Bao Hadir |
So as the title says, I'm wanting to play a Necromancer in the next campaign I'm playing in. It's a gestalt campaign, so I was thinking Undead Master Wizard and Undead Lord Cleric. Third party is only allowed by GM approval, which I got for the spell Animate Skeleton. Beyond that, not sure how to build a good Necromancer. I'm not dead-set on my class choices.
Mysterious Stranger |
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Problem with the Wizard and Cleric is they have different casting stats. What I would recommend is going with an Oracle of bones with the lich curse, and a sorcerer with the ghoul bloodline. The ghoul bloodline gives you some natural armor bonus and resistance to cold. It also heals you when you cast a necromancy spell that does damage. Oracle of bones gives you command undead and Armor of bones. Both classes use CHA as your casting stat, and it also is used for commanding undead. Bleeding wounds means your negative energy spells cause ongoing damage. Lich curse makes it so you heal from negative energy so you can cast inflict wounds on yourself when needed. You get Ray of Enfeeblement and Vampiric touch as oracle spells.
You can cast inflict wound spells on your opponents and cause them bleed damage and heal yourself at the same time. The healing is only equal to the level of the necromancy spell that does damage, but considering how many of those you could have you will get a lot of healing out of them.
TxSam88 |
I played an Undead Lord Cleric of a neutral god with versatile channeling. I was able to both heal my party and heal my undead minions with my channels. Picking a "Separatist" archetype will allow you to get the Death Domain.
Good feats are:
Command Undead
Undead Master
Varisian Tattoo (Necromancy)
Spell Focus Necromancy
Greater Spell Focus Necromancy
Healer's Touch
Be sure to find the article about your undead buckets so you know just exactly how many Hit Dice worth of undead you can have active all at once
It's pretty awesome to let your party kill off about half the bad guys, then animate them to join in the fight to kill off the rest, and then animate those to take to the next fight. You can apply templates to your animations - burning skeletons are nice. Just talk to your GM ahead of time about the Onyx cost - If he's not willing to make a compromise, it can really take quite a bit of spending money away from your character.
Oh, and get ready for your GM to hate you.
zza ni |
if you are evil getting a cacodaemon improved familiar can easy on the payment for the onyx's. it's 1/day soul gem ability can usually end up with a soul gem worth at average 500 gp (or a lot more sometimes) that can be used as material component (or for crafting).
2 levels of souldrinker would give you a soul pool and ability to charge it . making it even easier with the cash flow problems.
OfTheCollectible |
Undead Master Wizard is a good fit with an occultist thanks to the necromancy implement and the int focus.
Necroccultist is a nice archetype but probably doesn't add too much to the gestalt part of this build.
I would probably go for panoply savant as an archetype for the extra mental focus and weirdly enough grab the trappings of the warrior panoply for the additional BAB for your summoned undead.
Alternatively you can also go silk channeler, stick to being a full caster, have great spell endurance, an insane amount of HD for your undead and access to pretty much all the spells you might ever need.
Gol Golarion |
Because It's the object of my obsession at the moment, I'll go ahead and plug the Medium. The Medium has access to the Control Undead spell, the Animate & Create undead spells, Desecrate, Possession at lv 8 to give yourself an undead body, and Channel Negative Energy that you can install the Command Undead feat into via Legendary influence.
There are some downsides to this wide breadth of power, it doesn't progress as quickly as either a necro wizard or necro cleric, and the options aren't always on.
As for a Gestalt pairing, I think Fractured Mind Spiritualist would work pretty well, supplementing your bone boys and undead shell of choice with an ectoplasmic vanguard that can deliver spells like Stricken Heart.
Melkiador |
There are almost too many ways to make a good necromancer.
Base necromancy school wizard is already adequate. The undead master archetype doesn't improve things much for a necromancer. It seems better for wizards of other schools trying to get in on the necromancy game. Cruromancer is a better archetype, but you have to be a dhampir.
Evil clerics already have access to everything they need to be a good necromancer. Undead Lord doesn't offer much in the way of upgrades for that playstyle. You could just as easily be a herald caller and take skeleton summoning.
Bones Oracle gets the job done in one convenient package. It's probably the "easiest" necromancer.
And then there are lots of other classes that can do the job just fine, more than I care to list.
If I were going to gestalt, I'd probably go bones oracle with antipaladin.
Mysterious Stranger |
A Knight of the Sepulcher Antipaladin./Oracle of bones would be extremely effective. Bleeding wounds would work with touch of corruption to give it bleed damage. You would be able to command undead from the oracle side and still channel negative energy from the oracle side without having to use the touch of corruption to do so. Heavy armor and CHA to saves is going to make you tough as hell to hurt. When you factor in the immunities and fortification from the Knight of the Sepulcher you become even tougher.
Dragonchess Player |
Some other necromancer options that might be of interest:
Reanimator alchemist; can be combined with the preservationist archetype (taking the Planar Preservationist and Skeleton Summoner feats allows for instant undead in a bottle)
Dirge bard
Magus (use Spell Blending to pick up animate dead and other Necromancy spells)
Sorcerer (Shadow or Undead bloodlines; possibly the wild-blooded archetype for Sanguine or Umbral)
Spiritualist (possibly grim apostle or necrologist)
Summoner (chained version with eidolon using the Undead model)
Gravewalker witch (Death, Occult, Shadow, or Spirits patron); can be combined with the hex channeler archetype (note that Command Undead feat is based on the channeler's level not the number of channel dice).
Dragonchess Player |
An alchemist (preservationist, reanimator)//witch (gravewalker, hex channeler) gestalt could be very interesting, but might need some heavy planning early on to pick up Planar Preservationist, Skeleton Summoner, Spell Focus (Necromancy), and Turn Undead.
Dirge bard//sorcerer (wildblooded, Undead/Sanguine bloodline) might also be flavorful, leaning into vampiric themes (maybe a dhampir?).
For a combat-focused necromancer, magus (skirnir) using Spell Blending //occultist with Trappings of the Warrior panoply at 2nd level is probably the "optimal" way to go.