210 HD of Undead

[Illithilich]

I have an NPC prepared who is a tenth level Dread necromancer (he is also a vampire). He also has a Rod of Undead Mastery (double your control limit). So he gets 200 HD of animated undead, 10 HD of controlled undead, and whatever he can cast command on. Suggestions?

[JoshuaZ]

I have an NPC prepared who is a tenth level Dread necromancer (he is also a vampire). He also has a Rod of Undead Mastery (double your control limit). So he gets 200 HD of animated undead, 10 HD of controlled undead, and whatever he can cast command on. Suggestions?

Deathsheads from Tome of Magic are always nice. They can be used to easily dominate living creatures (their dominate ability is Su, not Sp so even spell-resistance is ignored) and their bonus to knowledge checks is just helpful for knowing obscure stuff.

If they pick up Awaken Undead as one of their extra spells, then they get a lot of neat tricks. Zombie hydras are always fun. They regain all of their (Ex) abilities, which arguably includes their head regeneration.

Similarly, Animate Dread Warrior is great when you can use it on corpses with nice class levels.

Zombie dragons are convenient, both in terms of coolness and in terms of transport (since DNs don't easily get any form of flight). If one doesn't want to waste too many hit die on that, then giant bats have fewer hit die (I don't unfortunately remember which book they are in).

[JeminiZero]

If one doesn't want to waste too many hit die on that, then giant bats have fewer hit die (I don't unfortunately remember which book they are in).

There is at least one in Core (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direBat.htm).

[Madara]

Dragons(If you use the dracomicon template)
Genie(They keep their magic flight, and make great archers)
Giants(Crazy levels of strength, and if you can get the ones with oversized weapons)
Lizardfolk(For low HD soldiers, they have better stats that actual human skeletons)

A lot depends of if your NPC has corpsecrafter.

[Illithilich]

A lot depends of if your NPC has corpsecrafter.

As a Dread Necromancer he gets the undead mastery bonus, which is almost the same thing (a little better actually). I was under the impression that corpse crafter did not stack with that.

[Flickerdart]

420 1/2 HD skeletons is clearly the best use of this.

[Vegan Zombie]

Don't forget about Slaymates from Libris Mortis to augment your Dread Nectomancers metamagic'd necromancy spells!

[Strormer]

I do love me a good necromental. :smallyuk:

Also, anything flying that you can ride on just looks incredible as you cast nightmarish spells on those beneath you.

My favorite trick was having a group of super-undead that I'd prepped with a wand that would teleport them en masse to wherever I needed them. Made for amusing monologue moments where I ended with summoning dread monsters like a power rangers villain.

[Darth Stabber]

Slaymate is certainly worth it's 2HD

A zombie dragon makes a fine mount (assuming you use the draconomicon template)

Corpsecrafter and DN's undead mastery stack by RAW (though it wouldn't be unreasonable for a GM to rule otherwise).

A triceratops skeleton is great for tearing new holes in things.

Deathsheads offer you a very nice ability you would otherwise lack access to (dominate), the bonuses to knowledge are just gravy.

If you can get a hold of a huecuva, those are nice, offering you all the nice features of divine spell casters (though the turn resist can be a pain in the butt).

Mace of Dark Children gives you +3 to rebuke and +2 to effective level for rebuke and control (and looks bad@$$)

If you can make a skeleton of a huge or larger creature that has an exoskeleton as opposed to an internal skeleton, you now have a tank.

[Azernak0]

Corpsecrafter and DN's undead mastery stack by RAW (though it wouldn't be unreasonable for a GM to rule otherwise).


The hitpoints would stack, yes, but the bonus to Strength is enhancement on both of those. I believe the same bonus type from different sources do not stack.

To the OP: You can't go too wrong with the ultra annoying Shadow army. Players are resting? Shadows shoot through the wall and give the party a good pat on the back. Wights are fun for this too, though they get blowed up real fast.

I always liked throwing nasty undead at the party. No one is too concerned about a skeletal giant. But a "rotting mound of maggot-ridden flesh that seems to be held together by invisible thread" combined with a couple of wraiths will get the party a little worried. Just be careful because 210 HD of undead might overwhelm them all at once.

[Madara]

As a Dread Necromancer he gets the undead mastery bonus, which is almost the same thing (a little better actually). I was under the impression that corpse crafter did not stack with that.

Its better than just plain corpsecrafter, but the feat chain is worth it. +10ft. movement means no one gets away, and +4 initiative means they always win initiative, which will bother your players :smallsmile:

[Darth Stabber]

Its better than just plain corpsecrafter, but the feat chain is worth it. +10ft. movement means no one gets away, and +4 initiative means they always win initiative, which will bother your players :smallsmile:

Yeah, there are many really cool feats with corpsecrafter as a prerequisite. nimble bones being the best of them.

[GoatBoy]

Couldn't you take 48 skeletons and turn them into a mob, as from DMGII?

