Dread Necromancer

[LTwerewolf]

It's my turn to dm once we finish the campaign we're on, and one of my players expressed interest in playing a dread necro (it's an evil seafaring campaign). He's new to the game, however, and needs some help building his character. We're starting at level 5 and probably ending up around 17-20.

To go with that, each player is going to have a nemesis (or more, they're going to be a nemesis of someone else). The nemesis is intended to be the opposite of the player's character, but slightly more powerful (because the entire party will be fighting them.) For him I was thinking a gestalt cleric/radiant servant of pelor and duskblade.

[Rhizzaer]

Dude, just go straight Cleric/Radiant Servant. If you remember your buffs, a cleric can mix it up in melee at any level, and the spontaneous crazy spells + enhanced turning feats will just make him tear through anything like tissue paper. A simple spell-storing mace will do everything you want your duskblade to.

[Madara]

It's my turn to dm once we finish the campaign we're on, and one of my players expressed interest in playing a dread necro (it's an evil seafaring campaign). He's new to the game, however, and needs some help building his character. We're starting at level 5 and probably ending up around 17-20.

To go with that, each player is going to have a nemesis (or more, they're going to be a nemesis of someone else). The nemesis is intended to be the opposite of the player's character, but slightly more powerful (because the entire party will be fighting them.) For him I was thinking a gestalt cleric/radiant servant of pelor and duskblade.

Is it a gestalt game? Because that would be too powerful, even against a full party. Otherwise the radiant servant sounds like a good choice, but you might want to find a way to fit that into a seafaring game.

Point him to K's necromancer's guide and the dread necromancer handbooks. Those cover the basics. The sad thing for him is he doesn't get undead for a few levels yet.

[Silva Stormrage]

Just as a warning if you do go radiant servant watch out if he becomes undead. Instantly dying without a save due to an enemy using greater turning isn't that much fun...

[Answerer]

Yeah, Radiant Servant might be a bit too much of a hard counter to his character.

[Glimbur]

Just as a warning if you do go radiant servant watch out if he becomes undead. Instantly dying without a save due to an enemy using greater turning isn't that much fun...

Depending on how many undead minions the Dread Necro is dragging around, they might absorb the first turn attempt. It is pretty scary if your enemy has a 'no save just die'.

[Doxkid]

A straight cleric from the Player's Handbook.

No, seriously. Out of the box it can pretty much 1v1 him no problem and a well designed one can also bring down a lot of his undead very quickly if he's one of those "I HAVE AN ARMY!...of 1 hd skeletons. That one's name is george, and that one is Elizabeth and that one is..." kinda guys. Most first time necromancers are.

[Spuddles]

Is it a gestalt game? Because that would be too powerful, even against a full party. Otherwise the radiant servant sounds like a good choice, but you might want to find a way to fit that into a seafaring game.

Point him to K's necromancer's guide and the dread necromancer handbooks. Those cover the basics. The sad thing for him is he doesn't get undead for a few levels yet.

Gestalting enemies is actually a great way to balance encounters vs a party without adding more monsters or HD. Additional HD tends to be far more unbalanced than giving something 2x as many class abilities.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

As far as building a Dread Necro, there's three things enabled he can leverage:

1) Fear. If he takes Dread Witch, he can Fear Stack pretty easily, particularly if he picks up Aura of Terror to stack on his 5th level Fear Aura. Toss out a Kelgore's Grave Mist + Fell Frighten before they hit your superpowered Fear Aura and you've got Panicked opponents. Really handy battlefield control

2) Negative Levels. Particularly if he picks up a Slaymate (highly suggested for any dread necro who plans on using metamagic), Enervation Metamagic'ing can produce some very obnoxious effects. Split Ray Empowered Enervation is a lot of fun to toss around.

3) Minionmancy. Quite frankly, he's got Disposable Minions. By the boatload. The Corpsecrafter feat line is pretty good at making them obnoxious. If he picks up Animate Dread Warrior/Skeletal Champion, then he can get minions with class levels. Feats like Destructive Retribution can make disposable mooks into suicide bombers which end up healing the other disposable minions.

As far as a nemesis, you've got some options:

1) Your idea of RSoP is nice, since a PC has access to a lot of Turn Resistance, so at least he shouldn't go poof when you Greater Turning. However, I don't like 'either it is a win button or it fails utterly' mechanics like that. A Favored Soul would do better. Not as much 'over the top' power, and works well.

2) Paladin/Crusader. It gives a nice dichotomy of 'caster vs melee'. Paladin gives him enough saves to have a chance of resisting stuff, and Crusader gives him meaningful abilities.

3) Druid, leveraging the whole 'nature vs unnatural' angle.