For a custom setting I've been pondering how to make orcs cooperate. The answer I've come up with is to splash them with a bit of social-insect-like communication, which leaves them appearing to be simple brutes to everyone else, but capable of coordinated behavior despite low intelligence. Just fishing for some feedback.
Added abilities: Wuug? (ex) - Once per day after failing a skill check or seeing another orc die in battle, an orc may use Wuug? as a move action to emit distress pheromones. For skill checks this grants a cumulative +1 racial bonus to other orcs and half-orcs attempting the same check within one minute, though half-orcs do not add to the bonus for their attempt. For battle situations, after at least six orcs within 50 feet of each other have used Wuug? and at least one orc has died, one orc within this area gains the advanced template for the next 24 hours. If all orcs are the same level, the orc is chosen at random, otherwise it is added to the orc with the highest class level.
New feat:
Wuug is in my blood
Prerequisites: Half-orc
Benefit: You gain full use of Wuug? (ex), in addition, when using Wuug? for skill checks you may forgo adding to the current bonus should you fail to instead roll again taking the second result, even if it is worse.
Normal: You can neither start a Wuug?, add to the racial bonus, nor gain the advanced template from it
Right, so we played a mythic game. My wizard character hit 20 and can grant spells now. We started a new game.
Pondering how/why the wizard would just give out spells, it often occurred to me that she wouldn't as she doesn't have a particularly high opinion of CHA based casters and feels that most WIS based casters have cheated their way into power. After all, she studied and learned how to do it herself, meanwhile the other two stats are either making it up as they go or serving something else. She'd be more inclined to work with someone who was already working on their own who had similar goals.
Requirements:
Alignment - Any Lawful
Int based arcane spell casting class - 3 levels
Features:
Changes casting stat for cleric to INT
Cleric spells must now be recorded in a prayer book like wizard spells and are learned the same way
That's literally it. Fluff-wise, wizard-deity-thing seeks out other wizards (or witch or magus, but less likely) and unlocks access to divine power, but they still have to figure it out on their own.
If you haven't guessed, this is entirely a setup to go into mystic theurge at level 7. One of the guys at my table is taking extreme issue with the spell casting class requirement calling it a violation of both rules as written and intended... and while I haven't seen any rules about homebrew archetypes anywhere, he has at least pointed out that other archetypes don't have class requirements, prestige classes do. I personally find that argument silly, as I'm the one writing what my old character's religion works to accomplish and how they would go about it. If you want int based divine casting with full progression on it, prove you can manage to keep arcane power under control first.
I don't see the problem. Despite this, I will at least post here and ask if anyone has a better idea on how to express the wizard's intentions toward followers. Int for divine spells, but prove you're capable before you're given access to any of it. That's the general idea.
Right, so my group is playing the kingmaker campaign. My character is a black kobold that overthrew chief sootscale in the first book. We've been treating the kobolds as a vassal state. They've grown and developed their territory thanks to the peace agreement with the humans.
As we approach the start of the mass combat, I brushed up on the rules and discovered that kobolds, while generally weak and not a threat to parties, they have qualities that make them surprisingly good at mass combat.
Racial -1 penalty to CR as long as they have npc class levels.
This sounds like a drawback, but it isn't. It shifts the numbers in such a way that more kobolds can take the field in an encouter for the same XP value. In mass combat, it means you can give them an extra class level (compared to a human army of the same size).
What good does this do? The humans raise an army of 200 level 2 warriors (ACR 2, 11hp, OM +2 DV 12). The kobolds raise an army of 200 level 3 warriors (also (ACR 2, 11hp, OM +2 DV 12). The kobolds have an extra feat to play with because they are level 3. Pay the feat tax at level 1 and get Draconic Aspect. At level 3, Take either Draconic Breath (Better for Black kobolds than Draconic Magic at level 3) or Draconic Magic (Can be better with any other color depending on your preferences). Draconic Breath adds a breath weapon, which allows the army to attack during ranged attack phases and deal an extra 1d4 damage during both ranged and melee phases. Draconic Magic adds +2 to both OM and DV and allows armies to attack during the ranged phase (except black kobolds, their racial spells are both touch range).
