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I'm toying with the idea of running a zombie apocalypse-themed campaign and I'm looking for cool ideas. It seems like the various zombie templates available in PF will allow the game to scale well as the PCs advance...plus, I really like AMC's "The Walking Dead"! A few concepts I'm wanting to incorporate include:
1. The zombies are caused by a disease, not raised by an evil nemesis.
2. The zombie threat has caused a complete breakdown of civilization.
3. While big evil nasties did not cause the apocalypse, they are using the situation to their advantage.
Basically, I'm imagining that "The Walking Dead" and "The Road" had a baby, then "Fallout 3" and "Oblivion" had a baby, then those babies had a baby.
I'm open to suggestions...whaddya got, Pathfinder community?
What sort of power level are you looking at for the campaign? Do you want a game with a lot of magic or something a little more grim and gritty? How many players do you think/know you are going to have?
Figure out some way to deal with channel energy. Otherwise, clerics and paladins will own.
Grim and gritty...low magic items. No economy to speak of, so unless you craft it or find it, you're out of luck. To compensate, the PCs will have a generous stat allowance at creation. Looking at 4 to 6 players in regular attendance. I also plan to be a jerk and require a survival strategy for food, water and shelter from the players.
Good point Apple...any recommendations?
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Grim and gritty...low magic items. No economy to speak of, so unless you craft it or find it, you're out of luck. To compensate, the PCs will have a generous stat allowance at creation. Looking at 4 to 6 players in regular attendance. I also plan to be a jerk and require a survival strategy for food, water and shelter from the players.
Good point Apple...any recommendations?
The key as in all Zombie Apoc stuff, overwhelm their channels, a lot of zombies ,wave after wave, they cannot get em all.
Don't worry about channels. They're not that damn overwhelming.
I overcompensated as a dungeonmaster too many times worrying about channels. With a 5 man group in HoH with 2 clerics and a pally....
Have the player roll a 1 on their channel damage and *poof* it's gone enough times, and you won't worry about channels.
I'm toying with the idea of running a zombie apocalypse-themed campaign and I'm looking for cool ideas. It seems like the various zombie templates available in PF will allow the game to scale well as the PCs advance...plus, I really like AMC's "The Walking Dead"! A few concepts I'm wanting to incorporate include:
1. The zombies are caused by a disease, not raised by an evil nemesis.
2. The zombie threat has caused a complete breakdown of civilization.
3. While big evil nasties did not cause the apocalypse, they are using the situation to their advantage.
Basically, I'm imagining that "The Walking Dead" and "The Road" had a baby, then "Fallout 3" and "Oblivion" had a baby, then those babies had a baby.
I'm open to suggestions...whaddya got, Pathfinder community?
How are you going to deal with the transferance of the disease to the players? Maybe some successive fort saves, and if they fail three in a row then they have to start making bluff checks to pretend they won't turn? Does cure disease reverse the effects of the zombie virus? If so, that's another way clerics could totally own.
If I were you, I'd be as absolutely brutal as humanly possible. I'd rule that cure disease does nothing for this virus. I'd start the fort save at 15 for a bite, 12 for a scratch, and then increase it for every +HD creature they fight. Make them really damn afraid of getting hit. I'd reward players for good role playing after they're infected by some sort of XP bonus to their next character.
You know, I would play this. Maybe have different types of zombies?
The SRD has all different kinds of zombie templates and you can stack them. I was simply going to add the "plague zombie" template to other ones, like "fast zombie" and "Zombie Lord". Oh, and I do plan to be absolutely devastating to the PCs... ;)
Great stuff, folks...keep it coming!
For real horrifying stuff, look up the Celestial Blessed template.
Yeah, but can that be applied to a Zombie?
If it is applied before they become a zombie...
I was thinking to keep some inter-party tension going, you could roll all the fort saves for infection in secret. Then, at the end of every encounter, you could pass out little bits of paper to each player that said 'INFECTED' or 'NOT INFECTED' accordingly. Then just sit back and watch the sparks fly.
Ha! Love it, Shifty! I'm totally using that one.
Other reskined Undead for the "Special infected" could be interesting if you wanna go that route.
That's a good idea, Seagull...maybe a plague Vampire or something...and he can have a thing for mortal chicks and sparkle adorably in sunlight. I can use the campaign to teach a lesson on the importance of having a boyfriend...
