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Corwin_of_Amber
2010-11-18, 11:17 AM
Here's the scenario, as it stands:
I'm approching the level at which I can begin to cast Awaken Undead. I have, up until now had a host of various monster skeletons. What I would like to do, in order to fill up my HD limit is to have a few Awakened undead lieutenants with class levels, rather than a skeletal horde. I would like to give them levels in some low tier classes that have caught my eye, that way I can play those and not outshine the rest of my party. My particular preferences are Ninja and Warlock (no PrCs or anything else, just those classes).

The main barrier to doing this is that for flavor reasons I would like to make them Human Skeletons and those tend to be worse than various monsters because of the lack of Ex abilities. My DM won't allow me to roll ability scores for them, in spite of the fact that monsters I can get by RAW would be more powerful.

So I would like to find a way to give the skeletons better WIS or CHA scores in a way that exists within WotC published material.

Thank you.

dsmiles
2010-11-18, 11:26 AM
So I would like to find a way to give the skeletons better WIS or CHA scores in a way that exists within WotC published material.

Thank you.

Give 'em items? If they're awakened, they should be intelligent enough to use items and gain class levels.

Corwin_of_Amber
2010-11-18, 11:41 AM
Give 'em items? If they're awakened, they should be intelligent enough to use items and gain class levels.

The problem with that is even when spending large amounts of money, I still cannot get them to any reasonable scores. The skeleton template makes the Cha score 1, so by spending 36000 on a Cloak of Charsma +6, I still can't get any spellcasting ability tied to that; they have a Wis of 10, so that might work for Ninja or another divine caster. I don't think it's incredibly possible to be an Int-Based caster since the Int is 1d6+4, so a max of 10. So, depending on my roll, Items might work, thanks.

bloodtide
2010-11-18, 11:42 AM
Mindless undead, even awakened mindless undead, make for very poor Ninjas and Warlocks. Awakened mindless undead are just thugs, fighter types.

You want an undead warlock lieutenant? Use Create Undead. A Ghoul would work just fine.

Corwin_of_Amber
2010-11-18, 11:45 AM
Mindless undead, even awakened mindless undead, make for very poor Ninjas and Warlocks. Awakened mindless undead are just thugs, fighter types.

You want an undead warlock lieutenant? Use Create Undead. A Ghoul would work just fine.

Yes, this seems to be my best option. This was actually my backup plan should this query prove fruitless.

EDIT: Also, Since I'm a Bone Knight, by the time I can cast Create Undead, I can get a Ghast.

bloodtide
2010-11-18, 11:54 AM
Can you use FR stuff? In Unapproachable East there’s a spell called create undead warrior that has no cap on how many undead it can create, and which gives you full control over what it makes. The Dread Warrior has wis 9 and chr 4, at least better then a skeleton.

Corwin_of_Amber
2010-11-18, 12:53 PM
Can you use FR stuff? In Unapproachable East there’s a spell called create undead warrior that has no cap on how many undead it can create, and which gives you full control over what it makes. The Dread Warrior has wis 9 and chr 4, at least better then a skeleton.

That does seem good, I'm currently using Eberron stuff (Bone Knight) so I'm not sure if I can overlap the 2 worlds, but I'll definately check since my DM is rather lenient about this stuff, with the exception of homebrew.

EDIT: I just looked up Animate Dread Warrior, I can't cast this since I'm a Cleric.