Evil Cleric / Necromancer game breaker

[Locksathy]

A Evil or Neutral Cleric/Necromancer can control 8HD of undead
as early as 2nd lvl!!

-Channel Negative Energy p60 says a cleric can command
any number of undead whose total HD do not exceed his lvl.

-P68 says a Necromancer specialist can control 8HD of
undead per caster lvl.

So a cleric1/necromancer1 could use several channel negative
energy burst until he gets is max 8HD of undeads for being
caster lvl 1 of necromancer.

Kick ass!!... or broken... you decide.

Please clarify if this is legal. It could be a possible
game braker.

[Squirrelloid]

Locksathy wrote:

A Evil or Neutral Cleric/Necromancer can control 8HD of undead

as early as 2nd lvl!!

-Channel Negative Energy p60 says a cleric can command
any number of undead whose total HD do not exceed his lvl.

-P68 says a Necromancer specialist can control 8HD of
undead per caster lvl.

So a cleric1/necromancer1 could use several channel negative
energy burst until he gets is max 8HD of undeads for being
caster lvl 1 of necromancer.

Kick ass!!... or broken... you decide.

Please clarify if this is legal. It could be a possible
game braker.

What are you going to do with the 1 or 2 HD skeletons or zombies you can actually acquire though? Run them into traps? Summon Monster can do that. Its a small buff to combat performance, but its not *that* large - human skeletons aren't very good. Skeletons are good, don't get me wrong, but not at 2nd level. They have a truly sweet spot from 5th to 9th level, and are pretty good from 4th-12th level, with plausible use up through 15th level. Past that point mindless undead minions have specialist uses, but no real general utility.

[Rhishisikk]

Plus you're forgetting that slain undead can't be brought 'back from the brink' the way the positive energy cleric can do to his allies - while smacking down on yours.

[Jason C Scott]

You have to encounter these undead and successfully command them, not really that easy at second level. I have to also agree that they are not terribly useful. I do not feel that the ability is worth being a level behind on spellcasting in either class.

Retaining them in your service for any reasonable length of time may create some interesting challenges. What effect does retaining a number of undead have on the area? Do they actually emit negative energy? Over a long time what effect would that have on an area? Would this attract other undead? Are there legal and or moral complications if they are discovered?

[Set]

Even at lower levels, the best use I've found for unmodified skeletons is having them use Aid Other to add to an evil acolytes AC or something.

Plus they make handy 'Nodwicks.'

[Jason C Scott]

I have to agree with that. The leave on valuables behind approach to dungeon delving is helped out quite a bit by a mule team of skellitons. I had a lot of fun pulling out all of the elaborate furnishings etc from return to the temple of elemental evil. Those cultists sure knew how to live.

[poodle]

henchmen who are immune to charming, fear (unless turned) mind-affecting spells, disease and poison with improved iniative(for skeletons) and half damage from edged weapons, piercing weapons and critical hits seems potentially useful to me or am I missing something here?

Also there seems to be no reason why zombies or skeletons can't try to dogpile the enemy. 4 skeletons vs a human fighter have to be in with a chance especially with the way cmb works. Give them 2 handed reach weapons for some entertainment especially if you have a couple of ranks of them. Give some tower shields and the rest of the party can just hide behind them.

Failing this, have them use acid or flaming oil as a melee weapon. What do you care if your skeleton gets sizzled?

As previously mentioned tireless minions that don't need feeding or paying to carry your loot or just keep guard. How can that ever be bad?