Sorry, just being sarcastic. Seriously, though, great idea!
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I got some ideas.
I would go with the resident evil approach. Have your own "T virus". This will give you more monster options than simple zombies. Any corporeal undead would work and instead of being actual zombies could just be "the infected". Just because everyone considers them zombies doesn't mean every monster has to actually BE a zombie per say. even aberrations and magical beasts could be used, they could just be mutant infected animals or creatures specific to your world. Outsiders would be some great "infected" creatures too! If you remember the resident evil movies the virus effected curtain creatures and individuals differently. This will also keep things interesting and keep the players from getting bored fighting nothing but zombies and zombie templates.
As for handling the disease and player infection i got an basis for a concept. I'm just throwing thoughts out and in the case of formulas i'm just getting a general idea across. Make the players semi immune. This would explain why the pc's weren't killed early on and infected themselves. Make it so they are infected but there bodies incorporated the virus inot there DNA and gave them powers like Alice from resident evil. This could be the very reason they have there class powers,abilities, and spells- there just mutants. This would make the players seem special. This would also explain why clerics and mages couldn't cure the disease before it destroyed civilization- because there was/is no magic. people gained "magic" because they became infected with the x-virus and it manipulated there DNA in a positive way giving them super powers instead of turning them into the "infected".
To add to player fear and play up the zombie apocalypse theme make it so they can still become infected and turned but there body is semi-resistant, hence saving throws. This would explain why there not turned every time they take damage- which would be a game breaker. An idea could be to make an "infected" template. Every "infected" creature can spread the virus but the potency depends on there CR, and the creature becomes undead. This will give you back the whole bestiary-just make them all "infected" undead :D If PC's fail There save they suffer -1 ability damage to constitution, if they make there save there body is permanently immune to that particular creatures infection. This would be a good basis to start as PC's can heal ability damage at 1 point per day, which is good for low level PC's without magic. Of course since your whole campaign will be based off this you might want to up the cure rate to 1d4 or even different amounts for different classes.
Lots of Random ideas-
even though there are the "infected" you could have different strains or mutations of X virus. get real familiar with ability damage, poisons, afflictions,curses, etc. You could have strains that have mutated and function as something else completely now such as a poison effects, curses, or afflictions. This would balance out the classes and races better as some have more Resistance to diseases and others say poisons or curses. you could have numerous strains of the X virus, build a template for each- a few at a time. Or maybe some strains do intelligence damage, or wisdom, etc- this would be good as players have more than just there CON scores to work with before they turn into something. maybe when curtain abilities reach 0 it turns you into something other than a zombie. for example maybe if your constitutions becomes 0 you turn into a vampire,or if your wisdom becomes 0 you turn into a wight. maybe some creatures turn you into something completely different than the creature that inflicts you. Example, maybe an "infected" who is a Cornugon converts people to gargoyles, and gargoyles convert you into Imps. Maybe some races are effected differently than others and each race is effected differently depending on what ability was reduced to 0 once "infected". example, elves who have there charisma reach 0 turn into dark elves or Grimstalkers, Gnomes turn into derro or farlarren etc. Maybe some strains are so virulent it kills you... With all the chances to becomes "the infected" instead of higher stats you might just want to give them a good boost to there constitution as they will be making numerous fort saves and many classes have poor fort saves. This may help explain more why there resistant to the virus in the first place... Maybe after some creatures are infected the virus mutates them, runs it's course and becomes inert, so some creatures can't spread the virus anymore. The possibilities are endless but the more planning you put into it the more fun it will be.
I was actually working up this very idea for a campaign but it soon started to become a campaign setting i never did finish, i was going to call it "Afflicted". Now that i've seen your post its sparked my interest again lol. once i got started i got flooded with ideas, some i mentioned above. i even started making up prestige classes lol.
CLOSING-
However you decide to run it there will be a lot of variables you will have to plan for- some you may not even realize until they come up. The more in detail and thorough you are, and the more planning and work you put into it the better the campaign will be. Players will need to know upfront how your rules are going to be in your campaign or how some things are going to work. While the IDEA of a zombie apocalypse is good as a basis, it's not good enough for an entire campaign setting by itself. while im sure you could just throw the PF rules into a zombie apocalypse world, i don't think that's going to give you the exact feel your aiming or prepare you for all the butterfly effects the flavor of your world will have on some basic rules and balance issues. your going to need a good set of housrules to play it off well and without nerfing specific classes.
