Help me make a necromancer.

[Ravirn]

This is my first time playing this game and first time with dungeons and dragons so go easy if i use the wrong terminology or such.

What im wanting to make is a Necromancer which to my reading will eventually become a pale master. Im wanting to make a minion master type character with lots of undead minions and such and to my understanding we can have a companion so is possible a companion that can also summon minions.

So id like advice on how to build this character race traits well everything really. Also is this a good character and if not what are some possible good necro builds.

Also occurs to me that for a minion master build eventually getting the druid past life feat stacked 3 times would make minions much better.

[Soulfurnace]

Okay, to correct a point (for future reference, and because my OCD says to. Sorry.)
Wizards can take the Palemaster enhancements. (Not Necro -> pale, had to say)

Now, in regards to the build; it's doable, but you'll find summoned monsters aren't that effective. I'm not sure what you mean by companion - hireling perhaps? If so, some can summon one monster.
My opinion would be to go https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/422622 - it's a palemaster, can do traps, has evasion, ect. I quite like it, it's 100% viable, but it's not summon based, which is what you asked for.

[Ravirn]

Well i really wanted to do a minion master but if it not viable then i guess thats a bust.

Another question does it take very long to get to level 20? Im curious if it takes a while to TR and start getting the past life bonus or not.

[Soulfurnace]

Well i really wanted to do a minion master but if it not viable then i guess thats a bust.

Another question does it take very long to get to level 20? Im curious if it takes a while to TR and start getting the past life bonus or not.
For you? It will take a while.
For people with no life and practice? We'll knock off a legend life (over twice the xp you need) in less than a week.
However, it's not very relevant - you should not TR for the past life bonuses yet. Once you've hit 20, stay at epics, grind gear for your next life. Be armed to the teeth with all sorts of cool stuff :)

Just to clarify, 1-20 xp will vary based on three main things: How good you can solo (or how lucky the LFMs are), what packs you own and how much you're prepared to grind.

[unbongwah]

Hi, welcome to DDO. :)

As it happens, you've joined DDO the day after Turbine rolled out the latest update (U19 (http://ddowiki.com/page/Update_19_Release_Notes)) and second expansion (Shadowfell (http://ddowiki.com/page/Shadowfell_Conspiracy)). Apart from new content and raising the level cap to 28, this includes a pretty substantial revamp to the Enhancement system (http://ddowiki.com/page/In_development/Enhancements). So you'll be learning how to make your character while the rest of us are learning how to re-balance all of our builds for the new system. The downside is this means any existing build threads you find will be of limited use, because so much has changed. :(

What im wanting to make is a Necromancer which to my reading will eventually become a pale master. Im wanting to make a minion master type character with lots of undead minions and such and to my understanding we can have a companion so is possible a companion that can also summon minions.
In DDO, you can summon (http://ddowiki.com/page/Summons) the following simultaneously:

Your class pet: Artificers gets a robot dog, druids get a wolf, Pale Masters get a Skeletal pet.
One summoned creature using Summon Monster, Create Undead, or Flame Turret spells; this includes using clickies or scrolls.
A hireling purchased from the vendors in-game.
As many Gold Seal hirelings purchased from the DDO Store as you want, up to the max party size of 6. [This includes the panther & Owlbear permanent companions you could get from pre-ordering MotU & Shadowfell, respectively; not sure if they're still available.]


NOTE: hirelings may not be used in raids, only regular (6-person) quests; they take up a party slot and cause the dungeon to scale up in difficulty, though not as much as a real person would.

Unfortunately, summoning in general sucks in DDO, because the summons don't scale up in power nearly as much as players & monsters do (particularly at higher difficulties); and the AI for them is not very good (to put it mildly). They can help out - a lot of my melee toons rely on cleric hirelings while solo-leveling and some of the CC-oriented summons can be useful (e.g., earth & air elementals) - but if you think relying on minions is a viable alternative to DPSing yourself, you'd be wrong. :(

Another question does it take very long to get to level 20? Im curious if it takes a while to TR and start getting the past life bonus or not.
As a newbie starting from scratch? Yes: expect it to take weeks if not months, depending on how much you play, how quickly you master the mechanics, how well you build your character (or select someone else's build to follow), etc. And that's presuming you like your first char well enough to stick with it all the way. Furthermore, as Soulfurnace implies, leveling is only part of the TR grind; gearing up your toon is a major timesink as well, esp. if you plan on a lot of raid gear.

