optimization of a wizard necromancer.

[Athear]

so I've got this character Idea A evil princess whom belives that the serfs that her family controls are her property and that wishes to not only be queen of the kingdom of Valcuron but valator as well. she is vain and spoiled and has a superiority complex but she is incrediably smart. and willing to play the long game.
I want to go with a theme so though my skills may not be the most optimized but I want to have as potent of a character as possible with in the theme. this is a level 4 game

my stats are.
STR:10, 0
DEX:17, +3
CON:13, +1
INT:21, +5
WIS:16 +3
CHA:17 +3

my skills are
Appraise: +10
Deplomacy: +11
intimidate: +10
Knowledge (arcana): 12
Knowledge (history): 12
knowledge (nobility): 12
Knowledge (religion): 12
sense motive: 10
spell craft: 10

[Geddy2112]

Woah boy, those are some high freaking ability scores. Rolls I take it? Post racial mods? Also, what is your race? Only thing I would change is swap con with charisma. I know you probably want a high charisma to increase the DC of channeling to command undead, but it is more important to have con. You could also swap wis and con, since will is a good save and you don't need wisdom for anything else.

You are obviously taking necromancy as your school, and command undead as your bonus feat to channel. Evocation, enchantment, illusion, and divination are good opposition schools.

Get a familiar-it won't matter too much what you pick later on as you will get an improved familiar sometime between levels 5 and 9. But a bird that could fly, or something like a greensting scorpion for +4 initiative is a good call.

I don't know how you have such high modifiers for your skills. Even with max ranks, at level 4 with your stats you would have a +7 in diplomacy, intimidate, and sense motive. These are not bad skills and if you wanna be a face then go ahead, but they won't ever be that high unless you get them as class skills. Eventually you want a rank in all the knowledge skills so you can get the class skill bonus.

Also, check out the agent of the grave prestige class. Very good for the necromancer wizard, and if you do go that route you will pick up bluff and intimidate as class skills, and have a use for charisma. Also might not want to make enchantment an opposition school going said route.

For your concept-vain, spoiled, superiority complex and seeing people as property are not wrong, but just be sure she can work in a group and is not a jerkface to the rest of the party.

[Athear]

@Geddy2112
Well to answer your question yes thats after racial modifiers and my group rolls 4d6 drop the lowest retooling 1&2s so yeah every one is really potent. I have traits and a feat that gives me Diplomacy and intimidate as class skills.
I'm also a Slyph. I actually choose a bonded object but I can change it.
I got rid of Illusion and conjuration as my two schools. I kinda see Divination as a way to protect my self as I am playing a evil character.

though I'm having trouble with my spell list, It feels lack lustre.

[Geddy2112]

@Geddy2112
Well to answer your question yes thats after racial modifiers and my group rolls 4d6 drop the lowest retooling 1&2s so yeah every one is really potent. I have traits and a feat that gives me Diplomacy and intimidate as class skills.
I'm also a Slyph. I actually choose a bonded object but I can change it.
I got rid of Illusion and conjuration as my two schools. I kinda see Divination as a way to protect my self as I am playing a evil character.

though I'm having trouble with my spell list, It feels lack lustre.

Ahh, yeah, Slyphs are amazing wizards. And you put the 15 in con which got docked to a 13. I would really consider swapping con and Wis then or con and cha for that +2 con instead of +1. Make sure you take breeze kissed as an alt racial trait as air affinity is absolutely worthless for you. Consider airy step and wings of air as feats just for the permanent fly speed(that can't be dispelled).

A bonded object is vastly inferior to a familiar-having a scout, extra actions, etc is just too good to toss up. Improved familiars basically become a secondary buff and support caster. If you really want a bonded object you will not be terrible, but familiars are good. Really, really, really good.

