Greetings all,
Opened up the APG and I like what I see. I wanted to try out a Necromancer Cleric via Animate Dead. I was thinking Domain wise Undeath for Malignant Sustenance. Plague domain really looks nice too however synergy wise Undeath seems to be good. I was hoping for opinions from everyone, I know before Command Undead wasn't viable, but with the new feats and spells (namely Animate Dead) is the Cleric Necromancer alive and well?
I think this highly depends on what you mean when you say viable.
Can you play one, and summon undead minion as a combat strategy? Thats absolutely doable now. Theres even hillarious fun to be had blowing up said minions.
If by viable you mean "powerful", well, that's harder to say. Summoning in general has been heavily reigned in to balance it, and my understanding is that its solidly ok. Not spectacular, but better than it seems if applied well.
I say try it and don't get hung up on power level. Seems like it should be a good time.
I doubt anything you can summon via Animate Dead will be sturdy enough to actually get a decent benefit from Malignant Sustenance. It might make the summoned undead last one round longer, but it seems unlikely since summoned creatures are behind in level so much.
You'd basically spend one turn summoning the undead and the next turn sustaining it and castign Malignant Sustenance. After that, it most likely dies. Doesn't help that the focus spell has a range of touch, so you can't even send the summon into battle and keep your distance. Reach spell also won't work since you won't have enough actions for sustain + reach spell + focus spell.
Animate dead is a very nice spell since many undead come with good resistances or a huge amount of HP (Zombies) making them great at soaking up damage. I'd still be surprised if they life for much longer than 1-2 rounds in any moderate or higher combat, making buffing them a bit futile.
As KrispyXIV said, you're most likely better off sending them a good distance away to attack someone, then blowing them up.
since summoned creatures are behind in level so much.
Note that this attribute, while 100% true, isn't quite as bad as it sounds.
The reason is found in the monster/NPC design rules, which consider the equivalent of Fighter accuracy to be the "normal" for most creatures. Because of this, most summons should be in the range of relevance so long as they're coming from your top level slots, and you're making use of flanking.
Not great by any means, but not completely useless either.
most summons should be in the range of relevance so long as they're coming from your top level slots, and you're making use of flanking.
Oh, I didn't mean to imply summons are useless. They are still absolutely useable and can contribute to a casters arsenal.
I just don't think wasting a whole turn and Focus spell to give a summoned undead some regeneration will be an efficient way to spend time. Or an 8th level feat for that matter.
It's probably more efficient to get Wizard Dedication for Augment Summoning, and even for that I'm not sure it's actually worth it since it basically still costs you your turn since you need one action to cast it and another to sustain the summon. There's not too effective stiuff a caster can do with only one action remaining.
Welcome back Blave, long time no see.
Animate Dead seems useful for spawning more undead.
A Plague Zombie can turn a target into another zombie, and Bind Undead can control mindless undead.
A Ghoul can turn a target into another ghoul, and Ghouls are not immune to Charm.
Neither of these are optimal uses, plus clerics don't get Charm.
The Ritual, Inveigle, would be the ideal way to control them.
If undead are soaking hits, that feels like a good way to redirect damage from the indispensable members of your party. The living ones.
Unless the monster benefits from bringing creatures to 0 for some reason that is.
Also, Final Sacrifice is a great way to make the most of your undead just before they die.