Using command undead to it's fullest

[sambouchah]

I play as an evil cleric of the Ruby Sorceress(Wee Jass) and want to know how to use my command undead to the fullest it can be. I am new to playing clerics and have(in the past) only played good clerics, so I'm not quite sure how to handle my control over the dead.

Thanks in advance, Sam

[Flickerdart]

The nice thing about Command Undead is that it works on unintelligent undead every time with no save. So raise a really big zombie or skeleton with Animate Dead - something twice your level. Normally, you can only control two of these, but you can just keep raising more and using Command Undead to bend the older ones to your will as well. Just...be careful of dispel magic.

This strategy (and everything else involving animating undead) really heavily relies on getting the right creatures to animate, so invest in some divinations and knowledge skills so that you can be aware of where those creatures live.

[sambouchah]

The nice thing about Command Undead is that it works on unintelligent undead every time with no save. So raise a really big zombie or skeleton with Animate Dead - something twice your level. Normally, you can only control two of these, but you can just keep raising more and using Command Undead to bend the older ones to your will as well. Just...be careful of dispel magic.

This strategy (and everything else involving animating undead) really heavily relies on getting the right creatures to animate, so invest in some divinations and knowledge skills so that you can be aware of where those creatures live.

So essentially I can push zombies to do my bidding as long a they aren't controlled by someone else? Because if so I'm keeping one around for a thrall. Please correct me if I'm wrong

[Silva Stormrage]

Um, I believe Flicker Dart is refering to the spell command undead, http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commandUndead.htm which Clerics don't get. (Unless you take the divine magician ACF and choose it as your second level spell).


If you are talking about rebuke undead then you need items. Lots of items, commanding undead only checks their total HD at the time of the original commanding. So if you get items that reduce the undead's turn resistance (Preferably into negatives) you can rebuke undead much more easily and effectively. Items like Rod of Defiance (MiC) and Lyre of the Restful Dead (Libris Mortis, Get someone else to play it or burn 1 skill point on preform string instruments and take 10). Also other items like Rod of the Netherworld (Libris Mortis) increase your rebuking level which allows you to command more and better undead.


Also read this http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872726/Revised_Necromancer_Handbook you can scroll down to the rebuking part if you wish.

[sambouchah]

Um, I believe Flicker Dart is refering to the spell command undead, http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/commandUndead.htm which Clerics don't get. (Unless you take the divine magician ACF and choose it as your second level spell).


If you are talking about rebuke undead then you need items. Lots of items, commanding undead only checks their total HD at the time of the original commanding. So if you get items that reduce the undead's turn resistance (Preferably into negatives) you can rebuke undead much more easily and effectively. Items like Rod of Defiance (MiC) and Lyre of the Restful Dead (Libris Mortis, Get someone else to play it or burn 1 skill point on preform string instruments and take 10). Also other items like Rod of the Netherworld (Libris Mortis) increase your rebuking level which allows you to command more and better undead.


Also read this http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872726/Revised_Necromancer_Handbook you can scroll down to the rebuking part if you wish.

Where it talks about having "a level for the purposes of rebuking" I don't understand how to determine my level. I have read that section 5 times now and I must have missed something.