So instead of two equal strength armies, you've got
Human Warriors 11hp, OM +2, DV 12
vs either
Kobold Breath Warriors 11hp, OM +2 DV 12 +1d4 damage
(Can make ranged attacks)
or
Kobold Magic Warriors 11hp, OM +4 DV 14
(Can make ranged attacks, if not black)
Kobolds statistically win this. Even daytime engagements where the kobolds are at a -1 penalty to fighting, nevermind attacking at night where the humans have a larger penalty. Kobolds pay the same price, but have a better army.
That said, I've been looking around for other feats that could boost an army, but haven't had much luck. Most seem to require a specific race to function (like fetid breath for ogres, or enhanced gnome magic for gnomes), a one exception I've found has been Accursed, as it grants SR, it gives +6 DV vs spellcasting armies.
There are a crap ton of feats and I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for mass combat. Preferably more generic feats that would work with any army.
Prerequisites: Spellcaster with familiar class feature.
Benefit: You can transfer a prepared spell to your familiar, allowing the familiar to cast that spell at a later time. Variables that rely on caster level function according to your caster level, not your familiar’s Hit Dice, though your familiar’s Intelligence may influence how precisely it can follow your instructions on how to use these spells.
Your familiar must be able to speak to cast spells with a verbal component (the ability to speak with its master or creatures of its kind is insufficient). Your familiar must be carrying any material or focus components necessary, unless the materials cost less than 1 gp and the spell is prepared with Eschew Materials. Attack rolls use your familiar’s ability scores. A familiar spell counts against the number of spells you may prepare for as long as your familiar retains the spell. Once your familiar casts a retained spell, you can prepare a new spell in that slot the next time you prepare spells.
A familiar spell uses up a spell slot 3 levels higher than the spell’s actual level. Your familiar can store a number of spell levels (including this modifier) equal to your caster level, but no spell’s adjusted level can exceed half your caster level.
Special: If you are a spontaneous caster, you must select a specific spell with which to imbue your familiar; you cannot imbue your familiar with an open spell slot.
the familiar can hold 13 levels of wizard spells, and 17 levels of druid spells, for a total of 30 spell levels.
So, I went through and looked at all the class/race/feat options that I could find for giving kobolds a breath weapon. Most of them are awful. For references, these are the ones I could find:
Spoiler:
Dragonbreath Kobold
Type: Racial Ability
Uses: 2x daily, MOVE ACTION
Damage: 1d8
Save: 10+Con Mod+Racial HD (see zero)
Thoughts: Amazing at early levels, pretty useless after about level 3 or 4.
Draconic Aspect: Dragon Breath
Type: Feat, Taxed first
Uses: 1x daily, standard action
Damage: 2d6
Save: 10+Con Mod+Character level
Thoughts: If you give up your hero points to get it at level one with the previous 1d8 breath attack, you'll be the most terrifying level one kobold ever... but this feat chain does not advance well. Pay another feat at level 10 to get two more d6 of damage and an extra use. Yawn.
Breath Weapon: Dragon Bloodline
Type: Class ability or Feat (via Eldritch Heritage)
Uses: 2-4 uses daily, standard action.
Damage: (Sorcerer Level)d6
Save: 10+Cha Mod+Sorcerer Level
Thoughts: This is the one good breath attack for PC's. This amounts a repackaged fireball.
Dragonbreath: Dragon Subdomain
Type: Clerical Domain
Uses: 1-3 daily, standard action
Damage: (Cleric Level/2)+1 d6
Save: 10+Wis Mod+(Cleric Level/2)
Thoughts: This one is not that bad. The damage at least scales. It's still bad because by the time you get it at 4th level (or 6th for arcane hunter), 3d6 damage is easily outscaled by spells.
Breath Weapon Bomb
Type: Alchemical Discovery
Uses: Alchemist Level + Int Mod
Damage: (Alchemist Level/2 ROUND UP)+1d6+Int Mod
Save: 10+Int Mod+(Alchemist Level/2)
Thoughts: This is probably the second best breath weapon available to PC's. It scales slightly better than the clerical domain, and has a bunch more uses.
Various Form of the Dragon ablities
Type: Spell like ability, Dragon Disciple, Draconic Druid, and Wyrm Singer Skald
Uses: 1 per 1d4 rounds
Damage 6d8 or 8d8
Save: 10+Casting Stat Mod+(6 or 7)
Thoughts: This is pretty neat, the Draconic druid gets this at level 10 and 12. Makes for another way to get it besides dragon disciple. Great for destroying villages... except for skald not being able to use the breath weapon.
