Undead Minon golem?

[MaxMAnAtArms]

Hello all for clicking the forum post and any help would be greatly appreciated.

So I'm in a game where some chars have taken fatal hits or very bad spells (de-leveling). And DM has either had them magically "poof" into another region and a replacement char taking there place or before/during treks we run into a fellow minded adventure *cough* murderhobo *cough*. As my char has yet to die yet i was thinking of planning a char to take his place should he fall. I was tinkering with an idea i had for a Necromancer.

Wizard Necromancer Variant. So no familiar but I get a permanent skeleton minion.
Skeletal Minion

A 1st-level necromancer using this variant can begin play with an undead minion (a human warrior skeleton). Obtaining this minion takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp.

This creature is a loyal servant that follows the necromancer's commands and accompanies her on adventures if desired. If the skeletal minion is destroyed, the necromancer suffers no ill effects and may replace it by performing a ceremony identical to the one that allowed her to obtain her first servant.

At 1st level, the skeleton is completely typical, but it gains power as the necromancer gains levels. The skeleton has a number of Hit Dice equal to the necromancer's class level. Add one-half the necromancer's class level to the skeleton's natural armor bonus. Add one-third of the necromancer's class level to the skeleton's Strength and Dexterity scores.

A necromancer using this variant permanently gives up the ability to obtain a familiar.
Undead Apotheosis (Ex)

As a necromancer using this variant progresses in levels, she gains some of the qualities that typify undead creatures.

At 5th level, the necromancer gains a +2 bonus on all saving throws made to resist sleep, stun, paralysis, poison, or disease. This bonus increases to +4 at 15th level.

At 10th level, the necromancer gains a +4 bonus on saving throws made to resist ability damage, ability drain, or energy drain.

At 20th level, the necromancer gains 25% resistance to critical hits, as the light fortification armor special ability.

A necromancer using this variant does not gain bonus feats for advancing as a wizard.
Enhanced Undead (Ex)

Any time a necromancer using this variant creates an undead creature (such as with animate dead, create undead, or create greater undead), all undead creatures created gain a +4 enhancement bonus to Strength and Dexterity, and two additional hit points per Hit Die. This ability does not affect the number or Hit Dice of animated creatures that the necromancer can create or control.

A necromancer using this variant does not gain additional spells per day for being a specialist wizard.

Now looking into that info i can get a Minon that gets stronger. Of course there are feats that also boost undead. So looking into them was next step as well as seeing what I can do to boost my Perma Minon more.

So naturally feats like
Nimble Bones - Each undead you raise or create with any necromancy spell gains a +4 bonus on initiative checks and a 10-foot increase to its base land speed.
Harden Flesh- Every undead you raise or create with any necromancy spell gains a +2 natural armor bonus to Armor Class.
Heightened Strength-An undead creature created with this feat gains a +4 bonus to its Strength.
Prior to animation, you must spend one day modifying each skeleton or corpse with body parts from a corpse of the same size category, and then make a successful DC 13 Heal check to fix these modifications. Furthermore, you must add crushed gems worth 25 gp per affected creature to the normal material components for animate dead. For the purpose of control, treat the resulting creature as having 1 more Hit Die than it actually does.
Improved Animation- Prerequisite: Spellcaster level 6th+, 5+ ranks in Knowledge (religion)
Benefit: Undead you create using animate dead or the create undead spells gain an additional Hit Die and a +1 competence bonus to attack and damage rolls. Note: Undead do not gain an increase in size due to the increased Hit Dice from this feat.

As well as Vicious Claws/Uncanny speed Feat and Necromantic Presence and Might. (im not sure if they would all stack or not as this is still bare bones (no pun intened) and theroy building.)

So after hunting down every necromancer/minon boost feat I could I wondered what is my skele limits? can it move and attack? I know i can "dress" it in armor and give it weapons and etc. But could I do more then that?

So the whole undead golem thing is. I play as a small class halfling/Gnome etc. Who has a reduce person ring or magic item. who before hand mind you. Retro fits a spot in the skeletons rips to be sat in i.e a cockpit of sorts with armor over the cage covering the "entrance" and also protecting the skele itself. Would this idea work? Have them Profession into engineer/architect etc. Have a Port or window in the chest area allowing the user to see out and command the minon further and etc.

I know some will say just do golems or just mass summon undead or something but i was wanting something kinda one unique minon/pet etc. that my foucs is it keeping me alive and vice versa with a new twist and such to it.

Any and all suggestions throughts would be greatly apperciated. :)

Thanks for reading my madness!

