Low level but smart undead army - how to build & set up

[lolcat]

As the title suggests, i'm thinking on how to equip the army of an evil undead necromancer / magic item creator.

The creator is a high level necromancer who has rune-magic, creating wondrous items, most types of mundane crafting and spells like water-to-acid, stone metamorphosis etc. as well as marvelous pigments at his disposal.

The thought is to avoid true stinky cheese (no wight-ocalypse, super-specific revenants, thought-bottle to negate crafting xp cost etc.) but more of a "how would a smart person build and equip an undead army with the goal of converting as much as possible of a land into undeath to preserve it. So avoiding relying on mindless minions and no uncontrollable hunger-driven rampages would be preferred compared to just letting more feral undead run over everything.

As an example, this is how one idea of a lvl 1 member of said army could look like with the ideas i've come up with at the moment:

Human Warlock 1 Bone Creature Swarmshifter (Undead Sand) [Undead, Shapechanger]
Lawful Evil

Strength, 14, (+0)
Dexterity, 21, (+5)
Constitution, -
Intelligence, 11, (+0)
Wisdom, 15, (+2)
Charisma, 13, (+1)

Total Hit Points: 15 FastHealing 1d4/rd
Speed: 15 feet [slowpoke flaw], fly 60 ft. [perfect] in sand-form
Armor Class: 25 = 10 +4 [chain shirt] +1 [Dastana] +5 [dexterity] +2 NA + 3 [tower shield]
Touch AC: 15, Flat-footed: 20

Initiative modifier:, +5 = +5 [dexterity]
Fortitude save:, +0, = 0 [base]
Reflex save:, +2, = 0 [base] +5 [dexterity] -3 [poor reflexes]
Will save:, +4, = 2 [base] +2 [wisdom]

Attack (handheld):, +2, = 0 [base] +2 [strength]
Attack (missile):, +5, = 0 [base] +5 [dexterity]
Grapple check:, +2, = 0 [base] +2 [strength]

Heavy load: 61-90 lb., Push or drag: 450 lb.
Immunities (Ex): cold immunity, take half damage from piercing and slashing weapons.
Darkvision 60 ft., Undead traits

Eldritch blast 1d6 (5/d +2d6 mortalbane)
Spiked Gauntlet or Claw [1d4, crit x2, 1 lb, light, piercing]
Dagger (1d4, crit 19*-20*2, light, piercing or slashing]
Short Spear [1d6, crit x2, 3 lb., two-handed, piercing]
Light Crossbow [1d8, crit 19-20/x2, range inc 80 ft., 4 lb, piercing]

Chain shirt [light; +4 AC; max dex +4; check penalty -2; 25 lb.]
Dastana [+1 AC, check penalty –1], Tower Shield [+3 AC, check penalty –6]
Tower Shield [+3 AC, check penalty -6]

Feats:
Poor Reflexes [flaw], Slowpoke [flaw]
Extra Invocation, * 2
Obtain Familiar
Mortalbane, 5/day +2d6 eldritch blast
Lifesense [taint]
Weapon Finesse (Dagger)
Traits: Cautious, Stout

Craft_1, 4 = +0 +4, Listen 4 = +2 +2, Knowledge +4, Spot 4 = +2 +2
Know 3 invocation: Eldritch Spear (250 ft. Reach), Eldritch Glaive (as reach weapon), Summon Swarm

Undead Sand - Diminutive Undead (Swarm)
Speed: fly 60 ft. (perfect).
Special Qualities: darkvision out to 60 feet and undead traits.
Immune to Weapon Damage (Ex): Weapon attacks are useless against a swarm of Diminutive creatures.

Summon Swarm -> Spider Swarm
Hit Dice:, 2d8 (9 hp)
Speed:, 20 ft. (4 squares), climb 20 ft.
Armor Class:, 17 (+4 size, +3 Dex), touch 17, flat-footed 14
Attack:, Swarm (1d6 plus poison)
Space/Reach:, 10 ft./0 ft.
Special Attacks:, Distraction, poison
Special Qualities:, DV 60 ft., immune to weapon damage, swarm traits, tremorsense 30 ft., vermin traits
Saves:, Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +0
Abilities:, Str 1, Dex 17, Con 10, Int Ø, Wis 10, Cha 2
Skills:, Climb +11, Listen +4, Spot +4
Distraction (Ex): Begins turn with a spider swarm in its space, DC 11 Fort save or be nauseated for 1 rd
Poison (Ex): Injury, Fortitude DC 11, initial and secondary damage 1d3 Str.

