|
Ok, I’m working on an Undead Lord for PFS games. I’ve been convinced in another thread it can work if I’m not a one trick pony. That’s ok with me, I rarely want a 1TP a long term PC anyway.
My first thought was animator/versatile channeler. But… for that feat I have to have a neutral (not good or evil) god. I can’t find a neutral god that has the death domain and is not violently against undead. Let me know if I missed one. I don’t think I want to be a major channeler if it is only negative channeling.
So it looks like I will have to go with animator/caster or animator/weapons. Since I really want the animator to be primary, that is where I would put the most feats, so I won’t have a lot left over for weapon use. Caster can be pretty good without too many feats if I have a high casting stat.
So that narrows it down to animator caster. Let me know if you disagree with the above reasoning.
So I’m thinking the undeath channeling variant to really heal me and my undead. Highest stat for casting. Concentrate on debuff spells but take a cure of each level to cure others since I can only channel negative energy. Spell focus necromancy.
So here is the first pass start of my build.
Serth de'Morcaine
Cleric: Undeadlord Archtype
Alignment: Neutral Neutral
Worship: Urgathoa
Faction: Osirion
Race: Dwarf
Str: 12, Dex: 12, Con: 14, Int: 12, Wis: 17, Cha 12
Languages: Common, Osirion, Ancient Osirion
Trait: osirion, attuned to the ancestors
Trait: osirion, secrets of the sphynx
Undead Lord: corpse companion
Feats
1: spell focus, necromancy (maybe)
3: ?
5: ?
7: ?
9: ?
11: ?
I would rather not human, half-elf, or half-orc. I have those in characters already. So I’d rather it be something different.
What feats do I need to make my animations as strong as possible?
|
The Undead Lord archetype is banned. See Additional Resources.
Specifically,
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Magic
Anyone playing the magus playtest version must have updated his or her character as of 5/19/11. The following are NOT legal for play:
Alternate class abilities: alchemical simulacrum discovery, alchemical zombie discovery, doppelganger simulacrum discovery, and greater alchemical simulacrum discovery are not legal for play.
Archetypes: broodmaster summoner, clone master alchemist, gravewalker witch, pack lord druid, master summoner, reincarnated druid, synthesist summoner, undead lord cleric, vivisectionist alchemist archetypes are not legal for play.
|
|
What?!? carp! Carp!! CARP!!!
I totally missed that.
Dang it.
Ok, I will have to be a standard cleric or other archtype. I guess that gets me away from having to be an Urgathoa worship. But it still isn't bad.
Guess I won't have any undead until 3rd level then.
Is another archtype a good choice for an animator or should it be straight cleric.
Anyone have any good PFS animator builds?
Neutral or not animating a bunch of undead among of grp of adventures that u just met, may whom are probably good aligned or possibly paladins, will probably get u ousted at the least and more likely dead on the spot.. Just sayin but u might wanna play somthing less evilish, even if ur not evil alignment..
Ive played pfs many times including a half dozen cons and ive never seen any player animate.. Now ive seen a few very effective neg energy channelers, but never an animator.. Prob a reason for this..
|
|
Neutral or not animating a bunch of undead among of grp of adventures that u just met, may whom are probably good aligned or possibly paladins, will probably get u ousted at the least and more likely dead on the spot.. Just sayin but u might wanna play somthing less evilish, even if ur not evil alignment..
I probably should have included the link to the prior thread.
prior threadAt least a few people think it could be at least fairly effective as long as I'm not too specialized in animation.
I'm not really worried about the other players reactions. At our location most of the players seem to be Cheliax and/or running the verge of evil. My sorc and inquis are usually the only good characters at the table. And I haven't seen a paladin yet.
If it ever DOES seem like it could be an issue. I will certainly play another character (I have several now). I am NOT going to be the guy that is ruining other peoples fun by playing something they can't get along with.
Thing to keep in mind: worshipping Urgathoa as a cleric requires an evil alignment.
If undead lord were legal, you would have to be a lawful neutral worshiper of Zon-Kuthon or some kind of neutral worshiper of Pharasma. Although, with Pharasma, she hates undead.
Alignment: A cleric's alignment must be within one step of her deity's, along either the law/chaos axis or the good/evil axis.
Keep Urgathoa as your Deity! She has the most relaxed strictures of any of the Undead focused gods. Plus, you can choose one of the best feats for a negative channeler: Shatter Resolve. Add a Shaken effect to your offensive channels FTW!
I have a True Neutral PFS cleric of Urgathoa (Undead and Divine Subdomains) which started out as an Undead Lord, but had to convert it when the Archetype was banned!
Feats I chose were Selective Channeling, Shatter Resolve, and Command Undead (3rd level Human.) I intend on taking the Quick Channel feat at 5th level, and Sacred Summons at 7th.
Currently, my standard combat tactics are to blast away with Channel Energy, which causes a fair amount of damage as well as a solid Shaken debuff. If facing undead then I try to Command one of the weaker ones, which in turn flanks the BBEG and attempts an assist action usually. Constructs? Haven't met any yet. But if I do then I guess I'll just summon stuff.
Oh! And as a free action I can give everone a one off +2 to any one roll for the next round.
Thanks to my Deaths Kiss ability (thank you Domain Powers) I can heal the other party members with an Inflict spell or a Channel.
|
|
Keep Urgathoa as your Deity! She has the most relaxed strictures of any of the Undead focused gods. Plus, you can choose one of the best feats for a negative channeler: Shatter Resolve. Add a Shaken effect to your offensive channels FTW! ...
