I'm getting ready to start a new 3.5 campaign and have been toying with the idea of playing a good or neutral character that uses necromantic magic to accomplish his goals. The campaign is city based and starts at ELC 15. I would prefer him to be human but am open to alternatives. A single template is a must (DMs orders) and the LA will be bought off. More templates are not necessary but are available. I am open to all suggestions.
Thanks in advanced 
All WOTC books are open from 3.5 and so are all 3.0 books that have updates.
try reading a couple warhammer books to get into the mood. I would recommend The Vampire Genevieve by Jack Yeovil. Also, remember that there is always an exception to a generally accecpted rule in D&D, though I'm unsure if there are any lawful good Red Elder Wyrms flying around the realms. For templates, I have always been a fan of the Feral Creature Template found in the Savage Species book. a fun thing to do with your character would be to take the Touch of Golden Ice feat from the Book of Exalted Deeds. This would prevent the rogues in your party from killing off your character as you keep producing a valuable substance whenever you touch an evil character and it acts as a constant Detect Alignment spell for everyone that you touch. Curious how that works, look it up.
sorry more stuff. I suggest making a cleric (I'm starting to regret giving my books to my local library), if you take me up on the feral creature template, take cleric of bast from the Egyption pantheon. also, remember that if you use some of the other pantheons or older gods, necromancy is not seen as evil but as a way of getting things done without inconviencing those around you. just remember to return them to slumber after you are done with them.
The winged template is nice. it is in savage species
Also look in Complete arcane for the Necropolitain.
Now, the thing you need to decide is: will you be making zombie buddies or draining the life and instilling fear in the baddies? Clerics are better at the first, and wizards are better at the second. This will effect what feats you'll need.
Actually the Necropolitan is in the Libris Mortis(Spell-Stitched is in Complete Arcane).
Libris Mortis buy the way has a line of feats that make your undead creations explode(with negative energy no less), move faster, deal cold damage, get AC bonuses, and a couple others.
Necromancy is not seen as evil but as a way of getting things done without inconveniencing those around you. just remember to return them to slumber after you are done with them.
I had already planned on it. It was the only way I could make a necromantic character without being evil.
Libris Mortis buy the way has a line of feats that make your undead creations explode(with negative energy no less), move faster, deal cold damage, get AC bonuses, and a couple others.
My problem is that I don't know what to pick. Even if i use a human for the bonus feat I still only have 6 feats total. unless you know of a way to get more. It seems to me that there are a lot of good feats to take for the necro-user. Any suggestions would be welcome.
Now, the thing you need to decide is: will you be making zombie buddies or draining the life and instilling fear in the baddies? Clerics are better at the first, and wizards are better at the second. This will effect what feats you'll need.
I would prefer to do a bit of both. I would like if at all possible to have one or two, to steal your term, zombie buddies and still be able to hold my own if they are unavailable by striking fear into my enemies' hearts before draining their life.
A Necromancer is especially hard to play in an Urban Environment because you often lackmaterial to make minions out of...
Anyways, take a look into Heroes of Horror, and think about playing a Dread Necromancer.
As a Template, you could take Dragonborn of Bahamut. It is always worth being mentoined
Read this thread, if you haven't: brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.p...
A Necromancer is especially hard to play in an Urban Environment because you often lackmaterial to make minions out of...
As a Template, you could take Dragonborn of Bahamut. It is always worth being mentoined
I definitely agree with human necropolitan Clr14-15, neutrally aligned. Lets you use your spontaneous inflict spells to heal your undead buddies and yourself as well. The Corpsecrafting feat chain in Libris Mortis is nice; it can get cheesy with the feat that causes undead to explode in negative energy (as you could animate a bunch of skeletal rats, say, and kill them with a low-damage area spell, causing them to explode for massive combined damage). Dread Necromancers are good if you want swarms of undead minions, but very limited outside of that narrow focus; a Cleric gives you far more flexibility.
For added feats, some Cleric domains grant feats as their bonus, so you could look at the different domains in the PHB and Spell Compendium for possibilities.
Dragonborn is in Races of Dragon.
Literally, it's a template but it mostly "overwrites" the base creatures abilities (except for Ability Scores).
Are there any spontaneous casters out there that have similar versatility? I have nothing against prepared spells but sometimes if you can get something similar with spontaneous i find it to have more RP opportunities, not to mention I can see him needing to cast the same spell over and over again, namely spectral hand and vampiric touch when he's away from his undead. the inflict spells would also fall into that category.
For a maximum of Neutral aligment:
Heroes of Horror: Dread Necromancer
He has a very limited spell list and casts spells like a sorcerer but all spells of the spelllevels he can cast are known to him.
That means he can decide on every spell of his spell list up to his maximum aviable spell level whenever he casts a spell.
Are there any spontaneous casters out there that have similar versatility? I have nothing against prepared spells but sometimes if you can get something similar with spontaneous i find it to have more RP opportunities, not to mention I can see him needing to cast the same spell over and over again, namely spectral hand and vampiric touch when he's away from his undead. the inflict spells would also fall into that category.
