SeekerInTheNight
2007-03-08, 08:24 PM
So I'm pretty sure by now everyone knows that unlike man, the dog is not (necessarily) necromancy's best friend. They're warm, fuzzy, living, and worst of all tend to run off with parts of your army.
So pound-for-pound what's the most useful revenant for the inquiring Necromancer to have under his thumb?
((For those in need of a refresher, the maximum un-enhanced number of undead you can control is 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level.))
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So how much exactly does a skeleton weigh? And what kinda space do they take up? We're talking average human here, nothing special.
EDIT2: MM does not in fact list the weight of your average skeleton.
EDIT3: Wikipedia lists the human skeleton as contributing to 20% of the total body mass, TheOOB continues with this.
Hmm, assume the average human skeleton weighs about 40lbs. Spread out pretty widely on the ground it would take a 5'square, but I'd imagine you could fit half a dozen in a 5'cube should you not care how squished together they are.
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So I'm building a necromancer for an arena campaign when it occurs to me, hey, what if there aren't any bones in the ground? So I pull out my books to start looking through and to my dismay there doesn't seem to be anything that facilitates the animating of the dead unless you're already chilling in a graveyard. =/
Does anyone know of something that would help a poor corpse-less necromancer out or am I going to have to homebrew this?
EDIT1: Words of Wisdom from Payne.
Have a rotating shelf with hangers for skeletons, have it drawn by zombie horse/bulls/trolls. Maybe an attendee (undead or not) to dispense the army-in-a-van.
Have a handy wand of animate dead.
Cast animate every time you loose enough troops. (Maybe use improved invisibility if you are afraid to be taken out by smart enemies)
Voila: undead army.
In case of trouble use Invisibility to undead and animate all undead you can. Even uncontrolled they will not attack you and eventually you can re-gain control of the few remaining ones after the fight.
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Here's another: against clerics within an opposing force, Build bone golems or animate corpses with animate objects. Send them first so they will suck up some of their rebuke/turn before they catch on (or get hacked to bits.)
And words of wisdom from Krimm, whose Necrolock (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30544) PrC inspired this thread.
Well, I have an idea, but it would require a somewhat large amount of money and a little DM approval. But what I have in mind is your character buys a portable hole and just packs it with corpses, or better yet the previously animated dead.
Further discussion of this idea with friends and fellow DMs has resulted in the following data.
Your average Type I Bag of Holding carries about six full skeletons at 40lbs a pop (II = 12, III = 25, IV = 37). Keep a portable hole with you (Just not in the Bag of Holding... please...) ready to be slapped on the ground. When your ready to start raising, place the hole and empty the contents of the bag of holding into it. Pick the hole back up and viola! Instant graveyard.
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So pound-for-pound what's the most useful revenant for the inquiring Necromancer to have under his thumb?
((For those in need of a refresher, the maximum un-enhanced number of undead you can control is 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level.))
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
So how much exactly does a skeleton weigh? And what kinda space do they take up? We're talking average human here, nothing special.
EDIT2: MM does not in fact list the weight of your average skeleton.
EDIT3: Wikipedia lists the human skeleton as contributing to 20% of the total body mass, TheOOB continues with this.
Hmm, assume the average human skeleton weighs about 40lbs. Spread out pretty widely on the ground it would take a 5'square, but I'd imagine you could fit half a dozen in a 5'cube should you not care how squished together they are.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
So I'm building a necromancer for an arena campaign when it occurs to me, hey, what if there aren't any bones in the ground? So I pull out my books to start looking through and to my dismay there doesn't seem to be anything that facilitates the animating of the dead unless you're already chilling in a graveyard. =/
Does anyone know of something that would help a poor corpse-less necromancer out or am I going to have to homebrew this?
EDIT1: Words of Wisdom from Payne.
Have a rotating shelf with hangers for skeletons, have it drawn by zombie horse/bulls/trolls. Maybe an attendee (undead or not) to dispense the army-in-a-van.
Have a handy wand of animate dead.
Cast animate every time you loose enough troops. (Maybe use improved invisibility if you are afraid to be taken out by smart enemies)
Voila: undead army.
In case of trouble use Invisibility to undead and animate all undead you can. Even uncontrolled they will not attack you and eventually you can re-gain control of the few remaining ones after the fight.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Here's another: against clerics within an opposing force, Build bone golems or animate corpses with animate objects. Send them first so they will suck up some of their rebuke/turn before they catch on (or get hacked to bits.)
And words of wisdom from Krimm, whose Necrolock (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30544) PrC inspired this thread.
Well, I have an idea, but it would require a somewhat large amount of money and a little DM approval. But what I have in mind is your character buys a portable hole and just packs it with corpses, or better yet the previously animated dead.
Further discussion of this idea with friends and fellow DMs has resulted in the following data.
Your average Type I Bag of Holding carries about six full skeletons at 40lbs a pop (II = 12, III = 25, IV = 37). Keep a portable hole with you (Just not in the Bag of Holding... please...) ready to be slapped on the ground. When your ready to start raising, place the hole and empty the contents of the bag of holding into it. Pick the hole back up and viola! Instant graveyard.
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