Gled]

No. An undead creature just plain gets too many abilities for them to be balanced in any way at a low level. The abilities are far beyond that of any core race. Take a look at all of the basic undead qualities (since you asked, I have bolded the abilities that make them overpowered):

Traits: An undead creature possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).
—No Constitution score.
—Darkvision out to 60 feet.
—Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).
—Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, and death effects.
—Not subject to critical hits, nonlethal damage, ability drain, or energy drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution), as well as to fatigue and exhaustion effects.
—Cannot heal damage on its own if it has no Intelligence score, although it can be healed. Negative energy (such as an inflict spell) can heal undead creatures. The fast healing special quality works regardless of the creature’s Intelligence score.
—Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save (unless the effect also works on objects or is harmless).
—Uses its Charisma modifier for Concentration checks.
—Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hit points or less, it is immediately destroyed.
—Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect undead creatures. These spells turn undead creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming undead.
—Proficient with its natural weapons, all simple weapons, and any weapons mentioned in its entry.
—Proficient with whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Undead not indicated as wearing armor are not proficient with armor. Undead are proficient with shields if they are proficient with any form of armor.
—Undead do not breathe, eat, or sleep.

Compare that to a human, who gets one bonus feat and an extra skill point at every level. Now, mayber LM has some special undead that don't have all these traits ( I haven't read it), but as it stands in the core rules, there is no way to balance an undead character at ECL 1.

A good alternative would be to create a racial class progression for an undead creature, like the ones presented in Savage Species.

 

[Darkness]

A good alternative would be to create a racial class progression for an undead creature, like the ones presented in Savage Species.

Libris Mortis does that.

Corlon, 8 levels of ghoul is if you want to become a ghast. A regular MM ghoul has only the abilities of the first 5 levels of the ghoul monster class in LM so the last 3 levels should be optional IMO.

 

[Shin Okada]

First, you can play a ghoul from the 1st-level, by using the monster class in LM P.35. So your ghoul can join in a lower level party.

Or, you can be a Gravetouched Ghoul in P.104 of LM. Now now racial HD and LA of +2.

When playing a monster spellcaster with racial HDs, Practiced Spellcaster feat (in Complete Divine and Complete Arcane) will help you. That will raise your caster level (only) +4, up to your total HD. For example, a Ghast 5th-level Sorcerer (equivalent of 13th-level character) with this feat now have caster level of 9. Its spell per day and spells known are still in 5th-level. But now it has somewhat playable caster level. And with it's high Cha, spell DCs are not bad.