Hey guys I need some advice on being evil necromancer. My GM has allowed us to be villains and right now I have built the vampire archetype for Wizard. What I'm looking for our ideas on Feats to give my wizard the ability to raise really powerful Undead and a lot of Undead. We are currently level 4 and the two Feats I have right now are spell focus and greater spell focus. Now eventually I was thinking of going the path of spell specialisation and spell perfection. With spell perfection it needs 3 Metamagic feats before I can get it what three metamagic feats would you guys recommend?
I'm looking for feats that up help me make better undead such as more HP or something like that..
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I'm looking for feats that up help me make better undead such as more HP or something like that..
Ah.
Change one of your spell Focus to Conjuration
Augment Summoning
Skeletal Summoner
This will convert with most GM's as Summoning undead with +4 Str & +4 Cha
Empower Spell will help with spells like Enervation which does 50% more on a 1d4 level drain, or if used on Undead 1d4x5 Temporary HP for 1 hour (with a 50% increase)
Not to mention you can now summon skeletons & Skeleton Warriors with summon monsters, use a high enough spell level to cast it with 1d4+1 and increased the summoned minions with 50% increase with the Str & Cha Mod should make you a necromancer not to be taken lightly.
But classically [and not using GM ok to alter feat outcomes]
Spell Focus [Necromancy]
Craft Wand [useful for wands of Animate Dead] (You can save on this feat by taking Arcane Bond: Wand, that way even with the last charge used the wand can be re-enchanted]
Improved Channel (if you took the Arcane Bond of Wand, and want others undead to be more likely to be .... 'liberated' by you)
Reach spells [Necromancy touch spells, become Ranged Touch Spells]
Skeleton Summoner [Don't have undead right now? Summon some for defense]
Spell Mastery [Taken Prisoner? Make sure you still have spells for escape]
If the character in question is in the standard Pathfinder setting, consider also taking the feat Associate [Whispering Way] and then Whispering Way Disciple from the Agents of Evil Pathfinder Player Companion which gives you access in several towns and cities to Necromancy scrolls, potions and assistance on occasion from your patron's. they are however Roleplay feats mostly so take what you wish in that vein.
Not really found to many feats that augment undead before creation. HD generally depend on the creatures in question.
I'm sorry, but I know you're asking for Spell Perfection access, but you started with the subject of Undead Army.
I want to say retrain Juju Oracle.
Half elf for Paragon Surge for versatility.
Experimental Spellcaster (undead word) for free animate dead.
Charnel Soldiers (combined with paragon surge to give cool teamwork feats like Stealth Synergy).
Ask your DM if you can cherry pick the awesome feats from the 3.5 book Libris Mortis. Bonus points if they let you retrain to a Dread Necromancer (a class in the same book).
If the DM is allowing villians, maybe he/she is going no holds barred... if so check out:
Vile leadership
Wicked leader
Ring of ecclesiarch
Blood money
Being a juju zombie yourself (ask if you can combine fast zombie, not RaW, but RaI?)
Followers: racial heritage (changeling) + coven caster (breed a hag if needed)
NECROCRAFT (try for "occult rituals" as a means of crafting, Lore Oracles can get +20 to int check)
Cool animate targets:
dire tiger, foo lion (pounce, rake, grab)
fire giant (fire subtype)
Raelis Azata (magic flight)
Wendigo (magic flight)
Mastadon or larger dinasaur skeleton, build scaffolding inside ribcage for mobile base. Bullette skeleton for burrowing APC. (Barding on both for improved cover)
Skeleton Summoner is a trap; it makes the creatures you summon weaker than they would otherwise be. It's got cool flavor, but you're literally paying a feat to make yourself worse.
There are no feats that will make the undead you create through Animate Dead stronger. There are a few feats that increase the maximum number you can control, but the cap is already pretty high so most necromancers don't even bother with them. The best way to make your undead stronger is by animating them in an area of desecration, so getting access to the desecrate spell can be very handy for that purpose.
