I need help building a character I had in a dream.

[thorr-kan]

I'm trying to build a character I had in a dream a few nights ago. The visuals were very simliar to WoW screen shots I've seen (which is weird, since I don't video game).

In the dream, there's a Lovecraftian/Cthulhuian/Far Realm portal opening. Viewpoint is facing the portal, back and up a little bit. Facing the portal is a mage. He looks very Charlton Heston as Moses. He's gesturing and chanting, obviously in the middle of spellcasting. On his left, a celestial appears in a very Star Trek transporter-like effect. On his right, an infernal appears, in similar but dark-themed FX. On the ground behind and around him, skeletons are pulling themselves out of the ground and forming ranks. Everybody's facing the portal. And something is starting to come through...

So of course, I want to build this guy as a D&D character. I'm asking for ideas, since the forums' knowledge depth is greater than my own. My dream neglected to provide me with a character sheet. And since the dream left me feeling contrary, I'm gunning for E6 stats. Assuming all books, but no Dragon content.

He's obviously an arcane spellcaster of some type. I'd guess summoner and/or some form necromancer. How much can these be maximized in the 3.5 ruleset with E6 limitation?

My mental stub build is the wizard conjurer from Unearthed Arcana with Focused Summoner, multi-classed with Dread Necromancer.

[Tvtyrant]

I'm trying to build a character I had in a dream a few nights ago. The visuals were very simliar to WoW screen shots I've seen (which is weird, since I don't video game).

In the dream, there's a Lovecraftian/Cthulhuian/Far Realm portal opening. Viewpoint is facing the portal, back and up a little bit. Facing the portal is a mage. He looks very Charlton Heston as Moses. He's gesturing and chanting, obviously in the middle of spellcasting. On his left, a celestial appears in a very Star Trek transporter-like effect. On his right, an infernal appears, in similar but dark-themed FX. On the ground behind and around him, skeletons are pulling themselves out of the ground and forming ranks. Everybody's facing the portal. And something is starting to come through...

So of course, I want to build this guy as a D&D character. I'm asking for ideas, since the forums' knowledge depth is greater than my own. My dream neglected to provide me with a character sheet. And since the dream left me feeling contrary, I'm gunning for E6 stats. Assuming all books, but no Dragon content.

He's obviously an arcane spellcaster of some type. I'd guess summoner and/or some form necromancer. How much can these be maximized in the 3.5 ruleset with E6 limitation?

My mental stub build is the wizard conjurer from Unearthed Arcana with Focused Summoner, multi-classed with Dread Necromancer.

The good news it is doable. The bad news is it's not doable that way.

Animate Dead is a 4th level spell for arcane casters, so you can't cast it without shenanigans and certainly not if multic-classed. You have three options:

Cleric, who have summon monster and animate dead so they can do it. Not arcane though, you would probably go Cloistered Cleric or Archivist.

Dread Necromancer abusing Versatile Spellcaster to get access to Animate Dead, but no access to summon monster. This is probably the strongest undead option but also involves assuming 4th level spells exist and you can use them.

Wizard using Summon Undead to summon fake skeletons as well as monsters.

[ShurikVch]

Besides the aforementioned:

Warlock may take The Dead Walk invocation at 6th level

Death Master (Dragon Compendium) have Animate Dead as 2nd-level spell

As a cheesy-as-heck option, Darklight Wizard "PrC" (Villain Design Handbook) have at will Animate Dead SLA at 5th level (and access to spells of level = class level, thus - 6th-level spells at 6th level)

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If he's a shadowcraft mage illusionist (using Versatile Spellcaster, Heighten Spell, and Sanctum Spell to qualify early, or see the link below), he could be using illusionary creatures, and maybe he's using a massively cost-reduced Heighten effect to simulate summoning animate object'd skeletons?

The celestials are made from shadowstuff and aren't actually sapient, so they don't mind the (shadow) fiends (which aren't really fiends), and the skeletons aren't undead; they're constructs.

The fiends are also made from shadowstuff, so the same applies in the other direction.

And the skeletons are mindless constructs, so they don't care either way.

Also: https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?385276-My-shadow-and-me!-Fun-with-the-shadowcraft-mage

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Animate Dead is a 3rd level spell in the Death and Undeath domains, so Arcane Disciple can get it on a Wizard or Sorcerer in E6. Pick the Undeath domain and you'll also get Desecrate.

Take Corpsecrafter from LM to give your undead +4 Str and Dex and +2 hp/hd. Take Fell Energy Spell in Dragon Compendium, it's a +1 metamagic which increases all numeric bonuses the spell grants to undead by two points. Put that on Desecrate and the +1 hp/hd it normally grants becomes +3 hp/hd, and Desecrate doubles that to +6 hp/hd if there's an evil altar present.

As for any other stuff that may not have been possible in E6, Incantations (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/incantations.htm) are a thing.