I give up . . . Necromancy, please save . . .


Advice


So first of all: http://emotibot.net/pix/5403.gif
and now that you know in which kind of mindset I find myself at this very moment, hear me out, please.

I am rather new to this game and I tried really hard to make this work . . . but:

I

JUST

F@~*ING

CAN'T

BUILD

THIS

FRIKING NECROMANCER RIGHT (/°0°)/ *throw tantrum*

So please help me do this, I friking don't manage it on my own and I might friking die trying.

Heres the deal: I WANT A NECROMANCER THAT FIGHTS AND USES HIS UNDEAD TO SUPPORT HIM, although madly in love with fear and touch attacks, implementing these seems impossible and i'd rather have this somewhat playable.

What I would like to play:

- I wish to use the KUSARIGAMA, my absolute favourite weapon in history
I dont care how much it sucks or how impossible it is to implement this, I want this thing!!!!

- My fighting style would strongly focus on Combat Manouvers, repositioning enemies and make them unable to escape my undead which would be my main damage source

- A somewhat good Minion Pool

- Deific Obedience - Deity Urgathoa, this is a must have, Urgathoa is my gurl and I stick to my gurls. Also I want this animate dead spell like ability.

- Spell like ability animate dead, as much as possibru, I hate paying Onyx and I hate abusing Power Word Undeath

___

If the whole Kusarigama thing is indeed impossible, I would like to strongly focus on scythe - Hamatula Strike Build, doing pretty mcuh the same as kusarigama, but with more damage at the cost of reach.

Also I somehow wanted to Implement Agent of Death, but I dont know when to level it effectively, yet i want that easy lich access.

If needed to dip into anything, samurai ninja or whatever, I am willing.

PLease help me.


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Okay. First, to solve the onyx issue, go witch and take blood money. The onyx is usually cheap enough that you can sleep the Strength damage, or, worst case, get a wand of lesser restoration and UMD it.

I say witch specifically instead of a necromancer wizard because of the Gravewalker archetype. It gets two abilities to control undead and one deliver touch spells at range baked in.

Deific Obedience should be possible at the level you get the animate dead SLA, the build isn't too feat-hungry.

As for the kusarigama and combat maneuvers, it's possible, but with the 1/2 BAB and Str not being a primary stat, I have to warn you that you will be really bad at it and it will eat precious actions that you could use on casting or hexing. It's an exotic weapon and a double weapon, plus the mechanics are unclear and require GM adjudication.

Being good with it would require a martial build devoted to it and maneuvers in general, and that would preclude the undead bit. You can still carry one and use it to coup de grace slumbered targets, but the damage and crit modifier aren't great. If you're willing to compromise a bit, the scythe with its x4 crit mod is great for coup de graces. But it's two-handed, so you would need to let go of it with one hand to cast and then grasp it again. Thankfully both are free actions.

For race, I suggest half-elf and taking the Ancestral Arms alternate racial trait for proficiency in either the kusarigama or the scythe, whichever you pick, since you don't automatically get it. If you're only going to coup de grace with it, the -4 nonproficiency penalty is irrelevant since coups de grace autohit, but it looks like you want to be able to actually use your chosen weapon.

Also, if you're interested in Deific Obedience, I suggest you look into the Evangelist PrC, since it gets the boons earlier than normal. Aligned class means you progress as a witch normally for all but one level. The SLAs counting as spellcasting FAQ means that, for example, an aasimar with daylight, could get into the class early. Any race with a 3rd-level spell as a SLA works.


Well necromancers can be a bit frustrating to build, at least if you do not know the tricks. So some advice.

- Oracle with juju mystery, only cleric and oracle will be able to do the whole melee thing and juju mystery allows you 6hd/CL with animate dead so easy choice. Blackblooded curse is pretty nifty too for flavor.
- Kusari gama, well I think it could be used for two weapon fighting, don't you can't afford it. But what you can do is alternate between the two attack modes, mainly usinng the reach option with the sickle being there for insurance if someone gets within your reach. Maneuvers will be hard to use but with some buffing not unreasonable.
- More bang out of animate dead: Look at the spell duration that means temporary CL increases work for the HD limit. Deathknell(+1), Deathwine(+1-3), Spell spelilization (+2), Varisian/mage's tattoo(+1). Total is 5-7 more CL, essentially doubling your forces when you get the spell. (not to forget the +50% you get with Spirit Vessels (Su)revelation)
- Material component: Blood money it is not on cleric/oracle spell list but you are Cha based caster, it is 1st level spell a wand costs 750gp, get UMD +19 and you will never have to worry about onyx again. Before your UMD is high enough get say 3 wands you only lock out of retries if you roll nat 1 and fail. And even then it is only 24h lock out.


I actually really dislike gravewaker for the whole Voodoo setup, thats totally not what I am looking for, but the blood money is amazing.

