Looking for something similar to an animal companion except more zombie like. Even a construct could be easy to convert.
What I'm looking to build is something like a chosen (or today's chosen) zombie minion.
Second question:
Can necromancers create zombies that are human with more HD? The animate dead spell is confusing me a bit. When I look at the beastiary it seems that with human zombies I can only make them with 2 HD. Once the campaign is underway these will get outclasses without trying.
Shadowdancers get a Shadow. Very handy.
Undead lord Cleric KINDA gets an undead companion.
Undead bloodline sorcerer's can have an undead bloodline familiar.
Ultimate Magic has Undead Lord cleric archetype. Its corpse companion does not level, but it can be dismissed and replaced by a new, more powerful corpse companion with 8 hour-long ritual.
The 3.5 Blackguard has an undead 'animal companion' instead of the warhorse as an option. It was a PrC.
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Vampiric Companion and Corpse Companion are the closest I've found so far. Can I get a human animal companion? Humans are animals...
Most classes that play around with animating undead get the ability to animate more powerful undead as their caster levels increase.
They do get the ability to reanimate larger HD creatures. I'm looking for more HD on the same creature.
Eidolons can look very undead and even get some undead qualities.
You can get some templates e.g. bloody skeleton, which count as double their normal amount of hit dice to animate and which have extra abilities. They have no actual extra hit dice though. For really tougher creatures you need spells like Create Undead instead.
What is a "chosen (or today's chosen) zombie minion"?
Just use the animal companion rules and the base ability scores for a plain zombie or skeleton. Lots of resistances and immunities, but mindless undead have zero Intelligence. :)
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Vampiric Companion and Corpse Companion are the closest I've found so far. Can I get a human animal companion? Humans are animals...
With a Devolutionist Druid any humanoid can be reduced to an animal.
What is a "chosen (or today's chosen) zombie minion"?
As a necromancer this character will have a virtual army of undead minions. Most of these are just fodder and will die in one hit with near 0 chance of damaging anything (past level 3 or so).
This chosen one, needs to be able to connect and be a threat, similar in scope to an animal companion or eidolon. The chosen today means I don't really care if it is killed as I will just summon/Raise a new one.
Not PFS, pretty open to sources anything Piazo for sure.
You could attain an Animal Companion with any class or archetype that does not provide one with the Animal Ally feat. Corpse Companion and Vampiric Companion would make it undead be requires you to be considered Ghoul or Dhampir respectively.
If you're Human you could take Racial Heritage to achieve either of these and qualify for a racial archetype of the humanoid race you choose.
This is feat hungry but removes your restriction of class selections for acquiring an animal companion.
Undead are thematically and mechanically geared against progression, they don't just die, they are destroyed at 0hp and usually have no means of 'resurrection'. They're disposable and have no character and smell bad. So if you raise a zombie #93 he's going to be the same as #1 #2 and #47, but you can name them all 'Francis' and put a silly hat on them.
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It's from the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana, but it could be adapted to Pathfinder (as an OGL option): A variant Necromancer specialist wizard can replace their familiar (Arcane Bond in Pathfinder) with a skeletal minion (HD equal to wizard level, +1/2 wizard level to natural armor, +1/3 wizard level to Str and Dex scores).
Necrologist Spiritualist archetype makes your phantom undead, it does progress as a normal phantom as you level, subject to some ability adjustments. It's a ghost that can put on ectoplasm to be fluffed like a zombie.
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If third party material is on the table, check out the White Necromancer from Kobold Press!
One of the archetypes, the grave-bound does exactly that!!!
You can also find the White Necromancer in the New Paths Compendium, also from Kobold Press :)
Vampiric Companion and Corpse Companion are the closest I've found so far. Can I get a human animal companion? Humans are animals...
You can take leadership. Or, there's the Deevolutionist Druid in Horror Adventures that gives you a primitive human companion.
Another animal companion option is the Accursed Companion.
If you want a wizard version of the cleric archetype, Undead Master is your go-to. You can get an undead companion, and get all the relevant undead spells a level early. The only thing you don't get is Descerate, so you'll need to get yourself a Voidstick as soon as you can.
If you want a wizard version of the cleric archetype, Undead Master is your go-to. You can get an undead companion, and get all the relevant undead spells a level early. The only thing you don't get is Descerate, so you'll need to get yourself a Voidstick as soon as you can.
I second this suggestion, the Undead Lord (Ultimate Magic) or Undead Master (Horror Adventures) are the closest archetypes for achieving what you are asking for.
However, you are still creating skeletons and zombies. Meaning their hit dice depends on their size. With skeletons and zombies, bigger is always better. As you get to higher levels you just need to start looking for giants and dragons to reanimate.If you really just have to have a human-sized undead minion that scales with you; look into Vile Leadership (Ultimate Intrigue) and get yourself a ghoul (or if the GM will let you, a skeletal champion or zombie lord) as a cohort.
