All I want is a necromancer without gimmiks

[jester47]

So we have in the core game:

Specialist Necromancer Wizard (The hobbyist)
Pale Master (Poser necromancer)
True Necromancer (The PhD program)
Dread Necromancer (Become a lich in 20 easy steps)

Ok, here is what I want in a necromancer-

I want a way for a wizard to create, summon or otherwise get their hands on a lot of undead and (gasp) control them! I guess I am complaining about the limitations of Animate Dead. I suppose that a wizard with a wand of Command Undead could control more and just maintaining that control would keep him busy.

I have the image of the Necromancer who is still alive in his tower gaurded by his numerous minions working on his plans for world domination or some such.

It just seems to me to be fairly lame that the undead avialable to the living necromancer is fairly low powered and seems limited in any case. Granted, Animate dead allows the wizard to give an order and then leave the undead to "gaurd the room" but still, it seems limited.

Any suggestions?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Rewrite the Summon Monster spells to be Summon Undead. Make sure the CR of the summoned critter is the same and you should be OK. That's about the simplest one-step solution I can think of.

You can acomplish a lot in general by tailoring the Summon Monster list to meet your specialist's need. Especially if you toss in the living spell template from Eberron.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Work out a deal with the DM to let your necromancer take the Leadership feat, using Int instead of Cha, and make all the followers and cohort undead of the appropriate power level.

 

[ForceUser]

Any suggestions?

Play a cleric. They make the best necromancers.

 

[jester47]

See thats the thing though... The whole cleric = better necromancer misses the trope. I know that D&D is supposed to have gods that deal with death, but I have always seen the Necromancer as someone that cheats the order of things. He should need no gods or at least delude himself into feeling that way.

The suggestions given with the leadership and summon spells (summmon undead is in the spell compendium) would work well with animate dead and a wand of command undead.

Also, I would like to explore a necromancer that is not so built around undead or becoming undead. More a master of weird magics than a corpse herder. A necromancer with a heavy dose of enchantment magic (or vice versa) would do well in this regard. It seems when you read the enchantment list like its the other half of the necromantic school of magic.

Hrm.. Necrochanter.

Aaron.

 

[jester47]

UA also allows for some alternate versions of the necromancer like the ability to trade the familiar for an undead servant. I have a character named Sarm the Ambivelant who is a Dwarven grave digger by trade. He has an undead asssistant who he has outfitted with a suit of armor. The armor covers the whole body of the skeleton and hides the true nature of the creature. He ussually passes it off as a construct that he built to help him dig graves. Sarm has red hiar which he keeps in dreadlocks. He keeps his assistant's armor filled with fresh lilacs whenever possible.

The necrochanter would be a great special ops political intrigue character.

A.

 

[Child of Hypnos]

play an archivist/necromancer - no gods, just nice undead dominating spells

 

[humble minion]

I'd much prefer a necromancer that focused on, as the PHB says, 'spells that create, manipulate, or destry life force'. We've got a load of the 'destroy' type, but theres enormous unexplored potential on the 'manipulate' and 'destroy' side of things. Plus it'd make it a hell of a lot easier to play a 'grey' necromancer if there were a few less unnecessary [evil] descriptors littering the spell list...

 

[kolikeos]

when i read the title i thought you were going to write about no-evil nacromancers, oh well... :\

 

[MarkAHart]

"Heroes of Horror" has the "Summon Undead" spells, although I think the undead available could use some expanding on what is available...If I recall, another book (Libris Mortis, perhaps?) has a slightly different version of the spell that is a bit too powerful.