Necromancer

[Jalil]

I'm looking at Old grey Elf, wizard 1(necromancer spec, ditching abj and evoc). -4str, -4 con, +4 int, +2 wis, +2cha, Taking the first and third necro specialist, skeleton familiar and imp undead. (Do those stack?)

I'm thinking color spray and sleep as primary spells, while my undead gets all my wealth in the form of scale mail and greatsword. he goes in swinging for me while I try to AoE the mobs, setting them up for CdG's from his dire pick.

Thoughts?

[mabriss lethe]

I'm always leery of ditching Abjuration. If for no other reason, dispel magic is a must. You can get by with ditching evocation easily enough. I'd probably ditch enchantment instead of abjuration

K's Necromancer Handbook (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=599129) should have everything you want.

[SurlySeraph]

Sounds like a solid build to me. Losng Abjuration can hurt; when your CON is that low, you want to have spells to protect you in case something gets past your meatshields. I'd rather lose either Illusion (or maybe enchantment), but that's a personal choice.

Also, can a skeleton use a dire pick? I think it's an exotic weapon, meaning it would need to take Exotic Weapon Proficiency first. If that's the case, just go with a scythe instead. If not, the pick'll do ya fine.

[mabriss lethe]

I'd rather lose either Illusion (or maybe enchantment), but that's a personal choice.

I usually tend to keep illusion over enchantment, but yeah, it's pretty much an either/or sort of thing based on taste (and I love the taste of shadow conjuration.)

[ocato]

In my experience, Necromancy is often times best handled by a cleric. Not to say that you can't or shouldn't be a wizard, I'm just suggesting that if your goal is to be a hardcore necromancer, you should consider a cleric. There is an exception, which is the Lord of the Uttercold Wizard, who effectively raises an army of the undead, then wades into combat with them and casts uttercold frostballs to heal himself and his troops.

Err, here's the quote from the necromancy handbook


Uttercold Assault Necromancer (Wizard)
The ultimate goal is to cast spells with the Cold Subtype that do half negative energy damage, while you and all your undead minions are immune to cold and healed by negative energy damage. Basically, this is done with Energy Substitution[cold] (a prereq for Lord of the Uttercold) and the feat Lord of the Uttercold. Then you put up Walls of Fire(uttercold) and you and all your minions dance around in them like Homer Simpson at the American Embassy regaining all your hit points every round and inflicting real evocation-style damage on your enemies. It’s hilarious. You can burn lots of feats and be a blaster mage at high levels, or take Beckon the Frozen to get cold-subtyped undead with Summon Undead that you heal with uttercold, but the essential build is two feats (though you are required to be undead or take Tomb-tainrted Soul if you want in on the fun).

For people who like numbers, look at your favorite Evocation modified by a resonable amount of Sudden or Rod-based Metamagic(or even vanilla metamagic). Then imagine your cold-immune undead like Skeletons or cold-Subbed Zombies like Frost Giants taking 1/2th of that damage each round as healing. A simple thought exercise is the 10th level Wizard with a vanilla Empowered Cold-subbed Fireball: average damage to your enemies is 15d6 (52.5 points of damage), with a save for half, and an average of 26 points of healing for every one of your minions. Makes Inflict look like crap, right?

Now, lets play this exercise with a real blaster mage: A 12th level Sorcerer with the feats from Races of the Dragon that drop metamagic costs and speed metamagic and a Rod-Maximised, Twinned Fireball: a flat 120 points of damage with a save for half and a flat 60 points of healing. Thats not even counting a once per day Sudden Empower for an extra 10d6 (35 damage, save for half, and an extra 17 points of healing).

Even if you don't want to be a blaster mage or don't want to sling together complex battle plans involving Walls of Fire(uttercold) to heal your minions and hurt your enemies, the ability to cast a single Wall of Fire after every combat to heal all your minions and perhaps yourself is an invaluable Necromantic aid.

[Jalil]

Course he can. Inproficient, but CdG's don't roll to hit(and 4d8+strx4 is nice). I plan on going necropolitan as soon as possible, so i'd lose CON anyway. i'll read that link, see what it has to say.

[Emperor Tippy]

Loosing Abjuration isn't good (it has lots of very nice spells). I would take one of the Domain Wizard variants, grab the elf generalist alternate class feature, and then grab the Spontaneous Divination alternate class feature at level 5.

