Okay, so I'm building a unconventional necromancer using a Druid as my starting chassis.
Nugrah the Decrepit... his wife died giving birth to their son (the Stag Lord), and in my version of this sad tale, Nugrah looked to necromancy in an attempt to raise his wife.
Nugrah is a Blight Druid with the Death Domain. His research into the dark arts has led him to tracking down the pieces of a cursed, sentient item known as the Phylactery of Jadis-Vel.
As he collects the pieces of the mysterious headband, he is driven more and more into the world of necromancy, and the desire to become a Lich starts to become overwhelmingly insatiable.
Since he is already so old and frail, before completing the ritual into Lichdom, he consumes Ghost Syrup, becoming Incorpreal.
Once the ritual is complete, the trickery is obvious. The soul of Nugrah is trapped in the headband and the soul of Jadis-Vel now inhabits Nugrah's newly-incorpreal body.
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Jadis-Vel (formerly Nugrah the Decrepit)
Blight Druid-13/Agent of the Grave-5
Human(old age) Incorpreal Undead/Lich
Comprehensive Education and Focused Study, as alternative racial features.
18HD, CR20
Neutral Evil, worships Urgathoa
Stats w/4 stat bumps, Ghost Syrup & Lich:
-,17,-,18,20,20
No items, yet, WBL=1,800,000gp
Traits:
Warded Against Nature (Drawback)
Silent Hunter (Regional)
???
???
Feats:
1(human). Skill Focus Stealth
1. Shade of the Woodlands
3. Eldritch Heritage (Ghoul Bloodline)
5. Spell Focus Necromancy
7. Mage's Tattoo Necromancy
8(human). Skill Focus Perception
9. Undead Master
11. Craft Wondrous Item
13. Imp. Eldritch Heritage
15. Combat Reflexes???
16(human). Skill Focus Spellcraft
17. Greater Eldritch Heritage
Death Domain spells:
0-none
1-Cause Fear
2-Death Knell
3-Animate Dead
4-Death Ward
5-Slay Living
6-Create Undead
7-Destruction
8-Create Undead, Greater
9-Wail of the Banshee
Shadow of the Woodlands spells:
0-Disrupt Undead, Ray of Frost
1-Ghost Sound, Touch of Fatigue
2-Chill Touch, Spectral Hand
3-Ghoul Touch, Invisibility
4-Displacement, Ray of Exhaustion
5-Animate Dead, Phantasm Killer
6-Nightmare, Waves of Fatigue
7-Circle of Death, Shadow Walk
8-Mass Invisibility, Waves of Exhaustion
9-Horrid Wilting, Weird
AoG Secrets of Death spells:
Command Undead
???
???
???
Offense...
Death Domain ability:
Bleeding Touch Sp., touch attack, 1D6 Bleed damage for 6rnds, 3+WIS/day
Ghoul Bloodline abilities:
Ghoulish Claws Su., two claw attacks, 1D4+Paralysis 1D4+1rnds, 3+CHA rnds/day
Ravenous Frenzy Ex., Haste for 16rnds/day, additional 1D4 Bleed damage if you hit with both claws whilst hasted
Earth Crawler Su., 30' burrow speed, Fast Healing 10 up to 160hp/day
Agent of the Grave ability:
Lich's Touch Su., touch attack, 5D6 negative energy damage, 3+CHA/day
Lich ability:
Melee Attack, touch attack, 1/rnd, 1D8+9 negative energy damage, plus permanent paralysis
Mage's Tattoo ability:
Touch of Fatigue 3/day (as SLA)
Defense...
Incorpreal traits
Undead traits
Lich traits
Miasma Ex., adjacent opponents must make a Fort save or be Sickened
Death's Embrace Ex., healed by negative energy
Blightblooded Ex., immunity to disease, Sickened, and Nauseated
Plaguebearer Ex., opponents who attack with touch attacks, unarmed strikes, or natural attacks must make a Fort save or get a disease
I have the following abilities helping with the whole Necromancer thing...
Urgathoa's obedience: +1 CL for Necromancy spells
Mage's Tattoo: +1 CL for Necromancy spells
Undead Master: +4 levels to determine max HD for Animate Dead, and double duration of Command Undead spell
Inspired Necromancy: count Agent of the Grave levels twice to determine max HD I can command.
Negative Energy Conduit/Desecrate/Urgathoa alter: Animate Dead does 4HD/CL instead of 2HD/CL, all created get +2 Profane bonus to attack/damage/saves, and +2HP/HD.
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Now, how do you play a necromancer?
Day before: use create undead for some special minions?
Day of: stock up on animate dead to recycle the fallen soldiers littering the battlefield?
