Through some various quests and i am able to channel positive and negative energy via some mysterious inner powers i dont know yet. Meaning i can heal etc.I also obtained the dragonwrought feat without me wanting too..
All the characters in the campaign got something after that certain session.
So since i probably wont be able to become a lich since im a dragon now unless a dracolich ! lol i was wondering should i keep going on with the dread necromancer or pick a prestige class? that might not have been available before since i can channel both positive and negative energy spells? So i have both inflict and cure spells....
I recommend the Revised Necromancer Handbook and of course the New Dread Necromancer Handbook for ideas.
It'd help to have a bit more information on what you're wanting to do with said Dread Necromancer, to be honest and the relative power levels of your associated party members. I'm sure if we kicked the optimization powers into high gear we could whip out something outrageous (Ur Priest immediately comes to mind) but I doubt that is what you are really wanting.
My group consists of a dwarf fighter ( going dwarven defender ) 2 rogues and a scout so basicly my owlbear skeleton saves they day each time till now.
I should be able to get a single zombie/skeleton try to get the biggest thing around to help me by the time i get lvl 8. I was thinking after that what should i do?
Are there any other dragon prestige classes available other than draconomicon?
Cause that might be cool too!
ProfessorCurly you mention going to any full spellcasting class and ill be golden.. could u explain that a bit more
As for Dragon prestige classes... Hmmm... Well the book Dragon Magic has some dragon-themed prestige classes. Pact Bound Adept could provide good flavor but you'd have to mess with the fluff a bit. Essentially you give up spells you can cast to a Dragon in exchange for spell like abilities that grow in number/power/uses per day based on the level spell you chose to give up, however you lose two caster levels during the class so consider carefully. The others aren't a good fit for a Dread Necro though. There are probably others scattered around like the Dragon Disciple from the DMG, but generally they'd be in those two books.
So undead shambling horde is out. I've heard an interesting story that someone shared here that they didn't 'have' a shambling horde with them, but rather animated a lot of things and ordered them to bury themselves. So essentially he had an undead army scattered about the countryside 'just in case'. That might be something to consider.
Really I'd like to know what -you- want to do with this character.
Don't forget that the DN gets disguise and bluff as class skills. Talk w/ your DM about disguising your undead to be living (the skill description is a bit vague about it, but you should still be able to do it), then lie to your party and say that your "cohort" is a Monk that took a vow of silence.
Well actually I dont think my dm will allow me to get a horde of undead plus my party isnt too crazy of my undead summoning
Then you are playing the wrong class...
ProfessorCurly i was meaning prestige class that require u do be a Dragon!
Draconomicon has a few is there any other book?
Because with the Dragonwrought feat im considered a dragon now.
jameswilliamogle thanks i will look into it.. sounds interesting!
PhaedrusXY I can still have a couple of undead and i would prefer to have a single or 2 strong undead than a horde.. no need to have a 1000 zombies with 1HD.
Of course not. That would be useless. But with Command Undead on your list and the Dread Necro's 8th level class feature, you can actually control a large number of high HD undead.
ProfessorCurly i was meaning prestige class that require u do be a Dragon!
Draconomicon has a few is there any other book?
Because with the Dragonwrought feat im considered a dragon now.
Races of the Dragon has several feats and PrCs for dragons. You could get wings from a couple of feats, for example. Entangling Exhalation from that book is awesome if you have (or can get) a breath weapon.
im pretty sure i will be alone in that opinion..
if you feat wings, be sure to feat better flyinging...
im in favor or dracolich..
im pretty sure i will be alone in that opinion..
if you feat wings, be sure to feat better flyinging...
But getting a feat every 3 lvls will take ages? maybe i could go into a prestige class that gives me bonus feats and + casting lvls???
or i could go into the dragon heart mage maybe?
In addition, when the dread necromancer uses the animate dead spell to create undead, she can control 4 + her Charsima bonus HD worth of undead per class level
I don't understand.
I don't understand.
The 8th level DN ability is worded so that you get (4+Cha) x Dread Necromancer levels, instead of 4 x caster level, when using Animate Dead. So, if you had a Dread Necromancer 8 / Shadow Adept 2 w/ a 22 Cha, for example, you would be getting w/ each Animate Dead casting [(6 Cha + 4) x 8 DN levels, from undead mastery] + [2 x 4, from regular animate dead] = 88 HD worth of undead.
Now, a stricter reading actually shows that Undead Mastery replaces the Animate Dead limit completely, thus one could interpret the DN 8 / Shadow Adept 2 to ONLY be able to animate [(6 Cha + 4) x 8] = 80 HD of undead. A DN 8 / Shadow Adept 2 / Incanatrix 10 would still only be able to animate 80 HD w/ this interpretation (plus a bit more probably from higher Cha). Thus at lower levels the multiclassing DN can control more undead, but at higher levels the number of undead she can control via Animate Dead never increases. I've never met a DM that agreed w/ this, though, as its very silly (why would a Dread Necromancer multiclassing caster not be able to make at least as many undead as a straight caster?).
The key is if "class level" in this context only means Dread Necromancer levels. In every other class description, "class level" means this, and if it's level dependent then the text just says "level". Talk w/ the DM about it early on, though.
This is just one silly thing in the DN class; there's others, too (for example, dispel magic and greater dispel magic are contracted on the spell list, there's planar binding spells but no circle spells to make them work, no desecration, and who the heck knows how the lich apotheosis ability is supposed to work).
Undead Mastery, the main ability Dread Necros get at level eight, gives a -massive- bonus to the number of undead you can control with Animate Dead and Control Undead. Well, potentially massive anyway depending on your Charisma bonus. This ability works off caster levels and not class levels, thus any class that advances spellcasting also advances Undead Mastery so you don't lose on one of the signature abilities of the class when you prestige out of it.
Falls. It's based on class levels, not caster levels. PrCing out of Dread Necromancer will not advance undead mastery. You've got it backwards.
If you want to have fun with undead but don't want skeletons, consider playing around with Haunt Shift. On a Dread Necromancer, it will be powerful but not broken, and it'll look like golems and such. Plus, carriages that move themselves and open doors for you are just so chic.
JaronK
You only lose 2 caster levels... though you only really need Binder 1 for the build, level 2 just adds fun extras. Go to 8th Dread Necro, take Binder 1 and you feat Improved Binding(count as level +2 binder for vestiges bindable and quantity of bindable vestiges). Then Anima Mage for fun tricks with metamagic, FULL spellcasting AND binding progression. You end up as a 18-19 Dread Necromancer(9th level spells) / 13-14 Binder(6th level vestiges) and fun vestige/metamagic tricks.
The downside is your BAB will end up at +9 and Anima Mage is only d4 hit die(but take necropolitan template on at 4th and your HD become all d12s anyways).
Then again not everyone likes this so its really your call.
On a second reading of the ability, ignore my advice. I apologize for misleading you. Unless of course you show your DM and he rules it should work off of caster level as the Animate Dead spell does naturally or some other way.