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                | Jakuta KhanSenior Scribe
 
    
 
		496 Posts  | 
                    
                      |  Posted - 11 Sep 2012 :  08:48:59         
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           	| Hi all, 
 reading books and books I often stumble upon descritpions were single individuals control "dozens" or "legions" of undead creatures, quite often red wizards for example.
 
 Is the standard Levelx4 in HD a limitation valid only for certain kinds of undead?
 I think in monsters of Faerun, there are some kinds explained were no special limit is given of how many of these canbe controlled after creation.
 
 I also recall in the trilogy about cormyr, there was an ancient elven king helping the humans against some evil clerics army of undead and other crap.
 
 how do you guys handle this in your games, or is there definite lore about this?
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                | Jeremy GrenemyerGreat Reader
 
      
 
                 USA2717 Posts
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                      |  Posted - 11 Sep 2012 :  15:53:28       
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                      | Off the top of my head: there are some arcane spells that allow wizards to control undead, as well as Prestige Classes that allow for increased control of undead. I don't recall specific spell or prestige class names. 
 As far as my game, I'm less concerned about holding hard to the rules than I am with creating the right impression with my players. I feel that as long as I can manage the difficulty of a given encounter, I'm not going to worry overmuch about whether an evil NPC wizard or cleric has exceeded his/her maximum number of undead controlled.
 
 If Diffan is around he might be able to mention whether he's seen a min/max build for maximum number of undead controlled, over on the Character Optimization boards at WotC.
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                      | Look for me and my content at EN World (user name: sanishiver).
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                | sleyvasSkilled Spell Strategist
 
      
 
		  USA12189 Posts
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                      |  Posted - 12 Sep 2012 :  01:12:02       
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                      | quote:Originally posted by Jakuta Khan
 
 Hi all,
 
 reading books and books I often stumble upon descritpions were single individuals control "dozens" or "legions" of undead creatures, quite often red wizards for example.
 
 Is the standard Levelx4 in HD a limitation valid only for certain kinds of undead?
 I think in monsters of Faerun, there are some kinds explained were no special limit is given of how many of these canbe controlled after creation.
 
 I also recall in the trilogy about cormyr, there was an ancient elven king helping the humans against some evil clerics army of undead and other crap.
 
 how do you guys handle this in your games, or is there definite lore about this?
 
 
 
 What often happens is that the necromancer controls one undead that can  then control its own undead.  For instance,  the red wizards had dread warriors.  Other undead often have spawn.  Then there's various feats, class choices, and magic items that can increase this hit dice limit.
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                      | Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
 
 Phillip aka Sleyvas
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                | DiffanGreat Reader
 
      
 
		  USA4487 Posts
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                      |  Posted - 12 Sep 2012 :  06:01:23       
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                      | What sleyvas said. In addition to that, you can also cast the Summon Undead spells in the Spell Compendium which do not count against the number of Undead you can control. 
 Furthermore, in the book Complete Mage, it gives you solid advice on creating a Necromncer and going so far as to tell you what are some awesome spells, feats, and magic items to grab AND tells you what options are BAD.
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                      | Diffan's NPG Generator: FR NPC Generator
 
 E6 Options: Epic 6 Campaign
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                | KnoSenior Scribe
 
    
 
		452 Posts  | 
                    
                      |  Posted - 12 Sep 2012 :  13:09:43       
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                      | I've handled it with undead leadership feat - Libris Mortis, in other ways Rod of Undead Mastery and desecrate help. |  
                      | z455t
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                | sleyvasSkilled Spell Strategist
 
      
 
		  USA12189 Posts
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                      |  Posted - 12 Sep 2012 :  21:11:23       
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                      | quote:Originally posted by Diffan
 
 What sleyvas said. In addition to that, you can also cast the Summon Undead spells in the Spell Compendium which do not count against the number of Undead you can control.
 
 Furthermore, in the book Complete Mage, it gives you solid advice on creating a Necromncer and going so far as to tell you what are some awesome spells, feats, and magic items to grab AND tells you what options are BAD.
 
 
 
 Yeah, destruction retribution is a  must have.  Its similar to what  I used to do with  imbue undead with spell ability.... a closer version of that uses craft contingent spell where you stick a fireball on an undead rat.  Of course, if you have about 40 of these undead  rats with destruction retribution (all with invisibility on them mind you)... and one of them has a contingent fireball that goes off whenever they approach their target or whenever they're killed which  kills all the other undead rats.... makes for a pretty nasty explosion.  Works even better if you send in several undead creatures first to start working on  the party first... so they can take some damage but not be dead yet when all these little exploding undead rats heal them.
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                      | Alavairthae, may your skill prevail
 
 Phillip aka Sleyvas
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                | WalkerNinjaSenior Scribe
 
    
 
		  USA577 Posts
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                      |  Posted - 12 Sep 2012 :  23:48:24       
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                      | To maximize the size of your undead legions, skip animating skeletons--seize control of undead that themselves control other undead. |  
                      | *** A Forgotten Realms Addict since 1990 ***
 Treasures of the Past, a Second Edition Play-by-Post game for and by Candlekeep Sages--http://www.rpol.net/game.cgi?gi=52011
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