It might be better for you to ask your players if they are willing to help you build this world and the rule-set. Make it clear that this will be a play test and everyone will help establish the world as you go. Once you have a good enough rules-set(house rules) down you can run another campaign from the start with the finished rules that everyone contributed too. This will help you play test the rules as you go without players feeling there being cheated because they didn't know from the start how x or y rule would apply or work in your world. or find that the party paladin is god and the wizard lasted 2 rounds before being infected. it's easy to even say "hey we will continue to to use x core rule but in the REAL campaign world we will use this rule instead as it's more with the flavor of the world im going for, but i completely forgot about rule X before we started playing". Or "i didn't anticipate that wizards would be this nerfed and at risk without requiring curtain magical items or spells, what can we do to balance it out with the rest of the classes? that's a good idea player 3, lets try that and see how it playtests and see if it still needs more work or something completely different." You may find that for balance all classes will need a GOOD fort save, or a wizard can cast x spell 3+ INT times per day just to stay alive. Also go easy during play test, there's no reason not too. Players may get frustrated when they see how some things actually play out in your world. It would be a good idea to use some form of retraining system or let players make new characters if they wish. For example, PC 1 " man knowledge nobility sucks, how was i suppose to know it would be THIS useless" Or, player 2 " what do you mean zombies always go for me because im a dwarf and zombies find dwarves the most tasty of races- that's not fair!" or player 3, "you've made wizards unplayable until level X as i just need to make too many fort saves- IT"S impossible!" You may even find some things swinging out of balance because of the nature of your world, again this would be a good case of "we will continue with core rule X but in the REAL campaign Restoration will only do..." or "wow wizards are screwed, ideas?" Lastly encourage your players to participate in the rule building and don't shut them out. you may feel a rule might make perfect sense to you in the zombie world but it will just be plan unfun or mean for the players.
A kingmaker type game would be fun to run in your world. It would be fun to have cleric PC's that could cure and save some of the infected. The PC's could build up a "new civilization" where there striving to cure enough people to rebuild society while zombie land relentlessly tries to devour the last "food pantry". Adventuring out in treks to cure more people and bring back home more skilled people and supplies.
I know it was long but i hope some of this was useful and you have fun with your brain buffet!
Holy crap! Do you wanna come over and run our game? That was awesome! Great ideas, thank you! I'll be utilizing a lot of those suggestions.
Am I crazy, or has no one mentioned the Apocalypse Zombie?!
Its from Carrion Crown, and its a near perfect Zombie! Its on d20pfsrd, too!
A zombie swarm isn't much of a threat when you can just teleport away.
Remember, Zombie scenarios generally aren't just about saving yourself. The ability to ensure your personal safety does nothing to slow the outbreak or save the world :)
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You could just play Pathfinder Society. I'm sure there's already a zombie apocalypse going on in that game world. Go into a museum? Full of zombies. Climbing a mountain? Full of zombies. Cave? Zombies. Forest? Zombies. Ship? You get the idea.
It's like all the writers are Cleric players...
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If your going disease route, Zombies are not evil they could be nuetral. They did not choose to be a flesh craving monster. Good/Evil/Chaos/Lawful means nothing.to them just.the.craving
If you have a lawful good Paladin or other you could give them a morale dilemma such as (kinda dark) maybe a schoolhouse full of zombie or infected kids.
3.5 has a.deathless template. Most of the benefits of undead but have con score and react to positive energy as living.
Also 3.5 has Zombie swarm rules. They occupy a space and do not have to hit just do damage each round. 5d6 + regular Zombie DR / 1.5x's dmg from area.effects
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Give them the Arthas Choice, eh?
If you have a lawful good Paladin or other you could give them a morale dilemma such as (kinda dark) maybe a schoolhouse full of zombie or infected kids.
;)
Pathfinder's Paladin is 3.5's Druids. With Great power comes great responsibility (marvel comic ref intended). As GM it's your responsibility to mess with PC's minds.
Lol
Figure out some way to deal with channel energy. Otherwise, clerics and paladins will own.
