Another take on the Necromancer class

[CrimsonHawk]

Okay, I decided to try to compile my own arcane leader Necromancer, since I admittedly grew impatient... yay, immediate gratification! Well, now I owe you an apology, TLW. I now have a much, much, much greater appreciation of the time constraint issue you are facing. Thank you so much for all the hard work you've put into this!

 

[TheLordWinter]

I'm sorry for the delay CrimsonHawk! Trust me, I wanna work on the Necromancer but for reasons unknown my professors keep asking me for term papers. In addition some small crises have arisen in my personal life, which have prevented me from accomplishing anything productive, both D&D and wider-world related.

Rest assured though, I haven't forgotten about this class. As something to whet your appetite, here's a few of the ideas I've got for Paragon Paths:
The Anatomist: A true master of the living body, you've gained great knowledge of the forces that control life. Powers will focus on healing and ending debilitating conditions on allies.

The Deathslayer: Driven by a passion few can understand, you seek to put an end to the half-lives of the living dead. Powers will focus on overcoming resistance to necrotic damage and inflicting very high damage to undead. Will include an action point ability to switch the necrotic and radiant keywords for a power until the end of your turn.

The Ghul Lord: Your toying with life and death has left you with a hunger for power - the power of other's lives. You have become a beacon to weak-willed undead, who flock to you. Will be able to summon multiple Shadow Familiars and control them during the round. Powers will focus on Shadow Familiars, draining life from enemies for your benefit and inflicting debilitating conditions on victims.

I hope that at least keeps your interest up! Probably next month I will begin work in earnest again, and hopefully push through the Paragon tier. Thank you for your enthusiasm, I'm really glad to know you're digging my work!

 

[Hellgrammite]

With those suggestions you should just refer him the whole AD&D Necromancy book.

 

[TheLordWinter]

With those suggestions you should just refer him the whole AD&D Necromancy book.

The wonderful part about fan done material is that you can draw from many sources, and that one is a particular favorite of mine. I'm glad someone noticed how heavily I was borrowing from it! I started playing AD&D with second edition, and the Complete Guide to Necromancers was one of the first books I picked up. In fact, the idea for the Shadow Familiar came directly from the imp that Pizentios has in the Complete Guide.

It's been my major source of inspiration for the necromancer class I've been working on, and you may actually note there are several powers drawn from it as well as the Paragon Paths. I felt that the necromancers featured there were genuinely scary villains, where-as the necromancers of the Libris Mortis (the major 3rd edition book on undead and necromancy) lacked some of that same spark. This isn't to say that I haven't been looking at the Libris, the Book of Vile Darkness and other fantasy stories, but the special place the Complete Guide has in my heart has made it my top source to draw ideas from.

 

[CrimsonHawk]

The wonderful part about fan done material is that you can draw from many sources, and that one is a particular favorite of mine. I'm glad someone noticed how heavily I was borrowing from it!

TLW, your response was far more diplomatic than mine would have been, given that you pretty much stated in the OP that it was one of your major inspirations. Thank you!

 

[TheLordWinter]

Thank you CrimsonHawk. I must admit, I did borrow heavily from the Complete Guide to Necromancer's for the Paragon Paths. However, that also only represents three of the current ideas, I still need to figure out a fourth and I will endeavor to make that one completely original.

 

[DMINGW00TISAWSOME]

Sorry this is so off topic, but I just chose a random thread to put my question on. How do I put something on the website so that other people can download it? I ask because I am working on a class that I don't want to make a massive post for.

 

[TheLordWinter]

I wish you'd started this in a separate thread rather than post it in this one, but what the heck. At the bottom of a new post or a reply, you'll see there's a button entitled manage attachments. Just click on that and it'll handle uploading things to ENWorld.

 

[CrimsonHawk]

Casting an animate dead spell on this thread, as I'm still intrigued by this class concept. I hope life is treating you well, as you deserve, TLW.

 

[evilbob]

I'd love any feedback anyone would like to offer, and I should first warn that this class is currently unplaytested. It goes from levels 1 through 10, and features a few bonus feats and a new monster (usable by the class as a familiar).

Some thoughts:

Command the Dead should be at least an encounter power, probably a daily. It's that good. In fact, maybe it'd be better as a level 9 or higher daily attack power instead of a class feature. A class feature would need to be something much less powerful. You could make it similar to a fighter's mark - or better yet, like a paladin's divine challenge: you can use a minor to "mark" an undead and it has penalty to attack you and takes damage if it does.

Command the Dead
You exert your will over the living dead.
At-Will ✦ Arcane
Minor Action Close burst 5
Target: One creature with the undead keyword in burst
Effect: You mark the target. That creature takes a -5 penalty to attack you and if it succeeds on an attack that damages you, it takes damage equal to your Wis modifier + 3. This effect lasts until the beginning of your next turn. You can use Command the Dead once per turn.

Sure, it's restricted to undead-only, but you only have to be close to it and the penalty is severe. That's still way less powerful than dominating every round. Of course, it's a sort of silly penalty in some ways - minus to attack and THEN you take damage - but still, it's the general idea.


Manipulate Life - I also like the idea about making the "necro's healing word" power a bit different, too. Pulling a healing surge from a monster is also a bit too powerful, since healing surges are so good and monsters can't use them. I like the version eleventh presented, but I would just make it even more like Healing Word - 2 times per encounter, pull a surge from yourself or willing ally and send to an ally within range. Simple enough.


Disperse the Fleeing Soul - Personally, I would re-do so that it isn't a weapon power, but maybe that's just me. Also, you're pretty much giving an at-will power that's the same as the level 5 weapon power... except it also works on everyone in range? That's awfully strong. I'd limit it to either 1 temp for everyone in range, or Int temps for yourself. Maybe Int temps for an ally in range.


Fester - 1d10 is also a tad strong for an at-will, even if it doesn't do anything else and is limited in targets. It'd be better to throw an effect on it and reduce the die to d8 or something like that, in my opinion.


Lesser Shadow's Drain - Should this be a weapon attack since it targets AC? Otherwise you'll have a hard time hitting. Also 1/2 damage is not the best mechanic because you can use items/other powers to up damage. Maybe just Int temps again?


Talons of Darkness - Did you mean this to be a weapon one as well? Also a d8 seems strong to me.


That's as far as I got, but overall I'd say the flavor is awesome, the ideas are awesome, but everything is either a bit too powerful or way too powerful. That might be just me, though.