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View Full Version : Help for a Dread Necro (3.5)



Erevar_
2011-02-02, 11:30 AM
Hello,
I've been browsing forums and handbooks, but I'd like to know if any of you have further suggestions for equipment/monsters/whatever. Most of the equipment I've seen was focused on maximizing my turning, but I'm more of a minion master, so I want to find ways to make my controlled HD more powerful, in a way. Zombies and Skeletons don't cut it, even big ones. I already own the Rod of Undead Mastery.

I've been giving them an Int score to make them eligible for feats, but my evil DM has recently nerfed that. Also, I want to not be a social outcast, so I want a way to store away my hordes until the right moment. I've bought some of those coffins you can put undead in, but that's not enough for me (Huge zombie dragons, heh).

Tokuhara
2011-02-02, 01:04 PM
Hello,
I've been browsing forums and handbooks, but I'd like to know if any of you have further suggestions for equipment/monsters/whatever. Most of the equipment I've seen was focused on maximizing my turning, but I'm more of a minion master, so I want to find ways to make my controlled HD more powerful, in a way. Zombies and Skeletons don't cut it, even big ones. I already own the Rod of Undead Mastery.

I've been giving them an Int score to make them eligible for feats, but my evil DM has recently nerfed that. Also, I want to not be a social outcast, so I want a way to store away my hordes until the right moment. I've bought some of those coffins you can put undead in, but that's not enough for me (Huge zombie dragons, heh).

Ironically, even with the one dead level, Pale Master is a good choice for dread necro. And maybe a dip into cleric would help imensly, along with levels in Contemplative (focused on Undead). In all actuality, I prefer Death Master (Dragon Magazine Compendium) over dread necro

remember, bag of holding is your friend. carry your corpses in several bags of holding (labled for convenience) and take the feats Obtain Familiar and Improved Familiar to get the Slaymate as your familiar. Heck, for roleplaying purposes, make it be your character's dead child, who made you walk the dread path. Your child died of mysterious causes and you chose to dabble into necromancy in secret to revive your child. Granted, the child is undead, but now, you have a reason to become an undead: you want to spend eternity with your child. Add spellstiched later and voila, the ultimate familiar

Erevar_
2011-02-03, 11:23 AM
My build is just completed, my pg is a Dread Necro 8/Walker in the Frost 7 in this moment.
WitF is the WitW PrC adapted for a cold campaign as the campaign we are playing. This means: I have CL -1 now and at 18th level CL -2. I want to cast 9th level spells so i can't lose spellcasting with a dip in cleric or pale master. Now I take the control of a Slaymate, but is useless because i'm not versed in metamagic, and the only metamagic feat i have is heighten spell.

This choice is due to the fact that my DM have nerfed chain spell and split ray, the most usefull metamagic feats for a DN IMO, so I take heighten spell to make my DC more difficult.

Do you have any suggestions about the rest of my build after the 10th level of WitF?

here you can see the partially sheet: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=11339

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2011-02-03, 11:59 AM
There's a feat called Versatile Spellcaster in Races of the Dragon, which should allow you to get early access to the next higher level of spells. This also allows you to pick higher level spells for Advanced Learning.

Check out the spell Awaken Undead in Spell Compendium. It's probably the best reason to stick to Dread Necromancer until 12th level so you can take it via Advanced Learning. Cave Troll (MM3) Skeletons will regain their Fast Healing and all their special attacks. Arrow Demon (MM3) Skeletons will regain all of their impressive archery bonuses.

Check out the spell Animate Dread Warrior in Unapproachable East, it's another good reason to stick to Dread Necromancer until 12th level. Cast it on a dead humanoid who's at least 3rd level, that humanoid gets turned into an intelligent undead under your command who retains all their levels, skills, and feats, and there's no limit to how many you can control. It doesn't keep its class features, but cast it on a dead Fighter and it would have all of its feats still, or cast it on a Rogue and you've got a disposable trapmonkey.

You could get Undead Leadership to recruit an undead cohort, preferably something incorporeal that spawns more of its kind under its control whenever it kills someone. You would control all of its minions through it, though if it were ever destroyed they would likely turn on you but being undead they probably wouldn't be capable of harming you. A horde of incorporeal undead can conceal themselves beneath the ground and follow you through town undetected. An Umbral Creature (LM) Darktentacles (MM2) would get 12 attacks/round for 1d8 Str damage per hit, it would retain its Hold Monster, Charm Monster, and Wall of Force spell-like abilities, and any humanoids it kills would return as a shadow under its control. Incorporeal creatures can occupy the same space unrestricted, so it could massacre a village of halflings or goblins and have 100 small shadows all moving and fighting from the same square as though one creature, a 100-attack blob that can put out 100d6 Str damage per round. Any humanoids they kill return as shadows under their control, so the blob could just keep getting bigger.

