tipps for dread necromancer / minionmancer

[Dragondust]

Hello guys,

my GM is planning on a new campain. I play with some deacent min/maxing players in my group. Iam a kinda new player and have no chance if i would do this by my own so pls help me. We are planning on starting level 1 and then progressing our way through the levels. As i told u on my Title iam going to play a Evil Dread Necromancer. I already tried to figure out what i should pick and rn i have no clue what to do next.

My DM is using a homebrew rule where u can pick a good amout of Feats more then u could normaly. So lets say i go for a level 20 Character focusing on Minions and buffing them. With the homebrew rule from my DM i can pick up to 20 Feats over all at level 20. So there should be a way i could get some decent minions and still a good amount of nobrain undeads?

Obv i wont be level 20 in the near future but i just want to know what i should aim for.

right now iam planning on going for a Dread Necromancer 8/ Wizard (UA necro) 1/ Marshal 1/ Pale Master 10. But that is changeable.

my feats right now are:

- Tomb-Tainted Soul
- Versatile Spell caster
- Corpsecrafter
- Deadly Chill
- Destruction Tetribution
- Hardened Flesh
- Bolster Resistance


so as u can see there is much more space left on feats.. so if u have some tipps for me this would be nice. Iam not that deep into the Undead playstyle and if u could explain some chains i would appriciate it. If u have questions feel free to ask

This is my first post here i have no clue how long it takes but thank you to all who try to help me :-)

[Koury]

As it happens, I just finished making a Dread Necro BBEG for a campaign. Different classes than you, but here are the links if you wanna look over them, see if it sparks any ideas. I make no claims about it’s overall power (it is meant to be defeated eventually after all).

Level 1 - https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2204232

Level 5 - https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2204249

Level 10 - https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2204294

Level 15 - https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2205052

Level 20 - https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=2205127

[liquidformat]

start with reading through these handbooks, it should answer most of your questions:
http://www.ruleofcool.com/smf/index.php?topic=725.0
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...ancer-Handbook

[Malphegor]

General tip from me: Zombies and minions, on the levels you’ll be making them, will take up a lot of playtime in which you steal the limelight.

As such, delegate, and mob the weak

delegate- assign squads of your legions to your allies, they still obey you primarily but you can tell them to obey their commands unless you say otherwise. This means everyone gets a bite of your rotten undead pie. This spreads out the load of undead and makes it less time consuming on your rounds since everybody gets a little bit.

mob- ask your dm if you can use the mob template to coalesce any large numbers of weaker undead into one big unit. It will make the action economy unabused while still getting the benefits of the horde.

Next, I strongly advise you focus on getting 2-3 strong undead that are your primary undead you focus your resources on buffs and stuff, and the rest are just cheap disposable bodies to throw at problems.

Next, look into the Living Zombie template (special thing- appears alive but you convert it into being under your command with a necromantic ritual. shouldn’t ping as being undead versus clerics which is handy for stealth. These are clearly based on the original african zombi myth. It is theoretically possible to make the tarrasque a living zombie, by the by. This also extends your lifespan.), might be handy.

Oh, and the mother cyst feat is fun. As a dread necromancer you get all the spells right away on your list, and also the ability to necrotically dominate living creatures with no limit is quite entertaining.

All in all this means your actual undead just forms the filling of your armies, and you have plenty of living slaves helping you destroy civilised societies or building pyramids in your name.

[Zombulian]

A trick I've come across recently that I like for producing undead on the cheap is to take the alternative familiar Imbued Staff from Dragon Mag #338. You'll need to take Obtain Familiar since you won't have native access to one as a Dread Necro, but Obtain Familiar is better than class-based familiars anyway. At level 9 when you get access to 5th level spells, take the Enchant Staff feat to put Animate Dead onto your staff. Now you can make undead with Animate Dead as a Spell Like Ability which means that you don't have to pay the 25gp per hit die

Edit: I forgot Dread Necro has a slightly slower spell progression. You can still take Enchant Staff at 9, but you won't be able to add the spell until 10th.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

It's worth checking out the Commander Auras in Heroes of Battle. They cost absolutely nothing and give free bonuses to all of your minions within 30ft. If you're placing some of your horde under the command of your party members, they can get their own auras as well; the same aura won't stack, but troops can benefit from multiple different auras simultaneously.

IIRC Teamwork Benefits (from Heroes of Battle and PHBII) won't work with mindless undead, but if I'm misremembering they might be another source of cool tricks.

[NotASpiderSwarm]

First off, you're basically not going to be creating your own minions for a while. While it's good to plan for the future, make sure you're solid at early levels before you worry about later ones.

Second, hordes of minions are pretty useless in D&D. I'm not saying to ignore the value, once you get some buffs to your minions, even decent-quality low-HD ones can be useful in certain circumstances, but most bodies you encounter can be left to rot or turned into spell components(check out Book of Vile Darkness). What you want is 2-6 really scary monsters, replacing them as they're destroyed, you encounter scarier monsters, or you level and unlock new boosts. Keep a couple for yourself, give the rest of them to other players as bodyguards/allies/mounts. This gives other players more things to do on their turns, frees up time on your turn, and acts as a force multiplier for the entire group.

Third, seriously, quality>quantity. You want Outsiders as a general rule, but anything with low HD, good physical stats, lots of natural attacks, and multiple movement modes is worth looking at. (Dragons and certain elementals are other decent options, as well as any cat). Also, Skeletons>Zombies 90% of the time.

Fourth, ask your DM about the Disguise skill. By RAW, it only applies to you, but if you can use it on your minions, you can pass off all those dead Outsiders as your devoted servants(all mutes, of course, no sense letting servants blab my secrets, haha).

Fifth, check the splatbooks for various undead creation spells other than Animate Dead. Some are better, some are worse, all are different. This also goes for things like the Bone Dragon from Draconomicon.

Sixth, be prepared to work for the bodies. If your DM is making an entire campaign about fighting humans, you'll probably have to go hunting for as much as a bear to use. Even in a normal dungeon-delving campaign, if you're getting the party wizard to take you plane-hopping to murder Devils, be prepared to find a reason to get the party to come along with you. (they should say yes, but this is making an entire session+ about your char and his needs, and you need to be aware of that).

Seventh, don't forget the value of uncontrolled undead. While yes, you want to keep your best pets, if you're building a base with traps that drop enemies into pits full of skeletal leopards, let them be uncontrolled, save your cap for monsters that aren't permanently locked up. Similarly, if you're starting a Wightpocalypse in a foreign country, just control enough of them to keep the horde pointed in the right direction, don't worry about piles of monsters ravaging the countryside(you're evil and wiping out a country, the ravenous uncontrolled hordes are the point)

Eighth, have fun. The point of this is to be wearing a black cloak, skull earrings, and killer leather boots while being carried around by the corpses of your former enemies. Yes, a zombie horse is more practical, but you're Cha-based, style is power.