Build Help: Dread Necro, equal opportunity advocate.

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Unnamed bonuses do not stack with themselves.

Also, getting 6 undead HD is really sucky.

[PhaedrusXY]

Use Magic Jar on one of your minions. Your body is "lifeless". This means you can animate your own corpse (assuming Lifeless = Dead, for all practical purposes), and if you have a dead-walker's ring and corpse-crafting feats you just gave your body and extra 6 HP/HD and +4 Str/Dex. Its unnamed, so cancel the spell: you keep your body w/ the extra HP, Str/Dex. Do it again: you get another 6 HP/HD. And again. Its stupid. The only problem is that you can't apply the zombie/skeleton template on an undead creature, so you need a way to become "living" again, either by resurrection or some-such (Thought Bottle comes to mind). If you have the other corpsecrafting feats, apply those attributes as well: the bonuses only check when the undead is created, not after. Best reason NOT to be a Necropolitan at the start.

is this somehow wrong?  

It's wrong in many ways...

If you turn your old "corpse" into a zombie, it stands up and starts walking around. It doesn't wait for you to re-inhabit it, and nor can you until you "destroy" it. And then it would be dead... so you'd have to Raise Dead on it, also.

Also... if you "destroy" it, and Raise it, it is no longer an undead, and so loses the benefits of Corpse Crafter, etc.

You could turn yourself into some kind of undead with a mind that keeps its old stats, though, like a Bone or Corpse Creature (BoVD).

[Psithief]

Dread necromancer's undead mastery is amusing. As are skeletal dragons and zombie dragons from the Draconomicon.

However, the dread necromancer's undead mastery is based on class levels, not caster levels. A +8 Charisma mod character that got out at level 8 will only have the same amount of undead HD controllable as a level 16 wizard!

[Gunhaven]

Depends on how you read Rod of Undead Mastery (from Libris Mortis).  It's either (4+8)*8*2 or ((4*2)+8)*8.  Way one gets you 192 HD worth of undead, Way two gets you 128 HD worth of undead.  So Way One (which is how I understand it) gets you more undead than a single casting class, even at level 8.

[PhaedrusXY]

Dread necromancer's undead mastery is amusing. As are skeletal dragons and zombie dragons from the Draconomicon.

However, the dread necromancer's undead mastery is based on class levels, not caster levels. A +8 Charisma mod character that got out at level 8 will only have the same amount of undead HD controllable as a level 16 wizard!

What about the caster levels above 8? He should still be getting the normal allotment of HD controlled for those from the spell itself, even if you think the Cha bonus only applies for his class levels.

[JaronK]

What about the caster levels above 8? He should still be getting the normal allotment of HD controlled for those from the spell itself, even if you think the Cha bonus only applies for his class levels.

The DN ability resets how the spell works if you're casting it as a DN.  So no, if you multiclass out you can't raise your limits except by raising Charisma.

JaronK