Anti-undead defenses for an evil stronghold?

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Basically I'm playing an evil theurge drow. Plus I have a small mansion/fortress.

I'm creating a series of defensive structures to prevent unwanted mass-combat pillaging of my mansion. For the living it's pretty straight forward. Various symbols and clouds + permanency.

Anything thoughts on keeping out unfriendly undead?

[Ascalaphus]

Forbiddance should be part of your defences, although it's not a complete defence. If your alignment is not the same as standard cannon fodder undead it'll at least keep out the riffraff. Bonus: no teleporting nuisances.

[Claxon]

Can you craft some magical items to give to guards that create an effect of Undeath Ward?

[Ascalaphus]

Golems are also a classic. Not subject to most negative energy shenanigans/diseases/curses/fear etcetera. Bonus points if you deploy them in such a way as to spring them by surprise on paladins as well. Try programming them to disarm adamantine weapons.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Ascalaphus wrote:

Golems are also a classic. Not subject to most negative energy shenanigans/diseases/curses/fear etcetera. Bonus points if you deploy them in such a way as to spring them by surprise on paladins as well. Try programming them to disarm adamantine weapons.

I like that. Any idea what the best undead killer golem would be?

[Ascalaphus]

There are so many.. it depends a lot on your level and budget. I think the alchemical and lead golems are particularly neat. They don't have gaping vulnerabilities to spells commonly prepare and should survive onslaughts by both undead and paladins.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Ascalaphus wrote:

There are so many.. it depends a lot on your level and budget. I think the alchemical and lead golems are particularly neat. They don't have gaping vulnerabilities to spells commonly prepare and should survive onslaughts by both undead and paladins.

It's kingmaker-ish so budget is pretty high if I dip into the city coffers.

I'll check those two out. Thanks.

[Baval]

Why not some sort of resetting command undead trap? Any undead that attack have a good chance of becoming new defenders.

[Oxylepy]

Command is 1 undead. You would need a boat load of them and the undead would likely trip multiple traps, which would be conflicted as to what the controller is (unlews they are part of your pool which is a bad idea). Antipathy would be nice, but it's too specific. So what you need is something that destroys undead. Undeath to Death would work well, but it will cost a boatload (layer them toward entrances and you should knock any undead out). If you can afford the 50kgp for making it reset infinitely, awesome, otherwise you need something else. That's where you consider command traps with resets that are fairly regular (as frequent as you can manage), layer a bunch of those further away. Next is control if you can manage to reset it fast enough (every 20 minutes). Amd the final layer is undeath to death somewhere near your entrances. That should be enough to adequately protect you but it will cost a boatload per door (less than 2 or 3 undeath to death traps per door though)

[Baval]

Note that command doesnt have a pool, its on a per spell basis, so making them go into your "pool" isnt a problem.

But yes I wasnt considering the fact that it would take an inordinate amount of them to stop a large army, depending on how often they rest. But note that any that you do turn would immediately both weaken the enemies army and, if you set up some sort of spell to constantly command "defend against the invaders", begin attacking the remainder.

I wouldnt go with control undead traps. They only last minutes, and any intelligent undead you might control with them would stop attacking you with a command, and you want to deal with them personally anyway.

[Oxylepy]

Those minutes will be vital when you get a radius of undead controlled out of an army, have them attack the remaining army, and then they are whittled down by the other undead. From there, depending on how often the trap resets they may remain controlled, or can perish to an undeath to death trap. The entire series is designed to be a battle of attrition. And hopefully only a couple powerful undead make it to the doors and trip the undeath to death trap, which will be much more likely to kill them than it would had they been able to pile some zombies on it to negate it

[Kayerloth]

You could always use Unhallow perhaps linking Death Ward depending on how much you use negative energy and or undead yourself. At the very least it will make it easier for you to control/take control of any Undead that you do have to deal with.

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

Basically I'm playing an evil theurge drow. Plus I have a small mansion/fortress.

I'm creating a series of defensive structures to prevent unwanted mass-combat pillaging of my mansion. For the living it's pretty straight forward. Various symbols and clouds + permanency.

Anything thoughts on keeping out unfriendly undead?

Defenses? You're an evil overlord... Undead should be part of your assets. That's what cleric henchmen are FOR.

[My Self]

A large trench with some sort of permanent fire at the bottom. It'll smell horrible, but as long as you properly ventilate your place and keep the fire going, most undead won't make it past the falling and fire damage.

[Tiny Coffee Golem]

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

Tiny Coffee Golem wrote:

Basically I'm playing an evil theurge drow. Plus I have a small mansion/fortress.

I'm creating a series of defensive structures to prevent unwanted mass-combat pillaging of my mansion. For the living it's pretty straight forward. Various symbols and clouds + permanency.

Anything thoughts on keeping out unfriendly undead?

Defenses? You're an evil overlord... Undead should be part of your assets. That's what cleric henchmen are FOR.

I'm drow in a city full of intelligent undead. I will of course have a few of my own, but it's not my specialty. The main purpose is to repel any upstart vampires or what not.

[Guru-Meditation]

My Self wrote:

A large trench with some sort of permanent fire at the bottom. It'll smell horrible, but as long as you properly ventilate your place and keep the fire going, most undead won't make it past the falling and fire damage.

Firewall can be permanencied. And incidentally also does extra damage against undead.