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Thread: Necromancer build help

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    Default Re: Necromancer build help

    I play necromancers so I can offer some minionmancy and class selection advice:

    First, I wouldn't mix casting classes. Pick wizard or dread necro or cleric or whatever and stick with it.

    Options:
    Wizard - Has the obvious advantages of intelligence based casting from a massively versatile list. Honestly, I wouldn't even bother going necromancy specialist because necromancy is one of the weaker schools, and most of what you do with necromancy happens during offtime so it isn't a big deal to get bonus slots. Domain wizard or elven generalist are probably your best options. You also get access to some potent conjuration spells to call creatures to convert into corpses, like the planar binding and dragon ally line. Overall, wizard is probably the strongest option.

    Dread Necromacer - Arcane necromancer in a can. While probably strictly worse than wizard, it does have a couple advantages. Undead Mastery grants you access to a horde, but this isn't a great feature for reasons I'll get in to later. Charisma based casting can provider a lot of synergy with other classes defensive features, but you'd have to build around that specifically. Not a bad option by any means, but I think wizard can do it better.

    Death Master - A relatively obscure base class from dragon compendium, Death Master casts as a wizard(int based), but off a smaller, specialized list. Notably, it gets a scaling skeleton companion starting from level 1, and animate dead as a 2nd level spell, available from level 3. Also gets rebuking, and basically every relevant core necromacy spell. While it doesn't get the negative energy touches or melee features of a dread necromancer, I don't think you should really be in melee anyway, and would usually strictly recommend Death Master over Dread Necromacer outside of specific Charisma synergy builds.

    Cleric - I don't play divine casters, I'll be honest. But it's hard to argue with cleric being a full caster with a d8, heavy armor, and 3/4th bab. Animate dead is a 3rd level spell for them, so it comes online earlier than wizard and DN, and they get rebuking. Plus, it's a cleric. If your party needs one of those, but you still want to play a necromancer, this is a good option. They have native access to desecrate but not command undead, nor is command undead on any domain lists. I wouldn't call this the best option, but it has it's place.

    Prestige classes:
    Honestly, I don't think there's any goods ones other than general prestige classes for casters. There are very few PrCs that actually make your undead better, and they're fairly limited in scope or setting specific. Royal Animator is a


    Mostly wizard specific tricks:
    You can get access to minionmancy from level one by taking the Fell Animate feat and Easy or Practical metamagic. This allows you to prepare a damaging cantrip in a 1st level slot, that if it kills will reanimate the victim as a zombie. Remember that you can do a coup de grace with a weaponlike spell, so a fell animate ray of frost can be used to finish off a bleeding or unconscious target and get a zombie without animate dead and without costing any material components. At this level, even a human warrior zombie is a relatively durable frontliner. This uses the normal control limits as a bonus, so you get 4hd worth of undead at level 1, which isn't bad.

    Command Undead is an immensely powerful second level spell which is what makes Dread Necromancers core gimmick kind of worthless. It effectively dominates mindless undead for 1 day per caster level out of a 2nd level slot, and is compatible with the chain spell metamagic, which also comes as a metamagic rod. Chaining command undead with a rod allows you to assume control of Caster Level mindless undead for Caster Level days for every 2nd level spell slot you spend on it, regardless of their hit dice. A 20th level wizard spending just one spell slot and one rod charge on this every day could permanently keep up to 400 skeletons or zombies under his thrall. This spell is the primary reason I do not consider the Dread Necromancers animate dead limit increase particularly valuable.

    While on the topic of chaining, Greater Magic Weapon also qualifies for chain spell. Grab a rod and go to town, giving all your undead up to +5 weapons for a 3rd level slot and a rod charge will give them a very large increase in damage output, overcome some DR, and allow them to wack ghosts.

    Compound bows are good, but slings are cheap.

    If you aren't a dread necro, take the corpsecrafter feat. Adds 4 str and 2 hp per HD to all your undead, hard to complain about that. There are some other feats that corpsecrafter is a prerequisite for that are decent. Nimble bones adds 10ft to their move speed, deathly chill adds 1d6 cold damage to all their natural attacks, and hardened flesh adds 2 to their natural armor. There's some others in there too,but if those are worth a feat I'll leave up to you, I usually have other stuff to take with my feat slots.

    You'll want to get access to desecrate somehow. It adds hit points to any undead created inside of it, permanently. There are some magic items that replicate it, but ideally you'd want Fell Energy Desecrate to get up to +6 HP per HD on undead. Metamagic feats can be crafted into scrolls at the appropriate level, so you might be able to buy a scroll or magic item that replicates it. If all else fails, wizards get Blackwater Taint as a 6th level spell, which desecrates an area of water for a limited duration, as well as having some other effects.

    To heal your undead, you can create a Necrosis Carnex with animate dead. Which is a nifty disgusting pile of fused together corpses, that has an aura with no save that causes living creatures to take penalties, and has an at will negative energy touch attack that heals undead. Keep one of these around to keep your crew in top shape.

    If you can't get access to potent corpses, you can turn nearly anything into a bloodhulk with animate dead. They aren't better than an optimal skeleton for their hit dice, but they're better than rolling around with dozens of human zombies at high levels and clogging up the turn order.

    As above, you can use planar binding and dragon ally to kidnap creatures to brutally murder and convert into undead minions. Dragons particularly have special rules in the Draconimicon, allowing them to retain some features like BAB, their breath weapon, and their frightful presence. Try not to do this to anyone or anything with a lot of friends.

    Extradimensional storage is nice to stash your horrors. An enveloping pit is the cheapest and spaciest option, if you can activate it. Requires your alignment to be within one step of Lawful Evil, or a UMD check.

    Very arguably, stone shape and stone to flesh can be used to generate any corpse you like for animation. Check with your DM.


    With all this in mind my typical build for a necromancer is just pure generalist wizard with whatever prestige classes I fancy, being either human or a race with an int bonus with flaws. Pick up Fell Animate and Easy Metamagic at level 1, silverbrow human is a good alternative to get a bonus feat and qualify for Practical Metamagic if dragon magazine isn't allowed. Finish off bleeding foes with fell animate to get zombies. At 3rd level you get command undead, allowing you to bypass your animation cap; I don't actually recommend bringing dozens of zombies to every fight, but it is amusing to have an army of reserves. At 7th level you get animate dead, and can create a necrosis carnex for unlimited healing, and bloodhulks if your game is light on good candidates for reanimation. At 9th level you can call outsiders up to 6hd and dragons up to 15hd(for 100xp) and kill and reanimate those. At 11th level, those numbers go up to 12 and 18, respectively. You can also use divinations or whatever to hunt down specific things to animate, if you care to. At 13th level you get awaken, and can start playing around with giving your minions feats and skills.

    Other than fell animate and easy metamagic to carry you at low levels, and corpsecrafter once you have animate dead, this doesn't really require any specific feats. And you're still a wizard with full access to the wizard list to go bananas with, try hasting a bunch of arrow demon skeletons for some laughs. You can also feel free to throw nasty stuff that undead are immune to in there, lord of the uttercold is a good one for that as you mentioned, but you can also throw some other stuff. Stinking cloud, necrotic skull bomb, etc.

    Try not to replace the party too much.
    Last edited by Zanos; 2021-04-15 at 06:50 PM.
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