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View Full Version : 3.5 Newbie seeking help on making undead Army



Re'ozul
2010-12-24, 09:48 AM
After deciding on a Warlock for my first 3.5 character I noticed that it is usually considered a somewhat weak class (as far as I've read).

However I like blasting stuff and thought that it would still be fun.

Then while reading up on invocations I noticed The Dead Walk and thought that this could be fun.

As I am very intimidated by all the books for 3.5 I therefore would appreciate any help on making my warlock capable of making a sizable (for a party of 5 as support) Army of undead. Biggest problem I see would be increasing the HD I can command, I think. (and please if possible leave it mainly a warlock as I find calling things that only have one rogue level rogues strange and untrue)

So far I only have:

Warlock 6 (for the invocation)
Dread Necromancer 1 (For churnel-healing my army between combats)

Any and all help very much appreciated.

Dusk Eclipse
2010-12-24, 10:35 AM
Have you got access to Complete Mage? there is a class Eldritch Theurge, that will let you advance both Warlock Invocation and Dread Necro spellcasting, you won't be a powerhouse, but you can use the dread necro spells to increase your army (control undead, create undead, animate dead etc.)

I don't have the book handy at the moment but I think you can enter with something like Warlock 2/Dread Necro 3/Eldritch Theurge 2 (I am assumung you are level 7 due your post)

Brom
2010-12-24, 11:23 AM
Have you got access to Complete Mage? there is a class Eldritch Theurge, that will let you advance both Warlock Invocation and Dread Necro spellcasting, you won't be a powerhouse, but you can use the dread necro spells to increase your army (control undead, create undead, animate dead etc.)

I don't have the book handy at the moment but I think you can enter with something like Warlock 2/Dread Necro 3/Eldritch Theurge 2 (I am assumung you are level 7 due your post)

^ I hadn't ever thought of this, but now that I think about it, it's damned cool. Dread Necromancer/Warlock/Eldritch Theurge. I'm going to second this.

Sounds awesome. It's evil. And undead-healerriffic. And would almost never run out of evil things to do. Did I mention that it's awesome? o.O (Suddenly in love)

TL (too long);DR (didn't read) (for the below rant)

Warlock is not a necromantic class. You can't quite treat it like it is, sadly. DM intervention and negotiation may improve this.

You should understand, though, that Warlock is not an undead-legion-making class. From the looks of it (and my understanding of the nature of invocations) the idea was that you would play a Warlock, kill a bunch of stuff, and then reanimate it using the no cost option and send it off to kill more stuff, and perhaps reanimate choice monsters with a few pounds of black onyx (like a giant to carry and use your new Huge battering ram - good times - or a pterodactyl zombie to fly on).

So basically, The Dead Walk as a Warlock seems like something extra (very cool) rather than a focus, just one more thing you dabble in. At best, IMO, it's most potent use would be combining it with Hellrime Eldritch blast and Corpsecrafter + that Explosive feat in Libris Mortis that makes your undead explode for negative energy damage to create explosive flaming zombies. Preferably flying.

This isn't an army, it's a terror tactic. At best. With 2 feats.
Admittedly, a really cool terror tactic.

TheCountAlucard
2010-12-24, 11:43 AM
Perhaps, if you're going all evil, you may want to make an infernal pact, sell your soul and all. Who knows, you may even get a bonus feat or such out of it. :smallamused:

Coidzor
2010-12-24, 11:55 AM
Arcane is really not the route for creating an army of undead (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872726/Revised_Necromancer_Handbook). Especially not Warlocks, as they lack access to the best things for increasing the amount of undead animated at one time which is really where undead army building comes in, not from increasing one's control pool. As mentioned, the dead walk is really just going to be useful for weak suicide undead for traps and healing permanent undead. And once you have more than a few undead unless you're very good at working it out or the rest of the group is very patient you'll almost certainly start bogging things down with the number of extra turns being taken in a round.


As well, Eldritch Theurge is harder to get going than Eldritch Disciple from the same book, and Eldritch Disciple advances rebuking.

Re'ozul
2010-12-24, 11:59 AM
Well, I'm playing a quarter fey (modified half fey template with only +2 Dex, -2 Con, +4 Cha, charm person at will DC8+HD, and the flight for LA+1)

Originally I wanted to play a beguiler rat (for the true sight) but the GM modified it so much I might not (took away 2 dex and true sight and pushed LA to +1)

However I got him to allow me to use Eldritch blasts (with essence and blast form modificators but no other invocations) with attack progression (unless thats standard), so in higher levels I'll be able to blast twice per round. (Or 3 times if I later take a few full BAB levels to make up for the losts in the other classes)

I just liked the idea of potentially (with flight) going down to the ground, creating a skeleton to fight for the others, then taking flight again to blast from afar.

Brom
2010-12-24, 12:02 PM
I just liked the idea of potentially (with flight) going down to the ground, creating a skeleton to fight for the others, then taking flight again to blast from afar.

I'm probably just missing something: why do you need to land to animate a skeleton?

Also, I'd say animating is best done between/after/before fights. Storm a room. Kill inhabitants. Reanimate them. Send them down the long hall into the next room, tripping every trap and revealing the position of hidden ambushers in the next room. Profit.

No, seriously, there is no component cost to this tactic, and it's not like the bodies were going to do anything other than rot, so profit =D