Hawk Diesel
Adventurer
Part of this can be accomplished by some reflavoring of existing spells.
For example, take Fireball. Instead, you could reskin it as Army of the Dead. Same damage and area of effect, but instead of fire you deal necrotic damage. And instead of a fireball, the necromancer summons a literal horde of zombies and skeletons to assault everyone in the area, only to disintegrate or sink back into the ground a moment later.
Dancing Lights could instead be the flicker of ghosts manifesting to create light.
Magic Missile can be the screaming skulls of the damned summoned from hell.
You get the point.
But I agree that the necromancer specific archetype abilities are subpar. I would like to see a level 2 ability for a skeletal / zombie minion that you can create 1 / long rest by touching the dead body of a humanoid or beast up to large size. Can only have a max of 1, works similar to a familiar, but only has 1 hit point. This way its good for out of combat stuff, can potentially act as a mount, give the necromancer the feeling of being able to create undead before getting access to the Animate Dead spell, and does not create too much of an issue in combat.
For example, take Fireball. Instead, you could reskin it as Army of the Dead. Same damage and area of effect, but instead of fire you deal necrotic damage. And instead of a fireball, the necromancer summons a literal horde of zombies and skeletons to assault everyone in the area, only to disintegrate or sink back into the ground a moment later.
Dancing Lights could instead be the flicker of ghosts manifesting to create light.
Magic Missile can be the screaming skulls of the damned summoned from hell.
You get the point.
But I agree that the necromancer specific archetype abilities are subpar. I would like to see a level 2 ability for a skeletal / zombie minion that you can create 1 / long rest by touching the dead body of a humanoid or beast up to large size. Can only have a max of 1, works similar to a familiar, but only has 1 hit point. This way its good for out of combat stuff, can potentially act as a mount, give the necromancer the feeling of being able to create undead before getting access to the Animate Dead spell, and does not create too much of an issue in combat.