K's Revised Necromancer Handbook

[PhaedrusXY]

Anyone figure out what some good armour, and items would be for a necromancer, regardless of what class they'll be using?

Well, other than those items that are useful to any caster, the answer would be really none.  Wizards can't wear armor while Clerics can wear any, for example.

I'm talking about specific items though. Like, not too many necromancers would carry around a wand of magic missile or fireball. It might be animate dead, or something that'll increase your rebuking abilities, or control undead capabilities.

Black Sand. You can make some temporarily with a level 2 cleric spell, and then make more permanently by chucking commoners onto that. You can use it to heal all of your undead for free out of combat. Just make sure to keep it in a well sealed container when you're not using it.

If you can use it, a scroll of Command Undead is great. It saves you the trouble of preparing it, and works almost as well as if you had. (No save, lasts 1 day per level)

[Negative Zero]

Put black sand inside the shoes of your undead.

[PhaedrusXY]

Put black sand inside the shoes of your undead.

I prefer putting it in my pants (when I'm an undead).

[adecoy95]

so in the 3.5 game we are starting its going to be gestalt, you have to stay with the classes you picked at first (20class1/class2)

i was thinking about dread necromancer, but i dont know what else to go with it, perhaps generic spellcaster, for DMM?

what spells would be good to pick from the spellcaster part? they have access to druid, cleric, wizard, and sorceror spells.

we start off at second level

[snakeman830]

Avoid duplication of spells on any of those lists (and Dread Necro's) unless you forsee yourself casting that particular spell a LOT.  I would recommend teleportation and buffs, both of which the Dread Necro lacks many of, or completely in the case of teleportation (unless you grab Astral Projection with your 20th level Advanced Learning).  Interestingly, the Dispel Magics are on the Dread Necro list, so you're set there, but some other abjurations may come in handy (Mind Blank, for example).  Divination is also preferable.

I would, however, grab the Mother Cyst feat from Libris Mortis as that will add 10 spells (some very good ones at that) to your list and they mesh incredibly well with Dread Necro.

[kevin_video]

I would, however, grab the Mother Cyst feat from Libris Mortis as that will add 10 spells (some very good ones at that) to your list and they mesh incredibly well with Dread Necro.

Especially if you want to make someone explode. The mother cyst is a requirement for a few spells.

Check out the Spell Compendium. There are a lot of good spells in it that are wizard/sorcerer and cleric only. If you can get them, take them. A few of them are wicked powerful. Animate Dead and desecrate are a must, especially at 8th level. Add in Corpsecrafter for a feat, and you're pretty much set. You'll have like 200+ zombies/skeletons marching down the road, ready to feast on the living.

[Brainpiercing]

so in the 3.5 game we are starting its going to be gestalt, you have to stay with the classes you picked at first (20class1/class2)

i was thinking about dread necromancer, but i dont know what else to go with it, perhaps generic spellcaster, for DMM?

what spells would be good to pick from the spellcaster part? they have access to druid, cleric, wizard, and sorceror spells.

we start off at second level

I would go Cleric, or if that's too much MAD Favoured Soul. Those two are a perfect match, plus you'll get some of the awesome martial power of a cleric paired with the debuffing power and resilience of the DN.

[Agita]

so in the 3.5 game we are starting its going to be gestalt, you have to stay with the classes you picked at first (20class1/class2)

i was thinking about dread necromancer, but i dont know what else to go with it, perhaps generic spellcaster, for DMM?

what spells would be good to pick from the spellcaster part? they have access to druid, cleric, wizard, and sorceror spells.

we start off at second level

I would go Cleric, or if that's too much MAD Favoured Soul. Those two are a perfect match, plus you'll get some of the awesome martial power of a cleric paired with the debuffing power and resilience of the DN.

Favored Soul is still MAD, because it also wants Wis, IIRC.

[kevin_video]

What does MAD stand for anyways?

[Risada]

What does MAD stand for anyways?

Multiple Ability Dependency, IIRC...

[snakeman830]

so in the 3.5 game we are starting its going to be gestalt, you have to stay with the classes you picked at first (20class1/class2)

i was thinking about dread necromancer, but i dont know what else to go with it, perhaps generic spellcaster, for DMM?

what spells would be good to pick from the spellcaster part? they have access to druid, cleric, wizard, and sorceror spells.

we start off at second level

I would go Cleric, or if that's too much MAD Favoured Soul. Those two are a perfect match, plus you'll get some of the awesome martial power of a cleric paired with the debuffing power and resilience of the DN.

Favored Soul is still MAD, because it also wants Wis, IIRC.

Wis is for bonus spells, Cha is for save DC's.

If you go with either Cleric or Favored Soul, you can start animating undead a few levels early.  Once you reach 8th level, just don't prepare it anymore or swap it out for a different 3rd level spell known.  This might be handy.

Sorcerer, of course, has the Charisma synergy even better than the Favored Soul.  Since Dread Necro gives you a good number of combat spells already (and they are masters of debuffs), you can use Sorcerer to pick some utility and maybe a couple of other options (Wall spells, Forcecage, etc.).  1 level into Sandshaper and you expand your list even more.