I don't have Faiths of Corruption yet so I can't use that feat.
|
|
Undead Lord was banned, as was the Gravewalker Witch. I would hesitate to make summoning undead a significant part of my character due to the the possibility that it may very well be restricted in the future.
Is that actually being talked about? You are correct that I don't want to if it seems likely.
|
|
What are you planning for your main function when not animating? You mentioned a little about healing but that wont take too many rounds up. It would be a little easier to help you with your build if we know.
Not sure if this will be helpful or not...I chose the oracle over the cleric for animating/touch spells due to the better focus on stats and spells per day boost. My demon-spawn tiefling bones oracle focuses on save or suck type spells along with inflicts. For that my stats ended up as 16,12,13,10,8,18. This gives him something to do with touch attacks and melee with his morningstar in the event of running low on spells and combating undead. I dont recommend the wisdom hit, but it works out in the long run with will being a good oracle save.
Feats:
1: Extra Revelation: Undead Servitude which grants Command Undead
3: Spell Focus: Necromancy
5: Undead Master (ultimate Magic)
7: ? probably combat casting
9: Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
11: ?
I chose cleric over oracle because I didn't realize the undead lord was not allowed.
If cleric, secondary function would be channeling or debuff spells. Tertiary would be healing.If oracle, secondary function would be debuff or SoS spells. Tertiary still healing.
I will have to reconsider oracle of bones since undead lord is banned.
|
|
Correct me on this if I'm wrong. The primary things I can do to improve my use of undead are the following. (I really wish they had given the channel feat and the spell a different name I think I'm getting them mixed up sometimes.)
1 Feat spell focus necromancy (and greater) - to up the DC of command undead spell and control undead spell. Also to qualify for other feats.
2 Feat command undead - to try to take over undead with channel negative energy.
3 Feat improved channel - to up the DC of command undead channeling.
4 Feat undead master - so that animate undead or channel command undead are +4CL for number of HD animated or controlled. Command undead (spell or channel?) duration is doubled.
5 Feat skeleton summoner - Adds base humanoid skeleton to sum mon 1 list. Adds skeletal champion to sum mon 3 list. Once per day can add the skeleton template to any other sum mon spell.
6 If I take the skeleton summoner feat and plan to make a lot of use of it, I may want to consider augment summoning to make them more powerful.
Have I missed anything that will make me better at taking over or animating undead?
If that is everything, I think I am leaning away from 5 and 6. The sum mon spells have a shorter duration than I like. Plus it is too similar to my sorc. Number 2 I can get as a oracle of bones revelation or feat if cleric.
So I'm kinda leaning toward oracle of bones with this feat progression
1 spell focus necromancy
3 undead master
5 greater spell focus necromancy
7 improved channel
9 spell penetration
11 greater spell penetration
Opinions?
|
You will have hard time as caster - animator cleric. Cleric's list is built around buffs. I suggest you go "jack of all trades" way in PFS, it's worth to be versatile in PFS.
Examples include taking Command Undead, Some Channel feats, Weapon feats.
You won't be able to animate undead 60% of time. I have around 3-4 sessions with my cleric of Zyphus and he pretty much never managed to do it. There is always some paladin, cleric of of some glorious good deity or it's just very bad idea in general to do it. That's why I went as caster, melee bruiser and animator.
Short answer, take versatile stuff.
|
Is that actually being talked about? You are correct that I don't want to if it seems likely.
It already occured. Summoner is probably your best bet. You will always have your undead minion at your fingertips. If they ban the evolution for some reason, then you can say asthetically your eidolon is a giant skeleton/zombie but mechanically it means nothing.
|
|
Is that actually being talked about? You are correct that I don't want to if it seems likely.It already occured. Summoner is probably your best bet. You will always have your undead minion at your fingertips. If they ban the evolution for some reason, then you can say asthetically your eidolon is a giant skeleton/zombie but mechanically it means nothing.
They already banned animating undead? Where, I haven't found it?
|
|
You will have hard time as caster - animator cleric. Cleric's list is built around buffs. I suggest you go "jack of all trades" way in PFS, it's worth to be versatile in PFS.
Examples include taking Command Undead, Some Channel feats, Weapon feats. ...
Well I've read alot of stuff on these boards that debuff clerics work very well.
With the oracle of bones I was proposing, he only had a single feat that is for animating. And a single feat for channeling. The rest were casting feats. (The cleric version would also need the feat for channel command undead.)
So he is primarily a caster of debuff spells. The versatile will be in the spells known (or prepared if cleric).
... You won't be able to animate undead 60% of time. I have around 3-4 sessions with my cleric of Zyphus and he pretty much never managed to do it. There is always some paladin, cleric of of some glorious good deity or it's just very bad idea in general to do it. That's why I went as caster, melee bruiser and animator.
Short answer, take versatile stuff.
As I said before. In our location I have never seen a paladin, once a cleric of a good god, and most of the players playing right on the verge of evil. The good characters I've been playing up until now are the ones that don't fit in very well.
I don't want to play a melee bruiser since that is too close to 2 of the 3 other characters that I have.|
|
They already banned animating undead? Where, I haven't found it?
No, they banned the Gravewalker witch and Undead Lord. But an animated undead doesn't stay after the scenario. If you stick with the summoner idea, when you "summon" your Eidolon you could instead have some cool description of animating a dead creature ect. Having an Eidolon opens up the doors on your undead creation. You could even "animate" your shadow through an evolution that adds miss chance.