Channel energy isn't that good of damage.
Agreed, channel is not something I'm worried about...or Paladins...they're great against one big baddie, or a small group, but swarms are still problematic for th
em.
I think I like the "save the world" goal...it would require epicness, so that should keep the PC's occupied for 25-ish levels! :)
Saving the world generally isn't part of the scenario and generally doesn't happen.
On the contrary, its generally someone's foolish and well-meaning attempt to save someone else which innevitably upsets the equilibrium of the scenario, compromising the defenses created by the protagonists and catalyzing the climax of the Zombie Scenario. See the new Dawn of the Dead for an example.
One thing who created the disease that makes the world a huge grave?
Several intellgent undead created it as the only I got you foreever. And everyones ideas are greatlet the blood flow and heads roll.
I was gonna say a bungling Alchemist who was in over his head, in keeping with my low-magic game concept...
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You could give the Zombies the Life Sense ability. The bigger they are the more life they radiate making stealth and getting around encounters very hard. Alternately. Give them the scent ability for similiar effect but less powerful.
Using the Bard celebrity archetype Gather Crowd ability once one zombie senses/smells a living creature could moan/wail (maybe spell like or SU) ability and based on size of town so many Zombies show up in 1d10 rounds.
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I may poach some of these ideas myself! Thank you all for the inspiration!
Only thing I'll add is I'm going to try and have each player in the group roll up 5 or 6 characters of their choosing. Different classes/races/concepts etc.
These alternate characters would comprise the rest of the initial "group" trying to survive long enough to get somewhere/do something.
The NPC's would have very small roles in encounters and earn a fraction of the XP...
I may also consider giving the PC's the ability to assume one of the different NPC's for specific missions/encounters...
Something to consider...
I was thinking something along those lines, too...that way the loss of one PC isn't so devastating...plus, it would be fun for the group to fight an infected ex-friend!
How about having the reason for the apocalypse be the classic : "when there no more room in hell, the dead shall walk the earth"?
That would widen the scope of the campaign even more, if they had to go to the nine hells to clear some more room, muhahaha!Truly an epic goal.
Anyways I thik this is an awesome idea. I love zombie movies, and I also like how they never have a happy ending. But in a fantasy setting something could be done about the underlying problem, and that's interesting too.....damn now I wanna play something like this also.
I have something like this as a part of my homebrew world.
Long story but in the past one of my charcters did something that literally caused a "cracking of the world" an caused the center part of a continent to sink and become an ocean. All the people who were living the cities that sunk became undead due to the dark magic forces involved. Since then almost every grouo that has played in my world has had to deal with the swarms of undead in one shape or another. \
Done correctly this actually creates a good challenge for high level players who reign over their own kingdom.
In my latest campaign the "Evil Empire" that are the BBG's of my world used an artifact to freeze the entire northern ocean solid. This created a bridge for the frost giants to use to migrate back to the main contenient from the arctic north. To power this artifact required an equivelent number of souls to the power being expended. The BBG's worked a plan for over 3 years and basically absorbed all the souls of what is the equivelent of Japan at once, creating millions of undead and enough power to freeze the ocean.
The group is now dealing with hordes of undead as well as an army of frost giants. Fun times....
A friend of mine is running a 4e game and we were brain storming ideas for his campaign. He came up with the idea that zombies (most basic type) require 2 or 3 successful hits to destroy, regardless of damage dealt on each hit. I really liked this idea. The intention being to show they keep charging regardless of wounds received. Also was done to prevent his players (nearly all melee fighters) from pulling a Glorious Chainsaw Method (Make thy swords become things like unto chainsaws) and wiping out a horde in a single round.
A friend of mine is running a 4e game and we were brain storming ideas for his campaign. He came up with the idea that zombies (most basic type) require 2 or 3 successful hits to destroy, regardless of damage dealt on each hit. I really liked this idea. The intention being to show they keep charging regardless of wounds received. Also was done to prevent his players (nearly all melee fighters) from pulling a Glorious Chainsaw Method (Make thy swords become things like unto chainsaws) and wiping out a horde in a single round.