Plus, if you go Gnome, you could always consider a Dread Necro//Sorcerer/Shadowcraft Mage.  Mix in your partially real stuff with the undead to confuse enemies to no end.

[PhaedrusXY]

Plus, if you go Gnome, you could always consider a Dread Necro//Sorcerer/Shadowcraft Mage.  Mix in your partially real stuff with the undead to confuse enemies to no end.

You can do that with a cleric, also. You just need to take the Illusion domain and the spontaneous domain variant to make it work well. Dark Way is a 2nd level spell with the Shadow subschool. Heighten it to 4th to qualify, and go to town. That would get you access to all cleric spells, and to a bunch of wizard/sorc spells too.

However, he said he has to stay with the class he picked first. I'm guessing that means no PrCs at all.

[adecoy95]

i appreciate the responses, but i think this is what i might do. our first level adjustment is free, and all 3.5 books (or 3.0w/eratta) are open, plus the strange no prestige class/w gestalt rules

ILLUMIAN necropolitan dread necromancer//genericspellcaster 2

i have not decided on feats or spells yet, i want to grab either fell animate or fell drain, i just dont know which one to pick. with fell drain i could find a 1st level spell that has a duration and use illumians DMM effect to cause it to drain a level every time i use it. perhaps later on even use it with a blade of pain and fear, then hand it to a undead. fell animate seems like it would be good too since it saves me money in the long run on zombies and skeletons (if i use a sharp spoon for scoopin the flesh  ) and since i plan on taking uttercold later on it would possibly be useful there too.

ah need some helps, give me your opinions and suggestions, is fell drain better than fell animate, are they both horrible and i should choose something else? should i eat bacon or cereal for breakfast? any suggestion will do

EDIT: i think i found something more interesting, what about this:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20050209a

human Mulhorandi Divine Minion dread necromancer//generic spellcaster 2

feats will be abberant blood abberant wild shape, and assume supernatural ability (quickness)

wild shape into choker, gain the ability to use quickness

Code: [Select]

Quickness (Su): Although not particularly dexterous, a choker is supernaturally quick. It can take an extra standard action or move action during its turn each round.
i still have not figured out a good spell list from the generic spellcaster

[Brainpiercing]

They are both good choices (the metamagics), although i'm not sure Fell drain will keep up at higher levels. At low levels, however, it might just always be an instagib with any damage dealing spells (even magic missile could be nice). Fell animate seems to be a valid low to mid-level tactic, until zombies and skellies become less useful.

[adecoy95]

They are both good choices (the metamagics), although i'm not sure Fell drain will keep up at higher levels. At low levels, however, it might just always be an instagib with any damage dealing spells (even magic missile could be nice). Fell animate seems to be a valid low to mid-level tactic, until zombies and skellies become less useful.

magic missle is nice, imagine sending each missle to a different target for maximum neg levels

what about fell drain on weapons? for example, blade of pain and fear or flaming weapon? heh, i suppose that fell animate would be good in those too though. augh, so many feats, so few available

i did not notice your post, i edited the one above you if your interested

[blacklitelust]

OK, I may be a bit on the dumb side at the moment as I haven't had much sleep yet, but....

With a master of shrouds character, would it be a beneficial idea to take transdimensional spell with the intent of using it to buff my summons? I never considered buffing my undead, so this idea seems a little fuzzy in my brain place...

Another question: Does Umbral Shroud from Complete Champion prove handy in conjunction with my undead?

[PhaedrusXY]

OK, I may be a bit on the dumb side at the moment as I haven't had much sleep yet, but....

With a master of shrouds character, would it be a beneficial idea to take transdimensional spell with the intent of using it to buff my summons? I never considered buffing my undead, so this idea seems a little fuzzy in my brain place...

Another question: Does Umbral Shroud from Complete Champion prove handy in conjunction with my undead?

Why would you need transdimensional spell? They're not on another plane. They're Incorporeal, not Ethereal.

[blacklitelust]

That's where my lack of briaining came into play. I figured if they were incorporeal, touch buffs would be hard to pull off, but I guess they could just LET me touch them...  

Is it possible to use imbue summoning in conjunction with The Master of Shrouds' summoning ability or would I only be able to apply it to OTHER summoning?

[PhaedrusXY]

That's where my lack of briaining came into play. I figured if they were incorporeal, touch buffs would be hard to pull off, but I guess they could just LET me touch them...  

Even if you miss, you could just try again. The spell doesn't go away because you missed. This might cost valuable time, of course.

[snakeman830]

Hey, I just found a 1-level dip for slightly tougher undead for Dread Necros.

Wizard (Necromancer) 1.  The ability enhancement bonuses don't stack, but the hit points do.  The fact that you give up bonus spells for specialization isn't much of an issue as it's a 1-level dip.  On top of this, the dip lets the DN use a lot more magic items.  Combined with a Deadwalker's Ring and the Corpsecrafter feat, this makes any undead created by the DN have 8 hit points per HD, the equivalent of a Con score of 26.  Not bad.  Plague of Undead skellies and zombies have 20hp per HD, which is a sizeable number (more if they're dragon skellies/zombies).