[3.5] permant undead minions

[slaydemons]

is such a thing possible I want to know because having like 3 -4 zombie buddies would be fun for me i just don't want to have to cast control undead everyday at like 18th level i would much prefer something with a much lower level for some shinanigans

[Urpriest]

Animate Dead gives you precisely that.

[slaydemons]

ahh yes damn I have to read that book more carefully
i miss the coolest spells but now i have to look up how many hit dices a level 1 zombie has

hmm if i cast this would that make me evil or could i be using evil for good that is a question i also have

[Cog]

Two, unless you make the zombie out of a half-HD critter.

[Combat Reflexes]

Just be Cleric and go Supah-Necromancer with all the nasty PrC stuff. Rebuke all undead you find and store them in bags of holding. When you need one, hold the bag upside down and say: "Zombie #17, I choose you!".
Also, go and get the Corpsecrafter feats from Libris Mortis. They rock in a Thriller-ish way.

Customize your undead! Get zombies and skeletons for various roles. Bonus points if you can convince your DM to give zombies Perform(dance)

~
Yes, I have played a necromancer cleric one time. He was killed by his own party. And yes, I was prohibited from playing one ever again

[slaydemons]

Also, go and get the Corpsecrafter feats from Libris Mortis. They rock in a Thriller-ish way.

i don't have that book where might i get it?

[Combat Reflexes]

At your local game store, I assume.

To be honest, I got mine as a PDF - from a Torrent-addicted friend.

[slaydemons]

none of the stores where i live have 3.5 anymore so i am kinda strapped for that and campaign settings because i can't do anything illegal and such

[Coidzor]

Animate Dead, Rebuking, Animate Dread Warrior(Unapproachable East), using the Azund-Gull(sp) from the adventure module "Sunless Citadel," those are all of the ways I know of to get a permanent undead minion.


Though there might be something in regards to a Necrocarnum zombie in Magic of Incarnum as well, can't remember if that's permanent or a duration summon at will thing.

[slaydemons]

thanks guys i now feel like raising the dead and using said dead to help fight crime and stuff unless it makes me evil

[Combat Reflexes]

none of the stores where i live have 3.5 anymore so i am kinda strapped for that and campaign settings because i can't do anything illegal and such

Yep, Wizards is Mind Controlling us to go play 4.0 . Little do they know so many gamers preferred the better (read: 3.5) version. Time to TPK those Wizards.

{Scrubbed}

[Orbin Dules]

The problem with animate dead is that it's by definition an evil spell. In RAW, using any spell with the evil subtype is an evil act. From an ethical standpoint, taking sentient beings and forcing them to do your bidding after you have killed them strikes me as awfully evil. IMHO, even if you used them to fight crime, among other things, it would still be evil. It would be less evil than if you used said undead to burn down orphanages, but it would still be evil.

[slaydemons]

i am making my character evil next time using undead evil servants to do what you want has to be chaotic but i won't be chaotic evil like kill everything I will just do what i want when i want and throw a zombie fit if i odn't get what i want <3 still CE but not the CE that wants destroy everything

[Coidzor]

From an ethical standpoint, taking sentient beings and forcing them to do your bidding after you have killed them strikes me as awfully evil.

Skeletons and zombies aren't sentient beings. Or sapient, for that matter, which is the more important bit generally.

Dread Warriors now, you'd have a valid concern there.

[slaydemons]

read in the book let me quote it will do a bit before the writing as well and after

[descriptor]
appearing on the same lines as school and subschool, when applicable, is a descriptor that further categorizes the spell in some way some have more then one
~ list of all of them~
most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how spells interact with other spells, with special abilities, with unusual creatures, with alignment and so on.
~goes on to say stuff about language and mind effects~ I'm not sure if that helps

I took this from the book phb 174 I am sure he meant that but using evil magic for good intentions would strike me more as neutral. but again I don't make the decisions

[Coidzor]

It's mentioned that Dread Necromancers are able to maintain a neutral alignment for that reason somewhere or another, I believe.

[Claudius Maximus]

My experience is that the morality of necromancy strongly varies from DM to DM. The books are actually pretty inconsistent as well on the matter of whether using skeletons for the greater good is neutral or still mostly evil.

