Dread Necromancer Undead Management

[Graytemplar]

So hey all,
maybe im just lazy, but im wondering if theres some sort of character sheet to help u organize the massive amounts of hd of undead u can control as a mid level (about 12) dread necromancer) especially in a desecrated area.

If not, what program would u suggest for making such a sheet, (my cp doesnt have ms word)

[Vandicus]

Actually, the undead should technically have their stats and levels managed by the DM. It may sound weird, but only he should be aware of what build they've taken or how much RHD they might have.

If the DM asks you to manage the stats anyways, ask him in turn to allow you to build the undead, its only fair as this'll help you keep bookkeeping down.

Simply design yourself a basic divine caster 1-20, arcane caster 1-20, melee 1-20, etc and you'll have basic statblocks for each level.

[Graytemplar]

I probably should have mentioned that I'm using some nonstandard creatures here.

Mostly stuff from libris mortis, wherein the monster descriptions speak of necromancers using various undead. Weaker stuff (e.g. entombers) are animated as per animate dead, but take longer and use material components. My character is currently trying to steal necromantic secrets from a cult of evil necromancers. He dreams of leading boneyards into battle, how sweet would that be?!

[opticalshadow]

well when i play a DN online i usally keep a note pad document for each type of undead i have (troll skeleton, kobold skelly, etc) which has the basic stat block for that unit type, then unedr the stat block i have any actions particular ones or the group is doing, for individual parts of the unit which are altered (spells, equipment or such) i have at the bottom of that document a sub section for this.

recently i moved to using google docs, and i have made a spread sheet the vertical collom devoted to types of groups, the horizontal being specific members of that group, the specific members by default have a link to a gogole doc of the standared stat block and orders, while any indivual who is altered or doign somethign on its own has aa document of its own describing it.



either method takes a bit to set up, but shoudlnt take more then an hour, and once you set this up, its a breeze ingame to locate the undead you want with anything its doing holding or effecting in under a minute. and chaning its orders or its modifiers is just as quick. i reccomemnd doing this, id otn like my dm to control my undead, i find i can do things much quicker then most dms, but thats because i built my army i know where to look for everything. i have no problem shareing any info he wants, and ill give him access to whatever he needs to make sure its all fair, but i prefer controling it myself so everything stay seasy and clean.

[Silva Stormrage]

Well I never made entire character sheets for my undead whenever I played with them. I would suggest writing down their important stats and have almost all your undead on 1/2 sheets of paper. Just write down things that will come up, don't write down "Improved Initiative" for all your skeletons, just write down their Initiative.

[opticalshadow]

Well I never made entire character sheets for my undead whenever I played with them. I would suggest writing down their important stats and have almost all your undead on 1/2 sheets of paper. Just write down things that will come up, don't write down "Improved Initiative" for all your skeletons, just write down their Initiative.

i like having all their info handy for diffrent situations, its helped more then once when my fortress (the sunless citidel which i reclaimed long logn ago as my base of operations) was seiged by a group of adventurers who heared claims of it being a breeding ground for the undead. i was unable to attend the party, but my undead did suprisingly well agains them (i dont normally bring along many undead, i keep a few birds for scouts and a big brusier i ride inside of noramlyl a troll or ogre, im always a necropolatian kobold) so i horde all my extra undead in fortresses, the dm normally seiges the place every now and then in some fasion to defeat my army, which is ok its an agreemetn we have. it lets me play the big undead overlord thing withou interupting our game time and without my army being a burdern to the main quest.

alot of the stat blocks can be found online with little ease (d20 srd) or with other programs i have for when i dm (so i actually have all the stats already)

[Coidzor]

Well, there are some character sheets that have sections for writing down the details for animal companions/familiars/psicrystals... I think the standard 3.5 4 page sheet from WOTC has a page with half of it dominated by the animal companion-creature thing. Or you could fill in most of the details on a condensed, short form, 1 page character sheet.

[Groverfield]

Track it like HP, but with notes:

12 / 24 (or 36, I forget if DNs get a 50% increase in HD they can control)
-1 Skeleton "Bob" (MM, pg. ??)
-1 Skeleton "Eddie-Macdowell" (MM, pg. ??)
-6 Zombie "Francis, the former Ogre"
-4 Skeletal Mount "Zippy"

When you lose one, erase and deduct the HD from your max. Keep each undead's stats on a different page, they shouldn't be advancing, so most of them you can keep static stats or a reference statblock.

[Sception]

I do the following:

0) I memorize the skeleton and zombie (and later dragon skeleton and dragon zombie) templates, so I can apply them on the fly.

1) whenever the party defeats an enemy that seems like it would make a decent undead servant, I stuff the corpse in a bag of holding or, when I can afford one, a portable hole.

2) after the adventure, my character goes to study the creature, spending time at an arcane library and consulting with knowledgable allies. This is usually justification enough for the DM to hand the creature's base stats over, at least the parts that the templates would keep.

3) if it looks decent, I pay to animate it between sessions, and bring it to the next adventure, along with a stat sheet hand written on an index card.

If I'm bringing more then one undead, I assign each of them to a separate PC and order them to follow that PC's orders. My DMs have always allowed this, as it speeds the game up and makes my necromantic proclivities a bit more palatable to the party, but you could find a DM that won't allow it due to the undead's limited intelligence - in which case I would never take more then one or two undead with me on an adventure, at least not until I was high enough level to cast 'awaken undead' which bypasses the problem by making the undead smart. Well, usually stupid, actually, but not brainless.

I don't animate during adventures unless it's a desperate case, and in such cases I have the relevant templates memorized to speed the process. If the DM doesn't want to reveal creature stats, they can withhold them, but in that case they have to apply the template themselves, and generally they'd rather not bother.


At higher levels, or when campaigns have a more mass combat focus, individual stat cards becomes a bit much of a hassle, but if you can get polymorph any object then you no longer have to apply one off write ups for whatever creatures you happen to run across, instead you can decide on one or two model numbers, print out standard sheets for them, and then bulk animate them (a dozen half-dragon storm giants here, a dozen half-fiend great wyrms there, etc).

At lower levels in mass combat games, I've had DM's ballpark things by using the stats of whatever sample skeleton or zombie from the monster manual is closest to what I was animating, rather then individually applying the template to each creature.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Yea, using index cards works pretty well. There's only a few things you really need to list:

Name:
HP:
Saves: Fort - Will - Ref -
Attacks:
Full Attack:
Special Qualities/attacks:

For combat, that's pretty much all you need.

[Sception]

Don't forget defenses, initiative (although if the undead aren't intelligent their first action is generally 'delay until they receive orders', and then they function on your init), size, and movement modes.

Size, movement modes, and immunities in particular are key factors when animating the dead as soldiers.