Help with True Necro build

[EarFall]

Yes, I know, it's "not optimized", but it's not bad so long as you make use of Precocious Apprentice (Yes, cleric is the main class). I recently played an abrupt jaunting master specialist archmage, so i want something more low-key.

Flavor: Likely going to be an Aasimar gone horribly wrong - NE or possibly CE, but not "batcrap insane that gets himself into trouble constantly." Somewhat of a plague doctor who operates on innocent people alive (usually takes them to his "hospital" via charm person).

Deity: Afflux

All below here can change with opinions:
Race: Lesser Aasimar
Domains: Deathbound, Death
Level: 8 (Wizard 2/Cleric3/True Necro 3)
Str: 8
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 14 (I don't plan on casting DC spells, except on commoners, etc)
Wis: 20
Cha: 14

Feats:
1. Precocious Apprentice: Command Undead (This feat is pretty unlikely to change as it will let me only lose 2 caster levels, or 3 and get 9th level cleric spells and 8th level wizard spells by 20, which isn't terrible, even if it's not "wow best thing ever)
3. Practiced Sepllcaster Wizard seems appropriate, though I *could* drop it. But really, I'm only wizard 3, but the few spells I do have would get a HUGE jump from this, fully four levels, in fact, at level 8.
6. Not sure. Fell drain actually looks like fun... and negative levels are always spiffy. I asked the DM, it would also let me start the game with a pair of free wights, as assuredly by now two things would have arisen as wights via this feat.

My main questions about this build: Other appropriate feats I should look at? I will have a lot of undead, but I probably wouldn't take the corpse-crafting feats. Important: What school should I spec in? I'll probably take immediate magic. I do not want abrupt jaunt. As I wrote above, I know how good it is. But I've done it before.

And of course: What spells should I take, and is there a better level spread? My overall 20 spread should end like this:
1. Wizard
2. Wizard
3. Ceric
4. Cleric
5. Cleric
6-19: TN
20: Wizard

By doing this, I will end up with 9th level cleric spells and 8th level wizard spells. This may be important because it's a 3-person party, and I will OFTEN need to operate alone, so the versatility would be huge. Any suggestions I'm open to. Anything in PH or Spell Compendium is automatic yes, and every other book for spells is "run it by me" with the DM, but he's going to say yes unless it's "Celerity" Powerful. Speaking of which ,even though celerity is SC, it's probably a no.

We're very experienced with 3.5, but I've never tried a build like this.

[tyckspoon]

. Important: What school should I spec in? I'll probably take immediate magic. I do not want abrupt jaunt. As I wrote above, I know how good it is. But I've done it before.


Transmutation would be my pick. It's the next most versatile school after Conjuration, it fits within your current characterization as the school of modification, and it has the next best Immediate Magic option, especially when combined with speed-increasing magic.

[EarFall]

Transmutation would be my pick. It's the next most versatile school after Conjuration, it fits within your current characterization as the school of modification, and it has the next best Immediate Magic option, especially when combined with speed-increasing magic.

Also useful if i fall off my zombie griffon...

[Veyr]

With Precocious Apprentice, you can do Wizard 1/Cleric 4 or Wizard 4/Cleric 1; this seems like the better choice to me. Better to have one side as close to full-power than to have even numbers, I think.

You're planning on summoning a lot of Undead, but don't want Corpsecrafter? Why not?

[Fisticuffs]

See if your DM will let you replace the Death Domain prereq with Undeath Domain as a prereq.

[EarFall]

With Precocious Apprentice, you can do Wizard 1/Cleric 4 or Wizard 4/Cleric 1; this seems like the better choice to me. Better to have one side as close to full-power than to have even numbers, I think.

You're planning on summoning a lot of Undead, but don't want Corpsecrafter? Why not?

1. It's all about the end result. Orignially I planned 1 wizard 4 cleric, BUT that would leave my final casting as : 18 cleric, 14 wizard. That means I gain little from the last cleric casting level, and lose 8th level spells as the wizard. If I eat the bullet temporarily and go 2 wizard, I can polish it off with wizard, and end up with 17/15, allowing me 9th cleric, and 8th wizard spells, if you get the point.

Also I'm debating going nercopolitan spellstiched.... thoughts?

Edit: 2. It's not that I don't WANT them... it's that I don't have many feats to work with.

[EarFall]

Wow, so I forgot what I needed help with most - stuff. I can start with animated undead so long as I spend the onyx's, and it's reasonable that I've killed it by 8th level (In general, this means CR 5 and below, as anything else would pose a risk to myself or my resources, as its background, and as its free bodies, I'm inclined to take it.)

Here's the blanks, and if I've got a good idea, I'll put it down, but nothing is set in stone.

Head:
Amulet: Amulet of Wisdom +2 - 4,000 gp
Armor:
Weapon: Scalpel (does damage as per dagger, just a bit of Afflux flavoring, probably not even magical)
Vest: Resistance +2 or +3 - 4,000 or 9,000 gp
Cloak: (Possibly Charisma, but maybe nothing here yet)
Rings:
Boots:
Arms:
Hands:

Yeah, as you can see, I haven't though of much yet.

Miscellaneous:
Mount - Griffon zombie?
A few other bodyguards, minotaurs or ogre skeleton/zombies probably.
Important: Wand of Benign Transposition - 50 charges - 750 gold. So useful when you've got fodder that's always willing.

[Retech]

If you can get someone to start with craft wondrous item, it might be worth it to go ahead and get Headband of Wis +4, for 8000 gp.

Have you considered starting older to get some additional bonuses on mental stats?

[darksolitaire]

Would you be willing to add Mystic Theurge to the mix? Wizard(1)-Cleric(3)-Mystic Theurge(2)-True Necromancer(14) would get caster level 18 for cleric, and caster level 16 for wizard.

[faus7rav3n]

I'm working on a build similar to what i'm going to post now. It's a rip off of the Necrosis build from the WotC forums a while back.

Necropolitan/Spellstitched (If you can clear it with your DM. I had to devise a method of spreading out the SLA's over several levels so your gain in power isn't outrageous, also helps the negotiations.) Is DMM:Persist allowed? If not use Extend Spell for good effect if you need.

Pump WIS and CHA to gain SR = Cha Mod and a number of SLA's based on your WIS score.

Warlock2/Cleric4/TN14

You'll gain access to TN with Animate Dead/Command Undead as SLA's from Spellstitched.

Warlock will gain as your CHA based Arcane Class and give you access to Dark Invocations. Great Charisma and flavor for luring people with your invocations for dark experiments. Free flight, shadowy things and alot of fun.

Cleric will gain as your Divine Class and give you acess to 9th level casting. Giving you access to healing to keep your subjects alive and undead creation mastery. Domains are your choice. I use Planning and UnDeath for my DMM Persist build.

FEAT!: Take Mother Cyst from Libris Mortis. Gives access to the Cyst Line of spells. Nothing says evil Chirurgeon like implanting a cyst that allows you to controll, manipulate and ultimately infect massive numbers of people to serve as your minions. Also grants you a nice spell called Empowered Cyst. Gives you +8 DEX, WIS, CON for a nice long time. RAW can be Persisted.

What ever else you decide to take is ultimately up to you dependant on your desired flavor. Good luck and enjoy!

My 2 cp.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Roll a Dread Necro, get everything you want, with none of the 'suck' or 'fail' involved.