My brother is trying to create a Cleric/Blackguard and needs some help. His character is a neutral evil human devoted to Nerull. He's intenting to take his character up to level 25, which means 5 ranks in Blackguard (he doesn't see much point to the blackguard class beyond getting the fiendish servant) and 20 ranks in Cleric. He wants to make his character a thoroughly evil antipaladin commanding an undead army against the forces of good (think Army of Darkness). He basically wants a character that is decent at spellcasting but can also wade in melee when needed.
Abilities:
What should his abilities look like? We're using point buy 25 points. I know that WIS and CHA are his primary abilities, but I'm concerned that he won't have enough left over for a decent STR, CON, and especially INT. INT is especially tricky because Cleric skill points are very low from the get-go and getting 5 ranks in hide means sacrificing 10 skill points that would otherwise go to his class skills.
Feats:
Iirc, he'll get 8 non-epic feats and 2 epic feats by level 25. But he has to take cleave, imp sunder, and power attack, so that leaves 5 discretionary non-epic feats and 2 epic feats. Which feats should he take? Would the leadership feat be worth it?
Thanks for the help.
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Here's my initial observations:
Abilities:
CHA is going to be very important if he plans on leading undead armies because CHA is used in his rebuke undead checks. WIS is also very important as a divine caster so I would keep that high as well. Moderate STR and INT should be sufficient (between 10 and 14) and DEX won't matter much at all. CON could also afford to suffer since you've got some fairly big hit dice (d8s and d10s) and heavy armor with healing ability. Besides, it makes a good roleplaying point that the leader of the undead army is so close to the corruption he commands that it makes him physically unhealthy. You might even want to consider picking up an undead template at some time and take CON out of the equation entirely.
Feats:
This largely depends on what kind of 'neat tricks' he wants to have. Leadership would be a good choice but it does not pertain to undead so I would say 'no' unless he wants some living followers in addition to his undead minions (I suppose it COULD pertain to undead and get you a lich cohort or something). In order to control the undead, you'll be depending on spells and rebuking/commanding to keep them in line instead of a feat. I would recommend Necromatic Presence and Necromatic Might from Libris Mortis to give your army a big boost. The other three feats should probably be defensive in origin or Metamagic (Combat Casting, Augment Summoning, and Empower Spell would be my recommendations). I won't be much help on the epic feats because I don't do epic personally. Perhaps someone else here will have some insight on those.
Another idea, you can take the Corpsecrafter Feat Line, that way your undead can be stronger than traditional undead. Heck, I have played a necromancer (not clerical) that did, and his undead definetly were not pansies. I think Leadership would be great, but isn't there an Undead Leadership feat? Even if there isn't, perhaps you could adapt the Leadership feat to expess it in terms of undead.
However, if he is looking for a good old fashion whoop tail cleric. First, Wisdom and Charisma are very important, you will need at least a 19 Wisdom, and the higher the Charisma is the better of you will be. Now for the rest of the abilities. Dex is unimportant, you are a cleric, WEAR GOOD ARMOR! Con can be looked at either way, it could be a boon or not, but realistically, as Fatespinner pointed out, you can heal yourself so don't short change yourself in another ability. Int isn't going to be important at all. Yes it will grant you more skill points, but there is only 3 an undead commanding cleric needs (Knowledge (religion), Diplomacy (all leaders should have), and Concentration). That leaves strength. I feel as a kicker of butts, you should have a decent Str, but it can be third on the list of importance.
Spells. WOW, clerics have some GREAT enhancing spells to make them virtually tanks. Starting at 1st Level, you get spells like [bold]Shield of Faith[/bold] which gives bonus to AC and also [bold]Bless[/bold] that gives bonus to attack. Second level you have your ability modifiers [bold]Bulls Strength, Bear's Endurance, etc.[/bold]. They just keep coming. There is a combination, and without a book in front of me I can't remember them all, but you can stack bonus on top of bonus on you, making you as good as a fight, if not better. Some of these spells include [bold]Divine Favor and Divine Might[/bold]. I will try to get you more of the spells later.
Damn it! Paizo ate my long post! Argh!!!
To recap: Strength should be decent, but doesn't need to be too high. Clerics get amazing spells that can turn them into juggernauts if they have even a mediocre base array of abilities. Dexterity can go suck wax. Consitution; higher is always better, but it doesn't have to preempt another ability. I kind of like the thought of a Palpatine-like character, whithered but deceptively powerful. Intelligence is tricky because of the skills you need. Make it at least positive, then bite the bullet and realize that some of your skills will be substandard. This isn't as bad as it sounds, however, since in the end, even a substandard skill can do amazing things at 25th level. Wisdom needs to be high if you plan on slinging a lot of spell that require a save. If not, if you focus on spells that don't allow a save (typically buffing, healing, and defense), then you can shave a few points off this score and put them somwhere else. Charisma needs to be high for a leader of any army, dead or alive.
Feats. Divine Might and Shield (I think that's their names) from the Complete Warrior are good, and some of the stuff in Complete Divine is nice, but in truth, Libris Mortis is your friend. There is, indeed, Undead Leadership in that book, as well as a few items that stack with each other and increase the number of undead you can control through spells, such as animate dead. Combine rebuking, animating, and leadership, and you've got your army. If you can attract some other evil priests (perhaps undead ones granted by Undead Leadership), you can further increase the number of forces under your control.
Tomb-Tainted Soul allows you to be healed by negative energy, like an undead, which is great for evil priests who spontaneously cast inflict spells. Of course, positive energy then harms you, but that's the brakes.
Profane Lifeleech is almost a must. This allows the expenditure of two turn attempts in order to deal 1d6 damage to every living creature within 30 feet. All that damage comes back to you as healing. Essential for necro-style BBEGs! The Corpsecrafter feats are also a great line to look into, though you won't have room to take all of them.
Can't help you on Epic feats, sorry.
Happy eviling!
If you decide to go down this road, grab Extra Turning too. Trust me, it'll help a LOT.Divine Might and Shield...
...Profane Lifeleech is almost a must.
Definitely. I love Divine Might.
I've realized that leadership is probably a bad idea, Undead Leadership would suit the character much better. I'll have to look around for my libris mortis, it's been a long time since I've used it. But I found an interesting feat in the Eberron Campaign Setting called Undead Empathy, which let's you use Diplomacy checks on nonintelligent undead and gives a bonus to it with intelligent undead, but it'd probably work better with a character who can't rebuke undead.
For epic feats, I'm thinking Undead Mastery and Zone of Animation. And since ZoA uses turning attempts, it makes perfect sense to load up on turning attempts with Extra Turning.