I don't know about this idea. It doesn't really agree with my mental picture of what zombies should be. In my mind, the threat of zombies is in their number, not their fortitude. And it won't be long before the players figure this out, and conjure up some kind of demented strategy that allows them to deal out a massive number of pathetic little 1 hit point damage attacks. Fighting back zombies with a torrent of magic missiles would kinda break the realism for me.
I may poach some of these ideas myself! Thank you all for the inspiration!
Only thing I'll add is I'm going to try and have each player in the group roll up 5 or 6 characters of their choosing. Different classes/races/concepts etc.
These alternate characters would comprise the rest of the initial "group" trying to survive long enough to get somewhere/do something.
The NPC's would have very small roles in encounters and earn a fraction of the XP...
I may also consider giving the PC's the ability to assume one of the different NPC's for specific missions/encounters...
Something to consider...
I tried something like this before.
I think it's theoretically a very good idea, but it can be very difficult in practice for a few reasons. It requires a lot of patience on the part of the player. To create 5 different characters is an enormous strain on the creative muscles of most people, and some people just aren't very good at thinking up an entire character on the spot. I think, out of my current gaming group, there are only two out of six people that could be bothered to actually go through with this process, and it would probably take them about four or five hours. Also, a lot of players, I find, don't really have a cohesive idea of their character until they start playing, and actually develop their character's personality as they play. Sometimes they realise that the character they created wasn't really what they wanted to play after all, and if they have a half a dozen alternatives, the temptation to dismissively jump back and forth between them all can prove very disruptive to the overall narrative.Basically, what I'm saying is: Be wary.
Attention spans are always shorter than you think they'll be.
My group has no attention span and constantly wants to re-build their characters to some goofy build they came up with, so it will probably work for them...
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Personally, I don't award experience for enemies killed with channel. Either pile on the zombies to use it up or take it away and give then an extra domain or something.
Yeah man, good call, good call. Let's not give out XP for killing enemies with weapons either. Or spells. Or, killing them at all, in fact. Because that would at least be fair. I mean, why should players be rewarded or even tolerated for using their class abilities in the ways they are intended. Everyone should take Cranewings' advice and go just a tiny step further and just not give out XP points at all.
EDIT:
Also, channel energy is pretty terrible. It caps at 35 average damage by 20th level. 35. That's before the will save for half damage.
Why would anyone worry about this when by default zombies are A) undead, B) tough as nails, and C) range in all sizes and shapes?
Firstly, Undead have strong will saves. Every zombie you come across is going to have at least a +2 Will save, plus an additional +1 per every 2 HD, which means your average humanoid-zombie will have a +3 save.
Secondly, zombies get the Toughness feat automatically, giving them 5.5 hit points per hit die, not counting any other bonuses (from Charisma, Desecrate, etc). Most zombies have at least 2 hit dice, giving them 11 Hp each; while the maximum damage from a 1st level channel is 6, average 3.5, with a save for half (which will have a maximum DC of 17, assuming a +5 Charisma and the Ability Focus feat).
Thirdly, zombies get bonus hit dice based on their size. So large get +2 HD, huge +4, gargantuan +6, and colossal +10 hit dice. So you can instead read that as...
+11 hit points and +1 Will save.
+22 hit points and +2 Will save.
+33 hit points and +3 Will save.
+44 hit points and +4 Will save.
On top of the HD the creature already has. While being a low CR. Plus, these are plague zombies. When they die, they explode. Ok, so a swarm of zombie birds, bats, or other laughably weak critters surround you, and you pop Channel, and it kills the 12 bats who are all within 5ft of your party. Ok, time to roll 12 fortitude saves. Hope you don't roll a 1 and catch the zombie.
Also, a 28 HD zombie is only CR 9. Let's think about that for a moment. A 28 HD zombie would have at least 154 HP, and a +16 Will save. A 9th level cleric deals an average of 17.5 damage, with a DC 12-21 save for half (worst case scenario for the zombie, the zombie still has a 75% chance to save)! He would have to hit the zombie about 11.3 times with his channel before the zombie would be killed. 11! That would be more than a solid minute of nothing but channeling positive energy in its face.
Channel Energy is nearly worthless. The best case scenario would actually be to have Turn Undead, which would at least make it a save or suck, because it would force zombies to keep their distance for a bit, which gives you a little breathing room (kind of like the pipe bomb in L4D).
