Maximizing one's undead cap

[Trekkin]

How is it done? Can it be done as a cloistered cleric rather than a Dread/True Necromancer?

Also, does Deathbound increase total undead cap or just the per-spell cap?

[SaintRidley]

The DN's Undead Mastery feature effectively makes it impossible for anyone to come close to the same HD cap of controlled undead.

I'd have to scour through my books to double check on Deathbound's interaction with spells - what spells specifically it affects, and all. I can't guarantee I'll be able to do so any time soon, though.

If I remember right, though, I had a lot of fun putting together a BBEG who was a DN with the Deathbound Domain accessed through the feat that gives Arcane Casters domain access.

[Lord Vukodlak]

How is it done? Can it be done as a cloistered cleric rather than a Dread/True Necromancer?

Also, does Deathbound increase total undead cap or just the per-spell cap?

All deathbound does is allow you to create more undead in a single casting.
The normal control limit is 4HD per caster level, the creation limit in one casting of animate dead is 2HD per caster level. So normally it would take two castings of animate dead to reach your control limit.

The simplest way to control more undead is with a rod of undead mastery,
Anyone who holds the rod can control more undead. Instead of 4HD/level it would be 8HD/level. The one draw back is it says anyone who holds it, which means simply possessing the rod is not enough.

[herbe]

There is something similar here. A 20th Dread Necromancer can directly control more than 1600 HD of undead which is awesomely awesome undead army.

[Divide by Zero]

My epic-level DN had several thousand HD of undead controlled. Rather than deal with all of them while adventuring, I built a stronghold and left most of them to guard it while taking the best two or three of them along with me. It's hard to get anywhere near that with another class.