Feat to allow control of more HD of undead?

[MerakSpielman]

Is there a feat in some expansion somewhere that allows a necromancer (or any dead-animator) to control a larger number of undead critters? The whole "evil necromancer with horde of undead trying to conquor the world" thing doesn't seem to work under the core rules.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

There's some meta-turning (if that's the proper turn) feats in Defenders of the Faith that allow for controlling either more or higher-level undead. I don't have the book with me right now, though.

If you're thinking of the Animate Dead spell, I know that it does have a control limit. Perhaps you could come up with some more powerful versions. Othewise, my advice would be to do it hierarchically, like they used to do in basic D&D. You're uber- necromancer controls the the more powerful undead lieutenents (say, for the sake of argument, vampires); the vampires in turn several lesser undead (say, ghouls and mummies), who in turn command the actual hordes like sergeants. There's no hard and fast rules for this that I'm aware of, but it shouldn't be too hard to work something out. This has the added bonus of allowing the villains to "level" with the characters- they could track down the source of the local undead problems only to find out that the vampire is working for someone else.

If all else fails, you can just come up with some sort of plot item, like a minor artifact only usable by insane necromancers who have performed great rituals, or something. Clunky, but works.

 

[Hashmalum]

In the Epic Level Handbook, there's a feat called Undead Mastery that increases the number of undead controllable by means of the rebuke/control undead ability. Epic spells developed with the animate dead seed can exceed the normal limits by raising the DC of the Spellcraft check needed to cast the spell.

In Magic of Faerun, there's an 8th level cleric spell general of undeath that works like Undead Mastery but has a duration of 1 day/level. There's also a 3rd level necromancer spell undead lieutenant that allows you to give an undead the ability to control other undead under your control, but since the lesser undead will still be counting towards your limit, it's really only useful if you don't want to risk leading your undead in person.

The Wizards of the Coast website has (somewhere) a feat called Undead Leadership that allows an undead character the ability to attract undead followers (analogous to the way the normal Leadership feat attracts normal followers). While this won't normally benefit living characters, it seems reasonable to allow it to work for a character with the 2nd level necromancer spell shroud of undeath from Magic of Faerun, which causes the caster to be seen as an undead creature by unintelligent undead. In the same article there were some things like prestige classes focused around leading vast hordes of the undead. There might be some other stuff there you can use.

 

[Hashmalum]

I found a link to the article:http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20021031x

I also thought of a another means to assemble a horde of undead. Many undead have the ability Create Spawn, which turns a creature slain by the undead into an undead under the control of its creator. You can make more efficient use of your undead control hit dice limit by taking control of one such creature that already has minions. And/or create/control such an undead and provide it with victims--fresh recruits!