No advice for a Bones Spirit Summoner?
No advice for a Bones Spirit Summoner?
this guide was made before that archetype was a thing, so i wouldnt expect it to--but really, a lot of the guide is more of general rules of thumb and making your DM have less paperwork.
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Could just wrap some blankets and robes around your skeletons.
One of my players dresses his up in long robes, masks and armor. He tends to avoid zombies for the smell, and for the inefficiencies they represent.
He wanted to make a bloody chuul skeleton, but HD limit and the fact he'd have a twelve foot tall blue bleeding thing kind of put him off a bit (the fact a live chuul wouldn't go over too well played into it too).
What is important to remember is that some things get lost when turned into a skel or zombie. Chuuls lose their tentacles for example. Giant snakes lose constrict.
Ironically, a giant snake loses its constrict, but keeps its poison. Go fig.
i thought they keep any attack stuff (which would include constrict, no?) when changed. then again personally i'd trade contrict for rake (intead of crushing them with muscles, you're stabbing them with loads and loads of rib-bones while largely keeping the same motion)
that said yeah--dress your undead up as a priest or funeral procession--front undead carries some rather pungent incense to mask the scent of the dead following behind.
long robes, ceremonial masks, and a ghost sound cantrip for chanting and you're golden for the most part--just hope nobody you pass has detect evil/detect undead.
if you wanna be really evil, have the incense laced with an inhaled poison or air-communicable disease to screw with places you pass through--more corpses for the army!
huh. strange, but that's PF for ya.
Owner - D20 Hobbies
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have they stated if the Evangelist works with MT? I would house rule no, but curious.
If yes the Cleric 1/wiz 3, MT 10, Evangelist 6
casts as 16 cleric, 18 wizard
They have not said. But your suggestion doesn't depend on whether or not Evangelist advances MT. You can't advance beyond 10th level via any means because there isn't an 11th level line in the PrC.
Quick tip, might be obvious but i kinda overlooked it in the beginning. Cruoromancer has 5HD cap for Animate Dead but the Dhampir FCB adds 1/4th CL for Necromancy, ergo starting from CL 12 (effective CL 15) he can control more HD than Juju Oracle, topping out at 125 vs 120 for the Oracle while still retaining the half Desecrate effect. Only loss is the max hp for zombies, gain is better spell list.
intelligent undead are any undead without the mindless trait (far as i know). stuff like ghouls, vampires, ghosts, etc.
they've got intelligence (and free will), so controlling them will mark you as #1 on their hit list when they eventually break free.
and they will break free eventually, since they get a save every day, and another save anytime you order them to do anything they don't like.
What counts as an intelligent undead? Having a hard time nailing that down
If the undead creature has an intelligence score, it's an intelligent undead creature.
Quick tip, might be obvious but i kinda overlooked it in the beginning. Cruoromancer has 5HD cap for Animate Dead but the Dhampir FCB adds 1/4th CL for Necromancy, ergo starting from CL 12 (effective CL 15) he can control more HD than Juju Oracle, topping out at 125 vs 120 for the Oracle while still retaining the half Desecrate effect. Only loss is the max hp for zombies, gain is better spell list.
As I always like to mention in these kinds of threads, the control pool for animate dead isn't really worth worrying about. You'll get way more mileage out of Command Undead (the spell), then any amount of Animate Dead HD optimizing.
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Bestow a -6 penalty to save vs command by anyone in your religion.
Then bestow a general -4 penalty to will saves.
Then bestow a conditinal curse: *If* the creature attempts to betray you or disobey your orders, it suffers a -6 penalty to wisdom.
The first and third are not possible by RAW, and would require GM approval as custom-curses. There are no guidelines for conditional curses, or even anything in RAW to indicate it's possible at all.
Secondly, even if you did get this approved by your GM a -6 penalty to save vs command and a -4 penalty to will saves in general wouldn't stack. Penalties from the same source don't stack, so the best you can get is the -3 from a lower wisdom score and the -6 from the better of the two applicable saving throw curses.
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Bestow a -6 penalty to save vs command by anyone in your religion.
Then bestow a general -4 penalty to will saves.
Then bestow a conditinal curse: *If* the creature attempts to betray you or disobey your orders, it suffers a -6 penalty to wisdom.The first and third are not possible by RAW, and would require GM approval as custom-curses. There are no guidelines for conditional curses, or even anything in RAW to indicate it's possible at all.
Secondly, even if you did get this approved by your GM a -6 penalty to save vs command and a -4 penalty to will saves in general wouldn't stack. Penalties from the same source don't stack, so the best you can get is the -3 from a lower wisdom score and the -6 from the better of the two applicable saving throw curses.
Also, co-religionists who use undead may or may not be friendly. The religions that rely on undead can sometimes be, let us say, evil.
And you don't want to hurt your controlled undead's will saves. You really, really, don't. It makes it easier for someone else to snitch them, or for someone to frag them with positive energy.
Sentient undead in general, are a tricky thing to deal with. You gain competence and relative free action in exchange for having to deal with a competent and intelligent servant who may or may not pull a white mutiny on you if mistreated, even if it can't wiggle out of the will save.
Think of stuff adventurers have done to bypass undead? The ghost who's tasked to guard a door, but wasn't instructed to stop beings going through it, or a mummy obliged to interfere with the progress of intruders who might decide to interfere by putting a sign up saying 'Don't go in there' and calling it a day unless he's messed with.
If you aren't careful, you can end up playing lawyerball with your sentient undead, and they have more time, more inclination and more danger if they find loopholes in your commands.
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I liked the guide but I felt as though you underrated the Undead Lord archetype.
When you brought up the trade offs, you never mentioned the 8th level ability Unlife Healer, which essentially gives you free Empowered healing for undead, and free Maximized and Empowered undead healing at 16th level.
Also, your suggestion of having a custom Staff of Command Undead won't work out as you intended. Because the spell isn't one that you are capable of casting (unless you took the Inevitable domain), you would never be able to recharge it. The solution is to add a spell to the staff the you can cast in addition, such as Animate Dead. For example, if Command Undead was single-charged, and Animate Dead was triple-charged, the cost would be 6400gp.
Staves hold a maximum of 10 charges. Each spell cast from a staff consumes one or more charges. When a staff runs out of charges, it cannot be used until it is recharged. Each morning, when a spellcaster prepares spells or regains spell slots, he can also imbue one staff with a portion of his power so long as one or more of the spells cast by the staff is on his spell list and he is capable of casting at least one of the spells. Imbuing a staff with this power restores one charge to the staff, but the caster must forgo one prepared spell or spell slot of a level equal to the highest-level spell cast by the staff. For example, a 9th-level wizard with a staff of fire could imbue the staff with one charge per day by using up one of his 4th-level spells. A staff cannot gain more than one charge per day and a caster cannot imbue more than one staff per day.