Army of Dorkness

[Sgt_Shock]

Hey there. I've been itching to play a dedicated 3.5 Necromancer for quite awhile now (Either a cleric or a Dread Necromancer). However, while commanding hordes of undead sounds so fun, it's still commanding hordes of undead. Having to roll for 20 skeletons and move them all on the battlefield is a pain, and it also considerably increases the length of my round in combat. Lastly, it probably will cause other party members to complain about how much time/space my character occupies. So, I'd much prefer one or two large undead creatures rather than 18 speedbumps. I don't know very much about how one would go about doing that, though. Is it possible? Can it be reliably done?

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I played a necromancer in a 3.x campaign that was kinda fun. I didn't use a cleric out of the PHB, but instead with with a dedicated necromance class from some 3rd party book with more of a negative-energy shadowy guy feel to it.

Hands down the most effective undead I created was a skeleton out of a hydra we had slain in an encounter. This hydra went on to dominate future encounters so badly the GM had to handwave it getting killed in order to keep the adventure on track.

Look for a big monster with a lot of attacks...thats the key to good undeading.

DS

 

[Starbuck_II]

Hey there. I've been itching to play a dedicated 3.5 Necromancer for quite awhile now (Either a cleric or a Dread Necromancer). However, while commanding hordes of undead sounds so fun, it's still commanding hordes of undead. Having to roll for 20 skeletons and move them all on the battlefield is a pain, and it also considerably increases the length of my round in combat. Lastly, it probably will cause other party members to complain about how much time/space my character occupies. So, I'd much prefer one or two large undead creatures rather than 18 speedbumps. I don't know very much about how one would go about doing that, though. Is it possible? Can it be reliably done?

Simple find a creature with lots of Racial HD (not cass levels) like an ogre, hydra, or Babau (demon with sneak attack, a skeleton one retains that). You'll have to kill a called Babau not a summoned one (summoned ones return to their home plane, called ones die).

Kill them. Then stick onyx in their eyes and cast animate dead.

I perfer skeletons, but ogre zombie isn't bad (although slow).

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The Fell Animate feat from Libris Mortis would also help- kill a foe with your magic, and it rises up as your undead servant.

Yet another reason for the Necromancer to memorize a few choice AE or attack spells outside of the necromancy field...