Dread necromancer//Death master gestalt character?

[maximus25]

Would this be amazing or crap? Undead minion, spells to supplement the dread necro's pitiful spell list, eventual lich transformation. Looks pretty awesome. But how should I build this character?


Any 3.5 or 3.0 books are allowed. We are starting out on a pirate ship, in the middle of the blood sea. We have been kidnapped.


I think this character will be awesome.

[Coidzor]

Well, you at least would have fairly ample incentive to PrC out of Death Master, IIRC, but keep in dread necro for the HD cap increasers.

Though, generally, gestalting is for adding something that you really wouldn't get on the other side of the gestalt. So after the 3rd level of Death Master, unless you like the casting or class features that much, the most important thing, access to animate dead, is achieved, so one could start gestalting with another class.

[*.*.*.*]

At level 20, you become a double Lich. DM's ability says you become a Lich even if non-humanoid(Undead in this case)


Yo dawg, I herd you liek liches

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Rather than Death Master, you should probably go Cleric with the Deathbound domain. The domain granted ability never explicitly states it only applies to divine spells...

[Fouredged Sword]

No, dip spellthief / bard / sublime chord // dread necromancer.

Take the master spellthief feat from complete scondral.

Now you use your massive control pool multiplier from dread necro tallying all of your casterlevels into one pool.

Sublime chord is a fast increaseing CL used to boost this to silly levels.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

No, dip spellthief / bard / sublime chord // dread necromancer.

Take the master spellthief feat from complete scondral.

Now you use your massive control pool multiplier from dread necro tallying all of your casterlevels into one pool.

Sublime chord is a fast increaseing CL used to boost this to silly levels.

Still want to take a one-level dip in Cleric to increase HD by 1.5. Might as well make it Cloistered Cleric. It also gives you another pool of rebuke undead uses for fueling Divine feats...

[NecroRick]

Go full Dread Necro, 20 all the way in that class, but then pick something else (not more necro - you have dread necro that is all you ever need) for the other side of the tree.

At level 8 or 9 or whenever you can get it, dip Ur Priest.

Because Evil x Evil = Awesome

Dunno what to take for the first 8 levels of the other side of the gestalt though.
A lot of early dread necro is melee (DR, infinite healing), then you get spectral hand and can stand back and slap people with your charnel touch from range (oh yeah).

So my recommendation is something that will make you even better at early melee (but not cleric, because then you don't get Ur Priest).

OR

Go for an Uttercold Necro build - look for stuff that will give you immunity or resistance to cold, and/or big blasty area spells that have an elemental descriptor.

[Fouredged Sword]

Just throwing this out there, but warblade.

Mix it up as a warlord leader of an undead mob. Good HD, strong attacks, save boosting abilities. Focus on iorn heart and dimond mind.

[Hazzardevil]

Well the only problem with this is MADness, you need potentially 4 stats, Int, Cha, Dex and Con presuming you aren't starting at 20.
And really there isn't much reason taking levels 16-20 on deathmaster, so I would reccomend taking Mage of the Arcane Order or Dread Witch.
Because really all you gain from the Lich template a second time is the ability to use your touch attack a 2nd time, and that touch attack is rather lack luster.

[Fouredged Sword]

You could use a spontanious cleric with the thirst and sand domains and versitle spellcaster to gain early entry into walker of the waste. Now you are a dry litch by level 11.

Water may be an issue, as it kills you rather quickly, but death isn't really a problem. Litch abilities at level 11 are rather game breaking.

[maximus25]

This character worked out awesome like. I got a ghoul as an undead companion, which is pretty sweet.

[JaronK]

Would this be amazing or crap? Undead minion, spells to supplement the dread necro's pitiful spell list, eventual lich transformation. Looks pretty awesome. But how should I build this character?

Terrible. The Death Master is a horrible class, with the only real advantages being Animate Dead at level 3 and the Lich transformation that stacks with the Dread Necromancer Lich transformation at level 20. Other than that, it's awful, especially the horrible MAD.

Consider instead using the UA variant Necromancer, which gets improved undead (the hp should stack with Dread Necromancer gained HP), a minion at level 1 (that's better than the Death Master one), and full Wizard casting. You might even PrC out on the Wizard side into something like Pale Master. If possible, Tainted Sorcerer would fix the MAD issues that will come up.

JaronK

[maximus25]

Terrible. The Death Master is a horrible class, with the only real advantages being Animate Dead at level 3 and the Lich transformation that stacks with the Dread Necromancer Lich transformation at level 20. Other than that, it's awful, especially the horrible MAD.

Consider instead using the UA variant Necromancer, which gets improved undead (the hp should stack with Dread Necromancer gained HP), a minion at level 1 (that's better than the Death Master one), and full Wizard casting. You might even PrC out on the Wizard side into something like Pale Master. If possible, Tainted Sorcerer would fix the MAD issues that will come up.

JaronK

I already made it tho.

[Sception]

What level are you at? Low enough and you can just multiclass away from the death master levels, just use them for wand access, and deal with it.

The combination really doesn't help much. The deathmaster's casting is far to MAD, the rebuking levels don't stack, the undead servant is fun but not good, the spell list is less versatile and helpful then just wizard, and it doesn't help with the dread necro's saves, skills, or BAB.

If you really want double caster, maybe look at qualifying for ur-priest on the death mage side?

If you're stuck with full progression DM/DN, look for spells, especially on the DM side, that don't allow saves (animation, summoning, battlefield manipulation, etc), and try to keep out of melee as much as possible. Abuse magic jar to it's fullest extent when you get access to it as well.


Basically, unless you're going for some specific combo or cheese, you want to use your second half to shore up skills, saves, and BaB, without requiring significant stat expenditure outside of Cha. Shoring up HP is also useful, but going necropolitan is a good idea anyway, and would nullify any HD boosts you might otherwise nab. I recommend Rogue or Bard myself, both come with a mess of skill points and UMD as a class skill. Both have extra bonuses - The rogue ratchet's up your touch attacks considerably, making the touch attack oriented Pale Master PrC more interesting, while the bard diversifies your spellcasting a bit (or a lot with the right PrC) and, with a feat from libris mortis, lets you buff to your minions a bit with bardsong.