Best Undead for Lawful Evil Church?

[Quertus]

Let's say a Lawful Evil church decides to make itself more powerful by empowering its low level clerics with powerful undead to command. Upon reaching the requisite level, they perform a ritual, wearing the sacred vestments etc (read: WBL is not an issue here - stack all the bonus turning items & penalties to turn resistance you want) for a one time Rebuke of a powerful undead creature, specially prepared for the event by higher level priests.

My question is, what are some good candidates for the ritual? Something that the high priests could reasonably hunt down repeatedly - or, better yet, create reasonably cheaply?

Personally, I'm a fan of having a Tainted Sorcerer animate some Zombie Dragons for free, but Dragons take so long to mature, and honestly, I'm sure that there are plenty of better undead out there.

[Reprimand]

Undead as in cannon fodder mooks? The clerics turning into undead creatures to prolong themselves in service of their diety? A method of culling/controlling "heretics"?

If using it on the population you could introduce an agent into the water supply that slowly turns the population more and more undead while broadcasting a massive control undead type spell.

[Quertus]

I was thinking more along the lines of imagining a world along the way to being a Tippyverse, and asking myself who would benefit most from teamwork and infrastructure. And it occurred to me that if, say, a 4th level Cleric got even momentary access to "infinite" wealth, they would be able to control some rather amazing undead.

Problem is, I'm too biased towards Zombie Dragons to really evaluate the field of choices. So I thought I'd poll the Playground for some less biased opinions as to what might be more effective and more sustainable than having all your low-level Clergy running around with ancient Dragon corpses.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Any undead that can create spawn could give them free undead minions as long as they have humanoid sacrifices for it. Spectres, Wraiths, Wights, Vampires, Shadows, etc. are all suitable choices, but many of those are powerless in sunlight or too visibly abhorrent to be following around a ranking Cleric who wants to maintain a good social status. It really depends on what the purpose of these undead minions would be, are they just servants who hold doors open for him, or are they meant to be guardians who protect them? As guardians, incorporeal undead would be ideal, since they can stay completely out of sight by going into the ground or walls and just peeking out covertly, but you won't want to use something that's powerless in the daylight.

Regardless of what you use, they should have someone with the Fell Energy Spell metamagic feat in Dragon Compendium. That's a +1 metamagic that increases the spell's numeric bonuses granted to undead by +2. Use that on Desecrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/desecrate.htm) and the +1 hp/hd increases to +3, and the presence of an evil altar doubles that to +6 hp/hd for any undead created within the area. None of the other benefits will apply once it leaves the area of effect, but that almost doubles their minions' hp if you're using averages for monsters.

[Inevitability]

Personally, I'm a fan of having a Tainted Sorcerer animate some Zombie Dragons for free, but Dragons take so long to mature, and honestly, I'm sure that there are plenty of better undead out there.

If you're willing to go with zombie dragons anyway, there's a way around the age thing.

First, the church needs a couple of dragon eggs. This shouldn't be too difficult: adventurers routinely slay dragons, and there's no reason why the church can't hire a few. If you're willing to involve the PCs, that may actually be an okay way to subtly introduce them to the scheme.

Then, the church hatches the eggs, immobilizes the wyrmlings with Shivering Touch, and uses one of Bestow Curse's alternative uses (advance a creature by a single age category) to age the wyrmlings to a sexually mature age.

From there, the 'wyrmlings' are kept in a state of permanent paralysis and the church harvests their gametes, does a little artificial insemination, and waits for the second clutch to hatch. This process is repeated until a sizeable breeding population has been established.

From there on, new wyrmlings are hatched, paralyzed, artificially aged and finally killed and reanimated. A virtually limitless supply of undead dragons can be gained this way.

Imagine the church starts with one breeding pair of dragons. Dragons can lay eggs at least once per year, and lay two to five (let's average to 3). Assuming all dragons are immediately put to more egg-laying, the church could be outputting dozens of undead dragons a year within a decade.