[Lonely Tylenol]

If it were me, I'd have a contingency of Shadows, or some other form of corporeal undead, for scouting and general havoc on anything not capable of killing it outright.

Hydras are incredibly good zombies, because their attack routine (x bites, where x is the number of heads) is a standard action. As such, you can do worse than spending 20 HD for a ten-headed hydra that is enhanced to deal more damage with each head.

A zombie creature can still make a partial charge (move up to its base speed and attack), even if it cannot make a full-round charge (move up to double its base speed and attack). That makes creatures with the Powerful Charge feature awesome zombie candidates. The triceratops is out of the question, unfortunately (you cannot create a zombie with more than 20 HD, and a zombie triceratops is 32 HD out of the gate), but a zombie rhinoceros has 16 HD and a Powerful Charge of 4d6+24 (plus four times whatever STR bonuses it gets from you). I'd grab two (a total of 32 HD) for those situations where you just need to mow something down.

If at all possible, grab at least one creature with (ex) flight. It's been mentioned that dragons are great for this. Giant eagles and dire bats are also good candidates (each 8HD, so they are weaker, but less costly). One might be enough.

If at all possible, grab templated undead. Huecuva and death knight are great for this, if you can somehow grab them; a death knight in particular can be great, since they attract followers of their own on a weekly basis (and some of their followers, such as the 1d4 wights, can themselves attract followers).

[Acanous]

yees..."Attract".... probably a good 2-300 ever time you "pass through" a town...

[Lonely Tylenol]

yees..."Attract".... probably a good 2-300 ever time you "pass through" a town...

It's not my fault if I want to start a Shadowcalypse and a Wightocalypse at the same time. :smallamused:

[Red_Dog]

420 1/2 HD skeletons is clearly the best use of this.

If you turn them into Mobs, that might be not so bad actually ^^ [I know GoatBoy already suggested it]

*I am assuming he is CL10?*
More on skeletons => Using command undead seems like better use of his potential to me as I think, he can relinquish command of his mindless undead and free up the HD limit.

Command Undead has long duration [day/lvl] and as far as I know it has NO limit. If he has chain spell, heu can, at CL10 command quite a few.

This shtick works a lot better with higher caster levels, so I suggest practiced spell caster if he doesn't already have it.

Just let him cast chain command undead for half of the time he could control them, and than the other half time, go invade the countryside with your undead legions ^^.

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P.S. For undead armies, thinking undead[ghouls or shades and such] could be an amazing alternative as they can simply be convinced to work with him to free up as much HD as possible and they make other of there kind[most of he time] by being victorious ^^

Also, I suppose on what to do with still unused HD, I would say, zombie Hydras with there un-natural amount of attacks for a standard action is one of the best choices.

[Demon of Death]

If you can find a way to use it, use General of Undeath (http://dndtools.eu/spells/ghostwalk--94/general-of-undeath--1371/), to add another 100 HD of undead, and if you can get it from a staff or rod, just re-cast it every few days.

[kestrel404]

I've got a few useful troop combos/plans for such an individual:

Skeletal Leopards (3hd, 40' base move, pounce) act as scouts and flanking forces.

Zombie Lions (5hd, 40' base move, pounce, large, power attack feat) ridden by Zombie Orcs (1hd, 23 strength, wielding spears) to act as heavy cavalry.

Skeletal Grig Archers (1HD, 24 dex, tiny, 20' base movement, proficient with longbows), with poisoned arrows. Large quantities of poison for minions is easy - minor creation, preferably psionic either with a minion or a psionic tatoo of for 50gp. The tattoo will generate 960 1 ounce doses of any poison your craft (alchemy) roll is good enough to produce for 1 hour. A scroll of the spell can do lots more for longer if you're expecting an extended battle or long setup time but costs a lot more.

Skeletal Manticores make good shock troops.
Zombie Ogres make good heavy infantry.
Skeletal Orcs make good light infantry.

And as has been mentioned, Zombie Dragons are awesome, though Zombie Rocs are also good and within your ability to animate.

That's just stuff in core, btw, and just zombies and skeletons since you don't have Create Undead or Create Greater Undead on your spell list yet.

[Fyermind]

Check out the zombie and skeleton templates from Libris Mortis. Unkillable 10 headed zombie hydras (why not make them diseased and everything else too?) make great combatants.

As mentioned Chained command undead and a few levels of dungeons make your limiting factor how many corpses you can attract and how much obsidian you can blow on your undead. Speaking of which, using skeletons as miners is perfectly reasonable. Mine your own obsidian and then you are mostly looking for bodies. Preferably bodies of powerful beings.

All the undead mentioned above are great. Humanoid skeleton archers are also very useful, as they let you bring more attacks to bear at once.

Undead with spellcasting levels or initiator levels are potent uses of HD. Awakened unintelligent undead can be trained in feats and skills and are therefor strictly superior for your active 210 HD.