Let's add some flair to a necromancer


Advice


okay, so got a lvl 9 sorcerer undead bloodline necromancer with 50k to spend on items. Doesn't want to spend items on the usual boring stuff like amulets of natural armor, headbands of charisma, etc etc. basically wants to spend gold on items that scream necromancer and adds flair to the character.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Dark Archive

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As an undead sorcerer, you are the undisputed master of intelligent undead....this is your strength over wizards, clerics and oracles. Your bloodline arcana is better in every way possible for controlling intelligent undead then the command undead feat ever will be, so while I'd like to give you items that play to this main strength of your class there are sadly, no items I know of in pure PF(3.pf/PF with 3.5e content is a different story) that cater to the creation and control of intelligent undead. So rather then try to further enhance your strengths as a necromancer, I think you should use items to shore up your weaknesses, and that is undoptly the use of animate dead for sorcerers. While sorcs are powerful debuff/curse casters and the undisputed masters of the create undead line and it's intelligent progeny, when it comes to the grunt soldiers...skeletons and zombies, they are the class that lacks the most. Clerics, Oracles and Curoromancer wizards are all better with animate dead then you will ever be, and largely because all three of those classes get a way to increase the amount of undead they can control with it. Curoromancers get a direct boost to their control pool while clerics and oracles get the spell desecrate, the former sadly you have no way of "poaching"....but the latter?

..Let me introduce you to my first item recommendation..the VOIDSTICK. I have bolded, capped and made italic this item for a reason. It is one of, if not the absolute best item for a necromancer in the game. For the price of 25,000 GP(half of the fortune you have), you get a lot of very nice effects for a necromancer. First off, you essentially permanently add desecrate to your spells known. That's right, you now get to enjoy what is basically one of the only two reasons to play a divine necromancer. Secondly, voidsticks let you create a special kind of undead known as voidstick zombies. They are neat creatures, and while you may not use them much, it is nice to have the option despite. Finally, you can use the voidstick to make enhanced undead, though this requires embedding the stick itself into the undead so I'd not recommend this until you have enough money to acquire multiple voidsticks(which, IMO, you should do because the buffs are nice and they don't desecrate a very large area on their own, by having more you can desecrate a larger area and make animation easier/not have to fiddle around with careful stacking of corpses to make them fit the small radius one voidstick provides.)

Another recommendation, while not one that blatantly screams "necromancer" like the voidstick would be some form of item that can let you get rid of strength damage consistently. Why? For abusing the spell Blood Money. Blood Money is one of, if not THE biggest advantage arcane necromancers have over divine ones. When used properly, this spell can entirely do away with the material component costs of animate dead, allowing you to create your legions for free. I don't know the name of the item offhand, but there is some item that can let you consistantly get rid of strength damage. If this item is within your price range, pick it up ASAP if you have blood money as a spell known as combinding it with blood money(who's "drawback" is str damage) your life as a necromancer will be made SO much easier. No more hauling around cartfuls of black onyx, using geas or dominate person on NPCs to get them to bring you moar black onyx or npcs asking you "what the hell are you doing with all that onyx?"....You save a TON of gold and a TON of trouble through this, so if you have the money and spells to do it, there is no reason not to.

Finally, while not the best items, here is a list of some other items that scream "necromancer" that you may or may not be able to afford. Look them up or ask me to tell you more about them at your own convince..

Robe of Bones- Robes that give you some free minions to summon in a pinch. Not very powerful or mechanically good but flavorful and fun....and at $24,000 you can pick it up right now if you really want.

Darkskull- A creepy skull with permanent Unhallow effect. Sadly out of your price range at 60,000 gp but something worth saving up for, if you can actually use it. May be limited to divine casters and those with a good enough UMD score to "fake it," though...I'll have to check and get back to you on this...but even if this in fact the case you are a sorcerer..so you took UMD...right?

Book of Eternal Necromancy- Absurdly powerful if your DM actually says yes to this one. Essentially a spellbook that lets you add TON of necromancy spells to your spells known. It has no listed price, however, so if you want this your going to have to run it by your GM and it will likely be something you have to quest for/earn with RP. However, do run it by him as it is an AMAZING item for a spells-known caster like a sorc.

Staff of the Master (Necromancy)- Again, more of a fluff choice as staves are not that strong, but it has three good necromancy spells on it and it saves you casts. All and all, a nice, thematic staff for your necromancer if your into magic staves. At 30,000 gp you can afford this right now but sadly, you really can't since this will lock you out of purchasing a voidstick and the voidstick is infinently better for you this this item is.

Staff of Necromancy- Essentially the upgrade to the staff of the master. A staff with stronger/more potent necromancy spells. Out of your price range currently at 82,000 gp but may be worth saving up for if your really into staffs. I'm personally not a fan of staves because they really are not that practical or effective from an OP standpoint in the long run but some people like them. If your one of those people, this would be a good one to save up for.

Undead Controlling Magic Haramaki- The Undead Controlling enchantment is great for a necromancer. Sadly, it can only be put on armor and sorcs don't like to wear armor. Luckily, the haramaki has 0 arcane spell failure and almost no meaningful drawbacks for not being proficient. In fact, it's often a tactic of low level sorcs/wizards to wear a haramaki even when not proficient to get the bonus AC for free, and while bracers of armor are eventually better a magical haramaki with this enchantment on it will be like bracers of armor but with the added benefit of letting you control moar undead. Sadly, the undead controling enchantment alone is 49,000 gp, which may put this out of your reach if you want the haramaki you stick it on to have a meaningful armor bonus...and if you want that voidstick(which, IMO, you should), you can't afford this just yet. Still something to save up/work towards, though.