Sovereign Breath
Type: Spell like ability for Sovereign Blade
Uses: 1-3 daily
Damage (Samurai Level/2)d6 SONIC DAMAGE
Save: 10+Cha Mod+4
Thoughts: This one is a lot of fun once you take quicken spell like ability. Bust into a room, BLARG! STAB!
Breath Weapon: Wyrm Singer
Type: Class Feature
Uses: 1 daily
Damage: (Skald Level/2)d6
Save: 10+Cha Mod+(Skald Level/2)
Thoughts: Being able to grant this to an ally is pretty cool, but unless you're giving it to the wizard's familiar or something for a sneaky 6d6 blast cone out of nowhere, this one is pretty underwhelming by the time you get it... and it never progresses past once daily.
Ok, looking back through that, maybe they're not all awful, but they are largely underpowered, especially when looked at through the lens of action economy.
I present my thoughts on a feat to make breath weapons great again. Feel free to mock this openly, though helpful feedback would be appreciated.
Spoiler:
Kobold Breath Specialization
Prerequisites: Kobold, At least two qualifying breath attacks
You lose all other breath attacks from any non-item/non-spell source and lose any new ones gained other than from this feat. Breath attacks gained from items (other than alchemist bombs) or spells spells do not count for the purposes of this feat and work normally. Breath attacks gained via spell like abilities only count if they directly generate the breath attack, not via transformation effects such as Form of the Dragon.
Combine the total uses per day of all breath attacks you previously possessed and any new ones gained (For alchemists with the Breath Weapon Bomb discovery, decide on a number of bombs to give up, you lose those permanently. This goes for any other class with a pool of resources to draw from which can produce a breath attack, such as a Scaled Fist Monk loses some ki permanently). You gain a new breath attack with this many uses per day as a supernatural ability. Choose an element Fire, Acid, Lightning, or Cold, your breath attack does this damage type. Choose either line or cone, your breath attack is this shape. These choices cannot be changed later. Special: Sovereign Blades may choose Sonic for their element, even if they do not yet qualify for their Sovereign Breath ability, but must take cone for their shape.
You may use this attack as a standard action every 1d4 rounds, up to your total uses per day. Special: If you are a dragonbreath kobold, you may expend two uses to use this ability as a move action. A Soveriegn Blade with Quickened Sovereign Breath may spend two uses to use this ability as a swift action.
The save DC for this new breath weapon is the save DC from the best breath weapon sacrificed. The breath weapon deals the same number of damage dice as the highest sacrificed breath weapon. Special: If you have the Draconic Paragon feat, add two dice to this number.
The size of your line or cone is the same size as the most powerful breath attack sacrificed.
If you sacrificed at least three breath attacks, you roll d8's for damage.
If you sacrificed at least four breath attacks, and for each breath attack after that, increase line distance by twenty, or cone width by 10, up to a maximum of 140-foot lines and 70-foot cones.
Abuse I can already see, level one Wyrm Chymist Dragonbreath Kobold has some amazing action economy, as does a level 11 Sovereign Blade with Improved Eldritch Heritage Feat... though I am not sure I want to call this broken without playtesting it.
Right, so Curse Terrain Supreme lets the caster create up to a CR 15 encounter using hazards that up to CR 14 each... but only up to 7 hazards can be included.
This pretty much pigeon holes the caster into using the CR 9+ hazards in order to maximize the effect of the spell.
Which basically means these:
Abyssal Geysers (CR 2+)
Apocalypse Fog (CR 12)
Bottomless Pit (CR 9)
Claws of Frozen Rage (CR 10)
And then with however many hazards are left after stacking those how you want, fill in the gaps with other hazards.
Why not one huge field of bone (CR 6) that is 24 fields rolled into one generating 24d6 worth of skeletons (not under caster control) per turn? It's a CR 15 encounter, and even though the skeletons aren't a real threat to the players, they do have to spend resources squashing them, and you could always do this while the party is on an escort mission. The skeletons might not be a threat to the players, but they might be a threat to the escort.