I tried several build paths with the Warpriest before . . .I always ended up with smth. like this:

Warpriest
Weapon Focus Scythe
level 1 -Mage's Tattoo: Necromancy
level 3 -Spell Focus: Necromancy
Level 3 -Improved Unarmed Attack (Bonus Feat)
Level 5 -Deific Obedience
Level 6 -Improved Grapple(Bonus Feat)
Level 7 -Spell Expertise (Minor): Ant Haul (I am carrying a coffin around)
Level 9 -Combat Expertise (Bonus Feat)
Level 9 -Threnodic Spell
Level11 -Hamatula Strike
Level12 -Hamatula Grasp (Bonus Feat)
Level14 -Quicken Spell
Level15 -Spell Expertise (Major): Animate Dead
Level15 -Greater Grapple (Bonus Feat)
Level17 -Heighten Spell
Level18 -Greater Trip (Bonus Feat)
Level19 -Spell Perfection (Animate Dead)

and I already imagined I would suck using a kusarigama :( i just rlly wanna make it happen . . . .

Lets maybe narrow down all my wishes and just look for a Fighting Necromancer? Focusing on minionmancing rather than de-/buffin


Are you able to use 3.5 materials? Because there is the Dread Necromancer class and I think you would like it. They even get 1 martial weapon proficiency (not sure what weapon type the KUSARIGAMA is but this would allow for the use of a Scythe)

DNs are on their way to Lichdom and get an at will touch attack that deals damage and negative status effects, they also get a Control Undead channeling ability... Worth a shot I think.

Otherwise... The Warpriest looks pretty good. That would be more martial than spelly though no?


yes I want a warrior who can summon undead as stated. My fighting tactic would be impaling opponents on my scythe and reloocating them into my coffin, which i carry on my back. (That coffin is a Coffin of Holding and is stuffed with plague zombies, not controlled but "breed" in there) and have 2 big hittes summoned to help fight for me since i really can only do CMB stuff


Lost Lich wrote:

yes I want a warrior who can summon undead as stated. My fighting tactic would be impaling opponents on my scythe and reloocating them into my coffin, which i carry on my back. (That coffin is a Coffin of Holding and is stuffed with plague zombies, not controlled but "breed" in there) and have 2 big hittes summoned to help fight for me since i really can only do CMB stuff

Where do you find the mechanics for this?


Maybe an anti paladin?


@icehawk333

Mechanics for what? repositioning during grappling is a thing, a coffin of holding can hold stuff, and if i put plague zombies in there and living humans, they soon also become plague zombies, pls clarify.

Antipaladins are AMAZING, but they arent really applicable for the normal rp :/


not to mention antipaladin spell list may as well commit suicide and he only gains animte dead at like. . .level 14


Well, if you want to do combat maneuvers effecticely you're going to need high BAB/Strength and probably a couple of feats. This does not square well with high-powered casting, which usually doesn't have high BAB. A cleric might be a good possibility, anti paladin can handle the combat maneuver side of it, which seems to be

Also note: this approach may not work well with (say) foes that can't be stuffed into a human-sized coffin. Or foes that can shred a plot of plague zombies once they're stuffed inside.

Cool idea, definitely. But there are sme practical difficulties with implementation.


I had a Dread Necromancer once who had a portable hole with several spawn creating undead in it. I 'd capture enemies and shove them in. Whenever our party left town, I would release all but 3 of them inside that settlement somewhere.


Since I tended to go somewhat warpriest feats, BaB and casting with that class is pretty solid i think, just the feat arangement . .. I dont know if i can do any dmges like this, since all i have once an opponent is to big for me is my summons . . .

Sovereign Court

I'd say go for Cleric of Urgathoa, especially with the cool Death domain that lets you channel negative both to heal yourself and harm other people, at the same time. That'll teach enemies that try to swarm you.

If you're a half-elf you can gain kusarigama proficiency as an alternate racial ability.

Invest in Strength, because Blood Money is also on the cleric spell list. And for Urgathoa it's not even out of character to use. Also, strength will help out with all the combat maneuvers you want to do.

As a cleric you'll have enough BAB, HP, saving throws and buff spells to be decent in combat, and unlike the witch, you can just wear armor.


Just one level in wizard is all thats required for being able to spend a feat on an arcane discovery called Knowledge Is Power. This lets you add your Int bonus to combat maneuvers and your CMD, plus you also get that same bonus to break objects.

I think witches can do undead stuff and they run off Int. too.


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Cleric, get some dex and high wisdom. get agile maneuvers, Lawful Evil, get Death domain and inevitable for animate undead and command undead.

Desecrate everything

realize that eventually you'll want to stop going into melee as a cleric and just have your minions perform the combat maneuvers, preferably the large ones.

make bloody skeletons or fast zombies.

This is an example 5th level guy I made. (I rolled for stats) he was a Lawbringer Aasimir, who was coddled by a church-hood and so left to discover his own stuff. he fell into Urgathoa for the hedonism, not really the undead, but still he performs his god's wishes wonderfully now.

he's designed to be a bad touch cleric(debuffing touch attacks) though, and not a hit them til they're dead one. like bestow curse is fun on him.

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