Hi there, I am going to need a little help here and I’m talking straight rules not house rules.
I will be introducing a 9th level lawful evil Halfling cleric into a group, I was planning on playing a cleric who is a necromancer and specializes in raising the dead. Instant army. My GM’s head almost exploded. I do NOT want to overpower the game so I want to know what the limits are. The character was an escaped slave from Cheliax he wants to go back and free his people, even if he has to raise his own army to do it.
My questions will be:
1) The number of undead I can raise and control.
2) The HD is there a limit per created undead?
3) The Range or effect from Desecrate.
I’ll list the 5 feats I am taking in level order and the spells from the book so you can see my math.
1st: Spell Focus: Necromancy prereq for Undead Master
2nd: Command Undead (You can control any number of undead, so long
as their total Hit Dice do not exceed your cleric level.)
3rd: Undead Master (When you cast animate dead or use the
Command Undead feat, you are considered to be four
levels higher when determining the number of Hit
Dice you animate.)
4th: Create Magical Arms and Armor prereq for Reliquary Arms
5th: Create Reliquary Arms and Armor (When you craft a magic weapon, magic armor,or magic shield, you may add one casting of consecrate or
desecrate as part of the item crafting process. The item
becomes a reliquary and can be used as a holy (or unholy)
symbol divine focus of your deity. If you cast consecrate or
desecrate, your reliquary counts as a permanent fixture for
that spell while it remains in the spell’s area.)
Onto the Spells:
Animate Dead:
Targets one or more corpses touched
Duration instantaneous
Regardless of the type of undead you create with this spell, you
can’t create more HD of undead than twice your caster level with a
single casting of animate dead. The desecrate spell doubles this limit.
The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely.
No matter how many times you use this spell, however, you can
control only 4 HD worth of undead creatures per caster level. If you
exceed this number, all the newly created creatures fall under your
control, and any excess undead from previous castings become
uncontrolled. You choose which creatures are released. Undead you
control through the Command Undead feat do not count toward
this limit.
Desecrate:
Area 20-ft.-radius emanation
If the desecrated area contains an altar, shrine, or other
permanent fixture dedicated to your deity or aligned higher power,
the modifiers given above are doubled (+6 profane bonus to
negative channeled energy DCs, +2 profane bonus and +2 hit points
per HD for undead created in the area).
Furthermore, anyone who casts animate dead within this area
may create as many as double the normal amount of undead (that is,
4 HD per caster level rather than 2 HD per caster level).
So number and control question:
Level 9 (Undead Master) now effectively level 13 raise double level HD = 26 HD. (desecrate) times 4 cleric level= 52 HD. I can raise up to 52 HD of undead…skeletons and/or zombies.
(Command Undead) plus (undead Master) 13 HD additional control and I can control up to 65 HD worth of undead.
Is this correct?
Raising undead question: 52 HD does this mean I can create ONE 52 HD skeleton/zombie? Is there an upper limit on how many HD one skeleton or zombie has? I think I know the answer and it is based off of the corpses racial HD. A human corpse has 1 HD. Right? Whereas a Shoggoth’s corpse would be 23 HD? A Bloody Burning Human Skeleton would be 4 HD?
Range or effect from Desecrate question: Desecrate has a range of 20 foot radius. It allows me to create double to amount of Undead (HD wise) because animate Dead allows me to only create one or two undead (Targets one or more corpses touched Duration instantaneous) Or does this mean I can create 1,2, 3 or 4 undead within the area?
The other question about Desecrate with Reliquary Arms…the bonuses from the created undead (+6 profane bonus to negative channeled energy DCs, +2 profane bonus and +2 hit points per HD for undead created in the area) does that only apply as long as they stay within the 20 foot radius?
Does the 52 HD level I can control only apply to the undead within the 20 foot radius of the spell as well? If they level the 20 foot radius of the spell do I lose control of them? Cause on one hand it might seem over-powered, but on the other hand it would be next to useless if you wanted to create an army of 52 skeletons.
Thank any and all who take the time to help me figure this out.
From the bottom of a small heart filled with revenge.
