D&D 4E Necromancers in 4e

[Wolfwood2]

I'd kind of like a necromancer class that starts off with a familiar-like "undead champion" ability. While you'll eventually get access to the power to animate hordes of corpses, you start off with just one permanent(-ish) undead servitor at any given time. It increases in power along with you, and whenever it's destroyed, you can animate a new one, but you're always limited to one at any given time.

However, the movement seems to be away from giving PCs permanent "pets" that have to be treated as almost secondary characters. Note how the PHBII druid strips away the animal companion. I'm also remembering an article commenting on how familiars need to be more something that gives a particular bonus and less really, really weak secondary combatants.

Mounted combat might survive as a viable fighting style, but I forsee that the mount and the rider will be treated as a single unit (or close to it) as far as hitpoints, actions, AC.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

But seriously, I don't really see why animate dead (or the equivalent) reallly needs to be permanent by default. I think a mage armor-like duration is plenty reasonable.

I would be cool with that. The only problem that I foresee is that it lessens the difference between Animate Dead and Animate Objects. I've already heard plenty of people complain that there's no significant difference between the two as they are now...

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

I always thought Necromancer should have been a seperate class with it's onw specialities, such as the White, Gray and Black as suggested above.
They are just too unique to be another version of the Wizard, of course being a Prestige Class isnt unreasonable either.

 

[Greenfaun]

What I'm kinda wondering is if the Necromancer will be linked in some way to the Shadowfell in the new cosmology. What if the Necromancer and the Druid were sort of a matched set, the former linked to the shadowfell and the latter to the feywild? Wild, baseless speculation is fun!

I'm also very curious where they'll decide minions/pets figure in determining class role. Leader seems most likely for a pet/summoning class, but you could make a case for controller, and the way the class gets built otherwise will make the difference. ::shrug::

I also really like the idea of the white necromancer, I hope this is something that could work in 4e. Anybody read the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix? That's a pretty cool archetype for a "white" necromancer as an undead hunter and restorer of the natural balance.

 

[Gloombunny]

I'm also very curious where they'll decide minions/pets figure in determining class role. Leader seems most likely for a pet/summoning class, but you could make a case for controller, and the way the class gets built otherwise will make the difference. ::shrug::

If you can summon minions mid-combat, I'd say it's definitely a control thing. If you bring pets with you, then it really depends on what the pet does and what you do. A necromancer who builds a big beefy flesh golem to bodyguard him would have something of a defender role in combat, through his pet. A druid whose pet wolf can sprint past enemy warriors to pounce on an enemy spellcaster is striking. A character whose pet isn't too impressive by itself, but who has pet-buffing abilities that also affect other PCs is a leader. And so forth.

Come to think of it, a pet-oriented class could be one that can occupy any role to some degree depending on what it has summoned/animated at any given time. Kind of a factotum for 4e.

 

[Nifft]

I always thought Necromancer should have been a seperate class with it's onw specialities, such as the White, Gray and Black as suggested above.

IMHO Necromancy should be slightly open to all Wizards, but there should be many secret and exotic effects which only the dedicated Necromancer can master. In other words, the sort of Simple / Complex / Exotic thing that MC's Arcana Evolved did.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Nebulous]

IMHO Necromancy should be slightly open to all Wizards, but there should be many secret and exotic effects which only the dedicated Necromancer can master. In other words, the sort of Simple / Complex / Exotic thing that MC's Arcana Evolved did.

Cheers, -- N

Good idea. In fact, almost ALL the ideas in this thread are good. Which means that the necromancer deserves a considerable chunk of a book devoted to just him. What about a new Tome of Magic that details three spellcasters again?

 

[Stone Dog]

Nitpick about translations... The word necromancy derives from the Greek νεκρός (nekrós), "dead", and μαντεία (manteía), "divination". By popular etymology, nekromantia became nigromancy "black arts."

Not that it matters...

 

[Sadrik]

I am going to break with tradition and actually suggest to put healing magic in Abjuration instead of Necromancy, Conjuration, or Alteration! The reason is purely mechanical. Abjuration is the school that defends and protects, what better spells are there to defend and protect your allies.

Besides, as a school, Abjuration has always been pretty weak and by including the healing spells in it. It becomes a pretty worthwhile school.

Also, Conjuration as a school is just silly the way it is in 3E. It does too much and is not really effects based like the other schools. (Necromancy is the other non-effects based school.) Most of the schools have a very coherent theme that they draw their effects from Conjuration taps many effects: blasting, summoning, walls???, teleporting, and others which I am not thinking of right now. If there was one school that I could break up and say bye bye too I would choose conjuration.

 

[Larrin]

I also like the idea of non-permanent animate dead spells, especially at low level.

It could work like summon monster, but require corpses present....Necromancers might even carry around their favorite skeletons on a pack mule or something and when battle starts the necromancer snaps his fingers and they spring into action, Once the battle finishes, the spell ends the skeletons fall and the necromancer packs them back up, along with any new corpses he might like....

It needn't more powerful than summon monster x, but the flavor would be nice.