What melee class would most benefit JuJu Zombie? (Think Charisma, please)

[EpicFail]

Trying to generate an NPC that became Ju Ju Zombie at 1st Level:

pfsrd wrote:

" As undead, juju zombies use their Charisma modifiers to determine bonus hit points (instead of Constitution).

Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +2. A juju zombie has no Constitution score; as an undead, it uses its Charisma in place of Constitution when calculating hit points, Fortitude saves, or any special ability that relies on Constitution. "

This guy would have a good Charisma not just for defense, but so he can play well others and have his own devoted non-undead gang. He would take great pride in maxed out Perform: Singing. He's very sophisticated, likable and worldly. His beef with the players is over business, nothing personal or mindless about it.

I'm looking for the best fit for a full BAB melee tank.

So which melee classes if any reward a high Charisma undead? Remember they don't get any morale bonuses.

[Deadmanwalking]

Paladin or more likely Antipaladin are the obvious choices, but come with some very specific baked-in flavor.

Assuming you don't want to go that route, Swashbucklers (or, for better offense, Daring Champion Cavaliers) get some nice-ish benefits off Charisma, as do Ninjas.

The Medium, from the Occult Classes, is also a Charisma caster, and if going Champion focused, a very solid melee character. There's also some very nice villain potential there with the ability to be a combat badass while fighting the PCs and then, when he's not expecting a fight, dabble in skills or spells he otherwise lacks. there's also nice thematic synergy with Juju zombies and a voodoo-esque 'possessed by spirits' Class. This is likely the one I'd go with. It's not technically Full BAB, but it is in practice (a +4 bonus to attacks and +6 damage and a bonus attack on top of mid-BAB, all by 8th level will do that).

The Unchained Barbarian doesn't actually use morale bonuses, and if you imported that rage mechanic to Bloodrager (easy enough to do) Bloodrager would be an excellent possibility as well.

It's also worth noting that Inspire Courage's main bonus isn't Morale. Bard's still probably not a good class choice, because so many of their other bonuses are, but I felt it worth noting.

[Avoron]

Monster Codex wrote:

Undead Barbarian An undead creature with the ability to enter a rage gains the morale bonuses from rage despite being immune to morale effects. The bonus to Constitution from the rage applies to an undead creature's Charisma instead.

So bloodrager and skald could both work quite well. You could even pull off a paladin/bloodrager multiclass without too much trouble.

[EpicFail]

Anti-Paladin is very tempting. I hadn't thought of that because because evil itself wasn't a big deal with this guy and he certainly wasn't gonna be chaotic. But I'll consider it. I'll have to look into Swashbuckler and Daring Champion.

I had ruled out Barbarian because of the morale bonus. Thanks Avoran! With the crazy amounts of archetypes, I think that's where this guy probably land.

Thanks you two for very sound advice.

[Major_Blackhart]

Charisma based martials, of them my favs are Daring Champion Cav (even regular Cav is pretty damn good as a Charisma martial) & Bloodrager.

However, Fighter can also be a good choice provided you pick the right archetype and feat combination.

[My Self]

Consider the Insinuator Antipaladin archetype. It's weaker than a straight CE Antipaladin, but most notably can be any shade of Evil, not just CE. It's the selfish variant of the Antipaladin, as opposed to the murderous version.

An Arcane Duelist Bard could also do well. Bards provide surprisingly few Morale boosts from performance- the only one I can name right now pops up at 15th level.

[Arachnofiend]

My Self wrote:

Consider the Insinuator Antipaladin archetype. It's weaker than a straight CE Antipaladin, but most notably can be any shade of Evil, not just CE. It's the selfish variant of the Antipaladin, as opposed to the murderous version.

I strongly disagree that the Insinuator is weaker than the base Antipaladin; getting a selfish version of Lay On Hands is way better than Touch of Corruption and the AP spell list is so bad that getting combat feats instead is honestly an upgrade.

[My Self]

In general, yes, but this is an undead creature we're talking about. Touch of Corruption becomes more versatile, and undead are immune to most of what Lay On Hands removes. Plus, this is a person who became a zombie at 1st level, so unless we're seeing 5th level+ characters, spells are actually the stronger choice because you can cast Inflict Light Wounds from a wand without too much investment. The biggest mechanical advantage the Insinuator has at low levels on the regular Antipaladin is the ability to smite any alignment, maybe followed by the bonus temporary HP from smiting. The regular Antipaladin has more damage, a more specific detect spell, and better AC on smites. However, flavor-wise, the Insinuator is much more palatable than the CE regular Antipaladin.