D&D 5E (2014) Necromancer playability

[FormerlyHemlock]

Agreed. If, by 20the level, my character can't get a kingdom to provide an army of three to do.. whatever the heck my character wants them to do, then I've been doing something reaaaallly wrong.

"Army of three"--do we have a fan of Memories of Ice here? Your phrasing reminds me of when the Seguleh sent a punitive army against the Pannion Domin, consisting of three warriors, only one of high rank.

They won, too.

 

[ccs]

Also, skeletons start going obsolete anyway around 13th level.

(Shrugs) 5% of thier attacks will still crit whatever the target is....
My PF DM learned this a few years ago. We were fighting giants invading from the north. I had the Leadership feat & a rediculous modifier. I took 130+ low lv fighters (mostly lv1) along on our counter invasion.
He scoffed.
Plenty of stone giants died to hails of xbow bolts only hitting on something like 18+ ....
5e Skeletons would be even better - replaceable & crits don't need to be confirmed.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

(Shrugs) 5% of thier attacks will still crit whatever the target is....

And bounded accuracy, and 20 extra hit points per skeleton, and +6 damage to their attacks.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Doing some back of the napkin math with a bit of help from others, I've worked out that, based on having 101 skeletons at 20th-level and the likely CR range and AC's of enemies, a 20th-level necromancer can count on, roughly, about 350-400 points of damage, per turn.

If someone feels like being more accurate with the math, please, by all means, do so. But in the meantime, I welcome our new Necromancer overlords.

 

[Li Shenron]

Technically, by RAW, a 20th-level necromancer can animate and control 101 skeletons/zombies. Every day. Now, leaving aside arguments of whether you would allow that in your game or not, or cheesegaming, etc., the fact is that this would be super annoying for all other players and the DM. But if you came up with some sort of house rule that could combine these creatures into one creature of equivalent power, would you as a player in that game, be happy with that compromise?

A 1-ton minion is not the same as a ton of minions.

I am not saying the game should support or the DM should allow the latter. I am just saying that if you really want to have the latter, the former is not a compromise, it's a different thing altogether. It's pretty much like asking a player who wants a two-weapon-fighting PC, to "make a compromise" and get yourself a two-handed-weapon.

As someone else suggested already, mob rules are a compromise (and probably a very good one) in terms of how to mechanically handle this character concept at the gaming table, without jeopardizing the flow of the game for everyone.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

My suggestion is to use the mob attack rules concerning autohits in the dmg guide, and have them work in squads of 4 or 8 (the number of skeletons that can swarm 1 medium creature on a grid). Give each of these "swarms" 8x the health a single skeleton should have. Then no dice even need be rolled. When the swarm takes damage equal to the health of one skeleton, it "loses" a unit.

The larger concern with so many skeletons isn't even the he dice rolling, it's combat practicality. Unless every encounter is taking place in large rooms and outdoors, maneuvering 101 skeletons around 10ft wide cordidors is a pain, especially given their low intelligence. And this is a to say *nothing* of the fact that most civilized downs would send guards and clerics and paladins from on high to destroy any approaching army of undead. Necromancy tends to be frowned upon if not outright illegal. Sure, a necromancer can opt to have his army hang back outside of town, but who's to say a wandering group of NPC heroes won't stumble across them and "save the town" from their threat? Crafty necromancers will seek out to bags of holding and portable holes to store minions/corpses in, but those are under DM control to distribute.

A suggestion I give my necromancer switch is keep no more than 12 skeletons (or whatever 2 spell slots work of undead is) at any given time, for the sake of game flow. In return I try any make sure they do get the chance to shine and use that army in their pocket, because it *is* a cool thing and probably why they wanted to in the first place. Nothing is more bad ass than having and town afraid of being overrun by bandits/goblins/an army/horde and having the Necromancer calmly walk forward and go "Don't worry guys, I've got this", before sending forth his own army to meet them. You shouldn't try and stop this moment from happening. Just like the player should grind the game to a halt with loads of dice and filling up the cramped hallways of the ancient crypt to the point where the rest of the party can't even attack the enemies. It's about balance.

 

[Arnwolf666]

Sounds like a good villain to defeat in an adventure. One would thinks some powerful cleric or seer would sense a looming danger to the realms.