I can understand keeping divination-it will become really useful at higher levels. Nondetection is an abjuration spell handy for hiding your alignment and hiding from scrying-you can also get a wand of undetectable alignment for fairly cheap, although you will need ranks in UMD to use it. Conjuration is a really powerful school to toss-making summon spells eat 2 slots is a hard pill to swallow, and most of the bread and butter spells are conjuration.

Good Spells to know:
1st level: Protection from evil, grease, mage armor, obscuring mist, charm person, ear-piercing scream, color spray(not good post level 5), silent image, enlarge/reduce person. If you chose necromancy as your school, ray of enfeeblement is okay for your bonus slot.
2nd level: fog cloud, glitterdust, web, hideous laughter, unnatural lust, darkness, flaming sphere, invisibility, mirror image, blindness/deafness, ghoul touch, knock, levitate, pyrotechnics

Some of these can be had as wands or scrolls. Make scrolls of opposition school spells you only need sometimes, and remember to buy spells and read spellbooks whenever possible.

[Athear]

what would you suggest turfing instead of conjuration?

[Geddy2112]

what would you suggest turfing instead of conjuration?

Evocation, divination, or enchantment. Evocation is mostly blasting, which is just damage and your party can do that. It has useful battlefield control spells, particularly at higher levels, but conjuration will do. Enchantments are baller if you fight a lot of single enemies, as they are basically save-or-die spells, but not all that critical. Think twice about making it an opposition school if you go agent of the grave. Most divination spells are really redunant and can be best used in downtime, when burning 2 spell slots is not the end of the world.

There is an arcane discovery called opposition research that you can take if you really need to un opposition one of your schools.

[Athear]

also can't take command undead as a feat, Plus I really don't like illusions though I always play a blaster when playing a caster. so I guess that should go.

[Geddy2112]

You get command undead as a bonus feat for specializing in the necromancy school. You get uses per day based on your int mod, but the DC is still based on your cha mod. It does not channel energy to harm or heal, just to command.

[Athear]

Right I knew that, any ways see you later.

[Athear]

so I got rid of Evocation though it seems I'm losing allot more from it then conjuration. though a friend stated that Enchantment loses allot of its potency at higher levels so maybe that would be a better choice?
mind you that was in relation to 3.5.

[Azoth]

Enchantment runs into the issue of being (Mind Affecting) so a lot of high end monsters are immune to it. It is still a solid school to make an opposition school.

Unlike 3.5, unless you become a Sin Magic Specialist, you can still cast spells from your opposition schools. It just costs you 2 slots to do so.

I tend to dump Enchantment, Evocation, or Divination as my opposition schools. Never give up Conjuration, Transmutation, or Illusion. Those schools hurt too much to lose. Also the Shadow Evocation line can let you emulate any Evocation spell you need at that moment.

As a Necromancer, your job is to debuff enemies. Ray of Enfeeblement the bruisers so they can't hit or hurt your friends. Spectral Hand + Touch of Gracelessness to drop AC of enemies so your buddies can "end them rightly". Drop Scare to make two enemies run from the fight for 4 rounds while the group finishes their friends off. Use Stone Call and follow it up with Limp Lash to try and drop a for before he can get away.

I tend to love Limp Lash if my party beat stick goes before the targeted enemy. That 1d6 Str, Dex, AND Con penalty can let your beatstick end a fight quickly. Downside is that if you haven't made it hard for a for to get away, he will on his next turn and end the spell's effect.

[Sayt]

I always liked the Agent of the Grave (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/prestige-classes/other-paizo/a-b/agent-of-the-grave) PRC, which gets you some nice Necromancy Spells from other schools.

[Flesh_Engine]

Dhampir (or Racial Heritage:Dhampir) givrs access to +1 Necromancy caster level per 4 Wizard levels which can be applied to Animate Dead.

The other advantage of this is that you can pickup the cruromancer archetype, giving you a higher control limit and enabling a Desecrate like effect. (Topping the Spirit Vessel Oracle with 125 HD of control for Animate Dead)

Note that there is now a Repair Undead spell which, in could be handy if you were a Dhampir.