Playing a dread necromancer

[thorgrim29]

hello all, I'll soon be playing a dread necromancer in a low-powered game (started out as 25 point buy, but we rebelled and hope to bring it to 28 at the least). Well be starting level 3. And I cant take tomb tainted soul (I fully indorse my dm on this one, soo much cheese....). That being said, what should I do? I dont want to totally dominate (the party will be a duskblade, a rokugan style ninja, a bard, a scout and me), and I want to maintain a certain semblance of social acceptability, at least untill I'm powerfull enough to make the fools pay for their insolence. I'll probably start out as neutral and gradually drift towards evil.

I call upon you holders of wisdom, please help me out with my dreadfully dreadfull dread necromancer of dread that is dreadfull.

[The_Blue_Sorceress]

I call upon you holders of wisdom, please help me out with my dreadfully dreadfull dread necromancer of dread that is dreadfull.

If you really want to be "dreadfull," continue spelling that word with two Ls.

Do it in character for extra points.

In all seriousness, save-or-die and save-or-suck necromancy spells are your friends, as with any caster.

-Blue

[Citizen Jenkins]

First, this guy has great advice,
http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=599129
, so I'll just add on to what he said.

First, I agree that Desecrate is absolutely critical for any real necromancer. Unfortunately, while you can pick up just about anything you need through Advanced Learning, Desecrate is an Evil Evocation spell, not Necromancy, and so can't be picked up in this manner. You can either take Arcane Disciple, which I'm not a huge fan of, or try to UMD it. If you UMD, I'd just get one rank, since Charisma is your primary casting stat, but the big thing is that UMDing Desecrate can work even if you only have a 20% chance of success because you will almost never do it in combat. Almost all undead raising is done outside of combat and so if you fail your UMD check you can simply try again (barring a one).

Also, for your advanced learning spells, I would look through Book of Vile Darkness. In terms of pure awesome, few things top Grim Revenge.

EDIT:
Two questions. First, since Dread really is pretty weak after 8th level, what prestige options were you looking at? Second, do you really want an undead army or do you just want to focus on spellcasting?

[thorgrim29]

Well, I'll be taking undead leadership, so undead army it is I guess, I just have this weird idea of an army of undead marching out of a portable hole...

[Person_Man]

Dread Necromancer (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=759515) is generally considered the weakest full caster, so I wouldn't worry about overpowering the other members of your party.

Be a Stongheart Halfling if possible. You keep the bonus feat and will eventually ride one of your undead minions, and you gain +1 to AC, To Hit, stealth bonuses, etc, from size.

Necropolitan from Libris Mortis is a strong idea. You lose a level, but gain the Undead type, with all the fun immunities and whatnot, plus unlimited self healing.

If you can, take the Frightful Presence feat from Draconomicon. If you cant' buy the draconic crest graft from Races of the Dragon. Remember that Fear effects stack, and you have access to many Fear inducing spells, minions, and a special ability.

At higher levels, buy a Ring of Invisibility. Cast summon and buff spells (which don't dispel your Invisibility) and avoid the front line of combat like the plague.

[Citizen Jenkins]

Dread Necromancer (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=759515) is generally considered the weakest full caster, so I wouldn't worry about overpowering the other members of your party.


I would, especially since the rest of your party is essentially melee based. I'll agree, for the next couple levels you won't be anything special. Some nasty abilities sure but not necesarily overpowering. Once your undead army gets going, all that changes.

Even if you're not terribly optimized for raising undead, you should be able to raise at least 64 HD worth of undead. After a couple fights you should have a nice force of "pimp" undead, like Frost Giants, Hydras, and a couple outsiders. They'll all be about as powerful as they were when you fought them (or stronger, depending on how many boosts you have) and competitive on an individual basis with your frontline fighters. Given your HD limit, you can easily have 3-4 of these monster bruisers, each a match for one of your teammates. Plus, you can do all this and still sling around save-or lose spells.

Now consider how nasty this squad can get if you put some basic optimization behind it. Awaken those undead so they can use weapons and armor (or master-crafted weapons), grab Corpse Crafter and Nimble bones so your squad has +6 hit points per hit dice and +11 to initiative (+6 Dex, +4 from Nimble Bones, and +4 Improved Initiative from Skeleton), use create undead create a supplemental force of Shadows which which can simply crush most monsters (since most can't hit insubstantial opponents), and you'll be brutal. That's competitive with the entire party and you still have all your nasty spellcasting.

Dread Necromancer takes this concept to silly levels. Assuming by level 12 you've reached the a conservative Charisma bonus of +6 or so, you'll be able to control 120 HD of undead. That's not a squad of 3-4, that's 8-10 big nasties with all your bonuses. Put another way, that's 8-10 extra actions you get to take per round as well as your own. I'll admit that a Batman wizard could probably beat you but in terms of brute force a Dread Necromancer really has no competition.

Where this becomes troublesome for your party is that they're replicating the job the rest of your party is doing. They're physical combatants, and probably good at it, but that's the same thing your skeletons are doing. And to be blunt, after a few levels you'll be better at it than them, as well as better at spellcasting. The scout, bard, and ninja will probably still have some use because of their skills but your poor duskblade will be worthless and even the other will only have marginal use.

So if you're really worried about overpowering the party, forget having an army, focus on your spellcasting, pick up feats like Spell Focus, and just make one undead "bodyguard".

[CASTLEMIKE]

Consider adding the Spellstiched template from Complete Arcane (No LA) to the PC as it will mostly be paying for the enchantment and experience costs and gaining a few spells you might normally not be able to access as spell like abilities with a decent wisdom.

Your PC could enchant himself as per the template description with the Craftwondrous Item feat and another spellcaster for the spells your PC is unable to cast himself.

[Illiterate Scribe]

Also, as a general hint for playing a necromancer, having a bag of holding full of wraiths/other incorporeal undead is fun when you can get it.

[CASTLEMIKE]

According to the SRD Liches are either soliatary or encountered in troupes and accompanied by 2-4 Vampires and 5 - 8 Vampire Spawn. Maybe your DM will let the other PCs have the Vampire or Vampire Spawn template.