Looking for the ultimate Necromancer, if possible without TOO many hoops

[GrayDeath]

s the title says.

For our Big Bad myself and my Co-DM are looking for the best" possible Necromancer as Adventure Villain (starts around Level 7ish, should end around Level 11-12)

What we checked so far:

Dread necro: takes too long to get to the interesting parts (Creation), otherwise good.

Cleric: Too much Cleric, too little Necromancy aside from Turn/Rebuke

Necromancer: too much Wizard, too little Necromancer (Control, Rebuke, etc).

True Necromancer. Hehehe, yah, nope.

Probably overlooked soemthing truly obvious, so....^^

We are open to any Pathfinder Material as well (Round is largely 3.p).

Now to clarify: we are NOT looking for the most powerful caster with a Necromancy theme, but for the best at: Death Effects, Creation and Control of Undead and similar stuff.

[BlackOnyx]

Cleric: Too much Cleric, too little Necromancy aside from Turn/Rebuke


I will say, depending on the domains and feats you choose, a necromancy focused cleric (cloistered cleric, especially) can really come into their own.


A cloistered cleric worshiping an ideal could easily take his pick of the necromancer domain (blood of vol), trickery domain, or death/undeath domains to name a few. Tack on one or two uses of the domain spontaneity feat and some extra rebuke attempts (via a nightstick or the extra turning feat) and you can spontaneously cast necromancy spells in place of your usual prepared ones.


If you want greater spell diversity, the spell domain grants access to Anyspell and Greater Anyspell; this gives your cleric access to any Sor/Wiz necromancy spell of fifth level or lower by level 11.


A one level dip in Contemplative, once said necromancer meet the prereqs, can open up access to yet another domain as well.


As far as minion-mancing, Corpsecrafter & the associated feat line (plus the desecrate spell) can help the cleric build some fairly potent undead as early as level 5. With the entire cleric spell list open, said necromancer has a lot options he can use to buff/support his minions in combat. Well optimized rebuking (even just with items) and Undead Leadership can open up more options if you're looking to control a larger horde.

[umbergod]

How bout deathmaster from dragon compendium?

[16bearswutIdo]

For our Big Bad myself and my Co-DM are looking for the best" possible Necromancer as Adventure Villain (starts around Level 7ish, should end around Level 11-12)

What we checked so far:

Dread necro: takes too long to get to the interesting parts (Creation), otherwise good.

Now to clarify: we are NOT looking for the most powerful caster with a Necromancy theme, but for the best at: Death Effects, Creation and Control of Undead and similar stuff.

If you're starting at 7, DN gets Animate at 8 and can start using Fell Animate as early as level 6 without DMM or Naenhoon cheese. I don't see that as being "too long." Hell, you can even start him at level 8 and he just starts with animating. If you really want him to have "Create Undead" just give him a staff with that in a Glove of Storing or something.

I'm pretty sure a DN is PERFECT for what you're looking for. Death effects, negative levels, and undead mastery is basically all they do.

You could also go DN/Ur-priest/Mystic Theurge

[Falontani]

Level

Class

Base Attack Bonus

Fort Save

Ref Save

Will Save

Skills

Feats

Class Features


1st

Death Master

+0

+0

+0

+2


Mother Cyst

Rebuke Undead, Spells, Undead Minion



2nd

Death Master

+1

+0

+0

+3



Necropolitan



3rd

Death Master

+2

+1

+1

+3


Corpsecrafter




4th

Death Master

+3

+1

+1

+4






5th

Death Master

+3

+1

+1

+4



Master of the Dead



6th

Death Master

+4

+2

+2

+5


Necromantic Presence




7th

Death Master

+5

+2

+2

+5



Spellstitched



8th

Death Master

+6

+2

+2

+6






9th

Death Master

+6

+3

+3

+6


Necromantic Might




10th

Death Master

+7

+3

+3

+7



Sustenance of the Dead



11th

Death Master

+8

+3

+3

+7






12th

Death Master

+9

+4

+4

+8


Deadly Chill





Any non LA race will do. Level 2 become a Necropolitan. Level 7 at the cusp of hitting level 8 (or just do it at level 8) become spellstitched. The end of Level 7 is the first point that you can do it with 11 wisdom (the minimum for what we want and the cheapest for us) to grant us Animate Dead as a spell like ability 4 times/day. It costs you 1000 GP and 5500 XP. Casting Animate Dead as a Spell Like Ability means you do not have to pay component prices for zombies or skeletons anymore, meaning you can go wild with your undead! And as a bonus at level 20 we still become a lich. This guy is running Create Undead as soon as level 9, and Animate Dead at level 3. He has a Wyvern Zombie that returns to him after being destroyed after 24 hours. He has all the best necromancy spells from the Player’s Handbook, and solidifies power using the Mother Cyst line. If you would like you can drop Mother Cyst or Deadly Chill for Arcane Disciple to grant yourself a few domain spells, however they would use your wisdom mod instead of your intelligence mod. Not a good plan most of the time, however getting access to Black Sand could very well make it worth it. At level 7 he is the most powerful necromancer out the gate.





