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Salt_Crow
2009-05-01, 03:21 AM
Hey all ;)

For an upcoming campaign (with last Exalted 2e campaign ending in disaster XD) I decided to play a druid who believes that undeads and other negative energy-related creatures to be a natural part of the world. He is convinced that the world is too filled with creatures of positive energy (himself included, being alive and all) and wish to raise legions of undead to 'counterbalance' this.

DM's rather amused by this concept and since it's a short session and all allowed it as long as I could find 'legal' way for a druid to cast animate dead or whatnots.

So help me out, fellow playgrounders! How could a druid learn spells that are not normally in his spell list?

ECL 18 campaign and I'm willing to lose at most one caster level ;)

The druid is a warforged, if that helps.

TheCountAlucard
2009-05-01, 03:28 AM
Put ranks in UMD, buy a wand of animate dead?

Better yet, put no ranks in UMD, buy an Eternal wand of animate dead (Magic Item Compendium).

Rising Phoenix
2009-05-01, 03:31 AM
The Blighter prestige class from Complete Divine may be what you are looking for.

R.P.

Fishy
2009-05-01, 03:55 AM
Nightbringer Initiate from Faiths of Eberron, gives you darkness spells, Inflict Light Wounds, Enervation, and eventually gives you the ability to create Shadows.

And then there's Fell Animate. The traditional way to get Zombies is to bring someone to below 0 hp, and then coup-de-gras them with a Fell Animating cantrip. Druids don't natively have any damage-dealing cantrips, but Nightbringer Initiate qualifies you for Spontaneous Wounder, which I think lets you cast Inflict Minor Wounds. Wild Shape into something with teeth, deliver the touch spell as part of your natural attack, and instant zombie.

If that doesn't work, Produce Fell Animating Flame, which would be more efficient anyway. Set it up right, and you're getting your caster level in zombies from a 4th level spell.

Epinephrine
2009-05-01, 12:48 PM
Second the Blighter suggestion. Their wildshape is even that of a decaying, undead animal.

Tempest Fennac
2009-05-01, 12:53 PM
Nightbringer Initiate is on page 154 of
http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Feats.pdf (I'd recommend that over Blighter because it's easier to get then Blighter).

Nightbringer Initiate
[General]
(FoE p147)

Prequisites:
Ability to spontaneously
cast Summon Nature’s
Ally
Non-Good alignment

Effects:
Member of the Nightbringer Druidic Sect, who are connected with darkness, undead, & the plane of Mabar.
Hide & Move Silently become Druid class skills for you.
Add the following spells to your Druidic spell list:
1st: Inflict Light Wounds(PH p244) – Touch deals 1d8 damage +1 per level (max +5).
2nd: Darkness(PH p216) – 20’ radius of supernatural shadow.
3rd: Deeper Darkness(PH p217) – Object sheds supernatural shadow in 60’ radius.
4th: Enervation(PH p226) – Subject gains 1d4 negative levels.
5th: Summon Monster V(PH p287) – Summons an extraplanar creature to fight for you (Shadow Mastiff only)
6th: Planar Ally(PH p261) – As Planar Ally, Lesser, but up to 12 HD. (native of Mabar only)
7th: Control Undead(PH p214) – Undead don’t attack you while under your command.
8th: Create Greater Undead(PH p215) – Creates shadows, wraiths, spectres, or devourers (Shadows only).
9th: Gate(PH p234) – Connects two planes for travel or summoning (Mabar only)

Volkov
2009-05-01, 01:34 PM
Hey all ;)

For an upcoming campaign (with last Exalted 2e campaign ending in disaster XD) I decided to play a druid who believes that undeads and other negative energy-related creatures to be a natural part of the world. He is convinced that the world is too filled with creatures of positive energy (himself included, being alive and all) and wish to raise legions of undead to 'counterbalance' this.

DM's rather amused by this concept and since it's a short session and all allowed it as long as I could find 'legal' way for a druid to cast animate dead or whatnots.

So help me out, fellow playgrounders! How could a druid learn spells that are not normally in his spell list?