Note that no step of this process requires spells above 3rd level. If Genesis is fair game, a fast time plane can slow the length of the process to almost zero.

[Zanos]

Whatever reasonably high RHD creatures the church is already purging, turned into Zombies/Skeletons. It's a LE church. Why go on separate campaigns to hunt down materials for undead when they have them in abundance as a result of all their other activities?

Even if they only have humanoid corpses, they can create whichever bloodhulk is best sized for the environment. Just need a couple of any kind of creature with blood for those.

Anying reasonably humanoid works well. Ogres, Giants, Trolls, etc. can all be equipped with any armor and weapons you care to give them, and awakened to be given feats/skills if you care that much. And who's going to mess with the guy flanked with 10ft tall knights in full plate?

[The Viscount]

Here are some undead that, while not necessarily strong, are very useful to a cleric dealing with undead.

The Slaymate reduces metamagic on necromancy spells, which is a great assistance to clerics.

The Necrosis Carnex has a small debuffing aura, but far more important is its ability to heal other undead with no limit. More use for out of combat, and there are explicit rules for creating it.

The Undead Martyr also provides healing to other undead, and has fast healing itself for some better durability. Its fluff might be relevant as the souls of members of the church serving beyond the grave.

[Holya]

Bodaks are undead created by anything destroyed by the touch of absolute evil. They have a death gaze, They are slow, they have some strange damage reduction for a undead. Over all decent cannon fodder undead but they are chaotic evil and the spawn the create is free willed. So if your church makes one its better used as a way to get good will with a area by coming and destroying it.

Bone/Corpse creatures are in the same flavor just one is a advance skeleton the other is a advance zombie. They retain their memories, skills, classes, etc. You also keep all the qualities of the race of the creature. So your bone wyvern keeps its poisoned tail attack and breath attacks. Same with the corpse version. The main difference is the natural armor and well basically the same differences between a skeleton and zombie.

Crypt spawn are your clerics who used undeath after death on themselves. It makes them rise as a sentient undead and are still themselves and can also be resurrected. If you want to created them then create greater undead but it would again be a high priest kind of thing. But it another undead that keeps all the qualities of the base creature and all the class levels. So if you have some casters or anything you can bring them back as undead without them losing anything.

Curst are.. ****ing terrifying. You do not want to make a crust unless you are doing it to a loyal follower. Because they are immune to all turning. They can not be controlled. They can not be killed except in one specific way. You have to use remove curse on them to kill them. Everything else even a sphere of annihilation by raw can not destroy them. But this requires a bestow curse and the a wish or miracle that is specifically worded.

Dread warriors are absolutely loyal undead warriors. They can only be made from fighters if you follow the fluf. If you actually follow the spell they can be made from anything but they lose a lot of int so warriors, barbarians, etc are the better choices for this. They also retain all their class abilities. But again better with melee focused classes.. So if you have paladins and one kicks it and you can preserve the corpse dread warrior that ****er all the way.

Dracolich if you can convince a dragon to kill itself. Then you are more then ready for anything most good aligned creatures will throw at you. Draco liches like to possess their own dead bodies. Thats the best vessel for them. They have the same weakness as other lichs tho as in they die if their soul anchor is destroyed. If your church has a vault and you are breeding your own dragons and killing them. Then this is fine even if they lose a fight. They instantly possess a new dragon corpse and get right into the fight. Just keep a dragon graveyard around your church or in it somewhere below ground. Just the only downside to this is it takes a minimal of two days for the new alternative body to be a full dracolich instead of the dracolich just possessing a body. This in between state for bodies that aren't its own is called a proto dracolich

Favored spawn of kyuss but to have those running around you have bigger issues since it implies the age of worm is coming. Your church can't make this but you can command them.. Just again.. If you find one.. Your church will probably go on a crusade since this means a elder evil is about to pop back into the world and Kyuss or as its better known the worm that walks and that **** is chaotic evil.. It would also despise you because it is meant to usher in a age where only undead exists..

