Post/Author/DateTime	Post
EvilMrStubbe 10-19-06, 01:25 AM	My girlfriend is playing D&D for the first time and I need to have a buncha ideas to run past her since she still hasn't played. here is what she's told me rulewise: Elf wizard with a swordbow who mainly deals with death and making things go boom, so mainly necromancy with evocation being secondary, and she likes the sound of fell animate. so I need help with suggestions for builds for her
VrecknidjX 10-19-06, 08:08 AM	An elf that mainly deals with death--sounds kinda strange. Have you also considered the possibility of a druid? Dave
angryman 10-19-06, 12:24 PM	What's wrong with an elf who is a necromancer? Maybe he's just practical?
Deib83 10-19-06, 01:24 PM	whatever is a swordbow? Actually, the elf makes sense. Who has more knowledge about life and death than somone who can witness the lifecycle of almost any other creature from its beginning to its end SEVERAL TIMES :D Well, as for the character being playable, here's how it works: Necromancy-evocation sounds solid to me, for a very offensive build. Necro attacks mostly Will and Fort, while Evocation goes for Ref most of the time. I guess the most important thing to keep in mind is: A good number of Necromancy spells require a touch attack or ranged touch attack: LVL1-Chill Touch, Ray of Enfeeblement LVL2-Ghoul Touch, Spectral Hand LVL3-Ray of Exhaustion, Vampiric Touch LVL4-Bestow Curse, Contagion, Enervation you get the point... In my opinion, the best option is to aim for a high dexterity score (which she will need to use that bow of hers anyway) and get the weapon finesse feat as soon as she hits level 3 (prereq: +1 BAB). That takes care of all the touching without wasting points on Strength. Primary stats in order of importance: Int/Cha(Wiz/Sorc) Dex Con As for prohibited schools (in case she is a wizard and will specialize) Edit: I officially don't know anything about prohibition so skip this 3 lines, read Cifer below. This is a tough one...but I would prohibit Transmutation and Abjuration I guess...I always hate that part of making a wizard...most go straight for Divination though. Familiar: - A toad familiar is nice to have around, specially at lvl1 when you are fragile as a poki. - Snake pairs nicely with necro in concept. She has to keep in mind that a Necro-Evoker has close to nothing to be doing in the frontlines except from dealing a touch attack every now and then (should use Spectral Hand for this though). Hope this helps :)
Cifer 10-19-06, 01:50 PM	This is a tough one...but I would prohibit Transmutation and Abjuration I guess Absolutely not! Abjuration is basically the most important school. From it come protection from [alignment], shield, Dispel Magic, protection from energy, dimensional anchor, globe of invulnerability, antimagic field, mind blank, MDJ and countless other really useful spells, especially if your game gets beyond goblin-slaying and into outsiders. A wizard banning this school is basically comitting suicide.
JasonOrlandoHawk 10-19-06, 08:09 PM	My advice: Browse through Complete Mage at your local book store. They have some excellent advice on which schools to prohibit, based on your primary school, as well as good personality advice. Or, even better, buy the book. IMHO, it is far better than Complete Arcane was, and definately a solid buy. Then again, you can also get some good material from Complete Arcane as well, especially some of the spells. However, your best sourcebook, if you can find it, may very well be Libris Mortis. Excellent source material for the Necromancer in all of us. Also, if you need character ideas: Check out the stories posted for the Warlords Collectable Card Game by AEG. The Elves in that game all have the Necromancer-shtick going pretty heavy, along with gloriously well done justifications for evil alignment. Even if you never play the game, the stories are very well done, and might provide some good ideas for this character. Now, specifics: As far as I know, Divination can't be taken as a prohibited school. As stated above, Abjuration would be a risky move. My advice, discard Enchantment right out. Hey, I'm sexy, covered in the rotten flesh of my fallen foes! (No, I don't think so.) Sure, you lose out on the Power Word spells, but you really don't need Power Word: Kill when you have Wail of the Banshee. For your other disgarded school, I would recommend either Illusion or Conjuration. Illusion doesn't have the raw offensive power of Necromancy or Evocation, but it does have some pretty (if false) explosion spells, which