True Necromancer?

[Kesnit]

I remember reading about a 3.0 class with that name (or something like it). It is a combo cleric/necromancer PrC that focuses on necromancy and undead.
Is there a 3.5 PrC that does the same?

[AKA_Bait]

Yeah. It's got the same name. It's in either heroes of horror or Liber Mortis, I can't remember which.

It sucks by the way.

[UserClone]

Really? In what way does it suck? I thought it was pretty much as good as it got, as far as undead were concerned. At least up until the dread necromancer.

[ZeroNumerous]

True Necromancer isn't like Mystic Theurge, AKA_Bait. It goes a full 14 levels so you get 17/17 for Cleric/Wizard. The delayed casting isn't great, but you eventually get 9th level spells.

[Hyfigh]

Dread Necromancer is going to be genuinely better. The update to the True Necromancer can be what most would consider decent if you build them correctly. It requires quite a bit of work and planning, but it's doable.

[Zincorium]

Really? In what way does it suck? I thought it was pretty much as good as it got, as far as undead were concerned. At least up until the dread necromancer.

Well, here goes:

Dual ability score requirements (artificer/wizard has only one, but they don't rebuke undead)
Loss of 4 levels of casting on each side
Have to take the death domain (not one of the better ones)
Granted abilities are just spells you could cast normally

Mystic theurge is better for dual casting, cleric (even without a prestige class) or dread necro is best for creating a horde of undead.

[ZeroNumerous]

If you don't want to do dual-casting, I revised True Necromancer here: Revised True Necromancer.

[wormwood]

True Necromancer isn't like Mystic Theurge, AKA_Bait. It goes a full 14 levels so you get 17/17 for Cleric/Wizard. The delayed casting isn't great, but you eventually get 9th level spells.

Actually... you don't get 17/17. that would be good. At level 20, without cheesy entrance to the class, you get 15/15. 8th level spells at level 20 is not cool. Granted, you get a lot of them from both arcane and divine... but you'd still be better off with 9th of one or the other, i think.

True Necromancer would be nice if 1) they got spellcasting in both classes at each level or 2) they could pick better domains for cleric or 3) they didn't have to provide the components for their 1/day animates and could control more undead or 4) they had just taken a different class.

I've been playing one for a long time now. If I didn't like the character, I'd have dropped him a long time ago over the crunch.

[Aerogoat]

True Necromancers are awful at low levels (they don't get third level spells until level 7).
True necromancers are awful at high levels, being 5 caster levels behond their buddies and enemies.
Most of their class features are just Spell-like abilities.
Their most notable class feature is the ability to boost their caster level by 4 when casting Necromancy spells. (Remember: they lose 5 caster levels just by entering the class.)

All in all, it's an awful class. Just use a Cleric or a Dread Necromancer (Heroes of Horror).

[AKA_Bait]

Heh, wow. I didn't even need to defend my point. Nice.

[sonofzeal]

In my opinion, here is the single defining trait of the True Necromancer class that show you exactly how stupid it is - "Animate Dead" HD limits don't stack between Cleric and Wizard. If you could control one mess of minions on the divine side and another mess of minions on the arcane side, that might be worth it. Instead, they don't synergize at all, and you're left with a weaker version of a MT with harsher entry requirements and some pretty useless class abilities.

[CASTLEMIKE]

Edit miscalculated