Necromancer witch build?

[Mr. Pyro]

So, my last character in one of our running evil campaigns was killed saving his lover, who has now taken residence with some Necromancers, wishes only to bring her lover back from the grave, and also make an undead army or bodyguards. Very thematical stuff. I will be playing her now.

Would a Gravewalker/Hex Channler witch make a viable Necromancer? Human, 10th level. Is it possible to work towards Lichdom with this build?

[Klorox]

Are those two archetypes compatible?

I have no build to propose, but the gravewalker certainly looks viable.

[Mr. Pyro]

Klorox wrote:

Are those two archetypes compatible?

I have no build to propose, but the gravewalker certainly looks viable.

Yes, Gravewalker replaces 1st, 4th, and 8th level Hexes, along with the usual Familiar, while Hex Channler, replaces 2nd level Hex. I know it will be costly Hex wise, so most of my feats will be sunk into buffing Hexs or other stuff. I generally don't build anything other than Pyro Glasscannons, and I hear Arcane Necromancers can be more difficult to build than Divine ones.

Edit* grammer and punctuation.

[derpdidruid]

Grave walker witch is so fun to play. Its not so good for the classic "army of the dead" sort of necromancer. However! it excels at having one or two fairly strong undead at a time. never underestimate the ability to take control of a 1HD undead hawk for scouting only to pop back to your lovely 9HD undead Monstrosity when things get ugly.

[Mr. Pyro]

derpdidruid wrote:

Grave walker witch is so fun to play. Its not so good for the classic "army of the dead" sort of necromancer. However! it excels at having one or two fairly strong undead at a time. never underestimate the ability to take control of a 1HD undead hawk for scouting only to pop back to your lovely 9HD undead Monstrosity when things get ugly.

Sounds like you've done this before, any recommendations? I'd love to do a Dhampir with this, but it's offlimits because of... Certain events I may have caused in game.

[derpdidruid]

Essentially all I did was never spend any time in my real body. Bag of holding + that one ion stone that makes you not need to breath kept me safe from harm. Only ever had to leave to eat and drink, or if we where going into town.

The main draw of never being in your body is that (depending on what kind of undead you make) you get amazing defensive abilitys and wounderful physical stats that you would normally have to spend spells on. its a lot like the synthesist summoner in a way.

[Mr. Pyro]

derpdidruid wrote:

So, we still have a week to the campaign, and what I've come up with so far is a Witch (Gravewalker/Hex Channeler) 6/Agent of the Grave 4, since my plan is to eventually become a Dread Lich anyway and because of this nice little thing regarding the Gravewalker's Bonethrall, "The witch can control up to 1 HD of undead creatures per caster level", means I loosing no HD on my beautiful minion, and I can control up to 52 HD worth undead Via spells like Animate Dead.

My build so far (Rolled Stats w/ 4d6 drop lowest) (Got lucky with two 18's)
Human
HP: 20 + 6 (Con) = 6 (FCB)

Str: 14
Con: 12
Dex: 16
Int: 20 (18 + 2 from Race)
Wis: 13
Cha: 20 (18 + 2 from level boost)

I have yet to throw my Feats or Hexes around, and right now I only get 1 selectable Hex since I lost 3 of them to Alternate Class features and I'm thinking about sacking that Hex for an extra 1d6 channel so it can be 2d6 Vs 1d6. (It can only be increased vis sacrificing Hexes gained through Witch levels, not Extra Hex)

Edit: I have a total of 6 feats, 5 from level, 1 for racial, and our DM allows a special Feat that can pretty much be used for a special ability, some affect for the character, or an item or two depending on how powerful they are. (We usually run High-Powered campaigns with numerous Homebrew monsters to keep us on our toes, and numerous puzzles and other horrifying traps and things)

Thoughts, concerns, ideas?

I also need to select something, or multiple things, that can total up to 10 HD. My DM is allowing me to select whatever I want (Even intelligent undead), with his permission. He's approved an Autumn Horror or even a Grave Knight, but I'd still like to get some thoughts or opinions.

Additional Edit* A Gravewalker get's Animate Dead as a 6th level bonus spell. I also now realize that I only get 9 HD worth of Undead, because I lost a CL for the first level of Gravewalker which gets no boost to ECL.