Level

Class

Base Attack Bonus

Fort Save

Ref Save

Will Save

Skills

Feats

Class Features


1st

Dread Necromancer

+0

+0

+0

+2


Corpsecrafter

Charnel Touch, Rebuke Undead



2nd

Dread Necromancer

+1

+0

+0

+3



Lich Body DR 2, Necropolitan



3rd

Dread Necromancer

+1

+1

+1

+3


Iron Will

Negative Energy Burst 1/day



4th

Dread Necromancer

+2

+1

+1

+4



Mental Bastion, Lesser Shivering Touch



5th

Dread Necromancer

+2

+1

+1

+4



Fear Aura



6th

Dread Necromancer

+3

+2

+2

+5


Undead Leadership

Scabrous Touch 1/day



7th

Dread Necromancer

+3

+2

+2

+5



Lich Body DR 4, Summon Familiar, Spellstitched



8th

Dread Necromancer

+4

+2

+2

+6



Undead Mastery, Negative Energy Burst 2/day, Consumptive Field



9th

Lord of the Dead (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x)

+4

+2

+2

+8


Destruction Retribution

Turn Resistance +1



10th

Lord of the Dead (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x)

+5

+2

+2

+9



Turn Resistance +2, Bolstering Aura +1



11th

Lord of the Dead (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x)

+6

+3

+3

+9



Turn Resistance +3, Bolstering Aura +2



12th

Lord of the Dead (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x)

+7

+3

+3

+10



Turn Resistance +4, Bolstering Aura +3, Animate Dead




Alrighty this one is a bit different. Your going to become a necropolitan, and your going to become spellstitched. That much doesn’t change, however your strategy is completely different. You don’t get Animate Dead as a Spell Like Ability until level 12, and at that point skeletons and zombies are getting to be utter crap. You will boost your caster level by 2, either through the use of Consumptive Field or magic items (if you go with magic items then it is suggested that you choose Black Sand instead of Consumptive Field for your level 8 advanced learning). You can begin animating the dead at level 8 and you have a higher limit than the death master, and since your cha based your rebuking will be better as well. At level 12 you will raise your caster level to 14, and cast create undead on fallen spellcasters. You will turn them into Flameskulls. Flameskulls are a fun little undead, they have 4 HD each with a natural turn resistance of 4. Afaik this means you can command them with rebuke undead, or you can just cast a control undead or something, getting them under your control is your choice (in my personal group we homebrew that Create Undead is automatically under your control, of course we also say we just give templates to most creatures). They each have a few spell like abilities, however your most likely going to spellstitch each and every one of your flameskulls, because of their most potent ability: Rejuvenation. You see an hour after they are destroyed they come back. Meaning with your Destruction Retribution they are bombs for you. Not to mention each one has 2 ranged touch attacks that deal 1d8 fire damage per round, and you can throw on spells like Ray of Enfeeblement, or even Command Undead (that is my preferred, you create 4 mindless skeletons, relinquish control over them, and have a flameskull cast command undead on each of them, renewing it each day, giving them a group of 4 undead that they can use.) Whenever a flameskull does get destroyed it explodes dealing 2d6 negative damage to everything in 10 ft, healing undead and hurting enemies. If this is for the BBEG, I would suggest either filling up to your brim of rebuke undead pool, or count them as created and put them in your animate pool. If you put them in your animate pool after you have roughly 8 or so I would just begin upping their HD. It increases their BAB, their CL, their saves, their hit points, and increases how much damage they do when they are destroyed. This one is the most powerful later on.




Level

Class

Base Attack Bonus

Fort Save

Ref Save

Will Save

Skills

Feats

Class Features


1st

Sha’ir

+0

+0

+0

+2


Corpsecrafter

Summon Gen Familiar



2nd

Sha’ir

+1

+0

+0

+3






3rd

Sha’ir

+2

+1

+1

+3


Spell Focus: Necromancy

Recognize Genie Works



4th

Cloistered Cleric

+2

+3

+1

+5



Knowledge Domain, Death Domain, Deathbound Domain, Rebuke Undead



5th

Geomancer

+2

+5

+1

+7



Drift 1, Spell Versatility 0



6th

Geomancer

+3

+6

+1

+8


Undead Leadership

Drift 1, Ley Lines +1, Spell Versatility 1



7th

Geomancer

+4

+6

+2

+8



Drift 2, Spell Versatility 2



8th

True Necromancer

+4

+6

+2

+10



Rebuke Undead



9th

True Necromancer

+5

+6

+2

+11


Mother Cyst

Create Undead 1/day



10th

True Necromancer

+5

+7

+3

+11



Necromantic Prowess +1



11th

True Necromancer

+6

+7

+3

+12



Zone of Desecration



12th

True Necromancer

+6

+7

+3

+12


Arcane Disciple:

Create Undead 2/day




This is probably your weakest necromancer, however it will build up into a very powerful necromancer. With the most interesting way to get spells of any class and the ability to call itself both arcane and divine makes it the best way to enter True Necromancer (and geomancer for that matter). We could technically have entered earlier, however I wanted to grab Spell Versatility 2 just so that no one would have any doubts.


Finally these are all without talking about the standard go to necromancers:
Wizard Lord of the Uttercold (Using Lord of the Uttercold, skeletons, and wall of fire you heal your undead while simultaneously hurting the enemy, great fun as you can go Frost Mage to really kick up the ice theme to 11, take the feat to grant yourself healing as undead (or just ascend to lichdom) and have an expansive skeleton army)

Cleric Master of Shrouds (Taking cleric 1, grabbing human paragon 2, you can enter into Master of Shrouds very early. Netting you access to the Shadow Apocalypse by level 5. Plus your a cleric, which with the right domain selection is very easily one of the best necromancers out there. Overall a fun idea, I've run with it myself before, and it is certainly a power house)

Finally if you would like I can give you a non spellcasting necromancer, I can give you an artificer necromancer (T0 class for a reason!), I can give you a martial necromancer. I can give you just about anything you could need for a necromancer. One of my favorite necromancers was a necromancer with a spellstiched monkey familiar that made use of Fleshwarper. With that said for your most powerful necromancer you will probably want the second choice, or choose the lord of uttercold or master of shrouds.