Spacepup's page

I'm going to try to run a Kingmaker campaign for my wife and me. It's just the two of us, and she's a big fan of H.P. Lovecraft and other assorted stuff. I don't normally do 3PP stuff, but when she saw the Old Gods mystery for the Oracle she got so excited about it I had to let her do it.

I'm looking to add more Dark Tapestry/Cthulhu Mythos kind of stuff into the campaign. I was planning on inserting the Carrion Hill module sometime during RRR starting as trying to secure a source of Middenstone for the fledgling kingdom, or something along those lines.

I figure Nyrissa was looking a bit too far afield and towards the stars when she was looking for help to return from exile and regain her position, and a least some of her madness is from contact with beings from the dark tapestry. I was thinking of making Ilthuliak a Void Dragon, swapping the enraged giant owlbear with a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath, and other simple swaps like that.

I want to do a little more than just swapping out monsters, so does anyone have any ideas for making Kingmaker just a little bit more.... 'Wrong'?

I really like the Dread Necromancer from 3.5's Heroes of Horror, it's been one of my favorite classes for a long time, though I haven't actually gotten to play one before (story of my gaming life). I figured I'd try to work up something for Pathfinder, since that seems to be what I'm playing around here.

I'm trying to do something more original than just a conversion of the original, but retaining the basic pieces of the class that made it my favorite in the first place. Any help or criticism is more than welcome, considering I've never done anything like this.

Basic design goals: In descending order of importance to the class, Hordes of Undead Minions, powerful but very focused spellcasting, and moderate combat abilities for the first handful of levels.

On the Subject of Undead Hordes:
• When you aquire Animate dead, the pool you can control is expanded to (HD x 4) + (HD x CHA modifier), like the undead mastery of the Dread Necromancer.
• I'm debating whether I should give my class a straight-up bonus to undead animated by the Necromancer like the Dread Necromancer does, work up some Corpsecrafting-esque feats that are given as free feats every few levels, or some kind of combination of both. Giving the choice of free feats every few levels would help what I see as a little lack of new things in the Dread Necromancer class at high levels.

On the Subject of Powerful but Focused Spellcasting:
• The Dread Necromancer had a very focused spell list, almost entirely Necromancy spells, and even the Advanced Learning ability that let the Dread Necro add Wizard or Cleric spells only allowed more necromancy spells. The Dread Necro is a full 9 level class, but I'm wondering if maybe a 2/3rds spellcasting class is more appropriate, most of the Undead-related spells are level 6 or lower, at least on the Cleric spell lists. I think maybe adding Lesser Animate Dead at 2nd level or getting Animate Dead at 3rd level like a cleric instead of 4th like a wizard would make sure the class doesn't get the ability to build it's undead hordes any later than the Dread Necro already does.
• Some of the suggestions on old topics about converting the Dread Necromancer had an idea of the Advanced learning skill allowing you to learn any cleric or wizard spell at a spell level higher than normal. I was also thinking, if moving to a 2/3rd casting class, allowing the 7-9th level necromancy spells as once/day spell-like abilities, or casting having them take up 2 6th level spell slots.

On the Subject of Moderate Combat Abilities:
• A big thing I'm thinking of is whether to stick with a d6 HD and slow BAB progression, or to bump it up to Medium BAB/HD. If I went to Medium BAB I think I would restrict spellcasting to a 2/3rds spellcasting like the Magus, though I wonder if staying with an almost totally-necromancer 9-level spell list is enough of a drawback for a medium BAB spellcasting class.
• Some kind of at-will or maybe CHA mod + 3 times a day touch attack of negative energy, like the Dread Necro's Charnel Touch, that is useful as damage at early levels but becomes a way to keep your undead minions topped up on health later on.

Miscellaneous:
• Proficiencies? Light armor and Simple weapons? I swear I thought of 1 martial weapon proficiency totally on my own before realizing that's what the Dread Necromancer also does. I'm trying to create something partially original, but it's really hard guys!

I'll post more as I work it out, but right now I think I'm supposed to be cleaning up the apartment before I go to work so my wife doesn't have to do it all herself when she gets home from work before my mom comes for a visit tomorrow.

Any ideas/tips/criticisms are welcome, if anyone can wade through my walls of text.

I'm going to be running some of the Kingmaker AP for my wife over the next few weeks, and it looks like it'll just be me and her. She's playing a Half-Orc CN cockatrice cavalier that will probably step up to become the ruler, and I was going to run a changeling Gravewalker Witch as a healer/advisor (also because GMing is the closest I get to playing pathfinder around here.)

I chose witch because it was a arcane caster (which I love), could be a necromancer (which I also love), and has healing spells (with how my wife has before almost exclusively played dumb barbarians will be very necessary).

I'm basically using the Witch to complement her Cavalier until she can start gathering some NPCs from the AP. I'm also using it to get familiar with mechanics I enjoy (Arcane casting, necromancy), because we don't get very many chances to play pathfinder all that often.

I was just wondering if anyone had advice for playing necromancers or witches. I've read a lot of guidebooks and forum threads, but I don't have a lot of actual experience. I did notice that the Gravewalker's Possess Undead power looked like a shortcut to the 'Magic Jar + Hat of Diguise' hide your undead minions tricks.