Maho-Tsukai
2010-07-29, 10:42 PM
I've always disliked how Wizards are generally bad necromancers, however, I have found ways to make them at least somwhat able to compete with clerics in the undead horde department. The main one using the following tricks..
Wizard(Necromancer)/Something else/Master Specialist
ACFs: Enhanced Undead, Domain granted abilities
How the build is meant to work is simple. It's a archetypal, black robed necromancer with a rather sizable army of undead to hide behind as he casts necromancy spells to hurt and debuff enemies. In turn, due to certain class features those spells he casts make his undead even scarier then normal. With the domain granted abilities ACF this wizard can gain the granted power of the deathbound domain at level 5, thus increasing the size of his army. Enhanced undead pushes him back to standard wizard spells per day but bolsters the power of his army to a rather frightening level.
The Master Specialist levels are what really make this guy nasty, however. Master Specialist give this undead master the ability to grant his undead hordes all kinds of boosts and extra abilities every time he casts a necromancy spell. In addition to this, by RAW expanded spellbook allows him to add any necromancy spell to his spell list including ones from other class' spell lists because the rules never specify which list these spells can be taken from. This is why MS is taken so late. You can nab stuff like General of Undeath, Destruction, Mass Inflict ____ Wounds ect.. from the cleric list for your own, making you an even more dangerous force. Combined General of Undeath and the deathbound domain your ACF granted you and you will have a rather large undead army to fight for you while you cast spells, many of which will in turn make your undead army even scarier due to the master specialist class features. Corpsecrafter stuff can make your undead even more dangerous. In fact, between corpsecrafter, the enhanced undead ACF and the master specialist boosts your undead will be far scarier then anything a DN or cleric can animate, even if the cleric is using that undead bolstering feat. So while the DN has you beat for quantity, you beat him in quality, so long as you are casting necromancy spells, that is.
However, this build is not complete, it needs a lot of things and that's why I'm posting here. I want ideas for feats, a possible 2nd PrC to include in the build and a level spread which allows me to do what I want with this build. Oh, and as for the question "Why not just play a DN?" Simple, because this guy will have wizard levels, which means unlike a DN I can do so much more then necromancy, but yet still be a decent necromancer. The DN is an awesome necromancer that can to little else but necromancy. This guy is meant to be a good necromancer who has all the other tricks that come with having wizard levels.
Also, while I am not sure it would work, could master specialist be taken earlier to gain animate dead as a level 3 due to it being a level 3 on the cleric list?(Since again, going strictly by the text, the expanded spellbook class ability can get you spells of your specialized school from any list, so would taking the level 3 version from the cleric list be legal by a strict, by the text interpretation?)
Wizard(Necromancer)/Something else/Master Specialist
ACFs: Enhanced Undead, Domain granted abilities
How the build is meant to work is simple. It's a archetypal, black robed necromancer with a rather sizable army of undead to hide behind as he casts necromancy spells to hurt and debuff enemies. In turn, due to certain class features those spells he casts make his undead even scarier then normal. With the domain granted abilities ACF this wizard can gain the granted power of the deathbound domain at level 5, thus increasing the size of his army. Enhanced undead pushes him back to standard wizard spells per day but bolsters the power of his army to a rather frightening level.
The Master Specialist levels are what really make this guy nasty, however. Master Specialist give this undead master the ability to grant his undead hordes all kinds of boosts and extra abilities every time he casts a necromancy spell. In addition to this, by RAW expanded spellbook allows him to add any necromancy spell to his spell list including ones from other class' spell lists because the rules never specify which list these spells can be taken from. This is why MS is taken so late. You can nab stuff like General of Undeath, Destruction, Mass Inflict ____ Wounds ect.. from the cleric list for your own, making you an even more dangerous force. Combined General of Undeath and the deathbound domain your ACF granted you and you will have a rather large undead army to fight for you while you cast spells, many of which will in turn make your undead army even scarier due to the master specialist class features. Corpsecrafter stuff can make your undead even more dangerous. In fact, between corpsecrafter, the enhanced undead ACF and the master specialist boosts your undead will be far scarier then anything a DN or cleric can animate, even if the cleric is using that undead bolstering feat. So while the DN has you beat for quantity, you beat him in quality, so long as you are casting necromancy spells, that is.
However, this build is not complete, it needs a lot of things and that's why I'm posting here. I want ideas for feats, a possible 2nd PrC to include in the build and a level spread which allows me to do what I want with this build. Oh, and as for the question "Why not just play a DN?" Simple, because this guy will have wizard levels, which means unlike a DN I can do so much more then necromancy, but yet still be a decent necromancer. The DN is an awesome necromancer that can to little else but necromancy. This guy is meant to be a good necromancer who has all the other tricks that come with having wizard levels.
Also, while I am not sure it would work, could master specialist be taken earlier to gain animate dead as a level 3 due to it being a level 3 on the cleric list?(Since again, going strictly by the text, the expanded spellbook class ability can get you spells of your specialized school from any list, so would taking the level 3 version from the cleric list be legal by a strict, by the text interpretation?)