That will get you the extra spell slots (actually you come up 1 slot ahead of a specialist wizard) and you won't have to give up any schools. There is even a necromancy domain.

Oh yeah, you want the Faerie Mysteries Initiate feat from Dragon #319. It let's you get Int to HP instead of Con to HP.

If you're playing with LA buyoff then you may as well grab the Dark template as well (Tome of Magic, provides some nice but minor benefits for +1 LA).

You're also better off with a smaller number of more powerful undead than you are with a large number of weaker ones. And focus on undead that can command other undead (increasing the number of undead that are effectively under your control).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Your ability scores are off. Grey Elf is Str -2, Con -2, Dex +2, Int +2; Middle Age is -1 to physical, +1 to mental; Old Age is an additional -2 to physical, +1 to mental. That makes a total of Str -5, Dex -1, Con -5, Int +4, Wis +2, Cha +2. Get the skeletal minion, but ask your DM if you can use the feat Obtain Familiar (CA) or a similar variant to also count all of your prestige class levels instead of just Wizard class levels for what your minion gains. Don't lose the bonus spells, get the feat Corpsecrafter (LM) instead it does the same thing and doesn't stack as both grant Enhancement bonuses.

Color Spray is amazing. Sleep is worthless due to its casting time of 1 round, you start casting it, and at the beginning of your next turn it goes off. That means any damage you take on your opponents' turns will force a Concentration check, and they'll probably move around while you're casting it so by the time you get to pick where it goes, you may only catch two opponents and maybe even hit an ally with it. Color Spray is good, the Lesser Orb spells are decent, and if you've got Evocation then Ray of Flame is second to none for damage at 1st level.

I'd ban Enchantment and Evocation, get the Skeletal Minion, and if your DM will let you take Obtain Familiar/variant you should prestige class out asap, probably go Wizard 3/ Master Specialist 2-4/ whatever. Maybe go into Pale Master (LM), saying you were locked in a tomb with your own undead minion to meet the special requirement, and say you visited the Frog God's Fane detailed in Complete Scoundrel to get the required Skill Focus feat for free.

Another idea would be to use Dread Necromancer from Heroes of Horror, it's a Cha-based spontaneous casting class. It is very capable even going solo if built right, thanks to being able to summon/create/rebuke undead minions, early access to spells with Versatile Spellcaster, stacking fear effects, a Ghostly Visage familiar which can use a Paralyzing gaze attack at will, and unlimited ability to heal itself between encounters with the feat Tomb-Tainted Soul (LM) and its negative energy touch. Definitely worth a look if you're wanting to play a paragon of necromancy.

[WhiteShark]

When you say early access to spells with Versatile Spellcaster, does that mean you could actually use, say, two first level spells to cast a second level spell before you technically can cast second level spells?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

When you say early access to spells with Versatile Spellcaster, does that mean you could actually use, say, two first level spells to cast a second level spell before you technically can cast second level spells?

Yes, you can. Dread Necromancer automatically knows any spells of a level it has access to, and Versatile Spellcaster gives you access to that level of spells. There are people who argue against it, but IIRC WotC has actually ruled that this is so, and that it even allows early entry for PrCs, as opposed to Precocious Apprentice and similar tricks which according to them won't accomplish that.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Yes, you can. Dread Necromancer automatically knows any spells of a level it has access to, and Versatile Spellcaster gives you access to that level of spells. There are people who argue against it, but IIRC WotC has actually ruled that this is so, and that it even allows early entry for PrCs, as opposed to Precocious Apprentice and similar tricks which according to them won't accomplish that.Read the sig. ;) Precocious Apprentice works, as does Versatile Spellcaster. WotC is just staffed by idiots.
I want to second Dread Necromancer, but if you don't want that, say that dropping Abjuration is fine as long as you have a Cleric around. I wouldn't grab any of the Nerco substitutions, though. The Skele would be fine if it advanced when you PrCd, but it doesn't. Corpsecrafter is necessary for any Necro build, and doesn't stack with that one, while the undead traits are fairly weak.
Have you looked into Necropolitan?

[Jalil]

I plan on going necropolitan as soon as possible, so i'd lose CON anyway.

The trick is, I should've mentioned this earlier, mostly core. UA is in as it ogl, but we're cramped for books. I can get LM and BoVD, how much does that change?