Necromancer Specialist Wizard

[Shar Tahl]

How does a necromancy specialist wizard work out in actual game play? I was thinking of building one to try out and was not sure how to go feat wise and what schools to choose for opposition. Looking for suggestions and builds as examples to see how they look.

[Frostflame]

Its abit of tricky class to play remember he is not a blaster. His job is to weaken his enemies, animate the dead (non-good) and slay his enemies outright if he can. With that said as opposition schools I would make Enchantment and Divination. You wont be relying too much on enchantments and fortunately now an opposition spell isnt forbidden it takes two slots so you can memorize divinations or have scrolls on case by case basis. I dont adhere to this new philosophy that goes around saying evocation is the weakest school. So its good not to have as so you will undoubtedly need a fireball to blast some minions or regenerating monster. Moving on with starting feats if your playing human I would say take toughness and possibly Combat casting??? If your more of a risk taker you can forego Combat casting in favor of Improved Initiative or Perhaps Spell Focus(Necromancy). Be as it may if you dont take Spell Focus (Necromancy) at first get it at third. Your going to want your DCs as high as possible, most necromancy spells usually have a save or no effect. Anyway moving on as bonus fifth level you could choose from extend spell. I have always found this feat useful, or you could take Craft Wand. You want to get alot of really cool buff spells into a wand, and perhaps some combat spells as well. So What do you have in mind

[Shar Tahl]

Close to what I had initially. I hadn't thought too far ahead on feats yet. I had Enchantment and Abjuration as my opposition schools, but divination would give less to lose than Abjuration (many more protection spells now that I look at it). Increasing the DCs is always good with the focus.

I was wondering if keep charisma decent would be handy, with that ability to command or turn undead. My initial one, I dumped charisma and wisdom, but that made that turn/control DC much worse.

[Frostflame]

Since the ability is tied to Cha I would say have it decent if you can a 14 would be good. Later in your adventures you can augment it either with an Eagles Spelndor or If your lucky you can find a Headband of some sort that augments Charisma and Intelligence. You can afford to dump Wisdom if you choose. Strength and Wisdom can be your dump stats. Now its up to you how you will place your Dex Con and Cha. This will also reflect if it would be worth taking certain feats, for example If you have a 13 or even 14 dex you could leave off taking Improved Initiative for something else.

[MichaelJ82]

The Necromancy school has a lot of melee touch spells so unless you plan on casting Spectral Hand *all the time* you need a decent strength or Weapon Finesse.

[Madcap Storm King]

MichaelJ82 wrote:

The Necromancy school has a lot of melee touch spells so unless you plan on casting Spectral Hand *all the time* you need a decent strength or Weapon Finesse.

Wow, I never thought I'd see a class that actually worked with the awful Archmage... 30 foot ranged touch anyone?

[Father Dale]

Archmage Necromancers are sick. There were some very nasty higher level Necromancy touch spells that were too high level for spectral hand, and the Arcane Reach made them very deadly. (Think Empowered Night's Caress and a failed Fort save.)

Spectral Hand is indeed a very good spell to use often. And to have back ups on scroll.

Spell Focus is good for Necromancers. As is Empower for Ray of Enfeeblement and Enervations. Combat Casting is a requirement for any primary spellcaster.

With a Necromancer focus on imposing status conditions on the enemies, and let the rest of the party hack them down. (That doesn't mean to go around without any direct damage spells--a properly placed fireball can work wonders--just that its not your main concern.) The Necromancer has a great list of status condition spells to work with: Fear is a big one especially with a high DC, the Waves of Exhaustion/Fatigue spells are great, and of course theres the energy drain spells for the toughest guys. These all work very well with battlefield control spells such as you get with conjuration and transmutation.

[Sean FitzSimon]

I don't understand the mentality of ditching Enchantment for a Necromancer. Personally, I see Enchantment, Necromancy, and Transmutation as great ally schools. Necromancers deal primarily in life & death, with a minor focus on summoning/animating minions. It's a debuff school heavy on fort saves. Enchantment is heavy on will saves, which is pretty great when facing stuff immune to fear & high on Con. Transmutation is great for manipulating the battlefield and tossing out buffs. Also, enchantment helps LOADS when trying to get away with being an evil necromancer in the less evil parts of your world. Illusion, too. But those are just opinions.

As for schools to drop, I'd say go ahead and drop Divination. It's a nice school, but since there are few spells that are *MUST HAVE* for the average wizard (not the "Scry & die") it won't be too bad using 2 slots to memorize one of them. Past that, it depends on your party make-up. If you've got lots of melee support, go ahead and drop Evocation. Evocation doesn't suck as much as some people might say, but it's prime focus is laying out damaging spells and you'll struggle to make them worth it with allies crowding up your blasting zone. If you've got a cleric, drop Abjuration. Clerics get most of the important abjurations, and dispel magic sucks these days (greater is a different story). If creativity on the fly isn't your strong suit, ditching Illusion isn't a poor choice, but I'd never recommend it.

[Remco Sommeling]

dispel magic isn't capped by casterlevel at 10 anymore though, it isn't that bad.

I'd agree on dropping divination, nothing a few scrolls can't do for you. enchantment isn't as bad to drop, a few scrolls will do fine, the spells mostly aren't as level dependent as evocation.

[Gorbacz]

If you want to play an archetypical "arise, my undead minions" Necromancer, then your best bet is to use the Dread Necromancer class from Heroes of Horror.

[Shar Tahl]

I pretty much stick to PF RPG rules only.

here is what I came up with for a gnome wizard(Necromancer) level 10
(I know not optimal race, I like gnomes!)

STR: 11
DEX: 13 (+1 at 4)
CON: 16
INT: 17 (+1 at 8)
WIS: 7
CHA: 12

Feats:

L1:Toughness
L3:Spell Focus(Necromancy)
L5:Combat casting
Wiz5:Extend Spell
L7:Improved Familiar (Ooze Mephit)
L9:Defensive Combat Training
Wiz10:Enlarge Spell

[Frostflame]

The race is fine especially if you are going to be using illusion magic. The +1 to Dc gnomes get is pretty cool. Now you might want to get rid of Defensive Combat training. Your a wizard and gnome to boot you had better be somewhere well behind the lines. Three good replacements I can think of would be Spell Focus (illusion), Greater Spell Focus (necromancy), and maybe spell penetration. Now since you have taken combat casting I suggest making it your level one feat, and toughness your level three feat, and Spell Focus Necromancy as third. Personally since you are taking combat casting at fifth level I would say replace it with one of the three feats I mentioned above or another one. Enlarge Person??? Not a bad choice especially if you have lots f short ranged spells, but I would replace it with another metamagic feat, Empower is pretty decent at this level, or if you dont want empower, you could take a craft Item Feat. Craft Wand would be prety cool.

[james maissen]

Frostflame wrote:

Craft Wand would be prety cool.

If you can wait until 12th for it I personally think pathfinder staff rules are very worthwhile and are superior to wands.

Also they are wonderful things to have those opposition school spells stored in as then you won't pay double slots for them that way.

-James