It would actually be more intelligent to use Command Undead (neutral or evil cleric) to turn the undead against themselves to help absorb the mob. Since that at least would give you some meat shields that can't be re-infected by the zombie hordes; but then you still can't control mobs of them without animate dead, so it's really just slowing them down. Zombies have low CRs, and plague zombies are especially bad (since killing them is also in their favor).
How to Fight Plague Zombie Hordes
The best ways to deal with a zombiocalypse is with a necromancer, not a Paladin. I know that probably will upset some people, but it's the cold hard truth. A necro-build cleric or even sorcerer or wizard is your best bet. Clerics can help remove the diseases, and your own undead (skeletons or zombies) are immune to the plague; making them excellent for running interference while your party cuts them down at a distance. Spells like command undead remove the brutes and let you turn them against the lesser hordes (so we'd grab that CR 9 28 HD zombie and turn him to smashing the lesser CR 1/2 zombies he'd assuredly be surrounded by).
The absolute best way to fight the undead is to be undead. If your party has a cleric, if a player dies, cast create undead on them to turn them into ghouls or ghasts, making them immune to the zombies and heavily resistant or immune to other nasty undead (including vampires, wights, shadows, and wraiths, who cannot use their nastier abilities vs undead).
While most Zombie Apocalypse movies use Ghouls for the zombies (zombies are mindless undead that need someone to give them orders, or their mind controlled mindless humans... the original Zombies anyway ;)
But yea, Ghouls, Zombies, Ghasts, Whites, Morlocks, Derro... and to go on a theme... Gnomes cold turn into Derro, Humans and Orcs etc turn into Ghouls and Zombies, Elves into Grimstalkers as above :) Etc...
Or worse, you could fight an intelligent disease. It starts to spread, everyone gets sick. Takes the fever and gets bedridden. Then they get up and start going after everyone else and they only have to touch you... And they all have that look...
I agree with Ashiel that channel is overrated...I've stopped worrying about it. Since the campaign is primarily an exercise in survival, I've decided to award XP primarily for completing objectives rather than for individual zombie kills, anyway.
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Also, no skeletons involved...they're too Lame. ZOMBIE apocalypse, not skeleton wimp-fest... :)
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Also, no skeletons involved...they're too Lame. ZOMBIE apocalypse, not skeleton wimp-fest... :)
Exactly.
Can a skeleton drip gore? Can a skeleton be shot in the head? Can a skeleton mumble 'BRAAAAIIINS'?Hell no.
Ain't nobody afraid of a skeleton apocalypse.
I like this thread.
I remember hearing something about this kind of scenario. Civilization, in such case would become a series of hit and run raids out of Hallowed grounds. after there are no more victims to turn, the great obsidian stranglehold can be chipped away at, slowly.
Favorite classes to watch out for are:
Clerics, Paladins, Oracles of Life, Inquisitors, Necromancers, And Rangers with favored enemy: Undead.
Expect most of the party to lean towards these class choices.
See classic Horrors revisited for a classic contagious zombie statblock.
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Ashiel, skeletons have like 4 hp. Close to 25% of the time the cleric can wipe out a group with his first shot. He usually will get all of them with a second. Groups of zombies or other small undead add up to big CR that the cleric can beat basically automatically. It's too much free xp to overwealm that power. I still do it, but with so much free damage coming from the character with no thinking involved, I can't justify awarding much of anything - certainly not CR 4 or 5 worth of xp just for spamming the channel hot key..
Haha. No. :P
It's the same deal with other d8 enemies like NPC experts and such. One could say channel is way too strong vs living NPCs who only have 1 HD, but frankly, it's just not. I showed why. Also, he mentioned zombie apocalypse; presumably using plague zombies (or even fast plague zombies). Skeletons are good things to fight zombies with, not to overrun things.
Basic human skeletons do indeed have only about 4 HP, but not bigger ones, and they have low CRs, and of course they wield weapons. Zombies are the basic undead bruisers, while skeletons generally make for good archers or ranged support (due to their higher dexterity).
But as long as you want to talk about scary skeletons, toss about bunch of burning skeletons and see how ready your party is to just nuke 'em. Heck, the larger the party, the higher the level, the more fun these guys are (as your XP budget just rises and rises). Oh look, all these little 1/2 HD critters are like CR 1/4 and deal 1d6 fire damage to everything nearby when you kill them, and they add +1d6 fire damage to their attacks. You do NOT want to come across a swarm of flaming chickens trying to own you Zelda-style.
