One of my PCs is playing a gestalt True Necromancer/Cleric of Velsharoon in my AoW campaign, and is bent on the liberal use of commanding and spells such as Undead Lieutenant and Animate Dead to amass his own army of undead. He already has an impressive array of large and huge skeletons he acquired by purchasing dinosaur and ettin corpses off some less-than-ethical normal necromancers, and with a control cap of around 24 HD in each of his classes, he's making his dreams of a shuffling, rotting legion come quickly true.
However, how should I deal with his attempts to control any Spawns of Kyuss (they're right at the end of Blackwall Keep and will encounter their first Spawn next adventure)? I realize that these are somewhat unique, "plot-significant" undead creatures, so in your opinion would his controlling several of them be in any way detrimental to the whole over-arching theme of preventing the Age of Worms (and the subsequent creation of countless other Spawn)? Alignment-wise, the PC is Chaotic Neutral with strong good tendencies, and he practices what he calls "ethical necromancy" where he is determined to show the world that undead can be used as beneficial tools in the right hands. Of course, so far, he has only controlled non-intelligent undead, and will regardless become the target of several assassination attempts by the Church of Lathander in due time. Still, should I steer him away from trying to amass his own Kyuss-spawned army and instead stick with a host of wraiths, shadows, etc.?
I see nothing wrong with him attempting to control Kyuss spawn. Remember, most are intelligent and will resist being controlled.
I would steer him toward being a kind of undead expert like Filge was supposed to be for Balabar Smenk. Perhaps his understanding of Spawn of Kyuss is that they reproduce much too quickly to be anything but a danger, thereby ruining the reputations of "respectable" undead. If he can have remove disease spells cast on them they quickly become more useful regular zombies, so maybe that's a strategy he would want to adopt.
I see nothing really wrong here either. One must remember how they create spawn though which would only be desireable for a very evil necromancer. In my campaign I actually have an evil dread necro PC.
|
...they reproduce much too quickly to be anything but a danger, thereby ruining the reputations of "respectable" undead.
I think this is a critical factor- moral/ethical issues aside, I could see using these worm-spewing undead in combat as being very risky. Is he going to drag the spawn through the Free City? He's controlling the spawn, but is he controlling the worms? Is he going to infect innocents?