Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Magesmiley" data-source="post: 5128811" data-attributes="member: 26292">The last time I went the rebuking route, I ended up going for the True Necromancer prestige class (Libris Mortis). IMO Libris Mortis is almost a must-have supplement. There's a slew of feats, prestige classes, magic items, monsters, and other tidbits for the undead-minded overlord.You do need to spend an action to order your minions about for specific actions. this keeps commanding somewhat balanced. Giving orders in advance is fair game too - I had some standing commands (attack anyone who attacks me). Be careful with free willed undead. Any DM worth their salt will be tricky with their desire to slip or bend your control.Undead with special attacks can be quite potent if you can mange to control them - shadows, ghouls, wraiths, and spectres in particular come to mind. They're much harder to replace than skeletons, so protect them.One thing to keep in mind is that your pool of control for rebuking undead is separate from the one for animating undead (via animate dead). Save the rebuke for the unusual stuff and animate the more regular stuff. Technically, the animate dead spell description indicates the limit is per caster level (and not character level). I'll leave it as an exercise of the imagination what this implies for cleric/wizards, particularly with feats like Practiced Spellcaster.As far as animated undead, I tended to favor skeletons over zombies - the single action only is serious limitation in combat. Skeletons are a bit tidier too.Generally, I found it to be better to have one big undead rather than a bunch of little ones. Keep your eye out for big monsters slain by your party with lots of attacks and/or reach. Save the body and animate them. My party killed an athach that I turned into a skeleton. A hydra is probably the biggest prize if you can find one.There's also some interesting spells scattered around. I recall one that would make skeletons blow up.Some other specific tactics:If you've got more mindless undead you run into than you can control, rebuke all of them, control some, move them into a room and block the door. Leave them there, go back and control the others (releasing the ones you left in the closed room). When the ones under your control get destroyed, head back to the room you closed the spares in and replenish your forces.Keep a few little (1HD) skeletons around for cannon fodder and suicide tasks (such as opening chests, sweeping areas for traps, and investigating murky pools). 25gp (for the material component) is half the cost of a cure light wounds potion.Be extremely mindful of enemy clerics. Read up on bolstering undead. It is a very important tactic to keep your undead intact.Loot the enemy dead of weapons and armor to equip your minions. A suit of armor goes a long way towards improving your minions' durability.Undead minions make great pack mules too. Even with just a few minion, you've got a massive carrying capacity. Make use of it. Leftover armor and weapons can greatly enhance your revenue from adventuring. The problem of being able to carry it all is greatly reduced.Hope this helps some.</blockquote>

Verification