might be helpful. Conjuration is the birth of the Summon Monster spell list, but if you can pull the Summon Undead spell list out of Libris Mortis, you have a much more appropriate army right there. Conjuration is nice, but an army of willing slaves is just as much the province of Necromancy. As for the other schools: Divination (as far as I know) can't be taken as a forbidden school. Abjuration is home to all of the powerful "defensive" wizard spells (Protect/Alignment, Dispel Magic, etc...), and anyone who discards Abjuration is in for a hard road. She wants the BOOM spells, so Evocation is necessary. Transmutation is critical for this character. Those are the "buffing" spells, and a character who will need to make a lot of touch attacks will definately need those buffs. In fact, Transmutation is so important to a quasi-frontline caster that I would discard Abjuration long before I discard Transmutation. As for character builds, first, let me state that if Undead is your thing, mixing divine and arcane goes a long way. Rebuke Undead plus Necromancy specialist... it's nice. Enough said. With that in mind, the best Prestige Class would be: True Necromancer (Libris Mortis), an arcane/divine Necro-blend. Other good Prestige Classes include: Eldritch Knight (DMG), Spellsword (CW), Pale Master (LM), and Bloodmagus (CA). If Necromancy is really the only thing, and Evocation is a side note: Pale Master, Bloodmagus, or Eldritch Knight. If Evocation is an important consideration, switch out Pale Master for Spellsword. Items: Remember, AC will be very important here, so go all out. Bracers of Armor, Ring of Deflection, Amulet of Natural Armor, Gloves of Dexterity (which also helps W. Finesse & Touch Attacks), and a cloak of displacement. Also remember the old dirty trick: Three +1 items are often vastly cheaper than one +3 item. Feats: Spell Focus & G.S.F. (Necromancy) should go w/o saying. Other than that, check out Black Lore of Moil from Complete Arcane and all the feats listed in Libris Mortis. Might want to check out Heroes of Horror too. Spells: I will let you do the research here. Necromancy has some nasty spells, so go on a quest of discovery. But, I will help you a bit on the Evocation. Single Greatest Evocation Spell of All Time: Defenestrating Sphere Sor/Wiz Lvl. 4 (Complete Arcane) Trust me, get this spell. Use this spell. You'll understand why.
Otto the Bugbear 10-19-06, 08:25 PM	Two initial questions... 1. Is wizard a 100%, or could another class be considered? 2. Do you have Heroes of Horror? The reason I ask is due to a nice little idea I had quite some time ago that seems like it would fit this concept rather well. It involves starting out with Dread Necromancer, thus fulfilling your necromancy criteria. It also has some important spells (like dispel magic as Cifer points out) that really shouldn't be gone without. After advancing for a time, head into Fiend-Blooded. This PrC has a class feature that allows the addition of certain spells to a class-list. [Fire] spells are among them, fulfilling the "make things go 'BOOM'" criteria. In addition, both these classes have a lot of class features that are pretty neat, if not exactly overwhelming. There are a couple down sides, though, to be fair. First, Fiend-Blooded requires a DM with some uncommon sense. F-B has a requirement of 8 ranks of knowledge (planes), but there are a couple problems with this. Sorcerers don't have Kn (planes) and every sample F-B character doesn't meet that 8 ranks requirement. They do however meet 4 ranks. Now, with the change to 4 ranks, it's still making the sorcerer (or dread necro in this case) require to spend 8 skill points to achieve. If you're the DM, this is easy to accomplish. Second, the "boom" part doesn't come in until the F-B levels start coming in. That may be the biggest issue, especially with a new player. The other thing to consider suggesting is a sorcerer. It's easy enough to pick up some creepy necromancy spells, a couple "must haves", and some 'boom' spells. Just some random thoughts. Cheers Otto :)
fullmetal80110 10-20-06, 02:21 AM	Honestly this is screaming Warlock from the complete arcane, they can take evocations that deal with alot of necromancy, and on top of that if she is new she can mess up with an evocation and try it again next round for free.
EvilMrStubbe 10-27-06, 12:50 PM	:) hey, thanks for the ideas, i'll really take them into consideration, if you have anymore, i'll willingly listen, though wether i take it or not is another question, but anyways, thanks!!! EvilMrStubbe's woman