How to play a good Dread Necro without being annoying

[danzibr]

I really like the idea of having tons of undead minions (probably from my D2 days) but how do you control, say, 6 dudes per round without pissing off the rest of your party? "Oh gee, I get to go again and again and again."

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Well, first and most obviously, go for a few high-level minions rather than a crapton of weaker ones.

Try using them for roles other than combat, if you have expendable ones. Send them to scout, carry loot, provide a distraction, whatever- no die roles = no annoyance.

Third, look into getting a bag of holding or similiar- that's what our Dread Necromancer did. Then, keep most of them in the bag, exept for however many you need in the fight.

[Natael]

I really like the idea of having tons of undead minions (probably from my D2 days) but how do you control, say, 6 dudes per round without pissing off the rest of your party? "Oh gee, I get to go again and again and again."

Hopefully I'll let you know soon. I just put together a dread necro (level 8), got myself a couple of fire giants and a dragon zombie, plus a familiar, and a rebuked slay-mate. Finally should get to play it tonight.

My plan at least is to mostly use the dragon zombie as my main attacker, and have the skeletons guard me while I chill in the back not doing anything until the crap hits the windmill. Minimizes me being obnoxious with a ton of turns, and maximizes my ability to always have something to do, or look like a hero when things go wrong.

[gallagher]

if you still want them to be an active part of your character, have them all go on your initiative. try and make all of them do their attacks at the same time and roll once for the total of them.

the fewer die you cast, the quicker your turn goes, allowing everyone to get their due amount of time

[Gullintanni]

Well, first and most obviously, go for a few high-level minions rather than a crapton of weaker ones.

Try using them for roles other than combat, if you have expendable ones. Send them to scout, carry loot, provide a distraction, whatever- no die roles = no annoyance.

Third, look into getting a bag of holding or similiar- that's what our Dread Necromancer did. Then, keep most of them in the bag, exept for however many you need in the fight.

Someone needs to carry the torch :smallsmile:

Pet undead are also useful for releasing your Dancing weapons.

[Coidzor]

Find a compromise with the DM for how many you'll have out in a given fight at a time seems to be about the only real one, and them sharing initiative counts is a good point, either have 'em all roll together or roll with you.

Other than making sure that the other players aren't playing Paladins or Radiant Servants of Pelor, I can't really think of anything offhand.

Using them as utility(Thoqqua (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/thoqqua.htm)on a stick for burrowing or creating holes in stone and metal) is always fun.

[danzibr]

Find a compromise with the DM for how many you'll have out in a given fight at a time seems to be about the only real one, and them sharing initiative counts is a good point, either have 'em all roll together or roll with you.

Other than making sure that the other players aren't playing Paladins or Radiant Servants of Pelor, I can't really think of anything offhand.

Using them as utility(Thoqqua (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/thoqqua.htm)on a stick for burrowing or creating holes in stone and metal) is always fun.

I'm probably a noob (heck, I am a noob, but I don't know if I'm wrong on this point), but I thought elementals couldn't be made into undead.

[LOTRfan]

I'm probably a noob (heck, I am a noob, but I don't know if I'm wrong on this point), but I thought elementals couldn't be made into undead.

I didn't think they could, either.

[Mr. Zolrane]

They can't as I recall. Fire giants are giants, not elementals. I think.

EDIT: Checked. Yeah, they're giants. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/giant.htm)

[LOTRfan]

I was referencing the undead Thoqqua mentioned by Coidzor. Fire Giants are fine.

[mint]

Cityscape has rules for mobs. Like a swarm but with people kind of.
Talk to your DM about coming up with an adaptation of this to model a bunch of medium sized undead.
Instead of like 8 attack rolls, 0 attack rolls.

[FMArthur]

It's usually pretty easy to group them and make the groups act on one initiative each, moving together. Their combined attack routine simply resembles just a normal pouncing charger with lots of attacks. As a DM you do target and damage them individually (assigning individual members of a group numbers for clarity), but the DN is the one who has to keep track of their hit points, not you (he can have them organized in a chart, anyway).

It's not too bad, really. When you get into immense hordes of 2HD zombies, then resort to the mob rules in Cityscape.

