Necromancer build style

[evyldead]

So I'm going away from my normal way of playing and want to play something to pretty much just have fun controlling undead or commanding or however they do it. So here goes, I want to build a necromancer but have his familiar or whatever I can have as my general being a vampire. I thought about being the vampire to start but then decided against it as it's a +8 LA. So I'm just going with the next best as a necromancer, how would one build this to have a vampire as my main pet and have it take levels and that fun stuff?

All advice is duely appreciated!

[Goaty14]

Just get leadership?

To clarify, you take the leadership feat at ECL 6, then bribe your DM with her favorite food, put on your biggest sad puppy eyes, and then ask if your cohort can be a vampire. (Results may vary)

Was there any specific build help that you wanted other than that?

[Silva Stormrage]

Zhentarim Skymage seems the best option

They essentially get a flying mount. But the big thing is that there isn't a good restriction on the mount's CR or what it can be.

Full Text: Flying Mount (Ex): A Zhentarim skymage can call a flying monster to serve as his personal mount. The mount cannot have more Hit Dice than the Zhentarim skymage's class level + his Charisma modifier + 1. The mount serves the skymage loyally as if it were a druid's or ranger's animal companion, and carries the skymage into combat if desired (if the creature is strong enough to carry the skymage). Should a flying mount die, the character can replace it after gaining two levels in any spellcasting class. Necromancer skymages sometimes use undead monsters as mounts (including the animated corpse of a slain flying mount), and certain powerful conjurer skymages even have enslaved fiends as mounts.

If the skymage suffers permanent Charisma damage or loses enough levels that he could no longer have his flying mount, the mount flees at the first opportunity, often attacking its former master before doing so.

Suitable mounts (and Hit Dice) include chimera (9), criosphinx (10), dire bat (4), dragonne (9), dragons (varies), giant eagle (4), giant owl (4), griffon (7), hieracosphinx (9), hippogriff (3), manticore (6), nightmare (6), peryton (5), roc (18), sinister (4), spider eater (4), wyvern (7), and yrthak (12).


Note it's just HD not CR or anything else. Get a vampire dragon as a sky mount and ride around basking in your awesomeness. Watch out for Cha drain though.

Of course your GM may not allow this as it can get rather silly ("I want my Paragon Pseodonatural Evolved * 100 Vampire Lord Vampire Dragon. It's only 12 HD! Sure it's CR 24 but it's totally fair")

[Kelb_Panthera]

Straight dread necromancer (Heroes of Horror) is the easiest, most straight-forward way of being a necromancer that commands either a small army of undead or a really powerful undead.

[frogglesmash]

Instead of leadership get undead leadership from libris mortis, it's identical to leadership except you count as 2 levels higher for undead minions, and 4 lower for living ones.

[Falontani]

Afaict, the only official raw way to get a vampire without finding it, or cheese like the above mount is through thrall of Orcus. At level 9 you can summon a vampire with class levels equal to your thrall of Orcus level. So you could summon a vampire with 8 dread necromancer levels and the various corpse crafter feats, or one with master vampire levels, etc. Then command it to fully drain a target humanoid/monstrous humanoid with 5 hd. The created spawn would be a vampire that you could then rebuke. However this is a slightly weak option for the traditional necromancer since thrall of orcus only gives 4 cl in it's 10 levels.

[Gullintanni]

Clerics are the most powerful undead controllers, namely in that they can do everything a Dread Necromancer can do and they're still Clerics.

To echo the above, Dread Necros are the most straightforward, focused Necromancer classes.

Clerics do well to trade a domain for the Divine Magician ACF and pick up Command Undead as a second level spell on top of some necromancy debuffs otherwise unavailable to them.

As your other domain, Deathbound and Undeath are fair choices. There a metric ton of ways to increase your effective cleric level for the purposes of rebuking, such that by level 20 you can control most CR appropriate undead and by level ten it is impossible to fail a rebuking check against CR appropriate undead. This is likely the easiest way to gain control of a vampire. Or the Undead Leadership feat.

