The Nightmarish General (lvl 20 build) need suggestions/critique

[ixnay]

Hello there, people. Long time reader, first time poster.

I've been playing around with some character builds, and after lengthy research and looking through various books, I've found that this build I am about to share with you here is my personal favourite, due to the flavour.

now, I am an expert D&D player, and I dont know all the minmax stuff, or if its OP or whatever it is, but I tend to go for a character concept which has some general uses.

This build mainly focuses dread necromancer with full dread witch and nightmare spinner, in addition to two levels of marshal (to get charisma aura and +1 AC aura for my minions)

First off; this makes my caster a lvl 16 dread necromancer, so I wont get lvl 9 spells.

These are the following feats i've been looking at:

lvl 1: Black lore of Moil (complete arcane p. 75)
lvl 3: tomb-tainted soul (complete mage p. 24)
lvl 6: spell focus Necromancy
lvl 9: Fell Frighten (dont remember book atm)
lvl 12: Nymphs kiss (dont remember book atm)
lvl 15: Greater spell focus necromancy
lvl 18: Spell penetration

and for the human feat, I was thinking versatile spellcaster.

The martial proficiency of dread necro is pretty pointless due to marshal covering those needs.

I am assuming the character has +2 int bonus, so it can get some decent skills. This character is mainly charisma-based, which fits well with the leader of undead/general theme, aswell as fits the fear use and intimidation.

so if, by lvl 20, the character has 32 CA (+11 bonus) with various items, tome, and whatnot, then it will get +22 to diplomacy, bluff, disguise, gather info, handle animal, intimidate, and all the perform skills (given by marshal)

so, by lvl 20 this is my skillscores of the important skills, with following items: cloack of charisma, tome of +4 cha, circlet of persuasion:

bluff: 46
concentration: 23
diplomacy: 37
disguise: 28
gather info: 27
handle animal: 27
intimidate: 55
know arcana: 23
know planes: 15
perform oratory, string, sing, dance, and act: 26 to all (this represents the characters life as a soldier, telling stories, entertaining the troops, balls, and all that)
Spellcraft: 15


Apart from this, my plan is pretty simple. I do not intend to overuse any fear effects, but I want to mix it up a little. I will probably use the mummy from summon undead V as a backup, and due to the marshal, I am probably able to wear a mithril +5 breastplate, and if I remember correctly, there are special shields that have less or no chance of arcane failure, and I can give the character a weapon, so it fits the general-theme. He will have a crossbow and a bag of screaming bolts (for flavour) cloack of charisma +6 amulet of nat armor +5 ring of resistance +5 tome of cha +4.

Circlet of persuasion also seems like a decent choice, since it adds bonus to loads of stuff

For my familiar I will take a Quasit with wolf alternate form, probably give it a barding or something so that I can take it with me wherever I go without people having to notice it.

Any thoughts comments?

original statline with 32pts buy:

str: 13
dex: 10
con: 14
int: 14
wis: 08
cha: 17

Any suggestions for improvements, without making it even more one-sided? and I dont feel like trading any of the class levels for any other classes. It is mainly feats, skills, and magical items I am looking for advice on.

Edit:

How about ride skill + create undead horse? it would fit the fluff.

[HunterOfJello]

First things first, Feats:
Black Lore of Moil is a feat I'd never heard of before and is actually pretty cool. It does have a prerequisite of Spell Focus (necromancy) and CL 7th though, so you wouldn't be able to get this at level 1 unless you pull some major shenanigans.

Fell Frighten is from Libris Mortis. It is a decent metamagic if you're going to be stacking fear effects. If you weren't, then it wouldn't be worth obtaining.

Nymph's Kiss is from the Book of Exalted Deeds. If your DM hasn't given you approval to gain Exalted feats while being evil, then you wouldn't be able to maintain this feat. It requires you to be an especially Good character.

Versatile Spellcaster is always a nice feat. If you pair it up with Heighten Spell you can gain access to PrCs faster. You could use this to gain access to Nightmare Spinner faster, but I bet you want to get in several levels of Dread Necro to gain the fear aura and some other abilities anyway.