At least some necromancers spend time/effort getting the best possible corpses so they can fly on a zombie wyvern or throw a ridiculous number of attacks from a skeletal hydra. Dead human skeletons aren't worth bothering with past the very lowest levels except as a terror tactic or bait. That's with animate dead; create undead is a bit iffier.
Create undead (& create greater undead) does use your HD limit more efficiently but the creations are both intelligent and hostile to everything living. Which can be awkward, tho' perhaps less so to a master who is the same. Also if you want a few very high HD servants because of their high BAB or just for convenience animate dead is still better.
How does spell consumption to actually create undead, and the spells required to animate the dead, interact with a necromancer?
What order of operations should I use as a necromancer?
Creating undead the day before and using double duration Command Undead should give me a bunch of useful undead prior to the battle... using Animate Dead to reuse bodies on the field the next day.
Jadis-Vel is going to be both invisible and underground during much of the battle.
He burrows around, invisible, raising the dead, making them invisible.
As part of a large-scale battle, he is absolutely terrifying, until dealt with directly.
Are there any Druid spells worth preparing besides buffs and area control spells?
I still don't actually know how to play a necromancer...
I'm not sure what you mean by spell consumption. A character with spellcasting per a 17th level druid isn't going to notice losing their 2nd-3rd level spell slots on command undead & animate dead, and would barely notice losing their 6th level spell slots - which could easily be used the day before (or earlier) as you suggest anyway.
As to what spells to prepare exactly it depends on what you're facing. A large army of 5th level or less? Blasts work fine. Battlefield control is most useful to stop your enemies running away. A small group of 10th level PCs? Send in your best minions with buffs and aiding from a distance should work. The same but 15th? You'll probably lose, only max-HD minions will have a chance of having an effect and even then you'll need to be on the scene fully buffed to have a chance of winning. 20th? Kiss that incorporeal butt goodbye.
Well, the party is probably going to be 17+, but the party is also going to be a very small portion of a much larger scale battle.
The majority of the battlefield is going to be ran with the mass combat rules... except for directly around the party.
The named bad guys of higher ranks will likely leave their soldiers to die, in order to ensure they live to fight another day. Or at least regroup at the end for a final showdown between the highest level bad guys and the party.
Kind of a Lord of the Rings type scenario, with a large amount of troops and chaos, with the party running around in the middle of this trying to turn the tide to save the kingdom.
Jadis-Vel is one of the named bad guys of higher ranks. Whenever and however the party finds him and deals with him is totally up to them, as they deal with literally everything else.
You mentioned blasting, but part of the Shadow of the Woodlands feat is the removal of all Fire descriptor spells, so that limits some things.
Explosion of rot is a good if small area blast for druids. Control winds can create a tornado if there's any wind to start with at all and covers a huge area; Jadis-Vel could probably kill armies with it alone. Scan the list for anything mentioning lightning and there'll be more, call lightning storm for instance. Just don't expect any of them to be any use against a 17th+ level party.
Escaping when things go wrong may be easy via running underground or word of recall but it's really hard to guess the capabilities of that party. Fighting that party...isn't going to go well unless he has real allies. Frightful aspect may help defensively. He might try clashing rocks on a target which might have a lowish touch AC, or finger of death on a target which might have a lowish fort save.
Thank you for your help.
So, the lightning spells, anything with disease or rot, I like the Spirit Call spell for buffing the Death Domain spells, and I hadn't thought about a freaking tornado via Control Winds... that is a good idea.
How effective are the Cursed Terrain spells?
I've never seen them in use but I find it hard to believe such hazards would even slow a high level party. Especially with armies to demonstrate how the hazards work by doing the redshirt thing. Vs. armies, it would be more use if the hazards were targetable. Curse terrain looks like something to use if you can prepare the battlefield (map & figure out what they do before the battle) or as a terror tactic.
I was thinking about Curse Terrain against the mass combat engagements, pushing the favor towards the enemy.
However, I don't want to waste spells in background battles that can be better used in the main engagement with the party.
So, forget Curse Terrain. Got it.
Being incorpreal brings its own challenges for items. But I have a lot of gold to spend... what are my options for enhancing his abilities without a bunch of Ghost Touch items?
For that matter, can headbands and the like be made Ghost Touch so incorpreal creatures may benefit from them?
This item answers all such problems.
If you don't like it then get things that aren't things - spells made to last with permanency, wishes to enhance ability scores, money spent on training in downtime, etc.
Amulet of Grasping Souls
Thank you!
Honestly, I found the Phylactery of Jadis-Vel on AoN, and decided I wanted to use it. I haven't been able to find anything on who or what Jadis-Vel was before, or where he came from.