Depending on you current level, you could consider Mystic Theurge, since you will get get tons of HD this way.
Craft construct allows you to craft taxidermic creatures, Flesh Golems and a number of sceletal constructs. These pseudo-undead might be constructs on paper, but could substitute for or strengthen your Undead army.
The "Experimental Spellcaster Feat" can give you the Undeath word, which as written could give you another Pool of HD. (Really cheesy though)
Threnodic Spell, either as feat or as Rod, will make interactions with Undead easier and could allow you to give your minions some nice little buffs
In general the HD cap on your Undead is already quite high and you should ask yourself how much you wanna min max Animate Dead.
Skeleton Summoner is a trap; it makes the creatures you summon weaker than they would otherwise be. It's got cool flavor, but you're literally paying a feat to make yourself worse.
The could be useful in some situations, when you need the Undeads immunities like having them tank level or ability draining enemies, but it is still a weak feat.
Weird question to add to this... If my GM lets me take undead leadership from 3.5 and then I take Vile Leadership... Can I do that?
So my DM has let me take the corpse Crafter feats,and the Necromatic presence and might feats from 3.5. so that was a huge help when it comes to building a really strong army, now I just need to convince her to let me take a few items from 3.5 then to combine them into Pathfinder items lol
Thank you everyone!
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Ask your DM if you can cherry pick the awesome feats from the 3.5 book Libris Mortis. Bonus points if they let you retrain to a Dread Necromancer (a class in the same book).
Dread Necromancer is from Heroes of Horror.
Also i have been looking all over the place and I can't find a spell that can raise more than 1 undead at a time. I know you can control or use channel to take control of more at a time, but what if you found like 10 corpses and wanted to animate them? i think this is dumb...
I built a chelaxian mystic theurge for my undead army.
Cleric HD and Wiz HD pools are tracked separately. As is the channel pool. As is the command undead pool. The end result is a crap ton of HD worth if undead to play with.
There’s an armor enchant that allows you to control more HD worth of undead. Add it to a suit of armor and a shield for even more HD. It’s devatable if it adds to both pools independently or not, but regardless it’s either a lot more undead or a WHOLE lot more undead.
For conservation of resources make as many bloody skeletons as you can. They’re hard to kill and always come back. Bloody flaming skeletons are one of my favorites.
There is the feat Charnel Soldiers which will give any unintelligent undead you create a teamwork feat that your character knows. There is also the feat Undead Master which lets you count as 4 levels higher level for purposes of controlling undead.
I would recommend being a cleric and grabbing the domains undead and inevitable. the undead domain will allow you to heal yourself with your spontaneous neg energy channels and spells. The inevitable domain will give you command undead as a domain spell (something you otherwise have to be a wizard to get). I would also recommend taking the Variant Channel, Undeath. It boosts your ability to heal undead and there is no downside.
As mentioned, I highly recommend getting skeletons with the bloody trait. bloody skeletons are to holy damage what trolls are to fire/acid, if you don't hit them with it they just come back.Personally, I liked combining it with the mundra template. This way my skeletons could wield a two handed weapon, a sling and and still carry a shield.
Slings = amazing when equipping armies, they are literally free weapons that allow for ranged attacks. Similarly, I found Parade Armor and/or Studded Leather to be a quite inexpensive for the ac benefit when it came to equipping large amounts of undead.
The "Experimental Spellcaster Feat" can give you the Undeath word, which as written could give you another Pool of HD.
not a bad idea if you really want to squeeze out a bigger army, but unless i'm mistaken, there's nothing in the word about being doubled by desecration effects so it would only work on lower HD corpses (or you can throw away onyx not making them bloody skeletons), so this will never replace animate dead as a spell.
edit: not implying that you meant it to be a replacement, just clarifying that i read the effect correctly.
How would I raise more than 1 body at a time? I looked all over the place and you can only animate 1 corpse at a time. Does anyone have any suggestions?
