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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Takhisis" data-source="post: 5312896" data-attributes="member: 89689">Clerics make better necromancers then wizards. This is a sad but true fact. Necromancy is usually a poor choice for a wizard and most necromancy specialists usually end up as conjurers who like negative energy and prepare a few more necromancy spells then normal. Of course there's always the great Dread Necromancer class, but while it's an awesome class and concept, it's spell list was handled rather poorly. They don't get desecrate, death ward appears twice on their list at two different spell levels for no apparent reason, they have planar binding spells but lack magic circle and while it's more an annoying nitpick on my part, they STILL get animate dead at a higher level then a cleric gets it. It seams arcane necromancers just can't get a break.One class changes that, though. The Death Master, a 3rd party update of an old 1e class from dragon magazine. The Death Master is, in my mind, what a true arcane necromancer should be. To see how good a necromancer the Death Master can be, it is best to compare him to the best necromancer in 3.5e, the Cleric.One of the reason wizards fall behind as necromancers is a lack of rebuking. Dread Necromancers fixed this issue and so to dose the Death Master. He gets rebuking just like a DN or cleric. Despite this, a DN still rebukes better then him due to having charisma as their casting stat, but a Death Master can still rebuke on the same level as a cleric, which is more then enough in most cases. The cleric is also seen as superior to the wizard because he has key spells the wizard lacks such as desecrate, and gets animate dead much earlier then the wizard. While the Death Master may not have all the necromantic spells of a cleric due to the fact so much supplementary material exists for clerics, he has all the key ones, including desecrate. Unlike a cleric, a Death master dose not get Animate Dead as a Level 3 though.  Bad, right? Actually, no, because the Death Master is the ONLY Arcane Necromancer to actually get animate dead SOONER then a cleric, as a level 2 spell. However, there are still 2 things the cleric has on the Death Master in terms of necromancy. The first is that while the cleric gets all his spells for free, a Death Master gains his spells in the same manner as a wizard, getting a limited number as he levels and the rest having to come from scrolls. While this can be annoying for some, people who play Wizards are not bothered by it and since the Death Master's spell list includes some of the best arcane exclusive core spells(enough to put them at tier 1.) the learning from scrolls is a fair trade off. The other glaring advantage clerics(and DNs) have is the ability to increase the number of undead they can control. Clerics usually do this via the deathbound domain, while DNs get a level 8 class feature that dose this. The Death Master gets neither domain access nor a fancy class feature to grow their undead HD limit, so as they stand, their army will be smaller then a cleric with the deathbound domain or a dread necromancer, unless of course you get creative and take an obscure feat called "planar touchstone.""Planar Touchstone" by RAW is a feat that makes you go on a sidequest to get a special ability. There is a plethora of side quests, each which reward you with a special power. One of them allows you to chose and gain the granted power of a cleric domain of your choice. Chose deathbound. Now you are on par with a cleric who has that domain. While the sidequest can be a MAJOR annoyance that can break you away from a campaign, I have found that many DMs if you ask them will wave the sidequest requirement and let you get the power and say you did the quest "off-screen." Just remember, the  DM is  the one who actually creatred the campaign in the first place. Chances are he/she would be EVEN more annoyed then you with having to run you through a side quest which breaks the flow of his/her campaign and takes up the time of the other players who are forced to sit around and wait for you to get to some statue in another dimension. Most DMs(At least the ones I've played with and myself) will be  happy to just say the sidequest happened "off-screen" so you all can get on with your campaign, just make sure you consult them on it.So, now that we're through with that, you can at least see how, with the proper feats, a Death Master can be an arcane necromancer who's on-par with a cleric. Rebuking, all the key necromancy spells, early animate dead, and access to the deathbound domain power. The Death Master thus has everything that makes the cleric the best necromancer in the game, though that's not to say the death master is overall better then the cleric. What it dose mean is that with a bit of third party content, and the right feats, you can finally play the archtyple skinny, black robed necromancer and not be inferior to the buff guy in spiky black full plate standing in front of you in your all evil party. So, is the Death Master as good a Necromancer as a Cleric? At least in my book, the answer to that question is yes.</blockquote>

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