Since my idea of being a holy healer has proved troublesome I am looking instead at the opposite. I am confused however when it comes to the Undead Lord companion feature and the animate dead spell. I have been reading around and it seems that if you make make a skeleton or zombie of a humanoid or some other creatures they become 1hd instead of what the current hd for their class/level was.
Is this right? If so is it possible in the rules to make a necromancy that just has one really strong undead? I know my gm will not take kindly to an army of weenies.
thanks
it seems that if you make make a skeleton or zombie of a humanoid or some other creatures they become 1hd instead of what the current hd for their class/level was.
Is this right?
Yes.
If so is it possible in the rules to make a necromancy that just has one really strong undead?
Yes, in fact that's the usual thing for Arcane Necromancers.
Yeah, you get a lot more bang for your buck with animate dead if you animate corpses of outsiders, magical beasts, giants, etc. Basically anything that has a lot of racial HD is great for raising as undead b/c skeletons and zombies base their stats on the racial HD of the creatures they used to be. The corpse of an 8HD ogre is waaaaay better for animate dead than the corpse of any 20th level PC.
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The undead lord's minion thing actually allows for the skeleton to slowly improve, which is big.
Generally though you have to remember, and this is where the DM's headache comes from, you have three 'pools' as an Undead Lord.
1.) Your minion.
2.) Your clerical control HD allotment (assuming you take control undead for your channels)
3.) The HD limit on animate dead.
It can get pretty crazy when you do animating in a desecration area.
Undead do typically retain proficiencies though. so getting a warrior's skeleton lets you arm it a bit better.
Also the skeleton "uses all the base creature's statistics and special abilities." So if he was a strong dude, he's still strong as a skeleton.
And don't forget that Command Undead (the Spell) gives you another bucket of Undead that has no HD cap, only how many you can cast and maintain over a period of days per caster level (pro-tip combine with Extend). Gravewalker Witch is my preferred Necromancer of choice (the 8th level ability is incredible), now that Juju Oracles can no longer make non-evil undead.
thanks for the clarification. Would it be okay to ask if it is viable to just have one creature, VMRH suggested arcane casters having one big baddie, but others said some things about buckets. What kind of character could just have something like an undead animal companion, where I could get a new and better one as I level without having to have a bunch of small guys too.
Furthermore, so it is possible to reanimate demons and dragons as well? because that seems to be what I would want to do, and it would be pretty awesome.
thanks again for the quick clarification, and ideas