How would I raise more than 1 body at a time? I looked all over the place and you can only animate 1 corpse at a time. Does anyone have any suggestions?
for Animate Dead, it's right in the spell
Targets one or more corpses touched
Cursed Earth also animates any and all corpses it can affect for as long as the spell lasts.
But for animate dead you have to TOUCH them. I mean a whole battle field at one time, staying in a spot.
But for animate dead you have to TOUCH them. I mean a whole battle field at one time, staying in a spot.
well, there is the feat Reach Spell (metamagic).
If you use the rod it saves you on the spell level increase and using the spell blood money will circumvent the gp cost normally associated with animate dead.
It's not a battlefield but it is at minimum everything within 45 feet of you.
I was considering something like this if we did any of the evil adventure paths. Cleric that worships the philosophy of Undeath directly. Domains of Undeath (so you can use negative energy to heal self and selected allies), and Rites because I just like the idea of having permanency as a cleric. Divine is an interesting choice as well, since you'd have an army giving every ally within 15 feet a +2 bonus to hit when you buff yourself is nice.
Animate dead at 3rd level for masses of skeletons. Channel negative energy + Command Undead feat to dominate more powerful undead you encounter/create at higher levels. Able to cast desecrate anytime you create undead to give them extra bonuses and increase the amount you can create at one time. There are a lot of advantages over a wizard build to do the same thing. Especially the ability to heal your minions.
Yeah, I went the cleric path. did undeath and inevitable as my domains. Undeath for the reasons you described and inevitable to pick up command undead as a domain spell. I then took the prestige class Pathfinder Savant to pick up any other wizard spells I wanted (like permanency).
Yeah, I went the cleric path. did undeath and inevitable as my domains. Undeath for the reasons you described and inevitable to pick up command undead as a domain spell. I then took the prestige class Pathfinder Savant to pick up any other wizard spells I wanted (like permanency).Two questions: why command undead as a spell? It lasts for minutes, right? Do you get enough out of that to make it worth casting? Was it worth using spells slots instead of channels?
Second question: what deity did you choose? I'm thinking about a philosophy because I really wasn't happy with any of the choices I could think of.
1. Command Undead is actually a very good spell.
> It's days/level, so even if you can only cast it once a day you can easily have several undead under your control using this spell.> non-intelligent undead get no save against it
> It acts like charm person for Intelligent undead, except they aren't allowed to attack you and most commands you're likely to give an intelligent undead won't be "against it's nature"
> It doesn't count against your control limit for things like animate dead or command undead
> It has no HD limit, so as long as you keep it cast and it doesn't get dispelled you're golden.
So, I would regularly cast it in order to have a powerful intelligent undead lackey. Atlernatively, you can get something like an Exoskeleton Titan Centipede, which would be difficult at best to get under your normal control limits (since it has 20 HD).
2. I chose Zon-Kuthon. In addition to him having both the Death and Law domains, It worked well because he doesn't pay any specific attention to what his followers are doing and so I was able to get away with worshiping him without really having to torture the living. I would torment the dead by animating them, which according to his mythos is fine.
Zon-Kuthon offers no great wisdoms, no promises of universal truth, no guarantee of rewards in the afterlife. His strange mind sees little difference between this life and the next, and he tortures living flesh and dead souls alike with hideous pleasure and delicious pain.
A Priest's Role
Aside from rare church-demanded duties, clerics of the Dark Prince have a single goal: bringing pain to the world. In the absence of moral or immoral guidance from their patron, most choose their own paths and use Zon-Kuthon's gifts to serve their own desires. Their deity is largely indifferent to mortal affairs, but still grants spells in response to the proper prayers. Many clerics of Zon-Kuthon seek power without responsibility and aren't particularly zealous. In other words, being a priest is a secondary calling to them, leaving them most of their time to focus on their obsessions with conquest, wealth, magical power, and so on.
He's one of the few deities I've seen where it's like "yeah, a lot of clerics just play lip service to him and do their own thing and he doesn't care"