Necromancer help 3.5

[Darkaurora00]

I am thinking about making a necromancer (wizard specialist) and would like your advice as to what is good and bad for this type of character model. Any advice is helpful to me, even negative advice that is explained.

I plan on playing this girl solo if that would help, and also plan on making her innocent for the most part. She'll be following the goddess Evening Glory and will hopefully have a plot hook on why she is a necromancess.

She won't be making a lot of undead to follow her, maybe two or three tops, but she will be both using the soul/damaging spells and maybe unleahing weak undead on her enemies on the fly.

Any ideas? for an example I was thinking about making her a Necromancer/Pale Master, or maybe not if spell stitched undead are allowed. all info is appreciated

[Optimystik]

Have you considered the Dread Necromancer class from Heroes of Horror? They get all the best necromancy stuff from Wizards and Pale Masters, plus all the undead creation abilities of a cleric, and becomes a lich for free at level 20.

[Darkaurora00]

yes I have heard of the dread necromancer ^^ but sadly I do not think of them in a positive light. I have played as one before and I have to say that it was unpleasant.

[Optimystik]

What exactly went wrong with your DN?

I'm not trying to dissuade you, but wizard necromancers are strong primarily because they can do lots of other things besides necromancy. In particular, their undead creation is quite weak. So your choice should depend on whether you want to actually be a necromancer (DN) or if you want to be a wizard who focuses on using negative energy effects, because wizards' undead creation is quite weak.

From your concept I thought it might be the former.

[Lysander]

Animate any unique creatures you encounter and keep them around. Kill a flying monster? Now you have a monster zombie flying mount. Just having skeleton warriors or another straightforward attacker is the least beneficial way of exploiting your powers.

[Kallisti]

An alternative to Dread Necromancer is Death Master from Dragon Compendium. It's not as strong on the undead creation, but stronger in a lot of other ways, including the ability to ignore spell failure from any kind of armor using blood as a component for their spells. Very evil, though, so if you're going for any sort of moral ambiguity you'll need to ask your DM about reflavoring.

[Ashram]

Corpsecrafter from Libris Mortis is a really great feat for necromancers.

[Darkaurora00]

the DN I made was lv. 5. It died because I was the tank of the party and we were fighting a priest who was dominated by a demon. He destroyed my undead with his superior turn check and they exploded. I charged him with my greatsword and he hit me with Cause Fear. I cried in a corner before being coup de graced >.<

yea...basically I see DNs as bards: good at everything, perfect at nothing. I want to focus on undead making so I can really strong undead but focus on only a couple, and also anything useful at the time. I don't want to be a cleric because of the quircky rebuke system D: it hurts me brain.

Thank you for all the advice, I'll go look those things up now :P

[Runestar]

Necromancers tend to be quite good at debuffing their foes. I suppose if you don't want to have an army of undead following you, this might be a better alternative. Check out the focused specialist variant and master specialist prc in complete mage.

The key advantage a wizard would have over a dread necro would be his wider access to spells.

[Redrat2k6]

If you are going to start some research, I suggest reading THIS (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872726/Revised_Necromancer_Handbook).

Uttercold Assault Necromancer is way fun to play.

Heal minions (and yourself with the right feat) and blasting the crap out of your enemies FTW. My 2 cp.

[Optimystik]

Your story sounds more like a spot of bad luck, than an inherent failing of the DN class.

If you're still trying to fill the "tank" role (via an undead cohort, I assume) you'll be even worse at this with a wizard necro than with a dread one; Their undead creation abilities are extremely subpar. My best suggestion is to give the class another try.

I'm not sure about them being "bards" - they certainly do have a niche they are good at, namely the minions angle. Undead Mastery gives them more powerful undead than both wizard and cleric necromancers, and that seems to be something you wanted. They have more debuffs than cleric necromancers as well, and as they gain levels they can get very hardy (due to DR and fortification.)

[Darkaurora00]

maybe, it depends on what kind of game this girl will be running in.

Any advice for prcs or the spell stitched template? I need ideas.

[Optimystik]

I would start with this (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872726/Revised_Necromancer_Handbook) (if you haven't already,) and come back with any questions.

It covers all necro-capable classes (and by all, I mean all three of them.) :smalltongue:

[Darkaurora00]

hmm....I might just go dread necromancer now >.< can you think of any way that I could create stronger undead then just those made by animate/create undead? uniqueness is important, but not demanded

[Kallisti]

The Corpsecrafter line from Libris Mortis, an Unhallow effect, there's a feat called Unnatural Speed in BoVD (I think) that lets you cannibalize one corpse to upgrade another. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.