Also take a look at the Cruoromancer Wizard Archetype. They can make undead at 5 HD per level, and have some nice abilities to buff their minions, as well as a way to beef up their offensive Necr spells.
You could also go for an oracle of bones instead of choosing the Juju mystery. The bonus spells for the mystery of bones have more necromancer spells. It also gives you a couple combat revelations.
Another option would be to go for a Oradin. Take two levels of Antipalading and the rest of your levels as an Oracle of Bones. This gives you heavy armor and martial weapons and CHA to saves. It also gives you smite good to deal with all the paladins that will be coming after you. While the bonus to damage from the smite is only +2 you still get your CHA bonus to hit and to AC .
Regardless of class, stick with Bloody Skeleton, and make a point of hunting down a dragon with as many hit dice as you can raise.
Lots of natural attacks, fast heal... even if destroyed, they come back in an hour.
It's basically a permanent companion, so keeps costs WAY down.
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I'm a huge fan of a necromancer wizard. Command undead spell at level 2 is great stuff. Also love the command undead feat you get for free. Sure it won't be super high DC BUT they can always roll low and every time I play a necro wizard with a 13 CHA start it seems they do roll low on the save.
If you divine then the undead lord is an amazing option.
I just personally like the wizard toolbox.
Read the necromancer guide on the zenith site. It's very good resource that is very thought provoking.
I lean towards Clerical necromancers, a little because I like the theme of it... a little cause of the access to more healing/harming stuff.
Arcane necromancers I don't enjoy as much, though they can blast stuff better when they need to...
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Blasting is over rated.
It's all in the pit spells and glitterdust for CC.
Trap them in a pit with your undead is hilarious to say the least.
The only spell I miss as a wizard necro is death knell. And as a cleric I miss command undead as a 2nd level spell. So there is a trade off of really good spells.
Blasting is over rated.
It's all in the pit spells and glitterdust for CC.
Trap them in a pit with your undead is hilarious to say the least.
The only spell I miss as a wizard necro is death knell. And as a cleric I miss command undead as a 2nd level spell. So there is a trade off of really good spells.
*high-five*
Divine necromancers FTW (my opinion)
Mucking about with channeling is cool too, lots of options.
Does that samasaran (sp?) race let you add different class spells to different classes?
I'm currently playing a spirit guide oracle, using the shaman Lore spirit hex to get a handful of wizard spells - notably 2nd level Control Undead and Blood Money.
Free undead creation is nice.
Overall, having to wait until I'm 6th level for 3rd level spells has been a pain. Lesser Animate Dead doesn't do much (no templates, only small or medium targets rule out most decent HD monsters).
The Oracle is decent when you aren't performing necromancy, but the limited number of spells known has been horribly annoying. Eg when you get to 6th level, you can only know 1 spell. What do you pick? As a necromancer, you want Animate Dead, but there are better spells available so you can be useful to the party.
Too many niche spells are needed, so I'd recommend either a wizard or a cleric.
Don't forget witches. With the right patron and/or archetype they make fine necromancers, too.
Witches and Wizards also have the advantage of blood money, making all those zombies and skeletons cost you barely more than a few hit points and a point of strength damage.
You could also try something completely dfferent: A gnome dirge bard with the fell magic racial trait.
Other than that, I'd problbay go with a divine caster, too. It's simply the fastest way to animate dead.
Don't forget witches. With the right patron and/or archetype they make fine necromancers, too.
Witches and Wizards also have the advantage of blood money, making all those zombies and skeletons cost you barely more than a few hit points and a point of strength damage.
You could also try something completely dfferent: A gnome dirge bard with the fell magic racial trait.
Other than that, I'd problbay go with a divine caster, too. It's simply the fastest way to animate dead.
Ooh, thematically, a witch would make a GREAT necromancer... spooky!
Ham up the stereotype with a black cat and everything. :D
Everyone seems to always forget the Gravewalker Witch when discussing necromancy to animate and control the dead. It's so neat! The only thing I don't really like is that they don't get Lesser Animate Dead, but that's not much of an issue.
Relevant copy pasta.
Gravewalker Witch is my personal pick even before it got access to Spirit Talker - Arcane Enlightenment.
Main reasons:
1. Can control undead from level 1. Bonethrall can be used repeatedly on the same targets. Bonethrall also solves a Witch weakness by giving you a repeated SoD v. Undead.
2. Gravewalker gives you the three most important spells for animating minions at their lowest level - Blood Money at level 1, Command Undead as a level 2 spell and Animate Dead as a level 3 spell. Admittedly you will have to wait til 6 to start animating.
3. The other important Necromancy spell Desecrate can be replicated by a Voidstick for only 2,500 GP.
4. You can eventually get to use magic jar on your undead all day long.
So let me talk real quick about why Juju mystery (the old one) is secretly bad for necromancy or any class that tries to sell you on offering more then 4 HD per level of Animate Dead control, say Juju offering you 6 HD. Basically Command Undead (the spell) makes this worthless. Command Undead has an insane duration of days per level. That's a lot of Undead you can potentially be controlling at very very little cost.
Sidenote: Juju used to be pretty good because it let you make Good or Neutral undead, which allowed for a 100% Good Necromancer. That ability was since errata'd away, but if you can get a GM to stick to what is printed I'd recommend them. Also it's still good if you want to turn your entire party into Juju Zombies, since it's a pretty rocking template. And since you are an Oracle it can make you even more CHA SAD.
This is also the reason that classes trying to sell you on having Command Undead (the Feat) are kind of bleh. Oh wow, you have a really pretty bad extra pool of undead control.
So ya, Gravewalker Witch. Shaman of course will work, but all it's mysteries are incredibly meh for it.
Some general points:
1) You don't really want "lots of undead" -- because undead mooks are still mooks, and will be mostly ineffective, and/or destroyed very quickly. You need undead powerful enough to help out in fights (or to do other things). So unless you have some really incredible mook tactics in mind, total number of HD of undead under your control is less important than how many HD and abilities your one (or maybe two) undead have.
2) Necromancy is more than just creating undead; wizard or witch undead can be really effective at de-buffing foes. Clerics are better at creating or buffing undead. On the whole, though, you can play any of the major types of necromancers quite well -- just figure out what you want to do, and then how best to do it.
3) Healing undead in combat doesn't matter very much -- cripple your foes with your spells while your friends and your undead minions kill them. Bloody skeletons (which usually come back if destroyed), or some type of regenerating undead, are better than ones that just get destroyed.