~Man-At-Arms

[Ruethgar]

You don't create or raise a skeletal minion explicitly so it can gain none of the benefits of those feats by default. You can ritually add templates at high expense, but unless you are using Pazuzu or similar it's not typically worth it.

As far as the undead mech goes, there is no president. However, tiny is plenty small to fit and if you wanted to present the GM with something similar, PF has Construct Armor which requires you only be one size smaller and treats the construct as a breastplate. If you just want to go by RAW, you would have to look at the cover rules as far as your protection goes.

As an aside, you probably should just link the SRD instead of quoting the whole of the ACF, or at least spoiler it.

[MaxMAnAtArms]

I tried it told me i needed 10 posts or more to link sites or pictures. As for not gaining the bonuses why? It says "Obtaining this minion takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp" So your not just undead summoning your performing some sort or spell or ritual. as for the whole "it doesnt say necromancer spell" I would use the varaints own line of words " necromancers control dangerous energies that rob the living of strength and grant unlife to the dead." Since bringing a skeleton into being either through manipulation of a body or creating bones for a body would be necromancer esqe. Which ofc i would leave up to debate to the DM in accepting the feats to work or not.

But oka yes the whole Mech/golem has no grounds per say. But Im sure everyones came up with some crazy class that made little sense if you tried weaving it to a normal group of people. Our group has a tifeling Dread necromancer a Monk Half dragon a Evil half orc cleric a dwarf barbarin and a halfling who was tortured so badly he lost the abililty to speak halfling and now rarely speaks (not by the party). The necro mancer golem thing is for Fun and intended to be while random some what fun char with a twist most wouldnt expect.

We been trying to stay away from mixxing PF into this dnd game due to the fact some PF things would make it askew more then it already has with everyones randomness. XD

[Ruethgar]

I tried it told me i needed 10 posts or more to link sites or pictures. As for not gaining the bonuses why? It says "Obtaining this minion takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp" So your not just undead summoning your performing some sort or spell or ritual. as for the whole "it doesnt say necromancer spell" I would use the varaints own line of words " necromancers control dangerous energies that rob the living of strength and grant unlife to the dead." Since bringing a skeleton into being either through manipulation of a body or creating bones for a body would be necromancer esqe. Which ofc i would leave up to debate to the DM in accepting the feats to work or not.

But oka yes the whole Mech/golem has no grounds per say. But Im sure everyones came up with some crazy class that made little sense if you tried weaving it to a normal group of people. Our group has a tifeling Dread necromancer a Monk Half dragon a Evil half orc cleric a dwarf barbarin and a halfling who was tortured so badly he lost the abililty to speak halfling and now rarely speaks (not by the party). The necro mancer golem thing is for Fun and intended to be while random some what fun char with a twist most wouldnt expect.

We been trying to stay away from mixxing PF into this dnd game due to the fact some PF things would make it askew more then it already has with everyones randomness. XD

Mk dose that when you're new to the forms, still the alternate class feature name with a brief description probably would have been enough for these forms instead of a wall of text.

But on to the issues. The ritual is unspecified meaning it can't fulfill the prerequisites of the bonuses by the rules as they are written. Your GM may agree to allow it because it is logical that you are raising a skeleton by yourself, but by default it isn't allowed. It is equally logical that the skeletons could already exist and a god of death and magic simply sees your offering and grants you one of his skeletons. You could simply be drawing a mindless roaming skeleton to you and binding it with the ritual. But there is also the bit about not needing a body and no limitation on where you can do this ritual, this suggests you aren't raising it yourself though you may very well be creating it from thin air and magic mats.

Also, not all magic rituals are spells, incantations, powers, supernatural maneuvers, and invocations for example are not spells. Though they act like spells in many respects, they wouldn't necessarily qualify for feats.

I gave a few suggestions on how you might go about the construct armor thing, the rules as written don't really have anything for you except the cover rules and improved cover would certainly be a pretty good boon even if not awesome. I mentioned PF content as a guide line, not saying you should use that specifically, but to show something that is relatively balanced that you might mimic since you will have to be using homebrew, improved cover or I guess potentially the Symbiote template could work, just have to make the skeleton temporarily an animal whenever you want to attach.

[Bill Bisco]

A really good spell to add to this is Awaken undead. This is how your skeletons can gain class levels and wear armor properly :)

[MaxMAnAtArms]

OKa so if my initial idea and concept wont work. What class or feats or etc. Would allow me to Get/gain/Find/Create a Undead/or creature that I could power up/buff/inpower and keep permanetly to which it is either a main force or equal force you use to fight and live in the DnD game world?