If your allowed 3.5e items, a whole new world opens up as you get stuff like the amazing rod of undead command and other such wonderful little artifacts. However, I am assuming you are playing PF unmolested by 3.5e, which is why I haven't mentioned such things. If your allowed to dig into 3.5e items though just say the word and I'll respond with some truely awesome goodies for you.

Also, I will warn you of something, most of the items I've listed here other then the undead controlling harmaki, book of eternal necromancy, str-damage negator who's name I forget and the VOIDSTICK!!!!(you should just really pick one up NAO) are purely listed for their fluff value and while it may be boring you'd honestly be better served by picking up the bland cha and defense boosters then most of the stuff listed here from a pure OP standpoint. However, if you wanted flavor, I hope I provided you with some nice options....but really, just get the voidstick...or better yet...spend that entire 50k on 2 voidsticks. They really are that awesome. I hope my advice helped some.

-Your friendly neighborhood archnecromancer, Takhisis.


Ty sooooooooo much!! I had never heard of the voidstick before and yes it is amazing! Unfortuantly me and the GM who rotates games both agree that blood money is only known by the greed sorcerer, so that item wouldn't help out, but it seems I have heard of it before. I did look at that enchant and was wondering what exactly stops it from being enchanted on the bracers by chance?
Just thank you again

Dark Archive

The Undead Controlling enchantment is an ARMOR enchantment, and bracers of armor, while they give an armor bonus are technically not considered "armor." I believe they are considered "wondrous items" rather then armor, but am not 100% sure. I am 100% sure that they are NOT considered armor, though. I just don't know what they are as appose to armor with certainty. Kinda lame, I know, but that's how it works. Usually, this means sorcs would't be able to get access to it without being some kind of multiclass gish build that makes use of armor but luckily there is a "cheat" that I mentioned in the haramaki.

Technically, while not proficient in light armor, you can still wear it. The only drawback to wearing armor your not proficient in is that you take it's armor check penalty to attack and movement-based skill rolls. The haramaki has an armor check penalty of 0 in addition to having 0% arcane spell failure. Essentially, a non-magical haramaki is a free +1 AC with absolutely no drawbacks, even if your not proficient and a spellcaster. It's why so many low level wizards/sorcs often buy one at 1st level and wear it instead of robes...it's essentially bracers of armor +1 but for a massive fraction of the GP cost(as in a non-magical haramaki can in fact be bought with level 1 starting gold...it's no higher then 10 GP in price from what I remember...could be slightly more, but not by much.) Since a haramaki is armor like any other, it can be enchanted with armor enchantments which includes Undead Controlling and extra bonuses to AC, which allow it to stay competitive with bracers or armor, albeit for more GP then constantly upgrading to better bracers of armor would cost you in the long run if you want to remain competitive with the bracers.

Word of warning though, the haramaki is Asian armor...and it very much looks the part. If you google what a haramaki looks like you'll see it's very...samurai-esc...in appearance. I know that for some people blatantly "Asian-themed" armors and weapons can often "ruin" the mental imagery they have of their character. While I may love such aesthetics, I am an otaku who will unabashedly tell fellow gamers my favorite race in pathfinder is Kitsune and gets giddy at the thought of playing homebrew classes like "Harukei Shrine Maiden." For others having Japan in their D&D can be kinda immersion-ruining, especially if the setting the're playing in a strictly tolkine-esc/medieval-European type world rather then the crazy everything goes sandbox of cultures that is Golarin(PF's default setting) or a purely oriental setting.

If your one of those people, then I suggest looking into ceremonial silken armor in place of the haramaki. Ceremonial silken armor has the exact same stats as a haramaki (+1 AC, 0 arcane spell failure and 0 armor check penalty), but lacks the Asian name and distinctly "samurai" appearance. It still is considered "eastern" armor, but unlike the haramaki has more a more mutable appearance fluff-wise. It's basically just described as a fancy silk robe reinforced with studs and the like. While the default fluff mentioned metal reinforcing it, nothing says that the they can't be ornate black silk robes reinforced with bones and possibly even tiny skulls rather then metal studs, black hood optional and certainly possible. If I where a DM I'd certainly allow such aesthetics. However the reason I mentioned the haramaki over these is the cost difference. Haramaki's are dirty cheap. A non-magical silken ceremonial robe however will cost you 30gp. I repeat, 30 GP for a silken ceremonial robe before any magical enhancements. Personally, when I can get the haramaki which has the exact same stats for a bargain bin price, I see little reason to ever buy the silken ceremonial armor. However if the haramaki's aesthetics ruin your character imagery the ceremonial silken armor will have the same effect as the haramaki without the distinctive asian appearance...just be ready to shell out the extra GP to satisfy your aesthetic concerns.


Okay the reason why I was asking about the bracers is that they say they can be enchanted but not by something of a fixed amount of gold value, or something of that nature. I'm a bit confused on that part in the corerule book.

Also I looked it up again about the robe of bones and the voidsticks and it seems u added an extra zero to the price of them (robes being 2500 and I so are the voidsticks) which if correct, and I may have an outdated book lol, means those are a must and still have around 45k to spend lol.

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