[Thurbane]

I really like the idea of having tons of undead minions (probably from my D2 days) but how do you control, say, 6 dudes per round without pissing off the rest of your party? "Oh gee, I get to go again and again and again."
Play in a group with a Druid and a Malconvoker - you'll be probably be 3rd in line for hogging the actions with your mooks! :smallbiggrin:

[Zaq]

Talk to your pals at the table and let them control some or all of your minions. It gives them something to do, spreads out the actions that you bring to the table, and is generally considered a cool thing to do, at least in my book. Just make sure you 1) make really good cheat sheets and 2) talk to them about it first instead of just tossing a giant minion into their hands.


Play in a group with a Druid and a Malconvoker - you'll be probably be 3rd in line for hogging the actions with your mooks! :smallbiggrin:

Dear lord.

[NecroRick]

Third, look into getting a bag of holding or similiar- that's what our Dread Necromancer did. Then, keep most of them in the bag, exept for however many you need in the fight.

BYO bag of undead tricks? :D

My theory was that if you have say 6 skellies, then you're better off treating them as a squad than individuals. Move them all on the same 10x10 base. If someone complains, then just do the individual skeleton actions, taking your own sweet time for a couple of rounds, and then announce that you've had a brilliant idea "why don't I just move them all at once?". Rinse and repeat until they get the hint.

Secondly, rather than hog the limelight, put your skellies in a support role. E.g. make them archers and have them hang back. That way they don't get in the way of the fighter-types. Alternatively, have a squad that gets sent in to soak/tank the monsters, but just find somewhere on the battlefield and plant them there, don't optimise them by trying to giving them flanking and terrain and all that, let the other players do all that stuff. Additionally, it gives the fighter-types some 'hard cover' to duck behind if they are taking a beating, they can return to cleric and get some healing, and then get back into it, without your team being overrun (and hey, even if the skellies die holding the line like that, you'll get replacements when the battle is finished).

Thirdly, speed up combat. Roll all six to-hits at the same time, and only bother with the top 3. You don't really need to ask if the 9, 7, and 2 are hits anyway. (Obvious exception: you roll six 20s :D )

Alternatively - go large. Rather than squads of little skellies (popcorn), get a couple of big nasty monsters. At your level 8 even six 10hp skellies probably aren't going to stay on the field for long. Whereas something with say 60hp can soak a bit of damage and you can heal it back up at the end of combat.

Consider what you're doing with the minions in towns and social situations (hire a stables?) - how will you keep your precious skellies away from the filthy clerical types?

Even a level 2 Cleric can completely blow away your squad of six 1HD skellies. Now if you were to take the feat that adds +4 to their turn resistance, suddenly it takes a lvl 10 clerical type to destroy them instead of turning.

If in Eberron, try the Karrnathi skellies and zombies instead of regular ones, I think they weigh in at 3HD. So with a +4 turn resistance the cleric needs to be lvl 14 to destroy them. If the DM is regularly throwing clerics twice your level at the party, take the not so subtle hint (you can't win a war of escalation with the DM).

[Axinian]

Play in a group with a Druid and a Malconvoker - you'll be probably be 3rd in line for hogging the actions with your mooks! :smallbiggrin:

Get a Pathfinder Summoner in there too, just for good measure. Remember, there's no such thing as overkill :smallcool:

[balistafreak]

Talk to your pals at the table and let them control some or all of your minions. It gives them something to do, spreads out the actions that you bring to the table, and is generally considered a cool thing to do, at least in my book. Just make sure you 1) make really good cheat sheets and 2) talk to them about it first instead of just tossing a giant minion into their hands.

+1. Give each of your friends control of a minion, they'll have more fun.


Play in a group with a Druid and a Malconvoker - you'll be probably be 3rd in line for hogging the actions with your mooks! :smallbiggrin:


Get a Pathfinder Summoner in there too, just for good measure. Remember, there's no such thing as overkill :smallcool:

And then throw in a PF Psionics Unleashed Shaper with Overchannel and Boost Construct because Astral Constructs are OP.


Dear lord.

QFT whathaveicontributedto

[danzibr]

Talk to your pals at the table and let them control some or all of your minions. It gives them something to do, spreads out the actions that you bring to the table, and is generally considered a cool thing to do, at least in my book. Just make sure you 1) make really good cheat sheets and 2) talk to them about it first instead of just tossing a giant minion into their hands.

I really like this idea.

[Zaq]

And then throw in a PF Psionics Unleashed Shaper with Overchannel and Boost Construct who then goes into Thrallherd because Astral Constructs and thralls are OP.


Fixed that for you.