RAVEN Familiar
Hit Dice: , 1/4 d8 (1 hp)
Initiative: , +2
Speed: , 10 ft. (2 squares), fly 40 ft. (average)
Armor Class: , 14 (+2 size, +2 Dex), touch 14, flat-footed 12
Base Attack/Grapple: , +0/–13
Attack: , Claws +4 melee (1d2–5)
Special Qualities: Low-light vision
Saves: Fort +2, Ref +4, Will +2
Abilities: Str 1, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 6, Wis 14, Cha 6
Skills: Listen +3 +5, Spot +5 +7
Feats: Alertness, Weapon Finesse
Alertness, improved evasion, share spells, empathic link, speaks common

Equipment:
Crossbow bolts (quiver of 10) x1, Block and tackle, Bucket, Caltrops, Canvas (10 x 10), Flint and steel,
Grappling hook, Oil flasks x2, Pitons x6, Rope (50', hempen) x2, Sacks x2, Spade / shovel, Torches x1,
Whetstone, MW Potion Belt, 5 flasks of acid, 3 bags of caltrops, 2 vials of brown mold, Bullseye Lantern with sickstone.

Within Ribcage / Armor:
Yellow Mold (CR 6): on bludgeoning attack bursts forth with a cloud of poisonous spores. All within 10
feet make a DC 15 Fort save or take 1d6 points of Constitution damage. Another DC 15 Fortitude save is
required 1 minute later—even by those who succeeded on the first save—to avoid taking 2d6 points of
Constitution damage. Fire destroys yellow mold, and sunlight renders it dormant.

Within Skull:
Black Sand, released on kill. magical darkness rises to a height of 20 feet over the surface. Nothing short
of a sunburst spell can disperse this darkness, and even then only for a period of 1 hour per caster level.
In addition, creatures that come in contact with the sand take 1d4 points of damage per round from
negative energy. Upon reaching 0 hit points, they crumble and join the black sand


Any ideas concerning npc's of levels 1-6, equipment, strategies etc. would be much appreciated. Thank you!!

[Gruzzle]

What a cool concept! Following to learn more myself.

[JNAProductions]

Doesn’t the armor limit your Max Dexterity Bonus to AC? I think Chain Shirt is 4, and Tower Shield might be less.

[Anthrowhale]

Maybe mass production of Necropolitans? It plausibly applies to every humanoid or monstrous humanoid (although 1HD ones are destroyed), does not reduce intelligence, and does not result in uncontrollable hungers. It costs 3k gp to be considered for the ritual, but if the necromancer controlled the process there is no listed reason why it could not be done at significant scale.

[Maat Mons]

How does the necromancer ensure the Bone Creature acquires the Swarm-Shifter Template?

[RandomPeasant]

I'm fond of Spell-Stitched Ghouls as the backbone of an undead army. It takes a bit of work, as you need an arcane caster with 3rd level animate dead (I couldn't find something reasonably low-CR with 15+ WIS), but the result is that you get creatures that are intelligent, have a bit of magical punch (grave mist and stinking cloud are good picks), and can make undead of their own. Which does violate the "no mindless undead" bit, but does so at a pretty reasonable rate. Each ghoul only commands eight human skeletons, so you don't have much of a single point of failure.

[ShurikVch]

You say it's a high-level spellcaster?
Well, Plague of Undead + Awaken Undead can grant you virtually unlimited amount of Awakened Skeletons(/Zombies) - at the low cost of 250 XP and 100 gp: since Awaken Undead targets "All mindless undead within a circle", and circle is flat - you can order the Undead to assemble into a pyramid of arbitrary height, and they all would be Awakened by the same cast

[RandomPeasant]

You can also go Dweomerkeeper, allowing you to cast awaken undead as a supernatural spell, ignoring the XP cost entirely.

[Maat Mons]

The nice thing about Bone Creature is the undead gets to keep the class levels it had in life. You can recruit people who want eternal unlife, grant it to them, and then you don't have to train them from the ground up.

Vampires normally can only be made from people with at least 5 hit dice. Master Vampires can circumvent this limit. But then you've got to deal with their need for blood, and whatever master Vampire you recruit to turn people has control over them.

Only powerful spellcasters can become Liches.

Necropolitan can only really work on people with at least 3 hit dice. And it's unclear what requirements to be the ritual leader. Can a random 1st-level Commoner lead the ritual? Does it take a 20th-level Necromancer? Who knows.

Bone Creatures can explicitly be created by casting Create Undead or Create Greater Undead. They come into being with all the skills of the volunteer. And you can convert anyone who wants immortality.

[sleepyphoenixx]

The big drawback of anything you create with Create (Greater) Undead is that they're free-willed and don't have to follow your orders, so you'll probably want rebuke/command undead to deal with that.
Optimizing turn undead isn't that expensive compared to high-level WBL (i made a post on that here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25485822&postcount=9)) so it's well worth the effort if you focus on necromancy.