Use animate dead to create big zombies or skeletons and anything you can't control makes a perfect target for Command Undead.

The spell Awaken Undead can be used to create an intelligent zombie or skeleton (Zombie Dragons and Skeletal Dragons are excellent choices as they have their own special templates) and your Rebuke/Command Undead can be used to control them.

[HouseRules]

Cleric
Necromancer (Wizard Specialization)
Dread Necromancer

Do not select True Necromancer, the weakest Necromancer Class of All of Them.

Why does http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?52276-Vampire-Spawn-LA say that there is a LA +5 Vampire, and LA +8 Elite Vampire? It also mentions LA +4 Vampire Spawn.

Spawn LA +4
Regular LA +5
Elite LA +8

Familiar "Vampire Bat", and roleplay as if it is a Vampire until you have enough levels for it to be equal to a full Vampire with slow addition to its growth....

Edit: Start with a Vampire Bat, when you reach Level 9, switch it with a Vampire Spawn. When you reach Level 17, switch it with a full vampire.

[BlackOnyx]

If your DM is open to the idea of a vampire (or vampire spawn) cohort, going cleric/cloistered cleric and using rebuke undead might be one of the most straightforward options (aside from the undead leadership feat, that is).


Even if you don't have access to the undead leadership feat, petitioning to use the cohort rules/restrictions to "level" a controlled undead companion might be your best bet. That said, I'd avoid trying any blatant "cheese" with your class level selection (maybe even sticking with npc classes if the DM is concerned with power balance).


And, even if they are rebuked, be nice to your new vampire friend. Should they ever find themselves temporarily freed of your control, a good working relationship could save you & your party members a lot of extra blood.

[Silva Stormrage]

Cleric
Necromancer (Wizard Specialization)
Dread Necromancer

Do not select True Necromancer, the weakest Necromancer Class of All of Them.

Why does http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?52276-Vampire-Spawn-LA say that there is a LA +5 Vampire, and LA +8 Elite Vampire? It also mentions LA +4 Vampire Spawn.

Spawn LA +4
Regular LA +5
Elite LA +8

Familiar "Vampire Bat", and roleplay as if it is a Vampire until you have enough levels for it to be equal to a full Vampire with slow addition to its growth....


In regards to the whole "Elite Vampire" thing. Thats a typo on the monster manual's stat block. Ignore it.

They have a "Regular" level 5 vampire statblock and mistakingly have it at LA +5. Then below they have an "Elite" vampire statblock that is LA +8. But the "Elite" vampire isn't a different template, it's just the vampire template added to a level 13 character. It's "elite" because it is a level 13 vampire instead of a level 5 one. Some people got confused with that and there we go.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You should be able to rebuke/command one. If you're starting play at a decent level, you can just start the game with one already under your control.

A Cleric or Dread Necromancer needs their effective level for rebuking undead to be double the target's effective HD to command undead. The feat Improved Turning gives you +1 to that effective level, and the following items from MIC can further improve that:

Scepter of the Netherworld +3
Talisman of Undead Mastery +4 (varies, daily limit)
Rod of Defiance +4* (it actually debuffs undead with -4 turn resistance, don't have it out all the time as it makes your minions easier to turn)
Ruby Blade +4 (minimum level 11)

Vampires have +4 turn resistance, so at level 11 with all of those items, you can command a 9 HD Vampire with Rebuke Undead.

A creature needs to have at least 5 HD to be a vampire and not a vampire spawn, so to command the weakest vampire your effective level for rebuking undead needs to be 18. With the above Scepter, Talisman, and Rod, and Improved Turning, you can do it at 6th level, but you won't have enough wealth at 6th level to have those items. It really just depends on what level you're starting at, how high you can get your effective rebuke undead level starting out, and whether you can get that level above 18 to start with a commanded vampire.

If you're going to have undead minions, or especially be undead yourself, get a Ring of Greater Desecration (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x).