The spell focuses and penetration are always good.

~~~~~~~~

I would definitely drop the second level of Marshall for another level of Dread Necromancer. There's no reason to lose a level of spellcasting just to get a +1 AC aura bonus. If you aren't likely to be playing the game at level 20, then I can understand why you would take a level of Marshall instead of just going with Dread Necro and gaining 9th level spells. Those auras are pretty damn strong if you have a high charisma score. If you are going to be at level 20, then 9th level spells are far superior to any aura.

Did you consider Practiced Spellcaster since you'll be losing 3 caster levels?

[ixnay]

well, my level progression will be thusly: 4 levels of necromancers, 5 levels of dread witch, 2 levels of marshal, 5 levels of nightmare spinner, and then finally the last 4 dread necro levels. I havent really thought about it any more specifically than this, but basically the last class I will put on character is nightmare spinner. So all requirements have plenty of time to be fulfilled, etc.

I actually chose black lore of moil to have it with the Kelgores Grave Mist spell from PH2. Its a rather nasty spell, with 20x20x20ft area, causing all living creatures to become fatigued, and take 1d6 cold damage every round, and no saves. if I add the black lore of moil, thats another 2d6 dmg each round (if my understanding of the feat is correct)

The Nymphs kiss I will have to throw away, due to the good-alignment. My character is basically CN or evil-aligned.

Imagine my character as the bad guy from Army of Darkness 3, only it's seirous.

I could do away with the second level of marshal, but I do enjoy the fluff of the +1 ac aura. basically, I can call it a sort of fear aura (only for fluff-reason) that makes enemies have -1 to hit my allies within 60ft of me. Purely fluff, no mechanical changes.

Apart from this, I was hoping (despite dread necromancer having worst BAB ingame) to have a general-looking type. Mithril breastplate, and I am pretty sure there was some materials for shield that removed arcane chance failure, and I can add the magic property "calling" I think it was, to it. I'm thinking about the one where it stays in another plane til you call it and it appears magically.

Edit: I could go for the feat that allows one category heavier of armor, and then go with mithral fullplate or something.

Then add some cool looking weapon (doubt scythe is 1-hand, but something that works like it that I could call a scythe would be fine) with +5 and possibly magebane, and a gauntlet of truestrike to be able to kill those arcane casters when I find them. He will also have crossbow with quite a few screaming bolts (not as good at lvl 20, but still fluffy)

Oh, maybe add in Dimmensional stride boots for easy access to enemy casters.

I was also thinking about possibly making myself a permanent dead companion. Only one, to carry the Wrapped tower shield, or maybe a banner (I think there was an undead magic banner somewhere) which fits the whole general theme.

So here is how I imagine he will work in combat: He never focuses on one thing entirely. I will try to mix between melee and casting, and screaming bolts when appropriate. He will mainly be keeping an eye on party, helping those that need help with spells and fear effects to keep them safe from enemy, and if I get threatened up close by enemies, I use fear/intimidate on them in close quarters to get them away or to cower, so I can strike them with weapon.

Ultimately, whenever my character sees an arcane caster / invoker, my charater will go (fluffwise) bananas in the head and actively try to hunt down the caster by teleporting next to it, possibly making it useless with some intimidate or fear stuff, and then just whack him to pieces with the magebane weapon.

I've also thought about creating myself an undead horse so I can ride something, but this is a bit superfluous.

And I totally forgot the order of feats when I put them in. I will probably do; spell focus necromancy lvl1, tomb-tainted soul lvl3, spell penetration lvl6, black lore of moil lvl9, fell frighte lvl12n, greater spell focus lvl 15, which leaves me three options (lvl 18, lvl 20 and free human feat)

I could take spell focus conjuration + augmented summoning for an additional +4 str on my undeads, for a total of +8 in conjunction with lvl 8 dread necro feat, but I doubt its worth it.

[Morbis Meh]

Personally for a nightmarish general the PrC Boneknight from Eberron Five Nations is pretty awesome. It doesn't fit at all with your build but you basically are able to grow your own bone armour, ride a massive skeletal mount and command a small legion of undead. It would be a lot of fun to try it out one day....

[ixnay]

Boneknight seems decent, but I'd rather make a group of baddies lead by the marshal, then a boneknight captain or right hand, and stuff like that. One could probably make 4 characters who together can summon a swarm of undeads. That would be pretty damn cool.

I think I might actually make a group of necro-oriented characters and see where it takes me. I might have to start a necromancer-based campaign at some point.

i would gladly welcome classes that are oriented towards necro/death in this way.