dotseth's page

I run a ridiculous animate dead build based on pumping caster level. I have raised 400 effective HD in a single cast by applying mutliple templates that double the HD the undead count as.

1st level cleric follower with arcane domain to use Arcane beacon on you +1 cl arcane spells

Greater demiplane +2 cl necromancy

Prayer bead of karma +4 cl

Aether (drug) +1 caster level

Mage breath (trap) +2 cl

Orange prism slotted to wayfinder +2 cl

Death knell +1 cl

Deathwine +3 cl necro only

Candle of abbadon +2 cl evil only

Salt +1 cl necromancy only

Black blood of orv +1 cl necro only

Orb of foul abbadon +1 cl evil

Dhampir cruoromancer favored class bonus +1cl/4lvl(max 5)

Campaign trait outlander +1cl on 3 spells

Magic trait gifted adept +1 cl one spell

Varisian tattoo +1 cl one school

Spell specialization +2 cl one spell

Haruspicy +1 cl div and necro only

deific obedience urgathoa +1 cl necro

Undead master feat +4 cl animate dead

Spell perfection doubles all static bonuses from feats for one spell

Undead Revisited pg. 3 is listed as the source over on giant in the playground for the same information on the pfsrd. To get a skeletal champion you need Create undead spell with Caster level 11th minimum and an enervation or energy drain spell being used up in the process. There is also the requirement of having more caster levels than the hd of the thing you create.

It doesn't seem to say anywhere I have seen that you can add the variant templates from the animate dead spell to the create undead or create greater undead spells, but when you put Bloody template on things they count as double hd. So if you wanted to raise a 10th level fighter as a bloody skeletal champion you would need caster level 20 and a tolerant dm outside of normal society play.

Since it would need to be a home game anyway at that point you should look into corpsecrafting and spell stitching them while you are at it.

Retry penalties are ONLY for failures, NOT for successes. The +5 dc increase retry penalty for Intimidate is only if you fail, NOT if you succeed.

Imagine it like when you fail to pick a lock and break the tool off inside it, or fail to move silently and have the guards alerted to possible intruders. If you tried to be scary but your voice cracked and you tripped over your cloak and fell in the mud, all your subsequent Intimidate checks would be harder.

When you animate dead you keep all the ones from the current cast no matter how many it is. Only the ones from prior castings go out of control. That is why raising the animate limit is important and raising the control limit is meaningless.

On a related note, Mystic theurge type shenanigans to get an arcane and divine control pool don't work because the spell doesn't care if you cast it from a different class or an item.