Tokuhara
2011-02-03, 12:04 PM
My build is just completed, my pg is a Dread Necro 8/Walker in the Frost 7 in this moment.
WitF is the WitW PrC adapted for a cold campaign as the campaign we are playing. This means: I have CL -1 now and at 18th level CL -2. I want to cast 9th level spells so i can't lose spellcasting with a dip in cleric or pale master. Now I take the control of a Slaymate, but is useless because i'm not versed in metamagic, and the only metamagic feat i have is heighten spell.

This choice is due to the fact that my DM have nerfed chain spell and split ray, the most usefull metamagic feats for a DN IMO, so I take heighten spell to make my DC more difficult.

Do you have any suggestions about the rest of my build after the 10th level of WitF?

here you can see the partially sheet: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=11339

I suggest then going with the multitude of sorcerer-favored prcs that offer full spellcasting.

I also suggest picking up more metamagic feats, such as quicken, maximize, Black Lord of Moil, and Lord of Uttercold, which as a Walker of the Frost, means that with cold-themed undead, you can heal them and your necromancy spells that deal damage increase for more negative energy. Plus, Slaymate makes life ever so easier for metamagic.

On top of everything stated above, remember, you aren't as good at undead control as an equivelant cleric, so be forewarned, undead army is not your thing. Focus on quality undead, such as Bodaks and Ghasts, and not summon hundreds of CR 1/2 Skeletons. Quality>Quantity when it comes to DN's, though Quantity has a Quality all its own...

Erevar_
2011-02-03, 12:37 PM
My DM have banned the ability to spawn anything from all undead I create, so the umbral creature idea from undead leadership (very good and very broken) is discarded.

Lord of the Uttercold is not very incisive because I don't have a lot of energy based spells, Black lore of moil is good, but the problem is that I have only two feats to choose: at 15th and 18th.

Versatile Spellcaster feat is a good hack to cast 9th level spells without spellcasting and I thinking to take it in place of Craft Wondrous Items at 15th, so... methods to gain more usefull spells? good prcs?

Malbordeus
2011-02-03, 12:45 PM
contingent spell is pretty good for a dn. contingent Create greater undead specificly, on yourself or your party incase of death.

MrRigger
2011-02-03, 01:03 PM
Well, I was able to talk my DM into letting me take the variant undead templates from Libris Mortis as part of the Corpsecrafter feats (specifically Fast Zombies and Vicious Skeletons), but if your DM is nerfing things like spawning undead and Split Ray/Chain Spell, I don't see much possibility of him allowing those as feats, not to mention you seem to be close to done with picking feats. Contingent Harm on yourself when you hit 1/4 health is a good idea as well. Becoming undead and then Spellstitching yourself is a good way to get some nice spell like abilities as well. Free Animate Dead 2/day that way as well. Also, it only checks your wisdom when you have the template applied, so just borrow a Wisdom boosting item, get your Wisdom up high enough, and then you're all set with quite a few more options. Plus, if you Spellstitch yourself, you can choose Melf's Unicorn Arrow as one of your SLAs, which brings on the image of a undead necromancer, creating horrible perversions against nature and life, and then calling up Ethereal Unicorns to run at someone. I just like that image.

Portable Holes are also somewhat useful for holding undead if you don't want them following you around all the time.

MrRigger

Erevar_
2011-02-04, 08:12 PM
I've spellstiched myself, and your spell with phantom unicorns is cool :) but my pc is very very serious and don't wasting time with these things... however... do you have any suggestions about equipment and PrCs? I saw the shadow adept prc on PgF. The requirements are one feat for me, and it let me to do some utility abilities... but if you have a best choose with a not-impossible requirements I'd like to listen...

Marnath
2011-02-05, 01:04 PM
Versatile Spellcaster feat is a good hack to cast 9th level spells without spellcasting and I thinking to take it in place of Craft Wondrous Items at 15th, so... methods to gain more usefull spells? good prcs?

Your DM won't let your undead create spawn, but he will let you use versatile spellcaster like that? It doesn't actually work that way because you don't know any 9th level spells until you earn them. Heightened 8th level spells would work though.

Erevar_
2011-02-05, 08:10 PM
I think yes, however if you read the spellcasting description of any pre-made spell list class like the dread necro or the beguiller you'll find that when you are able to cast a spell, you know it. The base idea is: you know all of your spells, (exept spells from advanced learning) but you're able to cast them when you reach the level of power required.

It make sense for me... and for RAW.