Going to Pale Master

[Chester]

Hello!

I've decided to PrC from Dread Necromancer to Pale Master.

I am by no means trying to power game; I like the flavor, and I want to have fun with it.

I plan to return to Dread Necro later.

The question is . . . when to PrC out? The obvious choice is level 9, but I can get the free animate dead earlier . . .

When should I jump? Wait until level 9? After I get my familiar? Earlier than that to take advantage of Pale Master's stuff earlier?

Again . . . I don't need to power game, and I know PM isn't super awesome, but I'd like to make my PrC jump at a time that makes the most sense.

EDIT: I'm level 4 now, earliest I can do this is 6 . . . DM will let me choose the required feat (Skill Focus Knowledge Religion) as I switch.

[Ranting Fool]

Well....


Undead Graft (Su): At 6th level, a pale master gives in to
terrible necrophiliac urges

That just sounds wrong.

Well while summon familiar is all well and good it wouldn't level up with your pale master levels so I wouldn't worry about that too much unless of course your familiar can be used to "touch" people with your abilities like it can do with spells (though greater minds then mine would know the answer to that)

[rockdeworld]

If you haven't read it, check out the Reanimated Dread Necro Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214212), which gives tips for jumping off points. One of them is level 7, which works well with your current plan.

[Urpriest]

Level 8 is when you get the expanded control pool on Dread Necro. Have you talked to your DM about whether it scales with caster level like a normal control pool, or whether it's pegged to class level?

[Silva Stormrage]

One thing that is important to note is that the Dread Necromancer's 8th level class ability undead mastery functions off of the dread necromancer's CLASS level not caster level. This is more than likely a typo since the control undead ability functions off of caster level like one would expect. Thus if you PRC out you reduce your undead army size from unbelievably huge to simply pretty large. Talk with your DM to see if you can get it based off of caster level instead.

If you can I would suggest going DN 8/PM 10/DN 2. This is a pretty good low investment massive undead army build, it gets you free undead (PM's free animate dead + its free touch which turns creatures into zombies) and a cohort as well as a large undead cap and strong spell casting.

If you can't talk your dm out of the class level/caster level mix up I would suggest going to 7th level, ghostly visage is an AMAZING familiar and you severely weaken yourself not taking it. The undead mastery class feature matters less when its not based off of your caster level. The free undead is nice but honestly onyx isn't THAT expensive as long as you don't mass animate weaklings. Focus on getting a few strong minions and don't let them die.

[Chester]

Level 8 is when you get the expanded control pool on Dread Necro. Have you talked to your DM about whether it scales with caster level like a normal control pool, or whether it's pegged to class level?

Good question . . .

EDIT: DM will allow it.