PrC for a Dread Necromancer

[Lazarock]

Hi !
I'm looking for building a Dread Necromancer ECL 10 (DN 8/PrC 2, I guess).
It will be a oneshot, so I'm not currently looking for an indepth guide (I already read a lot of them), but I need some help to choose a PrC and items :
I will be the main caster, and we have full Big Guys on frontline. I like the idea to be a minionmancer, but I also need to be an efficient caster to help my party (or rather... control the fight enough time for the paladin to do his job)
Levels 9 and 10 don't help this much, so I was looking for PrC and there is so much of them !
Usually, handbooks are made for Lvl 20 characters, so most of their advices aren't really useful when choosing a PrC...

And also, if you have a gear list, I will gladly take it ! (50 000gp to gear myself)

[Wonton64]

The Pale Master PrC from Libris Mortis will lose you a CL at 1st level, but 2nd level will allow you to use the spell Animate Dead as a Supernatural ability.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Horned Harbinger 2, all day long!

No spellcasting advancement, but you can add your class level and your Charisma bonus to your caster level for animate dead, and you get animate dead as SLA (with that same boosted caster level) once a day.


An illumian dread necromancer 8/horned harbinger 2 with 24 Charisma (18 starting, +1 increase @ L4 and L8, +4 cloak) has a caster level of 10 for its regular 4th-level spells. That's not an amazing caster, to be sure, but your 2nd-level Advanced Learning spell is animate dead, and your 4th-level spell is consumptive field. With consumptive field, you can boost your caster level to 15, and with HH 2, that means you have a caster level of 24 for animate dead. With DN 8, you control 11 HD worth of undead per CL. That gives you a total hit die pool of 264, enough for 17 fire giant skeletons (Large, greatsword-wielding skeletons (3d6+18), with 35 Strength and 127 hit points each). I think you'll be able to control the battlefield with that .

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You don't want to lose any spellcaster levels, since that means you won't get 5th level spells.

Paragnostic Apostle is decent if there are abilities to pick up that will help you do your thing.

Mage of the Arcane Order (spending a feat on Arcane Preparation to qualify) will get you access to a lot more spells of 1st-3rd level. Basically anything on the Sorcerer/Wizard spell list from the PHB, and any other spells from other sourcebooks with DM approval.

[Troacctid]

Divine oracle has a very good first two levels, giving you a domain and evasion. Fatespinner gives a reroll and a save DC boost. Heartfire fanner is feat-intensive but gives you bardic music as a bard of your character level. Mindbender (just 1 level) gives you telepathy and lets you take Mindsight as a feat. Urban savant lets you peek at the enemy's character sheet. Paragnostic apostle has already been mentioned; it can give you some bonuses to caster level, dispel checks, ray attacks, and save DCs.

[Lazarock]

Thank you for all this advices !
I don't really understand why Divine Oracle has very good two first levels, I must have missed something

Thanks for bringing Horned Harbinger, I asked my DM and to be honest, he nerfed REALLY hard the level 8 ability of the DN so it's better to assume he would not like this trick haha

[Gorthawar]

Hi !
I will be the main caster, and we have full Big Guys on frontline. I like the idea to be a minionmancer, but I also need to be an efficient caster to help my party (or rather... control the fight enough time for the paladin to do his job

I'd be worried how the Paladin reacts to all the undead and the evil familiar you get at level 7. Also given that your DM doesn't seem too keen on the minions idea based on his nerf of undead mastery I'd probably go for a simple DN5/Dread Witch 5. You'll lose 5th level spells but with nothing immune to your fear effects and the considerable boost it gives to fear in general you'll be able to control the fights pretty decently.

[Troacctid]

Thank you for all this advices !
I don't really understand why Divine Oracle has very good two first levels, I must have missed something

It gives you the Oracle domain, which has some really strong spells (or you can trade it for Knowledge Devotion if you don't like divining). Then at level 2, it gives you a version of evasion that can be used in any armor.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

he nerfed REALLY hard the level 8 ability of the DN so it's better to assume he would not like this trick haha

How hard? The 8th level ability is the main reason to stick in the class that long, but it also doesn't play well with prestige classing (since it's based on your DN level rather than your caster level). Normally that's not a problem, since the ability is strong enough you'd have to take 8 levels of prestige classes before it stopped helping, but if the ability's been nerfed it may be worth it drop out of DN sooner and get more levels of prestige classes instead.

On that note, Dread Witch is the prestige class I normally recommend for Dread Necromancers, because I love fear mechanics and Dread Witch lets you ignore immunity to fear, letting you debuff, cripple, or straight up eliminate literally any enemy (depending on how many levels of fear you manage to stack). I wouldn't recommend it if you've only got two levels to play with, since the immunity-penetration doesn't come online until 4th level, but if you're willing to drop some DN levels you could completely finish the class and still have some levels left over.

[Lazarock]

How hard? The 8th level ability is the main reason to stick in the class that long, but it also doesn't play well with prestige classing (since it's based on your DN level rather than your caster level). Normally that's not a problem, since the ability is strong enough you'd have to take 8 levels of prestige classes before it stopped helping, but if the ability's been nerfed it may be worth it drop out of DN sooner and get more levels of prestige classes instead.

On that note, Dread Witch is the prestige class I normally recommend for Dread Necromancers, because I love fear mechanics and Dread Witch lets you ignore immunity to fear, letting you debuff, cripple, or straight up eliminate literally any enemy (depending on how many levels of fear you manage to stack). I wouldn't recommend it if you've only got two levels to play with, since the immunity-penetration doesn't come online until 4th level, but if you're willing to drop some DN levels you could completely finish the class and still have some levels left over.

40 HD at level 10
That's some heavy nerf IMO

I'll be looking at Dread Witch, thanks