I realize this technically can be fixed with a simple "The GM says so" ... but I like working with the established rules on how things work with only minimal use of "I'm god, stfu."
Is there a mechanical or fluff reason that I've missed on why there is a limit of seven hazards?
So, I'm trying to build a horrible (see awesome) poison based magus.
So I gave him a +1 Toxic Virulent longsword.
Spoiler:
Toxic: Weapons with the toxic special ability reinforce the effects of applied poisons. The save DC of a poison applied to the weapon and delivered via an attack increases by 2. In addition, each time such a weapon strikes a target, there is a 25% chance that the poison dose is not expended in the attack and can be used to make an additional attack. A single dose of poison can be preserved by this property only once.
Virulent: A virulent weapon magically intensifies any poison it delivers. The saving throw DC of any poison applied to either a virulent weapon or any ammunition fired from it increases by a number equal to the weapon’s enhancement bonus. The duration of the poison increases by a number of rounds equal to the virulent weapon’s enhancement bonus.
(emphasis mine)
I also gave took spell blending to get Toxic Gift.
Spoiler:
Toxic Gift
School necromancy [poison]; Level antipaladin 2, sorcerer/wizard 3
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
EFFECT
Range touch
Target living creature touched
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Fortitude negates (see text); Spell Resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
You can cast this spell only if you are currently poisoned. You draw upon the poison in your body and duplicate its effects in the target, which is affected by the same poison you are, except it uses this spell’s DC instead of the poison’s normal DC. If you are affected by more than one poison, you must choose one to afflict upon the target.
And spellstrike...
Spoiler:
At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of “touch” from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon’s critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.
All together for the question now, does the weapon boost the save dc of the spell? It is technically delivering poison since the spell has the poison descriptor, and the end result of the spell is poisoning someone. I'm trying to play a guy that chugs a rough poison at the start of a fight, wades in casting toxic gift and stabbing people. Having a sword that helps with that seems like the way to go.
I've thought up a way to turn animate dead into a snall scale tac-nuke.
Kill a bunch of rats or other tiny creatures.
Put them all into a pile.
Cast animate dead with reach metamagic added to it.
Raise one rat as a burning skeleton, raise the rest as exploding skeletons.
If you have a desecrate effect going, you can raise twice your caster level of single-template skeletons, which if you're an agent of the grave with the undead master feat, we're talking at level 10, effective caster level 19 on animate dead, so 38d6 damage with a crapton of saves for half.
My question is, since the spell doesn't say you cannot, can you put different templates on creatures you raise in a single casting of the spell?
According to hero lab, this nets 17 attacks with shurikens in a single round.
As I understand this, it should be 8 attacks total.
1 at highest bonus normally
3 at highest bonus from Rapid Shot and Flurry of Stars
3 more at +6 from the off-hands
1 one more from the main hand
Am I right or do rapid shot and flurry of stars modify the off hand weapons as well? Greater invisibility turning all these into sneak attacks gets ugly quick.
Right, so my party killed a Vrock at the end of our last session. I'm a necromancer and wish to raise it as a Mudra Skeleton, the question is the extra claws, how much damage do they do?
Normally Vrock's get 2d6 for claw damage.
Mudra template give it two extra arms with claw attacks.
Do the extra arms have claws standard for a large creature (1d6), or are they the same size as the claws on it's original hands (2d6)?
This really isn't a rules question, more of a "Are all of the rules for this spell condensed to one place anywhere on the internet?"
I was talking with my gaming group and discussing my plans to go all Night King on our antagonist.
We got to talking about making GoT style wights and I was pitching raising bloody zombies and just sweet talking the GM into letting me add the cold template to them for 8x cost, and somebody else pointed me to the frostfallen template which actually includes rules for use with animate dead. So... instead I can raise a bloody frostfallen creature for 4x cost... which functions pretty much exactly like GoT wights.
I'd never heard of this before.
So, I'm really just looking for a list with all the templates that can be raised with just animate dead.
This isn't exactly a homebrew, it's more taking a couple of existing prestige classes (one Paizo, one 3pp) and throwing them into a blender. Basically, this is Agent of the Grave minus the preparing for the character's undeath, plus the non-plague or feast related bits of Lord of the Dead. I've also changed the alignment restriction from Any Evil to Any Non-good so as to exclude white necromancers. Posting here to see what other people think.
