Good evening,
I am looking into rolling up a character who's main focus will be to animate/summon/command undead, and then support the party in a buff/debuff capacity.
My question is are there any options for a Wisdom based caster to do this? If so, what is the class/archetype?
You could go with a Cleric but be warned that any Paladins that you travel with will want to take your head when you start animating the dead.
Well, one option is to be a cleric and eventually get the spell "Animate Dead". That is not until about 5th level, though, as it is a 3rd level spell. But you could be a Core Cleric with this, nothing fancy. You can then choose Death Domains, Undead Domains, etc. And Divine spells have great buffing capabilities. You can also take the feat "Command Undead" to use your channels to command the dead.
Other WIS based casters:
Inquisitor: Kinda a Divine Sorcerer, this works about as well as a Cleric, but you are a few levels behind on learning the spells. You might be better at straight combat, but lack the diversity of a cleric.
Shaman: You can get some of the spooky tribal essence this way. You are a mix of Arcane and Divine, and have some witch hexes, which are great for debuffs. You get Animate Dead, which is pretty important to the theme. You also have a spirit animal, and could choose Bones.
War-priest: You won't be nearly as good at casting spells or channeling to command undead, but you make up for it with being a better fighter.
Note: Expect Table Variation! YMMV. (For PFS, before thread is/was moved)
Creating undead is a very touchy subject for most. Although the spells themselves are not evil by campaign ruling, it is still questionable under most religions. You need to have a shtick other than raising the dead so you can contribute without stepping on too many toes. If you search Necromancy, Paladin, Inquisitor, and Pharasma together in any combination, you'll pull up a bunch of threads where people couldn't settle in character differences out of game. So, be prepared to either do something other than animating the dead, or play a different character if there are people/characters that have an issue with it.
You'll get the best advice in the Advice Forum, so I've flagged your post for over there, but Cleric or Wizard is the way to go. Cleric gets access to Animate Dead and other spells before Wizards do, and they can Channel Negative Energy to heal what they Animate/Control.
|
1 person marked this as a favorite.
|
Addendum: I find the whole "beware of Paladins" comments humorous. Why does nobody say "beware of Necromancers" when it comes to Paladin advice?
Another possibility: go with the feat Skeleton Summoner and just use summon monster to get your army of darkness. Then the undead are not real, so it shouldn't get the hackles up on any paladins.
I heard raising undead and paladins in the same sentence.. but its those inquisitors of Pharasma you gotta watch out for.
-anyway thought I would beat the other dead horse here first.
Another choice might be a Bones Mystery Oracle. It gives great class skills, including Bluff, Disguise, Intimidate, and Stealth. It has a number of tasty revelations, including one that grants use of command undead. Because CHA is your main stat, undead will find your command undead particularly hard to resist. You also can get an undead summoning standard action ability which can be useful in a pinch.
An oracle, however, gets the animate dead and create undead spells a level later than a cleric. Create undead moving to level 12 particularly hurts in PFS. A cleric also has the advantage of being able to channel heal undead, which an oracle can't.
Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Several of the New Occult Classes have Undead Making abilities too.
Krell --
You've always seemed reasonable, so I think that you should be just fine playing a necromancer in PFS. It's possible to pull this off even at a table with paladins and Pharasma inquisitors.
The most important thing is to not be a jerk, and to communicate with other players both in and out of character. Develop ground rules about what is and is not acceptable. Likely no one will have a problem with you commanding undead that were already undead. Animating undead is a whole other issue.
So long as all of you communicate, you should be able to complete missions together.
A cleric of Ra, Dispater, or Zon-Kuthon is perfect for this. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses but follow the same basic formula...
1) each has negative channel control or debuff potential. Ra and Dispater daze enemies and Zon inflicts status effects. Ra also can be a versatile channeler and be neutral if that is desired.
2) Dispater and Zon have a strong list to draw from for sacred summons but poor Ra is weak in that department.
3) animate dead and desecrate means that you will always have good access to undead.
4) even without sacred or superior summons all of the clerics have access to the full summon list.
5) domains: Ra is where it's at here.... Glory/heroism is one of the best domains in the game and it's the best buffer domain. Zon has death, darkness, and destruction. Darkness can make everyone but you blind which is potent, destruction is wonderful in the right group. Dispater is a bit weak on domains but a theologian using trickery/deception is very hard to kill from melee attacks.
6) an evangelist is likely the best archetype for you just because it combos well with your channeling, it's a great buff for the group, and because you only need selective channel and a charisma of 18; you are free to spend your feats to maximize summoning or whatever else suits you.
Proposed stats: 14,12,12,7,14,16(18) if human or half orc. You have basic martial competence, enough spells to function, and your channeling will murder all but undead.
If you just hate this idea then I would pursue an oracle. There are great oracles for twhat you want, they just miss out on some of buffing.
I know you specifically said wisdom based but I think the oracle deserves a little conversation just to give you your choices.
Dual cursed oracles are very strong when it comes to easy buff/debuff because of their misfortune revelation. Being able to instantaneously make your enemies reroll a crit on a pal or get your pals to reroll a failed save is huge.
Second thing is the bones mystery. With that mystery you can be treated as undead for purpose of channeling, channeling negative energy to heal undead (and you), control undead, and summon an undead for a short time that is of your HD or higher. Essentially this means you have become the best undead supporter there is because you keep them alive longer to serve you.
Oracle like the cleric has all the spells you need even if they are one level later. Having a better number of them balances it out.
Finally look at the potential value of borrow fortune spell. You can make a whole build around this honestly as sometimes you just need a reroll.
I find it...distasteful...to have a fellow Pathfinder using the abominations, even though we are trying to accomplish the same goal. But I limit my hostility to hitting him a bit harder than necessary with a wand of Cure Light Wounds.
|
