I need more undead lieutenants!

[tzxAzrael]

I'm playing a Gestalt Dread Necromancer, just starting out but the campaign is expected (or at least hoped) to progress for a while. While my 'main' tree will be primarily Dread Necromancer, my 'secondary' tree has plenty of room for flexibility.

Currently I've taken Necromancer (the specialist Wizard) for the "Skeletal Minion" ACF from UA. (GM has ruled that the minion will advance with Arcane class levels, and not just Necromancer class levels, making it not-useless as a 1 level dip.)

But where do I get more minions like that?

I don't need any "bulk discount" undead, as i'll have plenty of them via Undead Leadership, Rebuking, and/or Animate Dead with the Dread Necromancer bonuses and various "+X Effective Turning Level" items.
I don't want to just simply chain-spawn undead, a la "Wraithpocalypse" and the like; then I have to invest a bunch of resources on keeping the "master" undead safe somehow.

Primarily, I am looking for classes, feats, tricks, etc, that will provide some sort of undead minions/cohorts/companions/etc. Some kind of permanent extra teammate that won't dip into the animate/rebuke pools. Obviously, powerful independent undead would be the preference, but big stupid bruisers aren't bad either.

The less resources (levels, feats, cash, etc) that I need to invest in these the better, however a large investment doesn't necessarily eliminate an option if there is a suitable payoff at the end.

Come on, everyone! We can take out those pesky heroes if we band together!

[Segev]

You'll have to double-check me on this, but I think there's nothing preventing you from having both Leadership and Undead Leadership, and that the former is able to have undead cohorts and followers, as well (just without the bonus to your Leadership score).


My favorite way to get more minions, however, is through the Mother Cyst feat. Look it up in Libris Mortis. It is nice-sounding enough, but the spells might seem a little hard to use well on first glance. After all, you have to force people to fail saves against a low-level spell.

But...

The higher level effects include necrotic domination and necrotic tumor. That latter turns people into permanent mind-slaves.

The nastiest thing I've ever done to people with it is a vile monster of a necromancer who sent tumor-controlled innocents who he'd "taken prisoner" to beg and plead with heroes to save them...and then detonated them with necrotic eruption. Not only is this huge damage to the heroes, but now they're afflicted by a higher-level spell's save DC to avoid necrotic cysts of their own.

Plus, the morale hit they take realizing that they can't let, say, innocent children come close to them without risking those children being murdered gruesomely to harm them... oh yes. Very evil.

Oh, and of course, necrotic scrying means you can use a 2nd level spell to spy on any number of infected individuals. Be sure to afflict your own minions with the spell! Now you can scry them out, and use them as remote bombs.


Finally, look up the Skulking Cyst. Make sure to control those; send them in to infect towns full of people with necrotic cysts without you ever having to set foot there.

[Afgncaap5]

How about Bloodhulks from Monster Manual 4? You create them with the Animate Dead spell, but there's a bit more of a ritual aspect to it requiring certain things from the corpse (such as the other innocent victims who've donated their blood to the project). They're not heavy hitters like vampires or mummies, but they're better than your typical zombies or skeletons, I think.

One downside to them is that their hit dice count four double when it comes to determining the number of them that you can control.

[Seto]

In case you don't have it already, the Rod of Undead Mastery (Libris Mortis I think) lets you double your control capacity (in HD) for 10 000 GP.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Horned Harbinger. Normally, it's not too good, except as two-level dip, because it doesn't advance casting. Since you're playing gestalt, it will do a lot more for you. Just make sure your DM rules the Captain/General of Undeath abilities to stack with Undead Mastery (it's still nice without that).

Benefits include increased caster level for animate dead, create undead and greater create undead, SLAs of those spells (which also use the increased caster level), as well as increased control limits for spells and rebuking, four bonus feats (turning-oriented, includes Extra Turning and Leadership (undead cohorts only), so that's pretty good), animating at range, permanent deathwatch, a crown of horns (natural attack, double damage on a charge), and the Death domain.

A dread necromancer 16//paladin of tyranny 2/necromancer 1/[class] 2/horned harbinger 10/[class] 1, with the stacking ruling, has a caster level of 26 + CHA for animate dead, and can cast it three times per day as SLA (no component cost!), controlling 10 + CHA HD of undead per caster level. That means your animate dead control pool at 26 charisma is 18 * 34 = 612 HD, allowing you to have forty lieutenants of your level minus one. With consumptive field (your 8th-level Advanced Learning) and greater consumptive field (your 16th-level Advanced Learning), your caster level is 54 (at level 16), instead, for a control pool of 972 HD, for fifty-eight lieutenants of your level minus one.

You can use your animate dead ability at medium range, as well, allowing you to animate corpses up to 640 feet away - why let your minions stack corpses, when they could be smiting your enemies?


I also rather like Zhentarim Skymage on any charisma-based caster. It will give you a flying mount with 1 + [class level] + CHA HD, no further restrictions. Undead mounts are explicitly mentioned. You can advance the class level with Legacy Champion at 11-16. At level 16, again with 26 charisma, you'd have an 18 HD mount.