Ghastly creature think a ghast's big brother. It can creature other ghastly creatures or ghast depending on the hit die of the things it kill. They are over all decent but again chaotic evil.. So rebuking/commanding out the ass.. Or be a dm who doesn't hard line the alignement aspect of creature templates.Also side note they keep all the abilities and class levels of the creature killed.. So again.. Another thing you can throw on a caster.. Actually I would recommend casters for this since it gets stats p across the board. Hell give it to a bard.. You now have a undead buffer for the rest of your undead.

The many.. MANY different types of ghost.. Honestly.. There are a **** ton of ghost types.. Some will fit what you want others won't. If I sit here and explain each ghost this will be a good long read just from the ghost part.. So I would recommend going to www.realmshelp.net and looking at the templates involving ghosts to see which ones you want to play with.

Ghoulish creatures again bonuses to everything. No real explination on how this ****s first come to existence if you don't have just random undead popping up in your world. Fluf is just be someone who likes eating sentient flesh. Over all they are awesome. Nice bonuses. Can creature more of themselves or just plain ghouls. If you can? I would say make your entire paladin army this.

You have grave touched ghouls.. this is.. Its kinda a fluf template. It is again a plus to all stats. It can also make spawn but this is sickness based instead of just outright killing them. Though this one can also create Ghast so.. Eh its a toss up between Gravetouched ghouls and Ghoulish.

Huecuva are.. Well they are anything that take a vow. Clerics, Paladins, Monks, and druids normally become this by turning their back on their religion. Its basically a divine punishment for changing alignements as those specific classes. Your domains are swapped to Death and evil domains if your a cleric and you become a pseudo black guard if you were a paladin. It a big hit to int tho so this is more of a you find them or get them made by getting others to abandon their religion. They are treated as higher hit die then they are worth for turning or commanding tho so be careful with em.

Juju zombies are massively upgraded forms of zombies. They are sentient. They are powerful. They are completely and utterly pissed at everything. Sure they take some negatives to int but they are immune to magic missle and eletrical damage. They keep all class and racial abilities. So over all better then a base zombie.

Finally we get to the lich. There are different types of lichs.. It just brings up the question of how are you going to keep it from biting you in the ass if its destroyed and reforms. Since it reforms no longer under your control since its a intelligent undead. It makes a good caster and a surprisingly sneaky creature when it wants to be. It would be better as something you keep in the bowels of your church keeping records, researching magic, creating spells, and making undead.

Depending on your god.. You might get death knights. But this is again not a creature you can control. It is also a undead which will be a beacon for ALL other undead within 200 miles. So if you end up with one because you appeased your god and it has the death domain? Or because one of your martial followers died and somehow had appeased a evil god of death? You want this to be on the front lines or as a commander among your army as if you keep it in your church undead will slowly but surely overrun the area around it for up to 200 miles.

There are a lot more undead but.. Well there lies the problem.. What exactly are you looking for in undead?

[Silva Stormrage]

Another question would be why does this church only have one type of undead they are promoting. If they have the resources to spawn high level undead and enhance their lower level clerics to use it then they can easily have different wings.

One section of the low level clerics holding undead that are used for defense/the army

One section of clerics for infrastructure/spellcasting

Etc etc

Depending on how high level you want Ice Guants from Frostburn are also something usable. 5th level Druid casting and create spawn. Not great but decent and pretty easy to rebuke.

[Thurbane]

Name
CR


Slaymate
2


Banedead
3


Quell
3


Wight
3


Entomber
5


Mummy
5


Ogre, Mummified
5


Wraith
5


Wraith, Evolved
6


Spectre
7


Swordwraith
7


Grimweird
11


Naga: Bone Naga
11


Wheep
11


Wraith, Dread
11


Mummy Lord, 10th-level Cleric
15


Jahi
16


Mind Flayer, Alhoon
18