Dread Necromancer build help - need opinions

[Spartan089]

This is my first time playing a full caster so a lot new things for me. Ill be playing a neutral alignment with good intentions.

I've read K's excellent albeit a bit outdated Necromancer guide among a few other threads so I have a general idea of how to proceed but I would like to some opinions on some of the directions I'm thinking of going bellow. Correct me if Im wrong with any assumptions on how things work as like I said I haven't played a caster before.

Option 1
Human (Necropolitian taken at 3rd level) - Dread Necromancer 8/Pale Master 10/cleric 2
1st level feat(s) - Fell Animate, Divine Meta Magic: Fell Animate
3rd level feats -Corpse Crafter
6th level feats - Destructive Retribution
Reasoning/goal: If I understand it correctly if I DMM Fell Animate at first level i'll be able to start making zombies/undead very very early (lv1) as opposed to level 6-8 in a standard build. I like the idea of destructive retribution as many of the things I'll be bringing back are pretty weak and perfect for suicide bombs. I saw somewhere that you can fell animate Kelgore's mist a swarm of rats and bring them back as an undead swarm, would each individual rat destroyed cause a negative energy explosion or is it just one explosion per swarm?

Option 2
Warforged - Dread Necromancer 8/?/?
1st level feat(s) - Tomb-Tainted Soul
Reasoning/goal: Warforged are pretty tough witch mitigates the squishy-ness of casters. Maybe a close combat type DN or fear build though Im not sure witch feats that would entail.


Option 3
Illumian - Dread Necromancer 20 or Dread Necromancer 8/Pale Master 10/insert class* 2
1st level feat(s) - Tomb-Tainted Soul
Reasoning/goal: Illumians from what I hear get a DMM like ability which would pair well with fell drain and animate.

If anyone has a build that worked for them let me know if anyone has tips or suggestions.

[Vaz]

A Dread Necromancer is Arcane; Divine Metamagic will not help in this regard (without Southern Magician/Alternate Spell Source: and even then.

However: good news: choose a damaging spell you will use always and become an Uttercold Assault Necromancer, Arcane Thesis on your chosen spell. Take Invisible Spell, and any other +0 Metamagics you can and maximise your taint score for -4 metamagic.

Pale Master capstone is not necessarily needed, try and wrangle in Animate Dread Warrior from Advanced Learning (Corpsecrafter doesn't stack Strength with DN, just HP), it is better.

Try and find an Arcane Progression for your final 2 levels.

[PurpleSocks]

Talk to your DM, if he will allow your "creator" to have any of Corpsecrafter, Nimble Bones & hardened flesh then definately become Necropolitan (don't forget a desecrated area).

The above feats could net you +4hp per level, +4 initiative, +4 strength & +2 natural armour. Again if your DM allows taint rules, then thats an extra 1-4 feats depending on your charisma/wisdom & whether or not a -con counts as 0 or NA for corruption.

Be aware that if your DM lets you have all of the above he's probably drunk, high and or not paying attention to what your saying.

Also Southern Magician is a terrible feat which only purpose is to allow casters access to stuff they should probably already have access to, if your DM is reasonable they should let you use DM, clerics get it and their ruddy Tier1's, not letting Dread Necromancers have access to it is following RAW too much.

[Alex12]

The reason DMM is divine-only is to prevent wizards from dipping cleric for DMMing high-level spells. DN's getting it follows the spirit of the feat (or ask the DM if you can have a homebrew version of the feat that applies to DN spells)
Also, see if you can get yourself spellstitched with animate dead. It's better than going Pale Master and losing that caster level.
The thing to recall about DN minionmancy is that for them, it's based on DN level, not total level. If you're going for numbers, DN 20 is tough to beat.
If you're grave-misting a swarm, you get the swarm, but if it's just a bunch of individual rats, you'll just get a bunch of rats. The swarm will only die (and thus explode) once.