Archivist Necromancer? Is it possible?

[Maho-Tsukai]

As the title says...the fluff seems to match, but people have claimed that your still better off with a cleric if you want to be a necromancer....but I want your opinions...can an archivist make a good necromancer? If so, how would one go about building an archivist necromancer and what would they play out like? Could they actually be a passable minion master or will they be destine to suck at that like the wizard? Likewise, how good would they be at the rest of necromancy? If anybody has opinions on this I would like to know...

[Silva Stormrage]

Well assuming they have access to wizard's spells through the divine magician variant they would be better than both wizards and clerics at necromancy. They would get the main bonuses of cleric necromancy (desecrate + lower level animate dead) with the main bonuses of wizard necromancy (fear enervation + 30 other debuffs). The only thing it loses out on is rebuke undead. Which isn't that bad because rebuke undead is pretty terrible anyway for anything that isn't low level. The best way of getting high amounts of undead under your control is chained command undead which archivists can get through divine magician.

They still are worse than dread necromancer's at minion mancy though.

[MrRigger]

It depends on what you consider a necromancer, really. They do get the lower level cleric minion necromancy, and the more debuff focused wizard necromancy (through Divine Magician, Favored Soul Variant, and Domain spells). So really, if it's a necromancy spell, an archivist can get it. Sure, they lose out on some of the more attractive Domain Powers clerics get, but the wider spell list can make up for that. And while the archivist will never have the raw HD cap of a Dread Necromancer (no one will), with spawning chains, that doesn't matter anymore. So yeah, they can do necromancy just about as well as they can do anything with spells. If you've got a problem, the archivist has a spell for that.

MrRigger

[ShneekeyTheLost]

There was a trick somewhere... it involved Southern Magician feat to qualify for both sides of True Necromancer, which gets Turn Undead. Sure, the class abilities are sub-par for a PrC, but in your case, it's a full-progression class with class features other than 'I cast spells'. Or rather, you get 'I cast spells' PLUS actual class abilities.

[Maho-Tsukai]

I don't see how qualify for both sides is possible with an archivist since they don't actually get the divine magician ACF...last time I checked that one is exclusive to clerics since you give up a domain, which archivists don't get. However, they may still be able to qualify via anyspell, which they can get via the spell domain list. The death domain is harder to get, but a one level dip in horned harbinger dose it(and gets you rebuke, if that matters for anything). Contemplative is better for that, but you can take horned harbringer earlier, which is why I mentioned it as the earlier you can enter a class, the better.

EDIT: I realized archivist can still use the southern magician trick without divine magician since they don't need divine magician to learn command undead(Necromancy domain already gives it to them). As for the other requirements, a one level dip in Horned Harbinger gives you both the death domain and rebuke needed to enter the class. However, you lose not one, but TWO caster levels....so yeah...it's a pretty big sacrifice to get in and if you take all 14 levels you lose, counting the horned harbinger dip, 3 caster levels.....ouch. Master of shrouds makes it so you only lose 2 CLs, but 2 is still a lot....are there any 10/10 PrCs that advance rebuking?

[Doktor Per]

Archivist Necromancer is not only possible, but a sublime thing! You probably are going to want to take Tomb Tainted Soul, but that comes with some drawbacks. This is why you'll want to play an Illumian Half-Troll. Get a nice boost to your strength, the regeneration you so sorely need now that healing has gone out the window as well.

Why strength? Because Strength is now your casting stat. You're a tough sumbit to hit and drop, and you'll always have enough minions to be able to get out of dodge to bring MORE minions into the fray. It's a pretty bulletproof design.

[Yuki Akuma]

Take Spontaneous Wounder so you don't have to prepare Inflict spells to heal your minions (and yourself, if you take Tomb-Tainted Soul).

[dextercorvia]

I don't see how qualify for both sides is possible with an archivist since they don't actually get the divine magician ACF...last time I checked that one is exclusive to clerics since you give up a domain, which archivists don't get. However, they may still be able to qualify via anyspell, which they can get via the spell domain list. The death domain is harder to get, but a one level dip in horned harbinger dose it(and gets you rebuke, if that matters for anything). Contemplative is better for that, but you can take horned harbringer earlier, which is why I mentioned it as the earlier you can enter a class, the better.

EDIT: I realized archivist can still use the southern magician trick without divine magician since they don't need divine magician to learn command undead(Necromancy domain already gives it to them). As for the other requirements, a one level dip in Horned Harbinger gives you both the death domain and rebuke needed to enter the class. However, you lose not one, but TWO caster levels....so yeah...it's a pretty big sacrifice to get in and if you take all 14 levels you lose, counting the horned harbinger dip, 3 caster levels.....ouch. Master of shrouds makes it so you only lose 2 CLs, but 2 is still a lot....are there any 10/10 PrCs that advance rebuking?

You don't have to waste class levels on either of those things. For Rebuke, there is the Divine Channeler feat from Dragon #305. For the Death domain, you already have the spells, so all you need is the special ability -- just Planar Touchstone for it.

The main problem is that Southern Magician doesn't turn Archivist into an Arcane Spellcasting class. That makes the advancement on 1st level questionable. However, it isn't any worse than you would have paid for Death Delver or what have you.

[Maho-Tsukai]

Yeah, I just checked out Divine Channeler and it looks like that feat fills all my needs. With it I don't even need to take True Necromancer. A good old fashion Archivist/Contemplative(Deathbound domain and Undeath domain are ideal here for their granted powers as extra turning saves me feats(don't have to take divine channeler more then once to boost my number of rebuke attempts) and the deathbound domain power is good for any necromancer) works just fine as Divine Channeler's rebuke power is based on character level, not class level....and yeah, it's a weak rebuke, but I am mainly using it to qualify for stuff like Undead Mastery + Zone of animation in epic.