New player wanting to play a necromancer cleric

[Dunkoro]

I'd like to play a necromancer cloistered cleric for an upcoming campaign. Neither me nor any other player or even game master are very proficient with d&d, so I didn't want something TOO broken (like Dweomerkeeper or the like). My GM even allowed me for Animate Dead to not have a material component, but instead undead take "place" in your maximum undead control limil after they die until you rest.
What are the best prestige classes and/or feats (besides corpsecrafter ofc) to get for this kind of cleric?
What would be the best race to use with this? I thought that either human or dragonborn lesser aasimar.
Would I have enough free feats to still use DMM: Persist? (My GM doesn't allow for use of Nightstick's turns for divine feats).
I propably want to be True Neutral (is there any deity associated with undead that's True Neutral? because animating undead is not evil all in itself... I want Undeath domain alongside any other Death-related domain).

[Madara]

I'd like to play a necromancer cloistered cleric for an upcoming campaign. Neither me nor any other player or even game master are very proficient with d&d, so I didn't want something TOO broken (like Dweomerkeeper or the like). My GM even allowed me for Animate Dead to not have a material component, but instead undead take "place" in your maximum undead control limil after they die until you rest.
Well, he should not have taken away the material component, even with that restriction. I suggest he reinstate it until you find a way in RAW to avoid the cost. Also, being unfamiliar with the game means that you should have a stronger character, it can counter your lack of proficiency with the game.

What are the best prestige classes and/or feats (besides corpsecrafter ofc) to get for this kind of cleric?

I'm assuming you want traditional Animate Dead? Usually, one of the best options is to play straight Cleric, rather than PrCing. I suggest you take a look at the handbook (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872726/Revised_Necromancer_Handbook)

What would be the best race to use with this? I thought that either human or dragonborn lesser aasimar.
Necropolitan Anything is usually pretty good. Otherwise go human, you don't need a large Wis bonus to place an Undead Lord

Would I have enough free feats to still use DMM: Persist? (My GM doesn't allow for use of Nightstick's turns for divine feats).
You'll probably have enough for once or twice a day. You won't be spamming it, but necromancy doesn't burn too many feats unless you go all out.

I propably want to be True Neutral (is there any deity associated with undead that's True Neutral? because animating undead is not evil all in itself... I want Undeath domain alongside any other Death-related domain).
Be devoted to an Ideal rather than a god, and make sure to pick up the Necromancy domain from Ebberron.


Answers in bold.

[Dunkoro]

Ok then, if necromancer is underpowered for "just learning" campaign, which of the following would be best (in terms of: powerlevel, low stress on GM and flavour). And yes, I DO want to play a cleric nontheless.

Dragonborn Paladin, but better (Prestige Paladin/Ordained Champion/Radiant Servant of Pelor, sadly no RKV)

Sacred Fist

Shadowcraft Mage with DMM Heighten and Earth Spell for shenenigans.

Dweomerkeeper

Malconvoker/Thraumaturgist

Some other option?
Note though, that even though my GM allows us to use material from nearly all books (so I might for eg. use Superior Unarmed Strike from ToB), new "mechanics" like psionics, maneuvers, icarnum, vestiges and such are all disallowed (he doesn't want to learn them).

[_flint_]

I believe he was saying that you don't want to limit yourself with your build for fear of being OP.

Now, as far as being a necromancer goes, I think sacred fist would be hilarious (but not all that great) monk 2/cleric X/Sacred fist X would be really versatile

An other option you have likely thought of is dread necromancer, which is sorta fun, but it's most entertaining feature comes at 19th level

Better than dragonborn paladin, do a dragonborn dragon shaman. pick a race that does con or cha and be the healer/tank.

[Dunkoro]

I didn't mean a dragonborn Paladin, only a cleric that seems like a better in almost every way paladin (current build idea is: Cloistered Cleric 4/Ordained Champion 5/Prestige Paladin 1/Radiant Servant of Pelor 2/Divine Disciple 1/Sacred Exorcist 1/X 6). And while I'm developing the idea, I'm liking it more and more.

[Malroth]

Well for a "Just learning campaign" a necromancer Cloistered cleric should be fine Take either Extend spell or toumb tainted soul at lv 1 as well as Fell animate and Divine metamagic Fell drain alt lv 3 so you can use Fell drain Inflict Minor wounds to turn foes between 0 and -9 into zombies at the same time you're getting second lv spells. Then at lv 6 grab corpse crafter.

