Can a Necromancy specalist wizard be a good minion-master?

As the title asks. In 3.5e, the Wizard was generally labled as a poor class for the minion-mastery part of necromancy and if you wanted that you where generally better served with a cleric or dread necromancer. However, in pathfinder, it seems like that may not be the case anymore. With wizards getting command undead for free, the undead focused school, and the ability to obtain desecrate easily through either the Pathfinder Savant or Agent of the Grave PrC, it seems that a minionmaster necromancer wizard is actually possible, but I want your opinions. Can a necromancy school wizard be a good undead animator/commander/undead hoardmaster type character? Dose he NEED agent of the grave(or pathfinder savant) to do it or can he get by single classed? Would I be better off doing what I have been and sticking to Bones Oracles for my minion-mastery needs(Don't like the RP of clerics due to being wis-based instead of int or cha-based.) or can a wizard be made into a good minion-master necromancer?

Any and all opinions are welcomed.

Over all, I think you are best with oracle

More HP: oracle has a d8 while a wizard is a d6. Sure you may still roll under 6 with a d8, but those times you don't will be great

Command undead: both can get it at level 1 (revelation for the oracle) though the wizard eventually gets a small bonus (they cant use channel resistance) this I feel is overcome with the fact that oracle is Cha based and while Wizard uses Int for number per day, it is Cha for the save

Armor: Oracle can, wizard cant.

Raise the dead: This revelation is what puts the oracle over the top. Standard action to get a minion for a few rounds that doesn't count against your limit, yes please. True this ability is only good twice a day by level 10 (3 with a magic item)

Healing: both yourself and the undead you make. (resist life so you can mass inflict and get damage in and heal all your minions) You can also use the cure spell as a way to destroy enemy undead easily

Just my 2 cents on the topic

Yeah, I know the oracle is good for this since i've played it and immedatly gravitated towards it since it's about as close as one can get to the Dread Necromancer(Favorite 3.5e class.) in pathfinder. However, like the DN and Sorc, it is short on options, and as a result I was wondering if the wizard(the undisputed king of options) has been given enough in pathfinder to actually be good at minionmancy(where it was not in 3.5e) while having it's tier 1 wizard-ness intact.

they need a wizardly necromancer archype that gives you an undead companion not unlike an animal companion for a druid only its a skele or zombie. *adds to wishlist*

Nookie said:

they need a wizardly necromancer archype that gives you an undead companion not unlike an animal companion for a druid only its a skele or zombie. *adds to wishlist*

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I was thinking this exact thing this morning.... could easily be a cleric domain power (a la Animal or Scalykind domain)

Nookie said:

they need a wizardly necromancer archype that gives you an undead companion not unlike an animal companion for a druid only its a skele or zombie. *adds to wishlist*

Click to expand...

One could potentially do something based on the Summoner's Eidolon. Make a cool customizable "undead general" companion that way.

Or, maybe a Summoner alternate class that's based on Necromancy instead of Conjuration, and has an Undead Companion instead of the Eidolon?

that's what I play in our "evil" campaign

I rolled up a Master Summoner so I can have a flying undead eidolon at half-power with a bunch of skeletal champions (which are pretty tough) summoned via the now-not-entirely-useless-summoner-feature "Summon Monster 1-9"

works great, plays great, powerful, fun, interesting. highly recommended. when you start summoning a bunch of skeletal champions via Skeletal Summoner feat, 21 AC and DR 5 / bludgeoning, with power attack and cleave, you start to see a small army of undead around you. Enemies will run. or die

Yeah, but the summoner is still short on options when compaired to the wizard, cleric and other "tier 1" classes. While Oracle, which I have rolled before, is a darn good necromancer, the reason I was looking at the wizard was more due to the fact that it is a necromancer, while also being a tier 1 character with lots of other options. The Oracle, Summoner ect... are good, but very narrowly-focused and for once it would be nice to play a Teir 1 class that is also a good necromancer. I know, cleric, but I VERY MUCH have issues with the high-wis RP(since my RL wis score is not all that great) and as a result tend to not play clerics unless I can casting-stat swap them from wis to cha or int, which requires homebrew or 3rd party materal. Thus, with the changes made to the wizard in pathfinder(command undead for free, two PrCs(Agent of the Grave and Pathfinder Savant.) that can get you desecrate for free.) I was hopeing that there was enough given to them to at least make them competitive with the divine classes in the minion-mastery department of necromancy.

So, since my questions have yet to be addressed, I'll ask it again. Can the wizard be a decent minion-master necromancer? Is agent of the grave or pathfinder savant for desecrate required to be a good minion-master necromancer? If I could get some feedback on these questions, that would be nice.