So, I'm going into a "good" aligned campaign, run by a friend, and I'm playing an occultist. I've decided I want to have my character focus on using necromancy for a platoon of flaming skeletons, to fight, and using illusion to keep to the shadows, while he casts transmutation spells on his minions, and skeletal allies. Of course, the whole build requires minions summoned with necromany, for the focus on numbers. I don't want make my GM house rule much, just to suit my convenience. So. Does anybody know any good ways to summon undead, without it being an evil act? Please note that we start at first level, and my use of illusion and transmutation are irrelevant except to the full build concept, as just using the implement gets me everything I'll need for those two.
Within pathfinder I believe all undead are evil by default.
However all you need to do is house rule 2 things: 1. no spells have inherent alignments
2. Undead are not default evil
Within pathfinder I believe all undead are evil by default.
However all you need to do is house rule 2 things: 1. no spells have inherent alignments
2. Undead are not default evil
The biggest issue there is the fact that that rule could cause a lot of different, unforseen, side effects. I have no issue with the fact that undead are evil, as long as they remain under my controll. Zombies eat people, that's how it is. I fully acknowledge that that is, morally, wrong, and therefore evil. Although I do believe that undead, created by good characters, should not appear as "evil", but simply neutral (1 step closer to evil than the alignment of the caster, to account for the use of negative energy). I also believe that, if the player can justify resurrecting the dead, they should be given a pass (as with morally ambiguous actions in roleplay). If you want to take the alignment shift as more of the idea that they are being corrupted, then I suppose you could let them make a will save.
^The D&D 1st Edition Animate Dead didn't have an explicit [Evil] descriptor but already had the same concept; however, it also had an explicit clause allowing for possible justification for a Good character (even a Good Cleric) to cast it, although warning that such a thing was morally hazardous. Pathfinder is actually more restrictive in simply not allowing a Cleric to cast spells with an alignment descriptor that opposes part of their own alignment, although I vaguely remember some obscure Cleric(?) archetype lifting this restriction, and Inquisitors(*) seem not to have this restriction
(*)For Inquisitors, unless you are a Living Grimoire Inquisitor, you DON'T want to invest your limited spells known in such a niche . . . which aside from the fact that Inquisitors normally don't get Animate Dead at all, points out that this probably isn't something a Good Occultist would want to invest their even more limited spells known in either . . . .
You can depend on your Occultist ability that summons undead, Necromantic Servant, you are summoning them, not creating them.
If you are using Pathfinder lore and not something homebrew then there is no way to be a good character who creates undead, at best you can be neutral. It's an evil act that creates evil energy that marks or even traps the soul.
1.Undead are inherently evil by default.
2.You won't get anyone who is willing to be made undead if they understand the repercussions, , even True resurrection will not allow someone who is been animated to be brought back unless the undead is killed because of it's affect on the soul.
Is this the occultist class or the arcanist archetype named occultist? If it's the latter, the skeleton summoner feat is an option, though it's not a hugely powerful one. Sadly the occultist class doesn't get summon monster or even shadow conjuration so no dice there.
Likewise an occultist arcanist can use the command undead spell or school savant: necromancy/undead to use the command undead feat to control undead you find.
Some archetypes of the occultist class might be better than the base for what you want to do - necroccultist, haunt collector, maybe reliquarian - but none are exactly what you've asked for.
Straight up animating dead is eeeeevvvviiilll in Golarion and still an evil act in the actual rules.
Is this the occultist class or the arcanist archetype named occultist? If it's the latter, the skeleton summoner feat is an option, though it's not a hugely powerful one. Sadly the occultist class doesn't get summon monster or even shadow conjuration so no dice there.
The don't get Summon Monster as spells, but the Servitor Base Focus Power basically duplicates the spells. Similarly the Shadow Beast Focus Power is like the Shadow Conjuration spell being used to cast Summon Monster.
Is this the occultist class or the arcanist archetype named occultist? If it's the latter, the skeleton summoner feat is an option, though it's not a hugely powerful one. Sadly the occultist class doesn't get summon monster or even shadow conjuration so no dice there.The don't get Summon Monster as spells, but the Servitor Base Focus Power basically duplicates the spells. Similarly the Shadow Beast Focus Power is like the Shadow Conjuration spell being used to cast Summon Monster.
That's a point. Summon Monster is called out by name in both, so Servitor will work (shame about the scaling) and Shadow Beast probably should (shame about the late start).
I forgot that the Arcanist has an Occultist archetype that has NO relation to the Occultist class. Why did they do that? Occult Adventures came out not all that long after the Advanced Class Guide. At least Swashbuckler Rogue has some relation to what a Swashbuckler does, and at least Brawler Fighter has some relation to what a Brawler does . . . .