Dread necro is the easiest.
Cloistered cleric going into Shadowcraft Mage is a lot more powerful. 
Yeah, but I think a Dread Necro has a lot more flavour and some other nice features. He also has the better cards at melee range
Yeah, but I think a Dread Necro has a lot more flavour and some other nice features. He also has the better cards at melee range
I disagree on both counts.
1) Flavor is mostly about the player being creative. Also, I think a cleric who is sneaky, shadowy, and can use magic in unusual ways (emulating wizard spells via shadow illusions) is quite flavorful. Add in a fascination with the undead, and some odd personality quirks, and that seems like plenty of flavor to me. I'm playing such a character right now.
2) If such a character wants to melee, they can buff the holy crap out of themselves by taking the Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell) chain of feats, and curb stomp the dread necro as an afterthought.
The biggest problem I can see with either is that in order to go shadowcraft mage is that you have to be gnome, I was gonna try and go human for the extra feat because there a a whole bunch of ones that apear to be worth their salt, and my DM is unlikely to agree to Change the preq.
Dread necro looks very interesting, but is there any major problems that you are aware of? (open question)
And is there any prestige classes that fit well with the dread necro without hundreds of dips? only because I have been told it is only useful to take it to 8-10
The biggest problem I can see with either is that in order to go shadowcraft mage is that you have to be gnome, I was gonna try and go human for the extra feat because there a a whole bunch of ones that apear to be worth their salt, and my DM is unlikely to agree to Change the preq.
There is a blurb in the class description about modifying the prereqs for non-gnomes, but yeah being short on feats is definitely a problem. If you can use flaws, not so much...
Dread necro looks very interesting, but is there any major problems that you are aware of? (open question)And is there any prestige classes that fit well with the dread necro without hundreds of dips? only because I have been told it is only useful to take it to 8-10
It's good at what it does, but its scope is definitely limited.
Pale master is a decent dip/PrC, to get rid of the annoying cost of onyx. Of course, you can also do that with the Fell Animate feat (apply it to cantrips to Coup De Grace creatures that you've beaten down with subdual damage, etc). That doesn't cost you a caster level, either.
The prestige classes that add spells known to your list are also very handy for a dread necro. Fiend Blooded and Sandshaper are two that come to mind.
Sandshaper is awsome I played one in my last campaign though being city based it might be harder to use. Maybe I'll use that but were is fiend blooded from?
Flaws are allowed but I'd have no clue as to what to take. I've only read about them never used em. XP
Flaws are allowed but I'd have no clue as to what to take. I've only read about them never used em. XP
that is easy. take the ones that are not going to affect your character. if you are going to be behind a horde of undead, take the ones that affect combat, like the ones that drop your AC by one, or give you a -1 to hit. Far more likely is that the DM will require you to roll for them, which makes agonizing over which ones to take kind of pointless. On a sidenote, the flaw that allows the DM to force you to reroll one roll once a day can be hilarious, especially when everyone takes it.
My DM lets us pick. He said so himself.
I've been thinking that I'll go:
if it's in () it's the reason
Race: human (extra feat)
Template: winged ( RP[angelic looking necromancer anyone?]+ flight ){unless something better comes up}
Class:
1-x dread necromancer
y-20(campaign starts at ELC15) something with good flavor that will keep me from becoming a lich(I don't want to become evil no matter how much I flirt with the dark side)
Feats/flaws: undesided
Equipment: undesided
Learned spells: undesided
Type of undead: undesided (Really powerful for HD {XP})
Ability scores: str 12, con 14, int 18, wis 10, cha 18, dex 16 (open to suggestions) We use all have the same scores we just put them into differnt abilities
Skills: undesided
The dragonborn template is much better than winged.
Edit: oh wait, I forgot you have to take something with a LA and buy it off, right? Anyway, I don't think winged is worth the LA it costs.
The dragonborn template is much better than winged.
Edit: oh wait, I forgot you have to take something with a LA and buy it off, right? Anyway, I don't think winged is worth the LA it costs.
if you have any ideas they are very welcome especialy angelic ones, and don't worry about how high the LA is by buying it off it won't penalize me anywhere near as much as LA normally would I still get to take 20 CL before going epic. unfortunately though I asked my DM and dragon even the good ones in the campaign are few and far between. meaning he won't let me take it because Bahamut wouldn't need them.
Well, the winged template prevents you from becoming a lich. You only become a Lich when you're Humanoid but with Winged, you're a Monstrous Humanoid.
That would be great. Are there any other templates that give me angelic looks besides Half-celestial that would go well with the character?
And does anyone have suggestions for feats, equipment, and the creature I should make into my minion?
Let me repeat myself...
Read this thread, if you haven't: brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.p...
Wow, nice Idea about Uttercold and snowcasting...
These Feats would be worth taking.
Since most necromancy spells have the evil descriptor I would recommend being Hellbred (Fiendish Codex II)
Since most necromancy spells have the evil descriptor I would recommend being Hellbred (Fiendish Codex II)
I'll look into it now.
Thanks for the link to the handbook PhaedrusXY. It helped a lot.