Also, it's not free XP. It's using a class feature as intended. See, killing undead is kind of what clerics and arguably paladins are supposed to be pretty good at. Encounters vs those are supposed to be waaaay easier, just like having a Paladin means you've got an ace against evil opponents. So...yeah, don't punish people for using their characters as they are intended to be used; especially when you actually find a use for an otherwise sucktastic ability outside of just healing your party a little between encounters.
Even against skeletons, the basic 1 HD skeletons, who are the weakest of all undead against turning, you still statistically won't 1-shot them at 1st level unless you're specialized in turning (high Charisma despite Charisma being a clerical dumpstat for everything except your crappy channeling ability) since they have a +2 Will, which means you have to have at least a +3 Charisma to make it a 50/50 chance to get full damage; and your full damage is an average of 3.5 vs 4 Hp, so there's about a 50/50 chance of actually killing it in one shot after it fails its save. So even vs a horde of 1 HD dinky human skeletons, channel energy still isn't very impressive unless it can be spammed, and you probably won't be able to keep spamming for long; especially when faced in a horde situation.
But like I said, the skeletons aren't that great for much except fighting other undead. They're immune to cold (or fire for burning skeletons) and are immune to most issues concerning the undead (they have weapon proficiencies, natural armor, good movement, high initiatives, etc), and are immune to disease (avoiding zombie plague), fear, insanity, ability damage, energy drain, etc. A skeletal ox is a good way to plow through a lot of zombies quickly, especially with a dash of barding.
Likewise, if you make bloody skeletons, your skeletons regenerate, making them excellent cannon fodder. If you can squeeze out some bloody burning skeletons, your skeletons make excellent exploding regenerating fire-immune, fire-retaliating, fire-damaging cannon fodder which can hold the lines while your party's wizard drops fireball spells on the legion of zombie hordes (yay, a game where fireball is actually really cool)!
It's junk like this as to why gray necromancers are better at fighting undead and protecting the innocent from undead than shiny paladins and clerics, and that's because the undead's truest weakness is in fact other undead. Vampires, wights, morgues, plague zombies, wraiths, shadows, and more, rely on attack forms that undead are immune to. Wraiths can't hurt undead at all, but the undead can hurt wraiths (just need a nice little oil of magic weapon or something on their weapon). Wights aren't half as scary when their level-draining doesn't work. Vampires can't dominate other undead, can't suck their blood, can't steal their levels. Morgues can't paralyze undead. Undead are immune to disease so they stand strong vs the legions of exploding plague zombies, and shadows suffer the same fate as wights. Also most undead cannot go mad from Allips, or even be turned to stone via a basilisk's gaze (not undead but I just felt like bragging on their usefulness here as well).
The beauty of it is that when they — the mindless undead minions you use to combat the legions of evil undead — are destroyed, they just crumble. No loss of life, no one hurt, expendable. Heck, some even recycle (what do you suppose the odds of random evil undead being able to permanently kill a bloody skeleton are?).
That's also before getting into stuff like Command Undead, or for clerical necromancers, arming your legion of anti evil-undead undead with blades you have cast disruption weapon on. Heck, if you turn yourself into a ghoul, ghast, mummy, or lich as a necromancer, you can lead them on the forefront against other undead, and offer your party a guardian angel who won't be turned against them via a vampire's domination, or a shadow's strength-draining touch (because you can totally still play a healbot while being undead).
I'm very fond of necromancers, and have been since before 3.5 was released; back when it was entirely possible to play a White or Gray Necromancer without getting into hours long debates as to exactly whose baby you're supposed to be eating because you stuffed a lot of neutral energy into a neutral object and somehow made it evil 'cause the 3.5 designers wanted paladins to smite undead; so I enjoy talking about them.
But yeah, if it was myself in that game, a necromancer would definitely be what I'd play, and you could be sure that sometime down the road, I'd definitely be animating some undead, or even turning myself and my party undead, at some point. I mean, what gift could be more precious than giving your own mortal life to save humanity?
And yes, I do realize that kind of makes Jesus sound like an undead. :P