Undead Creator

[Babale]

I want to know....

I'm gonna play a level 10 stronghold game. I want to have a legion of undead at my disposal. The question is... Do I create them as a cleric, sorcerer, or wizard? If wizard, should I go necromancer? and which schools to ban? Or maybe Dread Necromancer?

[BRC]

If you have Heroes of Horror, use the Dread Necromancer. If not, Cleric is generally a better idea.

[Babale]

my stats that I rolled are 16, 17, 15, 17, 11, and 9.

What stats do I take for either cleric or dread necro? And which one can have a bigger army?

[TheCountAlucard]

my stats that I rolled are 16, 17, 15, 17, 11, and 9.

What stats do I take for either cleric or dread necro? And which one can have a bigger army?

Dread Necro, take one of your 17s and put it in CHA. Boost your CHA at every chance you get. Cloak of Charisma, Tome of Leadership, etc., anything to raise your Charisma. Then prob'ly go with a 16 or 17 in Dex, just because. AC is AC, after all... If you decide to go Necropolitan, put your 9 into CON, since it won't matter once you take Necropolitan.

If you're gonna go the Cleric route, put your 17s into WIS and CHA. Once again, if you're taking Necropolitan, then CON is unimportant. Otherwise, you can put your 16 in there.

As to who can raise up a bigger army? Dread Necro, every time.

[Fiendish_Dire_Moose]

Go the Cleric route, especially if you have the Libris Mortis.

[Babale]

I decided to go with Cleric, since that way, I can lead my undead army up front with my heavy armor.

[TheCountAlucard]

I decided to go with Cleric, since that way, I can lead my undead army up front with my heavy armor.

Dread Necro can do that, too. There's a feat in Complete Arcane (I forget the name at the moment) that allows you to cast in heavier armor. Just take it twice and you're all set.

[Babale]

but with a cleric, I don't have to bother with spells learned, and I get more Rebukes

[Maerok]

HORNED HARBINGER!

They do get a lot more undead with high enough Cha once they get their capstone ability. Once of my favorite weird prestige classes. From Faiths and Pantheons, which is 3e though it's not that much of a stretch to get it in 3.5.

But it gets no casting progression. (Ranged) Animate Dead as SLA, many times a day. Plus Create Undead and Greater Create Undead.

[TheCountAlucard]

but with a cleric, I don't have to bother with spells learned, and I get more Rebukes

I was pretty sure the Dread Necro got the same Rebuking abilities as a Cleric... ...

[AngelSword]

Even though you're playing a divine caster, I suggest looking at the early chapters of Complete Mage, as it has a section for different ways to play certain spellcasting archetypes. One listed is the Necromaster, and the dos and don'ts for creating and managing your undead.

[Babale]

OK, thanks guys! Oh, 1 thing: I heard that hydras make the best zombies, since they attack with each head seperately, so 1 standart action is OK for them. So, how do I convince my DM to let me kill a hydra?

Are there any other monsters that make good undead?

[BRC]

You ask him "How much for a hydra corpse" Or say "my character wants a hydra zombie, cmon group, lets go look for one".

If you want your undead to be the focus of your character, Dread Necromancer is the way to go by far.

[Maerok]

Invest in a shovel, all my DNs have.

[BRC]

One more thing, at 6th level take Undead Leadership from Libris Mortis.

[Maerok]

Tomb-tainted Soul with Destructive Retribution is also nice with grouped battalions of undead. It makes the DN more a front-line undead support sort of guy.

Your group might hate you if you take too long to adjudicate all your actions for you horde. You might also want to decide on quality versus quantity. You could even let some of your fellow players run a few of them to help speed things up (Undead Lieutenant is nice). I've been working on a Java applet to manage undead armies that a player might work up.

[BRC]

Your group might hate you if you take too long to adjudicate all your actions for you horde. You might also want to decide on quality versus quantity. You could even let some of your fellow players run a few of them to help speed things up (Undead Lieutenant is nice). I've been working on a Java applet to manage undead armies that a player might work up.

Yeah. Get one big nasty undead to dish out the damage, and keep a supply of Zombies to carry things or to get in the enemies way while you run for it.

Edit: Also, you can be the party rogues best friend as your zombies become flanking-buddies.

[Maerok]

On a Wizard's 'Characters with Class' article or whatever it's called, they labeled the True Necromancer as overpowered, as shown on the WotC optimization boards. >.>

Even the TN is hard to make effective unless you use Ur-Priest or some snazzy combo.

[Deth Muncher]

I remember making a DN a while back, and with only a few things, at level 10 or 11, I could make obscene numbers of undead. It was glorious. A Deadwalker's Ring is a must.

Alternatively, Warlock. One invocation lets you Create Undead, all day long. You just need the onyx to use on them or they only last a short time.

[JeminiZero]

Somewhat off topic, but might be useful: I've always wondered, if you went with something like 3 Warlock / 3 Dread Necro or Wiz / 10 Eldritch Theurge and picked up practiced spellcaster. Would you be able to use Dead Walk and Animate Dead seperately to command a huge number of undead?

At level 16, you would be able to cast dead walk as a level 13 warlock and animate dead a a level 16 Dread Necro or Wiz (after practiced spellcaster), which would give you (13 + 16)*4 = 116 HD worth of undead. You might even get 12 HD more if your DM allows some sort of homebrew practiced invoker feat for the warlock.

[mabriss lethe]

but with a cleric, I don't have to bother with spells learned, and I get more Rebukes

If those are you're two biggest selling points, then maybe you should rethink your choice.

1. Dread Necros know every spell on their list and can cast them spontaneously.

2. Rebuke is identical for a DN or a Cleric. The cleric *does* gain access to Divine Metamagic, which can be a nice little boost, but that's another story all together

[Devils_Advocate]

Revised Necromancer Handbook