Grave Shephered
Requirements: Alignment: Any non-good
Must be able to animate dead without the aid of items, either via a spawn ability or by casting animate dead or a similar spell.
1st +0 BAB +1 FORT +0 REF +1 WILL
Inspired necromancy, lich’s touch, unholy fortitude
—
2nd +1 BAB +1 FORT +1 REF +1 WILL
Undead manipulator
+1 level of existing class
3rd +1 BAB +2 FORT +1 REF +2 WILL
Negative energy conduit
+1 level of existing class
4th +1 BAB +2 FORT +1 REF +2 WILL
Spawn mastery, Negative Energy Affinity
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
5th +2 BAB +3 FORT +2 REF +3 WILL
Cheat death, Secrets of Death
+1 level of existing spellcasting class
Inspired necromancy (Ex)
When determining the maximum number of Hit Dice of undead he can control with spells like animate dead, a character counts his Grave Shepherd levels twice. This ability does not factor into how many undead he can create with a single casting of a spell. Thus, a cleric 7/Grave Shepherd 3 would be able to control 52 Hit Dice worth of undead with animate dead.
Lich’s touch (Su)
At 1st level, the Grave Shepherd becomes a conduit for negative energy and the chill powers of death, allowing him to make a melee touch attack dealing 1d6 points of damage from negative energy per level of the Grave Shepherd class he attains. This ability allows him to heal undead minions, and himself upon attaining Negative Energy Affinity at 4h level. He can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma bonus.
Unholy Fortitude (Su)
At 1st level, the Grave Shepherd can tap into his conviction and bolster his health. Starting with the hit points he rolls for gaining his first Grave Shepherd level and every time he gains a level in any class thereafter, the character may choose to add either his Constitution bonus or his Charisma bonus to the number of new hit points he gains for that level.
Undead manipulator (Ex)
At 2nd level, the Grave Shepherd gains great insight into the minds and necromantic forces controlling undead creatures. A Grave Shepherd’s spells and spell-like abilities with mind-affecting effects treat undead creatures as their original type. Thus, an Grave Shepherd can use charm person against a humanoid zombie or confusion against a horde of skeletal champions.
Negative energy conduit (Ex)
At 3rd level, a Grave Shepherd bolsters undead around him. As a standard action, an Grave Shepherd manifests an aura identical to the desecrate spell, except this foul aura has a duration of 10 minutes per level. An Grave Shepherd can use this ability once per day. In addition, any undead the Grave Shepherd creates is treated as having been created within the area of a desecrate spell.
Spawn mastery (Su)
At 4th level, whenever a Grave Shepherd would create a free-willed undead, that undead is instead under the Grave Shepherd’s control. A Grave Shepherd can control up to 4 HD of undead per Grave Shepherd level in this manner. Excess undead are free-willed unless previously controlled undead are released.
Negative Energy Affinity (Ex)
At 4th level, the Grave Shepherd, while still technically alive, is healed by negative energy and harmed by positive energy, as if it were an undead creature. If the Grave Shephered is already undead, this ability grants no additional benefit.
Cheat death (Ex)
At 5th level, if a Grave Shepherd is ever slain or destroyed, he rises as if affected by raise dead 1d4 hours after its death. This affects even destroyed undead, but not a creature that has been dismembered or had its body destroyed.
However, escape from death is fleeting. A creature restored in this manner will simply drop dead after 2d6 days, unless otherwise restored to full life. The GM should roll this secretly, so the Grave Shepherd does not know how much time remains. A raise dead or similar spell will restore a living creature to life. Undead creatures, such as a lich, can replace a destroyed phylactery. As most undead cannot be restored to life (or unlife), they will be destroyed when the effect ends.
Secrets of Death (Ex)
At 5th level, an Grave Shepherd gains new insights into the dark arts of necromancy. At the time he gains this ability, the character may add a number of necromancy spells that are not normally a part of his class’s spell list to his spell list. The number of spells that the character may add is equal to his Intelligence modifier. For example, an Grave Shephered with levels of wizard might choose to add spells like death watch, inflict critical wounds, and slay living to his spell list, while an Grave Shepherd with levels of cleric might choose to add spells such as enervation, magic jar, and vampiric touch. An Grave Shepherd may choose to add spells he cannot yet cast—this does not allow the Agent of the Grave to cast spells of a higher level than he normally could, but rather merely grants him access to those spells when he reaches the level required to cast them.