ECL 18 campaign and I'm willing to lose at most one caster level ;)

The druid is a warforged, if that helps.
The only thing as abhorrent to most druids as Necromancy and Undead are Abberations, however mummies are excempt from this as they are far and away the type of undead a druid is most likely to become, also abberant blood druids are becoming more and more common. Rather you should simply go on a rampage and send vast legions of animals, vermin, plants, elementals, abberations if possible, and magical beasts and slaughter on a unimaginable scale.

lsfreak
2009-05-01, 02:08 PM
That depends on the druid. Druids are all about life, but I can easily see one realizing the dominance of positive energy to negative energy and becoming extremely concerned. It upsets the balance of nature.

I second blighter and fel animate.

JoshuaZ
2009-05-01, 02:36 PM
Blighter isn't so good if you want to be reasonably optimized. So Fell Animate is probably your best bet for starters. Also Black Lore of Moil from Complete Arcane allows you to add negative energy damage to any damaging necromancy spell. Since druids have some damaging necromancy spells you can use that.

Salt_Crow
2009-05-01, 05:17 PM
Gee, thanks guys! I'm going with Nightbringer route ;)

Bayar
2009-05-01, 05:56 PM
Blighter isn't so good if you want to be reasonably optimized. So Fell Animate is probably your best bet for starters. Also Black Lore of Moil from Complete Arcane allows you to add negative energy damage to any damaging necromancy spell. Since druids have some damaging necromancy spells you can use that.

Seconding this.

Maerok
2009-05-01, 08:10 PM
Walker in the Waste! Good for druid (they get all the nifty Sandstorm spells, really). You become undead and get all sorts of sweet arid powers.

Their philosophy seems similar. Very neutral ones would want to preserve the world in salt and sand, while a more evil one (or misguided) would want to spread the sands.

Chronos
2009-05-01, 08:54 PM
Better yet, put no ranks in UMD, buy an Eternal wand of animate dead (Magic Item Compendium).First of all, Eternal Wands require that the user be an arcane spellcaster, so you'd still need UMD. Second, you can't make an eternal wand of any spell with a costly material component.

Zaq
2009-05-02, 02:43 PM
What's more important, the necromancy, or the druid? I'm just spitballing here, haven't put a lot of thought into it, but maybe it'd be easier to start with a more necromantically-aligned class and try to add druid capabilities, rather than start with a druid and try to add necromantic capabilities. Remember that your character is what they believe they are; Miko didn't need levels in Samurai to be a samurai, and you don't need levels in Druid to be a druid.

Eh, on second thought, it'd be very hard to really get all of a druid's crazy strong abilities on a non-druid, but you could at least try. I'm imagining you start as a sorcerer... Some judicious use of Improved Familiar and the more subtle familiar-buff spells can mimic, if not really approximate, an animal companion (or Wild Cohort, from the WotC site)... Polymorph, if used with restraint, can be sort of like wild shape... and I'm a firm believer in the fact that sorcerers who have a good reason shouldn't be limited solely to the sorcerer spell list, as long as the Dm and the player work together to achieve the desired result. Then you could take all the fun necromancy spells you want, and still dress in vines and live in the woods and call yourself a druid.

Eh. Probably not the best idea. Maybe some prestige class that adds spells or SLAs to your repertoire? Master of Shrouds would be good if it didn't have that pesky "rebuke undead" requirement.

If you don't mind theurging (eeeeew), Arcane Heirophant nicely combines arcane and druidic casting. You could qualify with one level of Dread Necromancer as long as you had Heighten Spell and Versatile Spellcasting. Some DMs frown on such shenanigans, but at the same time, it's a pretty suboptimal option anyway (especially compared to straight druid) and two feats is a pretty big cost, so you might be able to make it fly. Your alignment would be restricted to TN, NE, or CN, but from what I gather it sounds like you want a TN approach anyway, right?

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-05-02, 02:54 PM
Walker in the Waste! Good for druid (they get all the nifty Sandstorm spells, really). You become undead and get all sorts of sweet arid powers.

Their philosophy seems similar. Very neutral ones would want to preserve the world in salt and sand, while a more evil one (or misguided) would want to spread the sands.Second this. Sandstorm is a great supplement, and that's a pretty flavorful class. Don't remember how balanced it is, but you're already a Druid. Balance can go boop itself.