Now if you're lucky, you can join a guild which will help you speed-level to 20, in part by exploiting Bravery Bonus (http://ddowiki.com/page/Bravery_Bonus). But I actually think this is a mistake; when other people do all the heavy lifting for you in quests, you learn nothing about how to play DDO for yourself. IMHO, it's worth taking the time to learn the quests and the mechanics of the game on your own, even if it means leveling a lot more slowly.

My advice: crawl before you plan to run marathons, grasshopper. :cool: Or put another way: learn how to play well, then learn how to play fast.

[Zirun]

Well i really wanted to do a minion master but if it not viable then i guess thats a bust.

Another question does it take very long to get to level 20? Im curious if it takes a while to TR and start getting the past life bonus or not.

From what I hear, the skeleton that Pale Masters have access to is actually not too shabby, so long as you're not running the most difficult content possible. Another part of the problem that'll still exist is that utilizing the skeleton won't be as effective as using Wail of the Banshee or various area of effect or damage over time spells to simply kill everything. So it can be viable, depending on how you want to play the game. The normal summons (from the Summon Creature I-IX spells) are still pretty terrible in general, though, unfortunately.

I'd at least give the skeleton a try before giving up on it altogether.

[bsquishwizzy]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the summons are terrible. They work OK for content up to epic (which was their intended purpose anyways). And at the top level (IX), the Hezrou is GREAT for grabbing agro early. Thus, it allows you to pick-off mobs from a distance.

When you get into EDs, however, the Lich pet is sorta "meh."

Augment Summoning also helps the bolster your summons.

I personally don't use the PM pets, as in some quests pets and summons a generally discouraged (some portions of the Shroud, for example - Hezrous have a bad habit of attacking crystals on their own).

A master summoner doesn't really exist in DDO mainly because of resource strain in the game and on the servers (they require positioning, and AI horsepower on the CPU). So if you are going Necromancer, you can either go PM and have up to two summons and a potential hireling, or you can go Arch Mage, specialize in Necro and something else (usually Enchantment), and utilize one summon. I've done Necro-speced AMs. They are not as uber-necro as a PM, but they can hold their own, and generally get more SP than PMs anyways. The only downside is that you cannot self-heal like a PM, so you'll need to make other arrangements when it comes to recovering HP.

[Soulfurnace]

The downside is this means any existing build threads you find will be of limited use, because so much has changed.
Not quite... The build I linked was updated for u19 by EllisDee. I was careful not to put him into a trap from u18.
Comes with updated tree, feats and is ready for lv 28 :)

[droid327]

The max number of level-appropriate summons you could have as a PM is actually:

1) Skeleton Warrior
2) Hireling
3) Owlbear (Store-bought, a permanent Gold Seal hireling, and may not be available anymore. L16 and L23, so when the level cap goes up to 28/30, will no longer be 'level apporpriate')
4) Magister summon (once you reach Epic levels)
5) Hireling's Summon Monster
6?) Your Summon Monster? Or does the Magister summon count towards your Summon Monster slot?

You could also summon additional Gold Seal Hirelings, but these are Store-only and not permanent. Plus 5 and 6 are going to be one-shot cannon fodder even in Normal L20 quests. Plus plus, as others have already pointed out, summons don't scale well past L20. Plus plus plus, you cant control 4-6 at all, so you're subject to the whimsical vagaries of their deplorable AI.

If you wanted the best summons-based char, you might actually be better of with a Druid. You trade the skelly for a wolf, which you can actually equip with some items to make them marginally better, and Druid gets a suite of minion buffs that would apply to all the above. You can also heal all your minions, unlike a PM that can only heal undead. That being said, all the available buffs in the game aren't enough to make minions fully viable through endgame.

[Keldain]

Before you reading everything below, the easiest pet class (IMHO) is a Warforged Artificer. Powerful long range, self healing, good AoE damage, useful pet, traps, and locks. A very solo friendly class that can still bring good DPS and trapping to a group.

As to a Nerco:
Not saying I am a DDO Pro by any means, but I have been playing on and off since launch, and have been "slowly" leveling whats called a Pale Trapper. Before U19, it was pretty rough, and I still have a few legacy feats from before U19, but nothing too bad.

Nice thing about a Pale Trapper is that you can PBAoE heal with negative energy that also harms your enemies. You can spend Enhancements to get a strong skeletal knight, and with Augment Summoning (feat), they get a good boost (+4) to their power. You won't really start to come into your own until you can cast Lesser Death Aura spell which is 3 levels of wizard. At 7 levels of wizard you get regular Death Aura spell, Fire Wall, and Negative Energy Burst. So I would say at 7 levels of wizard is when Pale Master finally comes into it's own. Then at 11 levels of wizard you get Create Undead spell, which is also healed by negative energy. Do a search for "Rare Arcane Spells" to see which ones you want to choose at level up. You can then buy the others from vendors.