Also, slaydemons, if you ever want to copy things from the PHB or DMG the SRD is a great place to get the text so you don't have to type it up yourself. Completely legal too, since WotC released that particular information under a very free license.

[slaydemons]

thanks cladius I am still unsure if just casting the spell is evil I just thought since its got the evil tag it will create zombies that when hit with protection from evil they will just die

[Coidzor]

thanks cladius I am still unsure if just casting the spell is evil I just thought since its got the evil tag it will create zombies that when hit with protection from evil they will just die

Um. No. Where did you get that idea?

[slaydemons]

well might be selective reading sorry. It seems like to me just casting a spell isn't evil its what you do with said spell.

[Claudius Maximus]

The spell itself is a slight evil act because it has the [evil] tag. Just casting it every now and then won't cause an alignment shift under most DMs though, provided you're doing good things with it.

Protection from Evil will provide all of its normal benefits against zombies, since they count as evil even if you're commanding them to save a burning orphanage. Protection from Evil doesn't destroy them or block their movement or anything though, it just gives +2 deflection to AC and +2 resistance to saves vs. their attacks.

[Coidzor]

Summoning good-aligned creatures also counts as a good aligned act, so you can balance things out due to the nature of alignment calculus.

Especially since Animate Dead is one of those spells that should only be used occasionally due to its nature as a wealth sink.


Say, do SLAs effect alignment via their use or is that another one of their differences from spells?

[slaydemons]

well its like what 50 gp each 2 hd zombie

where you gain four more per caster level so its like 40 hd command power where you have more then enough to command a bunch since 50 x 40 is like 2,000 gold i hope i did it right

[Combat Reflexes]

Protection from Evil will provide all of its normal benefits against zombies, since they count as evil even if you're commanding them to save a burning orphanage.

So they save the orphanage but not the orphans?

"St Cuthbert be praised, if it weren't for those friendly zombies that poor building would just have gone up in flames. But where did all the orphans go?"

Summoning good-aligned creatures also counts as a good aligned act, so you can balance things out due to the nature of alignment calculus.

Awesome! I'm creating a neutral necromancer wizard RIGHT NOW. Animate Dead, summon Celestial monkey, Animate Dead, summon Celestial monkey, rinse, repeat
''You guys think I'm evil?''
''Yeah, you reanimate dead bodies into eternal undead service.
''But guys! I summon monkeys from heaven! Every day!''
''Well, ok then. Never mind.''

[Endarire]

K's Revised Necromancer Handbook

[slaydemons]

actually my own price is halfed since its 25gp per hd so its 1000g

[slaydemons]

now i am curious now if someone is willing to answer this if i go true necromancer it says 1+ spell caster level does that pretty much mean i continue to go up spell caster levels for say wizard and get level 9 spells or do i just gain more uses of my current spells

[AslanCross]

now i am curious now if someone is willing to answer this if i go true necromancer it says 1+ spell caster level does that pretty much mean i continue to go up spell caster levels for say wizard and get level 9 spells or do i just gain more uses of my current spells

There are two issues here:
1. True Necromancer gives an increase to spells per day/spells known at every level. This means you get additional spells per day and spells known as if you had taken a level in Wizard (or Cleric, it seems that you get to choose between Arcane and Divine casting every other level). By RAW, this does not increase caster level, although most DMs just say it does.

2. At 3rd level, it starts to give a Caster Level boost. This only increases effective caster level, which primarily affects spell strength. Usually it has to do with damage dice (Fireball deals 1d6/caster level for example), spell range (almost all spells have range that scales with caster level) and duration.
This doesn't give you new spells known.

[slaydemons]

basically its useless if i want the good spells huh wizard is still gong good all the way


Edit: i just realised I HAVE HORRIBLE SPELLING damn it

[AslanCross]

basically its useless if i want the good spells huh wizard is still gong good all the way


Edit: i just realised I HAVE HORRIBLE SPELLING damn it

Well, most Arcane PrCs actually lack the "increases spells known and caster level" clause. Only the more recent ones have it, but typically DMs rule that you get increases as if you took a level in Wizard anyway.