Making Darakhul! Need help with natural attack class

[inaliz]

Hey guys! My friend is running a sort of underdark campaign where we get to be greater Darakhul. Here is the link http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/darakhul-cr-2-k p

Basically I want to fully utilize all of the stock benefits of being Darakhul. Which is some really awesome natural attack abilities. We start at level 2. I'm trying to figure out which class combo would take the most advantage of these abilities. I found a few great natural attack threads but since I get to be Darakhul I figured I would make a new one. We also already have a druid in the group for magic fang.

Melee: A darakhul grows a heavy jaw, powerful enough to crush bones to powder, as well as claws able to burrow through the earth or shred flesh. It retains all the natural weapons, manufactured weapon attacks, and weapon proficiencies of the base creature. A darakhul gains a bite and two claw attacks if it does not already have them. These natural attacks deal damage one dice higher than indicated for the creature's size.

Darakhul fever: bite—injury; save Fortitude DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Cha modifier; onset 1 day; effect 1d6 Con and 1d3 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves.

A creature that dies while infected with darakhul fever must make an adjustment check (see sidebar). If its check is high enough, it rises as a darakhul rather than as a standard ghoul within an hour. A darakhul is a free-willed undead. A creature that rises as a standard ghoul or ghast is controlled by the darakhul whose fever infected it.

Those hit by a darakhul's natural weapons must succeed on a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 HD + Charisma ability modifier) or be paralyzed for 1d4+1 rounds. Elves are immune to this paralysis.

Feats: A darakhul retains the feats it had in life. It gains Iron Will, Multiattack, and Lightning Reflexes as bonus feats, as long as the base character meets the prerequisites and doesn't already have these feats. If it already has Iron Will or Lightning Reflexes, the darakhul gains improved versions of these feats.

At first I was thinking fighter for the bonus feats but after reading the natural attack threads...

I really have no race/class preference, just want to maximize the use of the natural attack bonuses. I was originally thinking troglodyte, but pretty much all races are allowed.

[Suthainn]

Classes that can stack well with natural attacks in general are those who posses a lot of bonuses to hit/damage, to take advantage of the multiple attacks at low levels.

Examples would be Ranger (favoured enemy if you know you'll be facing a lot of a certain creature type plus they have the NA fighting style which is full of feats that will help), Bard (Archaeologist and Fates favoured trait & Lingering performance gives you a bonus to pretty much everything all day essentially), Paladin (Smite, though from the sounds of it that's probably out for this campaign), Barbarian (Rage, in fact anything that increases strength ties in really well with multiple NA, such as Eldritch Heritage Orc/Abyssal).

From a purely mechanical p.o.v. a pretty powertul build, if it suits something you'd like is Bard (Archaeologist) 1 then into NA weapon style Ranger for the furture levels. Take Saving Finale as a level 1 spell, Fates Favoured trait and Lingering Performance then start kicking ass.

Presuming you still pick a starting race I'd go for human and build something like this to 11th level.

Bard (Archaeologist) 1 - Feat: Lingering Performance, Focused Study: Skill Focus (Survival)
Ranger 1 - Favoured Enemy 1 (Aberrations, Magical Beasts or Undead all probably all good choices, ask your GM for advice)
Ranger 2 - Feat: Power Attack, Style Feat (Natural Attacks): INW (Bite or Claws)
Ranger 3 - Favoured Terrain (Underground)
Ranger 4 - Feat: Eldritch Heritage (Orc Bloodline)
Ranger 5 - Favoured Enemy 2
Ranger 6 - Feat: (Your choice), Style Feat: Eldritch Claws or INW (whichever you didn't take at Ranger 2)
Ranger 7 - Focused Study: Skill Focus (Your choice)
Ranger 8 - Feat: (Your choice)
Ranger 9 -
Ranger 10 - Favoured Enemy 3, Feat: Improved Eldritch Heritage, Style Feat: Imp. Vital Strike (Combat style lets you skip the requirements)

The only requirement of this build is Cha 15 (for Imp. EH) and you'll want a good charisma anyway since undead hp are based off of that.

At 11th+ if you're required to move/attack (which can become a lot more common as flying/fast enemies become more common) you take a move action then Imp. Vital Strike with your Bite for serious damage (with Imp. Nat. Weapon buffing a Bite it would hit for 6d6 before you even include spells that would increase the damage dice, hell, with Strongjaw up an Imp. Vital Strike Bite would hit for *12d6*).

You already have a couple of free feats to pick whatever you want (if Leadership is allowed probably go for that at 7th), perhaps Improved Initiative (you hit hard and often, going first can be a big advantage) or Improved Unarmed Strike since you already have multiattack, once you start getting iterative attacks mix the unarmed ones (kicks, headbutts, slams, etc) in with NA for a ridiculous number of attacks per round all hitting super hard (at 11th level you'd be doing 2 unarmed and 3 NAs in a full attack, all buffed with Luck, high Str and possibly Favoured Enemy, you will *destroy* stuff). You're stacking a lot of buffs on hit and damage, plus since you're attacking at full BAB with all natural attacks the penalty from Power Attack will barely be noticed. Extra strength from the Orc bloodline is great (grab a Robe of Arcane Heritage to get the full +4 str right away at 11th).

Normally I'd steer clear of Improved Natural Weapon as it's a small increase, but with the Ranger spells that increase NA damage dice and a druid as well plsu your natural dice increase for the template you're going to be able to get some pretty significant buffs to those and the extra dice gets you into the multiple D6 damages that much quicker.

Favoured Terrain will essentially be up all the time I'd guess which is great and at Ranger 4 you get either a companion to help flank or you can buff everyone else vs your favoured enemies (I'd probably pick companion personally). The classes actually can be fluffed to fit quite well as it happens, an explorer of tombs who finds something he can't handle, dies and returns as a Darakhul, his bestial undead nature comes to the fore and he becomes a predator, hunting the darkness underground.

[inaliz]

Paladin is out, but anti paladin is available and has been suggested to compliment the group. Thanks for the huge reply. I guess we are actually going to be fighting a lot above ground. Raiding villages and such. So I'm not sure how consistent favored enemy and terrain will be.

[Suthainn]

Given that you get multiple of both, it's not really any different than other campaigns I'd guess. Both are very versatile and work really well with the Natural attacks and Combat style still.

That said, Bard (Archaeologist)/Anti Paladin also works really well, pretty much keep everything the same except swap Ranger levels for AP, you'll have insane saves (between Unholy Resilience and Saving Finale you'll probably never fail a save), Smite works as a great replacement for Favoured Enemy and Eldritch Heritage is still just as powerful.