Character building advice: perfect body necromancer

[AlastarOG]

Greetings all,

I am running an evil kingmaker campaign and one of the players just finalised his motivations as being a mad necromancer who is obsessed with rebuilding his dead family.

His wife is his ghost companion (undead lord homebrew archetype, she's a ghost) and he wants to have a wizard who is obsessed with creating the perfect body to reincarnate his wife.

What kind of skill feats, ancestry feats, archetypes or class feats strike you as being thematical for this?

Thanks in advance !

[pendothrax]

https://2e.aonprd.com/Archetypes.aspx?ID=72

the ritualist seems like a must for raising undead "children".

Also, a side quest to become the parent of attic whisperer(s) would go well with this concept as well.

[HumbleGamer]

Since the wife is a ghost, wouldn't be wiser and more efficient for the wizard to just find a host for her?

I mean, why bothering with frankenstein stuff while the wizard could kidnap a woman with a similar ( or even the exact ) appareance of his deceased wife?

[cavernshark]

In an Abomination Vaults campaign, I'm playing a CN Dhampir Wizard (Necromancer), currently level 5. His backstory is that he's been experimenting on himself in order to eventually contain/excise the negative aspects of his own physiology. This is represented as a metamagic thesis (I flavor his metamagic feats as using his own blood to fuel his spells; he'll scratch his arm as his metamagic action). He's quite sane, not evil; but very driven by personal desire to see this through.

I've given him several skill feats like Risky Surgery and Forensic Acumen to note his aptitude for anatomical experimentation. Originally I'd planned for him to go into Medic, but another party member took that so I've gone a different route.

For spells: animate dead is an obvious one, but summon construct can also make a lot of sense depending on how you go with it. I've taken to summoning throw away undead minions as flank buddies and then using Final Sacrifice when I'm done with them to 'clean-up.' I'm planning to grab Split Slot at 6 to make that easier to use as a tactic (Final Sacrifice when a minion is available, something else when not). False Life is also a good one, representing your understanding of extending something's life. Slough Skin is similar, though more situational. Generally, I focus on transmutation and necromancy spells. Lots of good attacks, buffs, and debuffs across that list.

For archetypes, I'd originally considered Ritualist but after discussing with the GM it felt like it wouldn't be worth occupying most of my class feats. I've opted for Eldritch Researcher archetype instead since it hit a lot of the same thematic beats and also has a feat to improve ritual performance at level 8. You may also want to consider the Golem Grafter at higher levels as that is very much about building a better body, albeit your own.

I don't know anything about your homebrewed archetype, but I will note that Phantom eidolons (Anger/Dedication) are only a week or two away. A summoner with a phantom eidolon with wizard dedication or a wizard with a summoner dedication might work to similarly hit the feeling of this character.

[AlastarOG]

cavernshark wrote:

In an Abomination Vaults campaign, I'm playing a CN Dhampir Wizard (Necromancer), currently level 5. His backstory is that he's been experimenting on himself in order to eventually contain/excise the negative aspects of his own physiology. This is represented as a metamagic thesis (I flavor his metamagic feats as using his own blood to fuel his spells; he'll scratch his arm as his metamagic action). He's quite sane, not evil; but very driven by personal desire to see this through.

I've given him several skill feats like Risky Surgery and Forensic Acumen to note his aptitude for anatomical experimentation. Originally I'd planned for him to go into Medic, but another party member took that so I've gone a different route.

For spells: animate dead is an obvious one, but summon construct can also make a lot of sense depending on how you go with it. I've taken to summoning throw away undead minions as flank buddies and then using Final Sacrifice when I'm done with them to 'clean-up.' I'm planning to grab Split Slot at 6 to make that easier to use as a tactic (Final Sacrifice when a minion is available, something else when not). False Life is also a good one, representing your understanding of extending something's life. Slough Skin is similar, though more situational. Generally, I focus on transmutation and necromancy spells. Lots of good attacks, buffs, and debuffs across that list.

For archetypes, I'd originally considered Ritualist but after discussing with the GM it felt like it wouldn't be worth occupying most of my class feats. I've opted for Eldritch Researcher archetype instead since it hit a lot of the same thematic beats and also has a feat to improve ritual performance at level 8. You may also want to consider the Golem Grafter at higher levels as that is very much about building a better body, albeit your own.

I don't know anything about your homebrewed archetype, but I will note that...

The archetype is basically beastmaster but with undead instead. His wife is the "phantom" companion with low HP and damage but some ghost perks.

Thanks for the input, I'll talk with him about moving some more summon construct in since two other in the team already abuse summon undead (the bones Oracle has it as a signature spell )