I Need Ideas for a Spherecasting Gestalt Necromancer

[Ironsides]

I have too many options. AGrinningCat wants to do a gestalt Kingmaker game in the future and I have always wanted to play a Necromancer. With the third-party book Spheres of Power you can build an awesome Necromancer with just 8 talents but I don't know what the best options would be for either side of the gestalt. I want a Necromancer that can create undead minions as his main shtick but I want your ideas as to what they should be.

Materials available: All DSP stuff but the psionic stuff (because I don't know how psionics work), Spheres of Power (For the Necromancy and other spherecasting), and all the Paizo stuff (little to no Vancian spellcasting because I want to the spherecasting to be the main magic of the class).
25 point buy
Starting level begins at 5th and ends somewhere around 15th.

[Der_DWSage]

Gestalt, hm? And you want to be a minionmancer, with little or no Vancian casting, so Cleric is right out. Lemme whip up a quick something...


Ask if Hedgewitch's option of casting stat (Specifically, Charisma) can be used instead of the Cleric's Wisdom. (Rule reference:If a caster takes levels in multiple casting classes, they must select which of those classes’ casting ability modifiers they will use as their casting ability modifier; only one may be applied. Page 9, third paragraph)

Hedgewitch - Take the Spiritualism and Covenant Traditions, choosing Negative Energy with Covenant. (Alternatively, choose positive energy for hilarity and healing abilities.) You now have two pools of Channel Energy available, so you're unlikely to run out too quickly.
Cleric:Every odd-level talent must go into Death, as will your bonus talents gained at 1st, 5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level.

Feats:You'll mostly want Channeling Feats. You can also take the Hedgewitch's Secret to give yourself spontaneous channeling feats, but you'll likely have most of the ones you want before long. The Undead domain helps in healing your allies after a combat is over, but you may want a less time-consuming option with Versatile Channel. Strongly consider taking Reach Spell, Quick Channel, and Selective Channel.

Talents
1:Death, Expanded Necromancy, War, Fate
2:Destruction (Limited:Nether Element Only)
3:Lingering Necromancy
4:Empowered Reanimate, Harm(Fate Sphere)
5:Permanent Undead

This gives you the obvious requirement of having Permanent Undead minions, and fairly strong ones too. You don't have too many, but frankly, that's not a huge issue. The War Totem lets your Undead Minions (And the rest of the party) add 3 damage to their attacks, while Harm makes it so that every time a main target gets attacked, they take an additional amount of damage equal to half your caster level-allowing even your weakest undead darlings to be moderately dangerous in combat. Lastly, the Nether Blast of Destruction gives you a fall-back option if things go pear-shaped.

[Vhaidara]

Well first off, how is he handling gestalting sphere casters? Talents are the important thing here. If you combine 2 spherecasters, do you get both pools of talents, or only one?

If you get both, I recommend Soul Weaver//Death Specialization Incanter. Spheres of interest are Death (obviously), War and Protection (buffs for the minions), Destruction (because why not just grab Eldritch Blast while you're here?), and Dark (because it fits very well with the flavor). Also make sure you look into the Death Advanced Talents, you can start picking those up at level 5.

If you can't stack talents, then you want to go for an improved chassis and teamwork. So I would say Soul Weaver//Warlord. Sphere focus is the same, Warlord focuses on ranged combat (grab Tempest Gale alongside Solar Wind, maybe even use Desperado) and a bit of Golden Lion.

[Ironsides]

Thanks for the ideas Der_DwSage and Keledrath! I really like the idea of an initiating Dread Necromancer who can raise and lead the undead in battle. I think the Incantor is a great choice it has a flexible mental stat, 32 talents over 20 levels, and the option to Channel as the cleric class feature. I think since you can Channel as the cleric class feature you qualify for Command Undead and Quick Channel. I think that this means I am going as either a vampire (if AGrinningCat allows it) or as a Dhampire so that I can benefit from the channeling as well. What do you guys think?

Also what equipment do you guys suggest? The Incantor gets free item crafting feats. I know about getting a Voidstick so that your undead get extra HP but is there anything else?

[Der_DWSage]

A Spherecasting Staff is a definite boon you'll want ASAP, focused on Death. Once you're at an acceptable +X (I'd say 2 or 4) you can add an additional sphere to it, probably Destruction.

You'll want +X headbands of Charisma, certainly. A Phylactery of Negative Channeling, (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/phylactery-of-negative-channeling) should also be on your radar, followed by a Ring of Protected Life (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/rings/ring-of-protected-life) and a Channeling (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/magic-armor/magic-armor-and-shield-special-abilities/channeling)Shield. If you think you'll need it, a Malleable Holy Symbol (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/m-p/malleable-symbol) could also be useful.

After that, you might actually consider Brew Potion. Potions become significantly more useful with Spherecasting, since the price isn't based on spell level, and several spheres have effects that are level-independent.

[PsyBomb]

I'm actually going to recommend a Vizier on the off-side. Either a Crafter for magic item support, or else a Seer to give your minions extra speed and Teamwork feats. Get some offense and BFC on that side, and you can focus your Talents main-side on necromancy.

[Ironsides]

With AGrinningCat's track record, I expect 1 PC to die every 2 sessions, because of this I have some sphere-related rules questions about bringing back dead party members. The Summon Spirit advanced talent says that I can summon a spirit (like a dead PC) and use their spirit to make an undead creature. I wonder if my other talents can be used to augment them in the following ways:

Use Empowered Reanimate to give them a +4 Enhancement to Str and Dex.
Can I give them the bloody skeleton (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/skeleton) template with Expanded Necromancy talent so they don’t get die permanently when they inevitably die (again)?
Can I use the desecrate from my Voidstick (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/voidstick) to give them +1 HP per hit dice.
Also could I (I probably wouldn't do this even if given the opportunity) raise them as a higher HD creature? It seems that if you do this you subtract 1 hit-dice from the creature base for every class level available. So A 10 HD Minotaur and a lvl 5 PC ends up being lvl 5 PC and 5 bloody skeleton templated Minotaur HD.


Am I looking at the rules correctly? Summon Spirit seems rather good to me at 5th level.