Favored Soul Sorcerer Necromancer

[Giegue]

A while ago, somebody suggested the Favored Soul as a possible way for me to play the high Charisma necromancer I always wanted. However, I complete wrote it off because I assumed it's Undead would always be worse than a wizard's due to not getting the bonuses that the wizard gets to minions. However, then I remembered the Inspiring Leader feat, and realized that said feat gives me the exact same ho bonus that the wizard gives to their minions but as temp HP instead of a ho max increase, but with my Cha mod on top of it. Suddenly, my minions ate not looking so pathetic in terms of survivability, as inspiring leader gives me effectively 1/2 the wizard's bonuses, without making me weaker (since inspiring leader can more that just buff minions). In terms of number of minimums I'm already doing fine compared to the wizard sincere while he does get 1 bonus Undead per-cast, I get more higher level slings than him due to sorcerery points and I can twin finger of death, which means I can get 2 free zombies each day instead of 1.

That being said, the one thing I can't replicate is the damage bonus the wizard gives to his minions...but then I remembered I get the cleric list. That's what this thread is about I am looking for any and all spells from either the cleric or sorcerer list that can help my minions increase their damage. if anybody has ideas for me, I'd be grateful!

[Matrix_Walker]

Sounds like a job for Crusader's Mantle

[Corran]

Sounds like a job for Crusader's Mantle

Yep, this was my first though as well. So, an alternative charismatic necromancer could be a level 9 oathbreaker (aura of hate, animate dead, crusader's mantle) or a level 6 lore bard (animate dead and crusader's mantle as magical secrets). Both of these chassis can help with if you want your undead minions to exert some crowd control (zombies grappling, skeletons throwing nets, etc), mainly via dreadful aspect and bardic inspiration respectively.
ps: I am very fond of an oathbreaker with a small squad of zombies (nothing game breaking, but there is so much sweet synergy there, with features like dreadful aspect, aura of protection and sentinel -the last one if picked as a feat).
pps: Seeming would probably be useful too, if you wanted to disuise your undead minions as (mute?) human bodyguards/etc.


@OP:
About a favored soul necromancer, one trick I would like to try (but tbh, I hold little hope for it being effective in actual play), is to use heighten bestow curse (which if/when it sticks, it will bestow disadvantage on CON saves) and have ghasts or ghouls (I think they both have paralyzing touch) to inflict paralysis more easily against the pour fellow that failed against my bestow curse. Not as much for raw damage increase per se, and probably not that good in actual play, but there.

Again, not about damage, but geas (and high level slots) would probably (DM dependent to some extent) help you with some undead minion management (such as regarding wights).

ps: If you are interestde in playing a necromancer type of character, here is some interesting advice I once saw (and saved) in this forum:

Spoiler: #1

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Once you start playing seriously with Planar Binding, undead minions quickly become superfluous. I would recommend half a dozen Nycaloths for the Darkness + Devil's Sight combo, but watch out! they can Dispel their own Planar Bindings and become free-willed*! (For similar reasons they are a pain to bind in the first place. The two feasible routes I know of are True Polymorph and Feeblemind, and Feeblemind is easier.) Invisible Stalkers and Earth/Air Elementals are easier to get and still pretty useful.

Even at high levels you'll probably have a wight bodyguard (Controlled permanently via your 14th level feature) and a few zombies (animated by the wight, or by you using Finger of Death) just for flavor and fun, but you may well cease bothering to do a daily Animate Dead routine.

Two more quick notes:

1.) You can animate a horde of skeletons and drop them in a demiplane as a pocket contingency plan/Doomsday Device. I believe you can get about 150 skeletons in the demiplane at 20th level with about two days' of work. That allows you to unleash 150 uncontrolled skeletons' worth of bad news with a single 8th level spell. (I recommend disguising yourself somehow via Disguise Self or Mislead before opening the door.)

2.) You can create wights and Geas them to serve you instead of renewing the Create Undead spell. The 5d10 damage from a geas may or may not be enough to get them to actually obey you, but at least they are charmed and cannot attack you.

* Depending on how you got them in the first place, Dispelling the Planar Binding might also banish them back to their home plane. But if you got them from a True Polymorph, their home plane is right where they are already.

