Spooky Scary Skeletons - Bard Necromancer

[Gwazi Magnum]

Basically the idea is a Bard who has a bunch of Undead following him, and in combat he uses them to fight the enemy while buffing them with Bardic Music.

Any ideas on how such a character could be built?
Anything one would change if it was Gestalt?

[Acanous]

There's a feat you need in order to affect undead with Bardic Music (Dirgesinger? I forget offhand)
actually, I recall seeing a necromantic bard ACF that swaps out some spells for necromancy. I'm AFB but this is actually a thing you can do.

[A.A.King]

First things first: The Requiem Feat (from Libris Mortis: The Book of Bad Latin) it allows you to use Inspire Courage (and other musics) on your skeleton Army. So this is the obvious pick

Next thing is deciding on how you want to get your Skeleton Army. If you have somebody in the party creating it for you, consider "Dirgesinger" (from the same book as the Requiem feat). If you want to create your own, you have a bit of a problem, for "Animate Dead" is not on the Bard's spell list. However, if you enter "Sublime Chord" you can add it to your list.
You can also try and use the "Arcane Disciple" feat to spells from the Necromancer Domain (ECS) to your Bard Spell list, which includes "Vampiric Touch" and "Command Undead". Learning those spells allows you to enter "Pale Master" (same book as Dirgesinger and Requiem).

In fact, you might want to try this: Bard 8 / Pale Master 2 / Sublime Chord 2 / Pale Master +8 (10).
Required Feats: "Skill Focus: Knowledge (Religion) for Pale Master and "Arcane Disciple (Necromancer Domain)" to learn "Command Undead" and "Vampiric Touch" (which are also needed to enter Pale Master)

[Gwazi Magnum]

There's a feat you need in order to affect undead with Bardic Music (Dirgesinger? I forget offhand)
actually, I recall seeing a necromantic bard ACF that swaps out some spells for necromancy. I'm AFB but this is actually a thing you can do.

Just looked it up.

Dirgesiner is a Prestige Class for Bard that focuses on Necromancy and Negative Effects on enemies.
But it requires a feat called "Requiem" which is what you were describing.

Though the feat only has Bardic Music work at half effectiveness.
Meaning I'd need ways to buff Bardic Music quite a bit for it to work.

[Gwazi Magnum]

First things first: The Requiem Feat (from Libris Mortis: The Book of Bad Latin) it allows you to use Inspire Courage (and other musics) on your skeleton Army. So this is the obvious pick

Next thing is deciding on how you want to get your Skeleton Army. If you have somebody in the party creating it for you, consider "Dirgesinger" (from the same book as the Requiem feat). If you want to create your own, you have a bit of a problem, for "Animate Dead" is not on the Bard's spell list. However, if you enter "Sublime Chord" you can add it to your list.
You can also try and use the "Arcane Disciple" feat to spells from the Necromancer Domain (ECS) to your Bard Spell list, which includes "Vampiric Touch" and "Command Undead". Learning those spells allows you to enter "Pale Master" (same book as Dirgesinger and Requiem).

In fact, you might want to try this: Bard 8 / Pale Master 2 / Sublime Chord 2 / Pale Master +8 (10).
Required Feats: "Skill Focus: Knowledge (Religion) for Pale Master and "Arcane Disciple (Necromancer Domain)" to learn "Command Undead" and "Vampiric Touch" (which are also needed to enter Pale Master)

Woops, got Ninja'd. XD

Anyways having looked through Pale Master it definitely does the job of Necromacy. But it doesn't give anything for Bardic Music.

[A.A.King]

Woops, got Ninja'd. XD

Anyways having looked through Pale Master it definitely does the job of Necromacy. But it doesn't give anything for Bardic Music.

True, but there are no Prestige Classes which give you Necromancy and Bardic Music. However, 8 levels of Bard gives you a basis Inspire Courage of +2 which is plenty for the standard Inspire Courage Optimization Tricks. Here for more info (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=9830). I mean, trading away the Bard's Suggestion for the "Song of the Heart" feat is pretty much a given, meaning that you already have a +3 before Items and Spells. Using Dragonfire Inspiration to turn that +3 (or a +5 with Badge of Valor and Inspirational Boost) into +3d6 (or +5d6) bonus damage for each of your Skeletons should give you a fairly decent Army all by playing one song.

[Geddy2112]

Pathfinder has the dirge bard (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/bard/archetypes/paizo---bard-archetypes/dirge-bard) which has some ways to bard interact with the undead, namely grabbing necro spells to the bard list.

2spooky5me

[Grod_The_Giant]

One level of Horned Harbinger (Faiths and Pantheons) nabs you the Death domain for the low cost of 8 skill ranks and a caster level, with a Rebuke pool for good measure. Or you can be a Divine Bard and use any of the usual domain-granting PrCs.

If you're doing gestalt this is easy. Cleric//Divine Bard is SAD and hits both sides with plenty of room to spare.

[Zombulian]

Undead Leadership + everything everyone's already said. Your Inspire Courage need not be too strong as you'll probably have too many undead for it to matter. Also as with any character who has "an army of x" I'd say find a calculator to do all the rolling and such for them just to spare your party members from having to watch your half-hour turns.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Undead Leadership + everything everyone's already said. Your Inspire Courage need not be too strong as you'll probably have too many undead for it to matter. Also as with any character who has "an army of x" I'd say find a calculator to do all the rolling and such for them just to spare your party members from having to watch your half-hour turns.
Alternately, pass off undead to other players to control so everyone can share the fun. (Not sure that there's a good RAW way to do it, but it's easy enough to just do it unofficially)

[Marlowe]

All skeletons must, of course, be appareled in Top Hat and Tails (pants optional) and armed with canes (light maces).

Anything else would be criminally gauche, and get you snubbed at Bard camp.

[Zombulian]

All skeletons must, of course, be appareled in Top Hat and Tails (pants optional) and armed with canes (light maces).

Anything else would be criminally gauche, and get you snubbed at Bard camp.

And they must all have ranks in Perform (Xylophone Ribcage)

[Acanous]

Animate dead can be an oil.
The HD cap for how many skeletons/zombies it can affect are determined by the CL on the oil (5th by default) but your control cap is determined by your CL.

[daemonvatis]

All I could think of when I saw this was the undead skeletal bards from the Ghostwalk setting. Their bones are carved to whistle in the wind, giving them a bonus to their music.

[mabriss lethe]

At lower levels you could also grab a nightcaller (magic item, libris mortis) it only gives you two undead minions at a time. Also, a robe of bones is a cheap way to go until you can raise your own.

[Deadline]

I built an decent one for one of the Iron Chef competitions. Derek "Balefire" Bragg (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16084344&postcount=270).