D&D 4E Necromancers in 4e

[Aloïsius]

Maybe the schools of magic should be reset.

Necromancy
Summoning/conjuration (without things like "orbs" or melf acid arrow, pleeease). Teleport, planse shift should be there too.
illusion
Healing
Enchantment
Abjuration
Evocation (with the orbs and melf acid arrow...)
Transmutation
Divination

That's 9 schools, I know...

 

[Nifft]

I'm breaking the schools down into:

- Abjuration: Wards, barriers, and defensive measures.
- Alteration: Transmutation of the physical world.
- Divination: Insight, perception, and information gathering.
- Evocation: Spells which deal with magic in its most raw form.
- Illusion: Charms, figments, and shadow-magic. Magic that affects the mind or senses.
- Necromancy: Life, death, vitality, decay, and the undead -- broken down into White, Grey and Black.
- Summoning: The calling of spirits to your aid, either by enhancing their summoner, or by fighting beside her.
- Translocation: The magic of movement.

Examples:
- Direct damage effects would be in Evocation as well as Black Necromancy.
- Walls would be in Alteration (stone), Abjuration (ice, force), or Evocation (fire).

Cheers, -- N

 

[Zurai]

Just curious, Nifft -

Where would Dispel Magic and its offshoots be? Almost sounds like Evocation.

 

[Nifft]

Where would Dispel Magic and its offshoots be? Almost sounds like Evocation.

That's about right. Since dispel magic is really an attack against an ongoing spell, it should not be in Abjurations.

However, incorporating Immediate actions into the magic system opens up a ton of space for Abjurations, so that school becomes no less important.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Aloïsius]

Where would Dispel Magic and its offshoots be? Almost sounds like Evocation.

I think dispel magic and similar things (remove curse, break enchantment...) fit better in abjuration. Because it's about intricate, delicate manipulation of magic, while evocation is more disruptive. IMHO.

 

[Sadrik]

Spells should not be classified by effect but on flavor and theme.

As before, I think you could completely remove the conjuration school. Summon spells broken up into more character specific spell types, what a wizard summons is going to be different from what a cleric summons to what an illusionist "creates" or a Necromancer "creates" or elemental sorcerer summons or a druid summons but they could all be in essence the same spell with minor variations. And all of the other non-summoning spells in that school could get reordered into other classes too- damage spells into sorcerer, teleport into wizard, prismatic spells into illusionist, clouds and fogs in warlock, and walls in wizard.

I think the wizard should be broken into 5 pieces:
A Necromancer/Warlock- does the dark magic stuff. Undead creation, demon summoning, fear effects, curses, debuffing, and physical drain attacks

A Enchanter/Psion- does the precognition (divination), telekinesis (force powers), telepathy(mind control, charm stuff, psychic blasts), and body control(self buffs). No summoning.

An Illusionist/Shadow mage- does illusions and shadow magic real well, phantasms should be under the enchanter/psion though. Creates illusionary creatures- possibly duplicating any summon or create spell.

A Sorcerer/Elemental mage- small spell selection, but mostly a blaster mage for fire, water, air, and earth. Fire w/ fire damage, Water w/ cold damage, air w/ lightning, earth w/ physical damage. summons elementals.

A Wizard- does everything everyone else does just not as specialized in the other three areas. For instance a wizard should have fear, telekinesis, and invisibility. Just not at the level the other guys have it at. Effects that should solely be theirs reality alteration, time manipulation- note that the psion has these currently.

 

[Evilhalfling]

ever played a Warlock necromancer?
animate dead for 1 min per level, then the body is destroyed?
or spend the obsidan and keep it forever?

Its a lot of fun - "Oooh advanced Ogres - gimmie"
yeah its a big invocation slot, and an evil alignment, but totally worth it.

 

[lukelightning]

I'm a firm believer in "no minions for free." In fact, I don't think animate dead (in 3.5)should just cost $, it should cost XP. Generally to get minions you need a class feature (e.g. animal companion), feat (leadership), or spend xp (craft a golem).

I'm guessing that a 4e necromancer will treat undead minions like an animal companion/leadership type situation.

 

[Stone Dog]

A Necromancer/Warlock- does the dark magic stuff. Undead creation, demon summoning, fear effects, curses, debuffing, and physical drain attacks

The more I think about it, the more I think I really want this to be the case. The necromancer should be full of all sorts of black magic, just like the medival legends described.

 

[Aenghus]

In my experience totally loyal minions are problematic in dungeon crawling, as regards triggering traps and ambushes, and generally making a lot of problems trivial.

"Skelleton, walk down that corridor"

"Zombie, open that door"

And that's leaving out minions that are actually a serious threat.

Also, undead minions are actually very good at attacking certain monsters due to their immunities eg mind flayers.

While there are ways of dealing with this, they can't be used too often.

This is a problem with the necromancer schtick, that can be dealt with by careful class and monster design.