Basic Playstyle up through 11 Wizard/1 Rogue:
Cast undead form
Cast Cloak of Night
Summon Skele
(above can all be cast in Tavern)
Enter Dungeon
Cast Summons (Create Undead preferably)
Buff self and Skele (sometimes summon)
Equip 2 hand weapon and cast master touch
Switch out + Spell Point Item (SP spent on buffs is free that way)
From there out you can melee, ranged (xbow or short bow), GT AoE (Fire Wall ect..), Death Aura, and whatever else the situation requires.

The pre-U19 Pale Master guides are still pretty good or spells and tactics, just ignore the Feat requirements, but that being said, most of those pre-reqs are still pretty good.

My Progress:
Race: Drow
Starting Stats: basically 10 or better on all, Max INT, CHR can be lower
If you can afford it, buy +INT Tomes at L3, L7, L11, L15
L1 Rogue - 4 Pts in most rogue skills
L2-L12 Wizard - Keep Search, Spot, Disable Device, and UMD Maxed

You don't need to worry too much about Open Locks and Hide as once you get a few levels, you can use Knock and Invisibility spells for that, and at longer ranges unskilled hide is still fairly effective.

Put Enhancement Points into INT upgrades, Pale Master for forms and Skele upgrades. Also, the lower tiers of Arch Mage are great for the free spell points and free spells (spell-like-abilities or SLAs), I went Illusion for Invisibility and the other nice cheap illusion spells in that line. Also of note, metamagic feats are free to use on SLAs (metamagic change a spell affect at added spell point cost)

For Feats, Extend is great for buffs, Augmented Summoning to strengthen your Skele and Summoned Monster. At character L12, you get Create Undead, which is just awesome. Mummy and Wight Priest are great. As of now the Wraith creates agro'd wraiths that can't easily be commanded, not sure if its a bug or intended. You also definitely want Insightful Reflexes, which uses you INT bonus to avoid damage instead of DEX (see evasion below).

L13 Rogue - Top off any skills you want. This also gives Evasion so you can avoid reflex save damage (lightening, fireballs, traps, ect..)

L14+ Wizard

Some people prefer to do the second level of Rogue sooner, like character L8, but I kept pushing it off because wizard just kept offering great boosts, where rogue was kinda poor in comparison. By doing that, I also had more skill points (because of INT tomes and level-up) to spend.

Also of note, (along with read everything you can) Metamagic feats can be turned on or off per spell. So perhaps you want some spells to last longer, such as Haste, but you also want one that is cheaper, so put two versions on your bar. Another example is that you may want to Maximize (lots of damage at higher cost) a damaging spell such as Frost Lance to instakill those pesky healers or nukers before they kill you. This is done by right clicking the spell once slotted.

Not saying this is "the way" but it is the road I traveled. Very fun, very powerful.

Any input or comments are welcome, but again, this is just has worked for me so far.

As unbongwah above said, in Dungeons and Dragons, enjoy the journey. Sure many people are all about endgame, but I enjoy the quests, and the anticipation of that next level so I can use that item I found, or caster that next uber spell, or even so I can disable that stupid trap that fried me last time :)

[Keldain]

I apologize for typos. For some reason (after 4 tries) It won't let me edit. I am currently L12, so still figuring out if my "plan" will work. Next level (character L13) will be rogue, but so far so good.

[stoerm]

Also occurs to me that for a minion master build eventually getting the druid past life feat stacked 3 times would make minions much better.

As a caster there are lots of past lifes you can benefit from, including a wizard PL, so you may as well start off as a wizard and get to have some pale master fun right away. Druid and other past lives can come later, think of the uber minion master as a long term goal.

I've seen some new players get to 20 in a month or two, for me it took closer to two years due to rerolls, altitis and a lack of drive to level fast. I just enjoyed learning the game and experiencing the content. It really depends on a lot of factors.

To echo Unbongwah, the quickest way to level is to get on board a TR train with old timers. You'd be seeing the pros in action, but you'd mostly be trying to keep up with them as they plough through the content at maximum speed (aka zerging). Not much fun, not much learning. Unless you're already a hardcore powergamer I'd suggest taking your time through your first life.

Welcome to DDO and enjoy your stay!