Dread Necro vs. Death Master...who's the better arcane necromancer?

[Maho-Tsukai]

If I could create a poll, this would be one. I'm basically looking for your opinions on which one of the necromancy specialized arcane caster classes makes a better necromancer, the Death Master from the dragon compendium or the Dread Necromancer from heroes of horror. My personal opinion is they are both about even, really. In lower levels, the Death Master is the superior necromancer. Animate Dead as a level 2 spell and access to desecrate make a Death Master far better at necromancy at lower levels then a DN. A Death Master also has a slightly more varied spell list that has more options then a DN. However, where the DN outshines the Death Master is the fact that a DN can control a LOT more undead then a Death Master can. Undead Mastery + Plague of undead means in higher levels the DN will have more undead then the Death Master, especially since the Death Master lacks mass animation spells like Plague of Undead.

So in the end, I think there about even. The Death Master has a slightly more flexible spell list and is the arguably the best necro at lower levels, but at higher levels a DN can control more undead then the Death Master and has access to mass animation spells which the Death Master lacks.

So, what do you think is the better arcane necromancer...the Death Master, the Dread Necromancer or are they both even?

[PId6]

Death Master is theoretically more powerful, because it is, like the wizard, a prepared caster that can theoretically learn its entire list of spells. Its spell list doesn't have any non-core spells, but does have some of the best core ones and has a lot of tricks stuffed inside. With that in mind, the ideally optimized Death Master, a Tier 1, is much more powerful than the Dread Necromancer, who has a very limited spontaneous list and so is only Tier 3.

However, Dread Necromancer has better class features related to, you know, actual necromancy and the building of an undead army, so it's fair to say that Dread Necromancer is a better necromancer than Death Master. Death Master is a superior caster, which ultimately matters most in terms of power, but Dread Necromancer fills the niche better and they're both quite viable in a party.

[Maho-Tsukai]

Yeah. I've always found a death master to be quite superior to a DN as an overall caster, but this is a thread on who's the best necromancer, not who is the best overall caster. I still think that a Death Master is about on par with a DN as far as being a necromancer goes, however. It dose not have as many necro-themed class features but it has acssess to some key necromancer spells that a DN lacks(desecrate and animate dead at low levels) It also has some nice necromanticly flavored abilities like the ability to destroy your undead for a heal, and of course actually becoming an honest to goodness lich with the lich template rather then the psudo-lichdom that DNs gain.(Wizards ruled that DNs don't gain the lich template but rather become undead with lich-like class abilities.) Also, don't forget your undead minion, that guy is awesome.

[PId6]

Lack of desecrate on DN is really stupid. However, in a game where both DN and DM are allowed, the DN can get an Eternal Wand of Desecrate based off of the DM spell list. Alternatively, they can take cross-class ranks in UMD (since their Cha tends to be high), and just UMD wands of Desecrate.