Daily Spell Discussion: Animate Dead

Brewer covers it REALLY well in his guide to being a BAMF necromancer. Here's the except regarding the archetype:

"Undead Lord Archetype

I would advise against this archetype. The basic tradeoff is this: In exchange for your domains (you only get

one, and the one you get isn't very good) you get the Corpse Companion bucket for undead minions and gain

Command Undead as a bonus feat.

This isn't worth it for a few reasons.

First, the Corpse Companion bucket isn't really all that good. It doesn't cost any components, but it takes 8

hours - and even more importantly, it's a very small bucket that can't overflow. Remember our 9th level cleric?

How most of the CR appropriate monsters were at 12-14 Hit Dice? We can't use them as Companions at all.

And if we do find something weenie enough to turn into a Corpse Companion, it'll still be too big to turn into a

Bloody Skeleton. As a general rule of thumb, a plain skeleton has a CR value equal to half its hit die... which

means the best you'll ever be able to do with this ability is pack something with a CR half your current level

(which quickly gets irrelevant.)

And second, domains are really useful. Losing them is a pretty big blow - certainly more valuable than a feat.

Heck, if that's what you're after, just take a domain that gives you a feat. Even if you're in love with the Death

Domain's 8th level ability, just remember this: you can still take that domain without this archetype, and get

another domain (with good spells!) to go along with it.

Short story? Avoid the archetype."

If you'd like to read the entire guide, it's here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5kvBvq2DEHjRWFhSWc1ZzAzaDg/edit

Again, I didn't write it, but it is a very good guide. There are a few minor errors, but over all, a great starting point for learning the ins and outs of using Animate Dead.

/r/Pathfinder_RPG Thread