Dread Necromancer, Necrotic Burst, and Tomb Tainted Soul = Free Healing? <3.5e>

[LichPrinceAlim]

I'm simply wondering if I'm reading this wrong, but since the Necrotic Blast feature of Dread Necro deal Negative Energy Damage to yourself, and Tomb Tainted Soul treats you as an undead with a con modifier, you heal with this damage? And therefore, a Profane Weapon's 1d6 becomes healing as well?

[JoshuaZ]

I'm simply wondering if I'm reading this wrong, but since the Necrotic Blast feature of Dread Necro deal Negative Energy Damage to yourself, and Tomb Tainted Soul treats you as an undead with a con modifier, you heal with this damage? And therefore, a Profane Weapon's 1d6 becomes healing as well?

Yes. But with Tomb-Tainted Soul you can heal yourself using your regularly negative energy touch attack also. So the negative energy blast thing is only useful in mid-combat when you are down on a lot of hp or have lots of enemies nearby or have lots of damaged undead servants nearby.

[Nich_Critic]

It's not completely clear the Necrotic burst affects you at all, but if your DM rules that it does then taking tomb tainted soul makes it a dual effect heal/blast for you to use. That, and charnel touch can be used for unlimited out of combat healing (heals too slowly to be used in combat). My DM ruled against the latter though.

[Noedig]

reverse polarity does the same thing right?

[LichPrinceAlim]

so basically, I can heal with a free sla? thats cheated as all sin...I can become an arcane tank. who needs a cleric when your a Dread Necrotank?

[Greenish]

so basically, I can heal with a free sla? thats cheated as all sin...I can become an arcane tank. who needs a cleric when your a Dread Necrotank?Good luck keeping yourself up with those. Or keeping the enemy interested in hitting you.

[JoshuaZ]

so basically, I can heal with a free sla? thats cheated as all sin...I can become an arcane tank. who needs a cleric when your a Dread Necrotank?

You only get the burst a limited number of times daily. And the charnel touch doesn't do enough to be that useful in combat. Moreover, your hp total isn't amazing. Sure, you can try to tank it up, but it isn't ideal.

[lsfreak]

You still can't tank very well beyond low levels, you simply get unlimited out-of-combat healing. Considering how cheap and effective wands of lesser vigor are, this is nothing to get too excited over.

[LichPrinceAlim]

Good luck keeping yourself up with those. Or keeping the enemy interested in hitting you.

run into the fray and necroburst every other round, and on the rounds where you don't, you cast a fell x spell, creating an army of zombies

[tyckspoon]

so basically, I can heal with a free sla? thats cheated as all sin...I can become an arcane tank. who needs a cleric when your a Dread Necrotank?

'Tanking' does not mean recovering to full HP after the fight, which is what the Tomb-Tainted Soul trick lets you do. It means not getting beaten to death *during* the fight, which a Dread Necro is not especially good at.

[Greenish]

run into the fray and necroburst every other round, and on the rounds where you don't, you cast a fell x spell, creating an army of zombiesYou go splat.

[LichPrinceAlim]

'Tanking' does not mean recovering to full HP after the fight, which is what the Tomb-Tainted Soul trick lets you do. It means not getting beaten to death *during* the fight, which a Dread Necro is not especially good at.

take a few levels of ur priest or cleric to add inflict spells, then do it to yourself

[Xallace]

run into the fray and necroburst every other round, and on the rounds where you don't, you cast a fell x spell, creating an army of zombies

Also, Necroburst is only, what, 4/day at 20th? Won't last you all day.

I like Profane Lifeleech for my Dread Necro Healing. If you expect to be surrounded by hordes of living creatures, is pretty useful for keeping yourself alive at low levels (retrain later, of course, as the usefulness diminishes).

[LichPrinceAlim]

Also, Necroburst is only, what, 4/day at 20th? Won't last you all day.

I like Profane Lifeleech for my Dread Necro Healing. If you expect to be surrounded by hordes of living creatures, is pretty useful for keeping yourself alive at low levels (retrain later, of course, as the usefulness diminishes).

afb right now, so excuse me for not having it memorized (insert KHII reference here).

I like it, and with ur priest non-cheese, Dread Necrotank can live

[KillianHawkeye]

take a few levels of ur priest or cleric to add inflict spells, then do it to yourself

Dread Necros get all the inflict spells already.

[Erishiamu]

take a few levels of ur priest or cleric to add inflict spells, then do it to yourself

You're not understanding what everyone is saying to you again.. You're still really squishy. You won't be too hard to hit or have enough hit points to take focused punishment, and if you're spending the wole time just healing yourself than you're doing it wrong.

[BenTheJester]

I've had a party where the Dread Necro was the tank.

She tanked herself for the first few levels(where DR actually does something) and her cute little skeleton pyrohydra tanked for her for the rest of the game

[faceroll]

so basically, I can heal with a free sla? thats cheated as all sin...I can become an arcane tank. who needs a cleric when your a Dread Necrotank?

1d6 healing to yourself isn't going to make up for the 3d6+12 damage you take from an ogre or whatever.

Let me draw you a picture.

You move up to the enemy in your light armor and d6 hitdice. It has reach, it hits you in the face. You take 20 damage. You have 10 hit points left. You heal yourself for 1d6 points of damage, possibly provoking another attack of opportunity. You have 14 hit points and a move action left. You command your zombie to attack. The enemy goes. He hits you for 23 damage. You are dead.


Good luck keeping yourself up with those. Or keeping the enemy interested in hitting you.

Well, to be fair, he does have a lot of really spectacular touch attack spells.

[Greenish]

Well, to be fair, he does have a lot of really spectacular touch attack spells.Won't help much when he just keeps touching himself. :smallwink:

[faceroll]

Won't help much when he just keeps touching himself. :smallwink:

Hehehehehe.

[JaronK]

Dread Necromancers are fine tanks at very low levels, where their all day healing and DR mean a lot. And by low levels, I mean 1-3 or so. After that, the D6 HD and poor armor really start to hurt. Then around level 8 when you can make undead you can tank again by using minions.

Yes, DNs can heal themselves all day long with Tomb Tainted Soul and Charnel Touch. Their negative energy AoE is just a small bonus... it's really not that great. But out of combat slow healing does not a tank make.

JaronK