Ways to get Undead Companion (Especially items for Animate Dead)

[Quertus]

So, background: I've got a player who wants an undead feline companion. Probably.

Now, I've got several ways to approach this, I think, but I'm drawing a blank on the details, for pretty much all of them.

They could be be a caster with a familiar, then end up with an undead familiar somehow.

They could have an animal companion, then get an undead animal companion somehow.

They could cast Animate Dead on a feline.

They could have Rebuke Undead, and control something that someone else created.

And I think i remember some ridiculously underpriced item - a rod maybe - that let you Animate a few corpses at a time? But maybe had a limit of humanoid corpses? I played a Fighter with such an item; unfortunately, the game only lasted one session, so I really don't remember the item, only that I had a pile of corpses, and skeletons to carry my sedan chair.

Ideally, this undead looks like a small housecat, but would have more HP. Are there any higher-HD monsters that fit the bill? Or what shenanigans can we pull off via the Polymorph line?

Any help reminding my senile mind of the details, or providing new techniques to help build this character would be appreciated.

EDIT: btw, I'm leaning towards the item approach, because it'll make the companion easy to replace. Because the player is new. And 7.

[GrayDeath]

If you want to know where your Player probably got the Idea from, read Foal necromancer.

Might give you some hints as to where he aims it to go. Or not. ^^


As for the actual querstion: Why not simply take a Zombie House cat and advance it with Undead HD?

[Silva Stormrage]

The feat stiched flesh familiar is just that. A zombie familiar, it's not useful in combat but I am not sure why your player wants one or for what purpose.

[Quertus]

If you want to know where your Player probably got the Idea from, read Foal necromancer.

Might give you some hints as to where he aims it to go. Or not. ^^


As for the actual querstion: Why not simply take a Zombie House cat and advance it with Undead HD?

Because neither "zombie" nor "cat" have an advancement option?

I'll check the library for "Foal Necromancer", though.


The feat stiched flesh familiar is just that. A zombie familiar, it's not useful in combat but I am not sure why your player wants one or for what purpose.

Well, that's simple enough. Thanks! I'm personally not fond of walking XP loss, but I'll explain it as an option.

And I'm not sure that there is a "why" other than that it sounds cool. She's 7. I'll see what I can get out of her, but she's rather... resistant to questioning.

[GrayDeath]

Its an online story, just google it.

Although if the Player is 7 I severely doubt my above conclusion.

Also there does not need to be a specific advancement if a general (Undead Dice)e xists and you are the DM. Just saying.

Although the Spellstitched familiar is the more elegant solution.

[SLOTHRPG95]

Unless you're overly concerned with teaching her the ins and outs of animate dead/feat selection/whatever, I'd say just give her a cat zombie with extra hit dice. And maybe higher str/dex/NA, if you want it to be less disposable. I haven't run for anyone near that young for a long time, but I remember introducing one of my baby brother's younger friends to the game and doing something similar. The rest of us were in our teens, so the other players didn't really mind that I wasn't trying to hard to come up with a mechanical reason that his character had a pet wyvern. He was eight, and wyverns are cool, and that was that. Obviously, if it'd been a level 1 campaign, I'd have made it a baby wyvern or something. But they were starting at a high-ish level.

tl;dr Just give the seven-year-old her undead kitten. Don't overthink it.

[zlefin]

While not strict RAW; I'd probably tweak the rules for specialist wizard necro variant to let it be the cat instead of a human warrior skeleton.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#skeletalMinion

[Quertus]

tl;dr Just give the seven-year-old her undead kitten. Don't overthink it.

Well, I like the things I make to either a) be RAW/RAI compliant; or b) be refluffed versions of something RAW/RAI compliant, whenever possible. It avoids concerns of favoritism.

That said, I prefer games where homebrew is common, and everybody is chill, and everybody works to keep things within the table's balance range.

But, for their first intro especially, I like kids to have things that, when they talk about it to others, it doesn't cause a "wtf" moment.

On that note,


While not strict RAW; I'd probably tweak the rules for specialist wizard necro variant to let it be the cat instead of a human warrior skeleton.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/specialistWizardVariants.htm#skeletalMinion

Refluffing this looks like it might be another valid option.

[ShurikVch]

How about the Create Dread Beast spell (Towers of High Sorcery)?
The dread beasts the wizard creates remain under his control so long as they stay in an area up to 50 miles from his location. The wizard may see through their eyes and hear through their ears as if they were the recipients of a permanent clairaudience/clairvoyance spell; see the "Dread Beast" entry for more information.
Dread beasts that move outside the caster's 50-mile radius attempt to get back into range, but are destroyed if unable to do so for longer than 24 hours.It's a 5th-level spell, but you may just give it as a scroll (Or, maybe, 1-use Wondrous Item?)
The only problem there may be the 30' Stench

For advancement: look at the Guardian Familiar from the Dangerous Denizens - it looks like a common black cat, but actually, an Outsider
It have the Nine Lives SA - if it killed by anything but Disintegrate or Wish, it came back up to 9 times; every time it came back slightly bigger and stronger (+1 to HD, AC, SR, attack and damage; and +5 speed); at the last life, it's the size of a puma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma_(genus)); if the fight would be finished before it's out of lives - it shrinks back to original size, and regain all extra lives
Also, have "normal" HD advancement - up to 3, and at 3 - as it said - grows up to size of a bobcat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobcat)

[SLOTHRPG95]

Well, I like the things I make to either a) be RAW/RAI compliant; or b) be refluffed versions of something RAW/RAI compliant, whenever possible. It avoids concerns of favoritism.

Ah, okay. In that case, I second the idea of mimicking a Stitched-Flesh Familiar. Out of curiosity, is the group generally a young one, or only the one player? I feel like that might make a big difference in terms of concerns of favoritism.

[Feantar]

There's the Animate Dead Familiar Spell (http://archive.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20011209a). It... kind of sucks but it isn't completely worthless. You could also just put corpse creature or bone creature on a familiar or animal companion and just consider the master's level 1 less (to account for the LA +1).

Similarly, you can refluff the wild cohort feat. If you want to have a wild cohort corpse/bone creature cat (which is kind of useless) you shouldn't have to adjust anything - it is weaker than the suggested animals anyway.

Also, if you want something more concrete, in pathfinder there's the Familiar Bond (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/general-feats/familiar-bond) feat, which allows you to obtain a familiar based on your HD, regardless of caster levels. It also requires Iron Will... because reasons?

[Quertus]

So, hmmm, I've trained numerous 7-year-olds to play 3e, but she will be the youngest in the group.

Her brother teased her enough to get her to open up about what she wants - and she expects the cat to die. Repeatedly. She wants something frail and easily replaceable. So anything involving it being a Familiar is probably right out.

She keeps saying that she wants to be a Wizard / Sorceress, but it occurs to me that Warlock might be the way to go - no complicated resource management, and, IIRC, they have a power to keep one corpse animated, right?

I should probably investigate the Guardian Familiar and (refluffed) Wild Cohort feat as backup plans.

[SLOTHRPG95]

The Dead Walk is a lesser invocation, and it works as the Animate Dead spell, not with a one-creature limit. That would be how Charm (also a lesser invocation) works. Oh, also you can not pay the onyx if you're okay with the undead only lasting 1 minute/CL.