[tzxAzrael]

Horned Harbinger.... your animate dead control pool at 26 charisma is 18 * 34 = 612 HD

What sort of helmet do you recommend along with that in case of flying DMG ? lol... man that's some amazing cheese there :D

I think I over-trimmed my original post though.

what I meant to ask was more like...

Avoiding Rebuking / Animate Dead (I want to leave them flexible, for whether I need bruisers or numbers), how can I get permanent minions/cohorts/companions/etc, primarily of the undead variety?

I'm gonna put that back into the first post as well..

[Ruethgar]

I assume you have the Libris Mortis Undead Leadership, but there is also a web one that technically can be taken as well for another Cohort. Dragon Cohort might also be able to get you a drcolich.

[The Viscount]

Death Master has an undead companion as part of the class, with some odd abilities.

Mindbender will get you minions via eternal charm, and if you spend a feat, mindsight.

Thrallherd is infamous for its ability to generate goons from hither and yon.

[Afgncaap5]

what I meant to ask was more like...

Avoiding Rebuking / Animate Dead (I want to leave them flexible, for whether I need bruisers or numbers), how can I get permanent minions/cohorts/companions/etc, primarily of the undead variety?

I'm gonna put that back into the first post as well..

Hmmm... well, is Eberron material available? The Bone Knight class gets a Skeletal Steed that it can summon in a manner similar to a paladin's mount (paladin levels conveniently stacking with the class for doing so.) It's not rebuked or commanded, it just gets summoned to you. Even better, it's impossible for this steed to be turned while the bone knight who summoned it is riding it. A steed might not be what you had in mind, but I think it's worth a look.

Also of note: the Bone Knight's Bone March ability means that a member of the class can be "gifted" or "assigned" control of animated undead that were being controlled by another caster, and while there's still a pesky hit dice-related limit the limit appears to be separate from that of the regular undead you control since this particular limit is equal to four times your hit dice and no individual undead in such a group can have more than your Bone Knight's class level in hit dice. Presumably something like "animate dead" or "rebuke undead" is still involved, but depending on social RP situations you can acquire a good number of undead without any turn checks or spells cast on your part.

(Also, while you may not be looking for Animate Dead-style solutions, the Fill The Ranks ability gives an interesting variation on that ability by basically saying that once a day you can just "make" a Karrnathi Skeleton or Karrnathi Zombie from a corpse, and the limit on this technically counts against the Bone March limit rather than the usual "twice your caster level" limit.)

[Inevitability]

If you can get your DM to allow Yathrinshee, it might be a viable way to fill up part of your build. Drow LA can go in the secondary gestalt tree, as well as the divine caster levels you require. You then gain increased caster level for necromancy, permanent Death Ward, and eventually a virtually limitless number of undead servants.

If the DM objects because it's a theurge, ask to turn it into a class that gives 10/10 (or 9/10, or 8/10) divine spellcasting advancement but doesn't advance arcane spellcasting.

[KingSmitty]

Animate dread warrior. Kill adventurers and cast this on them, claim them as your undead bodyguards with a real nice tempkate to boot.

Lvl 6 spell and 10 min casting time unapproachable east pg 48.

[Segev]

There's an obscure, undead-like thing called a Living Zombie in one of the Forgotten Realms books (Champions of Ruin, I think). It's not undead, but it seems like it to most people, and it's definitely a minion. Better still, they slow your aging down, and do so better the more you have.

Bone Devils can also fit an undead-minions theme; they can be bound via planar binding and its cousins, with no limit to how many save the time and spell slots (vs. the duration of the spells).


An oft-overlooked ability is command undead and the Chain Spell feat, as well. Command undead offers no save to mindless undead, and if you Chain it (+3 to its level, if you don't have metamagic reducers...by the way, Slaymates' Pale Auras are metamagic reducers for necromancy spells, like command undead), you get your caster level of targets in one go.

It acts as a Charm like effect on intelligent undead, so you can also use it to get lieutenants you're willing to spend some effort being friendly with. (I strongly recommend a trio of "charmed" (via command undead and being a friendly father-figure) Slaymates just to get all of your chain command undead spells out of 2nd level slots.) Hit them with necrotic cysts to make sure their saves are lowered vs. it, and to let you scry on them, and the like, too.

[ShurikVch]

For completeness - Shadowdancer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/shadowdancer.htm) and Blackguard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/prestigeClasses/blackguard.htm) Fallen Paladin get some

Soul Reaper - specialist-Necromancer variant from Dragon #312 - able to catch enemy's soul and bind it to Skeleton or Zombie, thus getting Undead Servant with all knowledge and abilities of original soul; unfortunately, it's come online rather late - 15th level

Also, if we can count templates with LA as Savage Progression classes: Death Knight get Undead followers, and Undead Legion variant (Dragon #359) able to summon 1/day Skeleton(s) 1 HD/DK's HD