Free skeleton creation?

[Delta_tea]

For zombies I know there's a whistle (Night Caller) and the Fel animate feat. Is there anything that can make a skeleton cheap/free? 25g per HD with Animate Undead adds up really fast so I'm trying to reduce that expense. Thanks!

[Quertus]

For zombies I know there's a whistle (Night Caller) and the Fel animate feat. Is there anything that can make a skeleton cheap/free? 25g per HD with Animate Undead adds up really fast so I'm trying to reduce that expense. Thanks!

Tainted Sorcerer? Eschew/Ignore Materials?

[Zanos]

There's a couple outsider that are available via planar binding that have animate dead as an SLA, so no material component. You can then command those undead and probably kill the outsider so they don't throw of your groove. You could also spellstitch any undead you have control of with at least 15 wis to get it as an SLA, but that costs a ton of XP, so probably not worth it.

[Aotrs Commander]

Second level Pale Master ability lets you use Animate Dead 1/day as an SLA, without the need to spend gold on it (it explictly states "without need for material component," which while technically a redundant clarification, is one worth making anyway.)

[Heavenblade]

It's super obscure, and kinda requires to build around if you don't want to suck (a duskblade entry is probably advised) - and its zombies and skeletons.
That said, the CE prc for female drow (mostly) named Yathrinshee lets you raise everything you kill as a zombie, no cap, no cost, all day every day.

[Doctor Despair]

There's a couple outsider that are available via planar binding that have animate dead as an SLA, so no material component. You can then command those undead and probably kill the outsider so they don't throw of your groove. You could also spellstitch any undead you have control of with at least 15 wis to get it as an SLA, but that costs a ton of XP, so probably not worth it.

You could go Necropolitan and Spellstitch yourself ;)

[Gruftzwerg]

while it might not what you are looking for..:
warlocks can use animate dead with the option to bypass the materials by giving them only a short duration.
You can animate dead all day long as you have corpses, they just don't last much.

[Calthropstu]

Having children creates skeletons at zero initial cost.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Horned Harbinger gets animate dead as an SLA (with CL bonus) at level 2. No spellcasting advancement, sadly.

[Psyren]

If you only need it for a few rounds (e.g. a quick fight), Summon Undead has you covered.

[Delta_tea]

Thanks for some ideas!

I'm looking to run a LN Cleric of Wee Jas. So having Undead is not a problem. But the cost of those Undead gets silly fast (19 HD Zombie Dragon is 475 gold!)

Warlock route would cost me cleric casting levels.
Horned Harbinger is awesome, but I'm not evil.
Pale Master is an option, but I'd lose caster levels like warlock.

I'll do some reading on Planar binding. It seems fairly time limited...
Maybe I can summon something, kill it, raise it, awaken it and then use its Animate Undead ability?

[Thurbane]

There's the Sticks and Stones spell from Shining South: Cleric 3, creates a 2HD humanoid skeleton which can also energy drain as a wight. No material component (other than the pile of debris you animate). Only lasts 1 round/level though.

[Psyren]

Maybe I can summon something, kill it, raise it,

Summons poof when killed so this won't work.

[JeminiZero]

Pale Master is an option, but I'd lose caster levels like warlock.

There is a divine version of Palemaster, but its from another campaign Setting: Bone Knight [Eberron-Five Nations]

[Delta_tea]

Summons poof when killed so this won't work.

I thought there was a trick with using Dimensional Anchor before it goes poof.

Corrected order:
summon it, kill it, anchor it, animate it, awaken it, profit!

[Psyren]

I thought there was a trick with using Dimensional Anchor before it goes poof.

Corrected order:
summon it, kill it, anchor it, animate it, awaken it, profit!

Still no - Dimensional Anchor specifically prevents this.

[Delta_tea]

There is a divine version of Palemaster, but its from another campaign Setting: Bone Knight [Eberron-Five Nations]

That's a really interesting class! Now that I've seen Bone Knight I'm honestly wondering why that's not the default for a lot of people. Full martial, mount, spells! The only thing its really missing is Tome of Battle maneuvers.

[Gusmo]

A runesmith could make animate dead into a SLA at level 5 (10th level overall, most likely). Though it might be best to use the SLA on create greater undead, which allows you to create more powerful creatures in addition to skeletons. You'd need to ask permission for it to advance divine casting, though.

[Rebel7284]

Dweomerkeeper (Complete Divine Web Enhancement) gives your supernatural spell a few times a day. This avoids all components.

[Gruftzwerg]

Thanks for some ideas!

I'm looking to run a LN Cleric of Wee Jas. So having Undead is not a problem. But the cost of those Undead gets silly fast (19 HD Zombie Dragon is 475 gold!)

Warlock route would cost me cleric casting levels.
Horned Harbinger is awesome, but I'm not evil.
Pale Master is an option, but I'd lose caster levels like warlock.



How about a chaotic/xxx

Warlock 4 / Binder 1 / Ur-Priest 2 / Eldritch Disciple 8 / Hellfire Warlock 3 / XXX 2

The fast spell lvl progression of Ur-Priest gives you access to 9th lvl spells at lvl 14 already (for the price of being behind till character lvl 11 where both a regular cleric and an ur-priest get access to 6th lvl spells). Binder helps to compensate the Con dmg from Hellfire Warlock.

[Zanos]

I'm looking to run a LN Cleric of Wee Jas. So having Undead is not a problem. But the cost of those Undead gets silly fast (19 HD Zombie Dragon is 475 gold!)
I think you might be going about this wrong. 475 gold is not really expensive. Clerics get animate dead at 5th level, at which point they should have a wealth of 9k. That's about 5.5% of your WBL to fill up your animate dead pool of 20 HD. That's 1/3rd the price of full plate. At level 10 it's ~2% to fill up your pool. At level 20 it's ~0.2%.

Is your DM particularly stingy with wealth? Unless your undead are constantly getting destroyed it shouldn't be that expensive. I recommend focusing on individually high HD undead since they're more resilient and less of a pain to actually run for, rather than a horde of zombies and skeletons. Pick up a necrosis carnex or some black sand for healing, too.

[Vizzerdrix]

I thought there was a trick with using Dimensional Anchor before it goes poof.

Corrected order:
summon it, kill it, anchor it, animate it, awaken it, profit!

Halasters fetch is the spell you want.