For a long time I have been a fan of necromancers in various forms, and I love trying to find a way to tweak my game so I can have fun while doing it.
Now, lately I have once again gotten the chance to play a Necromancer type by playing a Death Mage (3rd Party, Rogue Genius Games) and have been looking around for Necromancer Friendly items. Specifically I have been looking for an old item that I read about a few years back and for the life of me I have no clue where I saw it. The item is a mask made for necromancer minions that has several handy tricks. The first trick is that it has a form of Nondetection on it where your minion does not show up as Undead to any spells or abilities that seek out undead. Second trick is that the mask has a good illusion that makes your minions look like a humanoid race (the race is chosen when the mask is made and cannot be changed. The downside is that, no matter what you do, your minion always appears to be wearing this mask. So you have a Masked humanoid following you through the city instead of your latest Skeleton or Zombie. The masks were reasonably priced as well, and I have been searching all the books I can find to try and find this item because I am working on raising a Death knight minion and I want him to play bodyguard to my Death Mage without everyone freaking the hell out when he comes to town with me, or is on the ship (running in Skull & Shackles, Necromancy scares the s#$~ out of Sailors).
I know that this mask was in a book along with an item I remember being called Blood Candy. Blood Candy was an alternate Brew Potion product that made little peices of hard candy charged with Inflict spells, useful for handing out to intelligent minions to eat to heal. I also remember in the description was a sick joke also about Necromancers mixing in Blood Candy with normal candy to give out to children during that realms version of Halloween, making kids play Russian Roulette.
If anyone knows where this, or a similar item with close to those effects may be found, please let me know. I am also in the market for any Necromancy items, tricks or tips to up my game, because my 10th level Death Mage is a male Naga (WoW RPG, modified but took 3 Racial levels for the Mutations and increased speed), a creepy bastard with a Tylosaurus Death Boon companion who acts a dual role as Ships Wizard and Ships Cook. He has a a female ghoul (wearing a dress, he keeps fresh dresses for her) he Commanded from earlier in the campaign, along with a couple Lacedons (commanded), and 11 Bloody Skeletons that hang on a tow rope behind the ship, hiding from the crew. I am thinking of taking Second Boon and Boon Companion to get either another companion or a Familiar (pending DM approval) at some point soon, and maybe taking some Corpsecrafting feats from the Heroes of Horror and Libris Mortis before hitting 11th so he can make some really custom intelligent undead... This IS an evil campaign, as he is working to get a Wand of Fly to create Beheaded from Plug and Scourges heads for the new Captain of our ship... heh.
I hope to hear your ideas and suggestions soon!
Heh, well the bit about Skulls & Shackles is that myself and the other PCs were pressganged onto a ship. Once we took another vessel in battle, we mutinied and took off with the new ship and became pirates ourselves. Most of the living crew are from the old ship, but we have a few prisoners (and corpses) join us when we took new ships to make our own way as pirates.
My undead do not come on the ship, as I said they hang onto a tow rope behind the ship. The Tylosaur is technically alive, and I have her just following along underwater most of the time. For the most part, I have been waiting to hit lvl 11 so I can create Intelligent Undead, because 1 HD skeletons or zombies have no skill ranks. The crew have seen the tylosaur once in battle when it climbed up the other side of a ship we boarded to flank the marines prepared to fight. When they saw a 14 foot gaunt, feral monstrous lizard crawl up on the back side of the ship and the captain went down like a brick(Ghoul Touch via Spectral Hand)...they gave up real fast
I fully plan to replace the crew, and atm am gathering mats for a ceremony to bind dead souls to the ship sails to serve as manual labor. We want to keep the crew alive until I can find a good source of Black Onyx and hit 11th level (Create Undead!!!), then slaughter the crew and raise them as Skeletal Champions and Zombie Lords. =D.
Mainly I want to have a few powerful servants rather than a horde of one-shot wonders, hence the autopilot for the ship under research. When we took the last ship to sale in post, only myself and the first mate boarded. I then raised the 11 skeletons to crew the ship (wish I had the Skeleton Crew spell.)
Let me just say we have a Fetchling Clever Godling as Captain, a 4 Armed Naga Death Mage as Wizard/Cook, a 4 Armed Sahuagin Wereshark Barbarian as the Sailmaster/Jailer, a Dhampir Malefactor as Boatswain, and a Female Human Rogue First Mate/Quartermaster. Everyone else on the ship is human (except the prisoner the Sahuagin purposefully lycanthropized last game session), and we fully expect the reroll the recent death to be just as monstrous as the rest. Not sure what the human rogue was thinking when she came into the game...
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see if you cant get ahold of a voidstick. ignore the create undead bit, it's a huge waste of money and effort--you want it for the on-demand instant desecrate effect for anytime you wanna animate dead. tack on the 'reliquary' property (+250g) to your weapon of choice and you have a permanent fixture/altar for the desecrate effect, granting you maximum bonuses.
if you're a wizard, look up the necromancer's athame. spontaeneously replacing unused spells with necromancy spells could prove useful.
follow brewer's guide to undeath for some good rules to live by and for streamlining your whole necromancy shtick.
also worth noting: undead minionmancer setups are also largely divorced from necromancy school itself, oddly enough--you only really require animate dead and desecrate to build a sizeable and powerful army, so there's little reason to actually specialize in necromancy other than for fun or thematic stuff, since plain CL bonuses are surprisingly common.
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however if you really wanna push animate dead's CL through the roof for huge bucket/hd limits:
-traits like signature spell and gifted adept (+1 CL each, both of which are compatible, iirc)
-items like the bead of karma (+4CL), moon circlet (-2-+2 depending on moon phase), and orange prism ioun stone (+1, random between 0-+3 if slotted in a wayfinder)
-the (greater) death knell (aura) spell(s).
-class abilities like the juju oracle's spirit vessel revelation, or the cruouromancer wizard's blood command ability (dhampir wizards also get an FCB to boost necromancy in general by up to +5 CL)
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/staves/staff-of-the-master-necromancy
50 levels of free metamagic for 30000 gold, and no increased casting time.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/staves/staff-of-the-master-necromancy
50 levels of free metamagic for 30000 gold, and no increased casting time.
Plus it can be recharged.
As for the voidstick, I'm fairly sure it's a consumable item from the text that indicates the effects last until it's uprooted.
Very good advice, I plan to Desecrate our ship at some point as well. Voidsticks would be something to keep handy for field work away from the ship, especially if using a "reliquary" weapon with it.
Going to read through the Brewers Guide now that I am off work and see if I can streamline, or at least plan for future minions. Again, with the limited spell list and the lack of Channel Energy, it does limit my options.
The staff would be a very handy item, and with a simple twist he can recharge it himself. Unfortunately, he does not have any metamagic feats yet.
Mostly I plan to have a few bodyguards, or a screen so I can spell cannon. I currently have the highest AC in the party (Go Go Massive Natural Armor bonus), and I will be working to ... know what, just going to link my sheet. Hisseth and his companion, Asprah.
I welcome comments and tips.