So, I just had it coax Nugrah into being an incorpreal Agent of the Grave by the time the ritual was completed. That way Jadis-Vel's new body will be harder to kill than his previous body was.
All of this because I think an incorpreal Lich sounds like fun.
The large army he is part of is not comprised solely of his creations or minions.
Jadis-Vel, himself, is but a high ranking member of an invading army. He is not in charge of the army's tactics or direction, his usefulness comes from his particular set of skills as a necromancer. He is more comparable to the battlefield "medic" than a commander.
Jadis-Vel is going to prepare some Shadows, absolutely. Their ability to multiply on their own makes them a very effective use of the HD Jadis-Vel can create/command.
The majority of the army will be relatively generic level 6-8, single class warriors. Most of them will live and die in mass combat rules.
Although some of them may get the chance to "live" and die again under the control of Jadis-Vel.
There's a reason I said humanoid zombies/skeles (well, excepting giants) weren't worth the effort. They come back with 1 or 2 HD not their class levels and can't hit anything, and die quickly too. If a wedge of knights go down target their warhorses maybe but don't bother with the knights themselves.
Can I get some help with the math to determine the max HD I can create/command?
As for Caster Levels... Jadis-Vel is CL17, CL18 w/ Magical Knack.
Obedience is +1
Mage's Tattoo is +1
Orange Prism Ioune Stone is +1
Spirit Call is +1
Animate Dead does 4HD/CL instead of 2HD/CL
As for HD... Jadis-Vel is 18HD.
Undead Master does +4 levels to determine max HD
Agent of the Grave levels count twice to determine max HD
So... Jadis-Vel is CL22 and is 27HD, for the purpose of determining the max HD I can create/command?
I absolutely love this Druid Necromancer concept VoodistMonk :)
There are many ways to play a Necromancer. Some Necros are debuff/blaster focused, and some Necros are Zoo-focused, and by Zoo I mean having a massive army of undead following you around, and then there's a mix of anything in between full debuffer/blaster and full Zookeeper.
I personally prefer to do a bit of both, but lets talk about Zoo because it sounds like you want to be more of a zookeeper. Use the sheet at the end of this link https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5kvBvq2DEHjRWFhSWc1ZzAzaDg/edit to keep track of all the undead following you around. It will make your life so much simpler.
Zoo:
There's three "buckets" of Undead you can have: Animate Dead, Command Undead (the feat), and Command Undead (the spell). Animate Dead is CL x 4HD, Command Undead (feat) wouldn't apply for you because you don't Channel Negative Energy, and Command Undead (spell) is the "juggling act" of Necromancy and this is where you get the big army from. So you will only have two "buckets" of Undead: Animate Dead & Command Undead (spell).
Maximizing Animate Dead: Spell Spec, Varisian Tattoo, Spell Perfection
Spell Specialization (Animate Dead) + Varisian Tattoo (Necromancy) + Spell Perfection (Animate Undead) can get you 6 extra CL (24HD) specifically for your Animate Dead. So if you're 13Druid/5AotG, that's a 18CL (Caster Level) + 6CL (SpellPerf+SpellSpec+Varisian) + 5CL (because AotG levels count twice) = 29x4HD = 116HD of Undead. Get some CL boosting items like Orange Ioun Stone and this number will be higher.
Use Dreamed Secrets to get the spell Blood Money every day (at least until your Animate Dead HD is full) so you can reduce the costs associated with Animate Undead significantly. Once your Animate Dead bucket is full, you don't need to prepare Blood Money anymore.
Maximizing Command Undead (spell): Extend Spell, Undead Master, Dreamed Secrets
Undead Master and Extend Spell can effectively turn your Command Undead duration to 3days/lvl instead of 1day/lvl. And this is your juggling act. Each day, prepare an Extended Command Undead, and then you get 3days x 18lvl = 54 days of in-game days where you control that particular Undead. Each day, grab another undead. Pretty soon, you're going to have 54 undead following you around and once you've reached that, instead of finding a new Undead to control, cast your Command Undead spell on the Undead you controlled 54 days ago. Here's the rub though, Druids don't get Command Undead, so the only way you can get it is via the Dreamed Secrets feat at lvl 13, which gives you two Wizard spells per day. So, prepare two Extended Command Undead spells, or, prepare an Extended Command Undead spell and Limited Wish or Contingency or something.
Blasting:
As far as blasting is concerned, Druids have a lot of blasting power. Dreamed Secrets is particularly useful for blasting because you can pick up two Wizard spells. Take Spell Perfection on Disintegrate, and then prepare Quickened True Strike (lvl5 slot) + Persistent Empowered Disintegrate (lvl8 slot) = 36d6 (+50%) and the target has to save twice or turn into a pile of orange goo.
