Goodaligned Necromancers

[Milagroso]

Can anyone post a link or upload a necromancer class for good, or at least neutral characters? The character is built around the undead slayer idea with the "fight fire with fire" frame of mind. I don't mind if the character has to take a few levels of cleric, but he should be mostly wizard. Someone who believes that animating the undead for good causes justifies the means. I remember reading one in Dragon magazine, but it was a 3.0 class and I need one for 3.5. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It's called "necromancer". It's basically the wizard class with specialization in the school of necromancy. Or you could use a sorcerer. Even a warlock might work

Really, what else do you want? The wizard can be played by characters of any alignment, and has no alignment restrictions with spells.

Raising undead is considered evil, so good divine spellcasters cannot do it (so no cleric levels), but the wizard (necromancer) can do it and explain it the way you did.

There's also something akin to undead - the deathless, they are notliving, but they're good instead of evil. They appear in the Book of Exalted Deeds (the game supplement, not the magic item) and Eberron. I'm sure there's spells to make them somewhere, and these should be accessible to wizards or clerics (or both)

 

[Milagroso]

My apologies, when I said class, I meant prestige class. I see many pcs for evil necros, but only saw one that would be passable for a neutral character. Of course I could just go with straight wizard class, but with a cleric class I can get Animate Dead sooner. One of the pcs I saw before with evil necros allow extra undead and the ability to boost their powers and whatnot. Unfortunatly the reqs are always evil.

In anycase, you're right. A good cleric could not do such a thing. But there needs to be a good necro pc because when you go up against, say the Pale Master, for example, a straight wizard looks ordinary.

Thanks for the input though. The deathless sound like the right path to venture. Anyone know where I can get an excerpt for that?

 

[satori01]

The Sword and Sorcery Supplement Hollowfaust has a number of necromanticaly inclined PRCs in it, as well as the excellent city of Hollowfaust.

The city has a most definite LN feel to it, but I can certainly see a NG character taking some of the PRCs.

 

[Milagroso]

Thanks. That looks like what I am searching for. Is that a book or an e-document? Where can I get it?

 

[satori01]

You can get it here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...104-5805286-0803912?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

or here:

http://secure1.white-wolf.com/catal...ddcd76a3d8e745df80ad3&search_in_description=1

It is only $7.98 at the White Wolf online store which is a great deal, pretty good city sourcebook.

 

[RandomPrecision]

True Necromancer, in Libris Mortis (the alignment requirement is nongood, not evil). You can be neutral and still turn undead and spontaneously cast cure spells, so you'll be good in everything except name.

The first thing that came to mind was the Repose domain, which you're certainly aware of - the good substitute for the Death domain. Not a prestige class or anything, but it's an option along the lines of what you're looking for.

 

[Milagroso]

I liked the 3.0 True Necromancer, but I have been unable to find it for 3.5 - or is it basically the same? Either way, thanks for all the info, now that I have been pointed in the right direction I should find the resources I need. Thanks.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

The True Necromancer revised is in Libris Mortis, and has undergone vast changes. It's 14 levels now, and on many levels he gets advancement as both cleric and wizard (sometimes you only get one, and IIRC you don't get to choose between cleric and wizard then - you just have to increase divine, or you have to increase arcane). It also has other abilities. In the end, you have 8th-level arcane and 8th-level divine (but get spell-like abilities of level-9 necromancy spells, unless I'm mistaken).

 

[IcyCool]

The biggest problem with non-evil necromancers is the Animate and Create Undead spells. These spells are [Evil], and casting an [Evil] spell is an evil act. Consistently doing evil acts makes it difficult to maintain a non-evil alignment. If you were to add the following bit to a Necromantic prestige class, or use it as a feat, you'd have an easier time:

Necromantic Editing: Due to a strange judgement call, all Animate and Create Undead spells are considered Evil. The corpses are animated or created using power drawn from the Negative Energy plane. As this plane and the energy are not inherently evil, folks are not entirely sure why the above spells are evil. Through an ancient arcane ritual involving ACTUAL negative energy, this feature/feat changes the text of the above spells to make them [Neutral] spells instead of [Evil] spells.