[JaronK]

Honestly, I think for a just learning campaign a Dread Necromancer would be better than a Cleric. They're more straight forward... fewer overall spells, no need to multiclass, and so on.

JaronK

[awa]

i agree clerics with their vast spell lists can massively bog down play/ drown players in options. The dread necromancer is a good solid class nice and focused with some interesting class features.

[fishbrains]

Since most of your questions have been answered, I will answer the 1 remaining. Wee-jas is probably the deity you seek. I've played the Necromancy focused Cloistered Cleric of Wee-Jas before, it was great fun.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I would also strongly suggest Dread Necromancer as your necromanctic class of choice. Bookwork is far easier, since you automatically have spontaneous access to your entire spell list. They can also be quite powerful, with the right tricks. Not the least of which is the absolute TON of undead you can control at any given time, thanks to being able to toss your Charisma mod in to multiply with your CL for purposes of control cap. With the nerf-bat your GM threw at you, this pretty much negates that as a problem.

[Madara]

I would also strongly suggest Dread Necromancer as your necromanctic class of choice. Bookwork is far easier, since you automatically have spontaneous access to your entire spell list. They can also be quite powerful, with the right tricks. Not the least of which is the absolute TON of undead you can control at any given time, thanks to being able to toss your Charisma mod in to multiply with your CL for purposes of control cap. With the nerf-bat your GM threw at you, this pretty much negates that as a problem.

I think it depends on party size/ composition. While I agree that DN is a great choice, the Cleric would work better in a smaller party, because of its flexibility.

[Jeff the Green]

I'll chime in my support for Dread Necromancer.take all 20 levels, or if you want to dabble in fear magic, replace five of those with Dread Witch. If you do, be sure to become a Necropolitan ASAP. Otherwise take Tomb Tainted Soul and retrain it at 20.

Also, consider adding animate dead as a 3rd level spell. There's no reason the class focused on creating undead armies has to wait three levels past the cleric to start in on it. And ask if your 8th level class feature counts as Corpsecrafter for meeting peeress, since it sucks to take a literally useless feat.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I'll chime in my support for Dread Necromancer.take all 20 levels, or if you want to dabble in fear magic, replace five of those with Dread Witch. If you do, be sure to become a Necropolitan ASAP. Otherwise take Tomb Tainted Soul and retrain it at 20.Agreed. However, to maximize the efficiency of Advanced Learning, it is best to take Dread Witch at levels 7-12, so your Dread Necro 8 Advanced Learning can pick up a 6th level spell like either Aura of Terror (for use with your own Fear Aura and Dread Witch to do area-effect lockdown) or Animate Skeletal Champion/Dread Warrior for UberMinions(tm).


Also, consider adding animate dead as a 3rd level spell. There's no reason the class focused on creating undead armies has to wait three levels past the cleric to start in on it. And ask if your 8th level class feature counts as Corpsecrafter for meeting peeress, since it sucks to take a literally useless feat.

Not completely worthless, you still get the +2 HP/HD, but it is significantly less useful than it would be to most others.

[Talderas]

I'd like to play a necromancer cloistered cleric for an upcoming campaign.

For a necromancer you want Cleric or Dread Necromancer and not Wizard. A wizard's only reliable undead is through animate dead. Clerics and Dread Necro's get rebuke undead and get undead other than zombies, skeletons, and dread warriors with ease. Cleric's major advantage over dread necromancers is the availability of desecrate. The major advantage of dread necromancers is the fantastically large undead HD limit. No matter what, animate dead has a HD cap on each undead equal to your HD. So if you're 11th level, no undead you control can have 12 or more HD. It's max HD for cap is caster level * 4 which means that you can effectively have 4 powerful minions (this would be the minimum number of minions the cleric would have). A dread necromancer instead gets their charisma modifier and a 24 charisma is not out of the question at level 7 so you will have at minimum at least 10 zombie/skeleton minions at your HD.

Create Undead is a non-starter for wizard necromancers since the spell doesn't put the created undead under the caster's control and requires rebuke to do that.

[Fouredged Sword]

My advice is to look up the "zombie dragon" template. Dragons get this in place of the "zombie" tempate and it is much better. There is no HD cap on them and they maintain a breath weapon. They are great mount, just kill a large silver dragon (paralisis for the win).

Also, fell animate can be made very useful for no cost animation of the dead. Just get a spell that lets you attack multiple times and finish off monsters that are droped to negative HP, but not killed.