If you want to blast normally without Disintegrate or if you're going to put Spell Perfection on Animate Dead so you can be a Zookeeper, here's some good Druid blaster spells (not all, just my faves):
1st Produce Flame, Entangle, Wild Shape into an Octopus or Deinonychus or something with lots of Natural Attacks and cast Frostbite - Frostbite lasts for 1hit/lvl
2nd Tar Ball, Stone Call, Flame Blade, Frigid Touch, Burning Disarm, Flaming Sphere
3rd Call Lightning, Spike Growth, Ash Storm
4th Ball Lightning, Obsidian Flow, Geyser, Flame Strike, Explosion of Rot
5th Fire Snake, Call lightning Storm, Wall of Thorns (+lvl 3 plant growth)
6th Tar Pool, Roaming Pit, Sirocco
7th Fire Storm, Sunbeam, Control Weather*
8th Reverse Gravity, Finger of Death, Stormbolts, Earthquake, Sunburst
9th Clashing Rocks, Tsunami
*Control Weather isn't technically a blaster spell. But if you come across a town that isn't nice to you and you're feeling a little destructive, you can wipe it right off the map.
If you're going to go full Druid blaster, get Empower/Maximize/Intensify/Heighten Spell, Spell Specialization/Preferred Spell, and Spell Perfection and you will melt faces.
But if you're going for a mix of Blaster/Zookeeper, I'd recommend picking up Spell Spec (Animate Dead), Varisian Tattoo (Necromancy), Heighten, Empower, Extend, Preferred Spell (Explosion of Rot), Dreamed Secrets, Spell Perfection (Animate Dead), Undead Master, and then pick up any other two feats you want (you're human so you get 11 feats), maybe Spell Focus and Greater Spell Focus in Necromancy, or maybe Spell Penetration/Greater Spell Penetration, or Piercing Spell.
Also, whenever you find a corpse of something that you want to keep around for a long time, give them the Bloody template so they can respawn after they die. Animate Dead can only work on corpses, but once they've been animated and killed/destroyed in combat, they cannot come back. So, use the bloody template to keep them around longer, and then never let any Paladins or Clerics near your preciouses. One thing that you can do that's really cool for your UD army is to figure out a way to create a Demiplane in something that you carry and then keep your army in there. You're going to attract a lot of unwanted attention if you have 54+ undead from Command Undead and 116+ HD worth of undead from Animate Dead following you around.
The best part about Animate Dead is that you never have to make checks against them, so if you want them to be "mostly-permanent" additions to your army, create Bloody versions of them and put them in your Animate Dead bucket.
Wait, what?
Animate Dead and Create Undead have separate HD pools?!
I thought that both were competing for my max HD that I can command.
Although, the ones that I create, I have to command... the ones I animate are assumed to be spawned with my intentions as their goal... it makes sense, I just thought my HD limit of control was counting everything I control.
Like I said, I don't know how to play a necromancer, so this is news to me.
Shadow of the Woodlands gives me Mass Invisibility, so my undead army can be invisible, even if being on another plane is certainly safer.
The metamagic feats you mentioned are an obvious advantage over the Ghoul Bloodline feats. I have no experience with metamagic feats, so going Ghoul was easier for me to handle and worked with the theme.
I will see what I come up with replacing the Eldritch Heritage feats with metamagic and Spell Perfection, and post back with what I end up with.
Thank you to everyone who has responded, thusfar. I much appreciate it.
Animate Dead and Command Undead are two different "buckets" of undead that you control.
Create Undead is a different type of spell entirely. If you want to control an undead that you create with the Create Undead spell, it does not fall under your control automatically like Animate Dead does. Instead, you can cast Create Undead on a corpse and turn it into a very powerful undead creature, and then cast Command Undead on it to control it.
Command Undead is it's own "bucket" of undead you can control aside from Animate Dead, and it's not limited by HD, instead it's limited by the "juggling act". You have to successfully cast the spell on them, and if they resist it, then they're not under your control anymore, and they may (probably will) turn on you. So Persistent Spell and Spell Focus become really attractive at this point if you plan on controlling lots of minions with Command Undead.
Edit: Generally speaking though, treat the Undead in your Animate Dead bucket as your preciouses, and don't send them into combat unless absolutely necessary, or if they have the bloody template and you're absolutely positive the enemy doesn't have holy water or a Paladin/Cleric; but treat the Undead in your Command Undead bucket as mostly-disposable. Send them into combat first, let them kill whatever they're going to kill, and then replenish the undead you've lost with whatever bodies they've killed using Create Undead and Create Greater Undead.