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I'm building a level 7 Pathfinder necromancer. The GM says any Paizo hardcover is allowed. I want to min max him for animate dead, so I can have a legion of undead soldiers.
Any good ideas regarding feats? Since I only get Animate Dead at level 7, I don't think a metamagic feat will help much until later. I could multiclass to get desecrate, but then I loose animate dead... what's a necromancer to do?
Is another class an option? Clerics and Oracles make fine Necromancers (desecrate, remove paralysis for fast zombies, 3rd level animate dead).
Grave Walker Witches are pretty good, too. No desecration, but 3rd level animate dead and blood money.
Oracle is the best. Either Juju or Bones.
First of all, a few very strong undead are always better than many weak ones. Always use the fast zombie and bloody skeleton templates for maximum effectiveness on your minions. Second, the great thing about necromancy is that you don't need to do anything special to be good at it. Anyone with access to the animate dead spell and a method to control undead that fall out of control (necromancy specialist wizard comes fully-equipped for this, with the power over undead class feature and the command undead spell) is automatically great at necromancy and creating undead minions, so you don't need to do anything more.
Ideally an arcane necromancer would like to have a non-good Cleric companion who can cast desecrate for him. If that's not an option, then magic items are your standby. If you can't get a permanent magic item that radiates desecration, you can stocking up on scrolls or use a wand. The use magic device skill will let you activate it.
If you are considering a different class than Wizard, the Cleric and Oracle both work great. They get the animate dead spell, but they do not get the command undead spell so for everything they gain there's something they lose. Another option, if you have a bit of patience, is the Sorcerer with the Razmiran Priest archetype (from inner sea magic). This gives you access to any divine spells you might need by letting you use scrolls without expending them, but you'll have trouble getting access to undead minions at the 7th level and the key ability you're looking at only arrives at the 9th level. Whatever you choose to do, do not multiclass.
As for feats, there are two in particular that are noteworthy but both are unclear rules-wise, so make sure to talk to your GM about how he's going to rule on them before taking them. The Undead Master feat (ultimate magic) says that your caster level counts as +4 higher for how many undead you animate, but does not mention how many you can control. If it only counts for animation then it's completely useless, but if it counts for both animation and control it's very powerful.
The Experimental Spellcaster (ultimate magic) feat allows you limited access to the Wordcasting subssystem. You're only interested in the undeath word, which creates skeletons and zombies just like animate dead. It counts as a 3rd level spell (so you can take this feat to gain early access to undead minions as a Sorcerer), doesn't have a material spell component, and there's a very important rules technicality here: the undeath word doesn't state that it interacts with the animate dead spell. Taken literally, the undead created by this spell do not count against your cap with animate dead, and vice-versa. Whether your GM goes along with that is another matter, but it's worth a shot if you want to be really devious.
Oracle is the best. Either Juju or Bones.
Juju Oracle isn't an option, since it's from an adventure path appendix and not a hardcover. Bones Oracle will still work just fine, though.
Ignore Command Undead (the feat).
Use Command Undead (the spell).
Make sure your class grants you access to Command Undead (the spell) and you will be able to easily maintain an absolutely ridiculous number of undead since it lasts days per level per cast. Get a Lesser Extend Rod and go to town.
You'll also want Blood Money or something like Razmiran Priest to skip out on Animate Dead costs.
Desecrate can be covered by a Voidstick so you can ignore it.
I've seen a year long home game stop being played in large part because of a highly min maxed necromancer. It busts action economy and makes you fill far to many combat roles effectively, plus if an undead is large enough and strong enough (literally str score) they tend to "solve" a lot of non combat hurdles. you're DM will probably get really annoyed when everytime he throws what should be a tough entertaining fight be shredded by your monstrosities then be resurrected as your newest death pet.
Necromancers (as in "zombie army" characters) are banned from our table after this player's reign. I'm just saying that unless the DM explicitly targets and plays against you odds are everyone else will be irrelevant basically, and this sort of targeting can generate some animosity.
Just know you are absolutely asking for it if you do this, DM aggro, fellow players eye rolling you at every turn... All I read was min maxed necromancer and that's all I needed to see, I highly recommend you don't do this.
Be a cleric or oracle. Grab the Experimental Spellcaster feat. Use it to learn the Undeath word of power. Proceed to fill your 2nd level spell slots with a short range, no material component animate dead.
Grave Walker is an archetype in Ultimate Magic.
Blood Money can be found in the Runelords Anniversary Edition (which is a hardcover - technically). I don't know if it was ever printed in another book.
Never heard of Voidsticks before but according to the srd, they are from Skulls and Shackles.
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Thanks Blave!
The Undead Master feat (ultimate magic) says that your caster level counts as +4 higher for how many undead you animate, but does not mention how many you can control. If it only counts for animation then it's completely useless, but if it counts for both animation and control it's very powerful.
I take it that if you're using animate dead, the undead you animate are also controlled. Like you say, it would be useless otherwise.
The undead you create remain under your control indefinitely.
I've always found that Clerics (even without optimization/archetypes) kick the guts out of arcane Necromancers.
Channel Energy can be VERY useful if you have large groups of undead... Player a Dhampir so you can heal them AND you at the same time...
Bloody skeletons are a must.
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A Dhampir would actually be perfect. For interest sake, has anyone tried the Cruoromancer archetype (from Advanced Race Guide)?
I'm a little confused with Experimental Spellcaster. I think I can choose any spell casting class? But I don't understand how I use the slots. Is it limited by my caster level in my current class? Undead is a 2nd level Cleric effect word, so am I just getting a bunch of free 2nd level spell slots?
I agree with alex; divine necromancers are normally better at handling the undead than arcane spellcasters.
As a matter of fact Captain Phoenix, I have. Lilpinny Marfedelom, dhamphir/gnome (houseruled race) cruoromancer. I find the archetype mechanically solid and very fun to play. How disturbing is it when the little girl giggles, cuts herself, then touches your dead ally and turns them into an undead?
The mystic theurge can lead to some pretty cheesy shenanigans, actually. Multiclass with it. You end up getting two different classes that each give you animate dead, meaning you get two separate CL pools once you start taking levels in mystic theurge.
Do you have access to Deep Magic? It's a 3rd party book that provides you with a number of short term Undead spells, that work similar to the Summon Monster spells. Very handy for reinforcments on the fly.
I'm a little confused with Experimental Spellcaster. I think I can choose any spell casting class? But I don't understand how I use the slots. Is it limited by my caster level in my current class? Undead is a 2nd level Cleric effect word, so am I just getting a bunch of free 2nd level spell slots?
Simply put, taking experimental spellcaster the first time gives you one new "spell known" in the form of a wordspell to add to your spell list at the appropriate level. You get all the different target words, but mostly you'll just need selected, which makes Undeath a close range spell.
For a cleric or oracle, Selected Undeath is a 2nd level spell with no costly material component that takes a standard action to cast. So, basically superior to animate dead in every way aside from needing to dabble in wordcasting.