How would a PC type go about acquiring an undead army, by RAW?

[Lasher Dragon]

Damn... hehehe
Oh well, hey, if you want an army, I guess investing time isn't really too much to ask hehehe

 

[azmodean]

I have LM, and somehow I missed the spell and the rod. The necromancer in question is also a crafter, wonder what the requirements are... *can't wait to get home and check now*

BTW, the necromancer is currently using her created undead for mounts, a 20HD gargantuan scorpion skeleton and a 20HD huge adult blue dragon skeleton. They're planning on turning the scorpion into a walking prison. In addition to putting a poison needle trap in it's stinger so it'll have it's poison attack again, and a wand of lightning bolt in the dragon's mouth...

 

[Darkness]

The necromancer in question is also a crafter, wonder what the requirements are...

For the rod of undead mastery?

CL 10th, Craft Rod, desecrate

 

[Lasher Dragon]

It's a cool idea, but I don't see how the skeletal dragon could activate the wand...

 

[reanjr]

I'm perfectly aware that it would be resonable to do some hand-waving with a DM-controlled NPC. I'm wondering about a PC, using RAW, building an undead army of unintelligent undead. What are the options?

Ummm... same way you build a living army. You convince undead or living to follow you or you threaten them into submission, depending on the politics of the situation. Get intelligent liuetenants, etc. to control them.

 

[Terath Ninir]

Ummm... same way you build a living army. You convince undead or living to follow you or you threaten them into submission, depending on the politics of the situation. Get intelligent liuetenants, etc. to control them.

...none of which works on skeletons or zombies, who are mindless, and thus immune to persuasion and threats.

I think there should be more things that make it easy for a character to amass an undead army that they actually control. Sure, an army of dragon zombies or whatever would be awfully powerul, but you're never going to have that. You can only animate what you actually kill, which automatically limits your power.

 

[Sir ThornCrest]

I thought warlocks forgo all material components for spells?

I didnt think Warlocks used any material components.

Thorncrest

Yeah, but unless he spends enough gems (i.e., 25 gp's worth per HD), they crumble into dust within 1 minute per caster level, so there's a practical limit on how many he can animate. Of course, at higher levels, this can be a few thousand undead if he's willing to blow his entire cash on this.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

<snip>

You can only animate what you actually kill, which automatically limits your power.

Actually, all you need is a fairly decent corpse. It doesn't matter who killed it, how it died, how long it has been dead, etc.

If one were to stroll across a recent battlefield, that could supply plenty. A graveyard would do the trick too. Hell, if your party ever killed anything big, go back and see if the remains are still mostly there, and that would do it.

 

[azmodean]

There are two ways I can think of to have the wand activate.
1. craft an intelligent magical item that can trigger a wand (quite a stretch, I know)
2. Craft a "trap" that triggers the wand when a certain action is performed. (pressure plate == button?)
a. (free action) order dragon skeleton to "look at target".
b. (standard action) activate trap.
3. as #2 above, but pressure plate is inside dragon's mouth so that it triggers when it closes its mouth. (standard action to order it to fire at target)

(arguably it could be another free action to "just" press a button, but for game balance I'd require it to be a standard action unless the crafter paid the premium for a quickened spell)

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Azmodean: Nice, I could also see you having a familiar riding in the dragon's empty skull, and reaching down and activating the wand when you wanted it to... that is, if a familiar can activate a wand... LOL not sure about that.