The Avatar of the Silent Lord, a master of necromantic arts, is the most formidable offensive necromancer that can be seen. Its mastery lies in his unmatched DCs on necromantic spells, far above those of an elemental savant or a true necromancer. The wise player will be able to end any fight with a single spell, except against golems.

Race : Human
Align: any non-good.

Stats:
str: 10
dex: 14
Con: 14
int: 18 (28), all points here
wis: 8
cha: 8

Leveling order :
5 Wizard (specialist necromancer)
10 Red wizard
5 Shadow Adept
20 Red wizard

Feats :
1 : Spell focus necromancy, Greater spell focus necromancy
3 : Tatoo focus necromancy
5 : Extend spell
6 : Shadow Weave ; give up the schools divination (opposed to necromancy) and enchantement
9 : Empower spell (for Circle of Death and Undeath to Death)
10 : Maximize spell (for Circle of Death and Undeath to Death)
12 : Spell penetration
15 : Greater Spell penetration
18 : Silent spell
21 : Epic spell focus necromancy
23 : Focused penetration necromancy
24 : Epic spell penetration
26 and all the remaining feats : Greater intelligence (total of 10)

Skills to max :
Concentration, spellcraft, lore, tumble 20, and all you may want (stratospherical intelligence allows some choice).

At level 40:
Max HP: 280
Wail of the banshee DC 63 with +12 intelligence items.
Spell penetration of 63 on all necromancy spells.

Pros :
-DCs unmatched. Only a deep Imaskeri can do better, with a very similar build.
-Most often ends a fight before the fight begins.
-Has no problem beating a monk.

Cons :
-Low defense (HP, AC, Discipline, Saves except saves against necromancy) ; not a big deal since enemies generally don't come close enough alive.
-Has serious problems against golems.
-Relies mostly on the lack of immunities of ennemies, thus it sucks on high magic worlds, especially uber ones.
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If you call IGMS, Harm, Mestil's acid shield, the Bigby hands or Devastating Critical balanced in your post, don't expect me to like you.

I'm sorry about my bad english, I'm french.
In every lie lies a part of truth. I like Of course, I love necromancy spells, so this is very good.

For something that takes away the theme of the build, but might add to the power, consider changing the Shadow Adept levels to Archmage levels (yes, I know it will require feat rearranging as well) as this allows you to have mastery of elements, as well as other abilities that will help you deal damage to those immune to death magic.
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Player Resource Consortium
Quote: Posted 01/18/05 17:37:45 (GMT) -- Stratovarius667

For something that takes away the theme of the build, but might add to the power, consider changing the Shadow Adept levels to Archmage levels (yes, I know it will require feat rearranging as well) as this allows you to have mastery of elements, as well as other abilities that will help you deal damage to those immune to death magic.

Against magical death immunity :
-Level drain (energy drain (9), enervation (4), empowered enervation (6), maximized enervation (7), silent enervation (5)) with high enough DCs (58 for the lowest) that nothing resists it. Death by level drain is so stylish
-Damage spells (horrid wilting and silent, negative energy burst, empowered, maximized and silent, negative energy ray and silent). It even lowers strengh, so you can slow down the enemies
-Undead summons, with appropriate buffs, to hit on behalf of you.

Of course, the archmage option is strong, but it takes a bit of the spirit (and is RPwise a bit more difficult to explain than the shadow adept), and it also breaks the need for the red wizard class. If you can toss so many icy fireballs or whatever, what's the point of having such high DCs in necromancy spells ? The archmage class is more suited to a more evoker spellcaster. It would work, but i just don't like it.
Oh, and unless i'm wrong, the archmage is banned or nerfed on some worlds, because it is considered overpowered.
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If you call IGMS, Harm, Mestil's acid shield, the Bigby hands or Devastating Critical balanced in your post, don't expect me to like you.

I'm sorry about my bad english, I'm french.
In every lie lies a part of truth. Well, I was more thinking about combat vs Golems, who are immune to all of those that you just posted. (Undead are too, but you've got Undeath to Death to make em go away).

As for the Archmage, most servers that I know of don't ban it. Also, there is nothing wrong with having high DCs in a spellschool, even if you are an Archmage. Making it harder to resist your spells is always a good thing, not a bad one
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Player Resource Consortium I can attest to the sheer power of a Wiz/RW/Archmage combo, especially with mastery of elements and shaping, and having several nice necromancy spells prepared as 2x per day SLAs, the combo just tears apart anything that's not immune to necromancy spells. I am interested in seeing an Archmage version of this build, if anyone has one.
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If everyone is thinking alike, then someone is failing to think. Using a custom race though, its possible to get equally good DCs on the necromancy spells. I have a Yuan Ti Sorceror 25 Cleric 15 Hierophant 5 (all hierophant bonus feats into increased spell power) that gets similar DCs on the necromancy spells. Why kill undead, when you can just control them with control undead! The Dc on that should be pretty damn close to ubeatable.

As for golems, the build still gets a check of +20 on spellcraft, which means it can get plenty of nice epic spells. A couple of godsmites should take care of them. Bigby and IGMS are always options.

I wouldn't worry about AC. Just throw up Mestil's and Epic warding. Just noticed that your build can't get 10 great intelligence feats. RW gets feats at 15, 20, 25 and 30. That's 11 epic feats total. Ack...I meant Sorc 20 Cleric 15 Hierophant 5.