Spoiler: #2

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1.) Prefer skeletons with bows over zombies for damage-dealing. Easier to concentrate fire. Zombies are primarily tanks who absorb damage.

2.) Up-armor and up-equip your skeletons with scale mail and heavy crossbows/longbows, and your zombies with chain mail and shields or greatswords. There's a huge difference in utility between an AC 8 naked zombie and an AC 18 armored zombie.

3.) Remember that each and every one of your skeletons and zombies can be either not just for direct attacks but for Helping other PCs attack, for scattering caltrops, for opportunity attacks, and for grappling.

4.) One or two skeletons can throw nets so that all the other skeletons (and PCs) and shoot the things restrained in nets at advantage.

Normally, net-throwing is always at disadvantage, but if you throw a net on a prone target from 5' away, it's a normal attack. Then if you back away, it's an opportunity attack at disadvantage.

5.) Armored zombies that have been ordered to Dodge still get an opportunity attack if someone tries to pass by them.

6.) Keep your skeletons dispersed over a wide area if possible so they're not all vulnerable to the same AoE (esp. Turning). This can sometimes mean that you leave a detachment of skeletons behind to guard the rear while the PCs and a handful (four or six) of skeletons come with the PCs to act as meat shields.

7.) Consider investing in cheap sources of temp HP such as Inspiring Leader feat from a Cthulock. Note that Aura of Vitality can heal undead.

8.) Make sure you have buy-in from your fellow PCs. Armored zombies are only good meat shields to the extent that the other PCs are willing to utilize them as such. There's a huge difference in effectiveness between a GWM fighter who is racing to get ahead of the zombies so they won't steal his kills, vs. one who is calmly waiting for zombies to grapple and/or push certain targets prone so he can slaughter them with advantage.

Meat shields like undead are particularly useful for a ranged-heavy party like a bunch of bardlocks and wizards. The undead fill in for the usual barbarians/fighters/etc.

9.) Zombies and skeletons are immune to your Stinking Cloud/Cloudkill spells. Grappling (or throwing nets on) targets in a stinking cloud prevents them from just exiting the cloud; meanwhile, the Stinking Cloud prevents them from easily removing the net. Win/win.

10.) (Necromancer-created) Skeletons that dual-wield short swords are amazingly good damage-dealers. 2d6+8 (15) points of damage total, at level 6, rising as high as 2d6+15 (21) at level 20.

11.) Do things that give you minions (and other PCs) advantage. Otto's Irresistible Dance, Web spell, Evard's Black Tentacles, etc.

12.) Undead tend to be weak against certain kinds of threats such as Medusas, Basilisks, Banshees, etc. To counter this, see point #6 above: disperse. Make sure you never have all of your skeletons in a position where one Banshee or one Fireball could wipe them all out.

13.) Manage your bonus action carefully. You only get one command per turn; try to give as many commands in advance as possible. See if your skeletons are smart enough to understand commands like, "Hey, youse! See this fighter? Kill anything he's killing, and nothing else, okay?"

[Giegue]

The advice in the spoilers is great, btw. However, I do not like the Oathbreaker option at all because it gets Animate Dead way too late for my tastes and also does not get Create Undead at all, which is something I really want access to. Oathbreaker just is not enough of a "necromancer" for my tastes...it's a martial class that can minor in necromancy at high levels and thats [distinctly not what I want. I am specifically looking for a "rise, my legion!" kind of character who stands in the back while commanding a hoard of undead that, yes, includes things other than skeletons/zombies....so I Really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really want create undead among my spells, and also don't want to be forced to wait till 9th level to get any kind of undead minions. So, oathbreaker is not something I am willing to consider here..

Likewise, I hate the fluff of Bards (the musician thing is just lame to me), and lore bard in paticular has fluff that's not really frendly to what I want to play with since it says they are all about truth, beauty and speaking power to authroity, and as a self-serving noble my character could care less about the truth and, in fact, prefers to lie than be honest in most situations...and even further is the kind of person the college of lore would try to work against, according to the college's fluff. So needless to say, I am dead set on a Favored Soul with inspiring leader to get that minion hp boost my pets will so desperately need.

So with that in mind, any advice on how I can make my minions more effective/useful and on par with a wizard's as a favored soul?