(3.5) Creating the best possible minion master (lvl 1 evil cleric)

[Velrik Eros]

Hey all,

I was hoping to get some help making one bad dude in the shape of an evil cleric. The party I am rolling with has a dread necromancer, no other clerics and some future minions... I mean party members who haven't quite found their evil side yet. I'd like my cleric to be able to synergize with, but not bow down to the dread necromancer in the party when it comes to commanding/rebuking minions while still having viability in other areas other than minion mastering.
So Q1-Aiming to form a great template for an evil cleric
Q2-32 point buy, no home brew, 1 flaw allowed
Q3-race can't be too crazy since we wouldnt want to scare off our soon to be minions.
Q4- for a play style I would like to be able to get rough and tough in melee with my minions while still being able to cast in a useful sense.

Keeping all those points in mind, can anyone suggest or perhaps walk me through a good build for an evil cleric. This will be my first time playing an evil cleric and any help would be awesome if people have time to work with me on it :)

Thanks guys,
Velrik

[ATHATH]

Check out some rebuking handbooks. Some of them list ways to get the ability to rebuke non-undead creatures.

There's a feat (I think it had Wedded to History (Golden Ager) as a prerequisite) that lets you control mindless constructs with UMD checks, IIRC.

Take the Cloistered Cleric ACF, and use the Domain Substitution spell to swap it out for a domain that will help you rebuke things.

I made a list of spells that create semi-permament minions a while back; check my post history if you want to find it.

On a scale of **** Dastardly to <insert really well-thought out villain here>, how good are you at making believable evil characters?

[ATHATH]

Here it is: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?480523-Build-it-for-me-please&p=20530198#post20530198

Some of it is off-limits to you because you're Evil, but the rest is fine.

By the way, even if you want to go melee, you should still stick with Cloistered Cleric. It's just that good.

Use a Persisted Divine Power to give yourself a decent BAB.

Due to poor wording, the Gondsman given by the Techpriest prestige class scales off of your character level, not your Gondsman level (making Techpriest an amazing dip). Curiously, it can have more BAB than HD.

[Velrik Eros]

I was thinking about the cloistered but figured the feats that I should dump into it would kind of take away from the necromancy minion making/commanding power with the corpsecrafter feats and not to mention the feat from LM that lets negative energy channel you? It had tomb in the name I think... as far as how good I am at making evil characters... this will be my first one so there probably wont be a huge back story in it but I like to geek out so I will try to make it as evil and villainous as possible while still maintaining outwardly appearances in unfavorable crowds. I'd like for the end result to be me maintaining a horde of minions approaching the same effectiveness as the dread necromancer at later levels (although I know I will always be a little bit behind).

[Velrik Eros]

Gave that post a look Athath, really sweet stuff and some awesome suggestions. I noticed the OP from that was looking for pathfinder and leaned toward DN-would that change my build or the feats I would take and there was some discrepancies as to what race he should be, the only limitation I need would be for it to come from a relatively widely accepted book. For the build you suggested I would take 5 levels of LN cloistered, but what exactly does that do to help raising a horde and can I be LE?

Thank you for all the help! :)

Velrik

[ATHATH]

The main reason that you should be Neutral is that Sanctified spells can't be cast by Evil characters. Similarly, Corrupt spells can't be cast by Good characters.

Being Lawful was just my preference; you can be CN or TN if you want to.

The DN should have some decent undead creation feats, and could make your undead for you, and you can borrow some of his undead if you take a few levels of Bone Knight.

[mabriss lethe]

In core, I'm fond of the elemental domains for a N or E minionmancer cleric. I usually chose fire and air as my two domains. Fire, because there are lots of creatures with the Fire subtype. While fire is a sub-par element, It's good for fodder. Air subtype critters, while rarer, tend to have very useful abilities. It's worth noting that many dragons have elemental subtypes, though you'll have to seriously overclock your ability to rebuke to make Dragon catching a plausible stunt. Extra turning will feed all 3 turn/rebuke pools. As a bonus, you can turn earth and water creatures.

[OldTrees1]

I'd like my cleric to be able to synergize with, but not bow down to the dread necromancer in the party when it comes to commanding/rebuking minions while still having viability in other areas other than minion mastering.
So Q1-Aiming to form a great template for an evil cleric
Q2-32 point buy, no home brew, 1 flaw allowed
Q3-race can't be too crazy since we wouldnt want to scare off our soon to be minions.
Q4- for a play style I would like to be able to get rough and tough in melee with my minions while still being able to cast in a useful sense.

Well, that first goal might be a pipe dream. Clerics and Wizards each have neat boosts to necrominionmancy but Dread Necromancer gets all of them*. However the good new is that *, the fact that it is unlikely that the Dread Necromancer will be using all the boosts (depends on balancing to the group's power level), and that one of the boosts has more demand than supply. To be concrete:

You can cast Desecrate on your altar prior to the Dread Necromancer animating undead. If you apply the Fell Energy metamagic feat, then the Desecration is even stronger (probably not worth the feat cost though). Don't get Corpsecrafter, it is mostly redundant once the Dread Necromancer gets Undead Mastery.
Some domains grant the Command Undead spell. While you can only cast it a few times per day(limited to domain slots), this is likely the boost that the Dread Necromancer will have access to but avoid using(too powerful for most groups if able to be cast that many times per day).
Finally, Rebuke Undead has such a tiny command pool compared to all the intelligent utility undead that it can control. Coordinate with the necromancer so that you can together diversify this command pool.

[Velrik Eros]

Cool thank you guys :D so I should start with human or possibly kobold as a race and possibly something like 12 str,10dex,12con,8int, 18 wis, 17 cha for a point buy? Could you guys pinpoint what you would choose if given 2 or 3 feats to get first?

[Velrik Eros]

Also thinking magic and fire for the domains, figured that rebuking fire, as said above, would be pretty cool and the magic would be nice for using wands and scrolls. Any other thoughts?

[mabriss lethe]

I'd probably go with one of the other elements besides fire if it's going to be your only pick. Fire is a great secondary choice, since fire subtype creatures are everywhere, however, most aren't terribly useful beyond the role of disposable fodder or portable tent heater. They tend toward lackluster abilities and face off against fire resistance, which is just as common. If that's all you really want, then Fire is a perfect choice.

The other elemental domains are far less common, but you can pick up some very useful creatures that you'll want to keep around in and out of combat.

Magic Domain is always a solid choice, since it opens up a good portion of the wizard spell list.

[Wolfepuppy]

Why not just be a dread necromancer?