I've been out of D&D for a long time, but getting involved in a new campaign, heavily weighted with undead. I'm playing a Paladin and the DM is allowing us choice of item. Not sure what to get considering the campaign type. He didn't indicate cost limits, and some person already received approval for Holy Composite Longbow+1 and Dwarven waraxe with bane (undead) and keen for examples. Thanks!
[RPG] a good item vs Undead in D&D 3.5
dnd-3.5e
Related Solutions
Book of Exalted deeds gives the template of the risen martyr and the deathless creature:
Deathless is a new creature type, describing creatures that have died but returned to a kind of spiritual life. They are similar in many ways to both living creatures and undead. However, while undead represent a mockery of life and a violation of the natural order of life and death, the deathless merely stave off the inevitability of death for a short time in order to accomplish a righteous purpose. While undead draw their power from the Negative Energy plane, the deathless are strongly tied to the Positive Energy plane, the birthplace of all souls. In fact, the deathless are little more than disincarnate souls, sometimes wrapped in material flesh, often incorporeal and hardly more substantial than a soul in its purest state.
Features
• 12-sided Hit Dice.
• Base attack bonus equal to 1/2 of total Hit Dice (as wizard).
• Good Will saves.
• Skill points equal to (4 + Int modifier, minimum 1) per Hit Die, with quadruple skill points for the first Hit Die.
- Traits
• 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, or ability drain. Immune to damage to its physical ability scores (Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution) as well as fatigue and exhaustion effects.
Unlike undead, the deathless are subject to energy drain. Like living creatures, deathless are harmed by negative energy and healed by positive energy.
• Immunity to any effect that requires a Fortitude save, except for energy drain attacks, effects that also work on objects, and harmless effects.
• Cannot use the run action.
• Uses Charisma modifier for Concentration checks.
• Not at risk of death from massive damage, but when reduced to 0 hp or less, it is immediately destroyed.
• Not affected by raise dead and reincarnate spells or abilities. Resurrection and true resurrection can affect the deathless if they are willing. These spells turn deathless creatures back into the living creatures they were before becoming deathless.
• Evil clerics can turn or destroy deathless creatures as good clerics turn or destroy undead. Good clerics and paladins can rebuke, command, or bolster deathless creatures as evil clerics rebuke, command, or bolster undead.
• Deathless creatures gain the same benefits from consecrate and hallow as undead do from desecrate and unhallow, and they are hindered by desecrate and unhallow as undead are by consecrate and hallow. Hide from undead and undeath to death also work against deathless.
Detect undead and deathwatch also reveal deathless, and allow the caster to distinguish deathless creatures from undead. Evil casters can be stunned by overwhelming auras of deathless creatures as good casters can be stunned by overwhelming undead auras. Use the “undead” line in the detect evil spell description when deathless are in the area of a detect good spell.
Deathless are healed by disrupt undead and damaged by unholy water as undead are by holy water.
Deathless are not affected by disrupting weapons. Spells that have greater than normal effect against undead creatures—including chill touch, magic stone, searing light, sunbeam, sunburst, and wall of fire—do not have these enhanced effects against deathless creatures. Deathless take only 1d6 points of damage per two caster levels from searing light. Spells such as command undead, control undead, create undead, create greater undead, and halt undead do not affect or create deathless creatures.
• Proficient with its natural weapons and any weapons mentioned in its entries.
• Proficient in whatever type of armor (light, medium, or heavy) it is described as wearing, as well as all lighter types. Deathless not listed as wearing armor are not proficient with armor.
• Deathless do not breathe, eat, or sleep.
The Next Big one is the EIDOLON From ghostwalk
This class sub's levels and is perfect for a GM to transform a living party member or bring one back from the dead as a new class with a mission.
There is also the RISEN MARTYR from the Book of Exalted Deeds page 68:
This class is perfect for the GM to grant a single level in cause it's a prestige class and the first level is the hardest to achieve.
If you feel up to adapting a system from an earlier edition, BECMI D&D had the War Machine rules for mass combat, and the Siege Machine extension to those rules for siege warfare, both available in the Rules Cyclopedia (available in PDF from dndclassics.com.)
It ought to be fairly simple to adapt as it's based mostly on things such as average hit dice and AC of troops, so you just need to make an adjustment for the inverted AC of that edition of the game.
Note that War Machine works at the unit/regiment level - imagine a map, with each unit (which could be hundreds or even thousands of troops) represented by a counter with it's own statistics, making it comparable to most historic battle diagrams (1st archers, 2nd archers, 1st Mounted Knights, and so forth), and is designed for play on a hex map of the area (although you could feasibly use a square grid, too.)
Best Answer
It depends whether you want to be a key damage dealer or not. (And how much $$ your DM is letting you have to equip.)
The Holy Avenger is a good choice that augments defense of the paladin and the entire party, so if you want to be a support/healer/defending type it's great.
If you want to deal damage, undead bane is great and cheap.
Holy actually isn't quite as good specifically against undead (and there are neutral undead, warning!) but if you're also going to be dealing with demons and devils and stuff has wider utility, and it bypasses "good" DR.
At mid to high levels most undead will be incorporeal and you will really, really need ghost touch. It's also nice and cheap. (You definitely want this on armor too)
Disruption is more useful at low levels. A DC 14 Will save is reasonably easy to make and it leaves you with zero damage enhancement. Better if you have lots of attacks (two weapon) or don't have good damage anyway and the chance of instakill is better (like a rogue with no damage bonus but high sneak attack).
So I'd tend to say "undead bane + ghost touch" for damage (+3 equiv), holy (+3 equiv) if your game isn't really going to be all about undead, and holy avenger if you can get away with it and want to be a support type.
If you're allowed the Magic Item Compendium and its glorious, glorious cheese, look at the Crystal of Screening (provides incorporeal touch protection), or Lifekeeping (protects against death effects).
In terms of weapons, there is a Divine Wrath weapon enchant that gives you +1d6 per point of CHA bonus at the cost of a turn undead attempt - your character style might dictate that fewer big punches are better than +2d6 on lots of punches. Ghost Strike probably isn't worth it. Sacred is a suboptimal mix of holy and undead bane, but you can put Sacred Burst atop it if it's your thing.
And truedeath crystals are a cheap way of getting an additional d6 of damage; their price doesn't up the "plusses cost" so if you're dealing with a high plus weapon, it's less expensive than adding more enchants and you can port it to later weapons you find that are "good but aren't ghost touch" for example.