I don't remember where, but I'd have sworn I saw a class description for an agent of the grave that was from a third party publisher. I might be horribly mis-remembering, but I can't find the class description.
Am I losing my mind or is there another Agent of the Grave write up that doesn't push the character toward becoming an undead creature?
Let's just say my DM has signed off on a Neutrally aligned undead cleric. We've run into the snag of what happens when he tries to channel positive energy to heal other people? As I understand the RAW, if he targets the living, he's fine. If he targets undead, he risks crispy crittering himself.
Right, so it's been a decade or so since I played 3.5 and this is my group's first pathfinder campaign. I'm trying to make an enchanted item and my comprehension of the rules could use a nudge.
Basically I need a non-wand item that gives me a 5xday spell. I know this can be done more easily with a wand, but I am stuck having to make it a non-wand.
Non-wands use either command word or continuous effect, since I don't want a continuous effect, the formula is:
Spell Level (2) x Caster Level (3) x 1800
Since it is a charged item, I get the 1/2 discount for it having a limit. So...
10800 x 0.5
It is 5xday, so no further discount there.
I am making the item myself, so another 1/2 discount.
5400 x 0.5
I am also putting a class restriction on the item
2700 x 0.7
Assuming I'm right, the ring would end up costing me 1,890 gold to make. Right?
I'm just trying to figure out what the trade off is for this.
No one else can use the powers on your bonded item.
It loses any enchantments you put on it if you die.
If you get another bonded item, the first one loses the enchantments.
I was going to enchant a ring with create undead so that if I died, I would come back, angry get some revenge on whatever killed me... except for death erasing the ring. >=/ I'm still going to do this, except now I have to use my other ring slot and I have to pick some kind of undead thing that isn't a spellcaster since the undead me would lose the bonded item immediately.
In any case, what's the deal with this? Where is the incentive to enchant the bonded item aside from the self repairing. That's okay on a staff or a wand, but baubles and rings? Not so much. Not once in 20+ years of tabletop gaming has an npc ever tried making a called shot to a ring.
I've seen a few posts both here and on other websites advocating various builds for necromancer, generally advocating cleric or oracle of bones as the two best choices.
These same threads also tend to steer newcomers away from wizard necromancer and undead sorcerer builds.
Gravewalker witch tends to fall somewhere in the middle.
I've been scouring the rules, and unless I'm missing something all of the above is bad advice. Single classed, a necromancer wizard or an undead sorcerer are quite a bit weaker than a single class cleric. Necromancer wizard with a single level in undead sorcerer outscales the clerics at mid-high levels. The only real drawback is a slower start.
At character level 8
A single class cleric has the following pools:
32 HD for animate dead's HD pool
8 HD for command undead feat
x HD in whatever held by command undead spell
A wizard 7 / sorcerer 1 has the following pools:
28 HD for animate dead's HD pool
7 HD for command undead feat
x HD in whatever is held by command undead spell
**y HD in whatever is held by the Dominate Person**
The level 1 class perk for undead bloodline sorcerer applies to all spells that character casts. Which means a level of this, plus a wizard that can cast dominate person There isn't a cleric domain that grants dominate person.
Now, in addition to having an entirely new pool to play with and store minions, reading the spell description for dominate person, it looks like the perfect place to store intelligent undead. There are no daily saves, no charisma checks, and no HD pools to worry about. I would never use Create Undead with any single class necromancer, the spell becomes much more appealing with a necromancer wizard undead sorcerer. Dominate Person is also 2 harder to resist than command undead. Drop a Heighten Spell metamagic on this and you have a spell that can completely wreck a lich way better than control undead.
Also, unlike clerics, wizards have access to Magic Jar. The advantage here is pretty obvious, especially if you have a totally slick minion to posses like a dragon zombie (See dracolich as far as anyone knows :D ).
The only real drawback here (aside from having to suffer at low levels) is that a wizard sorcerer cannot cast desecrate. That's solved readily enough with points spent on Use Magic Device, which happens to be a sorcerer class skill, and buying a wand of desecrate.
Have I missed a rule somewhere or does anyone have a better build?