Also keep in mind that pretty much any of those require relatively high CL, so there's little point using them to animate low-level NPCs.

There's also a couple of templates aside from Bone Creature that might be useful though.
Spectral Mage (MoF) can turn any arcane spellcaster into an incorporeal undead that retains nearly everything (aside from things incorporeal creatures can't use) and adds a bunch of ghost abilities.
Crypt Spawn (MoF) can be applied to any living creature and basically just turns it undead with little change beside that, so it's ideal for anything with class levels.

Otherwise there's always Animate Dread Warrior (UE), but the ability penalties make it suboptimal compared to the other two. On the upside you control them automatically.

As for equipment it's basically the same thing you'd equip any low level adventurer with, with the possible exception of some form of positive energy immunity to avoid being turned/destroyed. That's pretty expensive though so not really worth it for low level mooks.

[Jack_Simth]

Doesn’t the armor limit your Max Dexterity Bonus to AC? I think Chain Shirt is 4, and Tower Shield might be less.

Standard Chain Shirt is 4, yes, with the Tower Shield at 2. Studded Leather (+3 armor, 5 max dex) and a Heavy Steel Shield (+2 Shield, No max dex) is the way to go with that dex score... UNLESS the point of the tower shield is for cover. In which case, the armor should probably be either Chainmail or a Breastplate, so the armor's max dex matches the shield's.

However: That ACP adds up, even for warlock touch attacks. Where's the critter getting proficiency?

[Telonius]

Maybe mass production of Necropolitans? It plausibly applies to every humanoid or monstrous humanoid (although 1HD ones are destroyed), does not reduce intelligence, and does not result in uncontrollable hungers. It costs 3k gp to be considered for the ritual, but if the necromancer controlled the process there is no listed reason why it could not be done at significant scale.

This was my first thought as well. Recruitment efforts would be key. Maybe work with some sympathetic Bards or Clerics of Evening Glory. You've got to make the proposition attractive, so look for young but low-CON people who might otherwise die young.

[icefractal]

Also those who're getting close to middle aged and really want to maintain their physical abilities. Soldiers / mercenaries, athletes, explorers, etc. Undeath means you never get weaker/slower with age and you never get tired. You also don't get smarter/wiser with age, but eh, once you're the premier duelist in the known world, you can easily afford one of those magic headbands.

And then of course there's the elderly who may only have a few more years to live - the prospect of eternal unlife becomes very appealing in those circumstances. Yes, with the effects of age they probably won't be your front-line soldiers (unless they're mages), but tireless craftsmen and administrators can be useful as well.

[Yogibear41]

Bone knights can raise karnathi zombies and skeletons that are 3hd intelligent undead.

[Bonzai]

From my own experiences from playing a Necromancer..

I played a wizard (Necromancer)/Master Specialist/Pale master

I went with the God Touched/Divine Chaneler to get a turn/rebuke once per day at half my character lvl. I was therefore limited as to what I could permanently control, but could make nearly infinite minor undead.

Here are some things that I used. I had the skeletal minion alternate class feature. I would keep it well armed and armored as a semi disposable speed bump.
This replaces your familiar and gives you a skeleton under your control that gets beefier as it lvls. Give it a weapon with the skillful enhancement and it will remain relevant as a combatant.

One thing I had fun with was the destruction retrobution feat. I would animate rats, as you get 4 per hd. With the feat, when each one dies they blow up and deal 1d6 negative energy damage which in turn heals your undead. Eventually I would use the haunt shift spell to store large numbers of them into a coin or knucklebone, and keep it in an extradimensional space. At that point you no longer need to control them. Toss out your knucklebone at a target from out of your haversack, let them manifest, then nuke the lot of them for extra negative energy damage.

One undead that I went out of my way to create and control was a Flame Skull, which I in turn spell stitched. I had it learn spells from BoVD and other places that would stack additional damage on top of it's destruction retrobution when it died. So it became a renewable suicide bomber, as well as having some nifty abilities.

As a Necromancer, be on the look out for creatures with interesting extrordinary abilities. Then kill it, animate it, and awaken it. All of thier extrodinary abilities come back. See a rust monster? Kill it, animate it, awaken it, haunt shift it so that you can pokeball it later. Gotta catch them all.

If you are an arcane caster with no way to Turn/Rebuke, the only spell I know that lets you create and control intelligent undead is the ghoul guantlet spell. It lets you create and control ghouls.

Also remember that if you are undead yourself, mindless undead aren't automatically antagonistic. And charm undead is nearly as good as control undead against them.